(A/N) Okay, so chapter 2 is here!
So in this author's note, I'm going to quickly add something to do with language bridge, if you will. I'm not sure if this was caught, but I mentioned that Ophelia got some toast from the "canteen." I don't think it was that confusing since nobody mentioned getting confused, but by "canteen," I mean like "cafeteria," at least that's what we called it at my school.
In addition, I thought I'd share something I find a little funny in relation to this story. So, I began writing chapter five and got half-way through the first scene of the chapter. When I write a certain amount of words, I cut and paste the text into a Notepad document. However, when I went to do that, instead of cutting the text, I deleted it, so I have to work from square one again. I know, I'm stupid!
With that hiccup aside, I hope to get the Introduction Arc finished to avoid large update gaps, but with me juggling a bunch of stuff, I'm unsure. Only time will tell.
Just a bit of a warning quickly, this chapter goes into some weird territory and by "weird," I mean potentially upsetting. If you're sensitive to topics, such as parental neglect and the like, then viewer descetion is advised.
Disclaimer: If it isn't obvious, I don't own The Sims series, it'd be cool if I did, but I don't. The trademark is property of Maxis and the money hungry Electronic Arts.
Chapter 2: After School Endeavours
Fifteen minutes was not that long of a length of time to wait for someone. In fact, it did not even feel like it took that long at all, as she had Johnny texting her to pass the time. However, Ophelia did have to wait for replies to her messages, and so, her thoughts wandered.
Half of her was worrying about things unrelated to the current situation, like what was her Aunt Olive up to really? Were her living conditions slowly killing her? Did the ghosts want her dead? Were her grades going to be good enough to get into college? Were her friends going to be there for her forever? What really happened to her parents?
The other half of her was worrying about the current situation, like what if Johnny's phone died, so he could not text her anymore? Were her friends going to be okay on the train? What if something happened to Ripp while he was in detention? What if he does not come out at all, leaving her sat there all night, and then Johnny's phone dies, so he cannot message her, and then the train crashes and her friends...
Ophelia furiously shook her head. She knew she was thinking too much, but she could not help it. Rubbing her arms, she stared at the ground, trying to steer her thoughts away from the negative.
She remembered the first time she had met Ripp...
It was eight years ago, and she had come to Strangetown with her parents to visit her Aunt Olive for a week. She was not used to the heat and was bored through a lack of things to do. Back then, Ophelia was not bothered by the creepy nature of her Aunt's house, in fact, she did some exploring and found nothing but graves, which she did not get the purpose behind at the time.
Four days into the trip, her parents and Aunt Olive were sat in the front garden on a particularly warm day, chatting. Ophelia was sat by the front gate, drawing in the sand with a stick and humming. She stopped when she heard, what had sounded like, two boys arguing.
Being a curious girl with nothing better to do, she snuck away to investigate, stick in hand, just to be safe.
Rounding a corner, she did see two boys. One was a tall, angry looking one with a shaved head and face paint, while the other was shorter and looked to be around her age with short, scruffy hair.
"I said I wanted lemon, not apple!" The angry one continued to shout down to the other boy, who was holding two wrapped ice lollies and blinking tears out of his eyes. "Forget it, I'll just ask Mum for more money and get my own... you're useless, Ripp!"
With that, the angry kid kicked the teary boy, who was called 'Ripp' apparently, in the knee and stomped away. Ripp cried out and bent down to rub the assaulted area, prompting Ophelia to run and check on him.
"Are you okay?" She asked, as she cautiously approached him and placed a hand on his shoulder.
He nodded.
"Are you sure? He kicked you..."
"It's okay, it's not the worst thing he's done," the boy turned to face her, revealing a nasty black eye that was quite swollen.
The girl covered her mouth. "Do you want an ice pack?"
"Nah," he shook his head.
They sat in silence for a bit, before he spoke up.
"Did you see that whole thing?" Ripp asked.
Ophelia nodded.
"So, you know my name?"
