Pleasantly Strange - Chapter 12
"So what are you going to do now, then?"
Mary-Sue had already asked herself this question too many times to count over the past few days. She still had no answer for her mother.
"I don't know."
Coral nodded and was quiet for a while as she concentrated on mixing the pie ingredients. Then she poured the mixture into a baking tray, put it in the oven, and said, "Well, it really is pretty simple. Either you leave him... or you don't. Both options come with their share of problems. The question is... which are easier to handle."
Mary-Sue sighed. "Why do men do these things, mum?"
"To be fair, it's not just men who-"
"I know!" Mary-Sue banged her fist hard on the counter, hurt her hand and swore. Coral watched her disapprovingly, and Mary-Sue looked away. "I'm sorry. I just... I thought we were doing fine! I thought he loved me, I..."
Her mother walked over and put a hand on her shoulder, then sat down next to her. None of them said anything else while the pie was being baked. Mary-Sue enjoyed the silence.
Since she'd caught Daniel in the act, she hadn't said a single word to him - but she still hadn't gotten much peace and quiet. Although he spent the nights in Lilith's old room (Mary-Sue didn't want him to mess up Angela's bed), he was constantly pestering her during the day, following her around the house, apologising, declaring his undying love for her, promising he had never been planning to leave her for 'that maid', that he was going to tell her eventually, honestly...
Mary-Sue kept ignoring him, glaring at him, walking away. Giving him the ultimate silence treatment. She knew it wasn't healthy, but she didn't know what would happen if she did speak to him. Would she just lose her mind and attack him? Or would she succumb to all his sweet words and promises?
She wanted so badly to believe that it was all true, that he loved her, that it was a mistake and that the only reason he hadn't told her was that he was afraid of losing her... But the truth was, she didn't believe him. Deep down inside, she didn't believe a single word. He had betrayed her trust completely. It wasn't so easily regained.
A timer went off, and Coral stood up. "Pie's ready."
"Mum?"
"Mm?"
"I can't go on like this... Being in the same house as him... I need time to think. Alone."
"That's reasonable. So tell him to move out?"
Mary-Sue picked up her fork and took a bite from her pie. It was delicious, as always. "I don't know... I mean, we bought the house together."
"I hardly think he would complain, if he knows what's good for him," Herb shot in as he rose from his favourite spot on the sofa (there was a slight dent in the cushion there) and followed the alluring scent of pie. "If you ask me, he should be happy he still has all his teeth!"
"But we didn't ask you, Herb," Coral said calmly. Her husband's solutions to problems were always very practical, but not necessarily very constructive.
Mary-Sue had to smile a little. "Thanks anyway, dad."
Herb walked back to the sofa with his pie, muttering about how the youth just couldn't keep it in their pants anymore, and how in his day they had known how to avoid temptation.
Mary-Sue turned to Coral again. "I don't want to kick him out, not yet... That just seems so... final. I was wondering if I could maybe stay here for a while? I'd ask Cassandra, but since she left, well..."
"But that hardly gets you very far away from him, dear. I mean, you can see your house from here."
"Where else will I go?"
Coral suddenly perked up. "How about taking that vacation you've been talking about for ages?"
Mary-Sue frowned. "What? But that was going to be a...," she paused, and flinched at the next word, "...romantic trip with Daniel. I don't really think that would work."
"Yes, yes," Coral said impatiently. "But you could go somewhere else. Somewhere just for you."
"You think so?"
"I think that sounds like a great idea," Herb said, as he headed for the kitchen sink with his empty plate. "It's about time you do something for yourself anyway. You've been working too hard lately."
"I... I don't know where I would go," said Mary-Sue.
"How about the mountains?" Coral suggested.
"Too cold..."
"Strangetown? You could go see Cassandra..."
Mary-Sue rolled her eyes. "Oh, sure. She was almost too busy to say goodbye to me. We could've been there for each other now, going through the same thing... but no, she had to go running off to Strangetown. I hardly think she'd want me there."
"Well, there has to be somewhere you want to go!" Coral said, losing her patience.
Mary-Sue thought about it for a moment. A tropical island was out of the question, nothing struck her as sadder than sitting with a nice pink drink all alone at a table by the beach, watching the happy couples go for a swim together. There was no town or city she felt any real desire to see, not now, at any rate. Too much noise, too much effort... All she really wanted was some peace and quiet, some place where she could just focus on herself, for once, and not her job, her children, her loser of a husband... and most of all, not how she and her family would appear to the rest of the neighbourhood, how they would all talk about them, now when their facade of a perfect marriage was broken.
