Drabble+: Victim

[strangetomato]

Prompt: Victim
Characters: Pascal Curious and Nervous Subject
Wordcount: 247
Imagecount: 14
Warnings: violence and death

Here's something nice and light to read before you go to bed. Or maybe not.

"Pascal?"




He had been heading towards the door, going home for the night. He paused, and turned back to face Nervous Subject. "Yes? What is it?"




"Do you think..." He hesitated, then continued. "Would it be okay if I didn't wear the helmet, sometimes?"

"Well, it keeps you from having nightmares."




"Yes, but..." Nervous sighed in exasperation. "It's just that... well, I don't dream at all when I wear it. I'm sick of it. Everyone dreams. I don't even feel like a sim at all. Just... empty."




Pascal nodded. He shouldn't have questioned him. It was Nervous's life and his own choice. He'd been too long a victim, having someone make his decisions for him, and he should be allowed to choose these things for himself. "I suppose it would be okay," he said.




"It's up to you, Nervous. I can only make suggestions. You do what feels right for yourself, okay?"

Nervous nodded his head in agreement, but said nothing more. He seemed to have exhausted all of his words for the day in that one outburst. Pascal said goodbye and made his exit once more.




Nervous headed to bed, without the helmet this time.




He closed his eyes.




Slowly, images formed.




Terrible images.




He witnessed awful scenes of carnage and death.




Something about a wedding.




There were bodies everywhere.




He dreamt of nothing but death.

Those were his choices: horror or emptiness.




Nervous Subject twitched incessantly, grinding his teeth, but he slept through the night.








 

Comments

[selenecorvino.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, I'm intrigued as to whether or not this is going into the story. I have no idea who those 4 people might be, at first I thought they might have been Olive's victims, but decided that Nervous must be prophecizing the future, but who's?

Looking forward to the reveal and update.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

While it isn't part of the main storyline, this does happen in the story. Like other events taking place in other neighborhoods, it will only be covered as far as it effects one of the characters relevant to S,HWC (such as Beau, for instance, as someone who gets news about Pleasantview through Dustin or Alex).

This will be explained in the next chapter after the one I'm working on right now. That's a hint, if you need one. ;)

Thanks. ^_^

[redqueenofevil.livejournal.com]

I couldn't help but wonder if this was Olive's wedding or not. I guess time will tell.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, that would be interesting, though it doesn't fit with the way Nervous's dreams work. Still, I'd be interested in covering Olive's wedding (and plan to when more of Olive's past comes to the surface in the story).

[leskuh.livejournal.com]

I am awful at recognizing Sims, so I could be very wrong, but this definitely is giving me a Romeo and Juliet vibe.

And I like that Nervous is getting to start making his own choices, even if they aren't always the best decisions at least he's the one that gets some say in the matter. :3

[simsinthecity.livejournal.com]

That's what I was thinking :3 I'm pretty sure that it's the Monty Ranch we're seeing in the last shot of the dream.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

It does resemble it. ;)

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

It doesn't help that I gave them makeovers, also. But, yeah... there's a bit of an "everyone dies" vibe to this, right? ;) It's something of a... *dun, dun, dun* tragedy.

I think he's finally arriving at some sort of confidence in himself, and yeah, his choices probably won't ever be that great, especially when he has to choose between bad and worse, but at least he's free to make his own decisions now.

Now if he were ever able to actually make some functional use of his so-called powers...

[leskuh.livejournal.com]

God, I'd love if Nervous could harness his ability and use it for good. I mean, technically he's seeing visions of people dying in the future so (theoretically depending on how you set up the laws of this universe) he has the possibility of preventing deaths? Intervening? Changing the future.

Of course, that depends on if you plan it so that the future is not set in stone versus events being fated and unavoidable.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

In an older version of this story, Nervous does just that to attempt to prevent someone's death (okay, I'll tell you... it was Ripp), and in telling him, he still dies in exactly the same way, so I was going with the more unavoidable future in that version.

That plot got canned, along with a lot of others (as you know, some of them were pretty "o_O"), and Ripp may or may not have been granted a pardon. I did say that one or more major characters are still "on the chopping block", but I don't plan on revealing who that actually is.

I do believe that this ability of Nervous's might still be used in a similar way, though I'm not sure if it will succeed or fail this time. I do know that he will eventually realize that he can project it onto other people, making them see what he sees, and this WILL have a major impact at some point.

He can also contact Death at any time, and not just when someone dies, but he doesn't realize that yet.

(Okay, enough spoilers...)

