3.05 Allergies

Lilli lugged a bag of clinking potion bottles to the consignment store.  There was a young blonde girl behind the counter that Lil didn't recognize, she was chewing bubble gum and reading a fashion magazine. She put the magazine down only when Lil reached the counter. When she reached the main counter, she began pushing the displays aside to make space. The consignment operator raised an eyebrow at Lil's behavior, seeing as the only work she had done all day was to carefully place the displays to catch a customer's eye. 

Lilly began stacking her goods on the counter, detailing them as she went. "You will need a pen for this.", Lil said, sliding the consignment clipboard and attached pen to the operator. The new operator with a huff began taking notes.

"Potions, Mood Enhancer, ten", said Lil while the operator worked out how to use the pen. When Lil was satisfied that the ditzy sales girl was able to operate the pen, she continued. "Radical Reparum, ten, Sleeping Elixer, twelve, Ghost Potion, four, Ninja Vanish, four, not going to fast for you am I?".

Lil watched as the girls lips moved as she wrote. "Ghost Potion, four, Ninja Vanish, four, nope I got it.", said the operator, putting the clipboard down.

"Excellent!", smiled Lil, "Now for Elixers!", Lil tried not to laugh as the new girl scrambled to pick up the list.

"Elixers, Invigorating Elixer, twenty, Flask Of Sleep, ten, Vial Of Bliss, fourty.", Lil paused, watching the girls lips move as she wrote, when she had caught up, Lil continued. "Jar Of Discord, five, Flask Of Angry Bees, five, Cure Elixer, thirty, Jar Of Friendship, ten, Zombification, zero."

Again Lil waited patiently until the blonde girls lips had stopped moving before speaking again. "Zombification, zero.", said Lil, "Yah, yah, got it. said the blonde, pointing the pen at the last entry. " Zombification, zero, see!". Lil tried not to roll her eyes. "Vampiric Sunscreen, twelve, Skill Booster, twenty, Essence Of Magic, forty two, Potent Cure Elixer, sixteen, Potent Skill Booster, two, Wish Enhancing Serum, eight, Bottled Blessing of the Fae, twenty nine, Midas Touch, thirty six.", detailed Lil as she slowly filled the counter. 

When the girl had finished filling the consignment sheet, she passed it over to Lil to sign. Lil quickly glanced down the numbers columns to make sure that the numbers were correct, then signed and returned the clipboard. Lil waited for the blonde girl to do the routine, 'We'll tell you when they sell' speech, but it didn't come, the girl was too busy stacking the shelves with Lil's bottles.

Lil was about to exit the shop when she spotted Jenny Snickets. 'At last, someone with a positive IQ to converse with!' Lil had been in a foul mood all morning since she had received a letter from her brother Jasper, High King of the Fae. 

"I have found a couple of young ladies that fulfill your requirements.", Jenny stated. The ghost's voice was like a whisper in the breeze, but Lil had had many conversations with Jenny and others of her kind before.

Hearing a ghosts voice was complicated, you had to tune out all of the background noise and focus. 

Jenny explained to Lil, "Jane Mombasa, your former neighbor, has two young nieces come to stay a while, the older of the two has a lot of experience with babysitting, and has completed work experience in a kindergarten. Both girls were born in Moonlight Falls, and later raised in Bridgeport, and as such, they are comfortable with supernaturals." 

"Thank you Jenny, I appreciate your effort.", Lil told the ghost. "As our town appreciates yours. Oh, my father asks you to pass his greetings along to Bonehilda.", Jenny replied, before turning and phasing through the wall. When Bob Snickets had returned from Egypt afflicted with The Mymmy's Curse many years ago, he had doomed his entire family. Even though Bob couldn't save his own family from becoming ghosts, Bob worked tirelessly as Elba's Ghost Catcher.

Bob preferred to call himself a Ghost Whisperer. While there where a dozen or so ghosts in Elba who wanted to stay, there where some who wanted to leave, and didn't know how. 

