Ch 2: In the face of evil, we must only smile - Gen 1 -

Bouts of yelling and arguing rang out loudly in the night, emitting from the Ellis-Maroof household. The tension was rising with every passing moment as every single issue that the former couple had ever had came to light in one explosion of raw emotion.

"You wanted this baby! Not me!.. I told you that if you got pregnant I was fucking gone!" Luke bellowed loudly towards his ex wife. The rage boiling inside him turned his blood rippling hot, causing his eyes to glaze over in a red luster as if to a bull that was prepared to charge. Clinching his fist tightly, Luke took a firm step forward and raised his arm to her sternly, "You listen to me god damit. You take care of this shit, or ill take care of it for you! You understand me?" 

Kary was left momentairly speechless. How could the man that she had loved so dearly turn out to be such a person? How could her judgement of character have been so drastically off, and even more so what did that say about her? That she could love such a monster, someone with the ability to drop so low into fits of rage that he became distinguishable from a sim or a beast. Opening her mouth slowly, her lips began to tremble under the weight of her own words, "I...I'm.." she stuttered along each and every word, scrambling to find some way to resolve the situation, wanting to believe that this could all be fixed, telling herself over and over that this was not as bad as it seemed and that all she needed was to find the right way of telling him how she felt. Surely this was some sort of misunderstanding! Surely there was something else at play here that was causing him to be this way! Surely..Surely this was not the man that she fell in love with, and surely he had to still be there somewhere.

"Im not getting rid of this baby! It's yours and you just need to accept that! I didnt lay down by myself and get pregnant you know!" Kary clamped her mouth and took a step back away from him, what was she doing? She was literally standing here arguing with the father of her unborn child, trying to convince him that he should be supportive, as if it was something that warranted argument in the first place. 

Before she knew it, Kary had lost control entirely, "Fuck you then you bum! I dont need you, no matter what you say I'm having this baby rather you like it or not!" As her anger peaked as did her courage, stepping in close to him and solidly planting her arms on her hips and speaking with a sassy and somewhat mocking tone, "Ill see your butt in court.."

Just then, as if on queue, the door bell sounded. Luke turned abruptly towards the door in confusion, only to spot Kary blasting past him and twisting the lock open. It was Drake, fresh off the subway and more apprehensive than he had ever been in life. His heart was drumming against his chest from the sheer ambiance of the small one bedroom home. Through his skin and all the way down to his bones he could tell that something wasn't right here, and that he had just been summoned into a spirling situation that he honestly had no place in. Pausing before he entered the door, Drake considered for the first time what he had just gotten himself into. He had no business here, this was not his battle, nor was it his place to interject. His presence, was only going to make matters worse. 

But none the less, he was already here and turning back was not an option. Stepping into the living room, Drake approached Luke to ask him for his take on the situation and to find out what he could do to defuse it, if only for tonight. "Whats going on here? Is everything alright?.. I got a call saying that I should stop by.." Luke's scowl told him that there was about to be little room for peace, "Who the fuck are you!?" Luke snarled, "What? You the new guy thats screwing my wife now huh!? You coming to fight her battles big man?" Drake raised his arms in a defensive motion, "..No no, its nothing like that. I'm just a concerned friend, I just wanna make sure that shes alright." Luke bite down on his lip for a moment before returning to his verbal assault, "Bull shit! You and that bitch over there can go to hell for al.." before he could even finish his sentence  Drakes fist was already making raw contact with Lukes pasty face. He just could'nt take it, to have Kary insulted right in front of his face! It was more than he could stand, Drake was a man, and as a man he would do what needed to be done to protect a lady in need. "Funny.." he thought, "I guess the old fashioned ways of Pleasentview taught me something worth while afterall.."

