The End.

Arcturus died.

A Birthday And A Deathday

The frosted windows on the house meant that Winter was coming. When changing Arcturus and Betty into their warmer everyday clothes, it occurred to me that these people have worn the same clothes every day for months. Arcturus had put on a pair of white linen pants at the beginning of Summer and just now took them off. Those things must've been so dusty.

Betty was really feeling the Christmas spirit, so she dressed like an elf with a sweater and put up all the decorations in the house. "All of the decorations" are contained in the above photo. Betty made Arcturus remove the door to his secret room so that the Christmas tree could stand in that corner. "Can't we just put the tree in front of the door?" "No, I want you to remove it and build a new wall there," Betty said. "Then, you can re-install the door after the holidays." "Oh, ok."

New sweater.

To everyone's surprise, the next day was Emily's birthday. Yes, I know she was just born a few days ago, but kids grow up fast. Betty went out to get the mail and found a package from Emily's "uncle". We all know for sure that neither parent has a brother and Betty's sisters aren't married, so who this game was trying to pass off as an uncle, I'll never know. The gift was a giant weird patchwork doll. Betty sat it in Emily's room, not at all concerned about where it had come from.

Emily was collected from her crib to blow the candles out on her cake. She was so tiny that Betty was gonna have to squeeze her tummy to force enough air out for the candles. When the person blows the candles out, they grow up immediately. I had to initiate this activity because even two days was long enough for the "baby stage" of Emily's life. Let's get a move on here.

Arcturus has a look of pity on his face.

The party started off great. Arcturus was blowing a horn and cheering in the corner. Betty stared at him until he stopped. It was all going so well. The candles were blown out and Betty put Emily down on the ground so she could pop into an older age.

 But, then tragedy struck when the oven burst into flames. Earlier, Arcturus had put some food in there and then when I made him and Betty go get Emily, he never went back to it. Because fires are usually taken care of easily and because I wanted to catch the moment when Emily grew up, I ignored what was going on with the fire for some time.

Emily grew into a toddler. I turned the camera to see Arcturus on fire.

Happy Birthday, Emily! Your dad is dying!

"Betty, come check this out in here."

By that time, the fireman had arrived. Unfortunately, he was focused more on the stove than the melting human, so I had Betty pick up a fire extinguisher to save Arcturus' life.

He hunched over. Almost dead. Emily watched.

The maid tipped things back into Arcturus's favor. The fireman watched.

All Arcturus's Christmas clothes had burned off, but his skin was perfect. He had just spent a lot of time engulfed in flames, so that was weird. But cool. Arcturus was like, "I gotta go get another sweater right now." Betty was pissed at the fireman who had done just about nothing the entire experience and was continuing to not do stuff as she moved on to extinguishing the rest of the house. Look at her face here:

"...but I loved that sweater!"

The fire was soon out and everyone went about their business. The fireman yawned and left, the maid got to work, Betty went to sleep and Arcturus took a bath as Emily discovered the new doll from her mystery uncle.

The aftermath.

"Mmm. What a fun day."

Blue wings!? Why were the sparkles around her green then?

Patiently Waiting... For Three Days To Pass.

Betty wanted a rocking chair so I put one in the new baby room. It really brought her life to a halt. All of her time was spent rocking, in a catatonic trance. She would stand every once in a while to reveal that the demon child was growing bigger inside of her but she stopped eating, showering or going to work. Her job is very generous with the maternity leave situation.

How does she fit her wings through the back of that chair?

*Pop* Her stomach grew larger.

The next morning, even bigger.

"Lovin'. Dis. Chair." she said, emphasizing each word with each rock.

She would go to bed, but the morning found her right back in the chair. Rocking... Waiting... And then, on the third night, she started to feel the baby trying to kick it's way out. She ran out to the enclosed porch. Arcturus, who I don't think has been properly dressed since his wedding day, started to have a meltdown.

That image in her thought bubble is of a heart attack?

In the early days of this game, Sims used to just pop a baby out as they stood in their home. Now, they require a hospital visit. So, Betty stopped making faces, Arcturus calmed down and they walked out to the curb to get in Betty's car. No way was Betty going to ride on the handlebars of Arcturus's bike and no way was Arcturus going to drive a car, being as environmentally conscious as he is, so Betty ended up driving herself.

Hey, look who finally put on some goddamn pants.

Why is Arcturus even coming along, y'know?

She casually strolls into the hospital, poops out a baby, leaves.

The baby was born almost immediately upon entering the building and they got to leave almost as quick.

<gasp> There she is!

Her name is Emily Mengsk and she is a fairy. Not a demon as I suspected.

"I need a bath. That was a long night."

Emily had little green sparkles floating around her. I looked it up and that meant she was going to be a fairy with green wings. Just like her mom. Wonderful. Arcturus was looking at these two like it was "The October Game".

They're Trying Something New. 

Like some couples may do when they get bored with their lives, Arcturus and Betty decided to have a baby. Well, it was more like I told them they were having a baby and there wasn't much they could do about it. "You might not realize the avenues this will open," I explained to them like this was a business deal. They looked at each and were like, "...We're in."

First order of business was to expand the house. It shouldn't have been, but I got excited. The modifications were quite easy to make. The bathroom had to move out of the way for a new master bedroom in the back of the house. The old bedroom would now be the baby's room.

