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 Four

Excitement bubbled vigorously against my chest as Timber led me upstairs. His bedroom was pretty large and incredibly fun to hang out in, but what I looked forward to was the beaten up manila folder he pulled out of his desk drawer. When the power had returned two days after the storm and school resumed, he had mentioned during a quiet moment at lunch that the contents of the folder were what he was so eager to have found. However, quite a bit of time passed between that moment at lunch and now when I was finally able to visit. What was good though was that Mr. Mountain was solidly preoccupied down in his room on the first floor, so there was little worry about being overheard or caught.

     "Are you sure it's safe for you to be holding onto the folder? Won't your dad notice it's missing?" I asked.

     "It's fine," Timber promised, "It's been over three months since we've moved here now, but he's being super slow about unpacking. He hasn't even gotten close towards going through the box I found this in. I can just return it later after I show you it now, and he'll be none the wiser."

With a drama that made me think Timber had been practicing for the grand reveal, he flipped open the folder with flair and a wide smile.

Color My World Behind the Scenes #4

When going around aging everyone up after the first arc, I noticed that the Yonders had adopted a cat. I normally get rid of autonomously purchased pets because I've had trouble with them getting in the way before, but the kitten had come with the name Coal, so I felt obligated to let it stay. The thing was pretty adorable too.

Gen Two- Chapter Forty One

The walk had been long and silent. However, even that was a fact unnoticed by me as my mind was far away from the current moment. My brain didn't recognize the exhaustion Doodle caused my arm by constantly pulling on the leash too hard, nor did I realize the wonderfully crisp spring air I typically loved more than anything else finally engulfed the city. No, on I walked while my mind screamed at me the same thoughts it'd been screaming for about a month now. The same panicked worry constantly dominated my emotions. It drained me and beat me down, but even with it dragging me deeper more and more I craved to let it do so at the same time. I couldn't be happy or content. I didn't want to be happy or content. I wanted to fight, and the perpetual struggle reassured me the battle indeed continued.

Even being with Holly hardly pulled me out of myself. The talk she requested never happened that weekend when Mimosa set off the war. I spent every second I had preparing my weapons, and the ending of the weekend forced Holly back to school. The same pattern had continued, although Holly was now out for the summer. It was why she'd finally been able to convince me to take some semblance of a break.

Gen Two- Chapter Forty

Given how many times I had run my hands through my hair in the past several hours, I wouldn't have been surprised if I ended up taking out chunks of my hair. I didn't even care to stop the behavior, because I didn't know what to do otherwise. The weeks had passed- slowly and agonizingly, but they passed regardless. I dreaded each new day with a fitful anticipation that had me sick to my stomach. I was certain with my bad luck that the worst would come to pass. However, a brief glimmer of hope resided in my chest when the days kept coming and going and the news didn't arrive. I wondered if I was actually safe. Of course, I could never be so lucky. The revelation came to dad by way of a text from Uncle Al earlier in the morning. When he in turn revealed it to me, I became a useless body of mixed emotions. I had always imagined hearing such information to be a happy one, and I was certainly trying to find some happiness inside me somewhere. Unfortunately, I could only sulk about the house at the moment.

     "Don't be sad, Coal," Glade stood in front of me trying to cheer me up, "You're going to be a great daddy."

Gen Two- Chapter Twenty Five

Stretching out my legs in front of me, I tried not to move much otherwise. A hearty lunch stuffed my stomach fuller than it should have been. It was Tuesday- one of my days off. Normally that meant I watched Riny for longer than normal, I went to see a movie by myself, or I visited mom as everyone else was either at school or work. I can't express how thrilled I was to hear Malachite was on vacation and that he was down for entertaining me at his place. I didn't require that much to keep me satisfied anyway. Simply being somewhere different was good enough for me. Heck, I think Malachite had forgotten I was there. It was that or he either didn't care in the slightest that I could see all the stupid faces he was unknowingly making as he got involved in the television show he was watching.

Gen Two- Chapter Sixteen

If you asked me how many times I had sighed in the past ten minutes, I wouldn't be able to give you an accurate answer. All I knew was that the answer was high as well as that I was even beginning to feel a little light-headed from all the expunging of air I was doing. I was absolutely sick of the scenario I was in, for it happened far too often. There I stood at the west entrance of the elementary school. It was a new wing they built about three years ago to deal with the school's seemingly always increasing student total. It would have been nice if they built it an extra three years earlier so my friends and I could have experienced the reduced strain of moving throughout the halls ourselves.

In any case, the halls were certainly empty at the moment. School was out for the day, and all the normal, sane people had departed. The kids who rode buses got on their buses. The kids who got picked up came right outside the find their parent's car in the line-up of the special idling lane built to make the departure process smooth and easy...save for my kids. I was beginning to make friends with the parents waiting in cars who also had children who took their time. I never spoke a word to those parents, but we communicated well enough through eye rolls and shakes of our heads. I was also on the receiving end of sympathetic smiles, because I was almost always the last one waiting. I don't know why I bothered to get in that special lane sometimes. It made more sense to actually park the car like I had done several minutes ago. I would have loved to have gone into the school to find the little brats and drag them out, but this door only opened from the inside except for in the morning when students arrived. I knew as soon as I started to make the trek to the main door that my two would appear.

Gen Two- Chapter Fifteen

Dead silence rang throughout the house. Time stood suffocatingly still, and the lingering echoes of Uncle Blaze's words rang in my ears. They lost? We lost? Some judge had seriously thought taking Rosemary away by forcing her to live with people she didn't want to live with was the best thing for her? The fact that Rosemary was happier than ever and had soared in school rankings to be the number one student in her class wasn't proof enough of how much Uncle Eden and Aunt Deny had helped her? Shipping her off to the other side of the country during the last third of the school year didn't seem absolutely absurd to the court?

I had no idea what to say. I had no idea of what to do. Uncle Blaze and I just stood there in the silence. He still wore that strange expression I couldn't read, and there was something off about the whole aura he emanated. I could have sworn it was almost as if he was holding back a smile. I stared up at him with eyes unblinking- until those eyes swarmed with tears once more. The tears of heartbreak, not the wet eyes caused by a cold that I had been dealing with all day. My tolerance levels completely shot thanks to the exhaustion of my illness, I was about to utterly lose it. I wouldn't be surprised if my legs collapsed on me again as I turned into that blubbering mess. Seconds away from that happening was when Uncle Blaze's attitude rapidly changed.

     "Coal, wait, please don't cry. I'm so sorry. I'm just an asshole. Phrasing it like that on purpose like that to see your reaction was such a dick move. I don't know what I was thinking." he apologized for whatever reason.

Confusion putting a possible block on my tears, I frowned as I awaited clarification.

     "Eden and Deny technically lost the case, but Mary will be staying with us."

Gen Two- Chapter Fourteen

I shifted uncomfortably in my seat as I listened to the half of Uncle Blaze's conversation that I could hear. It wasn't that I wanted to listen, but delaying hearing the news wouldn't do me any good. Might as well rip off the bandage fast and all that. There was no hope in me that the news could turn out to be good. Uncle Blaze wasn't trying in the slightest to hide the stress in his expression. He knew I was there, but at the same time he was so intently talking to Uncle Eden that it felt like he had forgotten about my presence anyway.

     "What about that experimental stuff they gave her before? The first time she had it?" Uncle Blaze asked, daring to sound optimistic.

Gen Two- Chapter Thirteen

I had a moment or so to kill, so I snuck across to the other side of the first floor to see how things were progressing with Uncle Blaze and my brothers. I was sure to not let them notice me though, for they otherwise would have made me help them. The only reason I wasn't helping them then was because they thought I was still preoccupied with my previous task.

     "You want us to move it to the front side of the room? But we've always moved it to the back before. There's less heavy lifting and the tree is nice and visible from the street." Prism said in response to Uncle Blaze's unusual decision.

