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 Generation Three In-Depth Summary

     In the passing years, Coal has come to marry Holly. Their first pregnancy together results in fraternal twin daughters, Gilly and Dianthus. Dianthus, not long after turning three, is taken by Eden to visit an ailing Ethereal in the hospital. Ethereal's body has been deteriorating due to the vast amount of genetic manipulation that created her, but Eden does not suspect her time would be up that day. He and Dianthus find her on her last breath. Eden gets to say a final farewell to his sister before she passes, and Dianthus sees from her uncle's despair what it means to have your heart broken. A grieving Amaranth has her promise after the funeral to do all she can to prevent herself from being lost before her time.

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 Four

I cringed as Branch glanced at me. I'd done it again.

     "That makes twenty two." he added to the tally that'd begun once we set foot inside the comic and cafe shop.

     "Aagh," I whined, "I can't help it."

     "Sigh all you want, Dia. If you make it to forty, I'll buy you a cream scone." Rich promised.

     "I'm not counting to annoy her. I'm counting to distract her." Branch explained.

     "And I do appreciate it," I shook my head and grinned back, "But I think you're getting a little too much glee out of annoying me."

     "I have no idea what you're talking about."

     "Look. That smirk right there."

     "What smirk?"

     "Seriously..." I sighed, "Wait-"

     "Twenty Three."

     "Damn it."

     "In any case," Rich rolled his eyes in amusement, "Are we actually going to study?"

     "It's been half an hour. I suppose we can start." Branch teased.

     "Just remember, you're the one who needs the help with the test- not us."

     "Yeah." Branch pouted, unable to even joke about it.

He gave me a light punch of the arm when I chuckled. All in all, despite the light irritations of the friendly goading, Rich and Branch were doing well at keeping me distracted. Goodness knows my brain was on the verge of exploding from a week of intense stress.

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."

Gen Three- Chapter Thirty One

The frigid air cut right through me, but I enjoyed every brush of its icy touch. My mind hadn't stopped spinning all night. Despite being calm and doing the right thing with Blaze, the endless questions bludgeoned around in my mind even though they had no place to be there. I kept imagining all the ways the situation could have gone wrong. I double-guessed every action or perceived wasted second. Heck, I even fretted about potential downfalls that were out of my control entirely. The big one my stupid mind played over and over again was imagining grandpa's car hitting a patch of ice and skidding off the road with all us inside. That's why I didn't mind the winter wind. It refreshed my body and caught those annoying thoughts without mercy.

It helped that everything was fine too. Blaze fell asleep last night stable and content as if nothing ever happened. Grandpa and I came again this morning for a nice, long visit. He remained inside, but I'd eventually been ushered on my way. A simple text to let Gilly know I was coming back then froze me in a way the wind never could.

I notice the time.

It's already eleven. Arbor's plane should have landed at eight, which meant he'd gotten home around nine. Three hours. He'd been back in Berrybrook for three hours. He was so close My fingers quivered as I scrolled down my message history. For whatever reason, I thought I'd seen his name near the top with words waiting to be read. His name, in fact, sat far down on the list with words he'd sent long ago that'd been read but never responded to. Hurriedly locking the screen, I pocketed my phone and moved on my way. What an ass I was. How could I be disappointed his first thought wasn't to get in touch with me?

Gen Three- Chapter Thirty

For the first time in several weeks, Apple and I arrived at my house on time. It'd never been so hard as it had been this past semester to be punctual. The difficulty of my college courses meant I had to wait long amounts of time after class in order to be able to ask my professors questions while my classmates also tried to do the same, and Apple, as dad's apprentice at the bookstore, had a never-ending list of things to do. Since we almost always carpooled nowadays, that meant the severity of our lateness increased even more. One would think the arrival of winter break would make the whole thing easier. However, I naturally took what classes I could during the holiday season as well. I'd gotten some rest around Christmas, but now that it was the new year I was right back at it.

     "Ah, looks like your mom and dad got around to taking down the Christmas lights." Apple easily noticed while we trudged towards the front door.

     "Yeah, but it also looks like Merlot once again couldn't be bothered to shovel the walkways like he was told. That boy has gotten so unmotivated as of late." I sighed.

     "Teenagers, huh?" Apple chuckled.

     "I was never like that when I was his age."

     "But you're you, Dia. No one can match that."

     "Well, he can at least try."

Apple shrugged in amusement and grandly opened the door for me in order to make up for my brother's lack.