As if two warriors set against each other for the sake of honor and the love of the fair maiden, Drake and Luke brawled all throughout the living room until Luke eventually broke free of the scrap and started off towards the kitchen. With a rustic growl, Drake set after him, stopping only when he was met with the tip of a sharpened knife aimed directly at him. Luke had slung a knife from the counter and proceeded to swing wildly at the man who had disrespected his home. Drake ducked rapidly, throwing a well timed right jab into Lukes right rib causing him to be thrown off balance and fortunately missing with the blade. Drake then did the only thing that he could think to do under such a circumstance, leaning his body down and diving forward, throwing his shoulder into Lukes gut and tackling him to the floor. The two tumbled to the ground and rolled violently across the kitchen tiles. Drakes fist were met equally as Luke landed a solid pound against his noise that inadvertently caused his head to be sent back, crashing bluntly against the solid ground. Drake's vision began to blur as the world around him spiraled out of control, he fought vigorously to maintain consciousness but he could tell it was a battle he was soon about to loose. In a matter of moments, the world had turn from vividly colored due to increased adrenaline, to a dark obstruction of reality. 

Waking up what felt like hours later, Drake crawled to his feet, one handed rested against the back of his head. The room was rocking back and forth as if a ship lost in the middle of the sea. Reaching up towards the kitchen sink for leverage, Drake pulled himself to his feet and immediately sprung back into action, headed towards the front door from where he could hear further screaming and the lingering slurs of a continued domestic waring. The last thing that he could remember was Luke coming at him with a knife, what if he still had it! "Fuck!" he screamed from the pits of his gullet as he fought against his faltering muscles to get to the front yard, "Please..Please god no!" 

 

 Without thinking Drake burst through the front door and slung the handgun from his waist band all in one fluid motion. Trembling against the pressure, leaving him in a state of conflicting chaos of preserving his moral sanity, and protecting the innocent. Drake closed his eyes and fired. 

The hollow tipped bullet made contact with Lukes lower right side, almost precisely where Drake had punched him just awhile ago. Luke dropped the knife and brought his free hand up to his wound before leaning his head back and coughing up a chunk of coagulated blood. Kary stood there, awe stricken as she watched her former husbands life slip away in an instant. Like a rag doll, Luke hit the ground. Leaving Drake with nothing more to do than to stand there, looking at his now lifeless body, and face the sinking guilt that immediately set upon him. He had just taken a mans life, in an instant, in one simple gesture. Drake was appauled by how easy it was, and even more so how capable he was of doing it. The gun was a gift from his father, meant only to serve as a tool to grant his dad some peace of mind when thinking of his son living in the dangerous zoo that was the city. Never had Drake thought that he would actually have to use it, never would he thought that he would become a murderer, never before had he questioned his simanity more so than now. What was he capable of? What did it say about his character? What did it say about his soul?

Drake raised his left hand to his head and began to bang against his skull roughly, as if punishing himself for his sins against simanity. "Stupid. Stupid Stupid! Why the fuck did I even come here!? Awe god!" his eyes began to clintch tightly to hold back the oceans of tears that soon followed, dampening his face and setting off towards the ground like a waterfall. Drake gripped the gun tightly, trying to figure out what to do with it. This device used for killing, this hunk of metal that had just condemned his soul to a lifetime of torment and guilt, Drakes knees began to shake under the weight of his own sorrow. How he would be able to face Kary was the furthest from his mind. 

From the empty street a black cloud formed from nothing before in a matter of moments formulating into a solid figure. Instantly the night grew darker, became colder, and set forth an invading sensation of grief that could be felt for miles. The trees themselves stood still against the now frozen wind, time as they saw it gritted to a screeching hualt sheering out of his presence. Death had arrived to claim the soul of the wicked, his face covered by the overhanging cloak, his presence shook terror through the living. Turning his head slightly to the left to look down upon the fallen, Death returned his gaze to Drake and spoke in a rather surprising tone. "Wuddup dude? You aite?" Drake, too far gone to react, simply gazed upon him. Death lifted a hand to him and began to speak again, "Dont sweat it man. Your souls fine with me. Dont beat yourself up about it bro, seriously its depressing."

Kary let out howls of agony as she mourned the loss of her ex husband, even with all the events of the night in mind, she had loved him once and in now way wished death upon him. Besides the obvious, she now had even more worries on her plate, what was she going to do? She couldn't go back to work and face the students. The moment this story hit the news, her career would be over. How was she going to take care of herself? More importantly, how was she going to take care of her soon to be born child? Her tears brought her no comfort, but what else could she do?

