1.1 A New Day

Venice woke up much later than she had planned. She stretched out across the bed, feeling for her fairy lover, who had stormed out last night in a huff after an argument. She still wasn't there. She'd never fought with Lilli before and now she was really concerned. Venice slid quietly out of the bed and grabbed the first clothes she found in the dresser, she slipped her arm under her sleeping son and gently lifted him out of the cot.

She dressed him in warmer clothes, in preparation for searching for Lilli, not even noticing she had only a crop top and shorts on herself, Venice rushed up the stairs as fast as she dared.

And nearly went head first over the suddenly appearing pool rail, she blinked, and blinked again to clear her head. It definitely existed, she reached out and touched it, just to make sure.

And a different stove, and what she assumed was a fridge, although she wasn't sure as it didn't make the same grind clunk death rattle noises as the other one.! Oddly paired, clearly second hand, but obviously not the antiquated white goods that came with the house!

Against the bathroom / kitchen wall was a brand new looking highchair.

And last of all, the best surprise, her beloved Lilliana was standing in the corner, arms crossed, but with a hint of a smile dancing across her face. "I am so, so, sorry Lilly, I never thought about your feelings, I was so worried when you left, this place is not right for you..", Venice blurted, all of her carefully rehearsed apologies crammed into one short, disjointed outburst.

"Shhh love" admonished Lilli, "Last night was my entirely my fault, after my mother disowned me and had me evicted from the palace, I kept telling myself everything would be fine, and I kept building this place up in my head". "By the time we passed the city limits and arrived here, I was expecting the queens summer palace, with prancing horses, and guardsmen at the gate."

"I truly am sorry Lil, I never thought how a place like this might affect you..." Venice started again.
"Will you Shush!" stated Lilli, "I need to apologize, not you. I expected far, far too much." Lilly leaned over and kissed Venice on the forehead, and took the opportunity to kiss Marcus on the cheek as well.

Lilly continued before Venice could try to apologize again, "But I stand by some of what I said yesterday, this place is a dog kennel, Sorry Gypsy." she smiled at the dog, "Now that I have had time to calm down, I am starting to see the potential that you have been seeing all along."

"Where did all this come from though, Lil? So many things and so quick?" Venice inquired, knowing now about Lilli's issues with her former family, she knew to steer the conversation in a new direction as quick as possible. Lilly urged her to sit and eat lunch while she explained.

Venice placed Markus in the new highchair, and placed a stable baby bowl in front of him, then she sat opposite Lil, and took the offered Autumn Salad.
"After yesterdays little tantrum, I went looking for a park to sulk in, I didn't find one immediately,  but I did find the local library, and found a map of the town.", Lilly said. "I was just wandering along collecting bits of this and that on my way, when I past the Landgraab Industries Science Facility. I keep feel the flavor of flame fruit in the air, so I wandered around the back, and rescued all the fruit and vegetables that I could".

"You did what?" asked Venice, shocked that her fairy friend would dare a little thievery. 'I mean if I was hungry, I'd snatch food, no probs, but Lil? So unexpected.'

Lilliana continued the tale, as if Venice had never interrupted. "I wandered around the town most of the rest of the day and, and sold everything I found, including a nice pink diamond, and ended up sleeping in a fairy bungalow in the park. I was still very angry and had planned on using the money to leave Elba."

"But, this morning I woke up as my usual adorable self, instead of the childish hot head I was yesterday", Lilly stated, poking her tongue out to prove she had grown out of her childish phase.
"So.." Lil recounted "I stopped in at the local junkyard, brought a few things, and paid to have everything installed and set up before you awoke. I even paid the guys a bonus if they got the job done without waking you." 

"Now, you go play with your son, so I can start a garden, before you start work." Lilli proclaimed, almost as if yesterday's argument had never happened. Lilli took both the empty plates and dropped them onto the sink sideboard, to do later. Lil ignored the urge to do them immediately, and headed outside to plant the seeds and some of the fruit that she had found the day before.

As Venice removed Marcus from the highchair, he managed to grab the half uneaten bowl of baby goop, and tipped it between them. Venice closed her eyes and cringed, as the now stone cold mush managed to trickle down into her bra.

