5.47 Love’s Battlefield

With Forest gone, Sawyer moved out of the room he had shared with Dylan into the empty space This gave Dylan a room he could arrange the way he wanted to.

Sawyer, on the other hand, took Forest’s musty, creepy room

And gave it his own touch.

Sawyer spent a lot of time in escapist play. He preferred the electronic variety. The rules were always either written out or easy to learn from the game.

He also spent a certain amount of time acting out scenarios with his dolls.

Sky and Sawyer had spent a lot of time using dolls in therapy, trying to help Sawyer socialize better at school. It warmed her heart to see him doing it at home. At least, until she overheard what he was saying.

“You’re supposed to smile. Your smile looks phony. You’re creepy.”

“I’m smarter than you are anyway.”

“I’m going to stuff you in a locker.”

“No you won’t. I can stop you with the power of my mind.”

“Then I’ll stuff your head int he toilet. I can beat you up a creepy like you.”

He was also wearing the muscle shirt to school again.

“Mom leaves the dirty dishes out all the time,” Sawyer pointed out over breakfast.

“Don’t remind me,” said Dylan.

Sky worried that things were getting worse at school again, but when she asked Sawyer, he wouldn’t talk about it.

She ended up leaning on Abby and Dylan to keep an eye on him, but they were both in high school and could only learn so much.

Dylan had his own distractions. He and Corrina spent as much time on the phone as they could manage with their busy schedules. Dylan had the newspaper, and she had an after-school job babysitting that took up a lot of her time. Whenever they managed to make time for a date, Corrina would get a last-minute babysitting offer and cancel on him.

Dylan had to settle for writing letters. He didn’t mind, really. He felt more comfortable writing out his thoughts and feelings than talking about them.

Sky started getting calls to perform in movies.

These were background roles, usually as a singing in a nightclub or bar, but they were wonderful publicity.

Her concerts were also better attended.

With more dedicated fans.

She went into the studio at the beginning of winter to record her first solo album, and sales were better than expected.

Then, in the middle of this day-to-day life, all hell broke loose for Xia.

It began with Dylan. He returned from a weekend at the Marmalades full of stories about a family party. Plum and Leah had three children of their own, two boys named Sherman and Stephan, and a little girl named Devon. It had been Devon’s birthday into childhood. The Marmalades had rented out a play center and hired an interactive children’s drama troupe.

“And in a few weeks, Sherman is going to be a teenager. They’re talking about taking me and him skydiving.”

Xia leaned forward abruptly in her chair. “Sherman’s going to be a teen already?” she asked. “When’s his birthday anyway?”

And that set off a lot of math that changed everything for Xia.

“He’s my son,” she told Sky bitterly. “Plum had my kid and never told me. Plum wanted kids really badly, and we’d been to see Dr. Hodgins several times about conceiving one before she found out about you and kicked me out. As far as I knew, nothing ever took. Why does nobody tell me I have kids?? Are there any more hiding under rocks I should know about?”

Xia was angrier than Sky had ever seen. Seeing her like this made Sky feel, really for the first time, guilty about having Abby without saying anything Knowing that she’s committed the same offense made it hard to talk to Xia about Sherman.

Xia deliberated all of five minutes before going to find her coat. “If Plum thinks she’s going to keep me away from him,” she has another thing coming,” she said.

“I know this is important,” Sky said earnestly, “but maybe we should talk to a lawyer first. I don’t think you can just show up unannounced. Dylan warned me about their security system.”

“She is not going to keep me away from him,” Xia said firmly. It was clear there was no reasoning with her.

Xia set out that very evening to confront Plum.

Castle Marmalade was an imposing structure in the dead of night.

It turned out that Sky and Dylan were right. The fortress was patrolled by trained guard dogs at night.

Xia was angry, but not angry enough to risk her life.

She had to retreat to fight another day.

Sky spent the evening calming Xia down. Xia, who was always the level-headed one, swung between fury and self-recrimination until almost dawn.

The day dawned for Dylan’s first date with Corrina. He had to let out his nervous energy, so the house was spotless by the time he needed to leave to meet her at the restaurant.

He wanted his first date to be as classy as possible, so he persuaded her to go out to dinner at The Round Table. Corrina insisted that this was far too fancy. He insisted that he was going to treat anyway, so she didn’t need to worry.

He wanted to be sure he wasn’t late, so he ended up arriving a half an hour early.

But that was all right. He could draft an article for the newspaper while he wanted.

Around him, diners drifted in and out.

Some of them seemed pretty happy, and some were inexplicably miserable.

Dylan had been absorbed in that work for an hour before he realized that Corrina still wasn’t there. Had something happened to her? He dialed her number nervously.

“Corrina? Are you all right?”

“Dylan!” Corrina exclaimed on the other end. “Oh, look at the time! I’m so sorry. I hope you weren’t waiting long. The Butterfield-Bookabets called me to babysit. I told them I had plans for tonight, but it was kind of important, and now it looks like they’re going to be out all evening. Please don’t be mad!”

Dylan hung up the phone, feeling lost. What had just happened?

If there wasn’t going to be a date, then he should head home. Dylan sank into a chair and glanced over his sketch for the paper, trying to collect his racing thoughts.

“Hey there! Aren’t you Dylan Sample? What are you doing here?”

