Maxis Taste Dare 33
This is my entry for Maxis Taste's Dare 33, my first time participating. I'm excited to show this! I don't know what's going on with the text, some of it is calibri and some of it isn't... hopefully it isn't jarring or anything.
I've put all my prompts together for a big prompt-off, or something. They were:
Jodie Larson (Landgraab in my game)
Stephen Tinker
Gilbert Jacquet
Hail
Juice
Light
Here's a warning for: Mentioning of Sexyfuntimes, Implied Suicide and 'Alcohol' abuse.
Wanda!
Breanna,
Malcolm...
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Gilbert never expected much business at J’Adore on a Tuesday morning. He was still slightly hungover and wanted nothing more than to lie in bed and ignore calls from Breanna, but his mother was suffering from a cold and he knew he had a responsibility to carry out.
The morning was passing slowly and drearily at the bakery. The weather had been terrible for the last few days and it wasn’t looking to pick up anytime soon. He’d glanced at the weather channel and the reporter claimed that hail could strike at any moment, but nobody ever took what the weather man said seriously, since every other report was practically a mental breakdown.
The lack of business aggravated him. He needed something to take his mind off Breanna, off his all-too-impeding responsibilities. When he avoided her, the guilt shackled him like tightly-clasped handcuffs around his heart, but more consuming was the fear when he thought about the tiny mini-him growing inside her. It seemed that the only thing that could sooth his anxiety was juice.
Stephen was having a mid-life crisis. There was no way around it at this point - he was getting older and he was still the same doofus he had been when he was Sim State’s mascot. His sex life, when it existed, was dull as dishwater and he crumpled under any kind of pressure he faced. His career as Dean of Bluewater Community was under serious threat if he couldn’t learn some degree of assertiveness.
Tuesday was his day off, and on that morning he woke to the sound of one of his countless children crying out. Wanda groggily trudged off to see to the child’s feeding, and Stephen lay on his bed reflecting. If this were twenty years ago, there was only one reason he and Wanda would be up this early. But somewhere along the way, the couple had lost their spark. Sure, they were affectionate but once it got to the bedroom everything seemed to fall flat.
And so, when Wanda had tasked her husband with collecting Sullivan’s new inhaler from the chemist’s, Stephen decided on a whim to treat himself to a pastry from J’Adore Bakery. The weather wasn’t great for sitting outside in, but he was taking all he could at the moment. As he tried to focus on something other than his faulty romantic life and career, he noted that the weather was terrible - Wanda had warned him that it could hail soon.
When Jodie had laid on her bed with a copy of the Superstar Report and an episode of The Real Housewives of Sim City playing on her tiny TV, she had dreamed of her future perfect life with the elusive and ever so tragic Master Landgraab. Popularised in the media after the untimely death of his parents, Jodie had seen Malcolm as an achievable goal, much like a trophy to be attained. Jason had mocked her for spending her adolescence watching crappy reality TV shows about high society, but she believed she was training to be Malcolm’s trophy wife.
She had just expected happiness to come to her, like a magnet. She had done everything perfectly -the instant seduction, the brief courtship, the quiet wedding, and now… the heir and spare. Every dynasty needs one. Jodie had given birth to twins; Malcolm Landgraab V and Hannelore only a short while ago and she was still deeply set into her post-natal depression. Malcolm tried to be supportive when she burst into tears for seemingly no reason, or when she didn’t even want to look at her children, but he was just as clueless as Jodie’s brother. Neither of them understood.
Jodie woke up that morning, similarly to Stephen, with her children crying. Malcolm was away at Takemizu on a business deal and instead of letting him tend to their son, she screamed for the nanny to do her job. She decided that she needed to get away from the house, so despite Alfred's warnings of impending hail, she headed to the bakery for a strong, strong coffee.
The three of Bluewater’s most downtrodden, hopeless people had gathered in the same place at once. They could have finished their business and went on their own ways, but that wouldn’t make much of a story.
Jodie saw the first hailstone. She sighed with irritation, yet another thing to go wrong recently. It was as if the weather was mocking her predicament.
Stephen noticed the hail next, ‘We should head inside.’ He called across to the aloof woman. Jodie simply nodded her head once and the two moved to the bakery’s indoor dining area.
‘It’s hailing outside,’ Stephen explained to Gilbert as he re-entered the bakery.
‘Why does he think I care?’ Gilbert growled in his head, but kept a civil expression. He watched as his only two customers took their seats across from where he stood. He didn’t really mix with the two of them - Jodie was too stuck-up and he was pretty sure Stephen had nothing in common with him.
Stephen finished his pastry and looked over to Jodie. She had barely touched her coffee, and instead seemed to be thinking. He considered it curious that she wouldn’t take her sunglasses off, even indoors but, he shrugged to himself, eccentricity seemed to be the way of the rich and famous. She seemed awfully lonely though, and Stephen’s good nature got the better of him.