Just then, the body of Luke began to sink down into the ground, replaced by a hollowed purple figure that turned over casually and stood to its feet. Cracking an corrupt smile in the face of death, he awaited his fate. The reaper of souls approached him and began to speak, "Game over dude, you loose. The sorrow you have felt in your last hours of life, will pale to the torment you will experience in the next. Do you have anything to say for yourself bro?"

Luke leaned his head up towards the reaper and let out a thunderous laugh that echoed out into the neighborhood. The haunting chill of his ghostly voice caused the waves of the ocean to ripple in response. Turning his head slightly and looking over the reapers shoulder Luke spoke words that would haunt Kary's dreams. "See you soon." His stoic laughter returned yet again, as his body and the reapers faded from existence.

 

 Drake regained an ounce of his composure and approached Kary, "Im.. Im so sorry, I.." he was cut off by a hand placed over his mouth, "Shut up. I know.." Drake turned his head down as his apology was cut short, "Ill take care of you, I promise. Ill take responsibility, if you will have me"In truth, Drake spoke entirely out of guilt. Pain and simply, this was his fault, or at least he felt as though it was. The only way to make it right was to do everything that he could to make this better for her. Love? Such a thing was unneeded and was at this point undiserved, Drake decided then and there that he would comet his life to her and her child, it was the only way that he could save his soul. It was all that he had left to give and the only thing that could save him from a lifetime of night terrors from the frightening beast of guilt. Drake leaned forward and hugged her before planting a solid kiss on her lips. His life had now been changed, it had been sold off to another to pay for his sins. Turning towards the end of the street, the sun slowly rose over the horizon. The day was coming, life was restarting. In the face of everything that had just happened, life would continue to go on as normal. As normal as they could possibly be.

 And so began his life, he had been granted the excitement that he desired, been bless with the spontaneous adventure of reality. But at what cost? Trading his soul, for a life? Drake braced the question every day of his life. The alarm is ringing, time to go to work...

Ch 1: Instant Encounters - Gen 1 -

The cab right over took only a few hours, leaving Drake with plenty of time to glue his face to the window of the taxi and make mental notes of all of the places that he would soon be visiting in his pursuit of fulfilling activity. His mind raced as he contemplated the nights of partying filled with dancing, drinking, socializing and all else. It was a far step away from the stiff ole town of Pleasantview that he had dreaded so direly.  Here he could be somebody, here he could make something of himself that was not directly dictated by what his parents told or wished for him, it was a sense of pure revelation that sent green waves of joy surging from the tip of his toes all the way up through his body and seemed to float there above his head, as if serving as a becon of reassurance that all was right whiten the realm of Drake Jenson. These feelings however lasted only as long as it took for the cab driver to pull up in front of his new apartment. Although he did have a decent amount of money left over from his collage fund, he still found himself coming up rather short when selecting his new diggs, as such he was forced into a pad that was hardly furnished at all, not even a bed for him to sleep in. Taking a deep breath Drake closes his eyes to calm himself,

 "Alright buddy boy, we knew it was going to be like this. Your a collage graduate! Lets go find ourselves a job!", he proclaimed to himself as he closed the door right back behind him and headed down to the local public school in hopes of finding employment.

The moment he stepped foot inside the rather large building Drake felt as though he was entering into an entire new world. His childhood days were over, he served his time, and he was now a free man. Free to do what ever he pleased in what ever way he pleased, and right now he desired a job more than anything else. It was the first of many things on his list of 'things that need to be done so you can get some action'. It was a five point plan that, in his opinion, was flawless. Step one, GET A JOB!. Coming right up. Drake marched his way through the halls with his head held high and his chin pointed outward in a blatant sign of confidence in himself. Stomping directly into the principles office and slamming his resume down on the table. The principle took one brief look over the sheets of white paper in front of him and boom, just like that Drake had the job right on the spot and was to start immediately!

