@ThePlumbob She sure does move fast, and that is entirely my fault. I was so focused on that darned garden and making money to furnish the park that her love life was completely neglected in the beginning. She did have quite a few townie friends since all of her meals were eaten in the premade park areas until she got a grill of her own, and I would stay and let her chat awhile. Then one day I looked at her simology and saw she was really close to aging up to adulthood and she had no romantic interests. Johnny was literally the only single male townie she knew, and they really were friends at that point, so I invited him over and gave her a little nudge in the romance department. It didn't take much to get them fawning all over eachother. The last few chapters are pretty much a result of my 'Oh gawd your doing to die a childless spinster' freak out. Poor dear.
@PeachyKeen88 Aw, thank you, that's such a nice compliment. I do definitely see myself more as a romance writer than anything else.
*Author’s Note: This chapter will be told from Johnny’s point of view, because he felt like we needed to look into his head space, I guess.
When I was a kid I used to dream that I had been switched at birth, and somewhere out there was another little blond kid who wanted nothing more than to sit around a luxurious house counting his millions and learning how to take over the world.
Meanwhile my real parents were wondering how they’d gotten this materialistic plum-hole of a kid when all they wanted to do was laugh and have fun all day. Because I can tell you that my mother often bemoaned the fact that she ended up with me.
I had another doosy of a dream when I returned home from Anise’s this afternoon. I had laid down to reflect on what a complete mess I had made, and if there was any way at all she’d believe me if I told her that I had been abducted by aliens the night before and they’d sent me back with everything but my brain. I must have fallen asleep in the middle of all of that.
In the dream I was an elder. But instead of living the life of a rich and famous comedian, cracking people up at the Blue Velvet or the Solar Flare, I was headed to my job as a bartender.
There I was, old, gray, and all alone. Still living the life of a poor trailer dweller, and slinging drinks for twenty-somethings who barely paid me any attention unless they were calling out for another Flaming Zesty Salt. It was my signature drink, you know.
Then I had a dream that Anise fed me to a cowplant. That was one was a little too close for comfort since I knew she was trying to graft a plant that would produce Cowplant berries.
It was the first dream that really had me freaked out, though. If I’m being completely honest, becoming an old, lonely failure is my biggest fear. And here I’d had this amazing woman who wanted to marry me and start a family, and I’d turned her down flat, with no explanation whatsoever.
Hey, I never claimed to be a genius. She really had taken me by surprise.
I jumped out of bed and headed immediately to Newcrest to see her. I was really afraid of what I might find when I got there. I was hoping she would just be sharpening her trowel to a fine point, and not crying, because I really don’t think I could have handled knowing I had made her cry.
Fortunately she was just gardening. I stopped on the sidewalk to watch her for a moment. It hurt my heart to look at her knowing that this might well be the last time I saw her. I really wished my charisma skill was higher, because I only had one chance to get this right, and if I blew it I would never forgive myself.
“Ani, we need to talk,” I told her when she turned around and saw me standing there.
“No, we really don’t, Johnny,” she told me. “It was stupid of me to ask. The signs were all there, and I ignored them. I’m not really surprised you said no, you always get weird whenever I bring up marriage.”
“I do?” I asked, a little surprised that she was letting me off the hook instead of impaling me on one.
I guess I probably did get weird when she brought up marriage. It was an uncomfortable topic for me, because it reminded me that I wasn’t being completely honest with her, and I couldn’t even consider a future with her until I came clean.
“I guess, I do, but that’s what I wanted to talk to you about. It’s not that I don’t want to marry you, Ani, but I can’t.”
To me that was an important distinction, but she looked like she thought I was talking straight out my plum. “Yeah, you said that earlier,” she grumbled turning back to her garden. “Let me guess; inoperable brain tumor, you’ll be dead in a day.”
Well something was wrong with my brain, obviously. “No, I lied to you,” I said bluntly. “About who I am. You don’t really know me, and I can’t let you marry someone you don’t know.”
“That’s ridiculous,” she said, whirling around to glare at me. “Of course I know who you are. You’re Johnny Zest, you aspire to be a joke star, and you work as an amatuer entertainer. Your ambitious, outgoing and a goofball. You live in a trailer in Oasis Springs, although apparently you’ve alway wanted to live in a park, you can listen to me ramble on for hours, you kiss like a dream, and you make me feel like the most special woman in the world.”
“You are the most special woman in the world, and all that is true-- well, I don’t know about the kissing part, no one has ever said that before-- but you don’t know who I used to be, and there is where the problem lies.”
“Oh for cripes sakes, stop talking in riddles,” she demanded, looking annoyed.
“I wasn’t born Johnny Zest, it was my stage name for a while, but I had it changed legally when my parents disowned me.”
