Gen 8 Ch 15: Catch A Magic Fish, Cook A Magic Meal

"You're applying for college?!"

Hazel's fervent response made Icarus recoil, but he steadied himself quickly. Even now, being in the basement lab still gave him the creeps, but the sooner he got this over with, the quicker he'd be able to leave again.

"Well, the guidance counselor at school is making us do it," he explained, "It's just so we know where our strengths lie and what our options are, or whatever he said. It's no big deal. I just need you to sign this real quick."

Hazel signed the papers he handed her, all while a mix of emotions swirled inside of her. Even after Iarus had left, she still struggled to wrap her head around what had just happened.

"Our little baby," she whispered to Aidan's urn on the shelf, "Is almost a man."

Icarus wasn't the only young sim in the household to grow up quickly.

Idris' first week of elementary school was almost over and while he liked it well enough, he hadn't made any friends yet due to his shy nature. At home he followed Ivy and Icarus around like a lost puppy, but Ivy usually wasn't inclined to spend time with her baby brother. With their large age difference, even Icarus had to admit it was difficult to find activities they could enjoy together.

So Icarus was surprised, if a little apprehensive, when Ivy came up with the idea of telling each other ghost stories one evening.

She switched off the lights in the kitchen and grabbed a flashlight from a drawer. "Come, gather around," she intoned theatrically, "and I shall tell you a story of mystery and horror, and a long-kept family secret."

"What I'm about to tell you may sound strange," Ivy continued as her audience of two settled on the floor around her, "But it's all true.”

“Really?” Idris was already enthralled.

Ivy smiled and lowered her voice to almost a whisper, “Yeah, though I’m not even supposed to know this… so you have to promise not to tell anyone I told you this, especially Mom!”

Having sworn both boys to secrecy, Ivy finally began her tale.

"Alright, so... One dark and stormy night, Mom was on her way home when she saw strange lights blinking just above the side of the road. She stopped to investigate... and then she froze! She couldn't move a single muscle while the lights danced around her, getting closer and closer until... ZAP!" She paused to grin at Idris' gasp. "She was caught in a beam of light that pulled her up off the ground... and into a flying saucer!"

At this point Icarus rolled his eyes, but Idris was still captivated and stared at Ivy with his mouth agape.

"The aliens performed all sorts of unspeakable experiments on her," Ivy went on, "And eventually, Mom passed out from all the pain. She woke up the next day in her bed, as if nothing had happened. But she knew it couldn't have been a dream, because of one horrible little detail..."

"What was it?" Idris' voice teetered somewhere between excitement for the story and fear for his mother's safety. "Was Mom okay?"

Ivy shook her head. "Far from it. You see... she knew the aliens couldn't have been a dream, because all of a sudden, her belly had gotten huge! She could feel it inside... something bulging and writhing, wanting to get out. And then it burst out of her--a terrible, slimy monster! And when she raised her eyes to behold it, it looked like... THIS!" Ivy shone her flashlight at Idris' face, who flinched. Ivy guffawed.

She was still laughing when Idris scrambled up off the floor and hurried upstairs.

Icarus tried to admonish his cousin, but Ivy shrugged it off. "Oh come on," she scoffed, "it was just a bit of fun. He'll get over it. Besides, he needs to learn how to take a joke or he'll never make any friends."

Incidents like that made Icarus appreciate how lucky he was to have a friend like Ralph.

After school Icarus often headed over to Ralph's house to play games, do homework and--a more recent development--talk about girls.

Ralph and Lena had been going steady ever since homecoming, but the pangs of jealousy Icarus had once felt seeing them together had faded. In fact, now Icarus was grateful to have someone so well versed in relationships to ask for advice.

Icarus had told Ralph everything that had transpired at the homecoming ball (leaving out the part about the jealousy, of course) and while Ralph commiserated with Icarus over Annie's failed scheme, he also agreed that it couldn't hurt to give her another chance.

So of course, when Icarus agonized over where to take Annie on their first official date, he turned to Ralph for help.

