Color My World Short Story #11

Staring at the scene before me didn't flash my memories back. It bludgeoned them into my face at 100 miles per hour. How vividly I recalled the day I came home from work to find plums lining the windowsills, kitchen counters, and the dining table. That was Dahlia's way of announcing her first pregnancy to me. It was also her apology. The pregnancy hadn't been planned, and she'd been having one of her exploration periods with another guy. She'd used all sorts of protection with him and none with me, so the likelihood was the child was mine, but Dahlia was hung up on the fact that the child had a minuscule chance of belonging to that other man. I said I found no fault in the situation─ she'd had my permission to be with the him and protection was never foolproof. However, the plums were Dahlia's way of needlessly appeasing me. Boy or girl, I'd wanted our first child to be named Plum. The fruits were her agreeing to give me that wish without any challenge. The daughter that came that was indeed mine then became a big sister to the twin girls that followed. She cooed over them the way Gilly and Dianthus, twins, gushed over their singular little brother.

     "I want to hold him. Can I hold him?" Gilly glanced back to us, eyes shining.
   "You cannot. It's time for you and your sister to go help your Mama Lia clean her living room. That's your apology for making that huge mess the other day, remember?" Amaranth said.
     "But it was mostly Apple who did it!" Gilly whined.
     "Saying 'mostly' just means you did still have a part in it," I pointed out.

Gilly stuck her tongue out at my smirk.

     "The faster we clean, the faster we can come back," Dianthus reasoned. She bounced on her heels excitedly when looking at her brother, as if she might suddenly jump high into the sky.
     "That's true," Gilly accepted.
     "Get going then. Look both ways before you go across the street," Amaranth instructed.
     "We know!" Dianthus replied proudly.

Happy 2020!

Happy Monday, everyone! I tried as hard as I could to have the next chapter ready for today, but with the holidays and an endless work schedule as soon as they were done, it just isn't anywhere near ready. I started to put together a short story instead, but it simply wasn't coming out in any form I could consider decent. Thus, I put together this little New Years picture for some sort of something, as there hasn't been a couples picture with the main three pairs yet. As always, click to enlarge for the bigger size and better quality. Thank you for your patience, and have a wonderful new decade!

Color My World Behind the Scenes #5

Hello there! It's that time again! With the close of another generation of Color My World, I'm here to show you the weird things or interesting shots that went down while snapping shots for the story. In case you're wondering why there wasn't one of these like normal after the transition from children to teenagers of the main characters it's because there simply wasn't enough material for two such Behind the Scenes. I've gotten pretty good at directing the Sims and taking pictures without funky mishaps happening anymore. It made more sense to wait until the generation finished completely, and even then this one won't be overly long. I'll be posting an update about the near future of the blog and the continuation of Color My World tomorrow though, so be sure to check back then!

Gen Three- Chapter Thirty Six

My eyelashes fluttered, and the sun creeping up through the window flashed light into my vision. I stirred, blinked several times before deciding to keep my eyes closed, and wondered of the weird angle of the intrusion. The sun never struck me right like that.

     "Good morning." Arbor mumbled a lazy, whispered, slurred greeted as his arms gently wrapped around my core embraced me a little tighter.

Oh. Right. I wasn't in my bedroom.

     "Have you been awake long?" I asked, my voice no more eloquent than his.

     "Not too long. About fifteen minutes, I think. I've just been enjoying this."

He snuggled closer still as if he was a young child and I his teddy bear, but it made me smile.

     "Do you know what time it is?"

     "Somewhere after nine."

     "It doesn't look that late."

     "We're high up, so I guess the sun hasn't hit us as much as normal."

     "Makes sense." I yawned.

