Always Keep Simming - A Day In The Life Of A Very Mindful, Very Demure, Very Not-mad Scientist

Always Keep Simming - A day in the life of a very mindful, very demure, very not-mad Scientist

… don’t you agree?👻🔮🧪

Sims In Bloom: Generation 2 Pt. 61 (Conrad's Childhood Memories)

cw: parental death, terminal cancer

"Come on, Conrad, if it gets too late the snow won't be good for building snowmen anymore! Can you even hear me with those things on your ears?"

"You know I hear you fine when you're two feet away from me, Malcolm. I only need them until I'm big enough for surgery."

"Then let's go!"

"Just a second. I've almost beaten the high score."

"Isn't that the same high score you've been trying to beat for weeks?"

"I almost had it! Whoever this ButtercupNesbeets is, they're amazing at this game!"

"If you think they're so amazing, why don't you marry them?"

Conrad turned up his nose. "Ew, gross. We're ten!"

"Well if they're not important enough to marry, it's not important enough to beat their high score! Let's go!"

Conrad followed Malcolm to the street. They passed his parents, Nancy and Geoffrey, whispering about something. Conrad thought he heard them say his name, but he knew it was impolite to ask - especially since his father was employed as the head of billionaire Chester Landgraab's security team.

They took the elevator down over one-hundred stories. Older brick rowhouses still stood in the shadow of skyscrapers, like the luxury Spire Tower where Malcolm lived with his family.

The boys built their snowman, laughing and carefree as they caught fresh flakes of snow on their tongue. Malcolm didn't make friends easily - his name scared other kids away, and his snobbish demeanor didn't endear him to those who weren't intimidated by the Landgraabs. But Conrad was kind to everyone, and his father's job meant he couldn't avoid spending time with Malcolm.

He was always quick with a rude remark if he didn't get his way, but Conrad spent enough time with Malcolm to see the side that feared never measuring up to his family's expectations. The side that loved music as much as Conrad loved video games.

The boys stood proudly in front of their finished snowman, then shared mischievous grins before knocking it down.

Cold crystals of snow flew through the air, burning their cheeks, but they laughed harder than they had since the time they pranked Malcolm's Uncle Johnny with pink dye in his showerhead.

Conrad's father stood at the edge of the snowy sidewalk. "Boys, it's getting late! Time to head in!"

"You're home!" Conrad cried, racing to give his father a hug. "I thought you'd be in Tartosa with Mr. Landgraab until the end of the week!"

"I had better reason to come home," he said, but sad eyes betrayed his smile as they were joined by Conrad's mother. Her lavender-coloured hair was her signature - the thing that let her stand out in a sea of grey suits and pressed style in busy San Myshuno, but the expression on her face was sallow and defeated.

"Are you alright, Mrs. Gordon? You don't look so good."

Malcolm's innocent question tipped Conrad's parents over the edge and both let tears drip down their cheeks. Conrad had never seen his father cry, and it frightened him. Stephen Gordon was always so stoic.

"What's going on?"

"One of my guys will get you home, Malcolm, but it's time to come on home, son. Your mother and I want to talk to you about something."

That was the start of the worst conversation of Conrad's life. "Your mother has cancer," his father explained. "But the doctors are going to do everything they can to make her better."

Conrad's lip quivered. "What do you mean? Won't the doctors be able to fix her like they're gonna fix my ears?"

"They hope so, son."

Next to his father, Conrad's mother sat quietly, with a lost look in her eyes. She was never at a loss for words.

He put his arms around her and smiled. "You'll be alright, Mom. Dad and I will take care of you."

As if pulled from a trance Helena smiled for her son, returning his embrace with a soft smile. "I know you will," she said. "But you're just a kid. I'm supposed to be taking care of you."

Years passed. Conrad got his ears fixed, but he cared much less about his own health than his mother's. He and his father shuffled her to and from her appointments week after week, year after year.

They learned never to trust a good test result, because no matter what doctors did to help, she got sicker. When she lost her gorgeous lavender hair to chemotherapy, she cried for days, and Conrad grew angry. He hated seeing her put herself through so much pain only for her health to get worse.

