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The End of Arkham

 

Darwinian discussions by the cowplant.

"You see, it may not be a logical deduction, but to my imagination it is far more satisfactory to look at such instincts as the young cuckoo ejecting its foster-brothers, – ants making slaves, – the larvae of ichneumonidae feeding within the live bodies of caterpillars, – not as specially endowed or created instincts, but as small consequences of one general law, leading to the advancement of all organic beings, namely, multiply, vary, let the strongest live and the weakest die.1"

"In other words, survival of the fittest?"

"Survival of the fiercest. The most predatory."

One weekend, there was an exceptionally high tide, and high winds. The roof of the airport was ripped off, and the buildings had to be demolished for safety's sake.

Frank Dobbs, a local Social Worker, was called into Daniel's house by Jess Miles, Daniel and Mocha's roommate, who had actually moved out the previous week "because the house felt haunted". Frank photographed Jess and their newborn baby, Umber, who he had found simply lying on the floor in the kitchen.

He explained that he still had a key to the house, had heard mysterious sounds he described as "howlings" coming from it all the past night. "There were some strange smells too, in the basement. Deeva hated the house and wanted to move back to her old home, but Dan liked it here." He had let himself in and found the house exactly as normal, little Umber on the floor, the family's two cats prowling around, uneasy, unfed. Nothing else to be seen, no Daniel, no Deeva. No sign of burglary. And having handed the baby over, Jess himself simply walked out of the house, and was never seen again.

"Who knows what happened in there? Let's get you to somewhere warm."
...
Spooky.


Notes

1 This is an actual quote from Darwin.

I've been trying to resurrect my Arham save all weekend. (I hadn't played it since summer 2013). It looks as if something really spooky did happen there.

I've tried everything, and it just gets worse. (Updated Origin, made sure all mods were up to date, took mods out, put mods in...) I had hoped I could maybe export a few of the families to move elsewhere, but I cannot export, only from this world, all my others let me export, or save Sims to bin.
Once when I tried to load it, I got a message "You can't move a family while a tragedy is taking place." And then there was that photo of Jess and the baby in Daniel's house.

So this will not be continued, though some few families who had already moved out will continue.


After this query from Samkat:

So Mr. Social Worker took the worm - God only knows where - but left the two kitten-mittens in the house, starving?!!!!!! WTF! Should have left the worm - who is actually an alien advance scout in disguise, and bent on world domination! - to fend for itself, and saved the cats. The worm could always call its mothership and be rescued by its comrades. The poor kitten-mittens were left to die!Oh and Jess....? So NOT the local social worker, but in reality a broker in illegal adoptions. Good thing he doesn't realize the worm is an alien.

No, the baby was sent off to a very nice orphanage, where it would be taught to weave baskets and behave like a human Sim. The kittens would be taken in by the mother-cat next door, who could use their cat-flap as a means to let herself into and out of the house and catch all those strange oddly-shapen rats that live in and under the basement, until they are old enough to fend for themselves.

Unfortunately the whole island of Arkham disappeared in the dead of night, one New Moon later - after strange fish-like creatures walked out of the sea onto the shallow strand, and rapidly infested the whole town... followed by large black and shiny tentacles...

And I can't prove that those tentacles don't eat kittens.


Sita December 1, 2016