Another nod. "Ripp, right?"
"Yeah," it was his turn to nod this time. "What's yours?"
She hesitated for a moment. "My name is Ophelia."
"That's such a pretty name!" Ripp exclaimed with a small smile, suddenly bursting with energy.
"Thanks..." she looked away timidly, before he tapped her on the shoulder.
"Well, Ophelia, I've got one important question to ask you?"
The girl raised an eyebrow. "What is it?"
"Do you want apple or strawberry?" He asked with a wide grin, holding the two lollies out for her to choose. "Don't worry, I'm fine with either."
She returned the smile. "Strawberry, please."
From then on, she spent the rest of the holiday with Ripp, which during that time, he introduced her to Johnny, who she also clicked with straight away. They turned a trip to Aunt Olive's from a boring one to one she looked forward to.
"Hey, you waited for me!"
She was brought out of her thoughts when she heard an all too familiar voice. Looking up, she saw Ripp sauntering towards her with his usual grin.
Returning a smile, Ophelia stood. "Someone had to," she told him, finishing her text to Johnny before pocketing her phone. "And everyone else had things to do so..."
His grin turned into a smaller smile, as he looked down at the ground. "Thanks, seriously."
The girl noticed the change in demeanour. "What's the matter?"
The brunette lifted his head and folded his arms with a frown. "The General's being told this time, so I'm gonna be in some deep shit when I get home..."
Ophelia's eyes widened briefly, before she placed her hands on her hips. "And that's exactly why Johnny was on your case..."
The boy sighed and turned his head to the side. "I know."
They stood in silence, a faint breeze rustling the leaves of a nearby tree being the only sound they could hear. Ophelia found it relaxing, the breeze combined with the scent of freshly cut grass just made her want to sit in the shade under a tree and never leave. Never to return to the noisy ghosts, who she was sure wanted to hurt her, and her Aunt Olive, who she suspected was up to something. But, she should not have to worry about that, right? She had friends who would have her back... but what if they were no match for her Aunt's intelligence? What if they wound up being her next victims? Then, she would have to live with the fact that she caused her friends to rot underground for the rest of her life!
Her thoughts were interrupted when she felt a pair of hands shake her gently by the shoulders. Opening her eyes, that she had not realised she had closed, she saw that she was facing a concerned faced Ripp. She felt herself tearing up and the brunette noticed, as he pulled her into a hug.
"Phi, what's wrong?" He asked softly. "Was it something I said?"
"No," she answered weakly with a shake of her head. "I was just worrying about the future again."
"In what way?"
"Just..." she gently pulled away. "It's just the whole idea of it."
"Do you wanna talk about it?"
"Not really..."
Ripp nodded with a small smile, giving his friend some space. "Okay, but when you're ready to talk about it, I'm all ears and I'm sure the others won't mind listening either."
Ophelia could not help but return the smile, her worries melting away temporarily, as she watched him place a finger on his chin in thought.
"Wanna come to Pleasantview with me?" He asked, making the girl blink rapidly in an effort to clear her thoughts.
"Our friends in Pleasantview are busy," she told him. "Why do you want to go?"
"Lilith doesn't exactly have a healthy home life," the brunette began, scratching an itch at the back of his neck. "So, I wanna see if she's okay after..." he trailed off, as he began walking to the exit of the school grounds.
"I see where you're coming from," the blonde said, following after him. "And I don't mean to sound like a stick in the mud, but don't you have work tonight?"
He paused with a sigh and slumped his shoulders. "Right..." Folding his arms, he stared at the ground, brows furrowed in concentration, almost as if the stone path was going to give him an answer. Ophelia watched as he looked up and tapped his chin. "But, it's only an hour away," he finally said.
The girl shook her head. "Actually, it's three hours away, so by the time you get there, you will have to return to Strangetown."
"Good point."
