Terry Prologue
I was going to write this before I got all distracted because I'd been playing Terry's OWBC and I'm close-ish to finishing shooting the college chapter, but this didn't really fit with the chapter, so I'll write it here. Terry!
~~~~~~~~~~
Terry bit his thumb anxiously as he watched the blonde girl tapping away on her laptop with her back to him. He'd never been in the bedroom of a girl who wasn't related to him before - she'd referred to it as her 'office', but the presence of the bed he was sat on, and a wardrobe in the corner, was slightly outweighing the presence of the desk. But that wasn't even what was really bothering him - he'd been worrying about it since he'd woken up that morning.
"I think I'm having second thoughts," he finally managed to say.
"No you're not," the blonde said, not even looking at him or slowing down her typing.
He was dumbstruck for a few seconds before he could reassert himself. "I know what I'm thinking, and I'm having second thoughts! It's- It's not a good idea. You should stop."
The blonde sighed and swivelled around in her desk chair to face him. "Why are you having second thoughts then?"
"I just- I-" Terry took a second to sort his thoughts out. "I shouldn't leave Simfield. All my family's here-"
"Terry, all your family's increasingly dead," she said with a sympathetic look. "Your parents, Marina, Sean and Nicola are gone and most of your distant family wouldn't know who you were if they saw you on the street."
Terry gave the woman a suspicious look again as she listed off his family members casually. "What are you, our family's official stalker?"
She laughed happily, "I like that! Something like that, I guess."
"But anyway, Tom's not dead! And his daughter Tessa's still there! And Kimmy's not dead either - surely I have to stay to protect them in case she does something-!"
"Teeeeerrrrrrryyyyy," she groaned, "I told you: you don't have to worry about Kimmy, she's sorted. But even if she wasn't - what could you do about it? It was all very well you being able to protect Tom as a child, but all you really were was a human shield and you probably wouldn't last long at that! Again. You had no special knowledge or abilties that helped you; if anything, the fact that she already knew and disliked you meant that you suffered more than anybody else would have done! I know you feel like it's still your responsibiltiy, but it's not. You're just a nice, helpful guy, and everyone else ought to be as responsible as you are."
"But- But I could help... What if something else happens to them...? Or to anybody else of my distant relatives?"
"Terry, bad stuff happens, you can't stop it all - if you could stop any of it. But, in my... stalking... I've noticed patterns, so if it'll make you feel any better, nothing bad's going to happen to Tom until he dies-"
"Until he dies?!"
"Terry, he's old! Of course he's going to die! Everybody does sooner or later! But he's permaplat, he's got a family, he's going to have grandkids soon and he's going to die very happily, especially since he got to see you again before he went. He'll be fine."
"But- But Tessa-!"
"You've barely met Tessa! And she's got both a boyfriend and a girlfriend living with her now, so I'm sure she'll be fine - and that, if you were to try and live with them, you would be scarred for life in your innocence," she said with a fond smile.
He gave her a suspicious look again, "You don't have cameras in everybody's houses, do you?"
She studied the ceiling innocently, failing to suppress a smile, "Ask me no questions, Terry, and I'll tell you no lies. Anyway, are we done with the objections yet?"
"No!" Terry blurted out, remembering why they'd started talking in the first place. "Uh..."
The blonde looked at him expectantly, still with a vague smile on her face. "Well...?"
"I- I- I just don't think it's a very good idea. I don't want to do it anymore," he stuttered shortly.
"...You don't want the chance to go to university, meet a nice girl, start a family and live happily ever after?" she asked, raising an eyebrow sceptically.
"You- You can't guarantee that anyway!"
"No," she conceded slowly, "but the probability is extremely high. That is the whole point of this move. But if you're telling me that you'd rather grow old and die childless in Simfield..."
Terry hesitated and shifted uncomfortably. He tried to say something in response, but failed.
The blonde woman softened again at his sad look and sighed. "Let's be honest here, shall we? You're making up excuses because you're scared. Scared and apprehensive about what'll happen when you go there."
"I'm not scared..." he protested quietly.
"Yes you are."
"Why would I be scared of this when I've already been murdered once?" he asked.
"Do you want to know?" she asked interestedly.
"You can't know better than I do," he frowned.
"I can; I'm not in denial about it. You were the youngest of five children and, especially with Marina, somebody was always telling you what to do, overlooking any decisions you got to make, keeping you out of trouble as a kid, accidentally getting you into trouble on occasion. Any unsupervised decisions you made when you were stuck at Kimmy's was as a matter of survival, you didn't have the luxury of second-guessing yourself, and you were only obeying Marina and Nicola's suggestions to be there in the first place. But what about when you're in a new place, on your own? What about when your decisions aren't urgent? What about when all that's at stake is your own potential happiness? How are you supposed to decide without parents or siblings to guide you?" she paused, allowing him recourse, but he was gazing at the floor silently.
"And then there's the fact that this is actually so important to you. You're a family sim, this is your chance to get the family you've been fantasising about for years on end. But you'll only ever want to be married once, to, ideally, the love of your life. But you've never been in love, you don't know what it feels like and, although you've read lots about it, you don't know whether you're going to be able to tell it when you feel it. And all you'll have to go by is your own judgement. But what if you make the wrong decision and screw this one chance up? And even if you get past the minefield that is relationships, how do you know you'll be a good parent? What if you screw up your kids somehow?"
"So you're terrified and you're wondering whether it's even worth taking the risk, aren't you? Maybe it would be simpler just to live alone forever and never take the chance for fear of if it all goes wrong. It's okay to be scared and, believe me, I know exactly how you feel. But Terry, you can't deny yourself happiness just in case it causes somebody else to be unhappy eventually; at least if you're happy that's one person sorted, rather than possibly both of you being miserable. You might make a mistake, but people make them all the time and it's not the end of the world. And as for the kids: look at Kimmy - you know what she's like, but she was like that from the start, there was little your parents could have done; sometimes you just can't help it, and where you can help it you know you'll do your best. And at least if the average of bad to good kids is 1:5 - and it's probably more 1:15 in Simfield - you have fairly good odds. Your parents could have stopped Kimmy being so bad to you and Sean if they'd been paying more attention, but do you hold it against them?"
Terry shook his head slightly, still staring at the floor.
"Exactly. You've had a far from perfect life so far, but it doesn't mean you wish your parents had never had you or even got together; your father need never have come to Simfield, but he did. Now you owe it to your future children to find their mother and conceive them, post haste!" she declared with a laugh.
He smiled slightly, but bit his lip anxiously. "What if I'm the exception?"
The blonde woman groaned again and gestured wildly with her arms, "What if a nuclear bomb hits? What if the Earth explodes? What if there's a zombie apocalypse?! All of these things are unlikely, and none of them mean we should stop living our lives. Now are you prepared to take control and start trying to live your own life now, or not?"
He sighed and swallowed, "Yeah, I guess so."
"Good," she said brightly and swivelled her chair back around to finish off the university application. "And, just in case you do have a major freak-out about things, you'll have my number and I can explain to you exactly why you're just being silly."
"Gee, thanks," he said with something very almost approaching sarcasm, the closest he ever tended to come to it.
"You're welcome," she said and he could tell that she was grinning widely.
He just hoped the eccentric, over-dramatic student actually knew what she was talking about.
It didn't look entirely promising.
~~~~~~~~~~
Terry bit his thumb anxiously as he watched the blonde girl tapping away on her laptop with her back to him. He'd never been in the bedroom of a girl who wasn't related to him before - she'd referred to it as her 'office', but the presence of the bed he was sat on, and a wardrobe in the corner, was slightly outweighing the presence of the desk. But that wasn't even what was really bothering him - he'd been worrying about it since he'd woken up that morning.
"I think I'm having second thoughts," he finally managed to say.
"No you're not," the blonde said, not even looking at him or slowing down her typing.
He was dumbstruck for a few seconds before he could reassert himself. "I know what I'm thinking, and I'm having second thoughts! It's- It's not a good idea. You should stop."
The blonde sighed and swivelled around in her desk chair to face him. "Why are you having second thoughts then?"
"I just- I-" Terry took a second to sort his thoughts out. "I shouldn't leave Simfield. All my family's here-"
"Terry, all your family's increasingly dead," she said with a sympathetic look. "Your parents, Marina, Sean and Nicola are gone and most of your distant family wouldn't know who you were if they saw you on the street."
Terry gave the woman a suspicious look again as she listed off his family members casually. "What are you, our family's official stalker?"
She laughed happily, "I like that! Something like that, I guess."
"But anyway, Tom's not dead! And his daughter Tessa's still there! And Kimmy's not dead either - surely I have to stay to protect them in case she does something-!"
"Teeeeerrrrrrryyyyy," she groaned, "I told you: you don't have to worry about Kimmy, she's sorted. But even if she wasn't - what could you do about it? It was all very well you being able to protect Tom as a child, but all you really were was a human shield and you probably wouldn't last long at that! Again. You had no special knowledge or abilties that helped you; if anything, the fact that she already knew and disliked you meant that you suffered more than anybody else would have done! I know you feel like it's still your responsibiltiy, but it's not. You're just a nice, helpful guy, and everyone else ought to be as responsible as you are."
"But- But I could help... What if something else happens to them...? Or to anybody else of my distant relatives?"
"Terry, bad stuff happens, you can't stop it all - if you could stop any of it. But, in my... stalking... I've noticed patterns, so if it'll make you feel any better, nothing bad's going to happen to Tom until he dies-"
"Until he dies?!"
"Terry, he's old! Of course he's going to die! Everybody does sooner or later! But he's permaplat, he's got a family, he's going to have grandkids soon and he's going to die very happily, especially since he got to see you again before he went. He'll be fine."
"But- But Tessa-!"
"You've barely met Tessa! And she's got both a boyfriend and a girlfriend living with her now, so I'm sure she'll be fine - and that, if you were to try and live with them, you would be scarred for life in your innocence," she said with a fond smile.
He gave her a suspicious look again, "You don't have cameras in everybody's houses, do you?"
She studied the ceiling innocently, failing to suppress a smile, "Ask me no questions, Terry, and I'll tell you no lies. Anyway, are we done with the objections yet?"
"No!" Terry blurted out, remembering why they'd started talking in the first place. "Uh..."
The blonde looked at him expectantly, still with a vague smile on her face. "Well...?"
"I- I- I just don't think it's a very good idea. I don't want to do it anymore," he stuttered shortly.
"...You don't want the chance to go to university, meet a nice girl, start a family and live happily ever after?" she asked, raising an eyebrow sceptically.
"You- You can't guarantee that anyway!"
"No," she conceded slowly, "but the probability is extremely high. That is the whole point of this move. But if you're telling me that you'd rather grow old and die childless in Simfield..."
Terry hesitated and shifted uncomfortably. He tried to say something in response, but failed.
The blonde woman softened again at his sad look and sighed. "Let's be honest here, shall we? You're making up excuses because you're scared. Scared and apprehensive about what'll happen when you go there."
"I'm not scared..." he protested quietly.
"Yes you are."
"Why would I be scared of this when I've already been murdered once?" he asked.
"Do you want to know?" she asked interestedly.
"You can't know better than I do," he frowned.
"I can; I'm not in denial about it. You were the youngest of five children and, especially with Marina, somebody was always telling you what to do, overlooking any decisions you got to make, keeping you out of trouble as a kid, accidentally getting you into trouble on occasion. Any unsupervised decisions you made when you were stuck at Kimmy's was as a matter of survival, you didn't have the luxury of second-guessing yourself, and you were only obeying Marina and Nicola's suggestions to be there in the first place. But what about when you're in a new place, on your own? What about when your decisions aren't urgent? What about when all that's at stake is your own potential happiness? How are you supposed to decide without parents or siblings to guide you?" she paused, allowing him recourse, but he was gazing at the floor silently.
"And then there's the fact that this is actually so important to you. You're a family sim, this is your chance to get the family you've been fantasising about for years on end. But you'll only ever want to be married once, to, ideally, the love of your life. But you've never been in love, you don't know what it feels like and, although you've read lots about it, you don't know whether you're going to be able to tell it when you feel it. And all you'll have to go by is your own judgement. But what if you make the wrong decision and screw this one chance up? And even if you get past the minefield that is relationships, how do you know you'll be a good parent? What if you screw up your kids somehow?"
"So you're terrified and you're wondering whether it's even worth taking the risk, aren't you? Maybe it would be simpler just to live alone forever and never take the chance for fear of if it all goes wrong. It's okay to be scared and, believe me, I know exactly how you feel. But Terry, you can't deny yourself happiness just in case it causes somebody else to be unhappy eventually; at least if you're happy that's one person sorted, rather than possibly both of you being miserable. You might make a mistake, but people make them all the time and it's not the end of the world. And as for the kids: look at Kimmy - you know what she's like, but she was like that from the start, there was little your parents could have done; sometimes you just can't help it, and where you can help it you know you'll do your best. And at least if the average of bad to good kids is 1:5 - and it's probably more 1:15 in Simfield - you have fairly good odds. Your parents could have stopped Kimmy being so bad to you and Sean if they'd been paying more attention, but do you hold it against them?"
Terry shook his head slightly, still staring at the floor.
"Exactly. You've had a far from perfect life so far, but it doesn't mean you wish your parents had never had you or even got together; your father need never have come to Simfield, but he did. Now you owe it to your future children to find their mother and conceive them, post haste!" she declared with a laugh.
He smiled slightly, but bit his lip anxiously. "What if I'm the exception?"
The blonde woman groaned again and gestured wildly with her arms, "What if a nuclear bomb hits? What if the Earth explodes? What if there's a zombie apocalypse?! All of these things are unlikely, and none of them mean we should stop living our lives. Now are you prepared to take control and start trying to live your own life now, or not?"
He sighed and swallowed, "Yeah, I guess so."
"Good," she said brightly and swivelled her chair back around to finish off the university application. "And, just in case you do have a major freak-out about things, you'll have my number and I can explain to you exactly why you're just being silly."
"Gee, thanks," he said with something very almost approaching sarcasm, the closest he ever tended to come to it.
"You're welcome," she said and he could tell that she was grinning widely.
He just hoped the eccentric, over-dramatic student actually knew what she was talking about.
It didn't look entirely promising.