Chapter 1.3 - Missed Opportunities

The day Ophelia got her first promotion, she got up the nerve to do something she'd wanted to do for a while.

"Hey, Jon."

"Yeah, I was wondering if you wanted to go to Mick's with me tonight."

"Great! See you there!"

He wasn't there yet when she arrived, which didn't worry her too much. She just set herself up at the pool table, hoping he showed up before anyone else realized she was playing pool with herself. But when an hour passed, and then another, she began to realize what probably should've been obvious from the start: he wasn't showing up. She was frustrated, but determined not to let it get her down. He'd probably gotten hung up at work and forgotten to text her.

To distract herself, Ophelia looked around the karaoke bar. Most of its occupants were over 60 (maybe it was Seniors' Night), but there was one woman by the window having a hushed phone conversation. Wannabe detective that she was, naturally Ophelia eavesdropped.

"You said you were free tonight!"

"Yes, I know your job is important..."

"Alright, but I expect you to spend the whole weekend with me."

Once she hung up, Ophelia walked over to her. If she couldn't spend the evening with Jon, she could at least make a new friend.

"Do you want to play Monsters vs. Aliens?"

The woman, who told Ophelia her name was Heather, agreed. They spent a good amount of time playing the arcade game and complaining about the men in their lives.

After a while, Ophelia even managed to convince Heather to do a round of karaoke.

After they were done, the elderly woman who'd been their only audience shook her head. "Don't quit your day jobs."

Still, Ophelia left Mick's feeling alright. Maybe she hadn't spent the evening quite the way she'd wanted to, but she'd made a friend.

That didn't mean she was giving up on Jon, though.

"Jon, hey."

"I want to go to the pool, and I'd really appreciate it if you didn't stand me up this time."

"Yeah, I know, but it wasn't fun."

"I'd better actually see you there."

She could tell he'd come straight from work (not that he didn't dress like that all the time, but he only wore the eyeliner on stage), but she was just glad he really had shown up.

"Jon! Great to see you!"

He smiled and said, "Same to you, Ophelia," but there was something different about the way he said it. Something a little bit... closed off, maybe. She couldn't quite tell, but she was determined to find out.

"Anyway, I asked you out to celebrate my promotion! You're looking at the Riverview Police Department's newest official Desk Jockey!"

"Congratulations, that's great!" He sounded sincere, but still a little off. She decided to push on anyway.

"Anyway, Jon, I was wondering... if we could maybe make this a real date?"

He looked... uncomfortable. That wasn't good. "Um, Ophelia... I have a girlfriend."

She stopped, shocked. "Really? Since when?" She'd thought he'd been giving out signals, but...

"It's a recent development, but it's pretty serious."

"Oh. That's... that's great, Jon! I'm... I'm really happy for you."

Then she made a beeline for the pool before she embarrassed herself further.

As she jumped in, she berated herself. This was why she didn't do stuff like this! She'd always been insecure about guys and dating and all of that, she could admit that, and she'd needed time before she felt confident enough in Jon's feelings to admit her own. It just figured that in that time, he'd give up waiting on her... if he ever liked her in the first place. She'd thought he had, but maybe she'd just been misreading the signals because she liked him so much. Or maybe he'd liked her, but just to the same extent that he liked everyone. She knew some guys would flirt with anyone, she just hadn't thought Jon was one of them. And she'd really thought he'd been jealous of Luke McDermott... but maybe he'd just been concerned. She didn't know, and right now she couldn't get into a detailed analysis. She had to make sure she wasn't crying more than the water of the pool would disguise. She'd really liked him... but she supposed she'd have to get over that now.

If she could no longer be with him, she at least wanted to try to be friends. After all, they'd been friends up until this point, and she refused to be the kind of person who made things awkward with a friend because they didn't want to be more than that. So when he got into the pool, she splashed him. Maybe it was a little harder than was absolutely necessary, but she couldn't help that. Then he splashed back, and they had a nice splash fight (which she won).

After she won the breath-holding contest too, the tension was almost gone from the outing. Ophelia managed to keep her feelings contained until she got home.

When she was home, after a long analysis session (with some tears thrown in), she made a phone call.

"Heather, please tell me why men are like this?"

She told her friend the whole story, minus names, but she was sure Heather probably knew the people involved but would pretend she was entirely oblivious. After all, that's what friends did.

"Yeah, you're probably right. I'll keep my distance and try to get over the leftover feelings. Thanks for the talk."

But despite her promise to Heather, Ophelia soon found herself in possession of a poster for Jon's band. She had plenty of excuses for why she had it: she'd wanted to support her local theater, they were on sale, she liked the music. But she knew the true reason she found herself detouring to the spare room more and more often lately. The leftover feelings still lingered, no matter how much she tried to shove them to the back of her mind.