“Your parents disowned you?” she asked, clearly surprised. “Why didn’t you tell me that? We could have started a club, for crying out loud.”
“I didn’t tell you because of who my parents are. And before you say that they can’t be any worse than yours, they’re at least as bad. Well, my mom is, my dad is actually a pretty okay guy, but my mom is the one with all the power, so what she says goes.”
“Okay, so we both have crap parents. I really don’t understand why you couldn’t tell me all of this before, or why it should stop us from having a life together.”
I took a deep breath and prepared to drop my bomb. “My parents are the Landgraabs. My mother disowned me because she wanted me to marry some girl I had never met and help expand her criminal empire, but I was pretty committed to my comedy career so I told her no.”
Her mouth dropped open at that point. Yeah. I’d said I had a good reason to say no.
“Oh plum,” she said quietly. “You’re John Landgraab. You’re the boy my parents wanted me to marry.”
“The same one,” I agreed. “I just thought you should know before you did something regrettable.”
“What, like marry you?” she asked incredulously. “Please, Johnny, I don’t care who you used to be, I care who you are now. And for the record, I think who you are now is pretty plum great, and I think we would have an amazing life together. Because we chose one another, and it would be our life. Not the one our parents chose for us.”
I really couldn’t believe she was saying all of this. I really expected her to tell me to take my lying (well, truth witholding, it’s really a different thing) butt and get lost for good. But this? I was truly stunned. Am I a lucky son of a plum, or what?
“I can’t believe… Ani…” I said, my brain tripping over itself to think of the right thing to say. “Does this mean you still want to get mar--”
“No,” she said, cutting me off. “Lets not talk about that right now. I was being very impulsive earlier, it’s not the right time for that. But the offer I made before that still stands, if you still want to take me up on it?”
“What offer?” I asked, confused for a moment. Then realization struck. “You still want me to come live with you.”
“Yes, I do.”
“Yes. Holy plum, yes. Let me go pack up my stuff!” I said excitedly. I was so happy and relieved I hadn’t killed this thing for good that if she’d asked me to drive her to the moon right now, I would have found a way to do it.
“I think that can wait until tomorrow,” she told me. “I’m tired, let’s go to bed.”
I would have never guessed that, how ironic! I think these two getting together on their own terms is a nice slap in the face of their demanding parents I'm glad they've moved in together, but have decided not to rush. I really enjoyed seeing things from Johny's perspective!
Oh, and if I recall correctly, he has really good genetics
I really liked the irony in it too. Johnny's rejection of Anise's proposal was the catalyst that got me really wanting to make a story out of this challenge. I started thinking about why he would have rejected her because from a game standpoint, he should have said yes. They were best friends, and their romance bar was up over half. I've gotten Don Lothorio to marry a sim on less than that. This is when the story started to fall into place for me.
I'm so far ahead in my gameplay that I've been kinda holding off on playing them until I'm a little more caught up with the story, but I don't think it's too spoilery (what with it being a legacy challenge) to say that there is a child, and that child is a cute little bugger.
It was lovely having Johnny live with me at the park. There was a lot of comfort in having him there at the end of the day, and waking up with him each morning. Sometimes he would surprise me by preparing breakfast, and we would have long conversations while we ate.
It was so sweet that I never told him there were egg shells in the breakfast scramble.
We were both making headway with our respective passions as well. Johnny, always an ambitious man, seemed to find a renewed sense of creativity in Newcrest, and had finally been promoted to Open Mic Seeker. I was so proud of him.
Meanwhile I knew I had to be close to producing a cowplant. I had finally learned the art of grafting and splicing, and had had good success creating a plant that produced dragon fruit. I had high hopes that the splice I had grafted onto my dragon fruit bush would produce cowplant berries.
I was content to leave things be for the time being, but now that there were no secrets between us, Johnny seemed to be eager to take our relationship to the next level.
“I think we should have some sort of gathering,” he would tell me. “To help bring more support to your Newcrest project. A wedding would be just the thing!”
I guess when I told him it wasn’t the right time to talk about it he took it to mean, ‘Fine, I won’t flat out ask you to marry me, but we are absolutely going to talk about it.”
For now I was changing the subject when he brought it up.
“A wedding? No, that’s too limiting, but maybe a big weenie roast in the park. It would be fun for the whole family!”
To be honest, it was something I thought about quite a lot. I even knew exactly where the ceremony would take place, and had started planning a little wedding area in the park, but I wanted to make sure we did this right. It was on my mind so much that I even started seeing people walking around in wedding attire.
One day while Johnny was at work I invited Britani over to get an outside perspective.
“You’re going to have to marry him soon,” she told me. “I went and saw him perform the other night. His entire show was focused on weddings.”