"Ok, laddo, looks like back into pajamas for you, and another change of clothes for me!" Venice informed her giggling infant. A quick trip to the basement for less icky clothes, and back up stairs.
Venice approached her son making faces and wiggling her fingers like some deranged tentacle monster. "Right you, look out! Its tickle time",she pseudo-growled. Marcus was already giggling before the tickling started.

"Walking and talking time, next.", Venice informed her child. She began training her son to stand, and walk, Gypsy watched curiously as Marcus went from 'bum shuffling' to feet, then forward. "Clever boy!" Venice enthused, "So close, nearly there, again?". After a few more tries, it was becoming apparent that Marcus was getting tired, and had enough, when he turned around and crawled off to play with Gypsy's second favorite chew toy, which was lying unguarded.

Gypsy, realizing that Venice was no longer playing with Marcus, and that Marcus had hijacked her chew toy while she was distracted, climbed out of her bed, and trotted over to Venice for attention.
"Hey, I don't need to teach you how to walk!", laughed Venice, "But maybe its time I taught you some other tricks, like sit, and beg, and roll over."

Venice heard a car honking outside, just as Gypsy had learned to sit on command. "Damn, is that the time already", she asked herself, "I need to get changed again!".
Gypsy went back to her second favorite toy, scooping it to her chest with her front paws. "Eww, gross!", she thought to herself. "Baby spit!"

"Lilli! My rides here!", she called out, as she changed yet again, this time into her rent-a-groupie work uniform. "I got this", Lilliana replied, appearing at the front door as if by magic. "Hurry back to us, Sweetheart, and have fun at work!" Lil planted a kiss on Venice's cheek as she rushed past. Lilly glanced back over the temporary wooden fence around her very small and uninspiring garden, then went inside to do housework and look after Marcus.

"Hi, are you here to pick me up for the music job at the theater?" inquired Venice. "Yeah", replied the driver. Venice opened the door and slid onto the passenger seat. The driver accelerated away before she even clipped in her seat belt. "I'm Venice Jettstar, and I'm really excited to be starting this new job in the music industry, I want to be a great guitarist eventually, how about you? Venice asked, trying to make conversation. "I'm the car pool guy", said the car pool guy... and that was the entire conversation all the way to her first day in the new job.

Meanwhile Lilli played with Marcus, then fed him, and then played some more, and finally put him in his crib, were he snuggled the fairy bear she had given him as a newborn, and moments later, Marcus slept. "Whew", thought Lilli to herself, she had never had her own child, but her mother had made her work in the Arboretum as a youngling, assisting with the newborn fairies.

Human babies smelled worse when they where stinky, and with fairy babies you had to carefully wrap the wings so as not to damage them, until they grew and strengthened. That is the sum total of differences Lilliana told her self confidently. 'It's not so hard', she thought. Earlier she was more than a little nervous that she might mess up, and Venice would never let her look after Marcus by herself again. 

With Marcus asleep, and Gypsy napping quietly in the corner, Lilliana did the dishes, then decided to make waffles, she had hardly ever prepared her own food before, and was secretly both nervous and excited about this new found independence. Lilli thought 'waffles.. keep it simple'. 

The waffles were not perfect, not even close, just basic not burned waffles. "Look at me Ma.. I'm a Waffle Goddess!" she cried out in a quiet fake yell voice, bowing to the imaginary crowd. "Thank you, oh, thank you, you are all so kind", she fluttered her wings, pirouetting with her toes barely touching the floor. And with no more silliness, sat down to enjoy one of the very, very few dinners that she had cooked her self. With no instructions. With no kitchen staff. All by her self. First ever waffles, not even burnt. 'Gosh, I'm awesome', she thought, and initiated a dinner time waffle massacre.  

Lilliana finished her waffles, swept the plate off the table, and cleaned all the dishes, before deciding it had been a very long day, and that she was ready for bed. She checked on Marcus who was still sleeping soundly before returning back upstairs to shower. Lil reached into the shower and twisted both taps on full, waiting for the temperature to stabilize.