Lilly wondered why almost all the ghosts she met were derived from humans rather than supernaturals. Did human spirits have a harder time accepting their fate. Lil realized she had wandered almost halfway home while wondering. She stopped and pulled out her phone to place a call to Jane Mombasa.

When Lilli arrived back at the Jettstar residence, 'Bob The Builders Sons' had completed the renovations, turning the two smaller bedrooms and one bathroom into two much larger bedrooms, and two larger bathrooms, and were just beginning to put the roof back on. Lil decided that the bathrooms would be suitable from now until the children were no longer teenagers, and that the bedrooms might need some separators or dividers when the sprouts became teenagers. Overall it was a clever design.

Casey and Marcus had suggested that Eric and Natalie take over the master bedroom, as they were constantly traveling, and could always stay in the downstairs guest room on the rare occasions that they were in Elba. That freed up the whole far end of the second floor to renovate.

Angel sat at the newly installed pool bar. 'It would be nice to have a juicy young mixologist on the other side, so that she didn't have to constantly exit the pool to pour her own drinks', she mused. In the past, she, or one of her many underlings would have gone out and snatched one. 'That was the old Angelita, I'm not her anymore, and never want to be again, never will be again', Angel amended.

 

 Eric was too busy playing under the pools new waterfall to notice how lost in thought the Vampire was.

Skittykitty was more impressed that the builders had finally finished working, and had ceased making noise. 'Nap time, and about time!', thought Skitty.

They next morning Natalie greeted the baby sitters at the door. Lil had already disappeared at dawn, on some errand for her brother High King Jerkwad, her husband Eric was upstairs packing for a training seminar that would see him away until the next morning. And she was getting ready to fly to bridgeport to sign some business papers, and wouldn't be back until the following day.

"Hello Mrs. Jettstar? I'm Loliesha Mombasa, and this is my little sister Monique, Aunty Jane said you were looking for two experienced baby sitters for an over nighter?", Loliesha stated. "Bigger little sister..", Monique muttered. Natalie looked the two girls over, clearly Loliesha was the older of the teens. "Thank you both for coming, and you can call me Natalie.", said Nat. "Follow me and I'll give you a quick tour."
 

Eric had finished packing almost everything he needed, and stole a quick glance around the room. There were a few things in the room that said 'Natalie', like her posters, her make up box, and her necklaces, but there was nothing in here that said 'Eric'. He probably should add something 'him' to the room, but he didn't know what, he wasn't really a materialistic person. Well, except for his Hummer. "Eric, you are going to be late!", Natalie yelled from the kitchen, disturbing his thoughts.

"Ricardo, is my toothbrush in there?", Eric asked the newest maid. "Buenos dias senor Jettstar, si, su cepillo de dientes esta aqui!", answered Ricardo. Ricardo had been trying to teach Eric Spanish since her first started working for the Jettstars. "Ricardo is that a yes or  no?", Eric asked "Si, that is a yes Mister Jettstar!", Ricardo rolled his eyes.

Nat showed the girls through the kitchen, help yourselves to any food in the replicators, press this button to see whats stored.", said Nat, pointing to the menu button on the nearest of four replicators. Natalie reached for some stapled papers on the kitchen table, giving a copy to each girl. Nat opened the fridge, one shelf was full to overflowing with assorted cookies and baked delights, she then pulled out the freezer drawer, "Frozen meats, microwave dinners etcetera, again, help yourselves."

Natalie pointed to the rest off the fridge, there were rows and rows of green baby bottles, each set had a photo in front of it to identify which child the set was for. "There's a photo in front of each so there's no mix up, we have worked out which of my babies likes what, everything is in the handouts I just gave you.", Natalie added. Loliesha quickly checked her hand out, sure enough, each child's picture appeared on the hand out, with a few extra details.