“It was?” I asked, surprised. I had never actually seen him at work since he travelled to Oasis Springs and Willow Creek for his performances and I was still hiding from my parents. He did practice his new material with me all the time, and I had never heard that particular bit before.
“Yeah, it wasn’t even that funny. At this rate he’s going to be demoted back to amatuer entertainer.”
I was glad that Britani had forgiven him, anyway.
I did have the looming feeling that things were… incomplete. The children playing on the nearby pirate ship jungle gym was a constant reminder of the one thing that was missing from my life: a child. I wanted a little munchkin of my own running around the park.
I knew by now that Johnny wasn’t opposed to the idea of children either. We practiced quite a lot.
And then one day the timing just seemed, well, perfect. We were sitting at the campfire talking and flirting, and I began to wonder what I was waiting for. This is how I wanted my life to be from now on, with Johnny by my side. And I knew he was game, so as we were about to retire to the tent for the night, I dropped to one knee.
Aww yay! The timing seems right now, and they both know where they stand! So funny you had a random passer-by in a wedding dress lol!
I feel you when it comes to being ahead in gameplay - I actually only ever play the Bloomers about once every two weeks, but then I have a long session and then I'm desperately catching up with the story... It's actually quite nice though, it sort of stretches out the sims' life span in a way, since it seems like they're around longer and I connect with them better.
@ThePlumbob I thought it was pretty funny when she walked by in a wedding dress, too. I took a screenie of it just for fun, but I'm glad I managed to work it in there.
@Ruby10990 Knowing Anise and Johnny it probably won't be too long before they have a kiddo running around.
@KelleRee Thank you, it was fun writing that chapter, especially since it was from his point of view. I was originally going to write that conversation from Anise's POV, but I had this little Johnny voice in my head explaining why it had to go down like that, so I went ahead and let him have a turn.
@StarbucksCakePop Thank you, I'm really glad you're enjoying it. Writing and simming are two of my favorite past-times, and combining the two has been a really great creative outlet for me.
The next few weeks were a blur of wedding preparations.There was a lot of work to be done to get the park ready for the ceremony and reception. I had started landscaping the area where the wedding arch would go, and bought a bar to go near by. We also needed more outdoor seating, and flowers, and outdoor lighting, and a cake, and a dress.
We weren’t planning a big wedding, by any means, but it was still a lot of work to be done, and the garden already consumed so much of my time.
Johnny and I still managed to find time for one another every day, though.
I was so excited to become Mrs… well a missus at any rate. I had decided to keep my last name. Not that I had much respect for the people who had given it to me, but the Crowley name had so many negative connotations for so many people. I wanted that to change, and since I was an only child, it was up to me to accomplish that.
Johnny didn’t mind when I told him.
“I’m not marrying you just so I can give you my last name, Ani,” he told me. “I’ll still love you whatever your name is.”
“But what about our kids?” I asked him. “Would you be alright if their last name was Crowley too?”
“It’s not exactly traditional, but I made my last name up anyway,” he said with a shrug. “It fit my stage persona, but I don’t feel like I need to populate the world with Zests. I’m okay with the kids being Crowleys if it makes you happy.”
He did make me happy, that’s for sure.
Our wedding day dawned bright and beautiful. Well, every day is bright and beautiful, but this one seemed extra sunny, the air smelled even more fresh and crisp, and the birds seemed to be whistling a love ballad as Johnny and I stood under the wedding arch.
Johnny looked so handsome in his wedding finery. It was hard to believe we were standing here together, in front of our friends, pledging our lives to one another. It was a surreal moment for me.
After the vows and rings had been exchanged, we shared our first kiss as husband and wife. Now it was time to celebrate.
Everyone seemed to be enjoying the changes we’d made to the park in preparation for the wedding. There was much eating, drinking, and merriment. Our friends seemed to be nearly as happy as we were to be celebrating the beginning of our new journey together.
That’s not to say that the day went off completely without a hitch. We had an unexpected guest in the form of Johnny’s mother, and I was a little surprised to find she was the same woman who I had run into the day I had first proposed to Johnny, although she had a lot more gray hair now.
I asked him what they had talked about, and he’d told me that she had offered to let him back into the family fold now that he’d gone ahead and done what she’d asked him to do in the first place. Apparently she saw a lot of potential in Newcrest, and Johnny’s little brother had yet to settle down and produce any Landgraab rugrats.
Fortunately Johnny shut her down immediately, and threatened to go to the police in Oasis Springs and offer himself up as a witness if she set foot in town again.
Hopefully that will be last we see of her.
After the reception had ended, and the guests had left, there was something else that Johnny and I were eager to do for the first time as husband and wife.
