The Broke Legacy: Gen 5.8 (Part 1)

[simgaroop]

Previous update: Gen 5.7 (Part 2)












- So tell me, Thomas, when did you start having these nightmares?






- Well... I had some when I was still living in Strangetown, but they weren't as awful... nor did they give me as much trouble as the ones I've had since I moved to Belladonna Cove five years ago.





- It was our first night at the new house. I was exhausted from the moving process, so I went to bed much earlier than usual.





And the next thing I knew, I was lying on the front yard...





- "W-where am I?"





- "Ouch! Awww! H-huh? Wh-what's going on?!"






I ran back inside to seek cover from the hailstorm, but I was soaked wet when I reached the living room.

- "I imagine you were confused by such a rude awakening."






- "I-I only remember being terrified. Partly because I had no idea how I had ended outside, but mostly because of that awful nightmare that was still lingering inside my mind..."






- "Do you remember that nightmare?"





- "Barely... just the last few seconds on it. But they were in it... and they were laughing at me too..."





"Pathetic little boy! We must get rid of you before you tell anyone about our existence!"





- "They?"





"I am not pathetic!"





"And one day you WILL be punished for what you did to Mom and Bianca! I promise!"





- "Thomas?"

- "Huh? D-did you say something, Miss Cloud?"

- "You seemed... distracted for a moment back there."

- "I-I'm sorry...!"

- "Don't worry about it. Were you thinking about them?"






- "Who?"

- "The people from your nightmare. The ones who were making fun of you..."

- "I-I..."






"RUN, TOMMY!"





- "I-I don't want to talk about that..."





- "I understand. We'll talk about your nightmares when you feel ready to do so, all right?"






- "O-OK. Thanks..."

But I know I'll never be ready for that. Besides, you probably wouldn't believe the truth. No one ever did...






- "So, you mentioned you arrived from Strangetown five years ago, is that correct?"

- "Right. I was born at Strangetown, and I also spent most of my childhood over there."

- "Do you miss it?"

Well...






Yes.






I miss Strangetown so much.






Except for the last one, those were without doubt the best years of my life.







- "Then, why did you leave your town? And how did you arrive to Belladonna Cove?"







- "You know something, Miss Cloud? I often think our arrival to this city was a fluke in our destiny..."


____________________________________________________


We left Strangetown one year after my mother's death. Although we all loved our hometown deeply, Dad knew it was no longer a safe place for our family, so he listened to Officer's Latrodectus advice and packed only our most essential belongings.

We took the SimBullet Train that night. We barely had time to say good bye to my grandparents, because Dad didn't want the media or... our supposed enemies to follow us. We didn't say good bye to my Aunts Rosie and Helena... and much less to our cousins or friends. We just... vanished into the shadows that surrounded our small town in the middle of nowhere.

Dad's original plan was to go to Veronaville, my Grandfather's childhood town, and stay at the Summerdream Estate with my Great Aunt Tamara and her family until we could figure out what we should do next. For my father, our priority was to stay as far away as we could from Strangetown, at least until it was safe for us to return.

But as I said, destiny had other plans for us.

I hadn't felt well since our departure. Perhaps it was the lack of sleep, the fear of being followed or the pain that hadn't left my heart since our trip to Takemizu Village, but I got very sick. My temperature was very high and according to my father and brother, I was nearly delirious, mumbling incoherent stuff about going to "our real home" and "our duty according to the ancient clan". But I don't remember that stuff at all.

Next thing I knew, I was lying on a bed inside our room at Belladonna Cove's EasySleep Motel while Dad went to the closest pharmacy to get some medicine for me. Eddie told me that I had fell unconscious just as the train stopped at Belladonna Cove's station.






And it was at the pharmacy around the corner where Dad met Parker Goss.

Parker wasn't feeling well either, suddenly developing a bad case of food poisoning while he was doing his usual visit to his properties, hence his urgent visit to the pharmacy. Dad must had felt very lonely and desperate by our situation, otherwise I can't explain why he'd just tell his whole story to a complete stranger while they were waiting for their remedies.

But it was an odd and fateful coincidence, because as soon as my father was done with his tale, Parker made Dad an offer that changed the course of our lives. Parker Goss owns several properties around this city, including a duplex on the north. One of his tenants had moved out the previous day, making the apartment available for a family just like ours.






Parker told my father once and again that the property was just what a single parent with two growing sons needed. He insisted so much that Dad agreed to check the place out so, as soon as he made sure I had taken my medicine and my fever had gone down, he went with Parker to the place I now call my home.

