2022-01-16 - Gray Harbor: A Sims 4 Expansion Pack Coming to a Computer Near You!

Most dreams -- and indeed, most Dreams -- begin with a sensation of otherness, a dawning of realisation that something is not as it should be, or even with the full on gut punch of being dropped right into some improbable situation. Sometimes, it begins with the realisation that you are not who it says on the dog tag. Arealisation that can be somewhat inopportune if the person you're supposed to be knows how to handle the situation you're is in -- but you don't.

This time it begins with a question: Who are you?

Bookworm, Unflirty, Cat Lover.

Ravn Abildgaard rubs his temple and wonders why he has this urge to smile randomly and do the same little idle shifting from one foot to another over and over again. The dream is slowly descending, a kind of slow growing awareness -- and with a strange focus at that: He finds himself picturing himself going through a wardrobe, trying to pick out the exact right shirt.

He finds himself rejecting a number -- too colourful, too street, too fancy. In the end he settles for a simple black turtleneck and a strange feeling that it's not exactly right but it will have to do. And that somehow, it's not possible to get it entirely right because -- the wardrobe does not contain the exact cut of jeans he prefers, nor the right leather jacket (and definitely not one with a bullet hole in one sleeve).

A cat pops into existence next to him. Black, and -- well, it looks like a cat but at the same time it looks kind of cartoony and frankly, hideous. He looks at it -- mouses over it -- and learns its name: Kitty Pryde. Clever, Free Spirit, Prowler.

When he finds himself standing on the curb of a very small bungalow he is still wondering what the hell is going on -- and what kind of lawn ever looked like it was painted on.

It's going to be one of those days, isn't it.

Some existential questions are easier than others to deal with, even (especially?) in dreams (Dreams). Una's still new to the capitalised version, but level-headed enough not to freak (more or less), but the question posed is a more difficult one.

Who is she? Waking-Una hasn't especially figured this out for herself; Waking-Una's self-examination still has a long way to run.

In Dreams, maybe it's easier to slide in to the possibility that someone else is calling the shots. Who is she?

Maker. Noncommittal. Unflirty.

Sure, ok. Maybe that fits.

In theory, outfits and hairstyles are easier; much more fun. Self-expression is amazing! Self-expression is...there are a lot of options, aren't there? There are so many colours! So many styles! So many possibilities!

... so the Una that pops into existence-- looking anything but classy, but definitely fun in blue and purple striped jeans and a polka-dotted gold shirt and red boots-- may, in fact, be a good six or eight hours older than she should be. Time is relative. Her pose is one of happy admiration for her outfit. She is, at least, more or less recognisable as herself: stylised, but still familiar.

Even if nothing else is.

Who are you?
Creative, Geek, Erratic.

At least purple and pink hair is a thing. Kailey finds herself turning slowly on a field of alternating blues. Sometimes it feels like someone is lightly playing with her hair as she sees a number of styles appear and disappear upon her noggin. 'Oh, that one!' Her thoughts seem to make the final choice here and she smiles cheerfully into nothing. It is a silly and dreamy sort of thing for her. Getting to play dress up with herself. It could be worse.

Kailey opts for ripped jeans and paint spattered shirt complete with hiking boots. In the real world she has started collecting boots. The ones she eyes now get little inward Oooooos and AAaaaahhhs. No others pop up around her, including animals, but she pops out on a street herself and blinks in surprise. Turning around to look at the tiny brick house behind her and the too-green lawn.

"The fuck am I?" She mutters in sleepy confusion. Why did the dream have to go all wonky. Unlimited dress up was fun. Not that you would catch her wearing some of those things. Not with the size of her ass. Some of those skirts would NOT work the way she was seeing them. But man if they did...Everett would lose his mind. Just explode. Kablooie. It makes her giggle and for some reason things get a pink tinge around the edge. At least for her.

'Playful'

Who are you?
Music lover, Romantic, Creative

Okay so at this point one would hope that Maya managed to get a better handle on how weird things can get in Gray Harbor but this time she's still having trouble processing exactly what's happening. The personality seems right at least, though nobody really knows just how much of a hopeless romantic she can be. She knows she has to make her choices, her hair... dark. The style isn't quite right but she settles on something close enough. Add some freckles. It looks like she can also change her proportions a bit... Well since it seems like she's in the dream and doing this in the real world is too expensive, the slider increases her bust size juuuuuuuust a touch.

Clothes are a bit difficult. What do I even like to wear? she wonders. She always had a terrible habit of just throwing on whatever she had on hand, or just taking whatever Rachel brought home. She settles on a simple shirt in neutral tones with a short skirt. It is not too terribly far off from what she usually wears in the end. She's holding a guitar in her hand and she looks around, finding herself as she is before a house that looks altogether just wrong, too colorful, flat and with rather strange design sensibilities. Did the roof phase out of existence as she looked at it? What exactly is going on?

He's not alone. This is the next thing to dawn on Ravn. There are others here -- women, three of them, two of whom seem familiar. Is that -- yes, that's Una next door, and the purple head of Kailey he'd recognise anywhere. The last woman? Not familiar -- but then, the Dane is well aware that he does not know every person with some kind of shine in Gray Harbor. He can't even be certain at any given time that anyone unfamiliar even is from Gray Harbor, the world is full of thin spots.

He raises a gloved hand to scratch his neck -- and in this strange dream, they are not his usual black kidskins, but some kind of super skin tight black silk affairs that probably should go with some lady's evening dress. "Well, this is going to be -- different," he murmurs -- and for a moment it feels like what he actually said was, Sulsul, shoo flee. Whatever that means, in whatever language that's supposed to be. "I don't suppose anyone has any idea where this is supposed to be?"

Kailey is something of a geek, but it mostly relates to television. Yet she has an inkling. This is all too familiar. Slowly she tilts her head back to look above her. Nothing there to see and so she frowns. But the thing that seals it? Hearing Ravn.

"Oh! Hey Ravn," She says sounding less and less puzzled though slightly aggravated. She feels the echo of her words and it makes her way of speech a little halting. It's like talking on the phone with a bad echo. 'Sulsul!' Echoes in her skull with familiarity

."If I'm not mostaken...we are in a game...I think...it may be a Sims knockoff?" The purple haired artist slowly turns to take in the "neighborhood" and stops when she sees Maya. Surprise registers and she moves over at a goofy run to her. "Hey Maya...you okay?" (Oh nooboo, turkey nurbler?")

"Ugh, that gibberish is going to drive me nuts," Kailey adds before she finds herself shaking her head violently and putting a stopping hand out. A disgust reaction animation familiar to anyone who has played the game.

Una was, what, thirteen or so, when The Sims 3 came out? Too old for dolls (even though what she liked most about dolls was making clothes for them), desperately ready to be a Grown Up, and... look, there are Feels involved. Guilty, complex feels about popularity and coolness and a penchant for pretendy fun times.

Thirteen is tricky.

So maybe it only takes a moment or two for one plus one to equate to two. "Fro," she says. Oh. Ravn, at least, she recognises; the other two not so much, though the appraising glance she gives both of them may suggest she's attempting to work out whether it's because she doesn't actually know them, or whether the customisation options of the game aren't quite complex enough. "Interesting." Jowlenin.

Her distinctly embarrassed reaction accompanies her awkward confirmation of Kailey's explanation: "Yeah. It's The Sims. Are we... roommates?"

"Hi, I'm Una." It's a Friendly Introduction!

The words make absolutely no sense to her and yet she can understand everything... if this isn't one for the record books. She echoes the greeting back 'Sulsul!'