We decided to start trying for a baby right away. Johnny was only a couple of days away from the adult life stage, and I wasn’t far behind. It seemed to take forever for the pregnancy test, but I was thrilled when my tiny bathroom was suddenly filled with confetti and streamers, and I got the notification that I was eating for two. I went out immediately to share the good news with Johnny.
“Are you ready for this, darling husband?” I asked him excitedly. “It worked! We’re going to have a baby!”
“Already!? I didn’t think it would happen that fast!”
“Oh plum, where’s it going to sleep? There’s barely enough room for the bed and the computer as it is.”
Yay, happily married! I hope they have a zestful life together (sorry, I couldn't help it - I love puns ). And there's a baby on the way! Where will they put it?
@ThePlumbob Haha, it's okay, I enjoy the puns too. I don't know where they'll put it, the tent, maybe? :tongue. Actually, I just ended up moving the indoor trashcan and putting the baby next to the fridge.
@leontopithecusrosalia I was pretty shocked when he turned her down. He was Johnny Rotten to me for a little bit. I had already moved him in at that point, and he stood around all tense for a while, then he went over to Anise and started talking and flirting like nothing happened. Silly Johnny.
The baby chapter should be up this evening. It's already written, I just need to edit and upload some screenshots.
I was so uncomfortable with morning sickness the first trimester of my pregnancy that I didn’t really think of the ramifications of what Johnny and i had done. But once the physical discomfort ebbed, the emotional discomfort began to set in.
I was going to be somebody’s mother. The only example I had of motherhood was my own mom, and she was about as maternal as a feral cowplant.
Speaking of, we were expecting one of those too.
See, this is what I’m talking about. What kind of mother plants a cowplant with a baby on the way? What if it ate the baby? I was going to be responsible for a whole tiny little person, and I was pretty sure I would end up scarring my child for life.
Sensing my unease, Johnny joined me in the garden. Despite his initial reaction, he was taking it all in his stride.
“Okay, out with it,” he told me. “I thought you would be happy about the baby, but all you’ve done is mope around and fiddle with your plants.”
“I am happy about the baby,” I said honestly. I’m family oriented, of course I was thrilled about the baby. “I just… I’m pretty sure I’m going to be plum at this whole motherhood thing.”
“Uh, seriously?” he asked me, astonished. “You’re really worried you’ll be a bad mom?”
“Well, yeah! What do I know about parenting? My parents were awful. I learned nothing from them. Plus my cooking skill is only six, what if the baby’s favorite food is omelets? I haven’t even learned how to make those yet! And my handiness is really low, that’s probably important too. And cowplants!” I shouted, waving my arms around in agitation.
“I’m not sure I follow the cowplant logic,” Johnny said slowly. “But your cooking and handiness skills aren’t that important. You do a really good job with the things you do cook, and we can always order some cookbooks so you can learn how to make omelets. Your handiness skill might not be very high, but you can fix the shower and toilet, so that’s all that matters.”
“Still, I don’t know how to be a mom, and there aren’t any books for that.”
“Ani, I’m not worried at all. The fact that you’re worried about all of this is a testament to the kind of mother you’ll be. Our baby will have all the love and support in the world, and really, what more does a child need?”
“I don’t know? A house with more than one room? Clothes? I’m sure I’m forgetting something.”
Johnny shook his head in bemusement. “If I can’t convince you, maybe I can distract you,” he said softly pulling me inside.
Hmmm, this distraction thing could actually work for a while.
I tried my best to keep it together through the rest of my pregnancy. As I sat there eating leftover fruit parfait from our wedding I could hear small children playing at the pirate ship near the park. Maybe that’s where I should go for advice?
I made my way over to a little boy blowing bubbles out of the cannon and introduced myself.
“Hi, I’m Anise. I live over at the park next door.”
“Oh yeah, the park without any toys,” he said.
He made a very good point. What use was park without toys? Why hadn’t I thought of that before?
“For now, there will be toys soon. What kind of toys should I get?”
“A space ship! We already have a pirate ship.”
“One space ship coming right up. So, what would you say is the most important quality in a mom?”
“You’re weird, lady!” he told me, before running off to play in the crow’s nest.
Well, it had been worth a shot.
That night we celebrated Johnny’s birthday with the friends we had made since moving to Newcrest. We had to store the bed and install some kitchen appliances to make it happen, but the party went off without a hitch. Johnny even got a dresser for his birthday, although I didn’t know where we were going to put it.
After we finished the cake I was feeling a little too uncomfortable to enjoy the festivities, so I left Johnny to play host by himself. He didn’t seem to mind, though. He was always happy to be in a crowd.
My discomfort grew as the night went on, and I wasn’t able to manage more than a fitful nap as Johnny slept peacefully beside me.