The place was just perfect. Just like Parker had said, it was large enough for the three of us, with plenty of space to play outside and an unbelievable rent cost to boot! And unlike Veronaville, where the Summerdream family was fairly known among its citizens, no one in Belladonna Cove knew about us or our past (unless they read those awful gossip magazzines), so this city offered the safety that my father longed for so much.






As he inspected the empty rooms, he could already imagine Edward and I growing up in there. He imagined a new life for the three of us, prosper and happy despite our recent adversities.





So, without giving a second thought, Dad signed the deal with Parker Goss. And we've been in Belladonna Cove ever since...

__________________________________________






- "How did you feel about this sudden change of plans?"







- "To be honest, Miss Cloud, I couldn't care less about where we ended up. Strangetown was the only home I knew, but after everything that had happened, I could no longer consider it as such. So to me, it didn't matter if we moved to Veronaville, Graslax or this city. It was all the same..."






- "What about your father and Edward?"

- "Ed was thrilled. I knew he wasn't precisely fond of Strangetown's arid landscape, so being surrounded by Belladonna's colorful flora and its pleasant climate thanks to Lake Leviosa was a very welcome change for him. He loved our new house and spent most of the time at the playground around the corner, where he soon made lots of new friends. In many ways he is the strongest member of our family, for he quickly adapted to our new life. Maybe being so young back then made things easier for him."





But Dad... well, he knew that the only way he would recover from the tragic loss of my mother was by completely overhauling his life. And that's exactly what he did.

In addition to moving to a new town (with everything it implied), he retired from his acting career. Of course, he'll never accept it out louds, but I know that was a very hard decision for him. After all, he had worked his ass off to earn the prestige he had as a comedian, and was precisely at the pinacle of his career, just wrapping up the final details of his first and only project behind the camera.






He deeply loved acting, so giving up his life dream so abruptly was a huge blow... so he mourned this loss in secret for a long time. Nonetheless, he once told me that he's never regretted this decision, for it allowed him to spend more time with us, something he couldn't afford in the past.





But above all else, he knew that's what Mom would have done in his place. Dad firmly believes that our arrival to Belladonna Cove was not a fortunate coincidence, but a present that she sent us from... wherever she is right now.

- "And what do you think about all this?"






- "About what?"

- "As you said, retiring from his acting career was an important sacrifice that your father made because he considered it'd benefit you and your brother the most during those difficult times. I think that says a lot about the kind of man he is, don't you agree?"






- "If you mean the biggest fool in existence, then yes I agree."

- "Is that what you really think? How come?"

- "He had already suffered so much that i-it just wasn't fair for him to lose another important part of his life. If anything, I sure as hell didn't deserve his sacrifice..."






- "Why not?"

- "Because if it weren't for me... b-because if..."

- "Thomas?"





- "Because I've done nothing else but cause him grief since our arrival to Belladonna Cove."

_________________________________________





The first months were a real nightmare. Dad's former agent called every single day in a futile attempt to influence him to move to Studio City instead of Belladonna Cove if he was so eager to stay away from Strangetown. I guess that losing an important client such as my father was a huge blow for Mister Johans' prestige and savings account, for he did his very best to convince him to not give up his acting career. He offered him plenty of incredible deals, from juicy contracts to film another "Arrr!" trilogy to complete freedom to direct any project or script he desired.

I'm sure Dad was seriously tempted by these offers, but he remained firm in his resolution to stay away from the lightlime for as long as he lived. He even refused to offer a press conference to explain the reasons behind his retirement to the press and his fans. He felt awful, of course, but he did it for our safety. Considering that moving away from Strangetown was a decision made precisely to escape from the media's constant pursuit, only a moron would let them know about our new residence.

Eventually, Mr. Johan stopped calling. I guess Studio City realized they wouldn't earn more profit from Timothy Broke and focused instead on another raising star. The new "Arrr!" Trilogy was eventually filmed, as you probably already know, but this time with Julian Cooke as the protagonist. I refuse to see those movies... because for me, Salomon Bridges can only have my father's face.





As you may imagine, this meant that Dad needed a new job, one that would let him spend as much time as possible with us. Of course, such a job wasn't precisely easy to find, so Dad was unemployed for a very long time. His savings, while vast from his succesful acting career, weren't going to last forever, considering the expenses that both the rent and raising two boys of our age required.





