Ch. 1.16: A Thousand Times

“I’m going to kill him,” Polaris growls to herself, “I’m going to kill him and dump his body in the desert.”

Polaris had gone into labor a little prematurely. Crux had been meticulously planning for the delivery, but his schedule was apparently a couple of days off. He was temporarily out of town with Lyra; before he left, he had promised he would be back in time to help deliver the baby. Liar

“Mom, what are you doing?” Elysia sounds exasperated—she’s so used to her mom acting strangely that she had yet to realize her mother is giving birth. Just before her water broke, Polaris had been watching television with Elysia. For the past few weeks, Polaris had been making concerted efforts to spend time with each of her children: she played chess with Solaris, and she played tag with Luna, but Elysia was a little harder to connect with, so they would just watch TV together in silence.

“What does it look like I’m doing,” Polaris huffs, “I’m having a fuc---freaking baby!”

“Oh…”

***

Weeks quickly slipped by after the eventful dinner party, and life soon became mundane. Crux often visited the Bees, and he had grown close to Solaris and Elysia. He found Solaris the easiest to talk to since he was rather bright. They shared an interest in pulp sci-fi novels, though for very different reasons: Solaris thought the stories were riveting, while Crux enjoyed finding scientific inaccuracies. Elysia was easy to get along with, due to her obvious crush on Crux.  Crux was still having some trouble winning Luna over, though.

One day, Crux suggests that they visit central park and check out the winter festival, which is in full swing despite warm weather. Polaris is particularly excited by the festival—there's ice skating and snowboarding and,  in the absence of snow, water balloon fights! She claps her hands as she asksvCrux what they should do first.

“Personally, I think we should snowboard—“

“Polaris—“

“Though a water balloon fight might be nice because the kids have been little shits recently and I’d really like to nail them in their stupid little faces…”

“Polaris, I think with your affliction it is best if you—“

“Affliction? I’m pregnant, not sick.”

“Of course. In your condition, I think it may be best if you avoid any physical exertion.”

“The hell? You invite me out here and then you don’t want to let me do anything?!”

“To be honest, I wanted to spend some time with your children, particularly Luna. I—I would suppose it is necessary to befriend her.”

“Wow, way to sound sinister…”

While Polaris and Crux bicker, the triplets decide to investigate the ice-skating rink, a novelty in a desert like Lucky Palms. Elysia bravely steps onto the ice first, and Luna soon follows. Solaris, however, is less adventurous than his sisters.

“Wait for me,” Solaris whines. He clomps onto the ice, attempting to walk on the ice rather than gliding. His feet shake as he fruitlessly tries to balance. Arms flailing, he falls hard against the ice. The girls burst into laughter.

“You’re doing it wrong, Solaris” Luna giggles, proud of her half-formed insult.

“Maybe you should stick to your books, nerd,” Elysia chimes in. She feels it is necessary to help her sister tear their prodigy brother down.

“Oww,” Solaris begins to sniffle. The cold of the ice hurt almost as much as the fall. He blinks forcefully, trying to hold back his tears, but that also proves fruitless. His tears make Luna and Elysia laugh harder.

“Crybaby!” They shout in unison.

“Stop it! I’m going to tell on you!” his voice quivers as he picks himself off the ice, “you’re gonna get in trouble”

“Go ahead,” Luna dares him, “tell.” She grabs her sister’s hands and they begin to spin in a circle. “We don’t care.”

“Crybaby, crybaby!” Elysia chants, and Luna joins in.

“Jerks,” Solaris mutters. He clumsily begins to skate towards the rink’s exit. They continue to spin, their chant crescendoing until Luna spins a little too vigorously, throwing the pair off-balance. The girls stagger, then fall down.

“Serves you right,” Solaris snickers. With their transgressions punished, all is temporarily right in the triplet’s world.

Meanwhile, Polaris and Crux have agreed on a compromise: he and the kids will have a water balloon fight, while Polaris will gorge herself on all the festival food she can get her pregnant paws on.  She hungrily barges up to the food stand.

“I’ll take your largest pie and all the whipped cream you have, please,” Polaris orders with a smile.