The pair began making their way to the train station in silence, which was odd. Usually, Ripp would be talking her ear off, but he was not. He was most likely stuck in his own musings about how to check on Lilith's well being without compromising his job. Ophelia was concerned for the red-head too and wanted to make sure she was okay; her and the rest of the group were aware of how heated things got between Lilith and her family, mainly between her and her sister.
"I'm worried, too..." Ophelia said suddenly, while she and Ripp were sat by the train stop.
"I know..." he nodded with a sad smile. "We all are..."
"And I don't have anything going on, so I can go check on her," she offered, as the train arrived.
Ripp's face lit up as he stood from the bench. "Yeah, you do that," he said enthusiastically, practically skipping towards the train with his friend in tow. "I'll head back to Strangetown and get ready for work."
"Yeah," Ophelia nodded, smiling herself.
"And update us on how she's doing," he told her, taking a seat and resting his bag next to him.
"I will," she replied, taking the seat opposite and placing her own bag beside her.
It was then she noticed how eager the students were to leave, as it looked like it was only her and Ripp on the train. She was going to point that out, but looking at her friend, she saw that he had fallen asleep, his head resting on the window. She smiled with a shake of her head, as the train took off.
Lilith tentatively approached her home, not wanting to face whatever this 'family meeting' was about. She did not care for it and she sensed that it was not going to be good either, especially considering how weird Daniel had been with the maid. She theorised that there was something going on, but had not bothered to say anything, since she would not be believed anyway. It was infuriating.
Fixating on that newly ignited emotion, she opened the door to face the music. Upon entering, she immediately noticed a red flag; it was eerily quiet, she expected to see Daniel watching the TV at least, but he wasn't. She expected to hear Angela talking to Mary-Sue about her grades and dance lessons, while the latter was doing paperwork, but that was not happening. What was going on?
"Over here, Lilith," she heard Mary-Sue call unenthusiastically from the dining room.
With a sigh, she dumped her bag next to the front door and entered the dining room to see Mary-Sue sat at the head of the table with tears in her eyes. Angela, the ever dutiful daughter, was sat beside her, attempting to comfort her mother with clear confusion written on her face.
"Where's Dad?" She asked.
"I'm getting to that," Mary-Sue told her, turning her attention to Lilith briefly. "Take a seat."
The girl did as she was told for a change, but more out of curiosity than actually wanting to listen. She folded her arms with a smug smirk. "I bet you're getting a divorce aren't you?"
Mary-Sue's eyes widened, while Angela's head snapped in Lilith's direction, brows creased in anger. "How could you say that?!" The older twin yelled, prompting her mother to raise her hand.
"She's correct," the woman said, looking down at her hands making Angela gasp.
"What?!" She shrieked, as Lilith held in her laughter.
As it turned out, Lilith had been correct in her assumption on Daniel, he had been having an affair with the maid. Apparently, Mary-Sue had caught them in the act after she had gotten home from a demotion at work. Kaylynn, the maid who liked to do more than clean the house apparently, was promptly fired and Daniel was kicked out of the house.
Angela looked saddened by the news, whereas Lilith found it hysterical.
"A divorce settlement is now in progress..." Mary-Sue choked, before excusing herself and leaving the room.
The twins sat in silence until the younger of the two scoffed.
"What?" Angela asked, raising a brow at her sister's reaction.
"It serves her right, really," Lilith stated, leaning back in her chair and folding her arms, not taking notice of her twin's slack-jawed expression. "If she hadn't ignored her family, maybe Daniel wouldn't have gone and stuck his junk in some random whore's trunk."
"Shut up," Angela breathed, looking down at her hands. "No one deserves that."
"Of course you'd say that, since you're their little favourite..."
"Only because I listen..."
"No, it's always been like that!" Lilith snapped, standing up with a smack of her palm on the tabletop. "I had to learn my toddler skills on my own, you got help! You got big birthday parties, while I had to sit upstairs! You got encouraged to better yourself, while I..." she trailed off, feeling herself tearing up.
Angela sighed, not bothering to look up. "You were difficult..."
"How?"