As someone who always found joy in providing his family with both financial security and the best things that money could buy, this situation made Dad extremely anxious. He barely slept for weeks and made constant phone call to check the amount of money he still had in his account. Ed and I were afraid he'd end up insane.






In the end, he had no other option but to take the first job offer that roughly resembled what he needed. It was far from his ideal career and the pay was minimal, but it'd at least bring a stable income to our household. At this point, Dad couldn't afford to be picky.

Imagine our faces when Dad told us that he, Timothy Broke, former Studio City celebrity, would now work as a mere juggler during the weekends, bringing entertainment to birthday parties around Belladonna Cove.

We didn't see Dad during those days, of course, so we were often left with a nanny. Heh, I can barely recall their faces, for we constantly changed nannies. None of them lasted more than a couple months.





- "Why not?"

- "Well, some of them took advantage of my Dad's celebrity status and stole stuff from our house to make profit from it. I still remember how furious he got when he found his old underswear on sale at simbay.com. The rest, though, didn't stand Edward's constant pranks nor my violent mood swings.

- "And what were exactly these mood swings? Was there something in particular that unleashed them?"

- "The nightmares, of course."






- "Although I was a quiet and introverted boy most of the time, those horrible dreams filled me with so much... anger that I could barely control it the following day."

(Aaaaargh!)





- "I was often rude at school, and snapped at anyone who got close to me. I had a lot of trouble with my teachers, and most of the kids prefered to stay away from me... and when the nightmares became more frequent, my grades began to reflect this situation too."






- "Were these nightmares similar to the first one you mentioned earlier?"





- "The places and situations varied, but they were always on them. And they always made fun of my weaknesses before murdering me just as I woke up. I felt so... useless. No matter what I did, they were still lingering inside of me, making my nights as miserable as my days had been since I first met them..."





- "I see. Did you sleep walk during those nights too?"

- "I always woke up in odd places. Most of the time at our frontyard or in the playground behind the duplex."





- "But you eventually started waking up at places far from your home..."

- "Unfortunately, yes..."

- "Do you recall a particular event that led to this change in your sleeping patterns?"






- "I do... it all began six months later, when Grandpa Puck died..."

__________________






True, he was a very old man by then, but he still looked so... strong and healthy the last time I had seen him, just before we left Strangetown. According to Aunt Helena, his heart just stopped beating while he slept, so he probably didn't feel any pain.

The doctors couldn't find an explanation for his demise, besides old age. I guess the Grim Reaper decided it was time for Grandpa's soul to reunite with his parents, both the biological ones he never met, the Strongs, and the adoptive ones who loved and raised him as their own, the Summerdreams.

Dad was crushed when he heard the news from Aunt Helena. He immediately made plans for all of us to travel to Strangetown for the wake and funeral, but in the end he only left with Edward.





- "What about you?"

- "I stayed at Belladonna Cove with our neighbors. I refused to go to Strangetown, no matter how much my father and Edward insisted me to go with them."

- "But you told me earlier that you missed Strangetown. What made you change your mind?"





- "You won't understand it."

- "Well, we won't know if that's true unless you tell me, Thomas."





- "Let's just say for now that I wasn't ready to go back and face my family over there. Among the reasons was that it'd already been awful to watch Dad break down the way he did during Mom's funeral.






I couldn't even imagine how bad it'd be to see Grandma Wanda in the same situation, considering that my grandparents had been together for a million years.






Besides my parents, I'd never seen a couple that loved each other as much as those two...






I knew that without him, Grandma Wanda was probably half-dead too. "





Dad and Edward returned two days later.
And that night, they showed up in my dreams once again.





Mom! MOOOOM! NOOOOOO!

_____________________________________






"Kid? Hey! Wake up!"





Instead of waking up at our front yard, I suddenly found myself lying in the middle of the playground around the corner.

"Are you all right?"





The man who woke me up, a police officer named Michael Bachelor, looked at me with worried eyes. He was probably wondering why was an eleven year old completely alone at midnight in a place like that one. And wearing his pajamas to boot!

"How did you get here? Where are your parents?"

I didn't reply. Hell, it's been 5 years and I'm still looking for those answers myself!





"Wait... did you run away, kid?"

Inadvertently, the officer gave me a perfectly logical excuse for my current situation, so I went along with it. I told him I was unhappy at Belladonna Cove and wanted to go back to Strangetown against my father's wishes, so I had run away while he was sleeping.