[simsinthecity.livejournal.com]

*jawdrop*

I know where that is! But I can't seem to discern whether it's a vision of the past ... or a premonition. But ever since I introduced the idea of two possibilities, I've been leaning toward the latter. D:D

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Nervous's dreams/visions only work a certain way, so your answer lies in looking at how they've worked in the past.

[simsinthecity.livejournal.com]

Aha! Thank you for that. I've gone back and checked and now I know where this is going.

You are a horrible, horrible person.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Heheheh. Yes, yes I am.

If it eases your pain any, most of them did get to pass their genetics on.

Most of them... but not all.

[simsinthecity.livejournal.com]

Well, most of us knew that anyway ;)

Veronaville genetics are very interesting, I think. I resurrected Claudio and Olivia Monty (and some of the other dead Veronavillians) so that Olivia could have that third child. The result: Benvolio Monty.

[will-o-whisper.livejournal.com]

I'm almost positive that's Romeo, Juliet, and Tybalt from Veronaville. Not as sure about the other dark haired boy, but that's probably Mercutio...the "real" Tybalt does kill him in the play.

Oh noes. D:

I feel sad for Nervous, because that just so often the way it is. You can have the solution with the side effects you hate, or you can live with the problem, which sometimes you forget is worse. I relate to this more than I care to admit. :( My love for Pascal sky rocketed at his understanding that not only should Nervous make his own decisions, but that he can. The fact he doesn't try to pull any underhanded guilt trips, trying to make Nervous second guess himself...It's hard to explain, but it makes me happy that Pascal didn't even think about trying to pull any of that crap.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

You'll see what I've been up to in Veronaville pretty soon, but I will say this... after being scared off by it for a long time, I finally decided to draw pretty heavily from the original source material for the characters. It's not exactly the same, but it's quite inspired by the play.

I didn't even think about it that way when I was writing this, but I do see how I was making that parallel with Nervous's condition now. Nervous seems to bring that out in the story. His situation is very fantastical, but it really mirrors conditions that people face in real life in a lot of ways. I'm glad it had a ring of truth to it for you (well, and also sorry).

Pascal has a very kind heart, and I think he's a fairly nurturing sort. I think his influence does Nervous a lot of good.

[meetme2theriver.livejournal.com]

Ooh, Romeo and Juliette live up to their destiny, I see. (Noooo, Tybalt and Mercutio! They were meant to be!)

Cool little drabble. Poor Nervous, he just can't win.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Heheh. Tybalt/Mercutio? Is that sort of like a Johnny/Tank thing that I'm not aware of?

Thanks. He really can't. Even if he does win, he still loses in some ways.

[simsinthecity.livejournal.com]

I thought I'd seen T/M somewhere, but I can't remember right now.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I'm sure someone out there has done it. Like Johnny/Tank, once you go looking, you find it everywhere.

[meetme2theriver.livejournal.com]

It might've been us, but I'd like to see if anyone else's done it too. :D

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I'm willing to bet that at least one other person has. In fact, there were quite a few requests for gay Veronaville love scenes on sims_anon while it was on the go.

[simsinthecity.livejournal.com]

It probably was you. You don't see many Veronaville stories out there, really. Maybe because Shakespeare did it all already. *shrug*

[meetme2theriver.livejournal.com]

Hee. I don't know if anyone else's done it, it's something we had going in the megahood... or actually before that, when I was fiddling around in Veronaville on my own at some point. And upon making Tybalt and Mercutio gay during college I discovered they had three bolts for each other. What could be more perfect?

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

My only love sprung from my only hate. :P

[poppyperson.livejournal.com]

Cool!

Love it when you kill off charactors!

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Heheh. Glad someone appreciates my bloodthirsty author tendencies. (Everyone must die!)

Thanks. ^_^

[smjosh1218.livejournal.com]

OMG NO! I recognized Tybalt and Juliet right away, as well as some of the Montys. I'm sad now, ST. :(

Poor Nervous. I feel so bad for him. I'm glad he's becoming more assertive though.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

It's not Puck. I hope that is at least some comfort to you. As for the rest...

I'm sorry. Really, I am. Blame Shakespeare, not me. It was his idea.

Yeah, the best he can hope for is to learn to adjust to those things, but who wants to be used to that? poor guy.

ETA: Oops! Just caught your edit. So you know it's not Puck...

[smjosh1218.livejournal.com]

I edited my reply like seven seconds ago. You're quick, ST. :P

This isn't right! Seriously, ST. These are my people, and you've killed them! Well, not yet, but soon enough! It's terrible. My heart is bleeding.

