Saturday, August 25, 2012

Chapter 3: A Bit of a Mess


Over the following weeks the police call him in over and again, asking him the same questions, as though they expect to get some new facts from him, or his story to change. 

"You said she moved in with you when the bank foreclosed on her house," Officer Bradley says, his tone harsh and accusing, "But there was never any foreclosure. She was renting that house."

"That's what she told me," Heath says, "I didn't  actually check up on it."

"So, she lied to you?"

"No! I mean, yeah, I guess," he answers, confused. Did she really want to live with him so badly that she'd pretend the bank was evicting her?

"And how did you feel when she told you she was pregnant?"

Heath sighs, knowing what the cop is getting at. "I would never hurt her," he says, breaking down, "I would never do that."



Ashlynn is missing, and the police want to blame him for it, but Heath can't let the constant worry drag him down. He needs to work, to make money to build a room for Shasta, and a nursery for when Ashlynn gets back. He won't even think 'if', insisting to himself that somehow, she and their baby will come home safe.


Shasta calls for her mother constantly, and Heath promises her she'll be home soon, doing his best to stay positive around the toddler.


He gets a call from the police right after one of his gigs. They've found Ashlynn, and he needs to come to the hospital right away.  She's home, he tells himself as he rushes to the hospital, it's finally over, and everything will be all right. But even while he's telling himself that, he knows from the tone of the phone call that something terrible has happened, and nothing is going to be all right.

Police and doctors swarm around him as soon as he enters the lobby, telling him things he can't believe, can't bear to hear. Murder-suicide, they tell him, her ex-husband took her, kept her hostage for weeks and then finally set his house on fire. He shot himself, and was found dead on the scene. Ashlynn was unconscious, nearly dead from smoke inhalation, and unrevivable. They performed a C section on her to save the baby, but they were unable to save her.



They give him his son, ask him what name to put on the birth certificate. "Elliot," he whispers, fulfilling at least that wish for Ashlynn. That name was on the top of the list of names she was considering.

By the time they are ready to release him and his newborn son back out to the world, it's near dawn and Heath is exhausted, to worn out to feel anything.  "Ashlynn is gone," he says to himself, but they're just words. He puts Elliot into his crib and drops down into his own bed.



It's not until the morning that it really hits him, he's never going see her again, talk to her or touch her. She's gone, forever. He hadn't even been sure he loved her really, or if she had loved him, but her death left a gaping hole in his life, one he's not sure he can ever fill.


Oddly enough, the morning after her mother's death, Shasta doesn't call for her, doesn't cry when Heath approaches her crib. "Heaf," she says with her toddler lisp, lifting her arms to him, asking to be let out.


"How am I going to do this without you?" he asks, breaking down into sobs.


The show must go on, despite his mourning.


His sad story enthralls the audience. It gives his sappy romantic lyrics a depth they never had before.


Even his sing-o-grams are tinged with sorrow. This assignment was to sing a congratulatory song for the birth of this young man's first child. Heath breaks down as h thinks about his own son, and how he'll never know his mother.


Shasta grows quickly, and Heath can no longer put off expanding the house. The three of them can't go on sleeping together in the same room. And Shasta won't fit into her crib any more, she needs a proper bed.


He didn't have as much money saved as he'd like, but Heath got enough together to build separate bedroom for himself and Shasta, as well as adding a deck to the back of the house. Elliot still sleeps out the living room, but Heath hopes to have a proper bedroom for him built by the time he's starting school.


Heath works constantly, playing for tips in the park when he doesn't have gigs or sing-o-grams to deliver. He needs the money, but more, performing both keeps him distracted from his sorrow and keeps Ashlynn constantly alive in his thoughts. In death, she's become his muse, and his deep felt emotions as he sings draws the female audience like never before.


"You're really talented," one his new fans approaches him when he takes a break, "And you're really cute, too. My name is Pearl, what's yours?"

She's spectacularly beautiful, and normally Heath would be all over this opportunity.


But he's just not ready for that yet, and tells her about his Ashlynn and how he lost her.

"Oh, you poor thing," she sighs, even more attracted to him than she was before, "I wish I could do something to make you feel better," she purrs suggestively,


That night, Heath has his first gig in the city, at Lavender Gardens. He had thought this would be a big step up for him, but there's was no audience and the proprietor, dressed like he was from Barnacle Bay, played tag with some local kid on the stage during his performance. Heath decides he'd be better off just sticking to his gigs at the coffeehouse.


Disappointed in his show, Heath doesn't head home right away, instead hitting one of the city's many nightclubs for a drink. Of course, she's there, and makes a beeline for him as soon as he walks in.

