Chapter 10: Venus Needs Men

After her in-laws died, Misty redecorated the house. She had put up with the bright sorbet colors for too long, and once she had control over the house, she changed it to suit her tastes. Her renovation was done just in time for the twins' birthday party.

It was a small family party; Shadow's two brothers and their wives, as well as Spider's two children, Jasen and Grace were invited. Pink and Kristy's son Barret is still too young to come to parties.

Shadow got to catch up with his brother's; Spider has achieved his goal of being a world famous surgeon. Pink still manages to avoid being in family photos, showing just his back for this occasion.

Allyson and Roslyn are just glad when it's over, so they can play video games with being harassed by aunts and uncles.

The local criminals have been emboldened by the death of Cameron, the police officer in the family, and a burglar attempts to make off with Shadow's car. Shadow is not a cop, but he does not hesitate to defend his property.

Justas Misty does not hesitate to come out to the front yard in her underwear to watch the fight. Stay classy, Misty.

Shadow has a growing collection of trapped spirits he's keeping in the house. Most he donates to scientific research, but he wants to keep one of each kind as trophies. He's promised Misty they are perfectly safe in their containers, but she's not so sure.

The day after the twins had their birthday, Misty became concerned about their futures. Their town was suffering a severe shortage of male children, and when Allyson and Roslyn grew up they would be facing stiff competition from the many girls born around the same time they were. So, their worried mother came up with a plan, to adopt a boy who would claim one of the other females for his own when he came of age, thus removing one from the competition. Not a perfect solution, as there would still be more females than males, but any advantage she could create for her daughters was a good thing. So Connor joined the McDermott family.

After they send the kids off to school on Monday morning, Shadow and Misty realize that for the first time in their adult lives, they are completely alone in their own house, no parents, no children.

Shadow can't decide if he's more surprised that a ghost would need to shower, or that she doesn't care that he's walking in on her showering.

Childhood passes quickly and the twins become teens. Misty has always allowed her children to express themselves, like letting Allyson paint her bedroom black and purple, but she is hard pressed to keep her opinion of her daughters' wardrobe choices to herself.

Despite the surface differences, Allyson has much in common with her mother.

And Roslyn is musically inclined like her father.

News spread quickly about the new family, the Newsoms, who moved into town. Donnel and Cheri have both been hired by the local school as teachers. Misty is the first to welcome the newcomers to the neighborhood.

Because she heard the Newsoms had a son, Misty brought Allyson along with her. Roslyn was too busy attending guitar class to join them. The Newsoms in fact have two sons, one a teen named Ewan, who Allyson finds herself immediately attracted to. The attraction appears to be quite mutual.

Allyson proposes a steady relationship right after their first kiss, before any of the other girls find out there's a new guy in town. The boy shortage is just that severe.

When a guy hits puberty, the first thing he wants is for his mother to burst in on him in the bathroom to congratulate him.

"The Gentilleschi girls are starting high school tomorrow, too," Misty informs Connor, "Maybe you should give them a call." No pressure or anything.

Challenge Notes:

So yeah, I moved in a family with a boy teen just to get Allyson a date, I'm not kidding, there is a huge boy shortage in this generation. (By this generation, I mean girls far outnumber boys in both the child and teen stages, and there are female YAs that can't find mates, too.) I didn't like having to do that in this challenge, but moving in potential mates is allowed in certain situations, this being one of them. When this generation hits YA, I may add a pack of YA guys for the rest of the town girls snag and breed with, to keep the town population alive. Roslyn will have to fight it out with the others.

For anyone who read my previous legacy, Donnel Newsom (the father in the new family) is a clone of Donnel Landgraab, the younger brother of Donovan Landgraab. His wife is a clone of the wife he had in SV, Cheri Sekemoto. I'm stoked to have some of the old SV genes in the hood. Especially Donnel, as he's nearly identical to Donovan, who Regan McDermott would have had her kids with had her generations rules not been for multi-cultural kids. Their children were made by mixing their genes in CAS. (I don't have a picture of their child age son, Bryce, one more boy to help with the shortage. )

Chapter 9: Don't Fear the Reaper

Shadow gets along better with the ghosts he has to exorcise than his living clients, who stand around screaming and generally annoying him while he works.

His own house is haunted, but Shadow would never dream of exorcising his grandparents. Instead, he takes the opportunity to question his ghostly relations about death and the afterlife whenever they appear.

Parenthood has made drastic changes to Shadow and Misty's lifestyle. Gone are the late nights in the clubs; even with his parents' help, the twins require constant attention.

Feeling the passage of time, Misty decides that her youthful beauty should be immortalized before it fades. Cameron volunteers to paint her portrait, but being insane and evil, she portrays her daughter-in-law as a bright red lobster woman.

Allyson, the heir, looks a lot like her grandmother Cameron did at this age. But without the insane evil genius vibe.

Roslyn takes after her mother's side of family.