He hated the world for putting her through hell. But his father begged him not to burden her with his resentment in her condition, so he spent the hours between her naps keeping her company in her room.

"There's this new mobile game I like to play when I finish my homework. I've almost got the high score but there's always this one user with the best score for so many games I play. I can never beat them. I don't know who they are, but I think maybe they're just some weird vegan who does nothing but play video games all day."

His mother tried to raise a smile. "What makes you say that?"

"Their name is ButtercupNesbeets - like the new meat substitute everyone keeps talking about from that small town that's really old - Henley-on-Bagford or something."

"Henford-on-Bagley. I went there once. Made friends with a red fox."

Helena held tighter to all her memories these days. She knew she was dying and would give almost anything to stop it, but there was no cure for what she had. Her treatments were beginning to break her, and Conrad and his father could both see it.

But she pulled herself together for her son's fifteenth birthday. Doctors said she was rallying, but she seemed healthier. Happier. Conrad begged himself not to get attached to the idea she was healing. He'd watched her get sicker for years.

But he basked in this period when she could get out of bed, laugh, smile, and even make a trip to the Copperdale Fair. Conrad's parents fell in love on the midway there, and they'd always talked about returning with their son.

Helena Gordon was determined to see through one final dream. She rode the old Ferris wheel and posed for photos with her husband and son. She'd avoided cameras ever since she'd lost her hair, but she wanted to capture this time in a bottle and let her husband and son carry it with them after she was gone.

Conrad would always remember the trip more fondly than any other memory of his parents, but Conrad's fifteenth birthday was the last his mother would ever see.

The men she left behind faced grief in different ways, but would always lean on each other in the years after her death. ->

<- Previous Chapter | Gen 2 Start | Gen 1 Summary | Gen 1 Start

NOTE: Writing this almost brought me to tears because I have fallen so hard for Conrad. His story is so tragic in so many ways, and I can't remember the last time I was this invested in the life of some pixels I was playing around with. He just intrigues me so much and I loved getting the chance to drop little Easter eggs about his future with the ButtercupNesbeets herself, and tiny dickhead Malcolm was fun to play with, too.

This isn't even all backstory there is to tell. Conrad and his dad, Stephen, will definitely be seen again in the past, but it will probably get a content warning, too, because a lot of their story is pain.

Did someone say Addams Goth Family?

Bella & Cassandra Goth by @gunthermunch Alexander Goth inspired by @puppycheesecake ❤️

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✦ Bella ⊱ Hair | Necklace | Dress | Pumps ✦ Mortimer ⊱ Hair | Suit | Shoes* ✦ Cassandra ⊱ Hair | Glasses | Choker | Top | Skirt | Sandals ✦ Alexander ⊱ Hair | Glasses | Top | Pants | Shoes ✦ Emily Emory ⊱ Hair | Cap | Dress | Pumps ✦ Bonehilda ⊱ Paranormal Activity

*Base Game

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C R E A T O R S

Bella @aladdin-the-simmer @madlensims

Mortimer @okruee @birba32

Cassandra @okruee @pralinesims @serenity-cc @satterlly

Alexander @johnnysimmer @laeska @mlyssimblr @adrienpastel-blog

Emily Emory @daylifesims @sentate @astya96cc @madlensims

ANA - She was one of my very first sims/ocs I made way back in The Sims 1 and it was definitely fun to bring her back and remake her in TS4. 💜 She has an orange cat named Pumpkin (very original I know afskjfldk). Her favorite season is Fall and if she was an npc you would see her hangout in Magic Town 💀💜 [her lookbook's coming soon <3]

love is blossoming between juno & cassandra 🏹 ˚.⁺⊹🌹⋆ ˚🍓

New home ˖⁺‧₊˚🎧✮💿✮📷✮˚₊‧⁺˖

Thanks to @deardiaryts4 for the inspo! A few months ago you said that one of Dulce's outfits reminds you of Hannah Montana, so I tried to make Dulce's home y2k-ish inspired... IDK THIS WAS THE PINTEREST BOARD. Maybe when she has more money and a big house we'll commit more to the style lol.