Fanon:Pleasant family (K6ka)

The Pleasant family is a family in my version of Pleasantview. It consists of Daniel and Mary-Sue and their two twin daughters, Angela and Lilith.

Much like EA/Maxis originally intended, the Pleasant family always ends up in disaster and misery, with either Daniel or Mary-Sue being caught having an affair, and always ends up in flying dust clouds, Sims being slapped with stars flying above their heads, and me, the heartless, selfish player, just laughs at the show in front of him as if Jimmy Kimmel was there.

Part 1: A stressful morning
Daniel Pleasant opened his eyes slowly. Sunlight from the slightly open windows filtered in the gaps of the partially drawn curtains, landing on his pillow, tickling his eyes open, telling him that the night was over and it was time to get out of bed.

He rolled over to his side, facing the middle of the bed, and reached out around his partner's body. But the warm lump that slept beside him was no longer there, replaced with the lukewarm bedsheets and several wrinkles in the fabric.

Daniel rolled over again and opened his eyes, a little more forcefully, almost squinting from the sun. His wife was out of bed, combing her hair in front of the mirror. From the reflection of the mirror Daniel could see his wife... wasn't in a good mood today.

Maybe he could fix that.

"Oh please, Mary-Sue, do you need to be up so early? Just stay with me for a little bit longer..."

Mary-Sue did not take his question too kindly. "I have to work today, Daniel," she grumbled. "Today might be your day off, but it isn't mine." And with that, she disappeared into the bathroom.

Daniel sighed. He liked sleeping in on a day-off from work, but he just couldn't do it if there was nobody beside him to snuggle in with. He slowly got out of bed, the springs groaning under his weight. He made his way into the bathroom, where his wife was brushing her teeth.

"C'mon, Mary-Sue... has the Devil bit you this morning?" he asked as he reached for his face towel. He always found it silly that some Sims brushed their teeth before eating breakfast. He always brushed after eating, otherwise, as he had said, "They'll just get dirty again when you eat."

Mary-Sue did not respond. She spat out the toothpaste, replaced her toothbrush, and left the bathroom.

Daniel sighed. He lathered a bit of soap on his face and began to scrub.

"I TOLD YOU THAT I WAS USING THE BATHROOM FIRST!"

The morning beauty shattered with Lilith's loud shriek, and her fists pounding on the bathroom door.

"C'mon, Angela! This is the third time I've had to tell you! It's a Thursday and it's my turn to use the bathroom first!"

Angela, who was inside brushing her teeth and washing her hair, did not relent. "If you don't stop banging the door until it breaks," she screamed through the lather, "I'm sure mom will bring out the cane again!"

"Yeah? Well, we agreed to the deal that we'd take turns using the bathroom! Don't you remember.... you little... YOU LITTLE...."

"Just use the downstairs bathroom! How hard is that? Are you dumb or something?"

Lilith, exhausted after arguing fruitlessly, hurled some more profanity at the door, then spat on the doorknob. She stormed down the stairs to the downstairs bathroom, which lacked her toothbrush and comb. Her hair was a mess, her clothes were caked with dirt, and she was almost certain that it would be another horrible, horrible day. Like yesterday. And the day before that. She had seldom experienced a happy moment in life. Lilith was always the underdog of the Pleasant family. Her parents always favored Angela over her. Angela learned her toddler skills, Lilith was never taught any. Angela held a B average, Lilith held straight D's. Angela had the sweet, new clothes, Lilith had to wear century-old trash. Angela was the sun, Lilith was the thunderstorm. Angela was the light gentle breeze, Lilith was the tornado. Angela was an angel, Lilith was a...

"Euuuucccchhh!!!!"

Angela had touched the saliva-covered doorknob while exiting the bathroom, and she didn't have to ask who did it. She was now racing down the stairs to where Lilith was. "Once I get my hands on you, I swear I'll make you bleed!"

Lilith knew better than to fight, however. She ran into the bathroom and locked the door. Now it was Angela's turn to bang her fists on the door and hurl profanity at its inhabitant.

