Gen Four- Chapter Five

I waited, frozen. It could very well be that this abrupt tense situation had nothing to do with what I'd done. My panicking mind couldn't think of anything other than that grandpa had been hurt somehow, which wasn't any better, but maybe there was something I missed.

Or there wasn't.

     "I will give you one opportunity," dad bent forward, linking his fingers together seriously and studying to me, "to tell me why you think we're here like this."

My hands shook, so I clasped them upon on another as well. The innocent, unknowing expression I tried to hold fell impossibly fast while my stomach vigorously churned. I'd been caught. Someone figured out I'd altered DV2. Still, a stupid and naive part of me kept me silent. What if that wasn't it? Could I have accidentally done another troublesome thing without realizing it? What if they only thought I'd taken Mr. Plantain's keycard?

     "Nutmeg," dad prodded.

My gut burned with fire.

     "I..." My voice barely made any noise. "I took Mr. Plantain's keycard and used it to sneak into the robot room to mess with DV2's code."

Gen Four- Chapter Four

Dad worked on something during lunch. I couldn't find grandpa, so I downed the granola bar from my packed lunch and called my meal over. My whole body burned with a rage that tickled sweat on the back of my neck. Every vein pulsed with indignance while my stomach protested the thought of anything more than those quick bites inside it. Thus, my lunch break turned into me furiously bolting around the track again and again until my lungs could hardly keep up. Even then I kept going. With each step I imagined Ms. Cranberry's face underneath my foot. The harsh impact of my heel into her stupid mouth spouting lies worked wonders in keeping me from exploding.

The only truth she'd given me was that I had been a bit stupid. Stupid to expect anything of value from her. I wonder if I would have caught her off guard revealing I knew about her and dad's little get-together.

Gen Four- Chapter Three

In order to make up for the crummy Monday, on Tuesday Mr. Mint said we could have classes outside. It meant more effort for him as he had to trudge everything with us and rely more on traditional media like paper and pencils than the computers and stuff we typically used. We both worked with increased vigor though. The serious lack of windows meant being cooped up inside all day most days had us suffering from a lack of vitamin d among the other benefits of being connected to nature. It was why I spent a lot of my time outside when at home.

     "That was a terrible story," I complained, closing my book firmly.
     "Was it actually poorly written, or is it terrible because it has an unfortunate ending?" Mr. Mint probed studiously.
     "Both. I don't like it because it makes me feel sad. It's also badly written because the situation is deliberately set up to make the girl's death inevitable. No real organization would allow such shoddy engineering where a small amount of additional weight would require the pilot to jettison the girl out the airlock. They'd save more money and resources that they're trying to conserve if they use more of those resources to allow a margin of error. Then the flights wouldn't be so risky and catastrophic if something small goes wrong."
     "A fair point," Mr. Mint acknowledged. "Because you had good reasoning, I'll save this reading of 'A Good Man is Hard to Find' for another day."
     "What, is it another depressing story?"
     "Mayhaps," Mr. Mint smirked.
     "Why are you giving me all these harder-to-read dark tales anyway?"
     "Despite your dislike of most literature, you read at an exceptionally high level. These are standard stories for study, and I thought it'd be best to get them out of the way so I don't have to continually throw them at you."
     "I'd rather you actually throw the book at me if it meant I didn't have to read them," I mumbled.

Mr. Mint just laughed.

Gen Four- Chapter Two

Neither of us knew how to react. I knew most people in the building and had formed the basic, pleasant general relationship one has with acquaintances on average at least twenty years older than you. Mr. Sterling though, well, he was essentially a ghost to me. A figure I saw only rarely and who only ever flashed a quick appearance in the corner of my eye before he impossibly darted off. Seriously, maybe he could walk through walls. I'd tried to follow him once or twice, and it was if he'd vanished from reality.

     "Good afternoon, Nutmeg," he greeted quietly and meekly.

I stopped his attempt at walking by by moving in his way. Needing to move down the hallway I blocked, he was trapped between getting to his destination and knowing walking in the opposite direction wouldn't help him.

     "Hey, Mr. Sterling, can I talk to you for a moment?" A bold request on my part, and one I knew he wouldn't accept.

     "Unfortunately, there's something I must take care of. If I could be on my way."

He sighed and rubbed at his forehead when I jumped to halt him once more.

Gen Four- Chapter One

One of the most difficult questions I've ever attempted to answer in my life is one many have pondered...what does it mean to be a good person? Or, likewise, what does it mean to be a bad person? I've known people I believed to be good who turned out to be absolute monsters. There are those who the world shuns as horrible when all I've ever known from them is kindness. Can a lifetime of repentance undo the worst of crimes? Can one terrible action dissolve every honorable act done until then?

I don't have an answer after all this time. Honestly, I don't think it's a question that can be answered. All one can do is take a look at the situation before them and judge to the best of their ability with their heart and mind. Such a conclusion was a long time in the making. It was during the late summer in my tenth year when I first had to ponder that above question, but it's probably best to go back a little before that. I'll start with a certain Friday. A day with a bright sun, lively early summer breeze, and moment after moment of subtle changes to my stagnant life.