Then it hit her.
"I think I know."
Coral looked surprised, she had clearly been ready to give up on the whole idea. "Really?"
"Yes," Mary-Sue smiled, her first real smile in several days. "In fact, I think it's the best thing I've come up with in a very long time..."
---
It was on the third day after Cassandra officially moved in that there came a knock on her door.
Outside were a young couple she had seen a few times already, but not spoken to. She knew they lived in the apartment below her.
"Hi, and welcome to Strangetown!" the young, blonde woman chirped the second the door was opened. There was a bright smile on her very pink lips. "We're so sorry we haven't stopped by before, we just haven't had the time! I'm Erin, and this is my boyfriend, Lazlo."
She gestured to the man behind her, whose glasses long dark hair and partially obscured his face. He grinned. "Hello."
Cassandra instantly and involuntarily found herself attracted to him, but she quickly shook it off and smiled back. "Oh, how nice of you! Please, come in."
After Cassandra had introduced herself, Erin gave herself a little tour of the apartment.
"Oh, it's so different!" she said, without explaining this further. Cassandra wondered whether she simply hadn't seen dark colours before. "I really like it, though, it seems to fit you."
Cassandra wasn't sure whether this was an insult, but she smiled politely. Lazlo turned to her. "So what brings you to Strangetown, Cassandra? Hope the heat didn't put you off too much. It's got to be quite a change from Pleasantview. Heading towards autumn there, yeah?"
"I'm getting more used to it now," Cassandra said, glancing at Erin who was trying out her couch. "I'm here because... well... a lot has happened in my life and I think this might be the right place to... figure some things out."
"Ooh, a mysterious past!" Lazlo said, almost happily, and Cassandra was a bit taken aback. "You'll fit right in here, then. The town lives up to its name, if you see what I mean."
Again, Cassandra wasn't sure whether to be insulted or not, but she decided against it. Lazlo and Erin didn't seem like the kind of people who would mean any harm.
"It really is different," Erin said again as the two others joined her on the couch. "From when Kristen lived here, I mean. She's our friend," she explained.
"Moved out just recently," Lazlo added.
"Went and got herself a boyfriend, even though she said she never would," Erin said, giggling. "Our very own Ajay Loner."
"And next thing you know, he proposes to her," Lazlo continued. "And she moves into his little house."
Erin smiled. "And they had the most lovely wedding!"
"I'm so jealous, really!" Erin cast a meaningful glance at Lazlo, who just shrugged and kept talking.
"One thing led to another and now she's put her soccer career on halt to have a baby. That sure went fast."
"Which is how the apartment ended up vacant... Hey, are you okay?" Erin had noticed how sad Cassandra suddenly looked, even though she had tried to hide it.
Cassandra swallowed and nodded. "I'm fine... It's just that I just had a divorce, myself. Weddings still make me a bit... touchy." She smiled, faintly. "For various reasons."
Erin gasped. "Oh, I'm so sorry! ...Is that why you moved here? To get away from it all?"
"No, no, it's okay," Cassandra shook her head. "That's not it. Actually, I..." she hesitated, looking at them both. Would they think she was completely insane if she brought it up? "...I'm here because of my mother, who vanished without a trace, quite some time back." Erin gasped again, and Lazlo seemed to be listening intently. Cassandra continued, speaking a bit too quickly. "There... there was a rumour that she was... taken by aliens. And I'd heard that aliens had been observed in Strangetown, and, well, I thought maybe I could find a connection here, maybe... This sounds completely ridiculous, doesn't it?"
Lazlo and Erin looked at each other, smiling as if sharing some sort of secret joke. "I think we'd better take her down to meet Lola and Chloe, don't you?" Lazlo asked.
Erin nodded. "Definitely."
"Who are Lola and Chloe?" Cassandra wondered.
"Some of your other neighbours," Lazlo said, grinning again. "I'm surprised you haven't bumped into them yet, but if you had I think you would've remembered. Come on." They both stood up and headed for the door, and bewildered, Cassandra didn't know what else to do but to follow.
"Lola and Chloe are my sisters, actually," Lazlo said as they walked downstairs. "Well, half-sisters. They're twins."
Erin knocked on the door. "Lola's probably at work... but Chloe should be home. She works evenings."
"Who is it?" came a voice from inside.