The older twin finally stood and smoothed out her sundress. "You just..." The girl genuinely looked unsure of what to say, as she stared blankly at the table. "I don't know," she said with a defeated sigh.
"There was still no reason to toss me to the side, like I didn't matter..." The goth muttered, turning to leave, but was stopped by Mary-Sue.
"We did none of those things," the woman said, raising her voice slightly.
"You did," Lilith growled, clenching her hands into fists. "You're both shitty parents!"
After saying that, she felt herself get shoved from her side, looking to her left to see an enraged Angela, who slapped her across the face. Without thinking, or taking a second to touch her assaulted cheek, she retaliated by punching her older twin in the nose. Mary-Sue knew what was coming and went back to her room in exasperation.
Before Lilith could storm off, Angela tackled her to the ground with a yell and began pulling at her hair. In an effort to try and get her off, the younger twin kept pinching the girl's arms, which did not work. With desperation, Lilith punched her sister hard in the stomach, winding her long enough to allow her time to stand and run out of the house.
She paused in front of the pavement's edge to catch her breath and restyle her hair. The sun had begun to set, which calmed her down a little, but not enough as she was still shaking. She wanted to get as far away from that house as possible, so turned to begin walking, ignoring her shaky legs and breath, uneven heart rate, and the tears that threatened to pour from her eyes.
She did not get too far before she spotted a dark-skinned blonde, who immediately began running to her as soon as they made eye contact.
"Lilith, how did...?" Ophelia paused and looked her friend up and down. Makeup was smudged, hair was messy, and overall, she looked dishevelled. "What happened?"
At that, the red-head just burst into tears, prompting Ophelia to wrap her arms around her to allow the girl to cry into her shoulder.
To say that Ripp was anxious about going home would be an understatement. He was crapping himself. Served him right, really; he knew he should not have stayed up until 4am watching zombie movies and random videos online. Then again, not even that would have helped in ensuring that he was up on time, and now he was in some deep shit… he knew he should have pulled an all-nighter!
With hesitation, he entered the house, expecting the fires of hell to wash over him, the wrath of his father, the General. Instead, he just saw his younger brother, Buck, watching the TV.
"Hi, Ripp!" he said enthusiastically with a large smile and a wave. "Welcome home!"
Ripp could not help but return the smile with a wave of his own. "Hey, kiddo!" He looked around cautiously, hoping that Buck did not notice how on edge he was. "Where's the old man?"
"Working," was his simple reply, as he briefly glanced at the TV.
"Face-Paint?"
His brother's head turned to look at him with shock and confusion, as he sat further upright on the couch. "I didn't think you liked wearing that…"
"I meant Tank…" the brunette sighed, trying to shake the image of himself in face paint out of his mind. There was no way he was going to wear that gunk, and there was no amount of money anyone could pay him to cut his hair into a crewcut, either.
Buck's expression relaxed, as he slumped into a cushion. "Oh…" he looked on in thought for a brief second, before turning to his older brother. "Maybe he's bullying the football team again…"
"What a…" he trailed off upon realising that he was still very much in the presence of his younger brother, who was staring at him with a raised eyebrow. "Waffle-cone," he clumsily finished, feeling satisfied with his cover up.
"I knew you were going to swear," Buck told him with a slightly amused smile.
"But I didn't," Ripp chuckled, glancing at the clock. "I'd love to chat with you a little longer, but I gotta get ready for work."
He heard his brother shout back, "it's okay!" as he ran into his room, which was a lot plainer than he would have liked. Pale green walls, light-brown wooden floor, and a mattress covered with plain, white sheets resting on a wooden bed-frame. This bland display was complete with a tall wooden cupboard and a white bedside table with a green space lamp stood on top (the General loved it when Ripp brought that home). There was one angst ridden poster on the wall next to the window, but that was the only time the General had been lenient. Maybe because Buck had stuck a freezer bunny sticker to his wall, and then Tank came home with a framed photo of a sunflower for 'excellent achievement.' To keep the rooms matching and 'fair,' the General had no choice but to allow Ripp to put up one of his posters.
