Klaine Advent 2018 Day 19: Stay

Dimension seventeen: The Sims

Blaine has played a lot of The Sims.

Namely, The Sims.

The Sims 2 (aka the best).

The Sims 3.

Heck, even MySims.

That’s why he’s very confused when he walks around the neighbourhood. He’s never seen this place. When Blaine woke up, he looked outside of his window and he saw a beautiful big city which seemed to be a fusion between big American and Asian cities.

There hasn’t been a neighbourhood like this in the games before.

Blaine knows there’s one logical explanation: he’s in The Sims 4. He knows that The Sims 4 recently got released, but he’s been too busy to even buy it. Then again, Blaine knows that a neighbourhood like this isn’t included, so he assumes it’s a future content pack.

He’s been in unfamiliar settings of fictional stories before, namely the Carry On dimension and the The Good Place dimension. He’d already concluded that these sort of dimensions are probably not tied to the timeline Blaine’s from. He’s walking around in settings of future media.

It’s mind-blowing.

That, and the beautiful city.

There are skyscrapers, billboards, street art pieces, food stands… it’s a lot to take in. Blaine also woke up in an apartment this morning, so apartments will return to The Sims 4. He takes out his phone from his trusty bag. He still can’t use it to call or text, but the camera function works perfectly. He takes a couple of pictures of the beautiful view.

After walking around for a while, Blaine finds a brochure with information. He lives in the Arts Quarter, which is one of the four main sub neighbourhoods of the city of San Myshuno. The Arts Quarter is known for its arts center Casbah Gallery.

Blaine decides to start his quest for Kurt and the book there. Literature is art, so maybe he can find the book in there. First, he stops at a food stand. When he woke up, he left the apartment without having breakfast, because he wanted to see the city.

There are no books in the Casbah Gallery, but there’s a lot of beautiful art. Blaine could stay here all day.

Photographs are not permitted in the Casbah Gallery, so Blaine takes a business card of the gallery as a memory. He really hopes the book will need it.

He’s about to leave the gallery when something catches his eye.

There aren’t any books in this gallery, but displayed behind the glass is the book. Blaine’s so excited to have found it that he almost forgets the flaw in the plan: it’s an art piece in an exhibition. There’s no way he can steal it.

After all, he’s done potentially damaging the lives of the other Blaine’s. The smallest mistake can have the biggest impact, as the previous dimension pointed out. A simple thing like snoozing an alarm can change it all.

Stealing an art piece is not a small mistake.

Blaine overhears some tourists talking about a karaoke bar called the Waterside Warble. It’s not really a lead, since Blaine has no reason to believe that Kurt will be there, but the name reminds him of The Warblers.

Maybe it’ll remind Kurt of The Warblers as well. Maybe Kurt’s under the impression that Blaine will be there.

After asking around, Blaine finds out that the Waterside Warble is located in another part of the city, namely the Spice Market.

It’s a long walk. For a second, Blaine’s afraid there’s no other way to get to another part of the city. Sure, it’s unrealistic that there’s no kind of underground in a city as big as San Myshuno, but this is The Sims. When you play the game, your Sims don’t necessarily need transport. You have a load screen, so the creators didn’t put a public transport system in their worlds.

Blaine lets out a sigh of relief when he sees a subway sort of thing.

Landscaping, Blaine thinks, The programmers still put in a lot of background art.

It’s cool that Blaine gets to experience fictional settings like this. The train ride to the Spice Market isn’t very long. It turns out that the Spice Market is close to the Arts Quarter.

Blaine stops at another food stand before going to the Waterside Warble. He opens the door and he can hear singing.

What is this feeling
So sudden and new?

He knows that voice.

I felt the moment
I laid eyes on you
My pulse is rushing
My head is reeling
My face is flushing
Oh, what is this feeling?

There are a couple of rooms with a karaoke machine, but only one is in use.

