Chapter 15: Crisis

The family celebrates Shepard's birthday with a cake. It's not really a party, just the immediate family. Before the candles are blown out, Ewan's cell phone rings; he takes the call out in the living room so as to not interrupt the celebration.

"Did you think we wouldn't find out who took the Relic of Life?" a menacing voice hisses when Ewan takes the call,"We took care of Hawas. You're next." The call ends before Ewan can say a word. The caller never said who he was, but it obviously came from MorcuCorp. Ewan doesn't want to find out what they did to poor Sopdu Hawas, the man who hired him to get the Relic of Life before MorcuCorp did.

Allyson follows her husband into the living room. "What was that about? Don't tell me, you have to go back to Egypt again. Or is it France this time?" she asks, anger in her tone.

Ewan shakes his head sadly, "I can't go back to Egypt ever again. Or anywhere else."

Allyson would like to take this as good news, but nothing in Ewan's voice suggests anything but trouble. "Tell me," she says, "What's going on?"

"I screwed up, Allyson, big time," Ewan admits, realizing he has no choice but to tell her everything, his family's real identity, the work he was doing for MorcuCorp and how he betrayed them to work for the resistance. "And now they're threatening me. I have to leave, go into hiding."

"And what about me, and Shepard? Are you just going to abandon us?"

"I want you with me more than anything. But I've put you in serious danger. You would be better off if I left."

Allyson slides into her husband's arms, "I don't think so," she answers, "Wherever you go, I'm coming with you."

Ewan can't refuse Allyson's demand, nor does he want to. He hasn't been the most devoted husband and father, but the thought of having to leave them behind has made him realize how important they are.

The question of where Ewan would take his family was quickly solved by a call from his grandmother Mallory Landgraab. She had married into the Landgraab family when she was too young to know what they were really like. When her son Donnel, Ewan's father, chose to change his identity and leave the Landgraab name and fortune behind, she was the only one he told where he was going. When her husband's company turned on their estranged grandson, Mallory decided to do what she could to help out. She had come from a wealthy family with connections in Twinbrook, and had inherited a house there which she had never told her husband or children about. This house, Willow Manor, she now turned over to Ewan and his family. Small, isolated Twinbrook was the perfect town for someone on the run to settle down in.

Shadow and Misty decided to to go with Allyson rather than stay behind, though they had to leave without saying goodbye to Roslyn and Connor. It wa for their own safety, the less they knew about their sister's sudden disappearance the better.

Willow Manor has three stories, six bedrooms and sits in the wealthiest area of this small town. The old furniture and wallpaper doesn't suit Allyson's tastes at all, but there will be time to remodel it all soon enough.

Misty is astounded by the size of the place, "How much money do you think Ewan's family has, anyway?" she asks. His parents lived in a pokey two bedroom starter house back in Barnacle bay, it's hard to believe they had access to this kind of wealth and passed it up.

Though it's a small town, Twinbrook has a film studio, so Allyson picks her career up where she left off. But while she was a name back in Barnacle Bay, here she's a nobody, and must schmooze with the local somebodies to earn back her celebrity status.

Ewan can never go back to Egypt or France or anywhere MorcuCorp might find him. He changes his look to less immediately recognizable, and spends his days upgrading the appliances and plumbing. It would be far too risky to allow strangers like repairmen and maids into the house, so Ewan keeps everything in top shape and makes everything in the house self-cleaning.

He also spends a lot of time with Shepard, teaching him to walk, to talk, and reading to him. Ewan risked his family, but didn't lose them as he feared, and now he cherishes every moment he has with them.

Ewan was concerned his in-laws would resent him for putting them in the position of losing contact with their other children, but Shadow and Misty seem to have taken it all in stride.

"Did I ever tell you my mother was insane and evil?' Shadow asks, "She used to steal candy from me and my brothers."

It's been a huge adjustment moving to new town and trying to get on her career where she still doesn't know many people, but Allyson can't complain about the time her husband now has to devote her since he can no longer fly off to some exotic country every week.

The marital devotion inevitably bears fruit.

Allyson and Ewan have another son. The current fashion with all the big celebrities is to name their children after states, so Allyson names new baby Wyoming.

Allyson has put a lot of effort in gaining celebrity status for herself, befriending the local celebrities, doing everything her agent suggests, like working out more and being seen dancing at the clubs, and eventually it pays off, and the paparazzi are hanging out by her door.

The paparazzi in Twinbrook have a unique and interesting sense of fashion.

Challenge Notes:

So, anyone who's been reading the challenge thread at MTS knows that after Ewan's last trip, I started having crashes every 2 minutes. Literally. I could no longer play in my current neighborhood, so it became necessary to move my family to another town to continue. So here we are in Twinbrook.

While I'm not 100% positive that travel ruined my game, it seems likethe most likely culprit, since my crash and freeze problems started when Ewan started traveling. And even if that wasn't the source of the trouble, moving killed Ewan's adventurer career, as there is no way I'm redoing the same quests again.

For the sake of the story, I was going to change everyone's names and looks, but when it came down to it, I just didn't want to. My legacy is called the McDermott legacy, so it would suck to have the legacy family change their name. It would probably make more sense, but it's Sims, not a novel, and I'm just going to roll with the idea that just moving to Twinbrook is good enough to hide from MorcuCorp.

It also makes a lot of sense that a family going into hiding would have a member exposing herself to the public as an actress, seeking celebrity status. But that's what I rolled. I suppose the family has enough money that I could have everyone give up their careers (Shadow lost his pension during the move, and Misty hasn't sold a photograph in ages), but what's the point of playing if you don't play what you rolled?

Ewan change his LTW from great explorer, which he will never finish, to master martial arts and athletic skills. He's been completely occupied fulfilling the Perfect Child requirement and upgrading all the appliances and plumbing, but he's at level 9 athletic and level 8 martial arts, so I'm sure he can get his LTW before he dies. He's level 10 handiness now.

Willow Manor is a prebuilt house in Twinbrook. I didn't change anything architecturally. I did refurnish & repaint the kitchen and bathrooms, but I left the living room much as it was. I removed all the crappy bedroom furniture. Why EA insists on putting cheap beds in expensive mansions I will never understand. I then furnished master bedrooms for both couples. The other bedrooms are empty right now and I didn't touch wallpapers for the most part. Since Shepard has the Luxury requirement, a lot of the refurnishing will happen in his generation. The livingroom definitely needs an upgrade.

Shepard is 2 days from his birthday and has achieved the toddler portion of perfect children.

I decided to give Wyoming random traits, just for fun. He got Neurotic and Athletic, both traits that have shown up more than once in his family history.

Speaking of family history, I brought my tombstones with me, but the move broke the family tree, and Shadow appears as parentless. So, I deleted the graves. This made me sad.