1.4 As Our Own

 

 

Alexandria has started dating Darshan the vampire.

 

Darshan can't be bothered to do anything while the sun is up, except lay around and read romance novels. At least he can keep Alex company without eating her food.

 

 

 

WooHoo in the Wastelands, by Rich Copfer.

 

Darshan becomes more lively and helpful at night, assisting with the girls' feeding and diaper changes.

"You wanna go out?" Alexandria asks, as she wolfs down her spaghetti with veggie sauce.

"You are saving money," he reminds her. "Hiring babysitters costs money."

"Daniel wanted to constantly go out or he was bored."

"Vampires are accustomed to being indoors for long periods of time."

"You know, psychic powers would have really helped me out in my last relationship. I would have known he was married, and I'd have punched him in the face right then and there."

"Yes," Darshan agrees.

"Sorry, I shouldn't grouse about past relationships while trying to win over a new relationship."

"Our histories teach us things and make us who we are. I wouldn't ask you to pretend you don't have one."

Alex rolls her eyes. "I just don't want that scum to be part of my history. Yeah he gave me a daughter, but that was mostly me. He didn't do it on purpose. I made that choice on purpose."

 

Darshan considers the almost possessive tone of that statement. "Are you worried that Daniel will change his mind about wanting to be in Flora's life, and try to redefine this narrative?"

 

"Narrative?"

 

"It's just an expression."

 

"I'm just making it clear that I love Flora."

 

"I see. Worry not, that was never in question."

 

 

"Do you miss food?" she asks, when he sits next to her. "I read how vampires eat normal food until they mature."

 

"I miss pancakes," Darshan confirms. 

"Sadness..."

"I can consume some liquids without throwing up immediately. But I always pay for it later."

Alexandria recalls him drinking a normal drink at Flamingo. "Meaning you throw up later?"

"If I answer that, it may kill the mood."

"So what's it like feeding from Lucretia? Does it hurt her?"

"Not at all. There is a sort of... numbing effect."

"I've read that can be pleasurable."

"It can be made pleasurable. Some vampires find the experience... exciting... but I find it impossible to be aroused by it when the arrangement is all business."

"I don't want you feeding off of our boss as long as we're seeing each other. I'm here for you."

"You don't want my lips on another woman's neck? How strange," he teases.

"Maybe that's it," Alexandria agrees.

Darshan then drinks from her, but refuses to do the animation, so. Probably a mod conflict somewhere. 

Alexandria spends the last of her paycheck on a large bed, so they don't have to woohoo in the shower.

Darshan autonomously tends to the children after he has thoroughly worn out their mother.

Echo calls him 'Da', and that's just because she can't say his whole name, but he finds it so endearing it makes him think about having children of his own someday. 

Silently resolved to test his merits as a caretaker, he offers to look after Flora and Echo while their mother is out running errands. He can't leave while the sun is up anyway. He'd burn up and die.

 

Alexandria takes the opportunity to drop by the gym before going to the store. She isn't in the military anymore, but she still wants to keep in shape.

 

Ethel Carnegie is very, VERY unhappy about being told to wait her turn!

 

 

 "Do you want more children?" He drops the question on her casually, after she's home and showered, after the meat and dairy products are put away in the fridge.

 

"What, are you offering?"

 

"I think we're a good match."

 

"Well... I do love my kids," she says. She's made it clear to Darshan that she feels Echo and Flora have added much happiness and purpose to her life. "But I'll need a promotion or two before I can support more of them. And no offense but you're a vampire, and if things go sideways I don't think my mystic skills are quite up to hiding a vampire baby."

 

"Lucretia would help to protect them."

 

"Uhm. I'll think about it."

 

"I'll do whatever it takes to prove myself worthy to you."

Alexandria blushes deeply. "Maybe vampires move a bit more quickly than humans..."

"It's not uncommon," he says. "We have our psychic powers to help us understand when we are loved and respected. But... it is just as common for a vampire to take their time, to move too slowly, to let opportunities slip through their fingers. We live so long. We lose track of time."

"You think I'll live a long time, too." She calls herself human, she is culturally human, but she isn't completely human, and that's one of the reasons Darshan fancies her. She will not age and die before he does.

"But Echo and Flora will not," he points out. "I would want our children to know their sisters."

"That's... sweet, I think," she says, though what she's really thinking is none of this is normal, Darshan is not normal, but then again would she appreciate or understand normal if she had it? 

 

Alexandria tells Echo a story about the evils of pollution.

 

That night she and Darshan finally hire a sitter, so they can watch a movie at the theater. 

 

The Mold that Moved, if you must know.

Then they go to the beach to stargaze. Romantically.

 

 

An outing at The Flamingo, for good measure.

 

"What do you think you're doing, sleeping with her? You're here to work, not to seduce our initiates, you stupid vampire!"

 

Lucretia shows up one night and starts yelling at Darshan. I do not control either sim, and Alexandria is sleeping, so this is... interesting.

"My woohoo life is none of your concern," Darshan hisses.

"If you get her pregnant and make more work for me, I swear..."

"If I had a child it would be an asset to you."

"Maybe it would be as an adult, but children are not so easy to control." Lucretia glares at him. "And who ever heard of a vampire and a dryad, anyway? You know advanced dryads photosynthesize for energy, right? Do you know what that word means? SUNLIGHT. You hate sunlight! You're a vampire!"

 

"I fail to see how any of that is relevant. I love Alexandria."

 

"Love?" Lucretia spits the word back out at him in a disbelieving yet disgusted tone, as if he'd just told her he took a crap in her shoes.

 

Lucretia proceeds to passive aggressively do the laundry. Cool.

Just a pic of Echo being cute.

Despite Lucretia forbidding it, Alexandria is pregnant again, this time on purpose.

I thought Lucretia left the lot, but when Alex sat down to teach Echo to talk, I noticed her lurking around just outside!

 

Alexandria is so absorbed in what she's doing, she doesn't even notice how CREEPY her boss is being right now.

 

 

Flora and Echo age up in time to be excited about having a sibling.

"Are you and Dad gonna get married?" Flora asks.

"Probably," Alex says, though the thought had not occurred to her until just now.

"He's not our father. He's not going to love us as much as our baby brother or sister," Echo frets.

"We aren't your biological parents, Echo, but we do love you as our own," Alexandria reassures her.

A game of tag in the yard.

Flora just picked up the athletic trait, so she's always raring to go.

 

Echo picked up 'bookworm'. She'd rather stay home and avoid all the bumps and bruises.

 

 

 

Movies are okay too. Echo would like to spend the afternoon watching one.

In the end Flora gets her way and they go to the pool. 

 

One of the pools. 

 

This town has a ton of pools.

 

 

 

Flora loves to swim! ... I guess I can't actually claim that, since there's a trait literally called "loves to swim" that she lacks. Flora likes to swim, though. Her fun meter is going up.

Some other locals at the pool. The lady in white is Marika Mehta, who removed the dye from her hair after that weirdo asked a weird question about it...

 

Alexandria gives birth to another daughter, whom she names Iris.

"She is a normal, human child," Darshan says, his eyes sad.

Some would take offense at such a statement, but Alexandria knows how much he would have preferred offspring he didn't have to watch grow old and die.

"You'll still be there for her, right?" she asks, softly.

"Nothing could keep me away," her lover answers.

 

 

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Etc.: We can all write a better love story than Twilight, but who among us can write a worse one? I humbly submit my work.

 

Darshan's last name is Turner (get it??? ... I'll see myself out) but it hasn't come up. He's a slightly altered version of a sim I got from here. I already used that sim as a base to make other characters in my Goldbeards legacy, but whatever, who cares. 

As per my single parent roll, Darshan doesn't actually live with the family. He's just invited to stay every night, and tends to accept.

The treatment of vampires in this blog echoes what was established in earlier blogs of mine. It can feel clumsy and burdensome to work within continuity sometimes, but it can also be fun?

If you're wondering why Darshan cares that Iris is human (can't he just turn her when she's grown up?) it's because at some point I established that "turned" vampires handle the change poorly, becoming mentally disturbed in ways vampires born as vampires do not. It's unethical as well as illegal to "turn" people. Aaand that's why most sims in my stories don't simply choose to become vampires and live 10x as long as other sims or whatever.