Neither of us said anything more. I'm sure thoughts of mentioning that we should get up and get going danced in the back of Arbor's brain as it did mine. However, neither of us wished to give up the freedom we'd claimed. Even with sending out parents warnings, they likely wouldn't be pleased at the vague answer and delayed return to our homes. Arbor and I had to soak in what we had while we had it. With a few more hours to go before we had to check out, I saw no reason to prod us up. In truth, I also needed time to contemplate as the two of us lay there, skin on skin, the exhaustion of the previous night still clinging in the deep parts of my muscles. I felt and probed for a difference. Logic told me there was nothing about being with a person that should have any affect on who I was, and that logic was right. The only change I could find was that my embarrassment at being exposed to Arbor was gone. The night left me falling deeper in love, and with that the boundaries that caused hesitations on being close were shattered.

Gen Three- Chapter Thirty Five

(NSFW material)

Heading down the stairs towards mom and dad's room for the forth time reminded me of when I used to babysit a younger Mint. It was as if mom was a toddler who forgot every word I said the second I moved out of sight, but in this case the whole thing was obviously intentional. Mom, throwing her own temper tantrum in a way, adamantly refused to come upstairs despite promising the last time I came down that she'd be up in a minute. With all the 'minutes' I granted her, a half hour had now passed.

     "Mom, you're thirtieth minute is up." I spoke with lighthearted warning after poking my head into the room.

Having been absentmindedly skimming through a book on her dresser, she jolted with a start to search for something to pretend to clean even though she'd long since cleaned everything and lost every excuse she had to delay.

     "I'll be right there." she answered, unable to glance my way.

     "That's what you said the last three times."

     "I just have a few things I need to do down here first."

     "No, you don't. You're lying to avoid helping us pack because you don't want to face the fact that Gilly and I will be leaving in a few weeks," I stated the truth hoping to break her out of her stubbornness, "Hiding down here is not going to stop that from happening."

     "I know." mom snapped, but her tone was too sad for me to feel hurt.

     "Well, okay then. I'm not going to keep coming down here, so I won't force you to help even though you promised. I'll just remind you that your time with us is limited. You're throwing away a big chance to spend quality time together before we go by hiding down here instead. If that's what you think will help you be more comforted once we're out of the house..."

Gen Three- Chapter Thirty Three

I blinked hard and let several good, long seconds pass in order to give the figure before me a chance to disappear. Me just imagining the whole situation felt like it would be a lot easier to handle, although then I had to worry about my mental health again. However, the girl remained. The silence grew thick with tension as she awaited my response while I couldn't understand how in the world I was supposed to handle something like this.

     "Have you been hiding out in my brother's room?"

Best to start simple.

     "Yes." the girl mumbled quietly.

     "How long?"

     "A-About two months now."

     "So you're the one who knocked over the lamp. Merlot was probably lying about his music player being broke too."

     "Yes," the girl hung her head, "Merlot gave me a printout of everyone's schedule so I could know when I could come out safely, but you kept being home at unexpected times."

     "Come out? Come out from where? There's nowhere to hide in here."

     "For the first few days, I hid under the bed. Then Merlot lied about needing space so he could he could get the wardrobe for me to more easily duck inside."

     "How can you hide under the bed though? The sides are way too low. I saw Merlot stuff the wardrobe full too. How is there room?"

     "Here."

The girl led me over to the bed, and, with a great heave, tilted it enough for me to see what I'd never known before. The sides did drop low, but they were only buffers. There was enough space for someone the girl's size to squeeze in. Then she took me to the wardrobe where she opened the doors to show me how now only the high top shelf contained my brother's stuff.

     "The bed worked temporarily, but it's too difficult for me to lift up and roll under with any sort of speed. Merlot only filled up the wardrobe to trick everyone into thinking it was full so no one might think it being a hiding place if they started to suspect someone was around. He just filled it up with empty boxes."

Gen Three- Chapter Thirty Two

A deep churning of fire burned my stomach almost as much as it ravaged its way up my arms and down my legs. The amount of weight I was using for my workout was nothing compared to what Gilly and Confetti could handle, and even then I had to take a heaving break between each rep to make sure my body wasn't falling apart. Perhaps it made more sense to decrease the weight further, but with how pitiful the number already was I really didn't want to admit defeat. I realized bitterly that I would have to stop soon anyway lest I be useless the rest of the day.

