#sims 4 royal

Wilhelm:The cottage is my cousin’s, on some property outside of Imperskiygrad. 
David: Your cousin being a Grand Duchess. Strange to think about.
Genevieve: I’m afraid it doesn’t get much easier to think about, abba.

Wilhelm: I am glad to have met you, Dr. Peretz.
David: My daughter loves you, young man, and for that I am glad to have met you. Do not dare to break her heart.

Genevieve:Abba!
Wilhelm: I would never, sir.

Genevieve:Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha’olam, asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tsivanu l’hadlik ner shel Hanukkah.

Genevieve:Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha’olam, she-asah nisim la’avoteinu bayamim hahem bazman hazeh.

David: And a shehecheyanu. This is Wilhelm’s first Hanukkah with us. 
Genevieve: Abba… thank you. Thank you. 

[If there are tears in her eyes when she sings the next blessing, they are ones of joy.]

GenevieveandDavid, together: Baruch atah Adonai, Elohenu Melech ha’olam, shehecheyanu, v’kiyimanu, v’higiyanu la’zman hazeh.

(a million times thanks to @theroyalthornoliachronicles for making me these poses. i cannot possibly express how much i love them)

Fragments of conversations half-heard in the home of Dr. Genevieve Peretz-Bisset, on the second night of Hanukkah.

“Abba, I know this is a great deal of mishigasto drop on you…”

“You are telling me that you have managed to keep this hidden from the press for over a year?”

“Genevieve told me that you once gave my mother a tour of an exhibit you curated? I am sorry- my mother is, well…”

“Viviele, shtek nit dem kop tsum volf in moyl arayn.”* 

“Abba, I love him. You know as well as I do that love isn’t something we choose because it’s easy, or rational. We don’t choose! We can only decide how to act on it.”

“Ich hob dich azoi lib, az ich volt dir mayn toit nit gezshalevit.** It is not hard for me to say you are right, Viviele. It is hard because of how much I worry for you.”

“Abba, will you show Will the drawer with the kippot? I’ll get the candles.”

*- Don’t stick your head in the sharp-toothed mouth of a wolf.
**- I love you so much that I could not blame you if I died for you.

[David Peretz, PhD. knows many things; he has to. He knows how to read every dialect of ancient Simharan discovered so far, and if you put a previously unknown one before him, his chances of translating it are far higher than your everyday simharologist. He knows how to date a strata by only a few pot sherds, and the physiologic hallmarks of each dynasty. He knows how to set broken fingers and the safest way to rehydrate a body (thanks to a particularly difficult graduate assistant).] 

[David Peretz, son, husband, and father, knows even more. He knows how it feels to flee a home torn by war and hatred, and how it feels to live life as a refugee and immigrant. He knows how it feels to lock eyes with the person you want to marry, and remembers the sound of the broken glass as he stood with her under the chuppah. He knows what it’s like to examine a newborn daughter and realize that he was wrong about the most beautiful sight in the world, because it must be his wife and newborn on the hospital bed next to him. He knows what it’s like to bury the love of his life and, only a week later, watch his not yet seventeen-year-old child graduate with the first of several degrees.]

[No manner of life experience or academic study could have prepared David Peretz for the moment when he walked downstairs and saw his Viviele holding hands with royalty. Nothing could have prepared him for The Hereditary Grand Duke of Estenbourg introducing himself nervously. Nervously! He’d seen the young man speak on the news about police reform and economic activity with eloquence and skill, but now?]

[Now?]

Genevieve:Abba, this is- 

[He bows, the shock on his face clear even as he focuses on the slightly scuffed oxfords of the man, of the royal, on his daughter’s kitchen tile.]

Wilhelm:Please, Dr. Peretz. Don’t bow- there isn’t any need to. 
David: Your Royal Highness, I- 
Genevieve: Abba, this is Will. Wilhelm. My boyfriend.

[They speak in hushed voices, so as not to disturb the elder Dr. Peretz. Genevieve finishes the final batch of pastry as they discuss Burglar, her upcoming courseload, their upcoming vacation- anything to avoid the elephant currently drying off in the upstairs bathroom. There is much left undecided- when will they tell his family and the press? What will they tell them?- but both try to avoid thinking of it. It is not their fate in this world to have an uncomplicated relationship, free of the vagaries of duty, politics, and religion. It is not their fate- but still they yearn for one where being together isn’t a heartache waiting to habit.]

[They hear a foot upon the stair, and the muffled voice of Genevieve’s father asking a question. From above comes the time bomb, its contents unknown, and its wick rapidly burning away.]

[Wilhelm enters the townhouse, leaving his escort to watch the door from posts on the stoop and across the street. The fact that, a year in, their relationship has remained under wraps is far more an indication of his staff’s discretion than his ability to pull the wool over their eyes. It’s not their reaction he worries about.]

Wilhelm: Your dad? 
Genevieve: He’ll be upstairs for a bit yet- he was going to unpack and get all the travel grime off. 

[There is a pause, even as they embrace. Uncertainty looms, like a dark cloud on a summer’s day, electricity and a storm lurking within.]

Wilhelm:I knew you were more nervous then you were trying to let on. 
Genevieve: Not necessarily nervous? More apprehensive- I’m exited for you two to meet, but there’s really no way to prepare your father for this, save by telling him in advance- and we agreed to tell him together?

Wilhelm: Now that we’re here, are you thinking that it might’ve been easier to tell him by yourself? 
Genevieve:No? I don’t know. But I know I’d rather be holding your hand when I do.

Wilhelm:I love you. I love you and I want to remind you of that every minute I can.

David: So, your boyfriend should be arriving soon, no?
Genevieve:Yes! Will is stopping by for a few hours before heading to his family’s for Winterfest. 
David: Ah, a goyischeboyfriend! 

[His laugh is full and hearty, from the belly. He smiles at his daughter]

David:I kid. You have always had a good head on your shoulders, neshama sheli; since you love him, I am sure to love him too.  

Genevieve: I know, abba. As much as you and ima teased, I was always pretty sure you’d accept whomever I brought home. That doesn’t mean I don’t worry- 
David:You are a worrier, from a long lineage of worriers. 
Genevieve:Ha-ha, that I am. Besides, if I thought you’d be a shvantz about it, or to him, I wouldn’t have put the sufginayot out so soon.

David:I suppose I should leave some for your William-
Genevieve:Wilhelm!
David:-Wilhelm!I am not the only man to have spent the day travelling, after all, and your ima’s sufginayot recipe cures all ills.

[David climbs the steep set of stairs, his bad leg aching a little with every step. A 10 hour economy flight is uncomfortable for even a young academic, but those days are long behind him. Genevieve watches him go, the knot of anxiety in her stomach twisting about with every moment that passes.] 

[She knows how much her father loves her, how much he values her happiness. She knows it isn’t like him to dislike someone she loves, whoever they may be. And Genevieve also knows, with the rationality and reason her father taught her from infancy, that data is the only way to make inferences- and she has no data on “how your father will react when he finds out you’re dating royalty.”]

[The doorbell rings.]

[Exterior: a small townhouse, a few blocks from the campus of the University of Britchester. Blue and white Winterfest garlands, repurposed as Hanukkah decorations, hang above the door.]

Genevieve: Abba! 

[She envelopes her father in a hug. Recently returned from another excavation in Al-Simhara, his thin coat is not especially suited for the cold weather outside. David Peretz knows that she’ll scold him for it, but doesn’t particularly mind. It has been nearly a year since he last saw his daughter in the flesh.]

David: Ach, Viviele. I have missed you.