Arne and Solana are so absolutely in love, it's hard for Lydia to even look at them without wanting to throw up.
That or it's the pregnancy nausea.
Lydia has decorated her own space, a generously sized room in the basement.
She stays curled up in bed as long as possible, not willing to face the cold mornings.
Jerry.
She dreams about Jerry sometimes.
But it's a different Jerry. A perfect Jerry who doesn't exist. A Jerry with all of his flaws erased. A Jerry who loves her and their unborn child. A Jerry she never broke up with.
The real Jerry is out there somewhere. He will have forgotten about her by now, she imagines.
She remembers watching him cry when she told him it was over. She remembers not feeling anything.
Sometimes she wonders if she was supposed to feel something.
"I'm so glad you came back," Zhong says, as he eagerly purchases any potions Lydia has to offer.
"Did you think I wouldn't?"
"I was not sure where life would take you," he answers.
Lydia had not planned on being pregnant, but now that she is she worries constantly about the baby. Should she be showing by now? Is she too thin? Will the constant exposure to alchemy fumes have a negative impact on its development?
Solana gets home from work and tends to her garden of experimental fruits.
"Have you been in that spot all day?" she teases Lydia.
"No," Lydia lies.
She takes a break for some computer games. The doctor told her to keep her fun meter up.
Arne runs on the treadmill to power the house.
Lydia can't believe this scrawny dweeb thinks he's going to get on the space exploration team someday.
Solana is always eager to explain the purpose of these botany experiments to anyone who will listen, and Lydia does listen, but none of it makes any sense to her.
Transport tube mishap.
The nausea hits so hard, Lydia forgets why she was even going to the store.
Eventually she gets her baby bump. Zhong pretends to be surprised when she tells him she's pregnant. He has sensed the extra life growing inside her for a while.
"Perhaps another potion master, to continue our work," he suggests. For one day he and Lydia will be old, and their children may inherit the business.
Solana has an encounter with her mother at the park.
While Arne is socializing with his father.
Adrienne Ahere, Brooke's daughter with Chen, gives them all some serious side-eye.
She is her father's little princess, and if there's anyone she hates more than her mother, it's the man her mother cheated on her father with, and all of his daughters.
Speaking of Lynx, he's just across the street!
He's an elder now.
Oh, and there's Astral, in the sparkly clothes.
"Hold marines accountable!" Elias Sparks chants.
"The military budget is out of control!" Astral shouts.
"Collusion with Sunlit Tides!" Embla yells.
Embla's the one in the purple. She's Arne's mom, if you forgot.
The skies darken as Mariposa joins the protest.
"Marine animals are fascists! Kill them all before they kill us! The jellies are the true harbingers of fate!"
"So who's the baby-daddy, you slut?" Adrienne delivers what she thinks is a most excellent burn. She has never spoken to Lydia before, and chooses to start their relationship on a hostile note.
"You look soooo fat," Adrienne continues. "Don't you have anything to say for yourself?"
Lydia stares blankly at the teenager. "I'm sorry, who the f*** are you?"
"I'm Adrienne?" the girl snarls. "You know, the daughter our mother didn't abandon, because I'm not unwanted garbage."
Lydia is quiet for a moment as she considers how mentally disturbed this kid must be, to seek out and attack a stranger over family dramas said stranger could not control.
"Is that really what Brooke thinks of me?" she asks.
"Obviously," Adrienne sneers.
Lydia nods thoughtfully. "Maybe so. Brooke never calls. I don't even know her. I've just spoken to you more than I've ever spoken to her."
"I wish you hadn't come back to Aurora Skies. I hate you. I hate what you did to my family!" And mostly, Adrienne hates how her mother keeps pictures of those twins in a secret drawer, and looks at them with that wistful gaze, when she thinks nobody's around.
Lydia leans in close to the teen.
Adrienne steps back, instinctively.
"I'm here to stay," Lydia says, her voice absent of any emotion. "And if you ever talk to me again, I will f*** you up, you little piece of shit."
With that, Lydia pulls a potion out of hammerspace, and turns the kid into a tragic clown.
Cousin Lily is a more friendly face. "Hey, are you okay? I saw Adrienne running away crying..."
"Ew. You know her?"
"Yeah, the Aheres live next door to me. I guess you haven't seen my new place. You should!" Lily goes on a bit about the view. Lydia stops listening.
...until Lily reaches out and touches her.
"Listen, if you need anything, I'm here. I know being a new mom can be overwhelming. Cousin Lily is a no-judgment zone, okay?"
"Thank you," Lydia feels sincere, and hopes she sounds it.
A few days later Lydia gives birth to a daughter, whom she names Valerian.
She hopes this house is safe for a kid...
___________________________________________
There's some serious stuff going on in the real world right now. Plagues, corruption, collusion, conspiracy theorists, human rights violations, terrorists storming government buildings hoping to change the results of a democratic election...
Sometimes it feels odd writing about my sims, who live in a world so divorced from this kind of strife.
Please stay safe.