"It's Erin!"
"Come on in."
When Cassandra walked inside and saw the woman in front of the TV, all she could do was stop and stare.
Her skin was green.
A soft, sort of pastel shade of green, and her eyes were pitch black, with no distinct pupils.
"Cassandra, this is my sister, Chloe Curious," Lazlo said. "And Chloe, this is Cassandra Goth, a newcomer from Pleasantview."
Chloe looked at Cassandra. "I think she might need a drink."
Suddenly remembering that she needed to breathe, Cassandra inhaled deeply and managed to get out a few words as she exhaled. "...I think I do, too."
"Are you feeling better now?" Erin asked. They were sitting on Chloe's balcony, where there was a bar, and the fresh air and the relaxing qualities of three of Chloe's special blended drinks had calmed Cassandra down to a level where she could speak normally again.
"I think so."
"Sorry about that," Lazlo said. "I would've told you, but you might not have believed me."
"Chloe really is just like any other sim, in most ways," Erin said. "Like any other sim of her kind, especially. Not the alien kind, the romancing kind, if you know what I mean!
So she gets along great with the guy living just across your hall, Cassandra. You must've seen him. Abhijeet Cho. You'd be well adviced to stay away from him!
When he isn't spending time with Chloe...
You can be sure he's occupied in some other way!"
"At least he's not keeping it a secret..." Cassandra said quietly. She felt more than a little uncomfortable that Erin was going on about Chloe's love life like this, right in front of her no less, but Chloe didn't seem to mind. She appeared to be very laid back, and hadn't even said anything about the way Cassandra kept staring at her. Cassandra really tried not to, but she found it difficult, even after the third drink. Especially after the third drink, since it took away some of her inhibitions.
"Hey, now, Abi isn't the only one who gets around," Chloe said.
"As long as I'm free to do as I like, he is too."
"Don't you think you'll need to slow down some day, Chloe?" Lazlo asked.
Chloe dismissed him with a wave of her hand. "Meh, Lola is the one you should worry about. She's all work, work, work and no play.
I nearly had to threaten her into dating. I'm just glad she listened to me eventually. Here's to hoping she doesn't scare him off too quickly." Chloe raised her glass and took a big sip, then she walked over to the edge of the balcony and looked out at the view.
"So, Cass. Can I call you Cass?" She turned back to Cassandra. "You're here looking for aliens, right? Well, you've found one. What can I do for you?"
"Well, um..." Cassandra wasn't sure where to start at first, but somehow, she figured that anything she might have to say wouldn't sound too strange to these people, so she plunged into it. "My mother disappeared a few years ago and that night, several witnesses claimed to have seen bright lights... And one even insisted she had seen a big, round object fly off, for just a split second, a-"
"An unidentifiable flying object?" Lazlo offered.
Cassandra nodded. "R-right. So I guess, I want to know if-if that's possible. If my mother might not have been kidnapped or murdered, but... abducted by aliens. And I thought this might be the right place to look in. And... and I guess it is?" she finished, looking at Chloe.
"It sure is." Chloe grinned. "Now, I'm only half alien. Lola and I were born to Glarn Curious, he is Lazlo's father, hence he's our half-brother. Our alien father, however-"
"Wait, you have two fathers?" Cassandra interrupted, confused.
"Yeah, I'll get to that. Our alien father lives right here in Strangetown, with his family. His name is Pollination Technician #9 Smith, but he prefers PT9. And he is a full-blooded alien pollinator."
"Pollinator?"
"Yes..." Chloe said slowly. "He'll explain it much better than I can. You should go see him, no one will know more on the topic of aliens than him, I can assure you. He lives in the house with the big green garden, you can't possibly miss it."
"PT9 moved to our planet after he retired, you see," Lazlo explained, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. "He married our sister, Jenny, and they have four children together. Johnny, who's in college, their teenager Jill, and the twins, Jack and June. They're such a fun pair, those two, you'll love them."
Cassandra blinked. "Your... sister?"
"Er, yeah, our family relationships are a bit... complicated," Lazlo said. "But the two of them are not related."
"I think you're scaring her!" Erin laughed.
"And you didn't even get to the man-babies yet," Chloe sniggered.
Lazlo glared at her. "Chloe!"
"Fine, I'll tell her, then!" Chloe turned to Cassandra, still grinning. "We have two more brothers...