I know. I feel for Nervous. I just have no idea what/if anything can ever make him "better". He's not a normal Sim, so he'll never not have the dreams... it's just a no win situation all around.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I'm a ninja. :P

I know. I feel bad, because I know you love them so, and I'm quite fond of them too (especially Mercutio). I really wanted to follow a pessimistic interpretation of Veronaville, though, based on what came before and the source material. The one I feel for the most is Hermia. She loses everyone but Puck.

You're exactly right. There is no cure for what's wrong with Nervous. that's what is truly sad about him. It doesn't mean he can't have a happy life, but it's always balanced out by his horrible condition.

[smjosh1218.livejournal.com]

I noticed!

Poor Hermia! I agree that for story purposes it works, but it's broken my heart. I feel like you would if someone killed Ripp, or Johnny or Phi.

I know. I do wonder if Nervous ill ever have a happy life, but I know that only you know the answer to that. I'm sure someday he'll be happy, but right now, it sucks.

I miss talking to you ST!

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Well, I've been known to do a darker take on my favourites too, and not all of them survive. Nothing is certain for them in S,HWC either.

It's easier to do when I'm not writing them very closely. I tend to soften and spare people when I get attached to the characters, so it's easier to be harsh with Veronaville (though I am playing it). That said, I do have some major character deaths coming up in S,HWC, also. And not just PT.

Or... he might be like many people. Sort of happy, sort of not. I like that about the game premise. The whole point of it was to make your sims happy and successful, or to make them fail, right? It's something I've been thinking about lately, where the story is concerned. In some ways, I feel like the whole story is just the quest for happiness for a bunch of people.

Yeah, me too. I hardly have any time to chat in the comments anymore. I'm lucky to produce any content at all. I really am trying to get somethig out soon, though.

[smjosh1218.livejournal.com]

I know, I know. i was just demonstrating my love for Veronaville. They are my people. And the fact that they're dead/dying soon in your story kills me.

You keep saying that, and it scares me. I don't want anyone to die!

I've been thinking about that a lot in terms of real life as well. People need to find their happiness somewhere. Whether it be in their work, or their SO or their children. people need to find their happiness somewhere. And maybe Nervous does have this terrible, terrible ability, but he has a chance to find happiness elsewhere. He is a Family Sim after all. I just want him to get better.

:D I know. Our lives got so busy this past year. What happened? :P

I hope you do. I've been "working" on EPL 4 for about 4 months now. I'm trying to finish taking the pictures first though. it's so tedious, and I'm so critical of my stuff lately.

[selenecorvino.livejournal.com]

I originally gravitated towards your legacy because I'm a bit partial to Strangetown. And then between yourself and Simgaroop's interpretations of Strangetown, you opened up a whole host of other possibilites for these characters, especially the way you've incorporated their lives with those from the other 'hoods. 'Hoods that I have no real knowledge of, but I'm now trying to explore through reading other's legacies.

I guess I missed previous mentions about a "chopping block," and in part I'm hoping that Ripp is not included because you've endeared him to me as your lovable bad boy, comic relief rolled into one.

Looking forward to your next update, and any other postings that help explain, filling in my gaps of 'hood knowledge.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I'm drawn to mixing in the other hoods because I think it's a way to really put my own spin on the story, and not be limited to just Strangetown, which only has so far it can go on its own. Strangetown and Pleasantview are meant to be linked through Bella, anyway, but I'm finding a lot of other connections that may not be intended by the game, but feel right to me.

I'm not sure how much I mentioned the "chopping block" in this journal before. It might have been in an outside conversation. I did mention it once or twice before, at any rate. I've killed off characters for plot purposes, and I do intend at least one more death of a major character.

I do tend to like to put my favourites through the wringer, because I'm a bit of a sucker for drama, and I tend to be drawn to stories like that. All my childhood favourites are things I remember crying over.

Ripp is (obviously) dear to my heart, but that certainly doesn't mean he'll be spared hardships. He's had his share already. Then again, it's a little awkward to kill off the central character of the story. Not unheard of, but unlikely. (I really was planning to have him die in an earlier version. He fell further and further into self-destruction and loneliness, which is something that has already changed because of changes in his relationship with Johnny and Ophelia.)

I think I'm going to start posting shorter chapters in the future, and maybe break each chapter into shorter parts (which I've already been doing). I miss the early days when I could get a couple of updates out in a week. Reposting those made me realize how much shorter they used to be.

Thank you for reading, and thanks for the kind words. ^_^

[silentsteel.livejournal.com]

Poor Nervous . . . :(

. . . . Waaaait, Romeo and Juliette? O.O! Hmm. I wonder.