The day went by rather slowly from that point on, Drake had not really had much time to sleep since arriving in town and was slowly but surely starting to feel the effects of stress setting in that would undoubtedly effect his work performance. How was he going to step into this job with so much confidence and then fall short whiten the first few hours? Drake sighed and begrudgingly forced himself through the next half of the day. When the bell rang for lunch time Drake couldn't have been more thankful, although not hungry himself, he desperately needed the down time. In order to blow off some much needed steam, Drake sat down at his desk and pulled up the class computer and began browsing the local clubs and bars, just as he had built a solid list of hots and nots he was interpreted by a yellow pop up in the top right corner of the screen. It was his boss! Kary Ellis Maroof, an odd name for a rather odd women, but none the less she was his boss and Drake feared that he had just been caught slacking off on the job. He was relieved however when she began singing his praises,

"
Principle Maroof:  Ive never seen a man with such confidence in my life. Im really happy to have you working here.

Mr Jenson: Thanks for that, Ill do my best. If you need anything just let me know, and ill get it done.

Principle Maroof: Thats what I like to hear..btw.. have you had lunch yet? .. Id like to treat you to a quick meal to welcome you to the school.

Mr Jenson: That sounds great, ill meet you out front.

"

Drake signed off and headed out of the building and down the street to the food truck where he awaited Kary to meet up with him. Although she had agreed to treating him to lunch, Drake did not feel entirely comfortable with letting a lady pay for his meal, call him old fashioned that way. Instead he opted to paying for his burrito with his own cash and took a seat on the bench to chow down. Shortly after Kary showed up and took up a seat next to him, "You have to understand.." she said as she sat down in a rather informal way, "...teachers arnt really supposed to socialize on a personal level, especially not the principle. "

Drake raised an eyebrow at her in desire to protest such a rule but immediately let it go, figuring it was best not to argue with the rules on his first day. The two continued to chat for the next half an hour, Kary continually turning down Drakes attempts at buying her something to eat, something about not wanting to eat from a food truck and how only tourist or "town newbies" ate at such things. Drake wasn't sure what she was talking about, the warm greasing feeling that he got from every bite of his food truck burrito was delicious to him, instantly serving to label that truck as his default lunch eatery. As they continued conversing time slowly began to slip away from their notice, eventually causing them to fall into a dream state of perpetual conversation. As if time could have flown by directly over their heads and dropped several bombs only to be blissfully ignored as nothing more than traveling wind.

Drake stood up and headed towards the trash can to toss the wrapper from his lunch, all the while making sure to rub his hands across his paints casually to release himself from the sticky grip of the burritos grease. Today's lunch with Kary was everything that he wanted his new life to be, spontaneous, interesting, and filled with the company of beautiful women. Turning back to her, Drake took a direct approach asking her flat out, "So.. you seeing anyone right now?" The question was posed in such a way that if she took offense to it he could easily back out, labeling it nothing more as idle chit chat, but in all truth his intentions were far more devious. 

Kary sighed loudly, "Why'd you have to go and say that for huh?.." Opening her arms and slowly manufacturing a false smile to slide across her lips she continued, "We were having a good time right? Why complicate things like that..?" her tone of voice suggested that there was something to be gained from prying further, which is exactly what Drake did. " It was just a question geaze, you dont have to make such a big deal about it. Back where I'm from asking someone if they are in a relationship or not is just part of regular conversation among friends. Excuse me if you city folk dont care to know each other well enou..." Drake's defensive rant was cut short by the warm sensation of a women's arms curving around his neck and resting on his back. 

 It was amazing, it was wonderful, it was more than Drake could process in such a short amount of time, and even more so it was unexpected. What had he said to warrant such a reaction? It was so far beyond him that his head began to hurt from the hundreds of possibilities that ran through his brain like a flickering slide show. Rather than ruin the moment by trying to make too much sense of it, Drake closed his eyes and pulled her in closer to his chest. So what if this made no sense at all?, why destroy such a  heavenly experience of synergy with logic, for all he knew he was dreaming, and if he was he most definitely was not ready to wake up.