Kurt is singing Wicked. Members of The New Directions are littered around the karaoke bar. Puck is drinking loads at the bar. Tina and Mike are talking to each other. Artie and Quinn are discussing the new changes to the city, implemented by a San Myshuno politician named Gilbert. Santana is dancing with Brittany. They’re all having a great time.

He opens the door to the room that Kurt’s in. He’s singing and Rachel is standing next to him, also holding a microphone.

He goes off-key for a second when he sees Blaine, but he continues without a hitch. Mercedes and Sam are sitting on the couch, watching them. Kurt and Rachel finish the song and they all applaud.

“Who are you?” is the first thing Rachel asks when the applause dies down.

“Oh, I’m just a listener,” Blaine says.

The answer seems okay, because Rachel immediately takes Kurt’s microphone out of his hand and she pushes it in Blaine’s grip.

“Can you sing?”

“Oh, yeah.”

Blaine and Rachel sing a song, then Sam and Mercedes. Quinn opens the door mid-song and she sings a duet with Mercedes before Rachel demands a solo.

Blaine’s enjoying himself.

Especially when he gets to sing with Kurt.

When picking out a song, they are very tempted to pick a love song, but to the others it’d look weird. Kurt and Blaine aren’t supposed to know each other. Instead, they sing a popular pop song, but they still sound amazing.

Rachel demands another solo and Kurt and Blaine decide to go to the bar to talk.

They make sure that Puck can’t overhear them before talking.

“This city is amazing,” Blaine says immediately.

Kurt nods eagerly. “Oh, it does make me miss home a bit more. New York, New York, what a wonderful town!”

“We’ve seen several New Yorks lately, but we haven’t explored the city. We need to do this at home.” When we have time, Blaine wants to add. But he holds his tongue. He knows that Kurt’s extremely busy and he also knows that Kurt’s planning on changing it.

Blaine tells Kurt about his day and about living in the Arts Quarter and about how he eventually hoped to find Kurt here.

“Look at that, The New Directions in a spot for The Warblers,” Kurt says, “I had kind of hoped to find you here as well because of the name.”

“Great minds think alike.”

“I live in the Fashion District with Rachel, but we live all over the city. A lot of The New Directions live in the Spice Market so we go here a lot. And apparently, we prefer this karaoke bar over the one in the Fashion District called Planet Honey Pop! Rachel texted me about it and when I read the name, I knew I had to go here.”

“This place is really cool. It’d be a shame to leave.”

Kurt smiles a little bit. “We gotta go one day. We only need to find the book.”

Blaine had forgotten about that!

“Wait, I know where to find it.”

He tells Kurt about the Casbah Gallery and the book. Kurt’s shoulders slump when Blaine tells him it’s an art piece.

They have to come up with a plan, but then Rachel calls for them to sing.

Blaine wakes up next to Kurt in Kurt’s fancy apartment in the Fashion District.

Normally, Blaine wants to avoid staying the night in a dimension, but he has Kurt next to him now.

Kurt slowly stirs awake and Blaine plants a kiss on his cheek. “Morning, love.”

Kurt smiles. “Morning,” he mumbles.

“Put on some pants. It’s time for breakfast and then we’re off to the Casbah Gallery.”

After breakfast and Rachel’s surprise at seeing a half-naked Blaine in the kitchen, they are on the train to the Arts Quarter.

They don’t have a plan, but first they want to see the book again.

The Casbah Gallery isn’t very crowded in the morning, so they can see the book easily. After they’ve made sure that this is the book they’re looking for, they start thinking of a plan, but it’s really difficult. At one point, they even start suggesting the most ridiculous plans.

“We can just set fire to this place,” Blaine says jokingly.

“Hey, this is The Sims series. What’s more iconic than fires?” Kurt says back.

“Drowning? Cowplants? Simlish? I think we’re probably talking Simlish, but that it’s translated for us? It’s weird.”

“Are we Sims? Or are we people?”