"Hey! Is that you Kailey?" she looks much the part but everything is off enough that Maya isn't quite sure at first. "I think I'm okay... this is the Sims?" her concern is shown in the form of exaggerated motions, and a thought bubble with some sort of picture in it. "I never had a computer or anything when I was a kid."

She hefts up her guitar with a shrug. "Well I guess you can play guitar or something? What do we even do here?" she wonders, before she looks around. Roommates? I guess that's a Sims thing?

"Anyway I'm Maya, nice to meet you," she says to Una and Ravn.

"Missoo-soo," Ravn replies with a cheerful wave -- and then blinks. This is wrong on several levels.

The Sims? Is that still a thing? He looks around. Huh. Graphics certainly got an upgrade. No more grainy horizon of flat grass around Pleasantville. No more one-dimensional trees.

That's one level. The other is, he got the words wrong. It dawns on him that he's speaking Sims 2 and the others are speaking -- what number is that franchise even up to now?

He forces himself to focus, in English. "Una, Kailey -- and uh, person whose name I don't know. Hi, I'm Ravn." And then he fails to resist the urge to look up because there should be a thingy ... diamond ... plumbob, that's the word, a plumbob, right? And he can tell from its colour how he's doing?

There isn't one. "I guess I'm not selected at the moment," the Dane murmurs -- and looks around to see if someone else has the magic plumbob of player control at the moment. "Or maybe we're just townies. Do we go explore our house? If I remember this game right -- and I haven't played it for ten years or more -- just standing around looking at the sky will eventually get you knocked head over arse by a meteor."

Kailey finishes her jog over to Maya. Arms reaching out to pull her into a brief, but tight, hug. "Maya!" At least that comes out in English. "Bloo bagoo?" (Hey, what's up?) And again she makes a face and growls a bit. Taking a moment to focus she glances at Ravn and then back to the blond, "Stick with me. It'll be fine, babe," She assures the blond.

She moves to take Maya's hand as she turns her attention fully on Ravn and Una. Talking takes some focus and her words are a little slow, but they're not gibberish. "We could. Or I can try to just open us an exit?" Kailey offers with a glance around at the bungalows and finally settling on Ravn. "I never had a meteor fall on me. Does that happen? I woohooed a ghost once, but that's about the extent of weird. OH! I did get kidnapped by aliens in one and..." Her face falls and she looks horrified.

"Okay, I'm all for quick exit now!" And she eyes the sky she can't really see, but does, warily. As if aliens might swoop down at any moment. "Three babies in the house is ENOUGH!"

Una, too, casts a dubious glance up towards the sky, then gestures towards the bungalow: yes, much safer to go indoors. Though: "For the alien abductions... don't you need to use a telescope at night for that to happen? Assuming we're townies and there's not some player in the sky," the lack of plumbob is a good start, unless of course it is invisible to the character and that's a whole other possibility, "we can just avoid doing dangerous things, right? A little bit of genre awareness?"

It's entirely possible she's not quite aware of what Kailey means by 'opening an exit', because mostly she just frowns. "I mean, as things go... Whippna choba dog." This is cool.

The look Ravn shoots Kailey is one of pure horror; the existential angst of a man who knows full well that when he played this game as a horny teenage boy, half the fun consisted of convincing various townie women to move into his Sim's house, knocking them up, and kick them out when the kid was born.

Back then he thought of it as selective breeding. He'd downloaded a mod (from SimWardrobe -- how the hell is he remembering modder handles like this, almost twenty years later?) that let him gun down ugly townies in the street. Malcolm Landgraab was always first to go, with his rich boy preppie face like a flounder that'd endured a head-on collision with a steam train. Make a pretty Sim. Shoot the ugly ones. Breed the pretty ones. Make a population looking at.

Oh God.

Well, here's to hoping SimWardrobe closed shop since and moved on to big boy programming because this does indeed sound like a fate worse than death. More so in a universe where male pregnancy by alien pollination technician is very much a thing.

"Genre savviness," he echoes. "So I'm guessing I'm a Knowledge Sim. If that is even a thing any more. I never got around to playing the new, open world game much. And if I remember this game correctly, everything is a lot more dangerous than it sounds like. Can any of you see your .... plumbob thingy?"

And in the distance, thunder rolls ominously because weather changes are pretty instantaneous in this game.

Maya is quick to embrace Kailey, squeezing her tight as she approaches. Well at least that's what she tries to do, instead there's a whole thing and they wind up locked for a few moments in some kind of animation hug. She eventually steps back and doesn't really resist all that much, or at all as Kailey takes her hand and leads her around. "Plumbob?" Maya repeats with a strange confusion in her voice. "Is that a thing or is that one of those weird words that I just can't understand. I'm really not very genre savvy, I didn't even start playing video games until I started babysitting and needed something to do while they napped."

"Look I have no genre awareness so I'm just gonna have to trust you to not let me do anything stupid, okay?" Unfortunately for her a lot of what's being said is just going right over her head so Maya is just doing her best to keep up.

"Plumbob is the little thingy that floats above a sim's head to let you know who you have selected," Kailey supplies to Maya as her cheeks are turning a bright cherry. The look Ravn is giving her is returned with one of mild consternation. The odd thing is that somehow Maya, at least, knows that the purple-haired artist is fluctuating between playful and confidant.

One hand stays holding Maya's own hard as she draws the shape of a door in the air. As she does a purple line of fire follows after that pointing finger a few feet in front of her. When she finishes the door flickers, showing a much more normal scene beyond. A living room that Maya knows, at least, from her visits at the Wood-Holt-Grey household. But the scene flickers like a television with bad reception.

Instead of words a bunch of symbols related to expletive censoring appear above her head as her mouth moves. She stops and turns to look at Una and then Maya, the two with the least experience in this realm. "If you wanna go back go now, I can't keep it open and it'll only manage two," She says slowly through grated teeth.

"No plumbob," reports Una, dutifully. She's distracted from this information by Kailey, though, and the appearance of that door. This is a first for Una: not her first Dream, but definitely her first Door. And there's got to be some temptation there, to duck out and be done with it.

On the other hand, there's curiosity... and there's the flickering, which has the redhead taking half an uneasy step backwards. "That... doesn't look particularly safe," she ventures. "It's fine. Thanks, though. It's-- it's going to storm." is storming. "We should head inside? And then see what's what."

She doesn't actually wait: determinedly, she starts walking towards the front door of the bungalow they're in front of.

So tempted. So very tempted. Door equals freedom equals not ending up in an anatomically impossible pregnancy or probed by aliens while his metrics fluctuate up and down haphazard for eight hours, or living in a world where you can't get a career promotion unless you have exactly ten friends, none of whom can be blood relatives. And where time does not happen to anyone outside your household, meaning that when you are five year old you'll be doing the smustle with five year old Billy Drake and when you are ninety, five year old Billy Drake will still turn up at random outside your window to do the smustle.

He scratches his chin and hopes this game has gone the way of so many other computer games over time -- more intuitive user interface, much more kid friendly -- because that's always been Gray Harbor rule number one, hasn't it? You don't leave anyone behind.

"We have to get her out with us," he tells Kailey and glances after Una. "And besides, we can't leave one or two of us here." Time to walk up to that door and find out if he's a member of the household or he has to stand there and ring the doorbell like an idiot.

He doesn't get that far. Later, he will write it off as pure coincidence, though a nagging voice in his subconscious will insist it's largely indecision that makes him breathe out in relief when a newspaper hits him the face instead.

