Chapter 4: Spheres of Fertility?

Thursday rolls around and it's Spooky Day. The Hands decide to be unconventional and throw a Feast Party. The guests bring group servings of food, and Alexander chooses to prepare Autumn Salad with lettuce from his garden. It's seasonal, organic, and his favorite meal.

Claire Ursine crashes the party with a plate of mysterious orbs called "Spheres of Destiny." No one has any idea what they are, but everyone seems to enjoy them.

"Mmm, love these orbs."

The house is still tiny and there isn't a lot of room for mingling. Everyone keeps bumping into each other and getting in everyone else's way. It causes friction between Shanti and her coworker, Jamie Jolina. 

"Blursh! You're blocking the dishwasher!"

Maybe Jamie feels bad for trying to pick a fight, because a few minutes later she's trying to hit on Shanti.

"Even if we didn't work together, Jamie, my husband is right there. Also, I'm in love with him."

Apparently inappropriate flirting is a theme today, because Geoffrey Landgraab, a married man with a teenaged son, is seen a few minutes later trying to hook up with Claire Ursine.

"Jawoka genava...."

The party is almost over when the cheap dishwasher, which has been running extremely loudly during the entire party, finally breaks down. For like the fifth time that week. Shanti can only look resigned as she thinks about spending the afternoon hand-washing that huge pile of dishes behind her.

Even with all the hangups, the party is a success and the guests leave happy. Guess those destiny orbs really hit the spot. As soon as the last guest is off the property, the couple collapse into bed, a spectacular end to a great Spooky Day.

The next day, Shanti wakes up with aches and nausea. She recognizes the signs immediately; she's a doctor, she doesn't need maternity clothes to know she's pregnant.

Alexander is a very diligent dad-to-be, giving plenty of backrubs and going to the library to read up about parenting. He cooks fresh organic meals for his pregnant bride, but she prefers to chow down on leftover spheres of destiny. She wonders if maybe the spheres have fertility-boosting ingredients.

Leftovers for breakfast, leftovers for dinner. Leftovers for midnight snacks snuck in while her man is asleep.

Just a few days later, baby Rain is born. Mother and daughter are both happy and healthy, but Alexander looks a bit dazed. He's a dad! He's really a real dad. Wow.

Luckily, the shell shocked expression wears off quickly and Alex finds he is thrilled with his beautiful new baby girl.

Aww. *sniffs*

Sunday rolls around. The first day of winter means new threads and new decor.

To celebrate the new season, Shanti invites over her best and oldest friend in Sunset Valley, Morgana Wolff. It's been a while since they hung out outside of work, and she misses her friend. Of course, she never does anything without an ulterior motive, and in this case she wants to ask for a promotion, or at least a raise. She worked from home a lot during maternity leave and did a metric ton of research for the hospital. Morgana agrees to promote her.

The first thing Shanti does as Infectious Disease Researcher is to try out an experimental treatment on Morgana. Unfortunately, it doesnt work too well.

Morgana is kind of annoyed that Shanti's pill made her feel sick and pass out, but they quickly make up.

Best friends for life!

Excited to meet her friend's new daughter, Morgana heads inside.

But when she picks up Rain, the maternal pangs that hit her hard take her by surprise. It's no secret that she wants kids of her own, but her husband Thornton hates children. It's the major source of tension in their relationship.

:'(

When Morgana leaves, her mood is bittersweet and subdued. Shanti and Alexander feel badly for her, but are newly thankful for their good relationship and easy agreement on most things. 

They're not usually too adventurous in the bedroom department but, well, the shower is right there, and they're very happy in love, so... to hell with propriety.

That sun has seen some shit (literally...), but this takes the cake. *winces* Sorry, bathroom humor.

The next morning goes about how you'd expect.

She's just as sure as last time what this means, but she's a little worried about how they'll cope with Rain still so young. "It's okay," she tells herself. "We are capable adults on our way to success, and we are resourceful and clever people, and we will make this work. Besides, we're not entirely broke." And in fact, Shanti's bonuses and Alex's increasingly complex nectar recipes have accumulated into a small but not insignificant amount of savings.

Things are finally coming together.

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Notes: 

I'm not talking a lot about nectar in the story because it doesn't make for very interesting story or screencap material, but I like it a lot, even though it's a quite a bit of work. Alex is close to mastering the nectar making skill and is level 6 in his career, and he recently made his first Perfect quality nectar. He can't make a lot of the higher quality nectars though because we don't have cherries or the rarer grapes. I'm toying with the idea of sending them on another couple of trips abroad so Alexander can collect the fruit they're missing, but with the (soon to be) kids and everything I don't really know if I will. I would have done it earlier, but they didn't have the funds (and also, I didn't know enough about nectar to know I needed them). Maybe I'll do it later down the line when the babies are old enough and can come with.

I didn't realize until just now that the seasonal party for Spooky Day is costume party, not feast party. I was thinking like Thanksgiving, for some reason... Oops. 

Also, is it just me or did Jamie Jolina gain a lot of weight in between the second and third pics? I have no idea how that happened.

Thanks for reading!