1.6 To the Playground

 

Flora follows the exercise routines shown on TV. 

 

If any sim's butt ever needs to be kicked, she intends to be ready.

A fun visit to the playground.

 

Flora supervises Lupin and Iris in the sandbox while Echo does her homework (boring) and their mother gets to know some other moms. Alex is working on her charisma, an important skill for a fortune teller to have. 

 

Lupin wants nothing to do with sand. He'd rather play with his plush toy.

Ariel Waterson, a friend from school, wishes Flora a happy birthday.

 

Ariel was afraid Flora wouldn't want to hang out with him anymore after her birthday, but his fears are quickly dispelled. She happily plays tag with him all around the lot.

Flora is not as eager as Ariel is to leave childish games behind.

Echo lounging while Flora screws around with a telescope.

MOON.

Alex is really hurting for money. She's harassed every single adult sim who showed up on this lot today, since private readings can pay out pretty nicely if they go well, but almost every reading is either rejected or given the worst possible rating.

 

Echo ages up to teen.

 

Stuff keeps breaking in this house. Alexandria has a high handiness skill level, but she is busy, so Flora decides to help out by skilling up too. It's boring work, so she pretends she's deep in a tomb in Shang Simla, disarming a flood trap that threatens to drown her.

 

She was never one to sit around with her nose in a book, but Echo used to read her to sleep sometimes. Flora on the top bunk, warm and snug under the covers. Echo on the lower bunk with a flashlight. Flora's favorite book was Jimmy Sprocket and the Cave of the Dragon. 

A tale of mystical curses, twisted destinies, danger, love, and ingenuity... it captivated Flora's dreams so much, Echo was inspired to find and read Flora some real accounts of the Dragon Cave, by famed adventurer Wane McMottder. 

 

Echo told Flora about the conspiracy theory that Wane was secretly a disowned Landgraab, but the dry technical manuals about detecting traps failed to excite as much as Jimmy Sprocket, so it was hard for Flora to care about the real-world intrigue behind them.

Darshan was not Echo's biological father, nor was he in her life for very long, but she takes after him in some ways. She is slow to anger, spends most of her time reading, and expects conversations to flow as stiltedly as they do in her favorite books.

Flora doesn't care to be read to anymore, but little Iris is more than happy to bask in her big sister's attention.

A school project assigns Flora to work with her half-brother, Jeff Pleasant, and they agree they should work on their assignment together after school at the Pleasant household, since there are no toddlers underfoot here.

Daniel lowers himself into the pool to avoid this uncomfortable situation.

"So what's it like having a father around?" Flora half-jokes.

"Eh. Daniel nopes out of anything difficult and leaves the parenting to Mom," Jeff answers honestly.

That Daniel Pleasant fathered local mystic Alexandria Fleet's red-haired daughter is not exactly a secret around town, but even now, within earshot of this conversation, Daniel refuses to acknowledge Flora's existence. 

Jeff isn't a close friend or anything, but he has never been rude to his half-sister.

 

Gah! This house! Everything's always breaking!

 

 

Ariel ages up to teen. He got a part-time job at the grocery store first thing and so spent most of the day unavailable, but rushes over to the Fleet household as soon as he can.

His question could not wait for morning, nor could it be handled over the phone.

 

"Will your mother be mad if a Pisces asks you to prom?" he frets. According to his research, Flora is an Aries, and Pisces is not compatible with Aries.

"Nope, nope, Mom doesn't actually believe in that stuff," Flora laughs.

Ariel smiles, relieved. "Good, me neither. Will you be my prom date, Flora?"

 

Flora rolled a wish to kiss Ariel as soon as he walked in the door, so that's how she answers his question.

"Ariel is one of the nicest boys ever," Flora gushes to her sister, "and he was scared I wouldn't wait for him for prom! Aww."

"Were you asked to prom by anyone else?"

"Well, no, I'm not as gorgeous as you Echo. Why do you turn every boy down?"

"I have no interest in their social orchestrations. None of them have a true connection with me, they only do not want to go dateless to prom. I do not even wish to go to prom."

"Well... I think it'll be fun..."

"Would you have waited for Ariel, had you been asked by another first?"

Flora frowns at the question. "I dunno. Depends on if I liked the guy. And I guess I can't think of anyone I like more than Ariel. We've been friends for a long time."

Flora and Ariel share a trait, adventurous, which led them to spend long hours 'exploring' the island as children. They were both growing up in single parent households, a source of shared angst that caused them to open up to each other about their hopes and dreams. 

 

Prom isn't for a while yet, so Flora and Ariel have their first proper date meet-up at The Asteroid, Sunlit Tides's fancy arcade.

 

"Sorry, I couldn't get out of babysitting, no matter how much I begged," Ariel apologizes immediately. 

 

On his arm is his baby half-sister, Morgan. Things have been hard for him since his elderly mother passed away. After her death, he was sent to live with his father, Maru Mango... which was a shock to both father and son, as Eleanor Waterson never told Maru about the result of their fling, and never told poor Ariel about his insane father. Maru currently lives with Achee Cherimoya, and has fathered two daughters with her - Morgan and Marsha.

Maru's major crush on the Empress of Evil never went anywhere, thankfully.

Flora reassures Ariel that she knows all about having to babysit. Ariel lets Morgan have free run of the place while he and Flora blow their allowances on arcade games and talk about their workout routines. They're both shaping up to be fitness nuts. 

Ariel can't wait to get out of his stepmother's house. Achee is not cruel to him, at all, but she's practically a stranger and her attempts to get to know him have been unbearably awkward, because Achee is just an awkward person.

Flora rolls a wish to travel the world with Ariel. I lock it in for her, even though they'll both need to age up before that wish can be fulfilled.

 

Flora wins a toy rocket ship for Lupin and Iris to play with.

 

 

And scores a new decoration for her mostly-empty poverty bedroom.

The most important thing about a public date is to passionately make out until all the other teens on the lot are staring.

 

Flora gets hungry before the date is over.

 

Yup, that candy bar was definitely an acceptable meal.

 "I think I may be falling in love, don't tell anyone though," Flora shares a 'secret' with her brother.

"I love you too!" Lupin is too little to follow the conversation, but he does his best.

More pics of Flora and Iris. 

 

Iris always looks like she's plotting something.

Iris acquires the artistic trait upon her age-up to child.

 

She still has to share a room with her baby brother, but that's okay. The chaos he causes inspires her.

"You are so cute," Echo sighs at the only toddler remaining in the house. "I don't understand how your father could walk out on you like he did."

Overhearing this from the kitchen, Alex feels hot tears well up in her eyes. She glances up at Darshan's picture on the wall. His disappearance has been too painful for her to talk about, too difficult to explain to the children, but it's obvious to her now that the silence has been an insult to his memory. The girls have invented their own theories to fill in the holes that silence left them with.

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Etc.: Flora and Ariel have been friends since early childhood, but I didn't manage to take any good pictures of their childhood playing.