When we walk into Yasmine’s house, I notice immediately that she too had a birthday. I used to enjoy admiring her hourglass shape, but now it’s a little more pear-like. It’s happening to me too, unfortunately. We’re getting older, and things are expanding and settling in our bodies in places I did not expect. My waist has gotten so wide, and it has nothing to do with the fact that my workouts aren’t consistent. I don’t look the same in my shirts. I’m not sad about it or anything. It’s just that when you’re used to seeing yourself a certain way, it’s jarring when things change. I just have to get used to my version of the dad bod, I guess. What I want to know is how Sophia managed to escape the adult body shift. Her body is just as perfect as the day I met her. The Watcher blessed her richly, but what kind of deal did she make, and how can I get in on it?
I have zero lingering feelings for Yasmine, and being around her is no problem for me. But just in case it’s a problem for Sophia, I sit in the chair and let her take the sofa next to Yasmine. She’s cordial and gives her a soft smile, but I can tell she’s uncomfortable. I wish Yasmine a happy belated birthday to kick things off, since “you look great” would probably land me on the couch. Her birthday was just yesterday, apparently. She congratulates us on the baby and jokes that if she didn’t know my dad, she’d be looking at Sophia sideways with this blue-eyed baby.
We laugh, and that seems to loosen up Sophia a little. I reply, saying how surprised we were when Desiree opened her eyes for the first time. Her blue eyes were so special to me, especially since we lost Dad a few days later. She offers her condolences, and I mention we’ve experienced a lot of deaths these past few weeks, and she expresses her sympathies once more. Death is really good at making things awkward, so after a beat, Yasmine begins her epic tale.
A while ago, she met a man in a bar. Physically, he wasn’t her type, but he was nice, so she let him talk. He made her laugh, and they had decent conversation, but that was it. She wasn’t attracted to him, yet somehow he ended up going home with her that night. She woke up next to him, very confused, and a little dazed, yet oddly attracted to him. In her gut, she knew everything about that scene was wrong, but her heart was all fluttery around him. He never left her home, and for weeks she lived in this weird limbo between being attracted to someone she would never give the time of day and trying to figure out why she felt that way. The night Sophia and I came into the restaurant after the engagement, she had just found out she was pregnant. She’s always wanted children, so it wasn’t bad news, per se, but she wanted to be in a loving relationship with someone she trusted first. But that was the thing. When she was around him, she felt in love and trusted him. But when she went to work or anywhere else, she went back to being confused.
He, on the other hand, was very excited about the babies. Learning it was twins devastated her a little. One baby in a confusing situation was enough, but two? She didn’t know what to do and tried to take extra shifts and stay away from home as much as possible because she felt most like herself away from him. But he became very needy and obsessive, calling all the time and wanting to know when she would be home. It scared her.
When the babies were born, she felt a tiny sense of relief. Maybe they’d give him a sense of purpose and he’d leave her alone. She could almost smell the peace in her home, but that sweet, faint scent blew away when she saw the babies. I sat on the proverbial edge of my seat waiting to learn the deal with these babies. Sophia’s face was like stone, and she couldn’t tear herself away either.
The babies were beautiful. It was like looking at newborn versions of her twin. But one baby had eyes as red as blood! Her first reaction was to scream in terror, but something about those eyes called to her. She couldn’t explain why they were that way or what it meant, but she had a feeling they were connected to the strange fog she had experienced. Ol’ dude confirmed her suspicions by being drawn to her the most. He must have known something she didn’t, so she asked him if he knew why her eyes were that color. He gave her all kinds of dismissive reasons, but they only confused her more. Yasmine was a relatively healthy sim, so it couldn’t have been related to her own health and lifestyle, and she didn’t have weird stuff in her family history. After a few days, however, the man was gone!
That was so triggering for me after dealing with the fallout from Alessia’s abandonment. I felt my body tensing up, and I had to take subtle deep breaths so no one would notice my mood changing. Yasmine never heard from him again, and part of me was relieved. I hated that she’s now left to raise children on her own, but that guy was a wacko, and she’s definitely better off without him.
Within a week, she felt normal again and started trying to figure out who he was, why she felt so strange, and why their baby had red eyes. The eyes seemed to be the easiest part to solve, so she began there. She came across some of the reasons the man mentioned in her search, but an overwhelming number of blogs and forum posts all pointed to the same thing. Only spellcasters of the strongest bloodline have eyes that color.
Sophia gasped, and so did I. All that time, she was under some spell that lead her to believe she was in love with some nut job who only wanted her womb?? That sick bastard! She knew nothing about spellcasters, what they could do, or how their magic worked, so she packed up her babies and moved as far away as she could, hoping he wouldn’t be able to find them. That’s how she ended up here in Oasis Springs. She’d been afraid to leave the house for fear of running into him or her baby’s latent magic sending him a signal or whatever. She knew she couldn’t stay holed up in here forever, however, so she read everything she could find about spellcasters. The red-eyed baby is on her way to becoming a very powerful mage and could start using her magic when she’s a teenager, but she won’t have her full abilities until she either asks her father for the rite, or she goes to Glimmerbrook to go on some quest to prove herself worthy.
Every time I thought this story couldn’t get more ridiculous, it did. Me and Sophia sat there dazed at this tale. I barely thought that stuff was real before tonight, but here we are under the same roof with a real life spellcaster. What is happening in this world??
“Why have you told us this?” Sophia asked.
Yasmine mostly needed someone else to believe her. It sounds absolutely like the stuff of fiction, and if she didn’t sound so desperate on the phone, I’m not sure I would have believed it either. To protect her girls, she can’t tell the truth to everyone, but the truth was eating away at her and she just needed someone else to know what happened to her and what she’s dealing with. I told her that her secret is safe with us, and we’ll support her however we can.
That was a huge relief to her as she’s been thinking about the future a lot. It will be a while before they reach school age, but she’s been stressed thinking about the girls being away from her most of the day. She wishes she had sims she could ask to lookout for them while they’re at school, but she can’t risk it. Although she hasn’t heard from the man since he left, she thinks he’s waiting for their teen birthday to reappear. That CANNOT happen. If they meet, he’ll take her away and she’ll probably never see her again. She deleted all her social media accounts and uses incognito browsers when she’s online to mitigate her online presence, but somehow she doesn’t think any of that matters.
I just want to hug her. I don’t know what it is about the warmth of another sim enveloping us that has a way of making us less anxious, but that’s what she needs right now. Instead, I tell her if I should ever come in contact with her girls, she can rest assured that I will protect them and keep them safe.
