Chapter 26: Pseudoscience

Tamsin meant what she said when she promised Rory McGreggor she would find a way to help him. The only problem is none of her research has provided even a hint of a clue as to how to give life back to a ghost. She couldn't even find anything published about the experiment that put Rory into the half-life, half-death limbo he now resides in. So Tamsin turns to the one person close to her that currently works in the MorcuCrop Science Facility, her half-sister Caroline.

"Rory McGreggor is pretty much a taboo subject at the lab," Caroline admits when Tamsin presses her for information. "After that embarrassing failure, all paranormal research was scrapped, and everyone who worked on that project were transferred out of Riverblossom Hills."

"There must be some records of their work, research notes and such," Tamsin says.

"Anything that was destroyed would be highly classified. I'm just a lab tech, Tam. If were to start nosing around, asking questions about it, I could lose my job. I'm sorry, I really can't help you."

Her failure to find the answer just makes her more determined to solve this problem. Her mind is always working on it even when she's engaged in other activities, and she'll sometimes stop in mid conversation to puzzle out a new idea pushed forward from her subconscious.

Research has provided nothing, so Tamsin tries direct experimentation. So far she's come up with some mood enhancing cocktails and an extremely strong diuretic, but nothing that would be of use to Rory.

And some things she come up with are just plain explosive.

Late at night, Autumn is awakened by the familiar sound of Chinese music coming from the living room. Familiar, because Chinese music was Darius' favorite, and he always had it playing while working in the studio. So it's no great surprise to find his ghost is responsible for the music now.

"I miss you, Darius," she sighs, "I hate living without you."

"Don't be in such a hurry to join me, my love," Darius answers, "Enjoy your life, enjoy our children and grandchildren. Do we have more grandchildren yet?"

"Julia and Beau have a son now," Autumn answers, "His name is Tate. And Julian and his wife are expecting."

Darius smiles at the news.

Despite her preoccupation with fixing Rory's problem, Tamsin makes time for Rex, and their prom.

But the morning after prom finds her right back in problem solving mode.

Autumn doesn't have to wait much longer to join her husband. She greets Grim like an old friend, and goes with him readily.

Darryl couldn't bear to bury his parents in the cemetery, and decided to keep their urns in the house, close to the family.

Despite her mourning, Tamsin meets Rex for their Saturday bug and rock collecting date at the beach.

Rex's mother Anastasia, who was nearly as old as Autumn,  has also passed away.

The teens cry together for a bit, and then force themselves into brighter moods for their date. Rex brings Tamsin to a spot near the beach that's excellent for finding interesting stones and metal deposits, and a variety of insect life. The place looks like an abandoned dig site, and Rex tells her stories he's read of archeological teams that have gone missing while exploring ancient ruined temples.

When his story is over, the couple stands gazing at each other, silent.

"I want us to be like this forever," Tamsin says. "Do you want to catch that moth?"

"Moth?" Rex asked, distracted by her previous statement.

"No, let the moth go," Rex says, "Let's go back to that bit about being together forever."

On Sunday Tamsin decides to talk with another of MorcuCrop's employees, Tomas Enmity, the Simbot her mother created and released.

"You are one of the creator's flesh-daughters," Tomas greets her outside his home. "I am pleased to meet you, sister."

Tamsin gets right to the point, and asks Tomas for help with her paranormal research.

Tomas doesn't have much, or in fact, any, respect for what he calls pseudo-science. And while he's very friendly and polite to Tamsin, it's immediately clear he isn't going to be of any help.

It also becomes clear that the Simbot longs for some connection to his 'family', and his 'flesh-sister' is happy to oblige that need, accepting his request for a pillow fight, and a promise to visit more often.

Later that afternoon, Tamsin gets into some gaming with her father.

"Graduation is getting close," he reminds her, "Have you thought about what you'll do for a living? You seem very interested in the sciences. You could talk to Caroline about getting a job at MorcuCrop."

"I am interested in science," Tamsin says, "But I'm not sure MorcuCrop is the place for me." Tamsin had thought about getting a job at MorcuCrop as a way to get at the research that made Rory a day-walking ghost, but she doubts a new hire would be able to hold of such tightly classified information, she would have to work herself high up the chain to get that kind of clearance. And the company's attitude toward the kind of research she wants to do makes it pretty unlikely she'd enjoy her career there.

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Challenge Notes:
Tamsin's birthday will happen next time I play. Rex is a day older.
Tamsin's traits so far are Brave, Eccentric, Genius and Daredevil.
Rex is Bookworm, Lucky, Computer Whiz, Childish and Clumsy. The poor guy wants to be a professional author. But he's going to be a Collector.
Rex's mother had green skin. So I think there is some chance Rex can pas green skin on to his children. The green skin does seem to be dying out, currently the only living Sim with it is Rex's  cousin Dewey Greenman. Unless I'm forgetting someone. All the greenskinned Sims descend from Rose Greenman. For those that never played Sims 2 Seasons ep, the supernatural in the ep was the Plantsim, and Riverblossom Hills (Sims 2 version) had two plantsims in the neighborhood, Rose Greenman and her toddler daughter Daisy. Rose's husband Jason was a normal human. Kiwi Tea's S3 version also had the Greenman family, but obviously not really plantsims. Just green-skinned and greenhaired. And I'm sure they had appropriate traits like Loves the Outdoors, etc. The green hair has already died out.
However, I recently got a new SP immigrant to the town with green skin. Which is odd as there are none in my bin. So perhaps it pulls genes from the town itself?
Rex is also descended from Muriel Peynter, one of the original inhabitants of the town. I like to keep note of town genealogy.