I knew I'd be in big trouble when Officer Bachelor told Dad, but it'd have been worse to tell him the truth, that I had no idea how I'd ended up at the playground, as if I had just... teleported there or something ridiculous like that.





Anyway... Officer Bachelor took me back home. I was sure Dad wouldn't believe what had happened, considering my recent refusal to go to Strangetown, so I had to come up with a believable story... and fast!





"Keep a close eye on your son, Mr. Broke. The streets of Belladonna Cove are not as safe as they were a few years ago.

"I understand, Officer. I'll talk with Tom right away, and I promise this won't happen again. Thank you so much for bringing my son back home, safe and sound."

"Don't mention it. It is my duty..."




___________________________






True to his word, Dad immediatelly sat down with me and demanded an explanation of what had happened that night. He didn't look angry, though, just extremely worried.

- "I suspect you didn't tell him the truth, right?"





- "That's correct. And it all went downhill from there..."

__________________________________





"How could you be so careless, Thomas?! Running away like that! And in the middle of the night!"

"I-I'm so sorry, Dad. I didn't really think..."

"Obviously you weren't thinking about the consequences of your actions! What if you had gotten lost? Or injured? You're just eleven, Thomas!"





"I-I know..."





"What's confusing me is that you were actually going back to Strangetown, although you refused to go with us two days ago..."

"Well, I-I felt really bad for noy being there with Grandma, and Chip and the others. They must be mad at me."





"But of course they are not mad, Tommy! Everyone back home understands your reasons for not going there the other day. After all that happened, it's natural you fear that place. But don't worry, you know I'll always be here to protect you..."





I slapped his hand away- "Don't touch me! And don't lie to me!"

"Tommy?"

"You can't protect me! You didn't protect me from those criminals! If you hadn't been so tired from your stupid job, you'd have gone with us to the temple and Mom and Bianca would be here too!"

___________________________






- "He looked so hurt... I knew I'd screwed things up big time as soon as those words left my lips. He didn't say anything, though. He just stood up, left the living room and locked himself inside his room for hours. Afterwards, we didn't speak to each other for months..."






- "Do you blame your father for your mother's death?"

- "NO! Of course not!"





- "Then, why did you say that to your father?"





- "Because I had to protect him at all costs! Even if that meant I had to hurt him the way I did that night."

- "What were you protecting him from?"

- "Myself..."





- "I beg your pardon?"


- "I've told you, I didn't want anyone to know about my sleep walking issues, least of all my father. He already had so much to deal with on his own, so it was unfair to place yet another weight on his shoulders. Besides..."





- "Thomas?"

- "Besides, it was a good thing that he avoided me afterwards. The farther he stayed from me, the better."

- "Wha...?"


- "The truth, Miss Cloud, is that if there's anyone who should ne blamed from everything that's happened to my family, that'd be me. From Phi's parents, Chip's grandmother and finally to my own mother and sister. They were all very close to me right before their lives were ruined. It's just as if I were cursed!"






- "Now Thomas, I ignore the circumstances surrounding the events you've just mentioned, but you can't eally believe that. You were just a child back then. It was most likely just a series of unfortunate events and coincidences."





- "I-I'm not so sure about that anymore. Until then, the less I interact with my loved ones, the better."

- "B-But... all right, Thomas. We shall address this issue in our next session. In the mean time, I want you to sit down and examine exactly what happened in each of these events, especially your role in them."





- "B.but I thought you were going to help me with this sleepwalking bullshit!"






- "And that's exactly what I'm doing. After all, dreams (and nightmares) are the purest expression of what's lying deep inside our subconscious."





As long as you keep blaming yourself for things that you had no control of in the past, the loneliness and guilt stored inside of you won't leave you in peace at night. You need to let go those memories and inner demons from the past, Thomas. And I will do my best to guide you in this task...

_______________________







"Think about it, Thomas. I'll see you on Monday at 10:00."


















- "Good night, Mom."





*sigh*






- "Stupid, fucking psycho non-sense! I knew this wouldn't work!"














- "... trusting issues. Give me a break!"




_________________________










- "Is that?"
- "Yes, it's him!"






- "It's been a while since I last saw him."
- "Yeah, he's been busy getting rid of all the criminals in town."





- "I heard that he caught Loki the Kid and his croonies the other day, all by himself!"





- "Yup! Sheriff Broke is undoubtedly the toughest man in Strangetown! No criminal can beat him!"






- "Howdy, Sheriff!"

- "..."





- "Good Day, Sheriff Broke."

- "..."