    "Oh, it's you over here," mom spoke as she suddenly approached from the arch, "This is new. Not even Gil gets up this early to workout."

    "Exercising is best done in the morning, and I have to head out earlier than she does." I replied.

I held my breath to create the illusion the strain on my muscles wasn't absolute agony. However, the sweat on my skin and that my lungs refused to be silenced broke that immediately. Mom gave me an amused, studious look that caused me to cringe.

     "You wouldn't be trying to get more fit to look better for a certain someone, would you?"

     "No," I refused firmly and stubbornly, although my cheeks already burned brighter, "It's just that...you remember the reason Arbor gave when he had me start running before he left. That I'm healthy but mostly coasting by on good genetics. I have to put more focus on maintaining myself, so I thought I'd pick up the habit of trying again."

     "Yet it is only once he's here again that this motivation has returned?" mom prompted knowingly with a giggle.

     "Think whatever you want." I replied with a little too much bite.

Mom's expression softened instead of hardened, and, thankfully, she let the teasing stop as she took my snap in stride.

     "You do seem happier now that he's back though. It's good to see."

CMW Characters' D&D Classes- Part 1

As I'm still dealing with various situations over on my end, there's still not a CMW update this week. I do have something for you guys though. I've done a post in the past showing off my D&D characters made using this doll maker. I thought it would be fun to take some CMW characters, specifically some from the First Generation, give them classes, and dress them up to match. The classes aren't what the characters themselves would choose to play, but what classes I feel the characters fit given their own personalities, hobbies, and backgrounds. Some came out wonderfully, and some I had to compromise on due to the limitations of what the doll maker provided. Hope you find them fun! As always, click on the pictures to view them in their full glory :)

Gen Three- Chapter Twenty Five

Much to my surprise, Arbor and I ended up deep into the city. My plan for hanging out with him naturally hadn't been thought out with great depth. Dancing and hanging out at the festival brought Arbor out of his shell in a way I hadn't expected, but keeping that shell open proved to be the challenging part. He closed back into his general apathetic attitude even though he remained receptive enough to my prods and encouragements. When I asked if there was somewhere he wanted to go, he went ahead and answered without hesitation. Arbor wanting to get ice cream from a particular shop was was took us into Berrybrook's heart, and it was where I learned that he had a strong preference for all things pistachio flavored. The weather was too nice to stay inside, so the two of us wandered here and there until we approached the Twilight North's branch campus. Arbor was willing to walk even long after our treats were devoured.

Gen Three- Chapter Twenty Four

Ethereal and Ephemeral, as usual, had seemingly endless amount of energy. They were always the last ones to fall asleep at sleepovers and were typically the first ones to rise as well. Gilly and I had done everything we could to tire them out over the weekend, but even after spending the whole day guiding them around the city the twins walked with a spring in their step while my sister and I struggled to keep up. Ethereal and Ephemeral claimed their pep was due to being raised completely in Tinseltown. With everything constantly moving at a rapid pace there, one had to adapt to not be left behind.

     "Oh, wow! It looks amazing!" Ethereal gushed as we neared our next destination.

     "It's so big for a family owned bookstore too." Ephemeral added.

     "Well, it's now a bookstore and cafe proper. Dad technically owns both parts, but Aunt Mimi really runs the first floor." Gilly explained as we reached dad's business.

The three story building was unlike anything the old bookstore used to be. It wasn't even on the same lot anymore. Flooding had been a constant background threat for the building even before those crazy rainy years, and with most of his hard work being lost thanks to the hurricane dad hadn't hesitated on buying up a better location. The lot near the hospital provided room for expansion as well as heavier traffic for better sales.

Color My World Short Story #8 Part Five (FINAL)

Amaranth's expression had gone through a roller coaster of emotions as the story was told. Thus, I gave him a big smile as I wrapped it all up.