Kary locked her face behind Drakes shoulder, trying her best not to break out into tears and scare him off with her display of emotions. Hell she barely knew this guy and she so suddenly unleashed a wave of emotion upon him that would obviously creep him out, but she just couldn't help herself. Sometimes during times of trouble, one just needed a friend, one just plain needed someone to lean on, and as sad as it was to admit, Drake was the closet thing that she had to a reliable shoulder. "Me and my husband..we just had a divorce this mourning.. I thought coming to work would help me clear my mind..." Before Drake could even respond, Kary broke free from his grip and turned around, heading off down the street with her face covered by her hands in embarrassment. Drake looked longingly down the street, trying to make some sort of sense of what had just happened. 

"She had a divorce, and she chose me to confide in?.. Why?"

After work Drake was finally able to make it to one of the clubs that he had been so desperately been wanting to visit. Ever since he was a little kid he had always fantasized about what it would be like to become a socialite who lived in the city, sipped drinks in fancy bars and wore colorful suits made of random assortment of animal hides. But some how, even with everything that he had been hoping for, he was still left wanting. All he could think about was Kary and how she had ran off so suddenly, "I should have gone after her, I should have made sure that she was alright.." Drake took another sip of his drink and raised his chin in response to its burning sensation rolling down his chest, "Screw it, When I see her again I'm going to just walk right up to her and demand that she tell me what her deal was" Getting up to leave, Drake promptly paid his tab and headed outside, before he could even make it to the side walk his phone began to vibrate!

Drake picked up the phone and put on the most attractive voice that he could muster up, "Hello, this is Drake." The phone seemed to buzz with heavy static for just a moment before Kary's voice shimmered out of the receiver quietly, "Drake...can you hear me?... please Drake, I need you right now. Please, come to my house as soon as you can, ill text you my address ok?" Drake tried to speak but was met only by an empty dial tone. "What the fu.." he said to himself before shaking his head and running out towards the street headed to the subway. Kary needed his help, all things else could be figured out later. But first, Drake took a detour back to his house for a bit of a precaution. 

Once ready, Drake made his way over to Kary's, he was not sure what was wrong or what was happening, but he wanted to be prepared for the worst. Lowering his eyes to the ground, Drake whispered a short prayer to himself for protection before tucking the black hand gun into the back of his weights belt. 

Teacher of the year! Enter, Drake Jenson (Introduction)

Brooklyn Heights, the big city. A place of dynamic differences on every corner. Were beauty and grit are churned together into a haphazard cluster that some how manages to demand a level of respect for its modern charms. It is a place of many joys yet many sorrows that could lead one to the greatest heights of their wildest dreams, or see them crushed down beneath the earth, left to decay in the heart break of broken aspirations with the only solace to be found in their misery's bountyful company. Yes, this city can be tough, but for the chosen few whom have the ambition to step up out of the abyss, a life times worth of rewards await on them other side. It is here that we meet our founder, Drake Jenson...

Drake Jenson was born in the humble town of Pleasant View to a pleasant family, with pleasant values, and pleasant outlooks on life. So much so that Drake himself was instantly turned away from such things, often times muttering rather vulgar slurs in contempt for the "simple minded" folk of his home town. Each and every day they all marched up and down the streets with smiles on their faces lacking a single care in the world, ignorant of disappointment and oblivious of setback. It was almost as if he were living in a simulation, where there was some divine force moving the hands of the towns day to day events creating a false utopia all for the sake of keeping its inhabitants under a veil of artificial enjoyment. Drake simply could not stand for it, to grow up in a town where everything was structured almost entirely around the peachy keen, and even the slightest idea of rebellion was considered utter blasphemy. But alas, he was confined by the law, being under 18 at the time he was more or less forced to hold his tongue and bide his time until he could be released from the droll routine of his day to day life. On his eighteenth birthday Drake set off for collage, he hardly had time to finish blowing out the candles before he was already sitting in the back of the yellow taxi headed for Sim State University where he majored in Simlish. After graduating Drake took what was left of his collage fund and moved to Brooklyn Heights in hopes of starting a new life, free from the monotone routine of his life in Pleasant View, and so begins our story.