The door banging and screaming was easily heard in the parents' bedroom.

"My, do the two girls ever stop fighting?" Mary-Sue grumbled. "Sooner or later they're going to rip this house to shreds if they don't rip each other to shreds first."

Daniel did not respond. He was sitting in bed again, his mind spinning. He and his wife had not exchanged a kiss in over three months, a hug in two, and a decent conversation in one. He felt lost, dizzy, helpless, and useless. Getting married was, for a Romance Sim, bad enough, but to be coldly neglected by your own spouse? It was everybody's nightmare.

That is, if he wasn't holding his own affair...

Daniel was secretly dating the family's hired maid, Kaylynn Langerak. She was a lot younger than Mary-Sue, and a lot nicer and more cheerful. Ever since his wife paid more attention to her career than she did the rest of the family, Kaylynn was Daniel's only true friend and lover. When Daniel told her about his wife, the two joked "She should probably just marry her computer at work and sleep there and save herself the commute home."

Like it or not, though, Daniel and Mary-Sue were still legally married. And Mary-Sue probably wouldn't be very happy to see their marriage go up in smoke.

But then again, why would she care? She pays more attention to her job anyway.

The slamming of the bedroom door snapped Daniel out of his daydream. Angela stood by the door, putting her weight on the door to prevent it from bursting open by the brutal banging on the other side. "Lilith spat on the doorknob and now she wants to kill me!!" she screamed.

Daniel sighed. He should've said "I don't" at the wedding.

Part 2: Off to work, off to Hell
The toaster pastries tasted cold and bland. Daniel's plate was chipped after it fell off the table a month ago. Lilith didn't show up for breakfast, and all Mary-Sue ate was a stale muffin.

Angela sat at the table, eating quietly. Daniel stared blankly at the ceiling. It was his day off, but it may as well be his last day on Earth. Lilith had managed to break into the bedroom and the two exchanged punches. Both of them missed, but it left two unsightly cracks in the door. Neither of them claimed responsibility. And his cold wife wasn't making the situation any better. She didn't even give him a second look after finishing up in the bathroom, as if she would turn to stone if she looked at him.

Daniel sighed. He didn't want food. Some people ate food to feel better when they were depressed, but Daniel wasn't like that. He tried eating food as a comfort but only succeeded in getting slightly overweight as a result. Daniel didn't want to be fat. It would make being a romancer even harder.

He got up, dumped his toaster pastry into the trash bin, and dropped the dish into the sink. Normally, Angela would scold him for wasting food. But today she was silent, as if aliens (or at least her sister) twisted her tongue off.

Mary-Sue was nowhere in sight. Lilith was in the upstairs bathroom cleaning herself up. The house felt too unbearably uncomfortable, so Daniel went outside. It was warm out, a light breeze keeping it light and cool, but Daniel felt none of it. The birds were chirping, and in the distance the pad-pad of a jogger's feet were audible, but Daniel heard none of it. He sat down on a bench and lay there, staring blankly at the scene in front of him.

"I've had quite enough from the both of you!" Mary-Sue yelled at her two daughters.

Angela and Lilith were unshaken. "She deserves more punishment!" they both yelled, pointing at each other.

"She spat on the doorknob!"

"She violated our deal!"

"She tried to hit me!"

"She tried to hit me too!"

"She left a hole in the wall!"

"So did she!"

"And now she's accusing me of doing it!"

"That's because you DID!"

"Enough is enough!" Mary-Sue shouted. She was on her last string. "If you two don't stop fighting each other I'll have to call Mrs. Lawson and have her watch..."

She didn't have time to finish her sentence. Lilith took one swing at Angela and smacked her in the nose. Angela returned the favor by punching Lilith in the stomach.

"That's it!" Without thinking, Mary-Sue walked up and struck Lilith in the face. Lilith was slightly shaken, staring horrified at her mother, but she recovered quickly.

