Strangetown: Chapter Seventeen - part two
Warnings: language, sexual situations, drug use
Chapter Seventeen
Part Two
As everyone settled in for dinner, and began to pick up their plates, Tank slipped away to wash his hands.
He usually washed them immediately after he entered a house from outside, and especially before eating, but he also wanted to take a minute to collect his thoughts.
Johnny had picked up on this fact, and had taken this opportunity to corner Tank.
Tank jumped a little when he realized that Johnny was standing right behind him, with his piercing green eyes boring a hole through his head. Johnny regarded him coldly for a moment, but didn't say anything.
"Johnny?" He asked, tentatively. "Do you -"
Before he could finish the thought, Johnny was shoving him across the room.
As loudly as one could say something and still whisper, Johnny told Tank exactly what he thought of him and then some.
"And don't turn around and take it out on Ripp again, either!" He added. "He told me not to even get involved."
"Well, then maybe you shouldn't." Tank risked.
"I don't think that you're going to tell me what to do, Tank! Or do I not recall the outcome of our last confrontation correctly?"
"No." He recalled it correctly, as did Tank. He wouldn't soon forget it.
"I'm not going to do anything to you, but that's only - ONLY - because Ripp asked me not to. Otherwise, I would deal with you the only way you seem to understand."
Tank said nothing, but glared back at Johnny.
"If you ever - EVER - touch him again, I will kill you. Simple as that." The look on Johnny's face was unmistakable. He meant what he was saying.
"Why don't you let Ripp handle his own problems, Johnny? I don't think he needs you to fight his battles for him anymore."
"You wouldn't understand, Tank. His battles are my battles too, and you'd better remember it."
After a few moments, Johnny shook himself off and said. "Now let's go out there and smile and eat dinner together as if this didn't happen. If you breath so much as a word about it -"
"Yeah, I got you, Johnny." Tank confirmed.
They left the room and joined the others at the table.
The Grunt, Smith, and Nigmos families were all gathered around the table together as a single unit for the very first time.
Jenny led the conversation. "So how is everything going at college for everyone?"
"There's going to be a big production coming up next semester." Johnny said. "They haven't decided on a play yet, but I've heard some whispers about it."
"Yeah, Oscar Wilde, or some shi- or something like that." Ripp added.
"The costumes would be interesting, if that's what they go with." Buck said with a smile.
"Unless they contemporize it, or something equally lame." Johnny rolled his eyes. "They're always doing "innovative" things like changing the genders, or setting it in a different culture now. They might even do that minimal black stage thing."
"Isn't that kind of outdated now?" Buck asked.
"Yeah, but some of the proffs worked back when it was popular, so don't try to tell them that! It's so annoying..."
"By the way, Ripp..." He added. "You might want to audition for that this time. At the scheduled time."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah... I always get my shi- stuff done, Johnny!"
"Just barely." Jenny gave Johnny an evil motherly eye, and he said nothing more.
"How about you, Tank? Ophelia?" Jenny attempted to include the quieter members of the group in the conversation.
"Oh, it's mostly just exams and essays for me, Jenny. Nothing too exciting." Ophelia said.
"How about you, Tank?"
"Much the same." Jenny furrowed her brow. Tank was so taciturn.
"I can't wait until we finally get to go to college." Jill cut in. "It's going to be some much fun!"
"That's right." Jenny said. "You two will be taking your exams soon, won't you? Time sure does fly. I'm sure Buck will have you whipped into shape for those exams... right, Buck?"
Buck laughed, nervously. "Yeah, sure, Mrs. Smith." Jill didn't exactly like focusing on studying for exams, no matter how much he insisted on it.
"Buck's such a good student." Jenny smiled, making Buck blush.
P.T. thought carefully, and then spoke to the Grunts.
"Boys, I do hope that our families will be allies to each other in the future, rather than enemies, as has sometimes been the case in the past." He paused for a moment, and then continued.
"I would like to propose that we agree to strive for that goal."
"Of course." Buck said.