Gen Three- Chapter Twenty Eight

Reality sunk in more after the police left. Gilly hadn't been able to stand listening to the report, so that made it mom, dad, and me hearing of the travesty while Blaze did his best to console my sister. I heard and understood every word the police said, yet at the same time I hardly listened. As soon as they offered to show us the pictures of Mirage and Tappy and I said yes, I was gone. They hadn't been strangled or tied up with rope. No, the killer had taken it to a new level. Mirage's head had been cut off and sewn on Tappy's body. Tappy's head had been cut off and sewn on Mirage's body. Then their paws had been stitched together as if holding hands. According to the report, they'd been left quite far in the woods. It took all that time and a lucky, or perhaps unlucky, pair of hikers to find them. It made the police wonder if the killer was the same as the cats usually ended up being found in much more populated areas, but the killer could also have wanted more space between the crime and time of discovery. The city had grown so alert about the situation that the murders had become more and more sparse over the past several months. The majority of the stray cats had been rounded up, and everyone watched their owned pets.

     "Dia, I'm so sorry."

The tears must have come rolling down. I thought I just sat there. Motionless and heartbroken I thought I sat, but I didn't feel the wetness cascading from my eyes until dad knelt before me and gently wiped it away with his thumbs. Then he gathered me a tight embrace as mom scooted over to wrap my back and hold my hand. 

     "I just hope this is the last time. If something from this helps them find the killer, I could accept that." I mumbled hopelessly.

     "They have to be catching the person soon." mom encouraged.

I nodded miserably, even though the whole city had been saying that for months. 

Gen Three- Chapter Twenty Six

I'd known it was inevitable, but I still dreaded its happening. Mom and dad were, needless to say, once again incredibly surprised to find me home earlier than normal. I'm sure my face looked a mess after all the crying, and there was no way I could lie to them anymore when I admitted I hadn't come home because I was sick. Dad's eyes narrowed more and more as I told my parents about my outing with Arbor, what we had done, and his actions today. My story had hardly finished before dad dove for his phone. I bet Mr. and Mrs. Thicket regretted giving him their phone number. Still, my curiosity drove me to stick around for the call. Whether to help comfort me or give me a snack for the show, mom permitted me and her free range of our ice cream. Not that I found the stomach to eat much.

     "Yeah, well that's what he said last time!" dad stomped around irately, "How many times has he had to apologize now? We keep giving him the benefit of the doubt, and every other week it's something new he's putting Dianthus through!"

I wished I could hear the other half of the conversation. Dad's protectiveness was reassuring, but not knowing completely what was going on wasn't overly satisfying.

     "If he actually cares about what he did, put him on the phone already! Those words don't mean anything from you!"

There was another pause. Dad at least let whichever one of Arbor's parents on the other end finish their sentences.

     "What nonsense! He's an adult now, right? That's what Dia told us. You hiding him behind your back is probably half the reason why he has the maturity of a five-year-old brat!"

     "Coal." mom rebuked.

He frowned, but got the message.

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 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

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 Nineteen

Gilly and I contemplated going up on the balcony to watch some television, but we couldn't bring ourselves to do it. The noise steadily growing from the kitchen would reach us anyway, and it's not like we would pay attention to what would be playing in the first place. Our room filled with an eerie calm as my sister and I listened to the muffled ranting, mostly belonging to dad, while trying to discern the words being said even as we wished the whole thing would stop.

     "At least Merl isn't here," Gilly sighed after a few minutes, "Poor thing can't handle conflict like this."

     "Yeah." I nodded, scratching Mirage as she nuzzled against my arm.

Merlot was at Uncle Prism's house hanging out with Crescent again.

     "What do you think she did?" my sister finally went with that question.

     "I don't know. I'm guessing whatever she was doing before, but I don't understand how she could have been doing it. Not with her being so heavily grounded and with officers watching us."

     "Maybe that's why dad's so mad...because she snuck out while we might be in danger."

     "Could be."

I recalled the pictures and videos taken of dad when he'd been recovering from the weeks those company people had him. He'd looked so battered and bruised. Him being terrified of something like that happening to Ember did fit logically with his rage.

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 Sixteen

In the past, I usually rolled my eyes when peopled used the expression that they had 'died and gone to heaven.' The statement almost always came out corny, and I believed the sentiment to be a vast over-exaggeration. Now, however, I had to take back my thoughts. The afternoon when mom revealed we would be moving into the large house Gilly had found and so desperately wanted had been overwhelming with joy enough. Now that we were actually in front of the place about to head inside to claim our temporary house, I seriously couldn't remember the last time in my life I'd been so excited. My head swarmed with a raptured dizziness while my cheeks burned in anticipation as if I'd been standing in the sun all day.

     "Thank you!" Gilly squealed, reaching up to squeeze mom's neck from behind as we drove up.

     "Thank your grandfather," mom replied before laughing and shaking her head, "I should have known Amaranth would be all for this place. Seriously, the second he got the link he told me to take whatever money I needed from his account to be the highest bidder. Even at over sixty, he's still one of the biggest children I've ever met."

     "Damn right." Blaze laughed along with a knowing twinkle in his eye.