Job, right. "Do we find jobs? If I remember this game at all, it's pretty important to have some kind of income right away so we can upgrade our kitchen facilities and beds. And get a recycler, for the used newspapers." Pause. Ravn frowns. "Seriously, who the hell reads the newspaper for job opportunities anymore, anyhow?"

Maya squeezes Kailey's hand with a determined look in her face, which in the Sims seems to be a dramatic gesture with a some kind of bubble over her head. Shaking her head she says to Kailey. "I'm not gonna leave you here to do this alone. Well, I guess you'll have some company at least but no," she draws a breath. Moving over then to follow Una as she moves to the door. "We'll figure this out together or not at all," she assures her.

To Ravn's question, Maya seems a bit uncertain. "How long do we plan to stay here? I guess if we really need jobs we should do what we can to get by until we can get out of here..."

Kailey can't help but shoot Maya a smile at her determination and want to stick together. "Okay," She says without argument. The door outline in shining purple fades after only half a minute. They turn to the door of the bungalow and then suddenly there is some sort of sweet music swelling around them. For a second Kailey looks around before leaning in to press a kiss to Maya's cheek. It's meant to be a quick thing, but for some reason it seems to slow down and involve illusionary heart bubbles flying around her. Which only makes Kailey turn red through the cheeks.

"Yes, well, anyway...is it our home?" Kailey says as she tries to dampen her smile while looking vaguely embarrassed at what their Dream is turning into obvious signals. Ravn probably had a right to fear. And the artist shoots her eyes in his direction only quickly. Almost like she's avoiding direct interactions for the moment. That pink glow around her doesn't seem to be fading. "So now that I'm properly called out..." She says with a little clearing of her throat. "I am going to offer to be the one to learn to cook. Hopefully we have an easel. I remember getting lots of money just painting...though..." And she goes to fish in her pocket.

There is a cell phone! She smiles with glee and begins pressing buttons and making idle, "Aha!" and, "Ooohh," Sounds as she does.

Nor does Una quite make it to the front door, though she gets closer than Ravn does. Mention of jobs has her turning-- and it's in time to see Kailey's interaction with Maya which is, if nothing else, sweet and makes her laugh: so much for subtlety.

Sadly, despite an effort to dig into her own pockets, she comes up empty: no phone. Newspaper it is.

"It's been a while, but... if I remember correctly, we're not going to have much choice from the newspaper, are we? Take whatever shitty job is on offer. What have we got?"

"Looks like they're offering three positions. Kailey's claiming Cook, I think. I might go for -- scientist? If I remember this game right, Cleaning is the primary stat, and I do have a thing about keeping the kitchen in order." Ravn scratches his chin. "Cleaning and Logic. So we need a painter's easel and a chessboard. And if we're smart, we need to do anything we can to upgrade the kitchen or we'll be doing nothing but cooking and eating. This is the world of higher end furniture equals better food, better sleep. Hallelujah, it's the capitalist dream."

He glances at the bungalow. "Look, we don't even have wall paper. We are so screwed on the Comfort meter. Can we dig a hole in the yard, maybe, fill it with water, and start fishing?"

It's an unexpected gesture from Kailey, but just as she flushes red, Maya joins her, blushing brightly as she tries her best to remain casual, even as she finds that impossible in the moment. She doesn't comment on the hearts but she likely doesn't need to, they were probably swirling around them both weren't they?

"I think it's our home," Maya says, well at least she says something to that effect in those strange simlish words she's still using. "Is there something I can do with this guitar to make us money?" she wonders. "I've done some busking in the real world, so maybe there's something like that here?" she says hopefully, but she looks around. "We should probably look around the house, if we're gonna be stuck here a while we should get a feel for it." She says, peering around at the rest of the house uncertainly... Wallpaper shouldn't be that hard to get right? And we can make things... comfortable enough?" she doesn't sound confident but she's the odd one out that didn't play computer games as a kid.

"If this is another Raven thing and I live out several years I'm gonna be mildly cranky. At least I'm not a corvid this time though and surrounded by hotties," Kailey seems to be speaking without realizing the words that are coming. It makes her wrinkle her stick her tongue out playfully at Maya. Then glancing over at Ravn she just says, "Sorry for whatever comes out my mouth here...someone seems to have removed my filter..." That might be the erratic trait doing it's work.

So instead of focusing on that any more she grabs the handle and opens the door to walk inside. "Well at least I live here," She says as she looks around inside. It is sparse and that couch looks painful. Quickly she heads down the short hall to check on the other closed doors. And to find the bathroom which she apparently needs to use. Does she? Well, she does when she finds it. "Ugh...one of us should probably focus on handiness too. The plumping seems primed to pop here," She calls to the others from the bathroom. Where she is now staring in the mirror as she washes her hands.

"Just...it's cool. You're cool. It's just a Dream," Kailey finds herself saying to her reflection. And it seems to help because instead of being mildly embarrassed she stands a little straighter. "Anyone see an easel yet? How do we even buy things we want?" She shouts from behind the closed door to the others.

"Slacker it is," says Una, with a particularly wry laugh: slacker in life, slacker in game, go figure.

Having been overtaken by others in a quest to enter the house, she now follows, largely unbothered by the state of the not-particularly-decorated house (for now). "I-- oh shit. As long as we're actually able to interact with the interface... what if we're just PCs, and there's some player in the sky that gets to buy shit?"

Ravn pauses on the doorstep and looks up at the sky again (risk of sudden meteor be damned). "Then I guess we -- have to wait and see if our player slash god feels like granting us the things we . . ."

He pauses and then shakes his head. "That's it, isn't it? These are our Wants. Mine probably says, Get a Job in the Science Career, Go Fishing, and, I don't know, Buy A Better Bed or something. Well, listen up, God, I want a shovel so I can dig a hole and go fishing, then. Listen to me, I'm a Knowledge Sim and I want Knowledge about fish."

The expression on his face says we are so screwed. And that's without even considering the literal implications of the blushing and cartoon hearts Kailey and Maya are doing over there. Romance Sims, both of them, he's sure of it. He finds himself hoping very much that this is an unmodded game. At least Woohoo and Try For Baby are two separate options, should push indeed come to shove.

Hard to tell, then, whether it's a push or a shove that sends him reeling when suddenly, the lawn under his feet -- sinks.

Out of nowhere, the earth sinks in a concentric circle with a set point -- almost as if somewhere in the sky, some distant computer god is clicking at a point in the lawn and chosing 'lower ground' several times. Twelve times in total -- and by the time of the tenth, Ravn is out of that hole because he's pretty sure what comes next. And sure enough, water appears -- filling that hole at amazing speed.

A little shrub plops into existence next to it. Almost apologetically.

The Dane looks back at his three apparent house mates. "Well, then. Time to find out if we can do the most disturbing thing about this game."

And then he pulls a fishing rod out of his ass.

"Did you live out several years as a Raven? That sounds like a storytime," Maya comments sidelong while she busies herself with exploring the rest of the house, hoping nobody can see the clear flush of her cheeks, her bashful gaze catching Kailey's before she grins over at her. "You should be used to being surrounded by hotties by now," she adds. "Would it be a bad time to point out that lacking a filter usually means it's the truth," she teases Kailey lightly before she begins to pluck the strings of the guitar... and it sounds absolutely awful.

"Okay this isn't right, I swear I know how to do this." she presses her lips together in frustration, though she likely doesn't notice the progress bar floating over her head. "Don't tell me I'm going to need to learn the guitar all over again."