Going to his cupboard, he quickly changed and grabbed the keys to his work place, before running down the stairs.
"See you later, Buck!" He called, as he ran out of the door. "Love you!"
Johnny loved football and all things sport, really. The people, or at least the team he was on, not so much.
It was not like they were nasty to him or anything, they got along okay enough. It was the disdainful undertones of what some of them did, for example, Sophie Miguel, who came from Pleasantview to play, would always wrinkle her nose every time he sat nearby, but would be overly nice to his face. Or Swan Teens from Downtown, who seriously did not hide her dislike for him; shoving him out of the way, kicking him on the playing field, and even aiming her shots at his face... okay, so he guessed some were nasty to him. River Smith was nice enough, but would avoid him like the plague, and Blair Mace would always ask him for pointers, which was the only decent bit of human interaction he would get the entire session.
It sucked, but he loved playing.
Stepping onto the playing field, which was simply an open area of desert with two upright sticks stood opposite each other to serve as a makeshift goal, he saw his usual team. Blair was practicing kick-ups in front of the goal, while River sat on the sand, drawing with his index finger. Sophie was scrolling on her phone and Swan was stood in the centre, looking at nothing in particular until she saw Johnny.
"Hey," she said casually with a smirk and folded arms. "Congratulations on one of your many successful escape attempts from Area 51. How long do you think you can keep this up?"
That was not the first time the boy had heard an insult similar to that, so he did not really care. Under normal circumstances, he would have sarcastically uttered a response about how original she was, however, since they had to cooperate on the football field-that-was-not-a-field, he opted to keep the atmosphere light-hearted.
So, he played along.
"I don't know," he shrugged. "Security is pretty sloppy and I'm a fast sprinter, so the guards can't even catch me," he placed his bag beside the goal, ignoring the snickers he could hear from the other members, and gave her a thumbs up. "Thanks for worrying, though."
"I wasn't worrying," she said with a roll of her eyes, as she approached Blair and took the ball while it was mid-air. "Are we going to play, or what?"
"I thought you'd never ask!" Sophie exclaimed, placing her phone in her tracksuit pocket.
"But, the other team are not here yet..." River reminded her, earning a shrug from Swan.
"They're late, it's their problem," she said.
"It's a practice session tonight, anyway," Johnny stated, looking at the timetable he got from his bag. "So, the only thing we'd have to do before playing would be to assign roles."
Swan groaned. "Assign roles for what?"
"The playing field," he stated, rolling his eyes as he placed the timetable back in his bag.
"Did you just roll your eyes at me?!"
"Yes," he said in a deadpan voice, as he stood and dusted his knees, paying no mind to Swan's growling, which was drowned out by laughter anyway. This session was looking up so far. "Who wants to take the goal?"
Without too much drama, the team were placed into their role of choice. Swan was adamant that she wanted to actually run around the sand and so was Johnny, much to her chagrin. Blair insisted on being the goal, leaving River and Sophie to play, too; not like they were bothered, as they were fine with either. They only got ten minutes of play time in, before things turned sour.
"Smith!" A voice barked, prompting everyone to stop in their tracks.
River looked worried, but Johnny knew it was not the red headed 'Smith' the owner had beef with; it was the blonde, half-alien one.
"What do you want, Tank?" Johnny called back, as the boy with the crewcut drew closer.
"I have to observe you," he stated simply. "To make sure that you don't impregnate your male teammates, or whatever your kind does."
"It would help if I was capable of doing that, which I'm not," the blonde folded his arms. "Why don't you just crawl back under whatever rock you came from, and let us finish practice."
"I'm afraid I cannot comply, Smith," Tank shook his head, folding his arms with a stoic expression. "You freaks are no doubt up to all sorts."
And there it was. The same conversation they had every time the eldest of the General's sons approached. Johnny was tired of it at this point.
