Cliff Rose Year 1 Spring: Boys Dorm
I came to Mars to be a teacher and one day raise a family. On Earth I taught music but since I have had to wait for my instruments to ship, and my students to be born and grow up, I have had to get used to life spent studying and living with two other men with widley differing personalities. For the time being I am amusing myself with gardening and the goings on of my friends and nieghbors. I must admit i am secretly hoping to start a family of my own soon enough, I never thought I'd want that so soon but then I never knew i'd be meeting Miss. Ruddy. I feel like an old pervert, I am older than 30 and she is just 19, and now pregnant with my former roommates child, but sh is sharper than a whip, funny, and charming. I wish i could get the courage to speak to her instead of bumbling like an idiot. - Rueben G. 1.2
Eli had moved out to live with Paola and Bunny, and Antwan and Alberta had finished building their home and moved out as well. The solitude was a lot for Rueben to grasp, at most it was boring, at worst it was terribly lonely. At times he found himself playing games, and talking to himself just to fill the silence and the time.
On days when everyone was free it was habit to gather at one house or another; the days it was his turn to host were his favorites it meant he wouldn't be so alone.
Rueben: Uh. . . Hello Paola. How have you been?
Paola: Oh, you know; achy, nausious, I look like a whale.
Reuben: I wasn't aware whales were so pretty. Hehe
Paola: Oh, you're just trying to make me feel better.
Reuben: Well. . . Is it working?
She actually thought he was funny, she was actually smiling at him and laughing with him, and. . .flirting? Was she? He couldn't be sure if she was or if he was just hearing what he wanted to hear.
Paola: HAHAHAHA! Omg, Rueben, I needed this. i needed o laugh!
Reuben: Well it was my pleasure, i assure you.
Rueben: if you don't mind, may I talk to the baby? You must be excited? I mean i know things aren't perfect right now but I can assure you that someone would have to be insane to not want your baby.
Paola: Eh, Rue...I'm sorry, i just don't want to talk about the baby okay?
Rueben: Oh, i'm so sorry i didn't mean to upset you!
Paola: it's okay, it's okay. I need to head home anyway, I need a nap.
Rueben: I'll walk you?
Paola: No. No I'm fine Rue, stay with everyone else.
And then she turned and walked away from him.
So he turned to his garden.
And he stayed in his garden. While he wanted to call Paola, or stop over and see how she was doing he didn't want to seem pushy. So he gardened.
When it happened it hurt. He was sure his nieghbors would have heard the screams had he not been so choked by the dirt his flailing body kicked up. He tasted blood, so much blood. As if his entire life force was being vomited up into the garden, but even as he felt mouthful after mouthful leave his body he felt no weaker.
Then he was sure he could feel his skin tearing off and he raked his hands along his body trying to grasp at the dried lumps that fell off of him. He was dying, of that he was sure, but of what and by whose hand he would never know. He would die, silenced by dirt, vomiting blood, with his skin and hair falling off. And he had never told Paola he loved her.
The pain stopped just as suddenly as it had begun, all at once the metalic pang of his blood left his mouth and he forgot the feeling of his skin being ripped from his body. nothing hurt. But he was thirsty.
He looked down at his body, expecting to see blood and exposed muscle but instead he saw nothing but leaves. Plants. He ran a hand down his arms and legs; they had the feel of a silky leaf. His hand flew to his face; glasses were in place but his hair, his long hair was gone and in it's place a bush or leaves.
Rueben: I'm dreaming.
He tried to sleep but found he'd forgotten how, forgotten what the need felt like. Instead he searched his books, the boxes of books shipped along with him for study;
"There are people who believe that the woodsprites and elves of legand are real. That they are a part of nature the way humans never will be; more than that even, that they are plants in the shape of a man."
Rueben: But...am I an elf then?
"In my research i found a tribe, who called themselves The People, who were adamant that thier people were decentants of one of these sprites mating with a human. Their ancestor had told them that the creatures were from another world, exiled by a civilization called the Mai'leen. The People told me how to find their home planet by the night sky and back at my lodge, with a telescope at the ready I followed their instructions and found myself staring at the planet we call Mars. Could there have been life on this dead planet once long ago; fairies and elves driven to our Earthen forests by a warrior race called the Mai'leen? . . ."
Rueben: These are just stories Rueben. You're just dehydrated. I am so thirsty!
But they weren't stories, of that he was sure. As the days passed in solitude he realized more and more the truth he had hoped had been a sleep deprived hullusination. Rueben Gerstenburger had turned into a plant.
He no longer craved food, sleep, he had no desire to do anything but soak in the Sun light and bathe in water. He found when he grew lonely he could speak to his plants and understand them in responce. They were alive, as those hippies on Earth had always claimed. They knew lonliness and fear, the felt comforts and pain. Now he was one of them and even though he felt no desire for the foods they produced he couldn't bring himself to let them fall into disrepair.
As the weeks passed he began tearing down his home, only by night when his nieghbors wouldn't see him, and rebuilding the walls with glass he had reserved for a greenhouse. He found that most of the things in his home were quite useless to him now but a part of him couldn't quite get rid of the bedroom. . . he wasn't quite reading to relinquish all his humanity.
When the building was finished he would play chess or study and think on his future. He knew Paola could never love him now, not her or anyone, and it crushed him but from what he could tell there was no way to become human again. Maybe his nieghbors would still let him teach their children and then he could at least be happy with his existance.
He still entertained himself with childish nonesense and not sleeping means there are more hours to be bored in.
He couldn't hide forever, and he knew everyone could see what his home had become.
Rueben: Oh, hello Antwan-
Rueben: Uh...yes. Antwan something has happened and. . .I need you to come over.
To his amazment the colony was not disgusted, more intriged. At least he could keep his friends.
Long nights are hard on a plant.
I have decided to turn part of my home into a grocery to sell the produce I grow. I can't eat it now. I don't even remember what it feels like to crave food. I hope to one day turn my entire home into a little greenhouse, with a store and a small classroom for the children...I'm coming to accept that they will never be my children. I will never have the privkedge are seeing my own child, or my lovers child, grow into adulthood under this roof. My nieghbors have accepted me but I will always be an outcast for as long as I live, however long that may be. when i die, if I die, I will just be a line in the history book. Or maybe they will study my body, put me on display. "A Real Wood Elf!" Whatever happens to me it won't be what I want. I guess i could be blunt about it now, I can't jinx anything; I wonder had i kept my humanity if Paola would have even wanted me? - Reuben G.
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Achievments:
O Opened a grocer (people can order groceries now instead of growing them!)
O Became a Plant!Sim
O From here on out this is the Gerstenberger Household
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Guys, I really don't know. I say this every chapter but I need you to realize that I, too, am completely baffled by what happens in this game. I am always pausing just so i can sit there and stare at the fuckery going on. I did not want Rueben to be a plantsim. I thought that maybe *somsone* might be one day but not him and not so soon!
So my plans for him now include running the grocery and opening a school (I've got some mods that will let him run an actual school on his lot). Maybe one day he'll spawn a little plant baby but for now a family just isn't in his plan. i feel bad for him but at the same time I'm kind of happy because I could only ever see him with Paola but I have had plans for her for a while...
ALSO sorry for being so long to actually read you guys' chapters. I have little time to do Sim stuff and I spend most of it doing ym own sims stuff and not really reading all your stories. I'm not purposfully avoiding them I just wish i had a totally FREE day to just read...ya know?
Welp, see you all in the comment!