Author's Note: Heavy handed symbolism? In my blog? Never! Actually Ophelia rolled My Precious and I wanted the theme to be something I could easily feature in storytelling. Therefore there will be a good deal of heavy-handed symbolism from here on out. I have pictures for about two more chapters, so hopefully they will be out soon. I've promised myself I won't play again until I write the chapters I already have, so that should motivate me. Next time: Ophelia gets another potential love interest, because I can't stop myself I suppose.

Chapter 1.2 - The Best Medicine

Ophelia had just gotten home from work one day when she got an unexpected call.

"Hello?"

"Yes, of course I remember you."

"Well, maybe not, but you certainly weren't forgettable."

"Alright. Where?"

"That's not exactly what I was thinking, but okay."

And that's how Ophelia found herself headed to the Riverview Fish Hatchery that Monday evening.

When she got there, it was fairly easy to find the sim who'd invited her. "So, Luke. Is there any particular reason you invited me here?"

She'd seen Luke McDermott around town a few times since that awkward picnic dinner, but she'd never really had a significant conversation with him.

"Well... mostly I just felt like I needed to talk to someone. Ginny and I... well, we've been having problems lately, and I don't really have anybody I can talk about them with. I've always been a pretty private person, but that means that when I can't talk to Ginny, I don't really have anyone I can talk to. I know we don't know each other too well, and I know I made a pretty bad first impression, but... you're new in town. You don't have any reason to tell me anything but your honest opinion. And I'd really like to make a new friend." He shook his head, looking a little surprised. "And now I'm rambling at you. The second impression probably isn't going too well, either."

"I don't mind a little rambling. You said you needed a friend, and honestly, so do I. So as long as you don't mind hearing about my problems every so often, I don't see how I could object to hearing about yours."

Then she paused. "I do have one question though: why the fish hatchery?"

"Oh, it was just where I was going anyways. I spend a lot of time out fishing nowadays."

They talked for what felt like hours, about his marital problems and her job frustrations.

It had already gotten completely dark when Ophelia's phone rang.

She could see from the caller ID that it was Jon, and she felt a pang of regret as she hit the "decline call" button. But it was horrifically rude to answer the phone in the middle of a conversation, especially when the person you were talking to obviously needed genuine human connection like he needed food.

Still, it wasn't too long before she left. It was getting late, and she had work in the morning.

But as she walked away, she looked back at the man still standing in the middle of the fish hatchery. She hoped he'd be alright in the end.

When she got home, Ophelia dialed a number that was becoming quite familiar to her.

"Hey, Jon. I'm really sorry about earlier, I was in the middle of a conversation."

"Luke McDermott."

"Yes, I know he's married. What do you think he wanted to talk about?"

"I was thinking that I wanted to try to make him smile. That man needs more laughter in his life."

"After all, they say laughter is the best medicine."

"Why are you so hung up on this? I'm telling you, it wasn't a date. We went to the fish hatchery! No one who wanted to romance a girl would take her to the fish hatchery."

"No, Jon, I can't meet you somewhere right now. It's the middle of the night and I have work in the morning. I guess this is prime time for you stars, though."

"No, Jon. I'm not a star."

Author's Note: What? Another chapter done already? I have at least two more chapters worth of material that I've promised myself I'll publish before I can play again, so these will be coming out pretty quickly. Also just slightly dramatizing what happens in game still leads to insane amounts of drama. I swear this stuff writes itself.

Chapter 1.1 - A New Beginning

Ophelia Peregrine, like so many other young Sims, had come to a new town with only a few simoleons and a dream. Unfortunately, her endeavor hadn't gone quite the way she'd expected so far. Her simoleons had gone far enough to buy a cute little house, which she'd purchased before she even moved to town.

However, the realtor had failed to mention that she'd be sharing her property with a ghost.

Actually, scratch that: several ghosts. Several ghosts who apparently no longer had to adhere to public indecency laws.

"Ghosts," Ophelia grumbled. "I moved to Riverview because it's supposed to be a bucolic small town. Nobody ever mentioned ghosts!"

If she'd had any other kind of infestation, Ophelia would have been able to call someone to deal with it. But since (in her opinion) no sensible person foresaw the need to have the Ghostbusters on speed dial, she had no idea what to do about this particular issue. Therefore, she went to her default coping mechanism: avoidance. She decided that maybe, just maybe, if she left the house for a little while, the ghosts would be gone when she got back. Or, alternatively, she'd be able to find some way to get rid of them.

