Chapter 53: In Line

Martin is very angry about what happened between his daughter and Jason last night. Jason is married to one of Martin's nicest clients. 

Now a teenager, Zephram is given permission to add more decorations to the house. His first idea is to hang this picture above the fishtank, to "keep them in line."

Dalma invites Zephram over to her place after school. Their science teacher has assigned a group project, and since Shayna Wicks and Autumn Sargeant seem totally uninterested in it, it's up to Zephram and Dalma to secure their grade.

"Teachers are so clueless," Zephram complains.

But after the project is done, he doesn't say much else. His mouth moves, but he's not saying anything.

"You're an odd boy," Dalma observes. "What's it going to take for me to earn your trust?"

"Politics! Can and will be used against you. You have the right to remain silent."

She tilts her head. "Yeah... I'm going into the political career when I grow up. My mother's a perfectionist who never made it to mayor, so she's going to take it out on me. Like those beauty pageant parents." Kory, Dalma's half brother, is probably lucky their mother abandoned him with Cody when he was still small.

Martin is working on a fashion sketch when death claims him.

Sometimes one only really lives for one thing. Or one person. Melody doesn't think she'll last much longer, now that one person is leaving her.

"It was painless," Martin tries explain. So entirely unlike the sickness that nearly killed him when he was a teen.

The reaper doesn't want any stalling.

At work when it happens, Paprika gets a distraught phone call from her mother. She's wanted to interview the blasted reaper for quite some time, so her father's death while she was out is doubly upsetting. The guy who owns this spirit-infested house has been calm and polite; Paprika seeks some small comfort in his arms.

She thought about seeking some other things from him, but a family photo on the dresser reminds Paprika that this man is one of her cousins. One of her mother's oldest sister's sons. So... no... just no.

Seeing Zephram's quiet but emotional reaction to his grandfather's passing, Melody is relieved and slightly ashamed of herself. She has long worried that the boy's insanity would make him some sort of near-sociopath, like her own intolerable mother.

Martin's urn of ashes is placed inside a tombstone in the back yard.

Zephram just wishes the grave wasn't next to the inventing station. He shuts his eyes in terror, using the wrenches by sense of touch rather than sight.

He goes to visit Dalma and perhaps share his worries, only to be met by Dalma's mother Sara on the front porch. Sara has only recently gone gray and is feeling her own mortality, so her desire to see her daughter do well has become more pressing, and the sight of her daughter hanging around one of the Archers is more distressing.

"Take that silly hat off before you step in my house, boy! There now. That's better. Tell me, what do you plan to do for a living?"

Time to speak madness. "I have seen the future!" Time traveling robotic unicorns or something.

Zephram's ideas about the future do not impress Sara, but they do impress Dalma, who loves to see her mother angered. Dalma initiates the flirting ritual, even though Sara has excused herself to the next room out of annoyance and cannot be enraged by it.

One thing leads to another.

Then it's back home to help little sister with her homework. Being older but not much older, Z has already mastered the lessons Paz is currently on, and they're fresh enough in his mind to make his tutoring actually worthwhile.

Paz will soon be a teenager. New worlds await.

For her daughter's birthday, Paprika rents The Grind. The whole family piles into the car and off they go. Zephram whines about how he's not legally allowed to drive (hallucinations and all that). The other Archers ignore him, because he's nervous and mixing up his words again, actually talking about flux capacitors.

Paz doesn't want a cake. She wants onion rings and pizza, so she gets onion rings and pizza.

Teenager.

The old man lurking in the background tips off Paz's spider common senses. He has lilac eyes.

"Hi," she introduces herself. "I'm Paz. Are you my father, or my grandfather?"

Dax notices Paprika glaring at him. "I... uh... should get going!"

Paz does not notice Paprika. "No! Wait! I've never seen you before! Who are you?"

Paprika rolls her eyes and walks away. Dax relaxes a bit. "Your mother never wanted me around, kid. And who am I to refuse the request of a pretty woman?"

"Wh...what? But... but you could have found a way to see me..."

"Well I'm here now. What do you want? A puppy?"

"So you're my father." Paz always thought this moment would be more interesting. Instead she feels numb.

"Yes. I am. I'm very proud of you, Paz. Top of your class!" Dax pauses. "Dax Sunder. I'm also a wealthy criminal. I think you could do great things." Paz hears this sort of thing a lot. Under Sim Nation's apprenticeship system, the kids with bad grades are scolded or shipped off to military school, while the kids with good grades, like Paz, are the assumed future leaders of tomorrow. "If you ever need funding for your career... or if you want to join me..."

