Abbie La Mer dresses in her favorite old clothes, and begins exploring, re-discovering the town without aid of her walker or a cane. She feels she's lucky to have Percival Archer by her side. Their relationship is strange; they have children but they aren't romantic interests. They are not even the same people they were before Abbie's accident.
"I'm getting old," she says, feeling strange in her skimpy young woman's top.
"It happens to the best of us." Percy isn't sure how to respond exactly. He fears Abbie is reacting to her elder brother's death. In Abbie's mind, Wilbert La Mer should still be a young man, and she his kid sister.
"I need to meet them," Abbie says quietly. She's been putting this off since the twins were still children.
Loki is awkwardly inconsolable when he learns of his uncle Wilbert's death.
After such a breakdown, Percy isn't sure how to tell him about the lie of Abbie being unconscious in the hospital for all this time.
"I thought I was hugging Dad," Loki says, feeling light-headed.
"You're nervous about us meeting our mother and you threw up," Cayenne informs him. "But it's gonna be okay."
"Oh, right," he mumbles. "Dad somehow thought I didn't realize she's been awake since we were kids. How is Dad such a moron?"
Percival arranges for Cayenne and Loki to meet Abbie.
It's a quiet Sunday afternoon at this beach the Archers own.
The waves lap gently at the sand. The silence tastes like salt.
Possessing maxed out charisma skill, Percy chooses to break the tension by talking about politics.
One glance at Cayenne tells Loki his sister is feeling indignant about this whole thing.
Why does Abbie choose to say hello now? When they're nearly adults and out of the house?
Why has she taken the easy way out, if she's been conscious since they were children?
While Cayenne crinkles her nose and tries to figure out how to ask these questions in the nicest way possible, Loki is quiet and focuses on his lunch. If he doesn't keep focused on it, he'll forget which of the thousand hot dogs on this table is the one Cayenne set in front of him.
Abbie does not scrimp on the apologies. She's wanted to talk to the twins since learning they were still alive (her first thought when she woke up, of course, was that she'd lost them). But she's been too nervous, all this time. She didn't feel like she was really their mother. They an entirely different upbringing than she would have imagined for them.
Her daughter has a name she was not even considering.
Abbie didn't know if it was her place to step in and co-parent. She wondered if she belonged in their lives at all.
Cayenne decides she's got nothing to gain by staying upset, and begins to open up about her interests. Her brother says very little, which Abbie more or less expected, given Wilbert's description of the twins' behavior.
After lunch, Loki and Abbie bond without words over a game of Sim Gnubb.
Cayenne says some forgettable things about what she's learning in school.
It's hard to believe these nearly-grown teenagers were once small enough to fit in... uhm... yeah.
Cayenne eventually works up the nerve to ask more personal questions to Abbie.
Abbie guesses she should be pleased her daughter is thinking about real brainiac careers. She must get that from Percy's side.
For some reason, Iris approaches.
"Seems like your family is doing well for itself," she comments.
"We have our good days and bad days," he responds. "And yours?"
"We're happy," Iris says.
And by we, she means herself, her husband and her daughter. Chervil and Tiberius had to be cut from the picture. She could never look back. But watching Abbie try to make a connection with Cayenne and Loki, Percy has to wonder if Iris is wishing she could look back.
The trophy cabinet.
"It's really sunny out today," Loki comments.
Last word, last letter. "Yetis," Cayenne says.
And then they can talk about it.
Parsley sits out on the school playground long after classes are over, contemplating her impending graduation.
She has a promising career as a professional athlete ahead of her, perhaps, but somehow she knows it won't make her happy. The grueling push to the top may or may not satisfy her competitive nature, and she worries it may leave some other part of her feeling empty.
Soon enough, Parsley leaves her teenage years behind and becomes a woman.
Her discomfort now has a name: wanderlust.
She dresses warmly and tells her father she'll be taking to the seas.
Having a career doesn't mean she'll have to be tied down to one area, she's realized. There are plenty of opportunities involving travel.
Since this is what she wants, Percy is supportive, and offers her as much money as she needs. He trusts her to be responsible.
The night before she leaves, her youngest brother takes the time to make fun of her new style.
"Owning the ears, huh? That shirt makes you look like you're trying to audition for Lord of the Rings."
"I'm going to miss you too, you little weirdo."
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Etc.: Please excuse the refrigerator for morphing between shots. I'm usually not that sloppy.
The last pic shows the old fridge, while the second-to-last shows the new one Tiberius received for reaching the top of the culinary career track. I love that fridge. Now that all the food won't go to waste, I can have him complete the cooking skill challenges with less regret. Tiberius still has to cook some 40 more meals or something. I don't remember.
The only charisma skill challenge Percy has left to complete is the 100 jokes one. He's told 56 funny jokes already, so good for him. I gave him the "never dull" reward, so most of those were achieved by having him spam the "tell joke" charismatic interaction on a random kid in the house.
Now that Parsley has aged up, generation 7 is only one more sim day away.