It was Adria Sword, a new girl in the high school a few years behind Dylan. “Uh, hi! I guess I could ask you the same thing,” Dylan stammered.

“I come here sometimes because I love the food,” Adria admitted. “I’ve always wanted to travel to France to try the real thing, and when I’m older I’m going to do it.”

“I’ve always wanted to travel too,” Dylan admitted.

Suddenly, in the crowded snow-filled courtyard of the restaurant…

Dylan Sample and Adria Sword could only see each other.

“Do need someone on the newspaper?” Adria asked. “I’ve been meaning to ask you, but you’re always so busy. I think journalism is really exciting. Especially world events.”

“Would you like to help me on the article I’m writing now?” Dylan asked.

Adria’s face lit up. “Sure!”

Dylan looked over her shoulder and saw his creepy Uncle Forest arriving for dinner with his even creepier sort-of-boyfriend. “Uh, what about if we sit over here? It’s quieter.”
 

What do I do? his mind kept racing, even as he talked to Adria about the school lunch budget. Is this how I’m supposed to act? Am I doing wrong by Corrina?

But when he looked in Adria’s eyes, he couldn’t look away.

So, Plum had JUST gotten pregnant when she kicked Xia out of the house. I knew this at the time, but I got so focused on Xia’s career that I completely forgot about it until a stupid amount of time had passed.

Corrina, who is a babysitter service sim, agreed to go out with Dylan *three times* to The Round Table and then set the pop-up that something else had come up. I used MasterController and located her in the apartment where Ignacio and Alice Butterfield-Bookabet live, and for some reason she was route-failing there. So I made it part of the story. Ah well. Dylan had actually been rolling wishes to meet Adria and learn her sign for a couple of days.

I believe the gold-skinned, black haired cutie who bought Sky’s album is Freddy Cagley, son of Morand Cagley and Bella Bachelor Cagley.

The golden boy was Asriel Bookabet, grieving over the death of his cougar Zuzu Weaver. I just had to drop him in there. 🙂

Adria must have aged up right after she talked to Sawyer. I’m not sure which kid she’s closer to in age.

The next post was supposed to be the last one before the heir poll, but when I laid it out, it was clear I’d have to make two posts. So I’ll get those out as fast as possible! Then I’ll be caught up — I think it’ll be the first time in the history of the Samples.

0 thoughts on “5.47 Love’s Battlefield

  1. Wow. Poor Xia. No one ever tells her anything!

    And Dylan! Have to say, I've been thinking he deserves better than Corrina, and Adria seems like a sweet girl.

    But poor Sawyer! I hope school gets better for him soon. Maybe he can do what Hunter did and change schools?

  2. I feel so sorry for Xia, and I'm hoping this doesn't remind her of Sky's betrayal and reverberate into their relationship. Especially now that things between them are going so well.

    I really hope things for Sawyer get better soon. It breaks my heart … poor little pixel 🙁

    I agree with Simmentary, if Corrina really liked Dylan, she would go out of her way to meet him. He is such a romantic old soul and Adria seems perfect for him. It's not like he's hurting Sawyer either!

    I knew that was Asriel! He looks good in gold doesn't he? At first, I thought he was crying over an incident working for Forest, due to the thought bubble. Now I'm wondering if Zuzu got bumped off by Forest's Evil Empire …

  3. Interesting to see how things developed with Dylan and Corrina – or, to be precise, how they didn't develop. Service sims often don't arrive at dates, which is very annoying – I'm glad he found Adria now 🙂

  4. Poor Xia. I can't imagine finding out I had a child when he was all the way up to teen years already. Shame on Plum for not telling her.

    I meant to ask in a previous post…are same sex pregnancies explained by artificial insemination, or magic, or…?

    Sawyer. I love how you write him; he is so clearly sensitive but in such an unconventional way. My heart goes out to him….I second the siccing Forest on any bullies idea.

    Adria is gorgeous!

  5. I guess the problem with Corrina was a common one. I've since discovered that I can use Mastercontroller's invite option to get her to show up. Also, she shows up when invited to parties. Just not dates. Argh.

  6. My worldbuilding explanation for same-sex pregnancy is that it's essentially gene-spliced artificial insemination. I understand that we're actually not that far off from being able to do that for female-female. I think there might actually be something feasible for male-male involving replacing the genetic material from a donor egg; I guess you'd just have to make sure at least one of the sperm used has an X chromosome. But I digress.

    In the real world, of course, male pregnancy is impossible. You might be able to combine the genes of two men, but you'd need a surrogate mother to carry the child. But this is Sims! If we can make creature-robot crossbreeds, we can make men carry babies :).

    But yeah, in my world, except for Sky, same sex pregnancy is a medical procedure.

    Yeah, poor Sawyer. It's very hard to be a Loser in general, but his combination of traits is just rough to live through. I don't know what's in store for him in high school, but I have to think things will get better.

  7. Sky's having trouble striking the right supportive tone, but Xia's not taking her anger at Plum out on Sky. They're pretty stable now.

    Dylan and Adria DO seem like they're a perfect match.

    I thought it was funny that poor Asriel was grieving for his love while thinking about work. Talk about mixed priorities. Maybe Zuzu really was bumped off by the Forest-Flynn war. The truth is that *I* bumped her off. I'm having trouble with sims not dying of old age, so I went through and force-killed all sims aged 90 or older. So Zuzu really didn't exactly die of "natural" causes.

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