- "Here. The house invites."

- "... thanks."










- "So, what brings you to my Saloon, Sheriff?"

- "..."





- "Come on, Madam! Everyone knows that the Sheriff never talks about his duties... unless he's looking for information."





- "In that case, your visit must be related to the growing rumours about the imminent arrival of the Bloody Ranger and his band to Strangetown."

- "Heh..."





- "Don't even mention that, Madam!"





- "According to Blair Mace, they've been marauding near Pleasantview for almost a month. I-I just hope he was just pulling our hair, because I heard they are the most dangerous criminals in the region!"





- "Just let them come. I'm ready for them..."







- "SHERIFF!"





- "Hey! What's wrong, Edward?"





- "You have to come with me now! It's the Bloody Ranger! And he's got Miss Bruening and her daughter!"





- "Hey Sheriff, let us help you!"

- "I'm sorry, Madam, but I only work alone..."

______________________________





- "Please, Sir. I beg of you! You may take everything I have, but not my beloved treasure!"




- "Move, woman! "





"Or I'll take your life along with that girl's!"





- "Leave the ladies alone, you sick bastard!"





- "Look, Momma! It's the Sheriff!"

- "Thank Goodness you're here to protect us, Sheriff Broke!"





- "Who? HIM?! HA HA HA HA HA HA!"





- "This is no joke, Ranger! Release them, or I swear I'll show no mercy while I send you to Hell!"






- "HA! You think you're so tough, Broke, but I know the truth!. You may have grown up, and you may have become stronger from the training you've done in all this time, but deep inside you're still the weak and pathetic little boy who couldn't save his loved ones from my bandmates."





- "That's not true!"

- "Oh, don't even try to attack me, kid. You know perfectly well how this is going to end, for that's happened every night in the last five years. You can't stop me, not even in your dreams!"





- "But I'm feeling generous tonight, so let me spare you one crucial tip. As long as you plan to battle on your own, you'll end up dead. So you better find your teammates, and make it fast, because the day in which you'll face the real me is closer than you think."





- "Until then..."





- "No..."









- "I'm sorry... Mom..."
























- "Hey, Broke!"





- "Wake up, Broke! Are you out of your mind?"





- "He's always been a weirdo, but this shit definitely gets the cake!"





- "Do you think he's taking drugs?"










- "Huh? Wh- what the hell are you doing here?"





- "Actually, Broke, we should be the ones making that question to you. Why were you sleeping in the school's hallway?"






- "Yeah! Nice boxers, Tom!"









- "OK, that's enough! The show's over, so I'll really appreciate it if all of you get lost this instant!"





- "Oh, really? Why should I listen to a midget like you! And where the hell did you come from, anyway?"




- "I- I know you... you were in my dreams!"






- "Your dreams?! Are you kidding me, Tom? Then again, it shouldn't surprise me that I've become almost a figment of your imagination, considering I haven't heard from you since you moved away. Not a single phonecall, not even a postcard! And you never replied to my e-mails either. And you were supposed to be my favorite cousin!"





- "Cousin?! Chip?!"





- "The one and only, Tom. Now get up and show us where is the office, because we still need to do a ton of paperwork before we are officially enrolled at Belladonna High!"





- "What are you talking about? Ad what do you mean with "We"?"






- "Hello, Tom."


TO BE CONTINUED



________________________________________
Notes:

- Ginger Cloud was originally made by strange_tomato.

- The teenage students are founder sims submitted by the members of the pixel_trade community. Thanks for sharing your awesome creations with us! :)

- Thanks for reading this update!

Comments

[simgaroop.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much, Josh ^^

Yup, those Aloving Diva uniforms are adorable! I was tempted to make them the uniform of Belladonna High, but the prospect of changing the outfit of so many teen townies turned me off. I'm already complicating things in my game with the scenes I've planned, to add another technical issue to it! :)

Besides, I've decided that only Chip can rock that outfit. He got that fashion sense from his Dad, after all :)

Yup, then you are partly right with your suspicions. But we'll see how much in the next couple of updates.

I tried to re-construct the school with fewer EPs, but I lack the CDs of my Sims games (my cousin has all of them right now), and as far as I know, the AnyGameStarter doesn't work without them. But if I manage to make it work, I'll make the school with stuff from the EPs up to Free Time (excluding BV and maybe Pets, but I also used a lot of stuff from that EP so I'm not sure).

You'll learn about Chip and Phi in the next update. Thanks for reading! :)