Pascal and Vidcund. The two nerdiest chaps you will ever know, even worse than Lazlo." She ignored the indignant 'hey!' from her brother. "And you see, Pascal and Vidcund have both given birth to a baby half-alien of their own."
Cassandra stared at her. "Given birth...?"
Chloe smiled; evidently she was enjoying herself. "Pollinators pollinate male sims. Again, this is something my dad will explain much better me, trust me. I don't know the details and frankly, I don't care to. But Pas and Vid, they did want to know the details, and they got what they wanted.
Kallisto is a lot like Pascal, really. Besides being green, I guess. They're both way too serious.
Victor's nothing like his dad though. Playful, cheerful little bugger he is. Just got past the anklebiter stage, too. I like them better when they can get to the toilet on their own, honestly." Chloe poured herself another drink. "You really should go see them too. They'll know a lot about bright lights and flying saucers. Been in very close contact with them, in fact. Moreso than I have."
Cassandra shook her head, trying to clear it. That it was all too much for her was an understatement, she was so overwhelmed she didn't know which questions to ask first. Perhaps it was better that way, then she could digest it all, ask the questions to this PT9 and the rest of this huge and highly extraordinary family. "So this really is all... real," she said. "I wouldn't have believed you, but... you're standing right there, living proof of it all."
Lazlo smiled kindly and patted Cassandra's arm. "It must be a lot to take in. Don't worry, we'll be here to answer anything you might wonder about."
Chloe downed her drink (Cassandra had not been keeping count, but she was sure it was at least the fifth), and leaned back on the railing of the balcony. It didn't look like an entirely safe thing to do. She seemed to have lost interest in the alien topic - no doubt it was not the first time she explained this to someone - and instead turned her attention to Lazlo. "Hey Laz, how's Pascal's love life getting along, then? Heard anything about the new girl?"
"Er..." Lazlo didn't seem like he knew how to answer.
Erin looked at them. "New girl? What's this?"
Chloe looked at her. "You didn't know? Pas has been dating like crazy lately. Worried he'll miss his chance in life, I guess.
First it was that gardener...
Then that cat woman in Pleasantview, I don't know what that was all about.
And then," Chloe continued, putting extra pressure on the 'then', "...he met this student at La Fiesta Tech when he did a guest lecture there. Naturally she's much too young for him."
Erin pretended to look scandalized, but did a poor job of it. "Really!"
"Really. So Lazlo, has he replaced her with someone new yet, or what?"
"Hey, unlike you two, I don't find other sims' love lives to be any of my business, or interest," Lazlo said.
"Oh, come on," Chloe huffed. "If it was anyone else I wouldn't give a shit either, but Pascal? That's big news! We were all worried he would end up like Vidcund...
...Who'll be growing old with his plants."
"You shouldn't say stuff like that," Lazlo admonished her. "You know how upset he gets."
"Well, Vid's not here right now, is he?"
"You wouldn't care even if he was."
"They'll be going on for a while," said Erin, looking at Cassandra. "Come on, let's go back inside. I'll show you our apartment."
Cassandra was glad to leave. Besides all the confusing information about aliens, she didn't think she had ever been so well-informed about the private affairs of a family in such a short time, either.
---
Circe had said no at first.
Saying no had never been a problem for her, and neither had sticking to her answer, nor doing painful things to the inquiring part if they kept asking.
It was different with Loki. When he kept asking, her no usually turned into a yes.
So when he decided he wanted a son, she had eventually let him talk her into it. But this was the last time. If it was another girl, he didn't get any more tries. In that case he would have to bear it himself - she promised him she'd be glad to help figuring out the aliens' secret, just for him, if need be.
So she knew he would leave her alone in the future. Circe always kept her promises.
It wasn't that Loki wasn't happy with Selene, far from it. He adored her. It was just the whole male heir thing, Circe supposed. Or the desire to have one of each sex, as if to complete the set - like a collection. Either made sense, and it made no real difference to her, as long as he was satisfied.
It was quiet now, without Nervous. Their other prisoner wasn't any trouble anymore. Behaved. Had given up, Circe guessed. It worried her that Nervous hadn't been found, though. Loki thought he might just have gotten lost in the desert and died out there, but he always did like to settle for the most comfortable answer.
They both knew Nervous could not die so easily. It was not impossible, but... not easy.
Even without him, Circe kept herself busy. She wouldn't let a small thing like a pregnancy slow her down, not when she had such a fascinating test subject to spend her time with...
...one that just became more interesting with every passing day.