"I'm only going to be in town for one more night," she tells him, "And I really think you could use a little female attention, if you get me. Let me take care of you, I promise, you won't regret it."


What he wouldn't give to be finally healed of this wound, to be able to just move on and be as carefree as he was before...He'll never get there if he doesn't try, he decides, and accepts Pearl's invitation up to her hotel room, believing her promise that she'll make him feel better.


It's not like he's cheating on Ashlynn, he tells himself when he joins Pearl in the hot tub. And it's not like she'd expect him to stay celibate forever. Despite his attempts at reassuring himself that this was a perfectly acceptable course of action, when he slips out of the hotel at some ridiculously late hour, he feels dirty in way he's never felt before, and far worse about himself and his situation than when he came in.


It's nearly dawn when he finally gets home, the babysitter is passed out on the couch and Elliot is awake, crying to be fed and have his diaper changed. Shasta is in bed, and Heath can only hope she got her homework done and had a meal before bedtime.


"Your dad's a bit of a mess," he admits to his son once he's got him fed and in a clean diaper. "No more  late nights, I promise. I'm going to be here for you and your sister."

_________________________________

Pearl Yang was brought over from the new Sunlit Tides neighborhood. She is one really well made Sim.
When Heath had the mourning moodlet, he couldn't get gigs anywhere but in parks, even though he's level 5 and eligible for coffeehouses and live show venues. Even the Little Lennon Coffeehouse told him he wasn't experienced enough for them, even though he'd played there 3 times already. And, as soon as the moodlet expired, he got a gig at a live show venue.
And seriously, people playing tag on stage during a performance...wtf EA!

30 comments:

  1. Awww you killed Ashlynn :( Sadness. Now he has to take care of two kids and work. Hope he can pull his life together.

    I played with Pearl a little yesterday as I was exploring Sunlit Tides.

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    1. I really hated killing Ashlynn. I actually kept a separate save where she's still alive. I don't know that I'll ever go back to play it, but I like knowing it's there. I did that in previous legacy where I had to kill off a spouse for a single parent type roll. And I ended up using that save later for a long dream sequence.
      But yeah, doing the singer career with a single parent is really hard. And my roll requires Heath make perfect career, so he can't just blow it off. So I'll have to juggle it.

      I love Pearl's eyes and her chin. And her last name is Yang, which is common enough I guess (in China, anyway) but it's my cat's name, and my blogger ID, so I'm partial to it, lol.

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  2. Weird, I had no idea mood might affect one's auditions. Makes sense, it's just... you know... odd when EA makes sense.

    And dude. Ouch. Poor Heath. Maybe he didn't know Ashlynn very well, but he spent all that time thinking they were going to be a family unit, only to have it ripped out from under him.

    I'm glad he's intent on being a good parent, and has more or less adopted little Shasta.

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    1. I thought I had a glitch at first, that the game was not acknowledging his job level anymore. But, as soon as the mourning moodlet was gone, his auditions were successful again.
      I really feel bad for Heath. It was extra sad because despite his Commitment Issues, he was always rolling wishes to hang out with Ash, and when he was with her, his wishes were all about kissing, hugging and woohooing with her. He didn't get the typical 'meet someone new' wishes, either. He actually acted more like a Hopeless Romantic than a Commitment Issues Sim.

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  3. I just read this one chapter and really liked it. I feel bad for him...I hope Pearl doesn't cause him trouble since he has enough already with losing Ash and having two little ones to take care of and sheesh with the job he has...legacies....makes me wanna kinda try one again :)

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    1. Thanks, Whit, I'm glad you enjoyed it.
      Heath certainly doesn't need any extra problems from Pearl, he's got pretty full plate.
      It is fun to play legacy style, it's been awhile sinceI've had to worry about money nd stuff in a Sims game.

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  4. Heath has a long tough road ahead. I hope he feels better soon. So sad to see the guy mourn.
    And poor Elliott will never know his Mama.

    I looked at the challenge and it looks difficult. Credit to you for doing it and creating something wonderful to share with us along the way ^_^

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    1. Thanks, Fae, I hated watching Heath mourn, too, and I feel really bad. And poor Elliot, and Shasta, too. Though she did know her mother, now she has no one but her mom's sort of boyfriend and a half-brother for family.
      Like other legacies, the Random Legacy is mostly difficult in the first generation, it gets a lot easier when your Sims are financially secure and you have the option of living with the grandparents who can handle a lot of the childcare. It is fun to try to make a story from the marital strucrure, careers and goals you rolled, which is what I like about it over a standard legacy.