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 Forty (FINAL)

For all the impossibly long months of pain and waiting for a pregnancy to complete, the moments after the children arrived defied time. In a way, it passed as it'd passed that night with Arbor. The minutes flowed onward even as they ceased to exist. I lay in a bubble of calm and quiet where my mind couldn't fathom what lurked on the horizon. My body rested deeply in the cushioned mattress overwhelmed by exhaustion, a bit of blood loss, and an extreme amount of comforting hormone surges that was its attempt to convince me that maybe I would want to do this again in the future. Little of the pain lingered, perhaps because of that or perhaps because of the epidural still kicking. I cringed at any small idea of moving or focusing on the sounds of Russet and Timber on the other side of the wall. Sterling kicked them out not long after the second girl had been successfully delivered. He told them they weren't needed while he helped me through the after stages of labor, which was majorly true. The real reason for having them leave, of course, was to provide him and I a chance to talk privately if needed.

     "You've got two happy babies here," Sterling, having ditched the stuffy delivery outfit as soon as he could, gushed while he held the younger of the two girls, "She's smiling already. Probably because she knows she has a great mama who held on through a lot to have her here."

     "Hell yes I have," I laughed quietly, "Oh, I only wish mom could have been here. She had this big plan for the birth of her first grandchildren. How we could talk now that I can see what it was like for her to give birth to Gilly and me..."

     "You'll have the opportunity, I'm sure." Sterling encouraged optimistically.

Gen Three- Chapter Thirty Nine

These plants were something else. It was one thing to be told by my older family members of the good crazy things organizations like The Company could create, but to see new marvels for myself proved an inspiration when little else bolstered my spirits. The grapes, lettuce, potatoes, and even the dang watermelons- it was now January and those adorable plants grew with all their hearts. The help of the special light, soil, and modification to their seeds allowed them to produce more of themselves again and again ignoring their normal life cycle. I could pick off one of those watermelons, enjoy it as a snack, and have another one within two weeks. Monitoring them was a highlight of my day, leaving the months to come and go more enjoyably.

Because more months had passed. It was indeed January. Gilly, Confetti, Arbor, and I should have moved into our new house, Gilly and Confetti should have been well settled in their jobs, and I should have finished my first semester at Zenith Peak's university with Ethereal, Ephemeral, Morning, Cream, Pumpkin, and all those guys. Uncle Prism had even promised me a scene as an extra in a movie that wouldn't get cut this time. But, no...everything like that had been stolen away. Christmas had come and gone with me being stuck, and the new year had started. I thought of Confetti and Arbor the most right now. Arbor had only chosen to move because of me, and Confetti had planned her life working on the assumption she'd be with my sister forever. I doubt she thought to continue the move. Even becoming a masseuse had been done in order to stay with Gilly. What did she envision for her life now with all that gone? I placed my hand on my stomach. If...when I got out of here, I wished to make her the godmother of the older twin while Apple would be the godmother for the younger one. Maybe it might help in some way.

Gen Three- Chapter Thirty Eight

Sensitive content this chapter

It'd been about, oh, five minutes since the sound of my heavier footfalls on the treadmill and deep, labored breathing overwhelmed the sound coming from the television mounted on the wall. There was a remote if I wanted to turn it up, but the stupid thing had fallen out of the cubby and onto the floor. No way I was going to pick it up. I barely paid attention to the television anyway. If I  stopped for a second my body would refuse to let me restart the workout. It'd been two months, and the routine I set for myself strengthened me faster than ever before. I woke up at eight, ran for twenty minutes, took a cool shower, ate breakfast, did my work with the plants in the corner, watched television for a bit, and then worked out until lunch. That was where I currently was in the schedule. Still, my body protested all the time for I simply didn't have that athletic bug like Gilly had. I shook my head as I thought of her- as the brief glimpse of that picture of her and Merlot's dead bodies burned itself into my memory. I wouldn't force it out as I used the anger of it as motivation, but at the moment it was the wrong kind of motivation.

     "Dia?"

I tried not to jump as a head peeked into the door. The sounds of my struggle had masked the entrance of someone coming downstairs. My visitors were limited to two people. Timber or his dad. Occasionally the both of them when Timber insisted I needed cheering up. We'd watch television or eat a meal together. I waited in that moment for Timber to poke his head inside my bedroom as well, but Russet was alone. I refused to call him Mr. Mountain now. He didn't deserve the honor.

     "I was able to get what you asked me for." he relayed, holding up a plastic bag with several boxes inside.

     "Thanks. Just let me do my cool down and change into something better. Grab one of the dining table chairs and set it in front of the mirror in the bathroom, yeah?"

     "Sure."

Gen Three- Chapter Thirty Seven

Sensitive topic matter addressed this chapter

Waking up this time could not have been more different than it was this morning. Yesterday morning? There was no way to tell the time as my eyelids slowly fluttered open. The unfamiliar room that held me offered no windows or even a clock to let me know how long I'd been out. Dread consumed me from the instant my consciousness hesitantly returned to when I lay there in a gentle daze working through the pain exacerbating the headache I'd had. I went with the routine of wriggling my fingers and toes before moving onto my wrists and ankles before daring to move my legs, arms, waist, back, and neck. Movies and video games were bad proponents of the concept that a person could be physically knocked out without any consequences. No matter how one did it there would be injury in some way, and depending on the type of hit one could face internal bleeding, clotting, or stroke. My lone relief flittering inside my chest was that Timber had clearly done some kind of research. He'd gone for one of the safer spots to take me out. The headache flared over every inch of my skull, but everything else seemed to be working fine.

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."

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 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.