When I woke up I realized what was causing my discomfort. The baby was on the way!
When I stood, I was seized by a sharp pain in my belly. Johnny slept on like the dead, despite my yelling. I hope this didn’t take too long, because being in labor was really terrible. Being devoured by a cowplant would probably feel better than this.
I made my way to the bassinette and after a while the baby finally arrived. A beautiful little girl with her dad’s light green eyes and a smile that melted my heart immediately.
“Welcome to the world, Rosemary,” I whispered to her. “I promise I’ll be the best mom ever.”
Ooh! I love the name Rosemary, and I think it's very fitting since Anise likes to garden so much.
This chapter was so funny, too. I found it hilarious that you compared Anise's mom to a feral cowplant. And Anise's conversation with the kid on the pirate ship XD
...I don't know how Johnny slept through the labor. He must have been having some dream XD
Haha I enjoyed how you worked the cow plant into the story! The bit with Anise getting advise from the kid was hilarious too! I'm sure Anise will make a great mom, her and Johnny have a loving relationship which is a great start already
Comments
@PeachyKeen88 Aw, thank you, that's such a nice compliment.
*Author’s Note: This chapter will be told from Johnny’s point of view, because he felt like we needed to look into his head space, I guess.
When I was a kid I used to dream that I had been switched at birth, and somewhere out there was another little blond kid who wanted nothing more than to sit around a luxurious house counting his millions and learning how to take over the world.
Meanwhile my real parents were wondering how they’d gotten this materialistic plum-hole of a kid when all they wanted to do was laugh and have fun all day. Because I can tell you that my mother often bemoaned the fact that she ended up with me.
I had another doosy of a dream when I returned home from Anise’s this afternoon. I had laid down to reflect on what a complete mess I had made, and if there was any way at all she’d believe me if I told her that I had been abducted by aliens the night before and they’d sent me back with everything but my brain. I must have fallen asleep in the middle of all of that.
In the dream I was an elder. But instead of living the life of a rich and famous comedian, cracking people up at the Blue Velvet or the Solar Flare, I was headed to my job as a bartender.
There I was, old, gray, and all alone. Still living the life of a poor trailer dweller, and slinging drinks for twenty-somethings who barely paid me any attention unless they were calling out for another Flaming Zesty Salt. It was my signature drink, you know.
Then I had a dream that Anise fed me to a cowplant. That was one was a little too close for comfort since I knew she was trying to graft a plant that would produce Cowplant berries.
It was the first dream that really had me freaked out, though. If I’m being completely honest, becoming an old, lonely failure is my biggest fear. And here I’d had this amazing woman who wanted to marry me and start a family, and I’d turned her down flat, with no explanation whatsoever.
Hey, I never claimed to be a genius. She really had taken me by surprise.
I jumped out of bed and headed immediately to Newcrest to see her. I was really afraid of what I might find when I got there. I was hoping she would just be sharpening her trowel to a fine point, and not crying, because I really don’t think I could have handled knowing I had made her cry.
Fortunately she was just gardening. I stopped on the sidewalk to watch her for a moment. It hurt my heart to look at her knowing that this might well be the last time I saw her. I really wished my charisma skill was higher, because I only had one chance to get this right, and if I blew it I would never forgive myself.
“Ani, we need to talk,” I told her when she turned around and saw me standing there.
“No, we really don’t, Johnny,” she told me. “It was stupid of me to ask. The signs were all there, and I ignored them. I’m not really surprised you said no, you always get weird whenever I bring up marriage.”
“I do?” I asked, a little surprised that she was letting me off the hook instead of impaling me on one.
I guess I probably did get weird when she brought up marriage. It was an uncomfortable topic for me, because it reminded me that I wasn’t being completely honest with her, and I couldn’t even consider a future with her until I came clean.
“I guess, I do, but that’s what I wanted to talk to you about. It’s not that I don’t want to marry you, Ani, but I can’t.”
To me that was an important distinction, but she looked like she thought I was talking straight out my plum. “Yeah, you said that earlier,” she grumbled turning back to her garden. “Let me guess; inoperable brain tumor, you’ll be dead in a day.”
Well something was wrong with my brain, obviously. “No, I lied to you,” I said bluntly. “About who I am. You don’t really know me, and I can’t let you marry someone you don’t know.”
“That’s ridiculous,” she said, whirling around to glare at me. “Of course I know who you are. You’re Johnny Zest, you aspire to be a joke star, and you work as an amatuer entertainer. Your ambitious, outgoing and a goofball. You live in a trailer in Oasis Springs, although apparently you’ve alway wanted to live in a park, you can listen to me ramble on for hours, you kiss like a dream, and you make me feel like the most special woman in the world.”