Una's comment brings a nervous chuckle to Maya and she comments "Well... if there's some kind of god I hope he's a good one. My friends told me about this game and how they loved to drown their sims for fun..." she looks distinctly nervous for a moment before she resumes trying to figure out how to play the guitar. "Please don't tell me that's where I'll put the guitar when I'm done," she adds with a glance towards Ravn,

Kailey smiles lopsidedly at Maya and says, "But it's kind of a trope to fall for the babysitter," She says with another wink. Now if only this pink haze would fade. It makes her feel good...too good. And that is when she turns to look up at the ceiling with worry.

She steps out of the bathroom and looks around the sparse living room. Two seater uncomfortable couch in shit brown, check. Tiny tv on a crappy coffee table, check. The dining table only has two chairs as well. Then Kailey spies the bookshelf and b-lines for it. "Let there be a cooking book," She says quietly. As her hand reaches out. For a moment the book is in her hands. Turning to head for the couch she suddenly feels absolutely like not reading.

Setting down the book she walks over to Maya with a confidant smile. But her eyes have a look of worry and dart about. Even as Kailey reaches for Maya's hand to give it a kiss. "They're not just buying shit..." There's a pause and then in Simese she says, "We could go sit in my room and I'll tell you the story." Real-Kailey is in the eyes and the widen hugely. When she's done flirting she says, "I...sorry not sorry?" When she can control her own voice.

Una's on her way inside, Una's got things to look at but (as it turns out) none of them are quite as interesting as watching the ground give way beneath Ravn's feet.

(That's a lie, actually: the fishing rod is even more interesting, but it would be impolite to comment.)

"Uh," she says. It's basically the verbal equivalent of a boggle. It's also infinitely more comfortable than watching Maya and Kailey flirt.

"That's even more disturbing from this perspective," is what she ultimately says, followed by: "Ok. So it's all about our wants. That's-- that helps. I just have to figure out what it is that I actually want. I appear to be quite inscrutable. Nothing new there." She glances up at the sky, as if seeking the invisible Hand of God who (as Maya has pointed out) may well want to drown them. Or let them die in a fire. Or any number of other terrible deaths (or worse).

It's the strangest, two-dimensional sea bass Ravn has ever seen. It's also the only sea bass he's ever seen that apparently can live in fresh water. And grow to a mature age in a matter of minutes because half an hour ago there was no pond at all.

That's not the worst part, though. The worst part is where he puts it. And the expression on his face while he does so. "It doesn't hurt," he murmurs, and makes a face. How he gets the fish through his clothing -- let's just not even try to figure it out. He's going to have nightmares about this for weeks.

This, and about the little green heart over his head as he looks at the others. Ravn will never work out the mechanics of it, but apparently standing near them with a fishing rod makes him like them better.

"How about we all agree that we -- will play along but only so far? We're in different iterations of the game, that much is obvious. You have cell phones -- I'm pretty sure that if I want one, I have to enroll in university and then go find the kiosk in the student's union and buy one. And it definitely won't be a smart phone -- it will only be able to take calls. Surely we can use this somehow, if we have to. Be incompatible. Something. Or maybe we can save up enough aspiration points and earn our escape as a platinum reward or something."

It makes sense. In 2005 lingo.

Kailey snaps her fingers and points at Ravn on that last suggestion. "Hoooooly shit! You are probably right. Getting out of here is likely an aspiration," She says with an enthusiastic nod. Turning back to Maya she smiles and reaches out to caress her cheek. "Okay, when this is over we'll talk, yeah?" She says with flaming red cheeks.

It is at that point that a simple wooden easel pops into appearance. Then another, and another, and another, until one whole wall of the mostly empty living room is filled with them. "Uhhh...okay. That's a bit overboard and worrying," She says. Despite her words, though, Kailey begins walking towards the easels. "I think we are each living in the one we are most familiar with?" She shouts out the window to Ravn.

Luckily being an artist for Kailey doesn't mean the canvas or paintbrush appear from her rump. Instead she reaches out to touch the easel and a small canvas appears. In her other hand a paintbrush appears and she begins to paint. "Yeah, pretty sure I'm in 4. It's what I've been playing when I'm having insomnia," She says as she eyes the easel. The paintbrush passes over and a vague outline appears. Then there is nothing even as she passes the brush over canvas for a few swipes. Then some color splashes appears. "This is so weird..."

As Kailey reaches out to caress her cheek, she nods in agreement. "Yeah. Yeah we should definitely talk," her cheeks burning along with Kailey's. Her words were of course coming out in those weird simlish sounds, but it seems like they're not having a hard time understanding each other at least. Maya busies herself with the guitar work afterwards while Kailey works on her painting, with glances around at the others when she can see them.

"Okay but if I'm not familiar which one am I in?" she wonders. "I have a cell phone so I guess that means something? I have a guitar and... I don't really know what else is all around here. This is so weird... how are we all in different versions simultaneously anyway? I wonder how that works, even if we are stuck in the dream." Maya rambles a bit while she plucks on the strings, the green bar over her head filling up while she makes some sounds that in no way represent music.

"So I guess we just need to play along until we find a way that will get all of us out of here?" she wonders. "I'm not about to leave you behind," she says. Her look is towards Kailey but she does address the group at large, even if she doesn't know the others. "You said something like a platinum award?" she looks at Una. "What does that mean? What do you think it would mean we need to do?"

"... oh," says Una, rocking from one foot to the other; she looks distinctly uncomfortable. "Well, yeah. Ok. This makes sense. The Dream put us in the Sims, and how do you 'win' at the Sims? You make your Sims happy. Or you make them incredibly unhappy and laugh at it, but that's not something for us to do." She does, however, cast a particularly dubious glance towards the sky. If there's a player in the sky, they better not get any ideas.

"So we all have some kind of aspirations," she adds, largely towards Maya, though she's glancing at Ravn and Kailey for confirmation as she talks. "They work in different ways depending on the version of the game, but... the end result is the same. And, maybe we make things just work the way we want them to. Given the mechanics are all fucked up anyway?"

She keeps looking around: above her head, at the others, at the ground. It's as if she's hoping for a clue: some kind of trigger to point her in the right direction.

Ravn can't stop himself from blushing as Una glances in his direction; no one really wants to be looked at while they're stuffing a sixteen kilo tuna up their arse. He knows he'll have nightmares about this later. And then he'll have nightmares about trying to work out the physics. And then, after that, he'll probably have nightmares where the tuna turns out to be a marlin which is -- as anyone who knows their deep ocean fish is aware -- would be even worse.

The musician in him is cringing at what Maya is doing to that unfortunate instrument. He can't even remember if there are violins in the Sims version he seems to be stuck in. Something about jamming or performing together drifts past his consciousness -- drums, guitar, bass, there's supposed to be one more instrument -- right, piano. You can open your own bar and form a band, and earn money from tips. The money earned isn't really worth the time spent.

"Be happy. Right." Something about that sounds problematic. It dawns on him that maybe it's actually easier to be happy in this game than it is in real, waking life. Maybe happiness here really is just a matter of decent food, enough sleep, a comfortable chair, and enough wish fulfilment?

Hell, when you put it that way, it sounds tempting to stay. Even with a sixteen kilo tuna up your butt.

He scratches his chin. "Insofar I remember playing this game, I always got bored around the same time. It'd be fun at first, scraping together money to buy decent furniture, advance in careers -- but in fairly short time things would settle into sort of humdrum routine, and then having babies was enough of a nightmare to make me start over with a new family most of the time. We could do that."

Pause.

"I mean, adopting is a thing in this game. Right?"