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  5. I feel bad for Heath. He didn't get to know Ashlynn for very long, but I sort of had this feeling deep down. At least the baby survived... But will the kids only just remind him of his loss?

    Pearl is really pretty, but I have a bad feeling for her. I think she is just a groupie. I hope she doesn't end up pregnant. At least not until Heath has time to decide if she is ok or not.

    Shasta is growing up pretty, I can't wait to see what happens to her as she becomes a teen and then adult. :D

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    1. Thanks, Kate,
      Poor Heath is going to be reminded constantly of his loss. I feel so sorry for him that he wasn't even able to sort out his true feelings foe Ashlynn and see their relationship develop, so he'll always have to wonder.

      Pearl, yeah. I'll just have to let you wait and see on that, lol.

      I feel so bad for Shasta, taking away her mother like that. =(

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  6. Aw, poor Heath! One minute, he's a swinging single guy, the next, his girlfriend's dead, and he has their newborn along with her daughter to raise. At least he is committed to being a parent to both of them. It will be interesting to see how Heath manages to balance everything.

    The tag onstage was hilarious.

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    1. Yeah, balancing things has been pretty tough with the Singer career. And Heath's goal is perfect career, so I can only let him slack on that so much. Also, he needs the money just to make room and buy furniture for these kids.

      I seem to have issues with outdoor stages that aren't on a foundation. I may have to edit that lot to raise the stage, The stages in the clubs seem okay, I don't have Sims walking up on them. Or playing tag, lol.

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  7. Well... my theory went out the window quickly. Poor Ashlynn. :,(

    At least they were able to save Heath's son and as horrible as the situation is, a part of Ash will be with Elliot (/corny I know).

    I'm glad that Elliot and Shasta have such a great father/guardian.

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    1. Yeah, I feel bad about Ashlynn. I really liked her.
      And I'm with you, even though it's corny, I'm glad she passes her genes onto Elliot anyway.

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  8. Poor Ashlynn and poor Heath *cries for them both*

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    1. Thanks, Ali. This chapter made me sad as well.

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  9. Wow that Pearl really IS a well put together Sim for being EA made! I don't have Sunlit Tides yet because I just pre-ordered Supernatural last minute and couldn't justify another hunk of simoleons going to EA again so soon haha! I really want to get it though, do you recommend it, fun to play?

    I absolutely adore Heath already. Sometimes the perfectly made sims we prefer to create end up being super boring and the ones with weird quirks and flaws end up being our favorites. His random traits will make him very different.

    I chose a tough combo for my founder Sim because of that. At first the weird traits annoy me, and then eventually I end up loving them to death because of the weird traits. <3

    Hopefully Heath gets over his sadness at losing Ashlynn, and man, a single Dad with two kids, one of which isn't even his! That's some dedication there!

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  10. You know the sad thing is I haven't played with Sunlight Tides that much. Since I use Traveler mod, I was thinking of using it as a vacation destination. Or maybe if at some point I roll a generation that would really fit into island life I could move. It is really pretty, but I haven't been in the mood to make LN bar lots for it, or any of the other EP lots that it doesn't have that I might miss.

    I adore Heath as well. And I have found that random traits can be more fun than choosing traits.
    And yeah single dad with 2 kids, lol.

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  11. I love not knowing the roll as I'm reading, so that everything is a surprise as it unfolds. Now I'm going to think every woman he sleeps with is going to leave him another child. Haha

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    1. Thanks, Redhead. I prefer not knowing the rolls as well.

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  12. Poor Heath, n I'm going to have to inspect my ST neighborhood for Pearl.... :-)

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    1. I changed her clothes and hair, but she's really a naturally good looking Sim.
      Thanks, mypal!

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  13. I just downloaded ST to use in my own random legacy, mostly as a vacation world with Traveler. And because I wanted the spa thingies. I'll have to keep an eye out for Pearl. ;)

    Poor Heath, it's not going to be easy raising those two kids on his own while trying to succeed in his singer career. XD

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    1. Pearl is pretty awesome.
      It was hard for Heath raising the kids on his own and doing the singer thing.

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  14. lol. That's just terrible - playing tag on the stage... :) only in the sims.

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    1. I've completely given up on Showtime careers, lol.

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  15. Well that took a depressing turn. =\ I feel so sorry for Heath and the kids.

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    1. It just about killed me to kill Ashlynn off. I don't usually do that, and I hung on that pause button forever while I steeled myself to go through with this story.
      If Heath hadn't rolled single parent, things would have been very different.

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  16. Replies
    1. That was sad for me as well. I hated doing it. But, the story must prevail.

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