     "Rose made sure to visit Ethereal more often after that. She was the only one who could really connect with what Ethereal was going through, and Ethereal felt a lot better having someone who did understand. That's not to say she perked up all bright and cheerful overnight, but she did address her grief properly from then on. There was even a period of five months where she went to see a therapist."

     "I see. Thanks for telling me all this, Lia. I've been trying to get more of what Ethereal went through out of her, but, well, you obviously know how stubborn she can be," Amaranth laughed, "There's no way things could have been anything other than painful, but she's been brushing it off saying she's fine now."

     "I can understand enough why she has been brushing it off though. No one wants to think back to such tough times, and I'm sure she doesn't want to make you feel bad. Goodness knows the guilt has been written on your face thickly since you got back."

     "But worrying about me should be her last concern. Ethereal's the one who's now dealing with cancer of all things. Things like me getting upset about her and Al sharing one kiss...there's no way I would be bothered when she's had the worst of it all these years."

     "Does it bother you though?" I asked curiously.

     "No. Not at all," Amaranth denied instantly, "To be honest, despite us both saying long ago that we were the only ones for each other I never quite believed Ethereal. I'd see her with Al. It was clear she could indeed love other people. I fully expected to see her with some other guy when I came back, and I was prepared to leave her be if that was the case. The fact that she still waited for me, that the only romantic exploration she'd had was a kiss with a guy who'd already been her close friend and boyfriend- of course I could only be relieved it turned out that way."

Gen Three- Chapter Twenty Three

That Saturday was hardly different than any other. At least at the beginning. Mom drove me to the Twilight North branch campus for me to have my morning classes, which were a pain to attend seeing as how they started at seven in the morning. I was out by eleven though. Normally I would do a bit of indulgent shopping or meandering about in the city before I took a bus or taxi home, but this time I headed straight to the city park. Merlot wanted to play there for a while, and I was to be his babysitter. Mom and dad had been letting him go off on his own now, but the cat killings had them more on edge. After the fourth had been found, things had thankfully somewhat slowed down with that whole situation. The person clearly garnered more attention than he or she wanted. No killings happened, or at least were made public, for two weeks. One popped up again on the third week. A week of silence came before a fifth cat, this time one that wasn't a stray, had been found last night. There were no signs the person was attempting to come after people, but mom and dad naturally didn't want to take any chances they didn't have to. They wanted Merlot to have supervision, so supervision I would provide. Timber, however, had been nice enough to agree to accompany my brother and me. He walked Merlot to the park before keeping me entertained as Merlot ran all over.

     "They're really going all out, aren't they?" Timber laughed.

     "They seriously are," I chuckled back, "Gil and Confetti are even talking with some baker who makes food and treats specifically for animals. The cake those two want to get is being quoted for them at seventy-five dollars."

     "I mean, if this is important to them, I say go for it. I just hope they remember to get food for the non-animals to eat too."

     "I did have to remind them of that fact. Gil looked at me in pure confusion and then when 'oh, yeah' when it sank in."

     "Thank you for making sure we won't starve," Timber patted my back encouragingly, "When will the 'wedding' be?"

     "A few more weeks. The weekend after the dance. It was going to be sooner, but now that Gilly's on the homecoming court she has to divide her attention more."

     "I'm still surprised you turned down your chance to be on court. You were elected because there were that many people writing you in. You could have won easily."

Gen Three- Chapter Twenty Two

Gilly and I were woken up to Merlot bursting into our room excitedly revealing grandpa had made french toast for breakfast. Our brother could be picky with his food, but if there was one thing he couldn't deny it was anything drenched in syrup. I know I certainly got a good smile out of watching him bounce around as if Christmas had come early when grandpa handed him his plate also smothered in powdered sugar. Merlot's appetite never ended, but it'd been getting worse now that he was on the fringes of puberty. He finished one plate and got another by the time I ate my first four slices.

     "Who's house did you say will you be at today, Dia?" dad asked after gulping down another large mouthful of his own second serving.