"Well, what does she like to do?" Ralph asked, not lifting his eyes off his homework. "Does she like chemistry? Because in that case, she can take care of this assignment for me."

"That's exactly the problem." Icarus chewed on the back of his pencil. "I don't know what she likes, besides watching old sitcoms on Simflix!"

"Not much of a first date," Ralph agreed, "unless you want to Simflix and chill."

"I don't think we're there yet..." Icarus gave a short laugh, then stopped and stared at Ralph. "Wait, are you and Lena--"

"What? No!" Ralph's cheeks flushed crimson and he bent over his homework, busying himself with erasing a wrong answer.

Sharing his friend's embarrassment, Icarus quickly moved the conversation along. "So what do you and Lena do when you're together?"

"We mainly hang out here," Ralph shrugged, "Do our homework and stuff."

"So, like... what we're doing right now?"

"Pretty much."

Icarus chewed on his pencil again and mumbled, "Hm, doesn't sound like much of a date for Annie either..."

Both boys went back to chipping away at their homework in silence for a while. Suddenly, Ralph's head shot up, startling Icarus.

"I know," Ralph exclaimed, bearing a wide grin, "A picnic! Lena is always nagging me to go on one. To be honest, I don't see the appeal, but girls love that stuff, don't they?"

A picnic sounded like the perfect idea to Icarus--even if it was the only one they could come up with--and so he finally set a time and place to meet with Annie.

It was a pleasantly warm day in early autumn. Icarus could not have asked for better weather and he was altogether pleased with himself when they laid out their blanket on a soft spot of grass and sat down.

As they ate the burgers he had packed, their conversation flowed just as naturally as it had at the homecoming ball. Better even! They talked and laughed and learned that they had so much more in common than just a love for watching TV shows.

"It's so weird," Annie said, tilting her head and gazing at Icarus, "This is going to sound corny, but I feel like I can really be myself around you. I mean, it's not that I'm someone different at school, but it's like I'm just this version of myself. This perfect version of me that I know everyone will like."

"You are very popular at school."

"But that's just it! The version of me they know is just a part of me. But with you... I feel like I can be all of me, warts and all."

Icarus quirked an eyebrow. "You have warts?"

She giggled and slapped his arm playfully. "You know what I mean! It's like... I don't have to worry about what I should and shouldn't say with you. That something I say might make you think I'm not cool. It's a relief."

"Sure, be yourself," Icarus agreed, "Who cares what other people think? You're funny, you're totally into video games and you binge-watched an entire season of Married...with Sims in a single day. That makes you pretty cool in my book."

"See?" Annie flashed one of her perfect smiles. "Those are exactly the kinds of things I could never tell the cheer squad! Imagine what Ivy would say!"

"I learned a long time ago not to worry about what Ivy might say. She finds something mean to say about everything--besides, if I worried about what other people might think, I'd never enjoy myself!"

"That's what's so refreshing about you. It must be liberating."

"It is," he grinned. "You should give it a try!"

"Alright, I'll be completely honest with you then," Annie said, setting down her plate. Icarus did the same.

Her earnest expression gave him pause. Was it something serious? Icarus stared as Annie bit her lip before she spoke.

"I know this is supposed to be romantic and all," she began, looking extremely uncomfortable, "and it’s sweet that you did it… but to be honest, I can't stand picnics.”

“Oh?”

“Yes, I hate the outdoors even more than algebra!”

Icarus laughed, partly out of surprise, partly out of relief. “You 'hate' the outdoors?”

Annie joined in his laughter. “See? That’s why I don’t tell anyone! People think it’s so weird, but really, I think they’re weird! I mean, what’s so great about being outside, huh? Sunburn, icky bugs… and there’s just nothing to do! I don’t know what people find so fascinating about sitting around, staring at trees." She gestured around them and gave a big shrug. "Like, I don’t get it. Wouldn’t it be much more fun to watch a movie or even read a book?”

“Aw man, and I thought I'd picked the perfect date." Icarus laughed again. "Sorry about that, we can go do something else.”