“You are the most special woman in the world, and all that is true-- well, I don’t know about the kissing part, no one has ever said that before-- but you don’t know who I used to be, and there is where the problem lies.”
“Oh for cripes sakes, stop talking in riddles,” she demanded, looking annoyed.
“I wasn’t born Johnny Zest, it was my stage name for a while, but I had it changed legally when my parents disowned me.”
“Your parents disowned you?” she asked, clearly surprised. “Why didn’t you tell me that? We could have started a club, for crying out loud.”
“I didn’t tell you because of who my parents are. And before you say that they can’t be any worse than yours, they’re at least as bad. Well, my mom is, my dad is actually a pretty okay guy, but my mom is the one with all the power, so what she says goes.”
“Okay, so we both have crap parents. I really don’t understand why you couldn’t tell me all of this before, or why it should stop us from having a life together.”
I took a deep breath and prepared to drop my bomb. “My parents are the Landgraabs. My mother disowned me because she wanted me to marry some girl I had never met and help expand her criminal empire, but I was pretty committed to my comedy career so I told her no.”
Her mouth dropped open at that point. Yeah. I’d said I had a good reason to say no.
“Oh plum,” she said quietly. “You’re John Landgraab. You’re the boy my parents wanted me to marry.”
“The same one,” I agreed. “I just thought you should know before you did something regrettable.”
“What, like marry you?” she asked incredulously. “Please, Johnny, I don’t care who you used to be, I care who you are now. And for the record, I think who you are now is pretty plum great, and I think we would have an amazing life together. Because we chose one another, and it would be our life. Not the one our parents chose for us.”
I really couldn’t believe she was saying all of this. I really expected her to tell me to take my lying (well, truth witholding, it’s really a different thing) butt and get lost for good. But this? I was truly stunned. Am I a lucky son of a plum, or what?
“I can’t believe… Ani…” I said, my brain tripping over itself to think of the right thing to say. “Does this mean you still want to get mar--”
“No,” she said, cutting me off. “Lets not talk about that right now. I was being very impulsive earlier, it’s not the right time for that. But the offer I made before that still stands, if you still want to take me up on it?”
“What offer?” I asked, confused for a moment. Then realization struck. “You still want me to come live with you.”
“Yes, I do.”
“Yes. Holy plum, yes. Let me go pack up my stuff!” I said excitedly. I was so happy and relieved I hadn’t killed this thing for good that if she’d asked me to drive her to the moon right now, I would have found a way to do it.
“I think that can wait until tomorrow,” she told me. “I’m tired, let’s go to bed.”
Oh, and if I recall correctly, he has really good genetics
Story Blog | Forum Discussion
I'm so far ahead in my gameplay that I've been kinda holding off on playing them until I'm a little more caught up with the story, but I don't think it's too spoilery (what with it being a legacy challenge) to say that there is a child, and that child is a cute little bugger.
It was lovely having Johnny live with me at the park. There was a lot of comfort in having him there at the end of the day, and waking up with him each morning. Sometimes he would surprise me by preparing breakfast, and we would have long conversations while we ate.
It was so sweet that I never told him there were egg shells in the breakfast scramble.
We were both making headway with our respective passions as well. Johnny, always an ambitious man, seemed to find a renewed sense of creativity in Newcrest, and had finally been promoted to Open Mic Seeker. I was so proud of him.
Meanwhile I knew I had to be close to producing a cowplant. I had finally learned the art of grafting and splicing, and had had good success creating a plant that produced dragon fruit. I had high hopes that the splice I had grafted onto my dragon fruit bush would produce cowplant berries.
I was content to leave things be for the time being, but now that there were no secrets between us, Johnny seemed to be eager to take our relationship to the next level.
“I think we should have some sort of gathering,” he would tell me. “To help bring more support to your Newcrest project. A wedding would be just the thing!”
I guess when I told him it wasn’t the right time to talk about it he took it to mean, ‘Fine, I won’t flat out ask you to marry me, but we are absolutely going to talk about it.”
For now I was changing the subject when he brought it up.
“A wedding? No, that’s too limiting, but maybe a big weenie roast in the park. It would be fun for the whole family!”
To be honest, it was something I thought about quite a lot. I even knew exactly where the ceremony would take place, and had started planning a little wedding area in the park, but I wanted to make sure we did this right. It was on my mind so much that I even started seeing people walking around in wedding attire.
One day while Johnny was at work I invited Britani over to get an outside perspective.
“You’re going to have to marry him soon,” she told me. “I went and saw him perform the other night. His entire show was focused on weddings.”
“It was?” I asked, surprised. I had never actually seen him at work since he travelled to Oasis Springs and Willow Creek for his performances and I was still hiding from my parents. He did practice his new material with me all the time, and I had never heard that particular bit before.