"Okay, I get it." Paz feels her temper rising. "Darth Vader jokes aside. Are you serious? Are you my father?"

"I mean everything I just said. Don't make me repeat myself. I'm a busy man!"

"I plan to further society, not set it back," Paz fumes.

Extra credit to background performances: Melody sitting at a table alone, Paprika sitting at a different table alone, Sacha and Pavel rocking out, Arthur standing around menacingly, Dalma and Zephram dancing together... and some other people.

Dax shrugs and walks away, leaving his upset daughter to try flirting with blue-eyed Amit Lin-Newbie, the most attractive teenage boy in school. Not that that's saying much; they all look awkward at this age. Amit is a genius, and so far none of his agemates have been enough of an intellectual match to win his heart. Now that Paz is a teen, will she fare any better?

"Sorry about that... fight you just witnessed..."

Amit spares Paz a half-smile. "Dax is my uncle. Everybody hates him."

Paz tries to keep her expression neutral. "That means you're my..."

"First cousin."

"How many other boys in school are my cousins?!"

"None. All of my cousins are girls. Every single one."

Paprika and Sifton catch up on gossip.

"And to top it off," Paprika giggles, "Dax was such an idiot about it, Paz didn't even believe him! She comes over to me and says is that guy my father? So of course I say yeah, and she's all okay, I see why you said I wouldn't want to meet him."

Arthur dances with Melody. Melody pretends to appreciate the extended family's attempt to draw her out of the corner, out of her shell of mourning. She was previously sitting alone at a table. And honestly she'd rather still be there.

Chad Burr is late to the party. Son of happily married Kory Archer-Forsythe and Joanna Burr, Chad is also a cousin... but their shared relatives are so far back, it doesn't even count. Paz refuses to dance alone at her own party, so snatches Chad to her side as soon as he walks in the door.

"Sorry I'm late. I would never forget your birthday. You know I lose track of time..."

"It's... it's okay. What's with the hairstyle? Are you fresh from a game of cowboys and Indians?"

"I'm growing it out as a social experiment."

"That's retarded, Chad."

"Your reaction will be noted in my study!"

"Sometimes I want to punch you," Paz sighs.

"You should do it! For sociology. For science!"

Zephram's big brother instincts kick in. Chad is getting along with his sister a little too well. Maybe if Zephram stares at them hard enough, they'll stop...

Cruz congratulates Paz on her birthday. He tells her she looks lovely and he's proud of her; the same things Dax said, but somehow completely different. Martin was the true father figure in Paz's life, but Cruz was a close second - certainly much higher on the list than Dax could ever hope to be.

Paz was always jealous of Zephram for having a father around; it took effort to never voice her frustration, her fears that her own father was not present due to some fault of her own. Now that she's met Dax, something tells her it was never her fault.

"So did you buy me a car?" Paz jokes.

"Nah, your Mom said no."

"Drat. This family will be driving my great-grandma's purple tofunda wagon forever."

This family. Cruz wants so badly to be a part of it. In Zephram and Paz's eyes, he is. But Paprika is a bird of a different color.

Uneasy for the rest of the party, Cruz downs several drinks before talking to Paprika. He asks if she wants to move in with him. And though she turns him down gently, he is sadder this time... sadder than last time, and the time before that.

Cruz will be sober in the morning. He's dated other women, but none sparked his interest like Paprika. None of them could give him a family that felt whole, unbroken, and together. But now... perhaps... he'll lower his standards, and give new love a fighting chance. He still loves Paprika (he thinks), but enough is enough.

And tonight is still tonight! Let's not get ahead of ourselves! Not when Paprika is over there getting far too friendly with Dalma's father.

Cruz notices this, and it annoys him, so he drifts off to talk to Zephram. Z has been amazingly well-behaved tonight. He hasn't flipped out over the size of the crowd. He was even dancing with a girl! Wait, he hasn't had any of the KTHXBYE, has he?

"Tell me you haven't been into any of that stuff, son," Cruz demands, a bit hypocritically.

Zephram gives his father... a strange look.

Jazz is disturbed when Paprika brings a near-stranger home. Barry Tenderlove always knew the Archers were as eccentric as sims come, and considers bolting at the sight of a ghost. Though as far as he knows, it's just Paprika's work following her home.

Eh, whatever.

The party at The Grind continues well into the night. Barry will have bolted before Melody brings Paz and Zephram home. Barry is the second married man Paprika has had meaningless sex with; if it weren't such a small town, one might wonder if she even realized.

But it is a small town. Paprika knows, she just doesn't care. It's Barry's fault, she thinks, not hers. It's his marriage to cheat on, not hers... right...?

