6.32 Smart

#sims3challenge #sims3legacy #sims3story #thesims3

Avalon itself was changing. The city completed an enormous restoration project on the palace at Camelot, restoring it to its former glory.

The effect was beautiful, but going down to City Hall to file routine paperwork became sort of intimidating.

Edmund’s Sim Scouts troop had a badging ceremony to mark the end of the school term.

Dylan stayed home with Winston, but Andria managed to strong-arm Sawyer into attending with his niece and nephew.


The troop commemorated the event with family pictures. 

Edmund had been working hard, as always. He earned the highest number of badges in his troop, including a rarely awarded in in Nihilist philosophy.

Dylan continued to work on his nectar.

With varying success.

Abby was almost never home. Filming for Anton Pierce’s movie was consuming all available time. Pierce was an exacting director. Scenes required dozens of takes to capture the perfect moment. Abby had never worked so hard in her life. Often she arrived home after everyone was in bed, only to rise for a casting call before dawn. 
On the final day of shooting, Abby rose while the rest of the family was asleep. Connery was waiting to see her off, though. 

He gave her a big kiss, which was the best vote of encouragement she could have asked for.

She was off to play the Leader of the Free World.

Like Abby, Sawyer was also shorting himself sleep. Gamora was a preternaturally easy baby, but he still obsessed about every aspect of parenting. In addition to his worries about fatherhood, he knew that his daughter was like no other baby.

He kept a collection of parenting and infant biology books handy to consult whenever he had a question. Sometimes this was in the middle of walking down the street.

Andria was baking again.

For the even that Sawyer had been anticipating for ages.

“Hello, Manisha?”

“Yes? Yes, I know. We haven’t talked since the fight. My family is having a small gathering tonight, and I wondered if you might join us. Perhaps afterword we could compare status.”

Manisha sounded more nervous than angry. She agreed to attend the party. Sawyer was so relieved that he became lightheaded and had to sit down.

When Manisha arrived, Sawyer was was pacing back and forth in the nursery, lecturing to himself, while baby Gamora watched him. Abby set herself to calming Sawyer down while Dylan went to welcome Manisha into the house.

“I can’t describe with words how happy we are to have you back,” Dylan said.

“You always know how to make a girl feel like a princess,” Manisha said.

Then Sawyer came down with Gamora, with Abby close on his heels. It was showtime.

Sawyer set Gamora down at the table, where she could be the guest of honor. She didn’t get a slice of cake. Gamora didn’t eat human food, even pureed. She absorbed nutrients through her skin, much like the roots of a tree.

This was only one of the many ways she was a unique creature.

First and foremost, however, she was a toddler at the moment, and she was delighted at all the attention.

Sawyer hovered by Gamora expectantly, watching Manisha. Manisha ate her cake with singular focus. She never looked at Gamora or Sawyer once.

“Are you all right?” Dylan asked. “You look exhausted.”

“I’m fine,” Sawyer said tightly.

“Well, for heaven’s sake, sit down.”

Sawyer didn’t say anything. He just went to get a slice of cake.

While Andria cleaned the table and Dylan put Winston to bed, Sawyer caught Manisha in the living room.

“I don’t know how to do these interpersonal things,” he said. “We used to be comfortable together. Now we’re not. I want things between us to be the way they used to be. How do I do that?”

Manisha’s expression was frightened, vulnerable. “I liked things the way they were, too,” she admitted. 
The possibility that she still cared made Sawyer’s chest tight. He hated these involuntary expressions of emotion. They were so uncomfortable. 
He reached up to touch her forehead in a gesture of affection they’d been using since college. Touching people had always been uncomfortable, except for Manisha. He had always wanted to touch her. 
“My mind to your mind,” he murmured.

It felt — wrong. Instead of the sense of physical comfort he was used to feeling with Manisha, he wanted to snatch his hand away.

“I guess your mind stays with you,” he said weakly.

“Look,” Manisha said. “You didn’t tell me that this was going to be a birthday party. You ambushed me. What do you expect me to do?”

“I expected you to make an empirical observation and adjust your hypothesis regarding the nature of our daughter,” Sawyer said. “I hoped to discuss our relationship, if we still have one, and how it relates to our parental responsibilities.”