"And you slap me? You should slap Angela the demon too!"

"Hey, you deserved it more than I did!" Angela screamed, defending herself.

Mary-Sue had no patience left. She raised her hand to strike Angela, but was cut short with a car horn honking outside.

Time for work. And she was a horrible mess, both emotionally and physically.

Mary-Sue sighed. "You two better be at school whether you like it or not! I'll ask your father when I get home, and if he tells me either one of you were staying at home I.... I will.... ugh, let's not even go there." And with that, she stormed out the door.

Her carpool was waiting by the mailbox. She turned her head to look at her husband. He had finally mustered the strength to get off the bench but apparently was too stupid to do anything useful. There he was, flirting and kissing with a sponge mop with a paper plate face on it. Mary-Sue sighed in disgust. Why did she even marry such a man?

She got into the car and slammed the door, hopefully loud enough to snap Daniel out of his romantic trance. It didn't.

"Good morning, Mary-Sue. How was your morning so far?" her driver asked.

"You mean how screwed up my morning is?" she responded. "Oh yes, I've had quite a wonderful morning. My two daughters almost killed each other, there's a gaping hole in my bedroom door, I had stale toaster pastries for breakfast, and my husband's kissing a sponge mop! If you consider that a good morning, then yes — I am having a great morning."

Just in front of the car was the school bus that would take Angela and Lilith to school. Mary-Sue's driver was about to drive around the bus when Mary-Sue told him to stop. "I better keep an eye on my two daughters so they'll actually get on the bus instead of hiding in the bathroom."

Angela left the house first. She hollered something inaudible towards the front door, then strode off. She caught a glance of her insane father and took one step towards him, as if to try and get him out of his trance, but retreated at the last step and continued towards the bus.

Lilith was second. She walked and shouted, hurling what must've been insults towards Angela, Mary-Sue thought. She walked several meters off the path and away from her father, as if he was infected with some contagious disease. She stopped just outside the bus door, spat on the pavement, and climbed aboard. The bus drove off into the distance...

"May we leave now?" her driver asked, snapping her out of her trance.

"Yes. We can go now."

Part 3. The house to himself
Daniel opened his eyes. A face was on top of his face. It stared at him with white, beady eyes. And its lips were... wet...

He threw the face off himself. The mop went crashing back, banging on the bench loudly before falling to the ground. The face stared up at the sky, still gleaming, still wet.

Daniel groaned. He had done it again. If only he went to college and studied Simology, he would know why things like this happen. He didn't see Derek Vijayakar, the newspaper delivery boy, drop off the SimCity Chronicle. He didn't see Mortimer Goth pass by on his morning walk. And he certainly didn't see his family leave for school and work. Now here he was, standing awkwardly on his front lawn with a sponge mop with a paper plate face for company.

Daniel picked up the mop, ripped the paper plate face off of it, then walked the mop back inside the house, where he dumped it next to the stairs. What is there to worry about, Daniel thought to himself. Things like that happen every day in SimCity alone. And besides... Kaylynn's coming today!

Kaylynn's coming today!

Kaylynn's coming today.

Kaylynn's coming.

Daniel smacked himself in the face. So what about Kaylynn if she's coming today? Oh right, she's your only true friend ever since your wife married her computer at work, the mouse as the ring-bearer and the keyboard as the Best Man. Your wife's at work and your kids are at school. And because you're all alone in the cold, you made do with the family's hired maid... Kaylynn Langerak. And she comes every morning to clean your house...

Well, Daniel thought to himself, if she is coming over, I'd better take some of the work off her shoulders.

Daniel never had a Servo before, but he could see why Sims who had the money were going for miles to buy one. They could clean, cook, garden, take care of the kids, and even served as a nice (but sterile) spouse when you needed one. Now if he could only get a Servo to replace Mary-Sue...

He would have little luck. The nearest shop that made and sold Servos was almost 30 miles away in Downtown SimCity, with miles of SimCity traffic in the way. Not to mention that they didn't come cheap. The cheapest unit sold for almost §9000. Too much to handle.