“The Sims is weird.”

“What would happen if we set this place on fire?”

They’re joking of course, but after talking about it for a while, they are getting weirdly serious about this.

“… Kurt, we can’t set fire to this place,” Blaine says when he realises that they’re getting serious. But they’re also getting desperate, so fire seems reasonable.

“Fuck, we can’t.”

“We’re not pyros. This is ridiculous.”

It’s as if the universe is messing with them, because just when they’re about to accept the fact that it’s incredibly difficult to obtain the book, someone starts yelling: “Fire! There’s a fire!”

The alarm goes off and people start running around to the exits. Blaine doesn’t hesitate. He grabs Kurt’s hand and they run to the main entrance.

But, as they pass the art pieces, Blaine kicks the glass shielding the book.

“Blaine, this is literally the weirdest thing that has happened to us in a while, and that is saying something!” Kurt yells as he watches Blaine shove the book in his bag.

Fire isn’t fun, though. Setting Sims on fire might be iconic in their dimension, but actually experiencing what it’s like to feel fire spreading towards them is terrible. Since this is a community lot, there is an actual alarm, so they can all get out.

“When we get home, I will start up my game, and I will put fire alarms and sprinklers in every damn lot that I own and I will never set my Sims on fire again!” Blaine says loudly.

Still, their original plan has worked. Due to all the commotion, no one noticed them stealing the book. They are being evacuated and they leave to go to Blaine’s apartment.

Inside, they flip open the book to the right page and the two shapes are obvious.

“That’s the brochure of the Arts Quarter,” Blaine says.

“That’s the flyer of the Waterside Warble,” Kurt points towards the other one.

“I have the brochure in my bag, but do you have a flyer?” Blaine asks Kurt.

But Kurt shakes his head. “I only recognise it because I saw a lot of them lying around at the karaoke bar.”

Kurt’s right. Blaine recognises the oddly shaped flyer as well, since it was everywhere. This means they have to go back to the Waterside Warble. This quest is longer than expected, since most of the time, they already have both objects with them.

Blaine gets his bag and he takes out the brochure and the Sinnoh Region Guide Book. He explains to Kurt that he’s overheard some of his friends talking about a politician named Gilbert and he writes it down.

But when he puts the brochure on the page, nothing happens.

Kurt frowns.

“I don’t get it?” Blaine says and he puts the brochure on the page again.

He holds up the brochure and Kurt says: “It is clearly this brochure.”

“Then why won’t it work?”

They try different ways of putting the brochure on the page, but it won’t disappear. After a while, they decide to get back to this. First, they go to the Waterside Warble.

It’s busy in the Spice Market since there’s a Flea Market. Kurt’s tempted to buy something, but he doesn’t know what, so he buys a weird ‘MySims Trophy’. Blaine puts it in his bag to take it home.

They walk around the Flea Market, on their way to the Waterside Warble, when Kurt stops Blaine from walking.

“What is it?”

Kurt nods towards a table filled with brochures of the Spice Market. It looks exactly like the brochure of the Arts Quarter, but it’s filled with information of the Spice Market.

“Brilliant!”

Blaine takes a brochure and they continue their trip to the Waterside Warble. They’re not here to sing, but to grab the flyer. When they enter the karaoke bar, it is tempting, but they have to resist.

Since the flyers are everywhere, it’s very easy to take one.

The two of them book a karaoke room just for now, since they need privacy and they don’t want to travel all the way back to Blaine’s apartment.

“I really hope this works,” Blaine says as he puts down the Spice Market brochure, “I love this city, but I don’t feel like exploring Uptown or the Fashion District or the Myshuno Meadows.”

But to their relief, the brochure disappears into the page. Kurt puts down the flyer.

Five words are starting to form on the next page. “Five? This is getting ridiculous.”

Blaine reads the words. “It is also getting specific again.”

Kurt reads the words out loud. “’Skydiving in an aerial show’? What the hell?”