Arthur's psychic abilities are a valuable diagnostic tool. Zephram is talking about constellations and squirrels, but trying to say something else.

This makes Zephram a normal teenager, unable to string together a good metaphor to save his life.
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Etc.: Noooooo, Marty. ='(

I didn't realize other sims could ask your sim to move in with them. I got a pop-up asking me for Paprika to move in with Cruz... but of course, the answer had to be no.

Apparently this was the straw that broke the camel's back, because within a few sim days I got a SP notification that Cruz married another woman. About time, man!

Paz's new trait is green thumb.

Chapter 52: Arr

Childhood is fleeting.

Most of it is spent entertaining dreams. Dreams of expression, of moving others to act and feel.

Or dreams of great accomplishment. Of becoming chemists, inventors and doctors.

Randy's workbench has not been touched since his death. Paz and her brother are drawn to the awkward designs scribbled on paper, and the copious piles of scrap stored here.

Zephram challenges Ducksworth to a breath-holding contest, which very nearly results in drowning.

He is a worrisome child, plagued by thoughts he realizes are irrational, and also terrified of things that simply are not there. He's learned to communicate less and less. If he doesn't talk about what he experiences, no one can be upset by them. Perhaps it's lucky he can recognize his family, and recognize when they're upset. So many insane people can't even do that.

Landgraab Industries sends Paprika a mysterious spirit locating device in the mail. The attached note reads, curtly and ominously:

You've reached the level of experts. Take this, and do your job.

The device is amazing. Paprika has already figured out and published information that could lead to such an invention, but for a machine this perfect to exist... someone else must have already known, years ago.

It reassures her to know someone out there agrees with her. Someone knows she isn't a nutcase. Someone besides Paprika is standing up against the status quo, against the superstitious conservative folk who don't want to know anything about the working nature of the universe and would rather hold to their superstitions. Aside from the steady pay for silencing spooky noises in town, and cheers when minor spirits are chased from a scared person's house, Paprika has received little but nasty emails as thanks for her research into the workings of sim ghosts. Suddenly, she feels she's been given some approval.

The spirit positioning device leads her to a garden park down the street. Disturbingly enough, the park is filled with vampires. They greet her almost as one of their own.

"I got a promotion," Paprika explains.

Meanwhile, Sifton has her eye on Roxie Lin's son over there, but all he has going for him is (a) rich and (b) vampire. Because he's also (c) ugly and (d) a brick in terms of personality.

The vampires watch calmly as Paprika scans for and reveals spirits, then captures them.

There are spirits in the west field, and spirits in the north field. There are spirits in this empty lot.

"You can't get away from me. Do you see this MEDAL?"

Playing house. Today it's fake. Someday it will be real.

Paprika gets home late, and isn't pleased to see them still awake on a school night.

"Go to bed!"

Paz isn't tired. Convincing her to go to bed is more of a challenge.

Hugs. They have their differences, but Paz wants to be a mad scientist someday, so that's a sure sign she admires her mother. Paprika must be doing something right.

Martin spends more time painting. It makes him happy.

Paz is aware of her grandparents' age.

"You don't have to clean. I'll do it."

"That's... erm, sweet, Paz. But you should do your homework first."

Zephram's next birthday approaches. Paprika plots a party, and cleans up the house a bit.

There were toys all over the living room and kitchen. Bunnies, boats, rocket ships, cars, teddies, creepy little metal dogs and cows.

"Mom, does Dad stalk you?"

"Is that what you want to talk about today?" If it's not a day of silence, it's a day of fixation on one subject.

"He says he wants us to be together and be a family, but you're independent."

"That's probably not something he should be chatting with you about."

"Sorry. But is Dad a stalker?"

"No, honey. Society is a stalker." She shouldn't be feeding the boy's insanity this way, but she can't help herself. "They don't want you to be happy unless you're like everybody else. So they tell lies, and people listen to those lies, and they get married out of desperation, even when the conditions aren't right or the relationship isn't good. It's silly."

Martin prepares food in his formal wear, hair slicked back. He's just returned from a party that had no food, and he'll be damned if his grandson's teen birthday party repeats that mistake. Melody tests the party drinks.

"So we're the party house," Martin observes.

"And our daughter is town bicycle."

 "Melody!"

"Sorry." She resumes sipping her drink."It's just... she does an awful lot of late night spirit banishing house calls to the houses of single men."

A decent number of kids and teens attend the party. Paprika is forced to explain her career to Paz and Zephram's schoolmates.

It may be a party to celebrate teen-hood, but for the moment Zephram is still a small child, and attacks his extended family with questions about the sun, their lifespan, and the taste of blood. Does it taste like pennies?

"Why isn't Grandma Sacha here? Why is she a chef when you guys eat blood?"

"Because she's nuts, and she grew up eating food. She can tolerate it in minimal amounts."

"Where are your fangs? Why does Sifton have fangs and you don't?"

Pavel stares off into space for a moment.

"Because some of us are over half human," he says finally. "Now look. I wanted to talk to you about something. Your sister can't turn into a vampire and kill your entire family."

"Oh." Zephram frowns. "I'm over that one. Sorry. I'm sorry. I always say the wrong thing." And with that the boy darts off to hide, only to be physically dragged front and center when it's time for the cake.

Melody tries to be a good host, helping her daughter to entertain guests. She performs an impression of a starving celebrity, which Cruz finds hilarious. Melody's jokes almost never fail.

"Arthur... I know you're reading minds when you do that. Stop it."

A party crasher?! It's Jason, one of Dax's brothers!      ....!!!...!!!

Paprika beelines over to him. "If you're here to-"

Jason cuts Paprika off, "I'm here because my son was invited to the party. If you're about to say something about my brother, don't. I don't want to hear about him."

Jason is not the only parent here. Cheryl Newbie attended with her daughters Alison and Aubrey. Satisfied with Jason's lack of evil intent, Paprika flirts with him while Cruz's back is turned.

Yeah! Cake! Cake for everyone!

Now a teenager, Zephram decides to dress like a pirate.

Cruz takes his son aside for a little talk, to make absolutely sure that this pirate look isn't a warning sign of future criminal behavior.

At first Zephram is quiet, perhaps finding the notion a bit silly. But, pushed to say something, Zephram responds by speaking madness. For the first time, Cruz loses his patience and scolds him.

Faced with his father's anger, Zephram freaks out, starts to cry and begs for forgiveness.

After cake and forgiveness, there is dancing. Because why not?

A schoolmate, Dalma Rinsler-Tenderlove, dances with the birthday guy. He's the son of the ghost hunter hero and grandson of a fashion phenomena, so he can't possibly be all bad. In fact, it seems he's a good dancer.

Question is, are they dancing to Arthur's piano, Melody's guitar, or the stereo?

Sifton may not be able to find a vampire boyfriend, but fun with cute humans is allowed.

"Come on," she says, and smiles, and takes Jason's hand so gently. "I know you only fear vampires because your mother did, but she was insane and evil and dressed in pointy witch shoes."

"You're a good psychic," Jason grumbles.

"Not really." She laughs. "This town is tiny, there are no secrets."

They'd all like to believe that.

Pavel smirks at Martin's ultra stylin' jacket, as if seeing it for the first time. "Bro, I'd like to take the opportunity to remind you that you're a dork."

"Party," Zephram says. "Thanks." He smiles and makes some dramatic hand gestures, but it's impossible to get thank you for coming from them. "Dancing!"

 

Dalma tilts her head. "I think I know why you don't say much in school."

When most of the guests are gone, Paz has her own questions.

"Could I get turned into a vampire? I wanna stay young forever."

Sifton smiles awkwardly. It's a conversation she and Paprika had as teenagers. And it hurts - best friends forever, with forever being much longer for one? - but by this point, she's almost used to the honesty. "In a few generations the Vampirism-B-Gone will have been bred out of you guys. But the vampire community is still looking for an anti-cure, to counteract the strength of the medication your grandfather took. In case... well... never mind."

"In case humans turn on you," Paz reasons.

"Well, you make it sound very dramatic, little one!"

Paprika will be Paprika, because curiosity hasn't killed her yet.

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Etc.: I downloaded a mod to unlock vampire fangs in CAS for Sifton. As discussed on the forums, some glitch is giving vampire kids in my game NO FANGS. Then I noticed that some of them randomly lack the V on their neck... including Pavel, who had the V for a long time. You can see it clearly in most of his kid through teen pics. Why would it suddenly vanish? I HAVE NO IDEA.

Zephram is neurotic and insane, so I've described him with a mix of psychotic disorder symptoms (seeing things that aren't there; really believing that they're there) and obsessive compulsive disorder symptoms (not a psychotic disorder, because the subject realizes what they're doing is irrational, and is usually upset by it). Can this sort of mixture happen in the real world? Maybe. I wouldn't want to see it because that person would be really miserable, but maybe. Since Z also has the "good" trait, I didn't want to go the route of psychopath who doesn't care about other people. Blah blah. I am not an expert, don't listen to me. I just play computer games.

Zephram's teen trait is childish.