Mod The Sims - Evergreen - Formerly boring name, exciting place

As was so often the case, we find Siri out by her telescope studying the stars.

Only this night, something is quite different. There's something other than stars and planets out there.

"Huh? Wait.. that can't be right."

"Where did it go?"

"Uh... what's that noise? Is it behind me?!"

Siri did her best to hold on, but as we know that tractor beam wins out every time.

Her parents heard the noise of Siri screaming as she was lifted into the sky, but when they came outside she was just gone. They had no idea where she'd gone to or why she screamed. Their beloved daughter, just like that, gone. Sigrid stayed up all night by the door, wailing out her sorrow.

After a while Tom joined her in her watch. He too worried sick.

And then, finally, Sigrid heard a noise outside. She rushed outside, hoping it would be Siri.

And from this strange loud flying machine out pops Siri, a little battered and very freaked out.

Though I'm sure a hug from mom helps. Not sure what to really think about the bizarre thing that had happened, they agreed to go to bed and figure it out in the morning.

But the next day, Siri wasn't feeling so well.

Worried about her and wondering if it's related to what happened, her parents called her in sick from school to rest. Siri spent the day on the sofa, lazily watching tv with her mom.

Tom not really knowing how to deal with the fact that he had been unable to protect his daughter from whatever it was that had happened the previous night, busied himself in work. Having now retired from his job as an auto mechanic he had more time to spend on his junk cars, restoring them and selling to car enthusiasts. While Siri convalesced inside, he opened up the yard sale.

Siri however did not improve, her nausea continued and so her parents decided she should take some time off school and focus on getting better. Only having one bathroom proved quite the challenge with Siri's constant vomiting and Toms aging bladder. I don't think Tom really understood, but Siri started to suspect what was going on.

And eventually, the inevitable happened. Siri's belly popped.

Though she had suspected it, Siri clearly wasn't ready for this.

But the one who really wasn't ready was Tom. His daughter, pregnant? His responsible wonderful daughter who just a short while ago had been trying on college clothes... pregnant? You would think he might notice how distressed she is, and had come over to console her.

But no. The past few days had been a real trial for him. Unused to not being good enough (in his mind), unused to being inconvenienced at home by his daughter, and unused to not being able to do anything when his loved one is in distress had pushed Tom to his limit. He snapped, and instead of consoling her he yelled and scolded her for getting in this state.

Thoroughly out of his comfort zone, having yelled at his daughter, feeling powerless he did the only thing he knew how. Worked on his cars. Though clearly not quite in his right mind. Out in his underwear, not even noticing that he's getting more burned by the minute...

Sigrid wasn't all too pleased either. Shocked, and worried, and wondering how in the world this happened.

Siri on the other hand had rather gotten tired of all this hysteria, and approached things with the sense of practicality and maturity that being raised by and spending most of her time with her two elderly parents had taught her.

"Mum, calm down. It's going to be alright. Come here, give me a hug. "

Siri's calm rubbed off on her mother, and reminded her what's important. However it happened, it happened and they just had to deal with it. And first on the list was to deal with the rift between Siri and her father. Sigrid pleaded with Siri to give him a chance. Siri was still quite hurt that her father would assume this was somehow her fault, and wasn't entirely pleased with the suggestion.

Siri left it to her mum to work on Toms mood, and for a while things were really awkward. But by the time Siri had really started showing, Sigrid had managed to get through to Tom and the three of them sat down to eat.

"Okay, I'm here mom. Now what?"

A little food, a little talk can do wonders. Somehow having breakfast together, just like they'd do so many times before, wore away some of the tension and restored some of their relationship.

Tom assured Siri he had come up with a plan of how they were going to deal with this.

So what was this plan of Tom's making? This part is hard to put into pictures so this time you get more text.

Having mulled it over while working on his cars Tom had come to the conclusion that there was no way his daughter had snuck out and gotten pregnant the regular way, he knew she'd never do that. He came to the conclusion that the aliens must have done something to Siri while she was abducted. He also came to the conclusion that regardless of which option people would believe in, both would guarantee Siri and the family to be the source of gossip, and notoriety. He was certain Siri would be shunned and tainted in the eyes of the community. And he did not want that for his daughter, or his family.

He realized that they had a golden opportunity. Nobody had seen Siri since the incident. Her school knew she'd been battling illness for a while and was being kept home to convalesce, and a few of his customers had picked up on it too. He was convinced the best solution was to hide Siri from the world, and make sure nobody ever found out about what had happened and what had come of it. And he knew that even though their house was fairly private, there was no way they could keep a screaming crying baby from being heard, and surely someone would notice Siri through the windows, or wonder why they'd suddenly covered up all the windows. No, Siri had to be hidden elsewhere.