"Yeah, because mowing the lawn, playing golf, and cooking hot dogs on a barbecue are really suspicious things to be doing," he sighed, rolling his eyes.
"It's a cover up, clearly," the military brat accused, pointing at his nemesis with his index finger. "Your master is clearly up to something and we will find out what it is."
Johnny failed to hold in a laugh. Tank had said all sorts of crap, but claiming that his Dad was his 'master' was a new one, he had to say. The boy with his face caked in paint scowled at this reaction, while his team members looked on confused.
"My what? You really do need to give your head a wobble!" The blonde exclaimed between fits of giggles. "You and the General are obsessing over nothing!"
"No, we are within our right to investigate you aliens."
"And we are within our right not to have you and your Dad watch us through a telescope! It's creepy!"
"Your very existence is creepy," that statement immediately wiped the amusement from Johnny's face, as he briefly displayed a look of hurt, before quickly replacing it with a mild scowl. This got a smirk from Tank, as he walked around the blonde with an air of superiority. "Impregnating unsuspecting men... I wonder who the old freak will target next...?"
"He's retired," Johnny stated calmly. "Why can't you both be more open minded like Ripp and Buck?"
"You may have brainwashed my airheaded brother and taken advantage of a vulnerable girl -"
"Hey, what are you - !"
" - but you cannot fool me!"
The half-alien would be lying to himself if he had said that he was not bothered by that remark, in fact, he felt his face heating up and that was not caused by the desert heat. Tank could go ahead and claim that Ripp had been 'brainwashed,' or his father was some cunning mastermind, but to go and claim that he was taking advantage of Ophelia, or maybe Lilith, the blockhead did not specify... it angered him.
They were two of his best friends going through hard times and he was there for them. He was supporting them, not manipulating them or whatever. Tank was a bully to his own brother and that was one of the worst type of scum imaginable as far as he was concerned. It was then that he thought, screw it, he did not care anymore, he was going to take the mouth filter off and tell Ripp's older brother what he really thought of him.
"At least I have a life of my own," he told him flatly, clenching his hands into fists. "You're just the Crazy General's guard dog."
Tank's face dropped. "You...!" Without warning, he shoved the blonde boy, who just smirked. "Take that back!"
"Oh, is the puppy getting defensive?" He mocked, shoving him back.
That was it. The last thing Johnny remembered of his 'football practice' was Tank tackling him to the ground; he blacked out after that. Apparently, what had happened after was that the practice had turned into a fight club, while the whole team watched horrified. Instead of playing football like he wanted, he was at home receiving an ice pack from his mother, Jenny, who did not know what to think.
"What did he say?" She finally asked, after what had felt like an agonisingly long silence.
"What do you mean?" He replied, staring down at the ice pack blankly.
"I mean he must have said something truly hurtful for you to lash out that badly..."
"It doesn't matter," Johnny shook his head, handing the ice pack to his mother, who just placed it back over his eye instead, making him hiss.
"It does matter, considering you bruised his entire face and busted his lip," Jenny sighed, as she applied some more pressure. "We may think that you broke his nose, too..."
"We?"
"Me and the General..." she clarified. "If I wasn't treating that boy, he would have pressed charges without a second thought."
He was silent, knowing that his mother was correct.
"I'm not angry with you, I know what that Grunt boy is like," she continued. "He's never been nice to you since you were young boys, but violence like that..."
"I'm sorry, mum..."
"And the fact that you don't remember any of that fight has me even more concerned."
"Don't worry about it, I probably blacked out with rage, or something," he tried to reassure her, which did not work, as her brows creased even more.
"That's not good..." she said. "What was the last thing you remember?"
"I remembered him tackling me, but that was it..."
"And was this the first time something like this has happened?"
"Yeah."
Jenny stared at him with deep concern, removing the ice pack and checking his head over for any more injuries.
"You've just got the black eye," she concluded, turning to place the ice pack back in the freezer. "We better keep an eye on those blackouts, if it happens again, let me know."