'Ah just right' she thought, 'Not to hot, not to cold, just right. Good pressure too!', she reached up to unbutton her shirt, but before she could even get the first one undone, there were two loud POP-BANG noises, as both sink taps shot off and hit the roof.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me!" Lilli groaned out loud, as she fished the taps out of the slowly expanding puddle in the floor, and attempted to put them back in place. She struggled to get the first one to stay in place, being rewarded with random water sprays, mainly in the face. Eventually after several minutes of struggling, Lilli finally managed to get the first wayward tap to stay in place. "Yes victory!" Lil informed the imaginary spectators, "Tap Goddess!, Well I will be when I fix the second one anyway!", Several more minutes if struggling saw her almost, nearly get the second tap into place.

“Stay on target!”,“Almost there.”,“Stay…on…target…”, Lilli mutters, finally getting the second tap in place, "OH MERCILESS SIMGODS!", she yells as both taps launch themselves to the heavens again, this time hard enough to leave small dents in the roof. "I just don't know how to do this" she groans, reaching for her mobile phone. "Hello services ..."

Lilliana sits at the kitchen table, eyes closed, barely awake, when there is a knock at the door.

"Hello Repair person" The weary fairy mumbles, at the dark, hazy shape outside the doorway.

"Lilli Rosebloom? I apologize for the lateness of the delivery, but the truck broke down in the middle of no-where again, and it took us ages to fix it." The repair man said. "I was on my way home and thought I'd try to deliver this now, because we won't be back in this area until next week.", The Repo man continued. "Sign here please."  

"Uh-huh", Lilly replied, squiggling something on the pad. "Have a nice night." said the reporter man and handed her a large parcel, then pulled the door closed behind himself and vanished into the night.

"What a nice reaper man", Lilly thought to herself as she slowly swayed. She was almost asleep on her feet when she realized something was weighing her down.

Opening her eyes enough for the pointy rays of lights to gently massage her brain into wakefulness, she finally realized what she was holding. "Hello darling, I've been waiting for you." she quietly informed the package. "You should have gotten here first, before any of us."

The unwrapped the package, left it in an appropriate and went to bed before she fell asleep again.

Venice finally arrived home from her first day of work, her plan to head straight for bed interrupted by a single obstacle. "Oh my god, a Pink Cheetah" she squealed,  "A Pink Cheetah!" She rushed over to grab the card in between the strings.

All My Love, Always And Forever, Lilliana.

Venice hugged the card to her chest for a moment before informing the guitar 'I'll see you tomorrow!'

Chapter Notes:
Venice clothes for the day are from all over the place I had some crashes where I lost game time, and others that I lost screen caps, and several that lost me both. So I weaved the story as best as I could around her continuous clothes swapping :)

 Lilly does not have any of the traits: absent minded, childish, excitable, hot headed, insane, klepto, neurotic, or over emotional. However, If you took a pinch of each these, (except hot head), added some sugar, and mixed it all into some colorful bubbly liquid, you might get some insight into her personality. Also, the extremely over emotional activity we are experiencing from Lil at the moment is due to the experience of being disowned and being truly independent with almost no experience at it, is by far, the most stressful thing that ever happened to her. This makes her so much fun to write!

Simoleons, confession time. After deducting the cost of the 20x20 lot and the cost of the house, and cross checking my hastily scribbled notes, my sims would have had §3 left, and an unpaid debt of §250 for having a create-a-pet dog. I used familyfunds to set the household at §3, and I decided to pay the §250 dog ownership tax at a later stage, while incurring a §250 a day late fee tax, I paid on day 5..   So seeing as my sims pet Gypsy, The Siberian Husky is based on a Siberian Husky that I owned, called Gypsy, who really did cost me thousand of really real dollars in fees and fines, I consider this justified rule bending for the sake of the story, and realism! :)

1.0 The Dog Box Of Doom

 The taxi pulls up at the lot, Lilliana steps out into the predawn light with Marcus snuggled in her arms and waits on the sidewalk. Venice passes some simoleons to the taxi driver, and joins Lilli on the footpath, then lets Gypsy off the leash, and reaches out for her son. "Shall we take a look at our new home?" Venice asks her fiance.