And for that to work they had to make sure nobody wondered where Siri was. Preferably in a way that made sure people would feel too awkward to ask questions they didn't want to answer. Only one sure-fire way to do that, he thought, and that is to fake her death. He was certain that faking her illness had been bad enough to die wouldn't work, because then people would wonder why they hadn't called in a doctor (sure no such feature in Sims, really, but the job description exists so in my mind they exist). It had to be something where there was little room for questions, and where any doubts or curios questions would be kept silent out of respect. And what's more traumatic and more common in the Sims world, than fire? Surely if Siri died in a fire, nobody would think twice.

But not wanting to subject his daughter to any real danger, they had to get her out of there first. After some searching, Tom found an abandoned cottage on the very outskirts of town, in the forest. It had once been a temporary home for forest rangers, but thanks to the invention of cars and helicopters such professions could now reside in town and travel out when necessary. it was perfect! A little run down and moudly, but secluded, forgotten. Surely if Siri hid there nobody would ever find her. But how to purchase the property free of suspicion? After all who wants to buy a run down shack in the middle of the forest for innocent reasons. Unless you have the purest of motives....

A lot of things had to go right for Tom's plan to work, but he was confident it would work. At nights, he'd take a drive in his car as he often did, nothing weird about that. Only he'd go off to the cottage, restoring it and stocking it with furniture and supplies. While it was risky to go and he technically had no right to be there or do anything to it, he was confident it was so forgotten nobody would happen to come check and discover what he was doing. Once it was ready, they smuggled Siri out there. The next day, they staged a fire in the kitchen by intentionally leaving a pie in the oven.

Here's Tom standing in the garden, pretending not to notice the fire as it builds. I wonder what he is thinking. Is he picturing what aliens might look like? Is he wondering if they are watching him now, and what he's doing to cover up what they did?

Uh oh. That is one out of control house fire.

Time for the acting. Sigrid had been tending her plants by the pool, and now "discovered" the fire. Drawn there by her sobs, Tom came running, and upon seeing the fire called the fire department, who showed up in no time at all.

Once the fire was under control, Tom and Sigrid came running inside, breaking down at the sight of the ashes. The firefighters could not find Siri, and since she had been the one cooking they drew the conclusion she must have perished before they got there. After all, an ash pile looks like another ash pile. Who is to say one of them isn't Siri?

Everyone reacted just as Tom knew they would. Even though the house has low visibility the neighbors had often seen Tom out working on his cars while Sigrid tended the garden, and Siri in the kitchen cooking. So when the story spread and people heard that Siri had been inside, alone, cooking while her parents were out tending the yard it seemed the most natural thing in the world. They were all too busy feeling horribly sorry for this old couple who had just lost their only child, to question whether or not it was reasonable that Siri would have cooked alone if she was so ill she could have passed out leading to the fire. To the community it was just a very very tragic accident, nothing suspicious at all.

Having left no grave behind, the Sjöströms built a memorial to their daughter in the yard, where her telescope had stood.

In reality it was a ploy to make sure nobody could miss what had happened, and to keep the tragedy in fresh memory of anyone who came by so that they would be ensured to be left alone to their sorrow.

To keep up the appearance of the grieving parents desperately missing their daughter, they made a donation in Siri's name to the orphanage, replacing their stolen piano. Here you see Tom at the orphanage, coming by to make the donation. Perhaps Tom is pretending to smile at the memory of meeting Siri there for the first time. Or maybe he really is smiling at the memory of where he first met his beloved daughter.

That is where we will leave Siri and her parents for today. So far the plan has worked out. As far as everyone knows and believes, Siri died in a tragic kitchen fire. No one is doubting it, no one is questioning it. But Siri is very much a live, hidden away in a cottage in the forest. Currently trespassing on state property, but property so forgotten city hall doesn't even remember it exists, much less check on it regularly.
-- Supposed to be image of Siri's cottage from hood view, but I do not have it anymore and MYP hosting is gone

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So for the moment Siri appears to be quite safe. It's the middle of summer so she has some time to prepare for the winter. There's a small lake by the cottage where she can fish, and her parents made sure she had seeds and fertilizer to grow vegetables. But as summer turns to autumn and winter, it's going to get awfully cold in the brick cottage. Sure hope Tom's plan has thought of that as well.

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