"Well, you know what I think, P.T." Ripp said, smiling broadly. "I've been here since day one..."
Tank said nothing. The alien man made him uncomfortable, and anyone could see it.
He respected the General's opinions, and he was reluctant to disregard his father's thoughts on this matter. Sure, the Smiths were nice people, but P.T. No. 9 was an alien, and he might not have the best interests of the sims in mind.
"Tank, don't be a... the man is looking for a reply." Ripp said. "The polite thing to do would be to fu- would be saying something."
"I... I will try, Mr. Smith." He said.
"I don't expect your loyalty to be handed over so easily, Tank, but I do thank you for agreeing to give us a chance. You'll have to decide for yourself, son."
Tank stiffened at the use of the word "son", but nodded in agreement.
"That's okay, Tank." Jenny said, as he began washing up some dishes. "We''ll take care of these dishes later, after everyone leaves. Just leave them in the sink"
"Okay." Tank said, quietly. Cleaning up after himself came to him automatically. He hadn't even thought about it.
"Now, let's bring out this pie!" Jenny smiled. Everyone marveled at how good it was.
"This is killer pie, Buck!" Ripp smiled with an intense grin.
"Thanks, Ripp. It turned out well, didn't it?"
"It's really, really great, Buck. Really great. Really sweet..."
The pie was so sweet and juicy, Ripp had to resist the urge to eat it with his bare hands, getting the warm filling all over his mouth and face, and licking his fingers afterwards. He managed to control himself, though just barely. He contented himself to just fork as much of it into his mouth as he possibly could at one time.
And the pie wasn't even the sweetest thing in the room.
"Johnny, I'd like to speak with you in private for a minute when you're finished, if that's okay." P.T. said.
"Sure, Dad. Once I finish my pie."
When the pie was eaten, P.T. took him aside.
"So, how are things going with your decision, Johnny?" His father asked him, after they had stepped into the study for some privacy.
"Well..." Johnny began, knowing that he hadn't exactly been giving the prospect as much attention as his father would have wanted. "Jayne seems pretty nice. I've been hanging out with her a little."
"Are you any closer to reaching a decision?"
"Well, no, Dad." He frowned. "Don't I still have a couple of terms left at college? Do I have to get married the day I graduate, or something?"
"No, but I would like to see some grandchildren before I die, Johnny." He smiled, but Johnny just frowned at the thought of losing his father.
Yes, okay, I know that. I'll try to give it some more thought."
"Also..." P.T. began. "I can't help but notice that you're still dating Ophelia."
"Ummm..."
"You are, aren't you?"
"Well, yes, but what does that have to do with it?"
"Johnny, when do you plan to tell her?"
"I don't want to tell her! What if I don't want to marry Jayne, Dad?! What if I'd rather marry Ophelia?"
"I thought you said that you weren't that serious?"
"Well, I guess I didn't think that we were, but I think we might be. I don't know, Dad."
"Be careful, Johnny. You might do something that you can't take back."
"Dad, I'm not going to do that." Johnny huffed. "Especially not until I figure out the situation with Jayne."
"Well, that's the smart thing to do, son. You don't need to complicate things any further, and you know that it would."
"I know."
"I hope that you're giving this some serious thought, Johnny. It is serious. Very serious. The survival of our species depends on it. If our genes are slowly dilluted into the pool of normal sim genes, all my life's work will have been for nothing."
Johnny hadn't though of it like that. His father had devoted his entire life to his pollination career. His offspring, Johnny's countless half-siblings, were out there somewhere, and the intention had obviously been to keep them around. His father spoke again.
"Maybe this decision should take more than just your feelings into account, Johnny." He said. "I know it sounds hard, but if you think that it could work with Jayne, then maybe you should let Ophelia be free to marry one of her own kind."
Johnny couldn't help it. He was starting to cry. "But we're the same kind, Dad. We really are."
"Johnny." P.T. put his arm around Johnny's shoulder. "It's not really true. We can live among them, and form relationships with them, but we aren't really sims. We aren't the same."