“Would you just get off it!” Manisha shouted. “You just called me over to guilt me into changing my mind. I’m done being a pawn in your experiments. I’m leaving.”

Sawyer knew he should have said something to defend himself, but the fire in Manisha’s eyes terrified him. All he could do was step back and let her storm past him.

When Manisha was gone, Sawyer watched Gamora quietly playing with her dolls. If she had any idea that it was strange for her parents to shout, she gave no sign. In fact, she seemed more pleased and comfortable than he’d ever seen her.

Sawyer picked up his daughter and carried her upstairs to bed.

“I’m sorry,” he said softly as he tucked her in.

“I thought she was smart.”

———-

Erg. Sawyer and Manisha were not that bad on autonomy this time, but they sure didn’t warm up to each other. Sawyer had a wish to mind meld with Manisha, but his attempt failed. They both attempted romantic interactions and were rebuffed. It was painful to watch. It appears that Sawyer’s going to be a single father.

I love Gamora’s face. She’s a great blend of her parents. She has Manisha’s unusual eyes, which makes me very happy. Looks like Manisha’s eyebrows, Sawyer’s nose and cheekbones. I think those cheekbones might actually trace back to Veronica. I’m not sure on the mouth or face shape. I’ll have to do another comparison when she’s a teen.

It’s so hard to capture Dylan’s adorable Proper bow when he greets someone. Manisha’s arrival sequence is the best I’ve managed so far.

6 thoughts on “6.32 Smart

  1. I thought that bow of Dylan's was due to his Proper trait. I really enjoy that trait. I was so curious about Sawyer touching Manisha's forehead, it is nice that you described that was an attempt at a mind meld. What types of sims can do a mind meld??

    You captured the disappointment of Sawyer and Manisha's reaction to the "ambush" birthday party well. So sad that she's not interested in Gamora, or is just overwhelmed and doesn't want to get involved.

    Is Abby really having to work much longer hours for this stage of her career? Sounds exhausting.

    And it made me laugh, your line about how it is beautiful, but intimidating, to visit City Hall.

    Oh yeah– is Nihilism really a patch they can earn??! That is so funny, but really suits Edmund.

  2. Heh. I think "Your mind to my mind" or something similar is what Spock used to say in a mind meld :). Mind meld is a high-level nerd skill from University. If it succeeds, You learn a trait or maybe even get a skill point from the target I think. If it fails, you get a, "What the heck are you doing?" expression.

    I changed the City Hall rabbithole because I picked up Dragon Valley at an Origin sale. I figured that it would have a pretty fantasy-themed City Hall. The Dragon Valley City Hall turned out to be pretty simple. That's actually a recolor of the Monte Vista City Hall that is done in blue/gray and looks more fantasy-style. It's an alternate that's not used in any of the world. I'm unclear as to whether it actually came with Dragon Valley or Monte Vista.

    I'm a chronic world tinkerer, which is one of many reasons that this legacy is taking so long.

    No, you don't earn any specific badges in the Scouting after school activity. I think you pick up fishing and tinkering skills. (Come to think of it, that must be why Edmund has been rolling the wish to fish and repair things recently.) The scenes above really are from a scouts award ceremony for Edmund. I saw the badge wall hanging and wondered what sorts of badges Edmund would want to work toward ;-).

    Abby's spending a bunch of time skilling and building coworker relationships to get her last promotion, so that's essentially working long hours.

  3. This was heartbreaking to watch… Sawyer's desperate attempt to understand what was happening between them, and how/if he was able to mend it somehow was captured in such a great way it almost made me tear up! 🙁

  4. Thank you!

    Sawyer tries so hard. I tried to help him fix his relationship with Manisha, but I didn't want to force it fixed. He was probably doomed as soon as their relationship fell below a certain level; Socially Awkward is a difficult trait, and Diva makes it worse.

  5. It’s starting to bug me. This is the second time I try to post a comment and it doesn’t let me… Let me try again.

    I’m sorry that Sawyer and Manisha broke up over Gamora. It’s so sad. Looks like Sawyer will be a single parent. Luckily for him, there are his siblings and Andria who can give him a helping hand if need be.

    Gamora is such a lovely little plant sim! If I remember well, plant Sims have some special relationship with flowers, right? She could be very useful for Andria’s garden in the future 🙂

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