"Once you get the hang of this, I'll teach you to walk in 6 inch heels."

Risk and Zoe have a late night chat about their descendants. Their insane, evil daughter and her neurotic husband managed to raise a family to be proud of, even if they are a bit eccentric.

Lionel calls this one 'From the Depths of the Subconscious". The image has been keeping him up at night, and he thinks it might be an alien life form trying to contact him. He doesn't sell this piece, but adds it to his collection of sculptures in the yard.

It turns out that it would be his last masterpiece; Death came for him the next day while he was starting a new sculpture.

Shadow turns to Misty for consolation. He wouldn't ever let anyone see him cry, not even his mother.

Being in mourning makes doing his job more difficult. His own father has become a ghost, and it pains him to have to exorcise them. But he mans up and gets on with his work, helping the disquiet spirits find peace.

Cameron dies a few days after Lionel.

Shadow hears Misty wailing and comes in to see what all the commotion is about.

"Dude, you had better not being messing with wife," he says when he sees the Reaper standing near his distraught spouse.

Grim's purpose quickly becomes clear, and Shadow is plunged again into mourning.

But while he has the Reaper on his couch, Shadow's professional curiosity takes over and he makes the most of the opportunity to get more information about death from the source.

Cameron and Lionel are buried in the backyard next to her parents, their graves decorated with Lionel's sculptures and topiaries.

Challenge Notes: Lionel just managed to reach the top of the sculpture career before he died. That wasn't required of his generation, but it was nice to get that in before the end.

Shadow has reached level 10 of his career and received a trophy and like 3 medals. He is very close to achieving his LTW, he just needs one point more each in Guitar and Charisma.

Misty already reached her LTW, and has largely given up on her photography career. It's just too dull to pursue. She has reached level 10 in photography skill, but the value of photographs is determined by whether the subject is new, she gets less money for repeat subjects, and I'm tired of looking for new stuff to shoot. It's not like the family needs the money at this point.

So, the only thing left is for Shadow and Misty to have one adopted child. I was just waiting for Cameron and Lionel to kick off and make room, so, that will happen soon.

Chapter 8: Barflies

Misty and Shadow are very happy newlyweds.

Being married hasn't really changed their lifestyle at all, they still go out dancing every night, staying out until the clubs close at 4am.

Of course, Shadow works on week nights, exorcising spirits and poltergeists for his neighbors, and even for his brother Spider's family.

Rather than hanging out at home with her in-laws, Misty goes out to the local bars to wait for Shadow to finish with his nightly ghost hunts./ She brings her camera along with her to get shots of the local nightlife to sell to the papers.

Technically, Shadow is on call until 3am, but he's usually done early and can meet up with Misty by 1am.

Every night is a different ghost...

...and a different bar.

Misty tries her hand at traditional homemaking, but burns her waffles miserably. Shadow assures her he didn't marry her to cook for him, and he's more than happy to continue living on bar food as they have been doing.

Misty's photographs have been selling well, and now she's been offered a commission to go to Shang Simla and photograph the Dragon Cave.

"What do you say?" she asks her husband,"It would be a huge boost to my career to accept this gig, and I'd love you to come along."

Shadow is more than happy to make a business trip with Misty, and the couple celebrates her professional success with some public woohoo.

Followed by some celebratory dancing.

When they get to Shang Simla, Misty starts scoping out good views for her photography.

Shadow figure learning some martial arts will help him achieve his goal of getting into some bar brawls.

Shadow is not all that impressed with the Terracotta Army.

But the disappointing sightseeing doesn't completely ruin the trip for Shadow, as long as he's with Misty, he's got something to be interested in.

Misty takes several thousand simoleons worth of photographs, including several of the Dragon Cave she was commissioned to shoot, and the couple is ready to return home.

Back at home, Shadow is promoted, earning a a much cooler uniform, complete with ghost sensing sunglasses, and an upgraded banshee banisher.

One of the souvenirs Misty and Shadow brought back from their trip is a pregnancy.

Now instead of hitting the clubs after his shift, Shadow stays at home reading "Totally Preggers" while Misty sleeps.

As a twin himself, it's not too surprising that Shadow would father twins. He and Misty have two girls, Allyson and Roslyn.

Challenge Notes:

So, I was using lytefoot's variation on the family structure rules, and I got 'mixed couple' for Shadow and Misty. They were supposed to have 2 children, one biological and one adopted. lytefoot's rules state that with the mixed couple, you need to exceed the rolled number of children if you need to to fulfill having both biological and adopted children, so Shadow and Misty will still need to adopt one.

The roll for their heir is Couple, 2 kids, primary career in film (acting), secondary career as an adventurer. The goal is Perfect Children and the misc fun is No Strangers.

Allyson's traits are Virtuoso and Friendly, Roslyn is Artistic and Brave.

Misty has achieved her LTW of Living in the Lap of Luxury. Shadow is getting close, he's level 8 on Guitar and level 7 Charisma (he wants to max both).