‘Would you like to sit with me? You look troubled.’ For a split-second, Stephen regretted even opening his mouth. Jodie looked at him, and even though he couldn’t see her eyes, he could feel her glare of disdain. But, surprisingly, after a few seconds and no words spoken, she left her seat and sat next to Stephen.
For the next few moments, the only sound that could be heard was the barrage of hailstones on the roof of the bakery.
‘Sounds like we won’t be able to leave for a while - hail’s deadly. You got anywhere to be?’ Stephen tried.
Jodie shook her head.
He turned to Gilbert, trying to include him in the conversation. ‘What about you?’
‘Idiot. I own this bakery. Obviously I need to be here.’ Gilbert hissed to himself. ‘Nope.’ He replied instead. Stephen gave a lingering look, and finally Gilbert took the hint, sighed in resignation and took a seat with the two.
‘So… how many kids now, Stephen?’ Gilbert winced at his own pathetic ice-breaker. At least the dope seemed happy to talk about his brats.
‘Six! I can hardly believe it myself…’ he grinned ruefully. ‘Wanda says she’s happy now, and that’s relieving. I don’t know if we can support any more…’
‘Money troubles?’
Stephen hesitated, but continued, ‘Sort of. Things aren’t going too well at Bluewater Community at the moment. Got some upstarts after my job… think I’m too much of a pushover.’
Gilbert looked over to Jodie, who was still exceedingly quiet, and then back to Stephen. ‘Aren’t you already a pushover? I mean, your wife has you completely whipped. Six kids and she runs the family business?’
He didn’t mean it seriously, but it still hurt Stephen. He visibly shrunk away from the conversation and for the first time, Jodie looked up.
‘Don’t speak to Stephen like that, Jacquet. If we didn’t have gentler people the whole world would be vying for one another.’ She snarled. Then, softening her expression, she turned to Stephen. ‘But you should learn to assert yourself. You’re the Dean of a college! You should know how to keep your people in line. Tell those upstarts to piss off.’
Digesting Jodie’s words, Stephen nodded. ‘You’re right. I’m carrying myself completely wrong. I worked hard to get into this position and I’m going to be the Dean of Bluewater Community until I retire! Speaking of which… my job wouldn’t really be possible without your husband. I’m very grateful.’
Something was amiss. Where Jodie should have smiled and nodded, her features drooped and she fidgeted with her hands.
‘Oh, this is rich. Is the ‘perfect marriage’ not all that perfect?’ Gilbert cackled.
Stephen barked, ‘What’s with you, Gil? Get out of the wrong side of bed today? Do you have to pick on us to make yourself feel bigger?’ Inside, Stephen’s heart swelled. This ‘assertive’ business felt pretty good to try out.
‘Look, I’m… I’m not in a good place right now, okay? I don’t really want to talk about it. I mean… I haven’t even told my mother.’
‘You mean the mother you live with?’ Jodie smirked.
Gilbert grimaced, ‘She lives with me!’ after a moment’s pause, Gilbert impulsively decided to confide in these two practical strangers. ‘Okay. I have… a girlfriend. I… love her. She’s great, but she’s pregnant. I’m not ready to be a dad, and I’m not ready to get married. Part of me wants to pack up and run off to Twikkii, but the rest of me just feels guilty for even thinking that. I… I don’t know.’ He finished his explanation with a groan and pulled a hip flask out of his jacket.
‘It’s 2pm.’ Stephen scolded.
‘So?’ Gilbert hissed, ‘it’s the only thing keeping me calm at the moment. Or I keep telling myself that, anyway.’
He reached out and grabbed the flask away. ‘You don’t need it.’ He stated profoundly.
Jodie quietly chuckled bitterly. 'You really don't need it. I got where I am today because of juice.'
Gilbert furrowed his brow, and let Stephen take the flask. 'Fine. It wasn't really helping anyway.' he thought to himself.
‘It’s natural to be scared.’ Jodie mumbled, ‘but you have to be sure this is what you want. Do you love her?’
‘I… uh…’
‘Just answer me.’ Jodie snapped.
‘Yes. I love Breanna.’
‘Why?’ she pressed further.
He shrugged, ‘I’m not sure. She’s pretty and she’s really, really funny and… um…’
‘When you see her,’ she interrupted, leaning closer to Gilbert, ‘when you wake up in the morning and she’s beside you. What do you feel?’
‘I uh… want to reach out and touch her. I don’t know what you want me to tell you, Jodie.’
Jodie slumped back into her chair, defeated. ‘How can you be sure love exists?’
‘Love has to exist.’ Stephen explained. ‘There’s no other possible reason why I feel the way I do when I look at Wanda. She means the world to me - and Breanna means the world to you too, Gilbert. If you let this pass you by, you’ll regret it.’
‘What do you know? You’re a family sim. You love weddings and babies and crap.’ Gilbert moaned.
The older man shrugged. ‘Maybe so. But I could have ‘weddings and babies and crap’ with anyone. Wanda and I have been married a long time… and I wouldn’t trade her for anything in the world.’