Johnny couldn't accept that. How could he be any different than Ripp and Ophelia? They were the same. They were all different, as different people are, but underneath it all, they were exactly the same. Didn't they want the same things?
They just wanted to belong somewhere, and with his two friends, Johnny felt like he did belong. He felt at home. He didn't want that to change. He didn't want anything to change. And what his father said about letting Ophelia be free to be with her own kind was awful. What was he supposed to do? Let Ripp have her? Is that what his father meant?
Johnny couldn't accept that. The thought of his two friends, together, without him. And Ripp, well what if he did the same thing to Ophelia that he did to every other girl that he had been with? How could he possibly be any different with her? If Johnny broke up with Ophelia, was it inevitable that she would fall directly into Ripp's open, eager arms? Into his well-trafficked bed?
"Johnny, I'm sorry. I'm not saying that you can't keep your friends in your life. Not at all. That is important too, but our kind has always valued the needs of all above the needs of the individual. We take on the role that is most beneficial to the greater cause. That's how it always is in our culture. And for you, that role would be to have a family with another half alien, like yourself. That serves the goals of our species."
Johnny said nothing more.
P.T. held Johnny in a warm embrace.
"I know that you will do the right thing for us."
Upstairs, Ripp was saying goodbye to his dinner even more quickly than he had eaten it.
He cleaned himself off, swirled some water around in his mouth a couple of times, spit it out, and then drank directly from the faucet for a couple of minutes. His mouth was as dry as Strangetown sand.
Afterwards, as he was leaving the bathroom, he noticed Jill heading out to the balcony. Instinctively, he reacted as he would if she were any other attractive female. He followed her.
Jill's heart leapt into her throat when she realized that he had walk out onto the balcony. She froze, breathless.
"Hi, Jill." Ripp said. "What're you up to out here?"
"Oh, nothing. Just getting away from the crowd. You know..." She hoped that sounded casual.
"Yeah..." He sat down in the other chair.
"So, Johnny said that you're in a band now - The Shifting Paradymes? How's that going?"
"Oh... it's going. We play the campus bar all the time, and we're hoping to get a few paid gigs in the city too."
"I wish I could go to see you play..."
"You should... Come see us sometime."
"Mom would never let me."
"So sneak out." He winked at her, and Jill felt herself grow flush.
After a few moments of silence, she said. "So... I'm sorry about your Dad." Ripp was silent. "It's terrible. I hope that everything is okay..."
He sat there, gazing off into the distance, with a blank stare. It could have been interpreted as completely vacant, but Jill could tell that there was something going on beneath the surface. He seemed so sad. He couldn't possibly have been any more beautiful to Jill.
"Thanks, Jill." He finally said, somewhat absently. "But enough about that. How are things with you?"
"Oh, you know. The same as always." She said quickly, brushing the attention away from herself.
She jumped up. "What a beautiful night..."
She walked by, knowing that he would be watching her.
Ripp watched her petite frame move carefully across the balcony. She was no longer the scrawny little girl that he remembered. Her form was filling out into the woman that she was becoming. When had this transformation taken place? Had he been asleep? When had Jill Smith become such a beautiful woman?
She felt him watching her. His eyes gave off an almost physical presence. She swayed her hips as she walked, hoping that she looked seductive, and not silly.
By the time she reached the end of the balcony, she realized that Ripp had followed behind her.
"Nice view, isn't it?" Jill remarked, jokingly. "My favourite part is the silhouette of those beautiful oil tanks on the horizon over there."
"Oh, just gorgeous." Ripp laughed. "God. Strangetown is such a fucking shithole."
"I know. I can't wait to go to college so I can get the hell out of here."
"I know exactly how you feel, Jill." Ripp smiled. "I was the same way."
"Thank god I'll graduate soon. I would die if I had to spend another year with those assholes. Every guy in my class is a total moron."
"Guys can be idiots. Most of them don't have a fucking clue what to do with a woman, especially at that age." Jill smiled, since Ripp had obviously called her a woman.