"I don't think it - "
"Johnny," she turned to him with a stern expression. "What are you going to do?"
He did not like upsetting his mother, so he sighed. "I'll let you know."
"Thank you."
The job hunt was a bust for that day, much to Dirk's dismay. He leaned back in the computer chair with a sigh. At least on the brightside, he had homework to look forward to. Before he could do that, he received a message in the group chat from Ophelia:
Ophelia Nigmos: "Hey, things got chaotic at Lilith's tonight, so I was wondering if I could drop her off here?" - 17:25
Ophelia Nigmos: "At your house, I mean?" - 17:25
Ripp Grunt: "wait, what happened, Phi?" - 17:40
Ophelia Nigmos: "I don't want to say, right now. Sorry, Ripp." - 17:43
Ripp Grunt: "dont worry about it :)" - 17:44
Johnny Smith: "Football sucked..." - 18:19
Ripp Grunt: "my dick of a brother picked up a fight with you didn't he?" - 18:21
Johnny Smith: "Yup!" - 18:21
Johnny Smith: "And the whole team just watched..." - 18:22
Ripp Grunt: "maybe they didn't want to butt in?" - 18:23
Ripp Grunt: "you're what some people would describe as muscular, but still lean, far from weak looking." - 18:24
Ripp Grunt: "while face-paint is built like a brick-shit-house cos of all the military crap he does." - 18:25
Johnny Smith: "Yeah, but my parents are worried, especially my mum." - 18:25
Ripp Grunt: "and Tank is also pretty thick in the head..." - 18:25
Johnny Smith: "What?" - 18:26
Ripp Grunt: "i'm saying that Tank's a meat-hed." - 18:26
Ripp Grunt: "*head." - 18:26
Ripp Grunt: "oops..." - 18:26
Johnny Smith: "Ripp, I'm being serious, right now.." - 18:27
Ripp Grunt: "right. so why are your folks worried? you and face-paint get into fights all the time." - 18:27
Johnny Smith: "I blacked out during this one." - 18:28
Ripp Grunt: "you what?!" - 18:28
Ophelia Nigmos: "What happened? Are you okay?" - 18:28
Johnny Smith: "I'm fine, I've just got a black eye, but Tank..." - 18:29
Ripp Grunt: "?" - 18:29
Johnny Smith: "I blacked out after he tackled me and I apparently whaled on him..." - 18:29
Ripp Grunt: "serves him right." - 18:29
Johnny Smith: "I bruised his entire face." - 18:29
Ophelia Nigmos: "And you blacked out! So you don't remember anything that happened?" - 18:30
Johnny Smith: "No, I don't." - 18:30
Ripp Grunt: "shit... do you think you need to see someone or...?" - 18:30
Johnny Smith: "Nah, I doubt it'll happen again, but my mum wants to keep an eye out, so she wants me to let her know if it happens again." - 18:30
Ripp Grunt: "yeah, make that all of us." - 18:31
Ophelia Nigmos: "Agreed. I never thought you had blackouts." - 18:31
Johnny Smith: "I don't, that's the thing." - 18:31
Ripp Grunt: "we'll all just have keep an eye out yeah?" - 18:32
Johnny Smith: "Right..." - 18:32
Johnny Smith: "I'm sorry, Ripp..." - 18:33
Ripp Grunt: "huh? what's with the apology?" - 18:33
Johnny Smith: "He's your brother..." - 18:33
Ripp Grunt: "honestly after all the bruises he's given me over the years i don't really care." - 18:34
Ripp Grunt: "but if it'll make you feel better, i forgive you :)" - 18:34
Johnny Smith: "Thanks :)" - 18:35
Johnny Smith: "What are you doing right now?" - 18:35
Ripp Grunt: "working." - 18:35
Johnny Smith: "I'm on my way to the Gas Station." - 18:35
Ripp Grunt: "are you sure?" - 18:36
Johnny Smith: "Yeah." - 18:36
Ripp Grunt: "okies." - 18:36
Ophelia Nigmos: "#Dirk Dreamer, I've got Lilith with me. Can I bring her to your place?" - 18:40
Dirk couldn't help but blink rapidly. He seemed to have missed a lot in one day. Instead of dwelling on that, he decided to reply:
Dirk Dreamer: "#Ophelia Nigmos, I'm sorry for taking so long to reply, I was busy. Yeah, bring her over. My Dad will understand." - 18:43
Ophelia Nigmos: "#Dirk Dreamer, Thank you." - 18:44
And with that, Dirk had nothing to do except do his homework while he waited.