This house can't fit a baby!

The bathroom turned on a hinge, like a doorway to a new area of the house.

Such beauty. Right?

The roof is jacked. I can only do so much.

It was time for the ritual to begin. Arcturus held Betty's hands for a while, trying to mentally prepare her. "We can do this. We can do it!" Betty seemed unconvinced. She liked babies though. She was really into the idea of a baby.

"I'll go get ready. Come into the bedroom in 5 minutes."

Five minutes later...

"Psst... Hey!... Wake up!"

Betty laid on the bed next to him and read a magazine until he woke up. She was reading for an hour. That's when things got pretty crazy though. They jumped under the covers and had sex in less than 30 seconds. Arcturus. My man.

When they emerged from the covers, Betty was already in her pajamas. It seems like those 30 seconds, for her, were fully dedicated to changing outfits but Arcturus remembered what the point of all this was. Very cool of him. It would be a while until they knew if a baby was cooking inside Betty though.

Arcturus immediately got up to leave, realized he was already home and laid back down to sleep.

"Yeah, Imma sneak outta here now."

"J.K., Imma dream of baby things now."

In the morning, Betty ran to the bathroom. Arcturus chased after her just so he could make faces as she threw up. Morning sickness? Does that happen the morning after you get pregnant? Maybe she has a regular sickness. I'm a real skeptic here.

"Ewww. Come on, Betty!"

Betty went to work. Arcturus sat around the house. He really hasn't vacuumed up ghosts in months. The whole town is backing up with requests too. Ghosts probably run Riverview at this point. Everyone's got a poltergeist.

That night, before bed, Betty did a little spin into her maternity wear and rubbed her stomach. The first sign of a baby. It's happening. The new messiah is to be born.

Is there a bump there? A bump after one day suggests a demon baby, y'know.

I Remember These People... 

Back when I started playing this game, the first character I created was a man named James Hauler. I stopped playing around the time James' great grandson, Joshua, had a 2nd daughter. That great grandson was named Joshua because I was pretty creatively bankrupt at that point.

After I started this blog with a new character in a new town, that whole history was abandoned. That is until I recently moved Joshua, his family, and the entire house I created for them to Riverview.

Arcturus first met Joshua and his wife, Akiko, when they crashed his "End of Summer" party. It was not a good first impression. Arcturus can only fit a limited number of people in his house at one time and the Hauler's presence meant that people like Trigger Broke and Robert Newbie couldn't come over.

Two days after the party, Arcturus said to Betty, "Let's go teach those Haulers about overstaying your welcome on an uninvited trip." Betty was already in the car.

Here is the Hauler household. I built it from my own mind. Very modern. Very... what's the word? oh yeah, "schway". I actually impressed myself when I saw the interior again. I forgot how great I had made it, despite the absolutely gigantic bathroom to the west. That's a pretty bad space that I never got back to fixing before I quit.

The younger daughter, Sayo, answered the door. Arcturus pushed his way in and sat down. Sayo didn't care that two strangers were invading her home and actually warmed up to Betty pretty quickly. They started to play tag. Betty was acting like this was her house... and her kid!

Thinking of ghosts. Just like her man.

The older Hauler daughter, Kenyatta, (side note: I can't believe I named these children) walked into the room and Arcturus jumped up to meet her. She was followed later by Akiko. The looks on her face told me that she really didn't like that Arcturus and Betty were in her house. Hmm. Funny that.

Awkward silence.

"How did he get in?"

Betty made herself dinner. Just a single plate.

Kenyatta finished her chat with Arcturus and started to play chess by herself. Lonely lady. Arcturus and Betty sat at the living room table with Sayo as she did her homework. Then, Joshua showed up. He was no doubt confused about what these people were doing in his home, but more confused about why they were behaving like it was theirs.

Arcturus got up and pushed past Joshua as he headed upstairs. It was getting late. Joshua just watched him go, still not understanding the whole joke.

"Goodnight, everyone."
"Did he just say, 'Goodnight'?"

Yes he did.

Arcturus fell asleep in Joshua's and Akiko's bed around midnight. When Kenyatta noticed, she called her dad into the room. They both just stared at the idiot. Arcturus had gone all in on this "uninvited revenge trip", but it wasn't even nearly over.

He's having a dream where Joshua apologizes for crashing his party.

At 1:00am, Betty came up to tell Arcturus she was going home. In her eyes, sleeping in the Hauler's bed was going too far. Even she had a line. She told Arcturus she would see him at home when he was ready to "stop being so weird."

At 2:00am, Arcturus woke up and yelled at Joshua about being hungry.

By 3:15am, he was having a meal with Kenyatta. The stink fumes coming from him nearly killed her.

At 4:20am, he sat down to read.

At 5:00am, Kenyatta told him he had to leave. "Fun's over, sir." Arcturus left the house but refused to leave the property. He started to read again outside the front door. Kenyatta turned off the porch lights. Arcturus strained his eyes.

He read for hours too. Until sometime around 9am. I thought he was ready to go home and finally leave this family alone, but then he took a call. It may have been Betty asking if he was for real.

9:15am: Taking that call.

10:00am: Dedicated to his plan.

11:00am: Remembering he's human.

1:00pm: The adventure ends. No lessons were learned on either side.

"Betty... Betty... I'm back. That was so cool."