Sunday, January 27, 2013

[Prologue] Chapter 6 - Electricityscape

The title is named after a song by The Strokes.


Quincy swings the door wide to their temporary apartment.  He places Ari's suitcase unceremoniously on the floor as he sweeps his arms in front of him dramatically to show off the place. "What do you think?" He smiles.

Ari shrugs tiredly. "Looks... large." She yawns and stretches, working out the hard spots in her back she earned from the cramped plane ride to Bridgeport. "Who's place are we crashing in again?" She asks.

"Noemi's husband's cousin's place." Quincy ushers Ari to the couch before he heads off to place her suitcase in the open room just beyond the front door. "This is your room." He bellows from the bedroom. "I had them save it for you."

"Thanks." Ari smiles when Quincy returns to sit on the other couch.  Over the past month Quincy has proven to be a close friend, much to her surprise. "Where is everyone else?"

"Jarrod left an hour ago to go check out the bars.  I've gotten a few texts from him asking us to join once you get into town.  I think he just wants a 'wing man.'" He laughs. "Noemi is in her room talking to her husband.  She misses him already."

"Married couples." Ari retches jokingly, earning a chuckle from Quincy.

Quincy's phone vibrates loudly from his pants pocket.  He frowns when he sees who is calling. "It's Jarrod.  Again."

Ari smirks. "He's just going to keep bugging you unless you meet up with him."

"So come with me."

Ari lays down on the couch. "No." She says stubbornly.

"Fine." Quincy sighs. "You've forced my hand."

Ari narrows her eyes as she watches Quincy hit a few buttons on his phone with a satisfied smile on his face.  A few seconds later and it's her phone that is ringing annoyingly.  She sits up lazily to read the screen.  As expected, it's Jarrod. "You told him it's my fault you aren't going, didn't you?"

"Yep." Quincy smiles in triumph.

"I hate you so much." She was so damn close to finally having a peaceful nap. SO DAMN CLOSE.

"Eh." He shrugs. "Come on lazy ass. I'll buy you a few drinks to make up for it."

The bar is dark, dank, and makes Ari nostalgic for the city life she left behind when she had to relocate to Twinbrook.  It's exactly the kind of place she would have frequented in her former life; cheap beer and sketchy individuals were always something of an attraction to her.

Ari and Quincy order their drinks from the bar before joining Jarrod.  He prattles on about this girl or that girl and which one he's going home with tonight, much to Ari's annoyance.

"Does any of this actually work?" She asks, interrupting Jarrod's musing about pretending to be some famous foreign celebrity or something; one of his many lies that he uses to persuade girls into spending the night with him. "I mean, what kind of women fall for this shit?"

"Wanna see for yourself?" Jarrod smirks.

Ari downs her drink in one swig and hops down from her seat. "Why not."

Jarrod picks his prey and stalks over to her confidently.  Ari is to pretend she recognizes him as Sergei Azarov, a fake famous director from Russia.  She delivers the lines he told her to recite and watches as he expertly persuades the woman to take him back to her place.  It only takes a few minutes and the two are leaving the bar together.

Quincy laughs when Ari returns to the table. "That was his quickest yet.  You're a better wing-man that I ever was."

"Wing-woman." She corrects. "I can't believe that worked." Ari's smile is one part perplexed, one part grudgingly impressed.

"Consider the audience. Jarrod has a nose for lonely, gullible women."

"Well at least she won't be going home alone..." Ari reasons.

"But she'll be waking up alone." Quincy downs his drink and waves to the waitress for another order. "Let's get a few more drinks in our system and then see what else Bridgeport has to offer."

It's cold outside when Quincy and Ari take to the streets, but they've consumed enough alcohol to keep the chill at bay.  They follow the shiny cement of the sidewalk, pointing out sights and memorizing the location of restaurants that they should go to along the way.  Ari figured they were going to hit up another bar, but it's a park on the far eastern side of the city that they visit instead.  Ari flops unceremoniously in a swing as she laughs at one of Quincy's jests.

"Do you ever miss living in the city?" He asks suddenly, his feet planted on the ground as he moves his swing to and fro slowly.

"Sometimes, although not as much as I thought I would. Why?"

"I just thought, you know, maybe Bridgeport will be a fresh start.  For all of us."

Ari quirks her brow. "What do you mean by fresh start?"

"I know we've only been here a day..." Quincy starts, "... but I can already see the opportunity here.  If I decided to stay here, at the end of our visit, would you consider staying with me?"

"I... we should talk about this with the rest of the band.  And see how we fare here first." Ari answers tactfully. "It's too early to talk of moving."

"Yeah. You're right." Quincy sighs.  It's cold enough outside to see his breath. "I had my whole life planned out from childhood.  I'd start a band, create great music, be successful. But here I am, an adult still living off the last of his college fund and wondering if I'll ever make it.  I guess I'm just getting more impatient the older I get."

Ari nods in understanding.  Before her setback in Elmira, she was just as impatient to make her dream a reality.

"We should probably head back.  Noemi is going to wake us at the butt crack of dawn to meet her friend, the bar owner."  He stands, offering his hand to Ari to help her up from her swing.

Ari grimaces as she accepts Quincy's outstretched hand, both of them slightly swaying drunkenly on their feet. "Great. I can feel the hangover already."

"Oh Maker. Me too dammit." Quincy laughs.

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It hasn't been said yet, but the name of Ari's band is The Swamp Things.  Real original.

Quincy and Niles have been the nicest sims I've ever played with.  Quincy keeps wishing to hang out with Ari and Jarrod, or make food for Noemi - it's adorable.  And Niles is just Niles.

Niles and Cosette's baby will be featured sometime within the next two chapters.  She's adorable. <3

12 comments:

  1. Hmmm... Wonder if Jarrod will use Ari as a wing-woman again? lol
    Quincy is sweet. I hope Ari realizes it soon.

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    1. Quincy is sweet. He's seriously one of my favorite sims just because he's so darn adorable. :P

      Thanks for reading!

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  2. Quicy is sweet! I love him and Ari together.

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    1. Thanks!

      I do too. Not to spoil anything, but things get muddled in the next chapters, but she'll always have her Quincy. <3

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  3. Really weird: I was on a cigarette break at work today, and suddenly remembered this legacy and wondered why there hadn't been an update for a while. I think the smoking triggered it because I remember Ari smoking haha!

    Hmm, is love on the horizon for Ari in the form of Quincy?

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    1. Haha. I was out with a friend last night who was smoking and I was like, "I haven't written a chapter in a while. I think I'll do that when I get home." Smoking=my legacy for me apparently, so I can relate. :P

      *winks* We shall see!

      Thank you for reading and commenting.

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    2. Haha, glad I'm not the only one to make the random connection! Thought I was crazy when it popped into my head!

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  4. Quincy is sweet, I like him :)

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  5. Aw great chapter. Can't wait to see how the band turns out. It's nice Ari seems to have accumulated a nice group of friends - especially Quincy!

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  6. Ok, I am officially shipping Ari and Quincy. I think they would work out well together.

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