ARKHELIOS

Theo Bellamy sat on the stairs with his trusted familiar, Too by his side. Today was an important day. It certainly wasn’t everyday that you turned thirteen. He was officially a teenager now with all the rights and responsibilities that came with it. 

“How badly do you think they’re going to embarrass me, Too?” he asked his faithful companion. When Too responded with a quick mew, Theo sighed. “Yeah, that’s my guess. Whatever they’re planning, I just know that it’s going to be embarrassing. I’m so glad this party is family only; I’d die if the kids at school could see me. I’ll probably have to wear the dumb birthday hat and everything.  At least the cake looks good. God knows it was the only good thing from last year.”

Too mewed again sympathetically at the thought. Theo could never be certain if the cat truly understood what he was saying or if she had simply learned to meow when he paused speaking to look at her. Either way, it was nice to have her support.

He could tell that his parents were going out of their way to make things perfect for his special day which was even more unnerving. Things hadn’t been the same between them since “The Incident” they never spoke of or the conveniently timed birth of his little brother, Abe III. Words like “postpartum” and “mid life crisis” and “cheater” were usually shouted when they thought the children were asleep, but Theo and his sisters heard every word. It was enough to make Theo come home from school only two weekends a month, instead of every weekend like he used to. At school things were quiet and ordered and all of his friends lived there with him. Every day was like a sleepover that he didn’t have to worry about his parents ruining with either arguments or overly zealous good intentions.

Roman fell down on one knee. “I want us to move in together, Rachel. So I can be a father full-time.”

Rachel’s stomach dropped, unsure if she was happy or terrified. “You… You do?”

“I was abandoned by a parent myself, I don’t want to impart that on my child,” Roman said. “I’ll even… I’ll do my duty. I’ll marry you.”

After a moment, his gaze settled on the one person who was definitely safe, “Maura, do you mind?” 

Ashe laughed again next to him. 

“You picked the one person in the room who’s actually in a relationship.” He continued laughing, “You really do have terrible ta—” 

“I don’t mind.” Maura smiled at him. She glanced to the side at Jun quickly, “Unless you do?”

“Hm?” Jun raised an eyebrow, “nah, it’s just a game, right?” 

Her smile dropped almost imperceptibly. ‘Ah. she was hoping to make him jealous.’ 

Roman didn’t really care about being a pawn in some silly scheme, as long as Jun didn’t decide to hit him for kissing his girlfriend. He scooted over quickly, and gave her a chase kiss almost as fast, glancing warily at Jun after, just in case. Luckily, Pelle moved on quickly, while Roman moved back to his original seat.

“Adrian, dare this round?” Pelle asked looking to his right, Adrian gave a distracted nod in agreement. 

“I wonder if Grandma’s proud of me, wherever she is. She never seemed to be, but maybe dying has made her less…intense.”

Ulyssa looked at her wife sadly. From all the microaggressions she’d endured during her brief time with the former queen, Ulyssa doubted that the woman could be proud of any of her family members. None of them had ever measured up to her standards, but saying so wouldn’t be comforting for Maura.

“I’m sure she is,” Ulyssa lied. “You’re doing great as queen; you just have to believe in yourself. Twikkii Island has changed since she ruled it and you’re guiding it through a hard time. You’re doing just fine.”

Nicholas Fontana

Age: Toddler

Lifestate: Human

Aspiration: Grow Up

Personality: 1/7/8/3/6

OTH: Music & Dance

Then, guilt kicked in. Jorah pulled himself away from Pelle. “Lucy,” he said out loud.

“No, I’m Pelle.”

Ironman Helios

Age: –

Lifestate: Servo

Aspiration: Family

Secondary Aspiration: None

Lifetime Want: Reach Golden Anniversary

Turn Ons: Hard Worker, Logical

Turn Off: Unemployed

Personality: 6/3/6/4/6

OTH: Science

Career: None

“Don’t get me wrong I’m glad that more people live in town in those apartments and stuff. It’s nice to have more people at school.” Jorah said nonchalantly, “honestly, you remember when we were little and it was just like, us and Dmitri and like three other people?” 

Nathan nodded. He was well aware of when they were younger and there had been no one to get out of his house with. It had been half the reason he and Lucy had ended up being so close to the Durants in the first place. Jorah and Ulyssa had been the far superior option to Dmitri or trying to hang out with Roman and Abe. 

“It’s good that there’s more people here. Especially for the younger kids…” Jorah said, “And it’s nice that there’s more than 10 people in our class….” 

Jorah trailed off and Nathan glanced over. His best friend was looking at his shoes. 

“But?” he asked. 

“Hmm?” Jorah glanced up. Nathan raised an eyebrow at him. 

“Oh. Uh…” Jorah frowned slightly, “it’s… not important.” 

“What isn’t?” Nathan asked. 

Jorah sighed quietly, “I just…. I was hoping this year might be different. That I could… meet new people and make some more friends.” 

“And you think that will be…. Difficult?” 

“I mean, Dmitri made it pretty clear to everyone today where I stand on the metaphorical food chain, so I doubt it will be easy.” 

Nathan bristled at the reminder of the scene at lunch. Dmitri had tripped Jorah in front of everyone, and then proceeded to use a choice of curse words, insults, and slurs. And of course, per usual, when Nathan had gone to defend him, Jorah had politely asked him not to bother. Which of course, Dmitri had taken advantage of.

“Mh.” Nathan gritted his teeth and made a noncommittal noise. 

Jorah glanced over from the other swing, “It’s no big deal. Like I said, I just hoped I could make…. Friends or something”  

“You might be surprised. Maybe some of them will just realize Dmitri is a prick.” Nathan mused. God he hoped so. The fact that people seemed to look up to him even though he was so annoying was something that irritated Nathan to no end. 

Oriana Fontana

Age: Adult

Lifestate: Human

Aspiration: Romance

Secondary Aspiration: Fortune

Lifetime Want: Earn $100,000

Turn Ons: Hard Worker, Logical

Turn Off: Unemployed

Personality: 9/3/7/2/4

OTH: Film & Literature

Career: None

Jorah laid a hand on Pelle’s shoulder, pulling him closer to him. He had a pleasant smell of wood and flowers, although Jorah had a difficult time discerning which ones it could be.

Spending time with Jorah was easy. Nathan loved his older sister, and would gladly spend time with her, or even a lot of the other kids at school, as long as they didn’t talk about how great Dmitri was, or about Nathan’s stupid last name or family history. 

But he never had to remind Jorah not to talk about that stuff. They’d been friends long enough that they knew which topics to avoid with each other, and which were a go-to to make a conversation better. 

Nathan knew other people talked. He knew that many of their classmates frankly didn’t really understand why he and Jorah hung out. Much to Nathan’s irritation, he knew they thought he was ‘too good’ to be hanging out with that Durant kid. Not that any of them, besides Dmitri, ever said that in front of Nathan. Most of them knew better than that. 

The Fontana Household

“So,” Pelle said, leaning in to whisper in Jorah’s ear. “Now that Lucy has left, do you want to blow some bubbles?”

“Jorah, I promise we can work on classwork later.” Nathan sighed, “It’s the first week of school, can we please get out of my house?” 

Jorah bit his lip. He’d really rather get ahead of his classwork now so he wouldn’t have to later when there was more… 

“Jor….” Nathan rubbed the back of his neck, “Elaine is gonna get home early today. She got a “promotion” at work, and now she’s fully in control of her stupid company. She’s gonna spend the rest of the night talking about how great she is, and how great Abe is, and responsibility and shit…”  Nathan grimaced, then continued, “I’ll buy you food if it means we can just go.” 

Jorah glanced at Nathan. Recently his friend had wanted to spend more and more time outside, or at Jorah’s house instead of hanging out at Nathan’s. It surprised him, as Jorah didn’t have a lot to do at his house. He chewed on his bottom lip for a moment.

“Okay, okay. We can go hang out somewhere else.” He said finally. 

“Awesome.” Nathan grinned immediately, “I will buy you a snack and we can study later tonight, I promise.” 

Jorah raised an eyebrow. He highly doubted that Nathan would be doing any studying at all, especially this early in the school year.

“Alright, alright. You don’t have to lie to me” he said rolling his eyes playfully, “Come on then, let’s go.

“Ice cream?” Nathan asked.

“Sure. I think Ambrosia is open already…” 

“What are you thinking, you metal plated piece of -”

“Elaine! Screaming isn’t going to solve this. Maybe, if we all sit down and talk about this, we can still have a wedding. Lots of people get cold feet before a wedding.”

Roman tried to hold back his future mother in law, but she was surprisingly strong for an older woman. It was taking all of his strength just to keep her from launching herself at the former servo.

“You had better not do this to me when you get married,” Elaine hissed, briefly taking her focus off of Ironman to give Roman a look that sent chills down his spine. “You or Abe. I will end either one of you if you make a spectacle like this one in front of the world. I will end you both and raise Theo myself to teach him some respect.”

“That won’t happen,” Roman replied nervously, shooting a desperate glance at Ironman. “Abe and I won’t get cold feet., Trust me, we are highly motivated to get married.”

Surprisingly, you’re not the scariest person demanding a wedding from us. Somehow I don’t think the demon sovereign would be understanding if we suddenly decided to not get married.

ARKHELIOS

Founded by Abraham Helios and disillusioned citizens protesting laws limiting freedom of expression (or freedom of partying) ARKHELIOS is embedded in the midst of nowhere between mountains no normal sim would dare climb. The community managed by itself up until the untimely death of Abraham. As succession is called into question and secrets unravel, will the inhabitants of ARKHELIOS be able to find peace again or plunge into chaos?

Note that I will NOT be telling spoilers regarding who killed Abraham. I also played through all the scripted events already, so my posts take place after all of those.