Chapter 13: Puzzling

Elliot and Shelly eagerly await the arrival of their firstborn.

Elliot's fame as an acrobat has landed him steady gigs at the live how venues normally reserved for musical performers like his father.

Back at home, Shelly frets over the ghastly greenish cast the light of the full moon gives her skin. Sure, it does the same to everyone, but she can't help but feel like she should somehow be immune from its effect.

Perhaps it was her distress at her appearance, or perhaps it was just the right time, but Shelly goes into labor that night. Elliot rushes to the hospital still in his costume. As they wheel Shelly into the delivery room, the adoring nurses wrangle Elliot into an agreement to give a free performance in the children's wing. "For the sick kids," the head nurse insisted as her eyes made a slow and lusty journey from his collarbone to his navel.

That morning Elliot and Shelly bring home a son, Kyle.

Shelly went a little over budget on decorating the nursery, but Elliot doesn't mind the indulgence.

In Shelly's mind, her son is a strong, handsome teenager, captain of the basketball tam and prom king, just like his father. Maybe he'll even go into the career in professional sports that Elliot rejected. Shelly will be so proud of him...

Young Kyle, as unaware of his mother's projections of his future as she is of her hair tickling his nose, sneezes.

Someday, her son will be everything she hopes for. Right now, though, he doesn't do much, so Shelly plops him into his swing and gets to work making her nectary everything she dreams it will be.

Though he still has his steady gigs, Elliot finds himself spending more time at home with his son than out working. Heath had sometimes confided in him that he'd wished he could have spent more time at home himself, and hated relying on babysitters to take care of his kids while he was outing performing for tips or auditioning for more gigs to fill every night of the week. Heath had needed the money, though, to keep a roof over their heads and keep them fed. Elliot is not as pressed for money as his own father was, and enjoys the luxury of staying home during the day when he wants to.

Elliot is also finding himself to be the prime caregiving for the 3am feeding and diaper changes. Even though Shelly is a light sleeper, getting her out of bed at the hour is more difficult than just getting up and taking care of Kyle himself.

Farrell was in the junkyard picking up scrap for his workbench when he felt an odd sort of urge to visit Whinny Park out neat the equestrian center. Usually nothing can distract Farrell from his task, but this urge would give him no rest until he appeased it, so he packed his scrap into the car and drove out to the park, where he found Moth waiting for him, a huge grin on his fae face.

"Iwas hoping Aouregan wouldbe withyou," Moth says, his smiling dimming a little when he sees Farrell is alone. "It has beensolong since I've seenher."

"Moth, who is this Aouregan you keep mentioning?" Farrell asks.

Moth gives him a puzzled look. "You still haven't found her?" he asks, "She's waiting for you."

"In the past?"

"No, inthe now," Moth answers.

"Can you tell me where she is?" Farrell asks.

"I can!" Moth says brightly, then frowns, "Except--I donot know. Sorry."

Farrell lets out a small sigh. "How do you know she is waiting for me if you don't know where she is?"

"Becauseof the spell," Moth says, "I will comeback whenyou find her!" he gives one last friendly shout before shrinking down to his small butterfly form and fluttering off into the sky.

"Wait!" Farrell calls after him, having so many unanswered questions, but Moth is long gone.

He's worked non-stop on his time machine for weeks. Even when he's not physically at his bench working on it, his mind is going over the plans in his head, making adjustments, recalculating the equations. Sometimes he makes his biggest breakthroughs when he's at work on another project, so Farrell takes a break from his bench to fiddle with Shelly's nectar press.

"What are you doing to my press?" Shelly asks in shriek, coming through the barn to get her gardening tools.

"I'm making adjustments," Farrell says, not looking up at her, "To make it more efficient. You'll be able to get more bottles with each pressing."

"Oh," Shelly says, biting her lip, "Thank you," she says, and sways a little, supporting her weight on her left and right foot in turn, "I guess...I'm sorry for all the times I called you retard in high school."

"I wouldn't take your assessment of my, or anyone's, intelligence seriously, Rochelle," Farrell answers, still without so much as a glance in her direction.

Shelly folds her arms over her chest, sure there was a dig at her in there, but not quite able to get it. "Why are you helping me, then, anyway? I mean, by upgrading my press?"

"I don't understand it, but my brother loves you," Farrell says frankly, "He wants you to be happy and successful at your business, and I can help with that, so I do."

Shelly finally leaves him alone and Farrell continues making his adjustments. As he's working on tis simple task, his subconscious continues puzzling over the time machine. "That's it!" he exclaims when the idea bubbles forth into his consciousness, and runs back over to his workbench. At last, he will have his time machine.

_____________________________________

I really like the idea of moon phases. But the visual effect of the full moon ruins pictures. I thought it would be okay, that I could just not take pics on full moon night, but then when important events, like Shelly going into labor, happen on a full moon, I can't just avoid it.

So, unless a mod comes out that kills the ghastly green glow, I'm a reluctantly going to have to disable the lunar cycle. Boo!

Since my previous scene with Moth was in France, Moth is a citizen of France, and as such is eligible to show up in my town as a French tourist. I don't know why his wings didn't show. He also was missing the fairy interactions when Farrell was talking to him. However, he did float while playing tag with another tourist, and gave her some fairy dust, so he's clearly still a fairy. *shrugs*

For the Luxury and Expansionist goals, I'm going with the spirit of the rules rather than the letter. I bought the house nearly empty and intend to furnish every room lavishly. The nursery is the first, though there's only so much you can do with that. I hate canopies of any kind, so I bought a CC crib that is cheaper than the expensive EA crib, but still pricier than any other crib. And I decked it out as much as possible, even buying curtains. I rarely bother with curtains, lol.