     "Arbor Thicket's, the new guy in our grade. From what I heard, he lives down by Mama Rose's and Papa Jac's house."

     "How late do you think you'll be out?"

     "I can't say for certain, but definitely not all that late. We just have to decide the first three books we'll be using for the beginning of the project. We might go to the library, but Arbor and I will most likely just decide what we want and get the books separately."

     "Alright. Call me if you want a ride home."

     "Of course."

I gave dad the biggest smile I could muster. His expression easily projected his continuing worry caused by the dead cat incident the previous afternoon. Dad was scheduled to be at the bookstore until late again, so him being willing to shirk work for a little if I needed it was quite endearing. However, I had no concerns about not being able to handle myself. I naturally still felt bad for the cat, but I wasn't going to start bursting into tears about it at this point.

Gen Three- Chapter Twenty One

A smile rotated my lips even as I rolled my eyes. In the middle of a phone call with Ephemeral, I had to applaud the girl's stubbornness.

     "Seriously, Dia, you have to come to August's party! We had so much fun last year, remember?"

     "It was a lot of fun, Ephie, but-"

     "And it's going to be even better now. Because we were so well behaved and respectful of the rules, his parents are going to let it be bigger and full of a bunch of other stuff they didn't allow last time!"

     "I-"

     "Oh, are you talking to Dia?" another familiar voice joined the conversation, "Hi, Dia!"

     "Hi, Ethie." I laughed as I imagined her leaning against her sister to get near the phone.

     "Is Ephie bullying you again into coming to the party?"

     "Of course. She's been doing nothing else for the past few weeks even though I told her it's too much of a bother for me and Gilly."

     "The party does fall on that long weekend though, you know." Ethereal pointed out.

     "And that's the only reason I considered it for a moment. My answer is still no."

     "But you could see us again, and Ember, Flurry, and Acer too!" Ephemeral kept trying.

     "It's barely been a week since we were down there in Tinseltown!" I reminded her in amusement.

Gen Three- Chapter Twenty

I closed the door to Canary's room in a hurry. We'd lied and said Ember felt a little unwell to have some privacy.

     "You're dating my teacher's son?" I asked in dumbfounded disbelief, "You're pregnant with Divi's grandchild?"

     "That's a yes to both questions, but don't forget that I knew Tam waaaay before Mr. Divine ever became your teacher. Never in a million, trillion years would I have predicted you and Gilly would end up in his class. Hell, I honestly never imagined getting the chance to meet Tam in the flesh. Our relationship was so casual before we moved here. I thought the two of us would find our feelings fizzling out eventually. Then we did move here..."

     "No wonder you said it would be awkward to know who your boyfriend is."

     "I can't believe it just came out like that. I had no idea they would be coming to the party. It's making me incredibly nervous what with Tam being right in dad's sight. I feel like if I go down there dad'll just somehow read my mind and put it all together. It's my first time meeting Tam's parents too. At least they're in the dark about this so far."

     "Yeah, about that..."

Gen Three- Chapter Eighteen

It took me another minute or two to convince my brain my friend was indeed before me and that my mind wasn't teasing me with a dream. I was, in fact, wide awake, and Timber's surprise arrival prompted such an energy boost that I then hurriedly rushed him out of our room so Gilly and I could change. Then we could get the day started for real.

     "Will you please just admit you might like him a little?" Gilly teased as she came up behind me admiring myself in the mirror.

     "I will not because I do not like him. Not like that," I rolled my eyes, too done with this kind of conversation to be annoyed, "I think I look good today. That's all."
     "Why did you choose today of all days to spend extra time on your hair and stuff then? It's a suspicious coincidence."
     "I don't know. We haven't seen Timber in a while. I don't want him to think I've been lazy or something, I guess."
     "Mmhmm."
     "You're impossible, Gil."
     "So I've heard."