At this, Annie's face lit up. “Oh, can we? I mean, I appreciate you did this and all, but there are ANTS all over the blanket and it’s really gross!”

They arrived at the cinema just in time to catch a screening of Facekicker 4: In Your Face. Icarus couldn't believe he hadn't thought of going to see a movie earlier--it was something he preferred to do anyway.

“Better?” he asked her.

In response, Annie took both his hands in hers and pulled him close. “Much.”

***

Later that evening, Icarus was sprawled out on his bed with a book. He always read until he fell asleep, though tonight his thoughts kept meandering away from the words on the pages. Annie was the one thing on his mind.

A knock on the door tore him from his reverie.

Coming across his mother anywhere but in her lab was so rare that Icarus had to do an almost cartoonish double take. He couldn't remember the last time he'd seen her in his room, or upstairs in the main house for that matter.

At Icarus' apprehensive invitation, Hazel entered the room with matching awkwardness. She gazed around the room, reminding Icarus more than ever of a nocturnal animal out of its natural habitat.

"This used to be my room as a child, did you know?" she said with a small smile. Running her hand over the wallpaper she added, "It's... changed."

When Icarus, unsure of what to say, remained silent, Hazel slowly made her way to the other side of the room and sat on the bean bag by the bookshelf. There, she craned her neck to examine Icarus' ever growing collection of books.

"Planet Beeboz," she laughed, "I used to love that book when I was little."

"I've grown out of most of these," Icarus shrugged, "but I used to read them so much as a kid, I'm too attached to get rid of them now. My favorite used to be Catch A Magic Fish, Cook A Magic Meal."

Hazel's eyes searched the shelf, and quickly found what they were looking for. She reached for the book and pulled it onto her lap, smiling. “I’ve never even read you a bedtime story, have I?”

Icarus frowned. “I never minded reading by myself.” For a brief moment, he considered being a bratty teen and telling his mother to get out of his room, then decided against it. “But no, you never read me a bedtime story.”

Icarus leaned back against his pillow and watched his mother flip open the book. She began to read out loud. 

Catch A Magic Fish, Cook A Magic Meal was a story written for young children, but as she read on, Hazel kept coming across surprising details. The fish in question, called the Deathfish in the book, was a creature that had died a long time ago, yet was still somehow mysteriously alive.

Hazel remembered her days back in college, when she was particularly fascinated with ichthyology. She recalled reading scientific papers on a very rare species of fish that had been documented to exist in certain waters. They were nocturnal, only coming to the surface to feed during night hours, and only appearing in waters where the conditions were just right. But the most fascinating thing about this fish, according to that scientific paper, was that it showed no measurable signs of life. Its skeletal form was held together by sinewy flesh and skin, and it moved and ate and grew, yet functionally, its organs gave no signs of life. Even more surprisingly, the fish could be left on land for hours or even days, but then start moving again when placed back into the water.

Its scientific name was carpio mortemus, but the unsuspecting fishersim, who had been the first to reel in this monstrosity, had dubbed it the Deathfish.

So the author of this children’s book had done their research, Hazel thought appreciatively. But there was more. The book claimed that, if cooked together with a special fruit, the Deathfish would produce a meal so divine that it could even bring the dead back to life: Ambrosia.

Hazel’s fingers clenched around the well-worn pages of the book. Could it be?

Life fruit was a well known, if not widely spread, plant that exhibited considerable anti-oxidizing properties. Its molecular structure was so close that of stem cells that the mere consumption of the fruit had been proven to stimulate cell regeneration in sims. There were several documented cases proving that eating life fruit could actually make a sim younger, but the plant was so difficult to come by and cultivate that it wasn't commonly used.

This rare fruit, combined with the even rarer fish... could this be the answer Hazel had been looking for all this time?

She read on, her mind racing and her eyes growing unfocused, but finally, she heard a soft snore. Icarus had fallen asleep.

Hazel's gaze softened as she regarded him. Her baby. She got up, moved silently towards his bed, pulled the covers over him and kissed his forehead.

The book was clasped firmly in her hands when Hazel left the room.