1.3: Lunar Psychosis

Living with Charlene proves to be an exercise in patience, even on her "better" days.

"I'm not going to wear sunglasses inside," Tulip snaps, tiring of having to talk about this again, "Just don't look at my eyes if it bothers you so much."

Charlene snorts, "Exactly what a lunarling would say. Just admit what you are, I'll leave you be."

"What the fuck is a lunarling?" It's one of the many phrases Charlene calls her, but she never explains what any of them mean. She supposes "lunarling" is better than moon mite or space trash.

Charlene giggles, "You would know better than me."

Charlene's pursuit of "the truth" is unceasing. She leaves Tulip alone for a few hours, or even days, then ambushes her with more questions. 

"If you're human, why don't you eat food with us?" Charlene asks behind Tulip's head one day.

She jumps, and whirls around with supernatural speed. 

"I told you, I'm a Vampire!"

Blanca glances at the two as she struggles through a pull-up. 

"I told you, Charlene, it wouldn't even make sense for a moon alien to need to drink plasma." She's clearly a lot more used to these questions than Tulip is. "They'd have nothing to eat most of the time if they did."

Charlene fidgets, her brow furrowing at this new information. She walks off, counting on her fingers and murmuring to herself.

Tulip sighs deeply and returns to her coaching. 

"I still don't get this whole Lunar Psychosis thing," she mutters, rolling her eyes, "Are you sure she doesn't have something like paranoid schizophrenia?"

Blanca's eyebrows raise in surprise, "You remember what that is?"

Tulip pauses. "I...hm. Yeah. I guess I do." A lot of other words and diagnostic criteria spring to mind, briefly rendering her silent. If Blanca is right and she worked as a police officer before... it would make sense for her to know this, she supposes.

Blanca takes a deep breath as she lowers herself from the bar. 

"No, Charlene was mentally sound when we left Earth. Tested negative for everything. But space travel with tiberium, especially with the way it interacts with lunar gasses... it's a lottery, if you get sick or not."

"You seem fine," Tulip observes. 

Blanca shrugs, "I was just lucky, I guess. We still don't know why some people get sick and others don't."

"So she's just obsessed with the moon or something?"

"It causes paranoid delusions and later leads to physical health problems like migraines. The literature shows a specific obsession with the existence of aliens or secret extraterrestrial civilisations, and in some cases, difficulty recognising human faces and mistaking them as alien." Her explanation is rote and dry. Clearly she's had a lot of practice.

Tulip frowns, "No cure?"

Blanca shakes her head sadly, "The medication Sim Nation developed for other disorders hasn't been effective at all with treating this. A lot of astronauts recovered on their own within a few years of returning to earth, however." 

Tulip looks at the ground, sighing. "But we can't do that."

Blanca hops down from the bar, smiling lightly, "Well, thankfully, it's not fatal. No one's ever become violent from it. It just means she's not 100% with us a lot of the time. That's all."

The sad conversation spurs Blanca to seek out Charlene. She pulls her into a passionate kiss, leaving both of them breathless. 

"What was that for?" Charlene asks when Blanca finally pulls away.

Blanca shakes her head, "No reason."

They enjoy a short stroll outside and have a look at the night sky. 

"Earth is....about that aways, right?" Charlene points to her left, flapping her hand vaguely, "About 200 lightyears away?"

Blanca nods. 

Charlene snuggles closer, "I'm glad you're not that far."

Blanca nods against Charlene's head, "Me too."

Though with a new day, Charlene seems to push this statement to its limit. 

"Your eyes might not glow, but you sure know an awwwwful lot about this place. Things you haven't told me!" 

"Like what?" 

"Where the other moon mites are. Tulip can't be the only one!" Charlene sighs dramatically, "Why won't you be honest with me? I thought you loved me."

Blanca fidgets nervously, digging at a cuticle. "You know I care about you."

"Then tell me where they are!" her voice grows to a shout, "Stop lying to me!"

It's not too long after this argument that Charlene leaves a frying pan on the stove, setting the kitchen ablaze.

"Where could they be hiding," she mutters to herself, oblivious to the inferno she's brought into the world. "I'll look somewhere else."

Tulip doesn't have time for much more than a dismayed look in Charlene's direction before fighting the fire takes priority. 

The stove is a charred mess when she's done, but the fire is out.

By the time Tulip comes back to try and salvage it, a new stove is sitting in its place. Exact same model and make as the old one. 

She shrugs it off as another mystery of this place, and decides their doorbell could use some maintenance. It's never used and requires a lot of rewiring.

Was I a cop or a handyman before? Tulip thinks wryly. She seems to know her way around tools. I guess Bridgeport PD couldn't afford a professional for repairs.

Another mystery the next day. On a jog around the dome, Tulip finds some sort of cassette tape.

She peers down at it. Collection Helper, typed neatly on a label on its centre, sits above several buttons. 

She picks it up and peers at the device. According to miniscule letters, the buttons are Seeds, Gems and Metals, Insects, Fish, Rodents, Reptiles,and Birds.

Tulip's mind wanders to the empty planters inside. She presses "Seeds"

Sure enough, after a shower and a change of clothes, Tulip finds her first seed on this barren moon.

She stares at it for a long while before daring to pick it up. 

It looks like any other seed, if maybe a bit large.

She swivels around as she stuffs the new find into her dress pocket, but only sees grey rock and a pale sky. 

So why is it that she feels watched?

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😮

It took so long in game to get the collection helper! I was grinding for lifetime happiness points for in game weeks. I couldn't find a single seed while scrolling across the townmap.

After finally getting the collection helper, I found out that the seed spawners in the world were already placed but just not....spawning anything... so I moved them around in build mode and placed a common one on the home lot as a test. They started working properly after that.

At this point, the household was paying its bills for weeks out of the 200 simoleons I had leftover after buying the home and furnishing it ;_; 

But with the spawners working, Tulip can follow her mother's footsteps and start gardening!