"No kidding."
"They probably all like you. They're just intimidated by how fucking pretty you are."
"You think I'm pretty?"
"Well, fuck yeah. Why wouldn't I? You have that perfect alien bone structure."
Jill smiled. Not only had Ripp called her a woman, and pretty, but he had also acknowledged that she was an alien.
"If I went to school with you, I wouldn't be such an idiot about it."
Was he moving closer to her? He was. He got closer and closer until he was close enough that she could feel the heat that radiated from his body.
And his lips were grazing hers.
She couldn't believe that she was actually kissing Ripp Grunt.
"I've always liked you, Ripp." Jill said, feeling her skin tingle at the admission of this fact.
"I like you too, Jill." Ripp had always liked Jill, even when she was a little girl. Not in the same sense that he found himself liking her now, but he had always liked it when she was around. She brought a certain lightness into the room, just like Johnny did, and she was always so attentive to all of the nonsense that he carried on with.
"You're beautiful." He added, which he also believed to be true.
"God, I'm shaking..." Jill said.
He kissed her forehead, as one would comfort a child, but then he moved his hands over her shoulders and down her back, following the line of her zipper. Jill thrilled at the idea of his hands unzipping that zipper, and removing her dress. She wanted his hands to touch more and more of her.
"I've wanted this for a long time." She said.
Ripp didn't know what to say, so he just stared intently into her eyes.
"I... I want you, Ripp." She had stumbled over it a little, almost saying "love", but knowing that this was the wrong thing to say, at least for now.
"I want you too, Jill." Ripp was moving his hands over her back. "God, I want you."
Then his lips were on hers. He pulled her into a forceful kiss.
It wasn't anything at all like she had expected the moment to be, but it was exciting. It was rough and sloppy, and searching. His tongue frantically explored her mouth, and she thrilled at the idea of a part of his body entering hers. His hands moved down her back, over her hips, and all over her backside. He pressed his body tightly and urgently against hers.
It might not have been as she'd imagined it so many times before, but it was better than that in the way that was most important.
It was real.
Neither of them noticed when Johnny stepped onto the patio, and silently approached them.
Finally, Johnny coughed, drawing attention to himself, and Ripp jumped. He quickly pulled himself away from Jill.
"Ripp," Johnny began, "I think that Ophelia wanted to see you. Downstairs. Right now."
"Johnny, I -"
"You'd better go."
"Yeah..." Ripp left, and Jill stood there waiting for Johnny's reprimand. She knew it was coming.
"Look, I know what you're going to say..."
"Jill, you don't know anything!" Johnny yelled. "You know nothing about Ripp! And you seem to have no fucking idea what you're doing!"
"I know plenty, Johnny!"
"Look, Ripp Grunt is not someone you want to get involved with, okay?! He's only interested in one thing!"
"Isn't he supposed to be your friend, Johnny? You seem happy enough to hang out with him, so is he really that bad? Besides, what makes you think that I'm NOT interested in that?!"
"God, Jill! Do you think that you're that special?! Ripp's been with so many different women! You'll just be another conquest to him. Do you really want to give it up like that?"
"Well, Johnny, it's mine to give up, isn't it? What makes you think that this has anything to do with you?"
"Jill, you're my little sister, okay? I'm just not comfortable with the idea of you letting Ripp have his way with you, and then having him toss you aside like a candy bar wrapper!"
"How can you be so sure that he'd do that?"
"Look, Jill! You're just proving my point. I know Ripp, and I know exactly what he's like. He is my friend, but I don't really agree with everything he does, and I really don't want to see my sister on the receiving end of it!"
"Fine! Okay! Whatever you say, Johnny!" Jill screamed. "God, you suck the fun out of everything, Johnny."
"You'll thank me one day, Jill, for being so awful and terrible to you."
Johnny turned and left her standing there.
Downstairs, Ripp stepped out onto the porch where Ophelia was sitting.
