And also the other way round

"Through clever and constant application of propaganda, people can be made to see paradise as hell, and also the other way round, to consider the most wretched sort of life as paradise."

I own nothing but my own ideas.

"You got engaged!?" Ash repeats incredulously to Kathleen.

"Yes!" She squeaks excitedly. "He finally asked me!"

"Who?"

Ash was honestly baffled. Kathleen had always been tuning people down left, right , and center, since, forever basically. Kathleen had never so much as snuck out of the house to meet someone, not even when Ash had needed her for an emergency school project.

Where the hell had she even found this person. Had she become a mail order sim bride? Why hadn't she mentioned that she needed the money so badly?

"Brandon"

"Brandon" Ash repeated numbly, thoughts turning to a different direction for horror.

"You know perfectly well who Brandon is."

Brandon was the roommate of her Uncle Shawn who raised Kathleen, after her parents got trapped in a room with a burning fire, at a neighbors party. Ash had lost Mom at that party, while blissfully playing outside with Kathleen and Winston.

Shawn had raised his niece from then on with his roommate, and later girlfriend too and they always had been…unusually close. Ash remembered thinking that it was… weird on more than one occasion. After all, Ash was raised by Dad, and while they were friendly, they were not nearly as friendly as Kathleen and Brandon. Ash wasn't the kind of person who liked to pry, but this was putting a lot of things into a disturbing light.

"How long, has this been going on?"

"Well... " Kathleen started, twirling her hair "I can't really say. Even before my parents died at Winston's birthday party, we were close. He was the person I always went to for advice. That never really changed, even after he began raising me. I went to him for advice about school, Sims, about what I should wear to weddings, everything. And when he asked me on a date, well I said yes, and it was so easy. I wouldn't want to date someone who doesn't know me well, and I feel safe with."

"Dates are supposed to be about getting to know people, Kathleen. Sure, sometimes you get unlucky, and have to kick some sense into people, but overall, it's about learning what you like in other people romantically."

"While I already know. I think I've always known."

Ash paused, considering how to best put this. Brandon had been middle age to Kathleen's early teen years when her parents had died. Now he was pretty close to elder, with a girl who was almost an adult. Something feels very wrong about everything here, though Ash can't put a finger on why this is so uncomfortable.

"Did Shawn approve?"

"Shawn never seemed to have a problem with our friendship. He encouraged it even, saying that it freed up time from babysitting. Brandon never treated me like a baby though."

What the hell was wrong with Shawn.

"Where is Shawn?" Ash growled, fully intent on tracking him down and kicking his Ass.

"He and Yvonne took away the doors in the small quarters living space, to focus on their new kid. I have a new cousin, Oliver. He congratulated me on my pregnancy and upcoming marriage, though."

"Your WHAT!"

"Ops, that was supposed to be a surprise. You, won't say anything, right?"

Ash was fighting down the urge to be sick.

"Who is working?"

"Oh, we are all off work at the moment. Though Shawn and Yvone are going back to work, the moment Oliver can toddle. Then, Brandon and I are going to raise Oliver. It should give me some practice for the little bun in the oven."

She sighed "I suppose, if I want another, I can adopt"

"When are you planning to finish school?"

"I'm not I suppose. I'm going to be a mother, like I dreamed of as a kid."

As far as Ash recalled, Kathleen had wanted to be a chemist like her dad, since forever. She used to talk about it all day. And her Chemistry marks this year were all A's. When had this dream changed. And why hadn't Ash noticed?

"Congratulations." Ash managed to choke out, wanting nothing more then to leave this conversation, and to go throw up in peace. Everything about this, made Ash uncomfortable.

"Hey, I think I ate something bad, earlier. I have to go."

"I told you, you shouldn't eat fish" Kathleen called out, as Ash ran to the nearest Bathroom.

Forehead resting against the cold toilet stall, Ash took deep breaths, trying to figure out, what it was about Kathleen and Brandon's relationship, that was so disconcerting.

A bit of it, Ash had to admit, came from age difference. Maybe it was ageist, but that age gap creeped Ash out.

Maybe it was that for years, everyone had assumed that Shawn and Brandon had been in a relationship, until Yvonne had come along, and thoroughly crushed those theories. Well, most of them anyways. Some were still pretty persistent.

A lot of it, to Ash, was that Brandon should be pretty close to family, given that he helped his roommate raise her. That they had been friends from a young age, and were now engaged and expecting a child. And not like, childhood best friends, which would be understandable, but close adult friend, who had known her from birth.

Its… Its not as if Sim families were not weird. Ash's mom had no mother, because her dad was abducted and impregnated by an alien. Ash's dad's family were descended from Fairies. People found it weird they could hover. Ash found it weird that so many people died in rooms places that suddenly lost important features, or gained flammable objects. Kathleen's situation was a different kind of weird, an uncomfortable one. Something in it felt… abusive, somehow. Like a betrayal of a trust that was supposed to be there.

But how could Kathleen be convinced of that? They had raised her, were the most important people in her world. It would be Ash's word against her family. Kathleen herself, didn't want to be helped. What could anyone do to help someone who wouldn't ask for it?

Dad would probably say, "use Skivvies", but Ash is pretty sure that Brandon was inappropriate, or insane, given how many times he had shown up wearing the wrong kind of clothing, when it wasn't straight up underwear. And embarrassment would not solve anything in the long run.

Ash's only sim Grandfather, would probably insist that they pray to Josh. And maybe they would be eaten by whales, or killed in firestorm, but that sounded rather uncertain to Ash. Maybe just taking the ladder from the pool, or filling the rooms with flammable objects, or water and electricity.

Wait, are haunted houses, really a solution to be considering? Those were kind of creepy. Grandpa had one, and Ash still occasionally visited Mom at Winston's, and Ash had never liked haunted places. Shawn, Brandon, and Yuvone waking Ash up in the night with their weird antics, for however long it took them to pass on, sounded like a nightmare. Or maybe Kathleen might try to resurrect them. Admitibly, it was hard to do, and she never had brought her parents back to life, but then again, Brandon meant more to her. More than Shawn? Perhaps if Brandon died first. But where to keep the stone...

Wait! Winston seemed to be alright with his manor of creepy Ghosts. Maybe he wouldn't mind expanding the collection?

Ash had to try.

Sometimes I write to work through things.

This one was partially brought on by the News stories, and expanded with Sim drama.

I don't know where it would go from here, if continued, probably something like Ash's visit to Winston