“Yeah, it wasn’t even that funny. At this rate he’s going to be demoted back to amatuer entertainer.”
I was glad that Britani had forgiven him, anyway.
I did have the looming feeling that things were… incomplete. The children playing on the nearby pirate ship jungle gym was a constant reminder of the one thing that was missing from my life: a child. I wanted a little munchkin of my own running around the park.
I knew by now that Johnny wasn’t opposed to the idea of children either. We practiced quite a lot.
And then one day the timing just seemed, well, perfect. We were sitting at the campfire talking and flirting, and I began to wonder what I was waiting for. This is how I wanted my life to be from now on, with Johnny by my side. And I knew he was game, so as we were about to retire to the tent for the night, I dropped to one knee.
“Johnny, will you make an honest woman of me?”
This time he didn’t hesitate to accept.
I feel you when it comes to being ahead in gameplay - I actually only ever play the Bloomers about once every two weeks, but then I have a long session and then I'm desperately catching up with the story... It's actually quite nice though, it sort of stretches out the sims' life span in a way, since it seems like they're around longer and I connect with them better.
I look forward to seeing their child!
Story Blog | Forum Discussion
@Ruby10990 Knowing Anise and Johnny it probably won't be too long before they have a kiddo running around.
@KelleRee Thank you, it was fun writing that chapter, especially since it was from his point of view. I was originally going to write that conversation from Anise's POV, but I had this little Johnny voice in my head explaining why it had to go down like that, so I went ahead and let him have a turn.
@StarbucksCakePop Thank you, I'm really glad you're enjoying it. Writing and simming are two of my favorite past-times, and combining the two has been a really great creative outlet for me.
The next few weeks were a blur of wedding preparations.There was a lot of work to be done to get the park ready for the ceremony and reception. I had started landscaping the area where the wedding arch would go, and bought a bar to go near by. We also needed more outdoor seating, and flowers, and outdoor lighting, and a cake, and a dress.
We weren’t planning a big wedding, by any means, but it was still a lot of work to be done, and the garden already consumed so much of my time.
Johnny and I still managed to find time for one another every day, though.
I was so excited to become Mrs… well a missus at any rate. I had decided to keep my last name. Not that I had much respect for the people who had given it to me, but the Crowley name had so many negative connotations for so many people. I wanted that to change, and since I was an only child, it was up to me to accomplish that.
Johnny didn’t mind when I told him.
“I’m not marrying you just so I can give you my last name, Ani,” he told me. “I’ll still love you whatever your name is.”
“But what about our kids?” I asked him. “Would you be alright if their last name was Crowley too?”
“It’s not exactly traditional, but I made my last name up anyway,” he said with a shrug. “It fit my stage persona, but I don’t feel like I need to populate the world with Zests. I’m okay with the kids being Crowleys if it makes you happy.”
He did make me happy, that’s for sure.
Our wedding day dawned bright and beautiful. Well, every day is bright and beautiful, but this one seemed extra sunny, the air smelled even more fresh and crisp, and the birds seemed to be whistling a love ballad as Johnny and I stood under the wedding arch.
Johnny looked so handsome in his wedding finery. It was hard to believe we were standing here together, in front of our friends, pledging our lives to one another. It was a surreal moment for me.
After the vows and rings had been exchanged, we shared our first kiss as husband and wife. Now it was time to celebrate.
Everyone seemed to be enjoying the changes we’d made to the park in preparation for the wedding. There was much eating, drinking, and merriment. Our friends seemed to be nearly as happy as we were to be celebrating the beginning of our new journey together.
That’s not to say that the day went off completely without a hitch. We had an unexpected guest in the form of Johnny’s mother, and I was a little surprised to find she was the same woman who I had run into the day I had first proposed to Johnny, although she had a lot more gray hair now.
I asked him what they had talked about, and he’d told me that she had offered to let him back into the family fold now that he’d gone ahead and done what she’d asked him to do in the first place. Apparently she saw a lot of potential in Newcrest, and Johnny’s little brother had yet to settle down and produce any Landgraab rugrats.
Fortunately Johnny shut her down immediately, and threatened to go to the police in Oasis Springs and offer himself up as a witness if she set foot in town again.
Hopefully that will be last we see of her.
After the reception had ended, and the guests had left, there was something else that Johnny and I were eager to do for the first time as husband and wife.
We decided to start trying for a baby right away. Johnny was only a couple of days away from the adult life stage, and I wasn’t far behind. It seemed to take forever for the pregnancy test, but I was thrilled when my tiny bathroom was suddenly filled with confetti and streamers, and I got the notification that I was eating for two. I went out immediately to share the good news with Johnny.
“Are you ready for this, darling husband?” I asked him excitedly. “It worked! We’re going to have a baby!”