(Apologies for this shot, it was taken well out of sequence, and I had to hide things that I'd put in that didn't exist when the picture should gave been taken. Both of these house shots should be day time, a the sims first arrive Yay, stability issues! )

Venice reaches the front door and slides the key into the lock, looking back she sees Lilliana hasn't moved. "Whats a matter Lilli, are you coming?" Venice asks. After a lengthy silence Lilliana replies "It looks small, and its only got two windows, two tiny little windows, the whole front of the house, two tiny little, little, little windows". Lilliana was a fairy, fairies liked open spaces, fairies liked views, fairies liked views of open spaces. Whatever Venice had spent their money on, didn't look like views of open spaces, especially with two tiny little windows that where lacking in... lacking in... Viewability. Yes, definitely lacking in viewability.

Lilli put on what her mother called a brave face, and ventured forward to inspect the unexpected residence. A small voice in her head told her 'Its small, its got no windows, and its small too', she closed her eyes for a moment and silently wished the nagging voice to be silent. The small voice reminded her of her mother's 'I told you so' speech.

(My apologies for this shot too, it was also taken well out of sequence)

Lilliana's mother always thought her daughter spent far too much time in the city associating with humans and other supernatural riff-raff. Her mother was mortified when she told her she was moving to another town with her human girlfriend and her human son, the parting farewell included lashings of the phrases 'Don't come crying to me..' and 'I told you so...'. and something about more tattoos than a Bontoc Headhunter, as well as the words disowned and disinherited.

Lilli loves Vikki, er Vienna, like the sun loves moon, like the ocean loves the shore, but she doesn't love this... this... oversized doghouse in front of her. As her hopes and dreams shatter into a billion fragments, she takes a deep breath and heads for the front door, nearly falling into the indoor pool that takes up a third of the house.

Vienna drops Gypsy's bed and empty bowl on the floor in the corner. Instead of running around like a headless chicken inspecting everything in typical dog fashion, gypsy curls up on her bed. The Husky is feeling the apprehension in the air, that and she is trying to hide the empty chip packet she dragged in from outside.

Lilliana walks into the bathroom, the words 'dingy', 'pokey', 'squishy' spring to her mind. An antique toilet, shower, and sink are squeezed into the space. 'Not Impressed!'

The kitchen is open plan, or unplanned? A musty, moldy smell assaults her nostrils when she opens the old refrigerator door, the light blinks a few times before coming on. Holding back the urge to vomit, she moves across to the stove. 

'I haven't seen one of these stoves since I was a child!' thinks Lil. 'This has got to go too!' Lilly fumes. 'Urgh, what has V gotten us into? There isn't even a bedroom, how are we going to raise her son and have a life in this place?'  

Next to the kitchen, is a small room, even smaller than the bath room, assuming it is a broom closet, Lilly throws the door open to find a narrow spiral staircase, and tucking her wings behind her, she carefully descends the stairs .

The basement contains a rickety double bed, a reasonably modern cot, and a chest of drawers.
The basements one redeeming feature is two large viewing windows into the pool. Well, it would be redeeming if there was any light to filter through. 'I hate it, I absolutely hate it!' rages Lil.   

Lillian storms back upstairs to confront Vienna, painfully snagging one of her wings on the stairwell.
Venice is snuggling her son, with her back to the door when Lil returns to the ground floor. "So what do you think, Don't you love it?, it's got so much potential!" Venice gushes, not able to see the furious look on Lilli's face. 

"Hate it! Absolutely fucking hate it!" yells Lil, who never swears, "Its wrong, its so wrong, everything is damn wrong!" Lil vents. "There's four and a half windows, the kitchen is as old as my damn mother, the bathroom is so small I can't extend my damn wings!", rants the frustrated fairy building up steam.
"The bedroom is in the basement, for fucksake, like a damn vampires nest, a freaking vampire hideaway, I'm not a cursed vamp and I am so NOT sleeping in a basement!.
 "Worst of all!" Lil continues, almost reaching the peaks of hysteria, "There's no fucking fence, around the fucking pool! What if Marcus falls in and drowns! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!"

Venice takes a step back, she had never known Lilly to be furious, she had seen the fairy annoyed, and even irritated, and there was one time when Lilly even got angry, and used the word 'damn' twice!". Any time Lil wasn't happy, it had to do with her former life. "I.. I.. was thinking.. we couldn't afford a real home, straight away and... and this place has so much potential, once we spend some simoleons?", Venice stammered, not sure how to deal with this never before unseen side of her lover, her normal rock steady confidence cowardly deserting her.