"Yeah, it is. Has been from the first," Kailey says with a nod as she keeps putting paint to canvas and wincing as it starts to show up. A child's drawing of a little girl with a sun in the background. "I am fine with not adopting yet. Oh heck...did anyone check to make sure there are enough beds and we don't have to, like, hot bunk?" She asks with a glance at Una.

"We need to make money. So maybe look at the jobs and find one you like? I think sales or service jobs you needed to practice charisma for. Which is a mirror,. Gardening you need to get seeds or forage the wild stuff around the house. Fitness for a few different things, like athletics and the criminal tracks," Kailey says as her small canvas is quickly becoming finished. "I'm remember more as the minutes go, but yeah. Being happy. Oh...if anyone cooks just cook salad at first! We don't need a fire," Kailey shouts this last bit loudly as her canvas finishes.

It is definitely a child's drawing. She reaches out to touch it suddenly and it vanishes with a, 'Chaching!' sound. Turning around she heads for the small kitchen and pokes her head into the fridge. "Let's see...party size will give us leftovers. I'll do that..." She rummages around, the easel already forgotten for the moment.

From the fridge she pulls a wooden chopping block with green stuff that looks sort of like lettuce on it. Which she takes to the counter and winces. Then her hands begin to just wildly chop at things and she feels the cut on her finger. It is there long enough for her to hiss and then gone only to cut herself another three times as she cuts up the salad. "I never cut my hands this much when I learned how to cook," She mutters after the third cut.

If anybody is wincing at what Maya is doing to that poor guitar, she's doing it most of all. It doesn't work at all like it does in the waking world! "How do you 'cook' salad?" Maya asks then, seemingly incredulous and as confused as she's always been, desperately plucking the strings (or some motion that vaguely looks like it) to try to figure out the guitar, meanwhile that bar over her head is still filling up. "Okay so we just need to figure out what our sims want and make them happy and we might get out of here?" she wonders. "So, how do I figure out what my sim's aspiration is? We don't have one of those on-screen menu things like you would in a video game right?" Maya wonders.

The bar over her head fills up with a PLING, and suddenly Maya's clumsy fumbling turns into... extremely basic string plucking. At least it's not offensive like it had been.

"Okay so I should find a job... is musician a career? There has to be a reason I started this off with a guitar right?"

Una's not judging the fish, uh, repository - promise, Ravn. She also hastily glances away again when she catches that blush, because it's completely fair: no one does want to be looked at when they're doing that. Some things belong safely in the privacy of one's own home. "I mostly used to cheat," she admits. "Motherlode. Motherlode." If anything happens (and it doesn't), there's no obvious indication of it, despite how hopefully the redhead glances around.

"I think we have to actually work out for ourselves what makes us happy," she admits, unhappily - and there's that uncomfortable animation again, too. "So that's a thing. I'm-- right. Beds. I'm going to go check the bedroom situation."

That's what she says she's going to do. But... she doesn't. She just stands there.

Ravn will never look at a fish in the same way again. It will probably be a while before he can walk past the frost counter at the local Safeway and not keep a wary eye on the frozen fish. The fish fingers in particular -- there are places where, in his personal views, fingers do not belong, and definitely not fishy ones.

Once he moves past that trauma, expect awful jokes and observations on the marina in summer when the fishing boats come in and tourists pose on the pier with their various salmon and other big catches.

He puts the fishing rod down -- or rather, he tries, but, yes, you guessed it, it goes exactly where you expected it to go, and his expression borders on priceless -- and pokes his head up the narrow staircase behind Una. "We need to know what kind of sleeping arrangements we have," he murmurs and ascends up there.

He's back a moment later, looking dejected. "Double bed. One. And it looks bloody uncomfortable. I guess we need to find a spare mattress and then you ladies can have the bedroom, and I'll find a couch somewhere..."

There is usually a couch in the starter homes. And Kailey turns from the tiny kitchen as Ravn returns, talking as she cooks, "The Sims 4 ad musical careers. If you had the right expansion you could be a famous rock star even. Same with painter and fishing. I know 4 had violins." She glances at the Dane with a wan smile. She probably could use the violin, if they had one which they don't, but maybe not Ravn?

"This mixed up jumble of game versions is kind of funny to watch. I will admit. I mean...there could be worse Dreams than ones which force you to find your happiness and attain aspirations, " Kailey says as she pours everything from the cutting board into a bowl. Then she starts doing tricks, salad going everywhere, and there is a squack of alarm from Kailey. "I'm not doing this on purpose!" She shouts as the lettuce disappears from her hair soon as it landed. And it only lasts a second or two. "Who makes salad this way?" But salad is indeed made as she pours it from the big bowl into another bowl. And said used dishes just magically disappear. "Though I don't mind not having to do handwash of big dishes...food's done!"

Then she realizes what she has done, even as she automatically takes a plate. Sure she's a bit hungry, but that call to food had an effect. Usually compulsory to the whole house and those visiting, but who knows with their varied games and all. Kailey decides to just eat the salad and though it is plain, it does make her feel marginally better. "I wonder if we'll get a welcome wagon since I'm in 4?" She asks around a mouthful.

"So wait, who's sharing the double bed?" Maya asks in that hope for clarification, her glance can't help but look towards Kailey. "I mean I guess that is the arrangement that makes the most sense, until we can get a bigger house or get out of here?" She says after a moment of realization dawns on her, still plucking along. "Well if we can get enough money for another bed at least that shouldn't be too hard right?" she says with an uncertain look. While Una and Ravn were dealing with their own respective confusion, Maya instead gets a full view of watching Kailey 'cook' salad.

The impact that is has on her is almost immediate, compulsory as mealtime is called, she immediately stops playing the guitar, she rises in place and then casually moves to put it down against the wall, each of the motions are sort of automatic, robotic even. Until she heads over to the kitchen and grabs a plate of the salad and immediately starts eating beside Kailey.

"Welcome wagon?" Maya asks. "Would that be good or bad?"

Happily, Una is not glancing in Ravn's direction when he puts the fishing rod away: she's seen enough on that front. The, uh, interior storage capacity of one's neighbours is generally best unexplored. Kailey-making-salad is a safer bet, if bemusing in its own way.

With Ravn ascending to the bedroom ahead of her, the redhead is-- once again-- left without purpose, her general indecision and lack of direction leaving her awkwardly out of place. "You two take the bed," she says, quickly, automatically stepping forward to take one of the plates, and then sitting down on the couch (the uncomfortable, uncomfortable couch) to eat it.

"Well, if Ravn's in 2, he needs friends to progress in his career, so a welcome wagon would probably help with that," she supposes. "Assuming career progression is important to your aspirations." Hers remain entirely undefined: not cooking, not music, not art, not fishing. Maybe there's a game bug, and she's failed to have any generated at all.

"I don't know that I particularly want to be a Scientist, but 2 was very -- the aspirations were all reach the top of your career or have so and so much money. Or if you were a Romance aspiration, have so and so many lovers, but I think I'll pass on that one. It's Popularity or Knowledge for me, because I don't want to go Family and put five kids through University, either. In fact, the idea of staying here long enough to have five kids -- even if pregnancy only lasts three days." Ravn shudders.

Then he looks around. Chess board?

No chessboard. Well, then. It's Sims 2 and he's going to go pick up that newspaper and do the crosswords -- before recycling it for fertiliser. Because the best food is home grown and home fished, and if he's a Knowledge Sim -- then learning fishing and gardening besides logic and cleaning makes sense, right?