Gen Three- Chapter Seventeen

They'd all told me to give up. Well, they hadn't said it that exact way. Dad and grandpa had done their best to get to our house from their airport before we had to leave for school, but with delays and traffic and complications with their taxi my siblings and I would simply have to wait until we got back from school to see them instead. I'd pouted and fussed and gotten ready regardless, but not once had my eyes stopped watching the window. The clock on the wall showed we had two minutes before we left. All my wishing power thrust towards seeing a car coming towards our house. When I glanced out the window several seconds later, my eyes stung with merry tears as familiar red faces could be seen sitting in the back seat of a bright yellow car pulling up alongside the road.

     "Dad!"

The door was slammed open as I burst outside without any regards for who was around or the commotion I was making. All I cared about was them being there, and the instant dad saw me barreling towards him he just smiled and hunkered down to prep for my impact.

Gen Three- Chapter Twelve

Mom couldn't have told a less funnier joke. Then, I glanced around again at the mostly empty house, and I made myself stop being stupid. I didn't want to move, but the storm raged with extra fury outside in that very moment and I understood why we were.

     "Moving? Why?" Merlot went ahead and asked anyway.

     "There's no other choice. Berrybrook has dealt with flooding before, but never on a scale like this. The last time a hurricane made its way all the way up here was over seventy years ago, and it was only a category two. This one now is at its full strength, and with how badly it's been raining all year I'm not exaggerating when I say a good portion of the city is going to be underwater. That includes this neighborhood as well. We're incredibly close to the ocean, and we're settled at the bottom of a small valley. I wouldn't be surprised if the flooding made it up to the second floor. In any case, if the city doesn't start ordering mandatory evacuations by tonight, they'll have to by tomorrow."
     "And that's why you've started packing everything up." I spoke.
     "Exactly. Amaranth and I have been working hard all day here while your father has been calling in whoever was willing to come in to help him take care of the store. We hired some trucks and movers, and we've already gotten two full trucks on their way. The majority of our things are going to be placed in a storage center much further in state."

Gen Three- Chapter Eleven

My feet ached slightly from the walk I was not used to. Gilly, Merlot, and I were going to have to talk to mom and dad about a better way to get us all home after school. The start of a new year of education meant something big for us older ones. Seventh grade had us finally departing from elementary school and journeying on to the adventure that was junior high. Merlot was left all by his lonesome then at the elementary, and mom and dad weren't too keen on their first-grader walking home alone. They'd asked us to meet up with him and walk home together, but there was no way this could go on all year. It was such a massive inconvenience for us, and Merlot had to sit there and wait so long that pretty much everyone else had left. Him sitting there alone didn't seem any better than him walking by himself.

     "The best part was when it went dead quiet and that random guy started jumping around in the background." Apple recounted merrily.

The walk had at least been somewhat interesting though. Apple was coming over, as usual, and Timber had been nice enough to tag along as well. We'd met up with Merlot, and in the small break we were taking before the trek restarted my cousin and my friend told us about the funny video one of the teachers in their class let them watch at the end of third period as there was time for nothing else.

     "I liked the part where that one person yelled about the cheeseburger." Timber laughed.

Gen Three- Chapter Nine

The fact that the air brushing against my cheeks and slowly knotting my hair as I zoomed back and forth on the swing wasn't cold pounded my chest with a lively excitement. Back when I was young, well- younger, I hadn't gotten why spring was the reason why people bothered so much more with cleaning and the start of large projects. Now I got it. The feeling of invigoration after the snows had passed and one could go outside without suffocating layers of clothes made one want to actually do stuff. For example, mom, dad, Gilly, and I were outside having a blast being silly as mom and dad did their best to push my sister and I at a matching pace while just a month ago we all lazed about in bed as long as we could hardly wanting to get up to make a cup of hot chocolate.

     "You're pushing too fast." dad complained with a large grin as Gilly and I began to go out of sync.

     "You're going too slow." mom rebuked back.

     "I'm going slower so you don't tire yourself out by trying to match me."

     "You calling me weak, Vivid?"

Gilly and I laughed. We found it amusing that mom used dad's last name to call him out during their playful bantering even if it had been her last name too for over a decade now.