"Its going to take a hell of a lot of simoleons to make this..this...deranged dog kennel into a home! Not a few, not some, a lot! And I seriously doubt we have a lot left!" Lil yelled.
Venice answered "3, 3 simoleons left to our name. Lil"
"Are you fucking kidding me!!!", Lil screams, "Aaargh, I need some air..FFFAAAARRRRKKKK!"
Lilliana turns the front door handle and kicking it open, flies out. Gypsy, sensing this is not the best place to be, abandons her recently found empty chip packet and skitters out through the opened door is search of some place less hectic.

Venice sat on the cheap tiled floor snuggling her son, but feeling completely numb, this she kept telling herself was 'the beginning of her happily ever after', and there was was nothing happy happening at all. Venice sat numbly on the floor gently rocking Marcus for what seemed like an hour waiting for Lilli to calm down and return. For the second time in her life since she escaped through the orphanage window, she cried. The first time was tears of joy at the birth of her son.These were burning hot tears of heartbeak.

By the time Marcus woke from his nap, there was no more tears, they had boiled dry, and Venice was drained. Glaring at the pool, and its inadequate lack of safety fencing, and all the other things within eyesight that were unsuitable for fairy or human living, Venice shifted Marcus to the other arm, and stepped outside to see what the town had to offer. She too, felt the need for clean fresh air.

 'Lilly was right' Venice mused wearily, 'She can only see the house as it is, right in front of her'. 'All I see is it's potential, what it can be, the future, which is unusual, because normally we think the other way around.

By the time Venice had regained her composure, and wrapped her head around the first real fight with her lover, she realized she was standing outside the Elba Village Public Library.   

The library was quiet and peaceful, with only a few locals quietly researching and studying. Venice spotted a large penned off area for children full of toys. She opened the gate, and put Marcus down in the middle, interested to see his reaction. Marcus spotted a xylophone and crawled for it, about halfway there, he then noticed a peg box, and changed direction.  Marcus proceeded to alternate between nomming on the pegs, dribbling all over his bat pajamas, and banging the box with the pegs.

Eventually he banged the peg in just the right spot and the peg fell through to the collection tray at the bottom. Marcus sat back, a look of concentration on his face at this new development, eventually he leaned forward and grabbed a new peg. Marcus shoved the corner of the peg into his mouth for a moment in case this helped, and then began banging the peg against the top of the box again.

Venice smiled to see her son playing joyfully and reached for some books on the nearest shelf. The books covered all sorts of sorts of topics from alchemy to horse riding, but she couldn't find anything about guitars, which is what she really wanted after spending most of her teen years around muso's
Eventually she grabbed a book on charisma, thinking maybe it might help when Lilli returns, she definitely had some making up and apologizing to do there.

After learning a little about charisma, Venice decided it was time to go home. She needed to visit the ladies room first, then change Marcus before the long walk home, his diaper leaking fumes she could smell halfway across the library. Upon leaving the toilet, Venice almost walked straight into a wild horse. 'Crazy teenage pranksters' she thought to herself, 'How else could a wild horse possibly appear inside a building?'

Venice grabbed Marcus, quickly changed his odorous diaper and exiting the building without showing her child the horse. 'There is hardly enough room for the dog, without bringing home a horse!' she reasoned. 

Venice gave Marcus a bottle, then slipped him into his crib, also putting in his only soft toy, a Fairy Scary Bear that Lilliana had bought him when he was born.

Venice, exhausted to the point of collapsing, slipped into her own bed alone, what little light still shining through the few little windows played merrily in the pool. The calming display lulled Venice to sleep almost instantly.

Meanwhile, on the other side if town.. (queue ominous music) on a lot, not that far from the public library, Lilliana had discovered the Landgraab Industries Science Facility. More accurately, she discovered that behind the facility, they had a small selection of unguarded, unharvested fruits and vegetables. Lilliana was a nice fairy, she wasn't a sneak  thief, but if left unattended, all these fruits and vegetables would just over ripen and rot here. That was a terrible waste in her mind, so she harvested as much as she could carry.