“Yes, ma’am!”

Crux and the kids set up at the arena, deciding on boys against girls. Luna stands opposite of Crux, all too ready to hurl water balloons at him.

Elysia taunts her brother: “Just try and hit me, dorkus malorkus.”

Solaris obliges, throwing a water balloon with such force that it knocks his sister over.

Crux holds back—he knows he could easily win, but he also doesn’t want to make a small child cry. Luna lobs balloons at him, but has thus far failed to hit him.

“Aim about half a meter to your left, little one!” He helpfully shouts.

“I’m not little,” she wails. She throws another balloon, successfully striking him in the chest.

“Good job," he laughs.

Polaris is disappointed with her pie. “All the whipped cream they have my ass,” she mutters to herself, “who the fuck serves pie without whipped cream.” She continues to mutter to herself, working herself into a rage.

She decides to take it out on the minimum wage employee who is tending the stand.

“Boo! You suck!”

“Yes, ma’am…”

“And your pies suck!”

“Yes, ma’am…”

“This whole festival sucks!”

“Yes, ma’am…”

“It’s all your fault!”

“Yes, ma’am…”

“….can I have another pie, please?”

“Yes, ma’am!”

***

“First he impregnates me and then he makes me eat stupid shitty pie,” Polaris gasps; she’s working herself into a rage again. “Invites me to the festival and doesn’t let me snowboard. Bastard!”

“Mom, should I call Mr. Court?”

“ARRRGH fuck Mr. Court!”

Elysia is worried—an unfamiliar feeling for her.

***

After the festival, Polaris invited Crux back to her house. “I hired some guys to add on a couple of new bedrooms, and I figured they could redo this one while they were at it. I got some new furniture, too”

“It looks lovely. Not as bright as before, though. It does not scream ‘Polaris!’”

“I toned it down for you,” Polaris smiles, “I know you think my taste is outlandish.”

“You did this for me or me?”

“Well, you done knocked me up, mister. Don’t you want to make an honest woman out of me?”

“I consider you an honest woman. I do not believe you have ever lied to me.”

“No, you dummy—I mean maybe we should take the next step…”

“Step where? Where are we going?”

Polaris rolls her eyes and falls to one knee. “Crux Court, I’m asking you to fucking marry me.” She whips out a jewelry box and snaps it open, revealing a diamond ring inside. She had found the diamond weeks earlier on one of her adventures, and had decided to have it made into a ring.

“Oh, Polaris…” Crux inhales deeply.

“Yeah, I know, really romantic. I’m super good at this kind of thing.”

“No, this is all wrong,” he looks panicked.

“Wrong? The hell do you mean?’

“I am supposed to be the one to propose! I read in a book that the male is supposed to propose marriage, and that he must save two months’ wages to purchase the ceremonial ring. I do not even have wages!”

“Who fucking cares who proposes? And besides, that rule was made up by diamond companies. It’s a conspiracy.” Crux stands in silence, unresponsive, covering his mouth with his hands.

“Well, whatta ya say, Cruxie? Will you do this foul-mouthed fuck-up the honor of being her husband?”

“Yes! A thousand times yes!” Polaris raises her eyebrow at that, “Erm, I saw it in a film.”

“Thank the Maker—I thought for a second you were going to say no,” Polaris slips the ring on his finger.

“I could never say no to you, Polaris,” he stands and wraps his arms around her, “especially when it means spending the rest of our lives together.”

“Aww, you really know how to make a gal blush,” she tries to sound nonchalant, but she really is blushing, “so when are you going to move in? I mean, we’ll need to talk to the kids about it, but I’d prefer sooner rather than later.”

“We will need to discuss that. There is something I have been meaning to tell you…”

***

Polaris’ screams are getting worse. Elysia finds her mother’s phone and scrolls through the contact list until she finds Crux’s numbers. It rings, and rings, and rings….

“Hello, Mr. Court?”

***

Author’s Note:  We get some very important character development for Crux in this chapter—apparently he spends his free time watching Jane Austen movies.

Also, ignore the weather in these pictures. It went from being snowy to warm in like two sim minutes.

Finally, I leave you off with a family portrait: