Simmortal

Welcome to the crypt! The cowplants are friendly. Probably.

This blog about Not So Berry challenge.

Here's the first heir — Mint Berry who's just moved to Strangerville from Windenburg to complete intership after Science college.

You may start reading from here.

Toodles.

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Mint was at work when it happened: an unknown intruder broke into his motel room in broad daylight.

He picked the lock with ease and encountered no resistance whatsoever. Even the neighbor who spotted him didn't raise the alarm... he simply carried on with his day.

The shower stall? Seriously?

Apparently, this guy is desperately short on household essentials. Oddly enough, he had no interest in electronics and completely ignored the expensive laptop. Instead, he made off with the books.

Makes me wonder if someone sent him there on purpose.

When Circe called and asked about a certain "friend," Mint realized something was wrong and decided to call the police.

But when the police officer finally arrived a couple of hours later, he found absolutely nothing. Instead, he accused Mint of wasting government resources.

Without even bothering to take a statement or inspect the crime scene, the cop slapped him with an §800 fine and threatened him with arrest if he ever pulled a stunt like that again.

At that point, Mint decided he was done living in this dump and putting up with that kind of treatment.

We're officially looking for a new place to live!

Well... a place we can actually afford, anyway.

Mint invited Ivy to have lunch at the local diner attached to the gas station. It was probably the most respectable "restaurant" Strangerville had to offer.

At some point, a random guy approached Ivy. There was no flirting or creepy pickup line involved—he just seemed interested in introducing himself, maybe asking her something. Mint didn't like that one bit and decided to explain that other people's girlfriends were off-limits. The two quickly got angry and ended up in a fight.

The poor stranger really didn't deserve any of it. I still feel bad for him.

Have you ever noticed the hilarious shadows during fights?

Unfortunately for this guy, beating him up wasn't enough for Mint, so he pulled out a voodoo doll afterward. I have a feeling that guy is going to remember this encounter for a very long time.

Despite all that, the date went surprisingly well. And, somehow, both of them left happy.

The first weekend turned out to be full of strange events.

• Mint started learning more about the town and noticing odd things he had somehow been ignoring at first.

• Not all of his neighbors were ordinary foreigners. Circe Salamis, whom he met a few days ago, didn't seem much like the average office clerk she claimed to be. She had been living in town for a couple of years but showed no interest in settling down, preferring to rent a motel room with a coworker Mint had yet to meet.

• Mint's sudden desire to brew the perfect cocktail and reach 10 level in Mixology still surprises me, but just look at him enjoying his favorite homemade nectar. The negative moodlets arrived almost immediately during the process.

• The motel was visited by a small ghost invasion (I'm still not entirely sure whether I want to include supernatural stuff in this legacy), but Mint managed to have a mostly successful conversation with one of them and politely asked her to leave his room.

Despite the unfortunate pants situation, Mint seemed oddly inspired by his conversation with the ghost. Who knows what she told him—and how much those who no longer have anything to fear truly know.

Kinda feels like usual Mint but Mixology...

Perhaps he wants to expand his mind and rethink your tastes

Mint: Im just a sociable man who likes jokes

Also him:

Children dislike him just as much as he dislikes them.

Mint's neighbour Stanley who also lives in motel for a while invited him for a karaoke night in downtown. They were offering a discount if you showed up with a date or a friend. Mint had no problem having fun at someone else's expense, and besides, he'd never been to downtown before.

They spent most of the night hanging around the bar and singing their hearts out. After a night like that, Mint was starving, so he decided to stop by the only Mexican diner that was still open. Stanley chose to head home instead.

The outskirts of the strange town left quite an impression on Mint. He hurried back to his motel, hoping to avoid running into any of the town's unhinged drifters.

Idk why but I didn't snap how they ran into each other in the library and got to know each other so just keep that in mind 😅

After some days and a few phone talks, Ivy invite Mint (surprised?) to a club.

Mint autonomously kissed her during the first seconds of their convo. Ivy seemed like it and Mint as well.

Ooopsie, something went wrong...

Are you okay Mint?

He won't repeat this again! 😅

Although date went well. They danced, took some drinks, Mint also met here his neighbour and then Ivy left.

Mint also left bc it was an evening and his work's starting in some hours.

Mint's first day at work started off surprisingly well.

He got to meet his new coworkers, but two of them stood out immediately: a father and daughter working side by side in the same laboratory. Mortimer served as the lead rock analyst, while Cassandra, despite her young age, was already involved in space exploration research.

Not a bad crowd to spend long hours in a lab with.

And then came his first serum.

Success on the very first try.

One quick test later, and the rash was completely gone — as if it had never existed in the first place.

Ivy learned what loneliness felt like long before she understood what family was supposed to be.

She never knew her biological father, and her mom and stepfather seemed to stay together only because of her existence. Eventually, even that wasn't enough.

She barely remembers her mom now — only long black hair dancing in the desert wind.

Amanda Lee left when Ivy was five years old, abandoning her daughter in the care of a man slowly losing himself. Once a promising engineer, her stepfather had lost his job after a catastrophic laboratory explosion when Ivy was still a toddler. Unemployment, resentment, and a crumbling marriage drove him to the bars of Strangerville, where alcohol became easier to hold onto than his family. Amanda left her unfaithful husband behind and disappeared from town, leaving her daughter behind as well.

For a while, her stepfather tried. He stayed sober long enough to take responsibility for the little girl neither parent seemed to want. He didn't want her growing up in foster care. But eventually, the bottle won again.

School offered little comfort. Ivy was overweight, painfully quiet, dressed in hand-me-down clothes, burdened by crooked teeth and thick glasses. To her classmates, she was an easy target. To herself, she was invisible.

The only place she ever felt safe was the school library.

Books became her refuge. Stories became her friends. Knowledge became the one thing nobody could take away from her.

After graduation, Ivy earned excellent grades and even received an acceptance letter to university. But dreams require money, and money was something she never had. Shortly after graduation, her stepfather passed away, and every hard-earned simoleon she had saved disappeared into funeral expenses.

Now Ivy works as a librarian at the Strangerville Archives, writing small commissioned articles whenever she can. She spends her days surrounded by books and her nights saving every spare simoleon she earns — hoping that one day she'll afford a university education.

Or better yet, a life beyond Strangerville.