A Slice of (Un)Life

Later that evening the Phillips housekeeper arrived. He found the lights flickering and the lightbulbs' color changed to red - well, repairing stuff wasn't part of his duties. Strictly speaking neither was housekeeping. Daniel was officially employed as John's secretary in that one's car dealership. But with the job situation in the city was nowadays, one had to go the extra mile. 

(And even more strictly speaking Daniel was a two-legged capybara, who readily pack-bonded with every living thing and strived when he could care for others.)

John: "Daniel! You here?"

Daniel: "I've got a key, remember?"

John: "No, I meant... You absolutely certain that you want to work overtime so soon after your loss?"

Daniel: "Truth be told, I needed to get out of our apartment. Every seat I see Gavin sitting on, every plate I clean I cry over because he didn't lick it clean."

Daniel! Ever since awakening to unlife, Gavin had avoided his former fiance. Watching Daniel, yet being unable to touch, even whisper, would have been too much to bear. But now that Gavin was more at ease with bis new lifestate, he thought he could make himself heard.

He has "Ghostly Scream" now, unfortunately that's a fear-inducing power, so everytime he uses it in the story, it must be in a mean way.

Gavin: "I NEVER DID THAT! OKAY, MAYBE ONCE... OR TWICE...!"

Daniel: "And now I hear him complain. What is wrong with me that I can't remember my true love in a flattering light like normal people can?"

Caroline: "It's Gavin Reed we're talking about. Not even you could paint a nice picture about him."

Gavin: "SHUT UP, EVIL CRONE!"

His draconic, penny-pinching employer falling unsconscious from hearing a ghostly voice - how Daniel would have laughed at the sight before the death of his partner! But now all he could see in John's still form was dead Gavin. Everywhere he turned, there was only death and desperation, it seemed.

Gavin: "Don't worry, your favorite Scrooge is still breathing. - Ah, right, you can't hear me when I speak normally. And if I scream in ghost voice again, you might lose it, too. So what's left... A-ha!"

Gavin: *tickle, tickle*

Daniel: "Did I **bleep** myself on one of Caroline's art objects? No... I wasn't standing nowhere close enough. I wonder..."

Daniel reached out and sure enough, there was a strange quality about the air he touched.

Daniel: "I'm not imagining things. There's something under my fingers. It's almost as if... it's turning around?"

Daniel: "Ga... Gavin? Have you become a ghost, by chance? If that's the prize for being possessive, I never want to become a good person!"

Of course this wasn't about Danny, but himself. He, Gavin Curtis Reed, had to work on doing good deeds to come back to life. 

And so he did that. Creating chaos and removing it again until he felt the same tiredness and nausea he would have in his body. Feeling closer to the world of the living again than ever, Gavin also felt hope like never before.

As for the Phillips family, they sort of got used to living with a ghost.

(My favorite trick to render sims invisible: Pause the game and move into the sim until it fades, change into camera man mode, then slowly zoom out.)

The first november snow was covering the roofs already, when Gavin sent the final donation, that he expected would release him from his unlife. But when the money was away and no new whim appeared... nothing happened.

Gavin stood there in the chill early winter wind, feeling lost. Not just had he failed to "become someone", he seemed to have erred about his situation, wasted time with no clue what he should have done instead.

Daniel knew. The Phillips family knew. The first would be heartbroken, the latter amused. How much lower could one sink?