Right. It's a lifetime of advancing slightly by one crossword puzzle a day, Ravn. It's a pity alcohol isn't really introduced big time until Sims 3's nectar making, because at this rate, you're going to need that stiff drink.

"Maybe we can split our jobs a little between us, optimise things. I need Cleaning skill for the Science career -- so let me be in charge of house keeping. You music and art types -- music and art, and I'll do the dishes." He glances towards the edge of the lot -- where somehow, it feels like the world ends and turns into some kind of undefined green, at least for him (and since no one seems to playing Sims 3, probably for the others, as well, just a little further down the road).

Then he turns a shade paler and scoots over to Una. "I have an idea. You can be my first friend. Because I am not having that discussion."

A number of people are approaching. And because at least where Ravn is concerned, this is Sims 2, two of them are the Caliente sisters -- Nina the redhead and Dina the blonde, both of them gold diggers, and both of them very much Romance Sims.

"Depends on if you're a social sim and like fruitcake. Except never eat the fruit cake," Kailey says as she makes a face over her salad. "At least artwork sells good once the skill is high enough," She adds between bites. The bowl is soon emptied and she sets it on the nearest counter.

Kailey turns to give Ravn a look and then smirks. "3 days still can seem like forever," She notes before turning to head for the door. The gathering crowd includes Alexander Goth in all his teenage glory, carrying the forewarned fruitcake. "They should be bringing casseroles," She can be heard to grumble as she steps outside.

In a complete 180 from surly to happy she is waving to each and every person stepping up onto the porch. "Oh hey, this rando is cute," She says, without thinking, of one of the random generated males. No surprise to some, the npc has long black hair and is wearing a leather jacket. However her words seem to have triggered things again. Because he giggles and covers it with a hand, before waving their fingertips flirtatiously back. "ACK!" Is Kailey's surprise response and she quickly about faces to go back to her easel. "Have at 'em, Ravn. I'm gonna...paint something flirty. Maya, keep playing. They may throw you tips?" And she shoots the blond a grin. "Maybe we can make enough to get you a chess table, Ravn. Una...you okay? Any ideas what you want to do?"

"What kind of sim am I then? Creative?" she says hopefully but she has a feeling she remembers how this all started... romantic? She was always a romantic at heart though nobody ever frankly in the real world ever got to see her like that. She eats the salad until she finishes it and then just... puts the bowl on the floor? Sure, that seems as good a place as any to put an empty dish. "But okay if people are arriving they may throw tips... could be worth a try! I just need to get the guitar again," she walks over and picks it up where she'd left it on the wall and just settles in again to try to play.

"If you can just help me figure out how to do my aspirations I just need to make sure I'm doing the right thing!" she says to everybody really. "If I remember the... I think it was character creation? They made me romantic and creative... I think?" she plays some music, basic songs nothing too crazy. It's a bit frustrating because she knows she can play better in real life. "You know, I already busk on the pier," Maya says to Kailey. "I guess if I can do it in the Sims that would help at least. We can get the chess table if I make enough money and then maybe another bed so everybody can sleep well? Stats are a thing so..." she pauses. "I don't even know these games! I'm a musician!"

Una doesn't need to be particularly familiar with the Caliente girls to pick up enough to fill in the gaps, and so it's with a reassuring smile that she glances back at Ravn. "I'll protect you," she promises. "While I work out what I want to be-slash-do-slash-whatever. Cook, probably." Because while the salad is fine (thanks, Kailey!), it's clearly not ticking off the 'excellent meal' warm fuzzy points. She's got enough attention (this game is good like that) to keep half an eye on the progress of the other two women, too, and their guests.

"Cook an excellent meal. That's doable, right? It won't make us any money unless I join the culinary career, but it'll make me happy, and probably the rest of you too. I think I've forgotten a lot of the details of this game; it's been years."

"Eighteen years in my case," Ravn murmurs to Una. "But I do seem to be playing an older version. I was fourteen when this game came out and I obsessed about it. Mostly because it let me hide in my room."

He tries to pretend that he doesn't notice that the redhead and the blonde both bee-line for him. It doesn't get any easier by the sultry look Nina (the redhead) gives him, looking him up and down and letting her gaze linger on his arse. His version of the game is the one that had -- well, not actual sex, but, let's just say that there were a great deal more detail in the woohoo cut scenes than the handful of grunts and floating hearts that the current generation of the franchise offers.

And with rotational game play it didn't matter a whole lot either. Even with the ACR (Autonomous Casual Romance) mod that everyone installed about eight seconds after taking the last install CD out, conception only occurred in controlled sims. Meaning, in plain English, you could bang the living daylights out of Nina and Dina without fear of consequences. And if anyone thinks a fourteen year old boy would not have noticed that option has clearly never been a fourteen year old boy.

It might be those memories that cause Ravn's cheeks to dust pink. It might just be the way Nina is looking him over. It's definitely not the way Dina is, because Dina is the gold digger, and he's not dressed near well enough to attract her roving eye. "I want to mumble something about bad stereotypes but if I remember correctly, they're not actually Latina in spite of the name," he tells Una under his breath (because she's nearest). "I think they're supposedly Arabic- Spanish. Something."

It's probably not a bad thing that the game -- at least the one he is playing -- requires him to introduce himself before a conversation can start. That's a handy cheat -- and Ravn sure as hell isn't about to greet either.

At least tipping doesn't require introductions. Lookit Maya's little tips jar. It goes plink when Dina throws a few coins in. It's something.

"Food, music, artist, scientist. Hell, as long as we can keep from spawning kids on each other or jumping into pools without ladders, we might actually make it out of here." The sooner the better, he thinks, but doesn't say aloud. Kailey and Maya seem like they might have a thing for each other -- so he just needs to make an in-game enemy of the Una!Sim. Right?

"And your busk is most excellent, my dear," Kailey says to Maya as she passes on the way to the easel. Why are things going pink? Oh yeah, the flirty vibe. Clearing her throat the easel fills with a medium sized canvas as the artists goes to work once more. As the Welcome Wagon enters the house and begin to filter about. Especially to the pathetically small couch and equally tiny TV.

This of course means that the guests are within conversational distance of Kailey. "We should have everything covered...or uncovered if this flirty vibe don't kick it," She says and then, for the same reason as everything else, winks at Ravn. Then sighs and says, "I'm just going to blanket apologize now for all the flirting...it is genuine but normally I just think it not say and do it. My filter has apparently gone on vacation..."

"Wait, what happens if we do spawn kids in here?" Maya wonders then as she continues playing, a bit excited as some of the guests apparently decide to drop a few coins in her tip jar (where did that come from???) and she continues as she thinks. "Would they come with us and we'd just have some mysterious kid of unknown origin to deal with? Yeah best to try to avoid that..." she says. Everything for Maya is going all blue as she gets inspired, the guitar skill bumping up again and the quality of the music she's playing just suddenly getting better. It's all a very convenient way to make some extra money at least.

"You know, if it were this easy in the real world, I wouldn't have to wait tables," she comments, watching as the guests arrive and mingle. "Though something tells me that my progress means I need to go on dates and get a girlfriend... this is gonna be awkward." she pauses and adds. "Or boyfriend, I guess?" she eyes Kailey and adds. "Well the flirting doesn't need to stop necessarily... We could just..." she decides to just shut up and play. Maybe she can just make money and the others can progress their things and only one of them needs to finish to get them all out of here. After all, if Maya and Kailey were to ever become a... thing... she doesn't want it to be in here of all places!

Una's sidelong glance towards Ravn is sympathetic. She doesn't have it in her to make any attempt to ward off Nina, but that doesn't mean she's not excruciatingly aware of those pink cheeks. Evidently real-life rudeness protocols don't apply either, because she follows the Dane's lead and doesn't engage. "I think I missed out on the intricacies of NPC backstories," she says, low-voiced. Having spent most of her Sims playing career building houses and people, there's a lot she's likely never really gotten into.

Like enemies.

"I'm going to go with the 'can't bring anything back from a Dream' thing still standing, oh please, please, because the idea of pixelated children coming back with us is horrific," the redhead adds in answer to Maya's question. "I just hope our... guests go home and we can get on with whatever we ned to do without having to interact with..."

Look. The flirty vibes between Kailey and Maya are quite enough, thank you. The pink flush on Una's cheeks? That's not a pink romance vibe; that's sheer discomfort.

Ravn's glance towards Maya speaks volumes; he definitely shares the view that pixel babies are not a desired outcome. Cross out Family Aspiration on his sheet. Not happening. Worst case scenario, he remembers the cheat code to remove a pregnancy. Not happening is good.

Nina Caliente slides up to him and whispers something in his ear that has got to be off the Flirtatious menu. It's pretty innocent so far -- the relationship bar over their heads is actually in the red since Ravn apparently starts out with an active dislike of this character.

Dina Caliente looks around. She looks a bit disappointed. No wonder -- hers must be a repeating pattern of disappointment given how everyone starts out with 20k simoleons from the beginning of play, and she wants at least 50k. Maybe she's hovering around in the hope of someone using the motherlode cheat a few times.

Ravn's response to Nina is to slider closer to Una. "I'm sorry," he mouths in her direction -- and then he declares, for no apparent reason whatsoever, "So, your mother is a llama?"

Sure, it's a Sims 3 Mean interaction. Whatever. The Sims 2 equivalent would be throwing his drink in her face and he hasn't got one.

Another canvas gets filled up by Kailey. This flirty painting is a childish heart in the background with two stick figures, both with a skirt, holding hands. Kailey steps back and looks at it with the horror Ravn looks at Nina Caliente. Then she touches it and away it vanished with a soft Cha-ching. It isn't much, just 75 simoleans, but every little bit counts. Especially if she is going to get a chess set for him.

Kailey turns to look at the gathered group thoughtfully. "Screw it," She announces to the group. Walking up to the randomly generated npc, the one with the long dark hair, she smiles flirtatiously and begins with an introduction of the same. "I can woohoo without trying for baby, so there," Says the one who remembers her version a bit more clearly.

Confidently she begins flirting with Long Hair. Blowing kisses comes next. Then the sexy pose. And Long Hair just seems to be enjoying it all. Kailey smiles triumphantly and turns to head towards the bedroom with the double bed. "I always wanted to find out what 8bits felt like!" She calls back, probably with every intention to turn Ravn scarlet from head to toe. Maybe Maia too, but she is giggling in a rather manic way as the door closes. So that'll be a thing...

So, Maya isn't quite sure what comes over her. One moment she's just talking and playing her guitar. The next? There's an angry raincloud over her head, followed by a broken heart while she watches Kailey flirting with the long dark hair and disappears into the room. She puts the guitar down, returning it to the strangely placed designated spot and she then turns and angrily shouts into the air, stomping her feet.

While Maya doesn't quite see what happens in there, she does start heading after Kailey, overcome with her own irrational sim emotions. Unfortunately for Kailey when she emerges from the bedroom it's to face an angry Maya with the wrath of god behind her, screaming in simlish before repeatedly slapping Kailey dramatically in the face.

Afterwards at least, Maya looks absolutely horrified. "Oh! What I'm sorry I... I didn't mean..." it's short lived though, the jealousy mode seems to have kicked in and she resumes angry pacing around the house before she marches back to the guitar, angrily strumming out the tunes. "What the HELL is the game?" she grumbles.

Una, real Una, probably has a pretty good idea of what Ravn's trying to do, and certainly hasn't missed that mouthed remark, whether or not she's actually picked up the individual words. He's trying to tell her something, and the context, a moment later, is pretty clear.

Sim!Una, on the other hand, was not programmed to be able to manage such complex thought processes. She's not angry, the way Maya is angry, and happily slapping is not her immediate response, but sadness? Sadness is. Una's indicators turn blue, and her whole body slumps in on herself. "Boobasnot!" Ravn!Sim is the worst, okay. Ignoring the beautiful flirty women who are just doing what they were programmed to do, and insulting the one beside him. The worst. Sim!Una looks like she's about to cry, and she says, "Yeah, well, yours is woofum."

Beat. "Watch out, I think I'm going to shove you."

Real!Una is apologetic for this, and at least tries to get her warning in before the exceptionally unhappy Sim version of herself lashes out, shoving Ravn!Sim away.

On the plus side, all of this? It means she's not actually paying attention to Kailey and Maya, and she's almost certainly going to be relieved at that, because the last thing she needs to worry about right now is the logistics of pixelated body smashing, not to mention the emotions that go with it.

Ravn is shoved. He flinches and falls backwards, ready to cry out -- and then he doesn't. Because the searing pain -- doesn't happen. He feels the redhead's hands on his chest, sure. He doesn't feel the fire, or the ice. Because there isn't any -- and this time, somehow his nerve system has managed to grok that part.

Or maybe it's just that Neuropathy is not a valid character quirk. Not in Sims 2 and not in Sims 4 (nor for that matter, in Sims 3).

Whatever the cause is, the result is probably a bit unexpected. The Dane whoops! He fist pumps the air! And then turns around for a thundering high-five -- just because he can, and it's the only damn time in his life that he can!

Fighting will have to wait another day. Oh hey, where did Kailey and Maya go?

It does not take long for Kailey to emerge. Looking rather underwhelmed as she shakes her head. Only to be confronted with an angry Maya, "Wha-" She starts to speak only to be slapped repeatedly. Which leaves her staring with wide eyes and mouth agape. "Uhhh...I...uhhh," Words have been slapped out of her for a second. In the meantime the NPC goes walking past and back to the party in his PJs.

Which makes Kailey look down and realize just WHAT she is wearing in terms of pajamas. Or not in her case...black lacy underwear and a camisole with a cartoon llama on it. "OH! Oh Maya...Um....?" She shifts to not quite cover herself, because there isn't really a way to do that. But boy did she want to change clothes. Looking down at herself and then back up. "I need to change," And she pops back into the bedroom. Doing a little twirl to revert to torn jeans, hiking boots, and a leather jacket with red shirt beneath it.

Then she steps back into view of Maya and reaches out to take her hand. Fighting the urge to lean in and whisper in her ear something simlish and coded. "It's okay. Sometimes this place does that," And then she moves in for a hug. "It's better than fighting for our lives. But....uh....do you...we should talk when the words come easier." The smile she gives Maya is warm. Then she goes in for a cheek caress. More Simlish spills forth in the form of vague innuendo.

Chaos has apparently erupted out everywhere in this place, but luckily for Maya she's only witness to her own bit of chaos as she tries her best to maintain her composure. The sim moodlet seems to still be glowing red for her a bit and she uncertainly looks around while she plays, wondering what came over her and what this place was doing to her mind. She's in better control of herself than that! Apparently not here. The NPC walking by in her PJ's catches her eye and she can feel that bubbling emotion of rage but this time she manages to suppress herself, cancelling out those other desires. Somehow that seems to work.

When Kailey returns and offers her words, Maya replies with a bit of a laugh. "I don't know. Fighting for our lives at least makes sense, I still don't quite know what's wrong with my head in this place." she murmurs. Even if things don't quite work that way in this place she gives Kailey's hand a squeeze and she nods, fighting the jealousy that the sim version of herself is still grappling with. "We should talk," she agrees, the guitar... disa- oh no. When did she put it in there? "We probably should have done that a while ago," she adds. Of course then the innuendo comes and Maya gives that little wiggle and replies with a whisper of her own before pulling out... a rose? She hands it over to Kailey with a flourish.

At least that's one crisis averted? Now where are the others?

Una's first reaction is bewilderment, the apology in her expression fading away into something far less certain. And then, maybe, she gets it, and she appropriately begins to laugh.

(The blue sadness around her lifts, too, so that's a plus.)

Meeting the high five with appropriate enthusiasm, she says, "Okay-- so there's one advantage of this fucked up Dream, right? What else can you do while pain-free-- it is pain-free, right?-- while you're here? Make the most of it."

It's about then that she, too, remembers the existence of the other two, and glances around just in time to see Maya handing Kailey that rose.

She's blissfully unaware of all of the interactions that came prior to that, so the remark that follows is completely innocent. "Just... maybe pick a townie if the answer is, um. Yeah."

"Uh." Ravn blinks at Una as her words sink in. "Tell you what. I installed a mod in my game once that removed the blanket. I was fourteen years old and I wanted to see -- and frankly, the pretzels those meshes were tying themselves into stuck with me since. I had nightmares about it. If I ever decide I want to see my spine bend in five directions at once I'll get back to you about it."

It's not that he doesn't get what she means. It's not that Nina Caliente doesn't get what she means. It's that Ravn doesn't want to get what she means (and he doesn't care a whole lot what Nina Caliente thinks). No shower of cartoon hearts and four hour purple happiness buff is worth that kind of spinal damage.

Not that he's going to tell Kailey. In fact, there are things he has every intention of not discussing with anyone ever, once the four of them find their way out of this ridiculous Dream. It's not entirely obvious what the dynamic between Kailey and Maya is, either. Maybe this is going be one of those that we just never ever talk about again, ever.

Thinking about that is probably Ravn doesn't notice how his interactions options change. He absentmindedly picks 'Ask about day' -- but what Una gets is 'Ask risque question'.

Kailey stares and is surprised by the rose. But she takes it and sniffs it and does an overly dramatic sagging of knees and heavy sigh. Then something special appears the happen. The fluttery hearts around her turn purple and infuse the rose. Making it seem somehow more real and more solid than it was before. More like how real, for whatever that stands for here, Ravn, Una, Maya, and Kailey are. "Thank you," She says as she sniffs the rose again. It has a lush and heavy scent. "I'm keeping this, no take backsies," She informs Maya with a playful smile.

Turning to Ravn and Una she is about to say something when that question comes out of his mouth. "Whoa. How come you never talk to me like that?" She asks the Dane as a smirk crosses her lips. A glance at Maya and she walks over to the other two. "Okay...I can try and make us an exit again if you guys want? Unless you want to stay and see what the big plumbob in the sky is after? Besides our negative emotional energy, that is."

"I don't even know where that came from," Maya admits and she smiles as little hearts float over her head. At least the bad mood was short lived! "But I gave it to you, it's yours," she says, moving to follow Kailey back to where the others are and a bit of strange flirtation happens around Ravn and Una... or whatever that is. "So you're able to open it up now?" she wonders. "What makes you so sure you're able to get us out now and not before?" she wonders, looking over at the other two.

"Sorry to have met you both under these weird circumstances, I'm not usually like this. Well I do play the guitar and busk on the pier sometimes. Maybe you've seen me there before. You'll see me again... assuming this works," she adds with a glance to Kailey. "Unless you wanna show me what pixelated... whatever you called it is like."

"... ok, gross," begins Una, because pretzel-shapes do not actually sound like fun.

She might well say more, but Ravn's absent interaction selection draws a horrified, horrified look. Tomato-red, ready to sink into the floor, and, oh look, Maya and Kailey are paying attention at right this moment, and doesn't that make it even more, uh, fun.

"Um," she says, though it's definitely not at Ravn; she's definitely looking away from Ravn and towards the other two who are, in this moment, slightly safer (very slightly). "Yes please. I'd like to go home now."

Ravn opens his mouth to gape like a fish, realising his own faux pas. "That's -- I meant to ask if we wanted to go home, not whether you'd go home with me like that, uh, I mean --"

He trails off. Sometimes, there's no save. Really, just hand him a shovel, the only way here is down. Maybe it's better to just shut up. It's usually better to just shut up. Just shutting up in progress. Lips zipped, his spirit animal is a clam. (Definitely not a barnacle!).

And here's Kailey and Maya debating whether to find out how pixel sex works and --

Oh look. Somebody upgraded to Sims 4, it seems, because that is definitely a bright yellow Embarrassed marker. Awkward conversation, yes. All he wants to do is go hide in bed. Or maybe tell horribly self-depricating jokes.

Which isn't so different from most of his waking social life. Ugh. Thank you, Sims, a piece of self-realisation he didn't really need at this given moment.

"I think I would like to go home now too, please," he murmurs, ever so low, ever so sheepishly. "Before I make even more of an arse of myself. I want to go home and remove that sea bass from my backside. I want to shower for a week because I've got a fishing rod and a sea bass up my backside. This game is losing its charm fast."

The rose is given one more sniff by Kailey before she nods to her friends. "One exit coming up. I'd say we've given the Plumbob enough of a meal," She says firmly with a glance up at the invisible ceiling. After a second she sweeps a hand. From it spills purple energy. The hand stops held high, one middle finger extended.

The pu3ple coalesces into a door-sized gateway. No flickering this time. On the other side Oak street stretches out. As welcoming as Gray Harbor can be. Kailey turns and makes a shooing gesture at Maya to get her to head on through. "Everyone on through now. Exit closing in two minutes."

She hardly really has time to figure out what's going on before the gateway is being opened up, she watches as Kailey does what she does best and Maya just tries to study and follow along, much of what she's done been mostly impulsive. "Okay it worked!" she says as she breathes a sigh of relief and before she knows it she's already being shooed over to the other side. Before she goes she looks over to Una and Ravn and says to them. "This has been weird. Hopefully next time we meet isn't in quite so... Well I'll see you on the other side!"

A final glance is spared for Kailey and Maya pauses as she seems to consider something before apparently deciding better of it and heading through the gateway, to where she is hopefully in better control of her faculties! And so after all of this Maya steps forward and finally onto Oak Street. She can see Kailey's house. Her home. Maya's home.

Una's not listening to anyone. Sure, logically, she probably understands what just happened. But logic is not a skill her Sim has perfected, and high emotions are high emotions. The yellow is strong here, too.

The appearance of that exit is blessed relief, though Una is so busy studying her toes she almost misses it. It's rude, but she does not manage to say anything to Maya (sorry, Maya!) or indeed the others: she just all-but-throws herself at the exit and at Oak street.

It's her first time through a portal like this, and maybe in other circumstances that'd be something to muse on-- to enjoy. But not now: now, Una's only thought is on getting out, and then, getting home.

But what about the sea bass, Ravn's mind helpfully supplies.

If stepping through that portal means finding himself on Oak Avenue with a very large fish in his pants he'll take it. All he wants to do is Hide from everyone and then maybe Confess Embarrassing Moments to his private journal, and wait the ugly yellow debuff out. And for what it's worth? His bed, his own bed is on the other side of that portal, on Oak Avenue.

He leaps through. Freeeeeeeeedom!

And sea bass for dinner.