Late Night Meeting

Last time we saw the cult-- I mean the Church for Wayward NPCs, Demi Love, partner to Water Mellon and mother of his two daughters, joined.

The last time we saw Joseph (AKA Mr. Big), he was on the run from Sofia Stratton, and so he went to the last place she'd think to look-- her own brother's church. (This update also includes information on the Church as well, for those just starting to read along with me.)



Quiet finally fell over the compound once everyone was in bed at their enforced bedtime.



Joseph couldn't sleep. He never could when they went to bed so damn early. Instead, he lay in bed looking to the ceiling, still half dressed in an undershirt and boxers. Nearby lay a pair of pants he left out and his old overcoat which Tristin had asked him to get rid of.

Joseph was no idiot. He's already gotten rid of his cell phone. Get rid of his clothes and then Tristin would ask him to get rid of his name. Joe was no sad little sim looking to fit in.


Near-by, he heard the girl in the bed next to him softly breathing rhythmically. One of the few plus sides of living out here was that at least Tristin was free with the women. For the most part. It was pretty clear that the one who'd given birth to his child was off limits though he never expressly said that. That only left the two others. And one of those two had a man who was coming around looking for his children.

He's been out just that morning. Tristin had asked Joe to stand near-by as he ran the man off again.

It'd been pretty tense. "Where are my daughters?"

Joe had to give it to Tristin; he could be as cold as Sofia. "They want nothing to do with you. Leave, Water."


Luckily a fight didn't break out because Joe wasn't sure what he'd have done. The man had a right to his kids, and frankly, Joe would prefer it if he took the older whiny one who was constantly yelling or crying over everything and anything.

The man left, though he was clearly not happy about it. Joe almost felt bad enough to help (and desperate enough to get the whiny kid out), but he couldn't risk pissing Tristin off. This was the last place Sofia would look for him with the last person Sofia would expect him to be with.

Anyway, it didn't matter. None of it did unless he couldn't get control of the business from Sofia. Right now, he was powerless and moneyless, and without even a damn cell phone. Joe only had his friends left.


Joe sat up carefully, the springs of his mattress squeaking just barely and still sounding too loud in the quiet of the room. He slipped his pants on and threw the coat on over. He'd only have to be outside for a moment. The tricky part was getting downstairs and outside.

The cold air burned the sensitive skin on his cheeks as soon as he stepped outside. A boy stood on the sidewalk waiting close to the doors of the church. He had to be freezing. All he had on was a long sleeved shirt. No one expected it to be so cold so far inland.

"'ey," Joe said casually. Teen boys didn't normally stand out front of churches in the middle of nowhere to pick up girls.

The boy reached out to shake his hand, slipping the tiny cell phone into his palm in one smooth move. Armando had said something about a new boy-- one no one would expect. Something about a boy of pedigree, the mayor's son or something like that. Said he would be useful or was it helpful?

"Thanks kid."

The kid did look pretty sharp. He didn't stick around long enough to chat, and he hardly seemed impressed with Joe. Just gave a nod and walked off down the road casually with out even a quip about the weather.

**********************

Woo, sorry, it's been a while. I swear I haven't completely defected to TS3. Mostly, I'm using TS3 to illustrate very old stories, so it's rather easy to get sucked into those again.

But I still have plans for this story! So I'm going to shoot for an update every week or so on this blog.

I'd also like to take this time to invite those of you who enjoy writing to Valley Sun Sims forum. I've already mentioned it to a few people who I knew enjoy writing. It's a nice way to meet people, and find new stories. Plenty of us are using TS3 for stories, but plenty of TS2 people have been joining as well.

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Smoke and Chairs

"It's a chair."


Alberta couldn't think of anything clever to say. It was indeed a painting of a chair. "Maybe it has some extra meaning? Something about carrying something until you become an inatimate object."

Gabe examined the painting for a moment before coming to the same conclusion as Kate. "Pretty sure its just a chair, Alberta."

"Now you know its serious. He agrees with me."

The three stood around the painting staring at it quietly as if they were waiting for it to speak and explain itself. Alberta was sure that she was the only one giving the artist the benefit of the doubt. It could have meaning. It was completely possible that even the fact that a painting of a chair got into the museum is itself a statement of something.


"Chairs," a strange woman said while walking over to them, "are a statement of our own classification and subjegation. Chairs do all the work for us, holding us up at dinner and in front of the TV while we get older and our asses get larger. But no one gives thanks to the chair for just doing its job. No one ever really looks at a chair."

Alberta wrapped an arm across her stomach, gripping her other arm tightly. Both Gabe and Kate were oddly silent watching the girl in surprise.

"Uhm, wow." Kate finally managed to say. "How do you get that from..."

"I painted it," The girl smiled at Kate as the Gabe and Alberta suddenly had to glance away. No one had noticed her standing on the floor before. Was it possible she'd heard them talking? How embarrassing!


The girl looked at the painting allowing Kate to glance away. "Yep. Put a lot of work into it too. Hours and hours."

Kate sucked in a breath which Alberta could swear would have (probably should have) been a curse. "You heard us?"

The girl winked at her. "We're the only ones on this floor you know."

"Crap. Sorry. Music's more my thing." Kate waved at Gabe. "He's got no excuse though."


The girl laughed. "It's alright. I'm partially jerking your chain anyway. I mean, c'mon-- it's a friggen chair in a museum. I had to make something up." She turned to them. "I'm Regina. Wanna go outside for a smoke?"

Alberta could see Gabe was ready to politely refuse. Kate was faster though. "Sure."




"Oh god, that's so good. The woman who runs the place wants me to be here to present my paintings. Told me to look nice. I think I look nice. She didn't think boots and a sun dress were appropriately 'nice.' Bitch."

Alberta really couldn't see the problem. "I think you look nice."

"Oh you're sweet. A bit innocent though, aren't you? Hopefully someone's watching out for you. Oh geeze," Regina held out her carton of cigarettes. "Did either of you want one? I'm going to guess that Innocence here doesn't smoke."

"Sure." Kate bravely reached out and took a cigarette from the carton. Alberta hadn't known that Kate smoked. Yet there was Kate, taking a cigarette like she had always known Regina and lighting it without stopping to think about it.

There were so many things she felt she didn't know and hadn't experienced yet; it almost made her feel a little out of place until Kate took her first drag and started coughing as if she would die.


"Kate, are you okay?" Alberta could see Gabe out of the corner of her eye crossing his arms over his chest and laughing.

Kate held up her first finger in response to Alberta's question as she fought the coughs, her eyes a tiny bit teary. She then shoved her lit cigarette at Gabe, "Here tough guy. You take it then."

"Your lips have been on that. I'm not taking it."

Regina held out her carton to Gabe. With a tiny roll of his eyes, he grabbed one cigarette, deftly lit it with Regina's lighter, and took a puff on it.


"Crap. Stop showing what a burn out you are."

"Do you want me to teach you?"

"No." Under her breath, Kate mummbled, "Jerk."

"Are they always like this?" Regina asked.

"Generally. This is them being nice, if you can believe it."

Regina laughed. "I can bet what you put up with."


Alberta didn't want to pepper Regina with a ton of questions, but there was so much she was curious about. Kate appeared interested too. Once she'd decided to just ignore Gabe and his teasing, she turned back to talk with Regina. Kate didn't worry about peppering Regina with questions; she asked the questions in the same way she'd acted as if she could smoke.

"Look, I will tell you this much. I'm eighteen and I have my own house. If you wanna know more, you'll just have to come over some time." Regina winked at Kate. "I better be heading back. See you all later."

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