Yeah, I got a little bit fancy there with the colourful text for the chatroom scene. I'm so proud that I was able to do that! I did have to make a CSS Work Skin, but I think it was worth it to get the effect I was going for. I'm not sure how it'll appear on different settings though, as it looks fine on my end. If you're reading this on FFNet, then you'd probably be confused as to what I'm on about since on there the text will just be bold. Another thing for the FFNet readers, you'll notice hash tags for when Ophelia and Dirk are trying to contact each other directly. This is because I couldn't get the "at" sign to work on that site.
I'm aware that the Daniel and Mary-Sue getting divorced and the sibling fighting is cliché, but that is the scripted event and relationships starting off. I also feel like some bits could have been improved here, like Lilith's dialogue, but I couldn't think of any other way.
I can't think of any canon divergences, maybe except for altering the age Ophelia and Ripp met, that and I think how the Strangetown teens met in general. I think in the actual game Johnny and Ophelia met first as teenagers, then Ophelia met Ripp and introduced him to Johnny... I think, I'm not actually on my computer right now to check. In this story however, Ripp and Johnny knew each other as kids, then Ripp met Ophelia and introduced her to Johnny, so... a minor change here.
I think it could be interesting to go through some changes that were made from the story's original plan:
▪ Johnny's section of the chapter was actually expanded on more than it was originally. In the plan, it was just a brief description of what had happened followed by Jenny giving him an ice pack and that was it. The final lines in the plan was also this:
Jenny: "Should I report him for you?"
Johnny: "Nah, it's fine. I shouldn't have rose to it."
Jenny: "He's a horrid boy. He's been nasty to you for years." (A similar line actually made it into the final cut).
Johnny: "I always win, though..."
Jenny: "Do you think I want to hear that?"
Johnny: "No..."
Wanting to add some more life, I expanded on the team a bit, gave the members some personality, and actually wrote the scene with Tank instead of briefly explaining it. I think it allows the reader to get to know Johnny a bit more and makes it less weird that every one of Dirk's friends got a long scene except for him. It also added the "blacked out in rage" scene and some inner turmoil for Johnny, which happened while I was writing on autopilot, if you will.
As a result, I had to alter the scene with Jenny and the chatroom scene to accommodate this change, but I think it was worth it as I enjoyed writing the scene, so. That back and forth was so much fun to write, I'm not even joking.
▪ Originally, in the chatroom, everyone typed the exact same way; grammatically correct, sort of... basically, how the standard story is written. I changed it to them having slightly differing styles depending on their personality. So Dirk, Johnny, and Ophelia write grammatically correct due to them being serious. They also have high grades starting off, so I didn't feel like it'd make sense for them to write in slang and text speak. Ripp just doesn't use capital letters unless it's a name; he uses other forms of punctuation, though. And Lilith, even though she didn't take part here, she writes in a way that annoys me, but it makes sense considering her parent's lack of focus on her and her low grades at the start of the game. She writes in lower case all the time, types in text speak in some cases, and doesn't use punctuation.
And that's all for this Author's Ramble! I hope you enjoyed reading the chapter as much I did writing it.
Improvements are appreciated, please tell me what I did right, wrong and how I can improve. If you would like, you could also favourite and follow this fic, as well as suggest areas of improvement, which I guess is the same as the first sentence. R&R and thanks for reading!