     "Who cares if other people can see our Christmas tree? We always have problems with the sunlight coming in through those front windows on Christmas morning. It ruins the pictures and forces us all to squint the whole time. If we move the piano and drums to the front and put the tree in the back, we won't have to worry about any of that."

     "This thing is so heavy though." Prism complained lightly, pouting at mom's piano.

     "Aren't you the one who's always working out?" Uncle Blaze laughed in disbelief, "What the point in building muscles if you don't put them to good use?"

I was sorely tempted to shout out that Prism only worked out so much just so he could brag, but the taunt wasn't worth getting myself involved in moving the piano that was indeed incredibly heavy.

     "If we're going to move it to the other side, let's pack up mom's planters first. There's no point in having them out now. They'll just get in our way." Wisp suggested.

     "Sounds good." Uncle Blaze agreed.

Gen Two- Chapter Twelve

I couldn't believe it wasn't even lunchtime yet. The morning had dragged on for so long I felt as if the day should already be over. However, the day had dragged on in a good way. The amount of leaves fallen in our yard had grown to a ridiculous amount. Truth be told, dad had always been the one to do the majority of the raking. He hadn't had his own yard to rake growing up, so that apparently translated to him loving to do it as an adult. With him now gone, the task had been left up to the rest of us. That meant it hadn't been getting done. In order to remedy the situation, my mom had made a deal with my friends that she would whip up a massive lunch with everyone's favorite dishes if they came over to help get the leaves into easily disposable piles. We would also be free to watch as much television or play as many video games as we wanted in the afternoon. It was a deal quickly agreed upon.

The leaves had long been raked as promised, although a second sweep would have to be done as our playing had scattered some here and there. Mom was still working on lunch, so we had time to kill anyway. The crazy amount of tall piles allowed us to try something we had never tried as a game before. It was boys against girls, and it was an all out fight.

Gen Two- Chapter Ten

I couldn't wipe the grin off my face, but Rosemary was have just as much trouble in that regard. Not that she had any desire to stop smiling though. It was my birthday party, but you would think it was hers given the sheer amount of joy radiating from her. Hesitant around the horses at first, she sat taller as the minutes passed on. I had asked to have my party at the stables to do something different from the normal celebration at the house or at the beach. There had been no deeper reasoning to it, but, as far as Rosemary was concerned, I might as well have already given her her birthday present. She waved to me grandly as she rode by.

Gen Two- Chapter Four

It had been hard to break out of my melancholy mood, but the challenge I was facing was finally beginning to surge some energy through me. My glazed over expression instead narrowed in determination as I had to now pay attention if I didn't want to get absolutely pummeled. I hadn't even noticed how far ahead in points Rosemary had gotten, or that she was now duking it out with Malachite for first place.

     "You're finally starting to learn." Malachite teased as he only just avoided letting Rosemary total his car with hers.

     "And soon you're not even going to have time to trash talk." she warned competitively.

Malachite simply shrugged and continued speeding along, but there was loud shouting and cursing on his part and raucous cheering on Rosemary's part when her car once again came out of nowhere to successfully annihilate Malachite's car off the track this time around.

     "Are you sure you don't want to pick a different place to read?" I asked the question to one of the others sitting on the other couch.

Gen Two- Chapter One

No life can be perfect.

I know that now. I know it very well. The agonizing heartbreak and sense of loss I face everyday refuses to let me forget just how greatly my life has changed from those early days. Back then, I did believe my life was perfect. I suppose it was ideal in a way, but there was no way for it to remain like that for eternity. I cry sometimes when I think about the better half of my childhood. Those days feel more like an illusion and hopeful wishing spurred on by the cruelty of a tragic event I can no longer change than a reality that had once been. I wish more than anything to return to that time. Return to it, and prevent everything bad that has happened from happening.

Starting with the day that triggered it all and destroyed my world of perfection.