“Already!? I didn’t think it would happen that fast!”
“Oh plum, where’s it going to sleep? There’s barely enough room for the bed and the computer as it is.”
“A baby.”
I think he’ll be okay once it sinks in.
Story Blog | Forum Discussion
I love the back story you can up with for Johnny, too. One doesn't simply turn down a Crowley XD
The baby chapter should be up this evening. It's already written, I just need to edit and upload some screenshots.
I was so uncomfortable with morning sickness the first trimester of my pregnancy that I didn’t really think of the ramifications of what Johnny and i had done. But once the physical discomfort ebbed, the emotional discomfort began to set in.
I was going to be somebody’s mother. The only example I had of motherhood was my own mom, and she was about as maternal as a feral cowplant.
Speaking of, we were expecting one of those too.
See, this is what I’m talking about. What kind of mother plants a cowplant with a baby on the way? What if it ate the baby? I was going to be responsible for a whole tiny little person, and I was pretty sure I would end up scarring my child for life.
Sensing my unease, Johnny joined me in the garden. Despite his initial reaction, he was taking it all in his stride.
“Okay, out with it,” he told me. “I thought you would be happy about the baby, but all you’ve done is mope around and fiddle with your plants.”
“I am happy about the baby,” I said honestly. I’m family oriented, of course I was thrilled about the baby. “I just… I’m pretty sure I’m going to be plum at this whole motherhood thing.”
“Uh, seriously?” he asked me, astonished. “You’re really worried you’ll be a bad mom?”
“Well, yeah! What do I know about parenting? My parents were awful. I learned nothing from them. Plus my cooking skill is only six, what if the baby’s favorite food is omelets? I haven’t even learned how to make those yet! And my handiness is really low, that’s probably important too. And cowplants!” I shouted, waving my arms around in agitation.
“I’m not sure I follow the cowplant logic,” Johnny said slowly. “But your cooking and handiness skills aren’t that important. You do a really good job with the things you do cook, and we can always order some cookbooks so you can learn how to make omelets. Your handiness skill might not be very high, but you can fix the shower and toilet, so that’s all that matters.”
“Still, I don’t know how to be a mom, and there aren’t any books for that.”
“Ani, I’m not worried at all. The fact that you’re worried about all of this is a testament to the kind of mother you’ll be. Our baby will have all the love and support in the world, and really, what more does a child need?”
“I don’t know? A house with more than one room? Clothes? I’m sure I’m forgetting something.”
Johnny shook his head in bemusement. “If I can’t convince you, maybe I can distract you,” he said softly pulling me inside.
Hmmm, this distraction thing could actually work for a while.
I tried my best to keep it together through the rest of my pregnancy. As I sat there eating leftover fruit parfait from our wedding I could hear small children playing at the pirate ship near the park. Maybe that’s where I should go for advice?
I made my way over to a little boy blowing bubbles out of the cannon and introduced myself.
“Hi, I’m Anise. I live over at the park next door.”
“Oh yeah, the park without any toys,” he said.
He made a very good point. What use was park without toys? Why hadn’t I thought of that before?
“For now, there will be toys soon. What kind of toys should I get?”
“A space ship! We already have a pirate ship.”
“One space ship coming right up. So, what would you say is the most important quality in a mom?”
“You’re weird, lady!” he told me, before running off to play in the crow’s nest.
Well, it had been worth a shot.
That night we celebrated Johnny’s birthday with the friends we had made since moving to Newcrest. We had to store the bed and install some kitchen appliances to make it happen, but the party went off without a hitch. Johnny even got a dresser for his birthday, although I didn’t know where we were going to put it.
After we finished the cake I was feeling a little too uncomfortable to enjoy the festivities, so I left Johnny to play host by himself. He didn’t seem to mind, though. He was always happy to be in a crowd.
My discomfort grew as the night went on, and I wasn’t able to manage more than a fitful nap as Johnny slept peacefully beside me.
When I woke up I realized what was causing my discomfort. The baby was on the way!
When I stood, I was seized by a sharp pain in my belly. Johnny slept on like the dead, despite my yelling. I hope this didn’t take too long, because being in labor was really terrible. Being devoured by a cowplant would probably feel better than this.
I made my way to the bassinette and after a while the baby finally arrived. A beautiful little girl with her dad’s light green eyes and a smile that melted my heart immediately.
“Welcome to the world, Rosemary,” I whispered to her. “I promise I’ll be the best mom ever.”
This chapter was so funny, too. I found it hilarious that you compared Anise's mom to a feral cowplant. And Anise's conversation with the kid on the pirate ship XD
...I don't know how Johnny slept through the labor. He must have been having some dream XD
Story Blog | Forum Discussion