And anyways, if they did get a Servo, Mary-Sue would not hesitate to fire Kaylynn. And then Daniel would be a cold fish.

So Daniel did the cleaning. He walked into the kitchen and started washing the breakfast dishes, drying them with a dish towel before putting them back into the cupboard. He got out a washcloth and wiped the counter and the dining table. He then went up the stairs and into the bathroom, stepping gingerly over the puddles and the spilled shampoo on the floor. Yes, because Angela and Lilith hated each other so much they were willing to make each other slip and fall, even though they both used the bathroom themselves. Seems like they were willing to shoot themselves in the foot if it meant their sibling could get a shot of their own. And who cares about collateral damage - Daniel was out in the cold while the Pleasant family seemed to dwell in their own troubles. And here he was, playing maid. He mopped up the puddles and wiped the shampoo off the floor. With a brush, he scrubbed at the bath tub until it was clean. He scrubbed misplaced human waste off the sides of the toilet before cleaning up the toilet seat, which both sisters delighted in dirtying to disgust each other. The sink was the worst of all. Because both sisters shared the sink to brush their teeth, it always wound up with every part of the sink being dirty. Dried toothpaste hung on the faucet. Angela and Lilith's toothbrush were on the floor, the cup that held them smashed next to the sink. Someone — either Angela or Lilith, maybe both — had clogged the sink with dirt and leaves, allowing the murky water to pool up. Angela had added urine to the water, and Lilith opened an oxygen absorber packet and dumped its contents into the sink. Even the mirror endured some of the assault — there was an ugly crack dividing the mirror into two. One was marked "A" for Angela, and the other "L" for Lilith. Has his two daughters really come to such a point where they won't allow each other's mirrors to see each other's faces?

Daniel was displeased. He put on gloves and swept up the smashed mug, then tossed the two toothbrushes into the garbage. After bravely sticking his gloved hand into the drain to pull out the cloggage, he drained the contaminated water and then scrubbed the sides of the sink. With a washcloth he scrubbed the faucet until the dried gunk came off.

He decided to leave the mirror alone. His daughters were already cursed with 7 years of bad luck. He didn't need to curse himself as well.

He was just in time. He heard Kaylynn's van pull up just as soon as he was done with the sink. He ran out of the bathroom and practically rocketed down the stairs. He didn't have to worry about his daughter's rooms. Both forbade anyone but themselves from entering, and even hired personnel avoided them. He came to a stop just by the door. There was a man at the door, leaving a gigantic pink box tied up with pink string with a bow on top and a note taped on top. But Daniel's attention was focused on Kaylynn. There she was, strolling up the walkway. The man greeted her with a wave and she smiled back. Now she was a sweet lady. She cared about the people around her, unlike Mary-Sue, who wouldn't lift an eyebrow if an old lady got mugged on the street in front of her eyes.

Kaylynn pulled out the house keys from her pockets when she approached the door but smiled and replaced them when she saw Daniel at the door. The door swung open and Daniel practically pulled her inside. Kaylynn must have really felt it, for she said, "I must be the finishing puzzle piece for your day."

"Because you are, indeed," Daniel replied. "The only thing that makes me complete." All of a sudden Daniel felt quite warm and confident inside. "Can you dance?" he asked, a wide grin appearing on his face.

Kaylynn was a bit confused. "I thought I was here to clean your house..." she began.

"I've already cleaned it, don't you worry about it!" Daniel said. "Besides, I really want you here to... erm... fill me and my empty heart..." He turned around and turned on the stereo. Salsa music filled the room, and almost naturally, Daniel began tapping his feet along. "Come on, Kaylynn," he said, laughing. "I should've taken up dance class when I was younger. Don't follow in my footsteps to failure. Let's just..."

The two almost instinctively embraced. "I've rarely danced to music in my life," she whispered in his ear. "My aunt was the only person in my family that ever played a musical instrument... and even then she wasn't very good at it..."