The first thing she did was head over to the police department to pursue her dream of becoming a quirky small town forensic scientist, who would inevitably be called upon to solve crimes that stumped even the greatest of detectives (Ophelia was a big fan of both mystery novels and police procedurals).

That, too, didn't go quite as expected. When she asked how she would go about becoming a forensic scientist, the sim at the front desk told her that unless she had a fancy degree (she didn't), she was going to have to work her way up from the bottom. So now she had a job that seemed to mostly consist of getting coffee and occasionally filling out paperwork. She guessed it was a paying job, but it was so far below what she'd hoped to be doing that she couldn't be happy about it.

Ophelia wanted to go home now, but she was in no mood to have to face the ghosts, so instead she went to the library. She resolved to bury herself in a book for a few hours. That always made her feel better. But she was still trying to find a book when she heard a voice.

"What's a girl like you doing in a place like this?"

She turned around, ready to give him a piece of her mind, then saw the smile on his face that made it clear he was joking.

He held out his hand. "Jon Lessen. Nice to meet you."

She shook it. "Ophelia Peregrine. Likewise."

"So what does bring you here? Just wanting to read is an entirely valid answer."

Ophelia hesitated, but she honestly really just needed to vent. "Do you know if Riverview has a ghost problem? Because I just got to town, and there are three ghosts in my house! They won't go away! I refuse to share my house with the long-dead ghosts of random strangers." She shook her head. "We never had to deal with ghosts in Starlight Shores."

Jon nodded. "I wouldn't call it a ghost problem, exactly, but we certainly have a few haunted houses. Everyone knows the Jones place is haunted, and I'm assuming you moved in to the old house on Ely Court. It's a cute place, but everyone around here knows about the ghosts. I think the city's been trying to work up some way to get rid of ghosts. I can make some calls..."

"I'd really appreciate if you could."

He grinned at her. "Anything for a pretty girl." 

And sure enough, after about half an hour, Ophelia got a phone call.

"Hello?"

"Ophelia Peregrine? This is Job Lankste from the Riverview Repo Department. I hear you have a ghost problem?"

"Yes! If you could deal with it, that would be great. Just send me the bill or whatever, I want those ghosts out of my house."

After she hung up, Ophelia thought briefly about Jon. He really had lived up to his promise to get the ghosts out of her house. She would have to thank him.

Ophelia knew that she could go home now... but she didn't.

She told herself that she wanted to play chess. There wasn't a chessboard at her house, so she had to go to the park to play. That made sense... right? She absolutely wasn't playing chess with herself for two hours just to make sure the ghosts were gone by the time she got back. That would be ridiculous.

After the chess, a couple invited her to share their picnic dinner, and she joined them. Because she wanted company, not because she didn't want to go home. Not that they were great company. They fought the whole time she sat there, not seeming to pay much attention to her. She tried to tune them out, but certain phrases jumped out...

"If you have it your way, I'll be sleeping on a bench at the park soon! Do you want your husband sleeping out here like a hobo?"

"Better than not knowing whose bed you're in!"

"I already told you, I was out fishing!"

"I bet you were, out all night like that!"

Ophelia ate as quickly as possible.

Eventually, though, she was very tired and knew she had to go home. She, like the man she'd eaten dinner with, had no desire to sleep on a park bench tonight.

When she got there, though, she was extremely displeased.

The ghosts still hadn't been disposed of.

Ophelia was angrier than she'd been in a long time when the phone rang as soon as she got inside.

"What is it now?"

"Well, it turns out legal technicalities mean I have to be home while he takes care of the ghosts. What's that about? They kick you out of your house while you have an insect infestation, why not do the same with ghosts?"

"Oh, so all emergency services around here are terrible? That's very encouraging."

"Yeah, other than the ghosts, the house is nice. It's a little brightly colored for my taste, but I bought it furnished, so I can't complain."

"It looks like he's done now, actually. It was nice of you to check on me, though."

"Oh, and Jon? Thanks for helping me out. It really means a lot."

And so Ophelia Peregrine managed to go to sleep on her first night in Riverview untroubled by ghosts.

Author's Note: This was the easiest chapter I've written in ages. I can't even remember the last time I got a whole chapter done in a day. It was probably never. 

I've decided that while I'm gonna do some plot for this legacy (without spoilers, it's kind of necessary for the rolls I got), it will not be as intensive or pose-reliant as the plots I've written previously, and I'll adapt it to suit whatever happens in my game.

Ophelia Peregrine is a good, grumpy, ambitious, dramatic genius. I'm probably gonna make a rolls and traits page for this legacy, but not until I reveal the first generation rolls, which probably won't be for a little while.