After Lilli had raided helped with the gardening, she found a broken fishing rod, and unwinding some of the tangled line from the reel she tied a small pebble to it, just above the hook.
She flicked the line into the water and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited.
Not a single bite, not a nibble, not even a nudge. Clearly she was not very good at fishing, which was a shame, she liked fish, because they were yummy!

On Lilli's way home she passed an unusual place with a two small signs out the front that declared "The Manwich Shoppe" and "Coming Soon", Intrigued by the name, Lilliana walked up the stairs and reached for the front door, it was locked. Lil raised a hand to her brow and peered through the window. The place was clearly some sort of store for oddities and warranted further inspection once opened. The store appeared to be fully stocked and ready for business. She hoped the 'coming soon' sign was serious and not just teasing her.

Lilli decided to cut across the empty paddock beside the shop when she notice the shop had a back yard full of interesting things. Lil was still mad at Venice, and even more so at herself, so she decided to check out what else she might find here, once it was opened, of course.

Lilliana looked over the small fence at the gaudy arcade grab machines, then she noticed a small fairy castle in once corner. At least this place wasn't completely uncivilized. Then she spotted the bee boxes, 'Mmmm', she thought,'I love honey!','I don't love bees though'. 'Bees are bullies, bees are meanies, bees are not my friends!' she shivered as she recalled the one time as a very, very, young fairy she had flown into a bee's nest to invite the queen to a tea party. Every fairy knows bees detest intruders in the hive, but nobody had ever told her. The results were painful.

Lastly, Lilliana noticed a very expensive Gem Cutting machine in the backyard. Lilli fished through her pockets frantically searching. Old bus ticket, nope, mothers secret cookie recipe, well half of it, nope, a brightly colored bird feather, nope, a bit of silly space rock, a tiny section of cast off snake skin, a little limp of gold, no, no, no, then finally, gems!

Lilli was the most Magpie-like fairy that she knew, she could not help herself. She just loved finding things, shiny things, colorful things, all sorts of things, she was a collector. Her collection of gnome statues that she had left behind at her mothers was so big that ... 'Stop it, fluffy head!' she told herself.

Lilliana stretched her wings and jumped-hopped-flittered over the fence, landing gently in front of the shiny Gem-u-cut 9000. "Hrm", she thought out loud. Lilli had seen her mother use her one of these a dozen times, but rarely stayed for the whole process, as the machine was so noisy. Lil focised her attention, 'If I can only remember the settings, and how to start it!'.

Lilliana strained her brain, trying to picture her mother at the machine, and eventually recalled the activation sequence, but couldn't for the life of her remember any of the fancy settings. Lilli wasn't game to fine tune any of the cut settings, her mother had warned her that one lever in the wrong place would destroy the machine forever, and this was not her machine to break.

Lilliana activated the start up sequence, and dropped the first Bloodstone into the funnel, then she pulled the kinetic spring lever, and GRRRRR, RRAARR, GRIND-CLUNK, GRIND-CLUNK, bzzzzz, RRAARR, Boing. Lilli firmly planted her hands over her ears, she had forgotten how loud and annoying the noise made by the cutter was. It was like listening to a Banshee that had slammed its fingers in a car door!

Eventually the machine's end cap opened up revealing a shiny emerald cut bloodstone, she was hoping for a moon or sun cut, or at least a heart cut. "Oh well, at least I didn't have to pay someone to cut it!" she said out loud. Lil then looked around to make sure no-one heard her talking to no-one.
'Although, if there was someone there to hear me, I would be talking to someone, not no-one, so that is not so embarrassing!' Lil concluded, happy with her leaps and loops of logic.

'You are doing it again, fluffy head!' She told herself. Lillies mother had become slightly absent minded in her old age, and Lilli was afraid that she may be developing the same trait.It was starting to get dark, and Lilli had four more gems of varying worth to cut.

Chapter Notes:
From Launching the launcher, Loading the save, to being able to interact with my sims takes on average takes 15-16 minutes.
Playing time last from 1-12 sim hours most times before the sims crashes at present. Providing the damaged laptop I use doesn't have a fit or crash first. Clearly, I love a challenge :P

The horse in the library was originally intended to end up down here under notes, but I thought of a way to squeeze into the story :)