"Johnny's going to kill me." Ripp said as he sank down into the chair next to Ophelia.
"Why would he do that, Ripp?"
"Well..." He sighed. "I sort of, maybe, just kissed his little sister."
"You kissed Jill?!"
"No, I kissed Jolene - of course it was Jill, Phi!"
"Well, that's not that bad... she's like, what, sixteen now, right?" She paused, then stressed. "She IS sixteen, right, Ripp?"
"No, he was pissed, Phi! He was really fucking pissed off." Ripp's eyes widened in fear. "I'm a dead man."
"Ripp, are you out here?"
Ripp jumped, but it wasn't the clarion call of an angry Johnny Smith. It was Tank's impatient grumbling.
"There you are! You're not easy to track down."
"What's up, Tank?"
"We're going over to the house." He indicated to Buck. "To check things out."
"You're going to come too, right, Ripp?" Buck added.
Ripp staggered to his feet.
"Why the fuck would we want to do that, Tank?"
"We haven't even set foot in the place for weeks. Someone should check up on it." He paused. "And we might be able to make some sense of the situation." Tank was planted firmly in place. Ripp wasn't going to talk him out of it.
"We can't just fucking take off without saying goodbye, Tank!" Ripp said, though he felt that fleeing the scene of the crime was exactly what he wanted to do.
"It's okay." Buck said. "We told the Smiths that we were going. And we already said goodbye."
"So, are you coming, or aren't you, Ripp?!" Tank said, growly ever more impatient.
"Well..." He looked at Ophelia, as if to ask permission.
"It's okay, Ripp. You go on. I'll talk to Johnny."
"Are you sure?" He asked.
"Yes. You should go with your brothers." She looked over at them, but tried not to meet Tank's eyes. "I'll handle Johnny. It's probably better that way."
"Handle Johnny?" Tank asked.
"Mind your own business, Tank." She said, firmly.
She hugged Ripp. His pulse was racing.
"Don't worry about it, okay?" She tried to reassure him.
He let out a heavy sigh, but said nothing. Then he joined his brothers, and they headed down the road.
"God, I can't deal with life tonight!"
Johnny was already in the middle of throwing a fit when he stepped onto the porch. "What is wrong with Ripp? He doesn't have the sense he was born with! He doesn't even have one tiny shred of self control!"
"Johnny, it wasn't such a big deal, was it? He just kissed her."
"Is that what he told you?! He was groping her, Phi! All over! There were hands everywhere! Everywhere, Phi! He was about a minute away from having his hand up her skirt, and -"
"Johnny." Phi said. "You have to calm down."
"Just relax, Johnny." Ophelia reached for his shoulders and began rubbing them. "Everything will be fine."
Everything will be fine. Johnny wanted that to be true. Ophelia had a way of making it seem like everything would be fine. She was so calm and rational about things, where Johnny found himself going off the deep end over the slightest upset. The sound of her voice alone could soothe him.
With her, things really could be fine. Johnny wanted it to be that way.
And he wanted Ophelia. He wanted to be with her. How could that be the wrong thing to do?
He took her into his arms.
"I love you, Ophelia."
"Oh, Johnny..." She smiled. "I love you too."
The Grunts walked towards what was once their home. Like everything else the military issued, it was standard fare. Every one of those houses was sturdily built, but as plain as white bread, and had exactly the same layout inside. The only thing that distinguished it from the others were the people who had lived inside it and their handful of belongings.
Now only their possessions remained inside, like artifacts to prove that they had, in fact, once lived here as a family. Not that those objects really told the whole story.
"Well, here it is."
They stood and looked at it for a moment, and then went inside to look around.
Tank sat down and examined the newspaper from the day that their father had disappeared, as if to look for clues, while Ripp and Buck leaned into each other to keep from falling over.
"God, I hate this place even more now." Ripp said. "We should just light a fucking match and walk away. Then we could just move on with our lives."
"We couldn't do that, Ripp."
"Yeah, I know." Ripp turned to hug Buck, while Tank stood up from the chair and headed towards them.