Gilbert saw the reason in Stephen’s words, but he couldn’t give himself up to it. ‘But… I’m a romance sim. I need to live up to it.’
‘Live up to it?’ she scoffed, ‘Whoever said you have to live your life according to some textbook guidelines? Look at me. I am surrounded by wealth and luxury. I have a butler, a maid, a nanny and a gardener. I have a personal sauna and I’ve got more space in my house than stuff to put in it.’
She sighed, and slowly reached up to her face and slid her sunglasses off.
Stephen and Gilbert were both slightly shocked at the huge black bags around Jodie’s bloodshot eyes.
‘But… really look at me. I’m not happy with the path I’ve chosen. The path I chose when I was a kid. I was so… stubborn that I never questioned if it would make me happy. I would have probably been happy to live my life with Jason by my side, dragging him from one hare-brained scheme to the next. But is that the life of a fortune sim? No. Gilbert, if you want to be with Breanna then marry her and look after your damn kid.’
Jodie’s outburst caused the men to fall quiet.
‘I’m sorry, but there’s no-one to talk to. I need to figure this out in my head… I want to be happy but I don’t think I’m capable of it.’
Stephen put on his kindest voice and reached out to grasp Jodie’s hand comfortingly, ‘Don’t be so despondent, love. Nobody has the perfect marriage; heck, I know Wanda and I have our troubles.’
‘You?’ Gilbert frowned, ‘The fairy-tale couple?’
‘Well, fairy-tales don’t really discuss Prince Charming and Snow White’s future sex life, so I suppose we could still qualify.’ Stephen was surprised at his own words. Did he just make a joke?
Gilbert chuckled, ‘You can’t let that happen, even if you have twenty kids there must be a couple of minutes for a quickie, right?’
‘You’ve never had kids… yet.’ Stephen observed.
Gilbert blanched. ‘Don’t remind me. I’m only just getting used to the idea that I might enjoy commitment.’ He seemed to shake the comment off. ‘So… you’re not getting the good stuff?’
‘I’m not getting any stuff.’ He hung his head slightly, embarrassed to be discussing such things in front of a lady. Jodie seemed to be in a trance though, her eyes glazed. ‘We’re just so busy with the kids and… well, she has the shop and I have my work.’
Gilbert wrapped a friendly arm around Stephen’s shoulder. ‘You’re making excuses again. You’re a leader, Steve. A boss. Bosses don’t make excuses, do they? They get stuff done. You’ve got your older kids, M… Mandy?’
‘Melody.’ Stephen supplied.
‘Right. Melody. She can help you out a little, just give her a few simoleons for babysitting. Hell, I’m sure Breanna wouldn’t mind babysitting if you’d pay her for her time. Make one night a week where you and Wanda can go out, have a nice meal or see a show or whatever. Come back late, when the kids are tucked into bed and then you can-‘
Stephen held up a hand. ‘I think I understand… You’re right, all the time I’m just making excuses for myself. I need to be a stronger man, for me, my job, my family… and my marriage.’
Gilbert grinned triumphantly. ‘There you go! We’re just like the Breakfast Club right now. We have our differences but we’re becoming better people. Right, Jodie?’
She said nothing, choosing to stare out of the window. Gilbert and Stephen exchanged worried looks and Jodie’s silence was exacerbated by the abrupt quieting of the hammer of hailstones.
‘The hail’s stopped.’ She observed, and made to gather herself.
She continued her daze and left the bakery without another word. Not even goodbye.
Stephen and Gilbert continued to chat idly for a few more minutes, but after that Stephen knew he had to return home soon and Gilbert was left alone in his bakery, just when closing time was approaching. After a few moments of thought, he reached out for the phone and dialled a number he had called many times before.
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Each of the three had learnt something from that day that would go on to apply for the rest of their lives.
Stephen had learned how to stand up for himself, and how to improve his marriage.
Gilbert had learned that 'romance' has many different meanings, and that juice wasn't an answer to his problems.
... But a celebratory tipple wouldn't hurt, would it?
And Jodie...
Jodie had learned that she would never love Malcolm, only his money and status.
She knew that she would never be happy.
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Whoa, that got kind of dark at the end. Sorry about that, but I've been planning that end for Jodie since I started this Bluewater, the dare just gave me ideas on how to handle it.
Clearly I used all the sims given to me in the prompt, but the random words might not be so clear:
Hail - Well okay, that one's pretty clear.
Juice - juice was more a replacement for alcohol, since that's how it is in the sims.
Light - This one might not be so clear since I meant it more as a metaphorical light, such as the light at the end of the tunnel. All three of them, no matter which way they achieved it, have found peace.
I really hope you enjoyed reading, because I actually had quite a bit of fun writing it! I love comments, even just to say you read it! After one more short interlude, we'll resume the normal narration style since I would be uncomfortable writing in a story style all the time.
Oh, and thank you to peasant007 for showing me where I could get the bags around Jodie's eyes. And while I'm thanking people, this whole playthrough wouldn't be possible without meetme2theriver! :)
Have a good day everyone!