"So, what's the damage, Buck?" Tank inquired. "Who's looking for answers around here?"
"Well, as you can imagine, the police want to questions us, as does the military." Buck paused. "And then, there's Elise..."
They were all silent, and then suddenly, as if on cue, Elise Pearson was standing in the doorway.
"Speak of the devil." Ripp said.
"I've been calling for almost two weeks." She said. "What exactly is going on here?"
"Our father is missing." Ripp said. "He's gone."
Elise's face twisted into a horrible expression of grief, and she completely broke down, sobbing uncontrollably. The Grunts observed her, each thinking that the most human thing to do would be to go up to her and try to comfort her, but not one of them could bring himself to do it.
After some time, she pulled herself together, and Ripp stepped forward to speak to her.
"Look, Elise - We're sorry. We don't exactly fucking want this either, but there is nothing that can be done about it now. He's gone."
"And I'm also sorry for what I called you at dinner that night." He added. "You're not a bitch. Or, at least, I don't whether you are or not. I hardly fucking know you at all."
He smiled. "And you're not even really that skinny."
Elise took a step back at the last remark, but Ripp said nothing more.
Though he knew that Ripp had probably meant it as a compliment, Buck shuddered at how badly the apology had must have come across to Elise.
"So, that's it?"
"Well, you'll have to speak to the police too. No doubt about it." Tank said. "We'll be giving them your name."
"You think I had something to do with it?!"
"We don't know if you did or if you didn't." Tank said, coldly. "But, as of right now, you're clearly a suspect."
"I don't know anything about it!" She wailed. "Why would I be here right now if I knew anything? You have to believe me!"
"We'll be leaving those decisions up to the police. You are most definitely a suspect." Tank reiterated.
"I believe you, Elise." Buck said, quietly. "You'd have to be a very good actor to come here, and say all this, if you did have anything to do with it."
She looked at the three of them, and thought of what might have been. This could have been her family, if things had gone differently.
"I can... stay and help... if you want me to." Elise said, cautiously.
"Thank you for your offer." Tank said, kindly, as he moved to stand next to his brothers. "But it's okay, Elise."
"We will be fine."
Just up the hill, across the road from the home of the Grunts, the Beaker mansion stood as dark and foreboding as it always had.
Inside the pit, Nervous Subject struggled to keep the last strands of his sanity from breaking. The solitude was beginning to wear on him.
The Beakers had been mostly ignoring him, even forgetting to feed him at times, since Circe had confirmed her pregnancy.
Circe had initially reacted to the situation with her usual charm and goodwill.
But she quickly grew pleased by the idea of carrying on the family line. Loki was beside himself with joy. Between the project in the tower upstairs, and the baby on the way, he couldn't be happier.
The only thing that could distract him from all the joy in his life was the trouble with Nervous, and he chose to mostly ignore this problem.
Nervous Subject's mind was hanging by a thread.
Well, maybe it was hanging by five threads. One for each of the different voices in his head.
The voices, the voices, the voices. All day long, it was the voices, and all night, it was the dreams. The terrible nightmares. It never ended.
If the Beakers paid more attention to him, they may have noticed the severity of the situation. Instead, they responded to his mumblings and moaning by upping the dosage of his medication yet again.
Everything seemed bright and sunny after that, at least on the surface, and that was good enough for Loki and Circe. They were hardly concerned about how this would effect Nervous, since he was becoming more and more of a bother to them, now that they had a project to work on and a baby on the way.
The drugs might not have been doing Nervous Subject any good, but they served the purposes of the Beakers. They kept him quiet.
Outside the stone walls of the Beaker mansion, Olive Specter stood watching from a distance.
Olive was ready. Her plan wasn't complicated. It was bold, aggressive, and not entirely her style, but it would do the job with quick and perfect violence. She was waiting for the right moment to carry it out, which was now upon her. She would act the following evening.
She would kill them both, and take back her son.
( Continue to Chapter 18...)