*******************************************************

 Jennifer - Genie - Dark Blue Black - Pumpkin, Pumpkin Pie - Actress

Sophia - Merfolk - Hot Pink - Salmon Sushi - Watch around water

Cecilia -Alien - Key lime pie - Orange - 

Lilly-Rose - Plantsim - Lime Green - Salad - Vegetarian - Escape artist - Nudist

Nicholas - Vampire - Black - Spaghetti (thanks Dad!) - Black - Night Owl

Nathaniel - Werewolf - (no color pref?) - Stu Surprise - Exciteable

Johnathan - Fae - (Yellow) - (Anything with mushrooms) -

Christopher - Witch - Blue/Black - Stir fry -

*******************************************************

"Wow, separation anxiety much?", Monique whispered into her older sisters ear. "Actually, separation anxiety totally!", Natalie said honestly, her werewolf hearing picking up the younger girls whisper easily. "This is the first time since my cubs were born that their father, grandmother or myself haven't been able to look after them, so I'm a little, a lot emotional!", Natalie said as she opened the door to the girls bedroom.
 

"Oh maker, they are all so adorable!", squealed Monique. "We'll be fine, they will be fine Natalie.", Loliesha assured Nat. "Don't let Sophie into the toilets by her self, she likes to splash in the toilet. If Nathaniel growls, or scratches the furniture, tap him on the nose with a finger, and tell him 'naughty!'. Don't leave Nick and Nathan together unsupervised, oh, and Lilly-Rose likes to get naked and play hide and seek!", Natalie rushed, trying not to forget every piece of relevant knowledge.

"We have a job to do, and I believe you have a plane to catch?", Loliesha smiled. "One last thing, in the event of a real emergency, there is an adult female Vampire living in the basement, although she doesn't come out much."

"If there is another adult living here, why do you need baby-sitters?", asked Monique. Natalie looked over her shoulder at Monique and said. "Apparently our Vampire friend is allergic to children!"
 

 "Okay kiddos, let's make friends and get our playtime on!", cooed Monique.

 

Natalies 'cubs' had a lot more energy than Monique expected, despite being a very experienced baby sitter. 'Playtime' lasted all afternoon, and went almost without incident except Lilly-Rose worming her way out of her nappy when Monique was looking the other way, and Nathaniel had growled at Nicholas once. It looked like the two boys were about to go at it, when Monique raised her finger and cleared her throat. Instantly both boys went back to playing as if they were the best of friends, which they were.

Eventually the children wore themselves out, and Monique or Loliesha put them in their cribs. Monique began putting away the toys while Loliesha carried the last boy to his crib in the other room.

 

Somehow Nicholas, the Vampire 'Night Owl' child had passed out before Nathaniel, who was struggling to keep his eyes open. Monique was considering boring him to sleep with a bed time story when her younger sister poked her head through the doorway. "Hey, I found Lilly-Rose's missing nappy. Is it supposed to glow this fluorescent green?", Monique asked.

With the children all safely sleeping in their cribs, Loleisha and Monique raided the kitchen for dinner before sitting down to watch a movie on the horror channel. Monique didn't particularly like Horror any more, but she did like how her little sister jumped and let out muffled squeals at the supposedly scary parts. Monique thought it was hysterical, especially considering that they had both seen this one a half dozen times.

 "And tell me again why we are going to bed so early?", asked Monique looking out through the window at the fading light. "Because sometime between now and tomorrow morning when Mister Jettstar come home each of these babies is going to wake up at least twice for a feed and a nappy change, and if you don't wake up and do it quick enough, they will wake all the babies in the room, and then you will have four babies to feed and change at once. Mission impossible!", Loliesha explained to her younger sibling.

"Urgh, I don't think I want children!", Monique exclaimed. "That's easy, stay away from boys!", Loliesha retorted with an wicked grin. "Yeah, like that's gunna happen!", the younger sister shot back. "Just grab your sleeping bag and pick a room.", Loliesha sighed.

"You can have the boys room with the two ferals, and I'll take the girls room with the evil green poo baby!", Monique giggled. Loliesha rolled her eyes, maybe asking her baby sister to help babysit wasn't such a good idea.

 Eric was the first to arrive home. The baby sitters were sitting in the kitchen having breakfast.

"Everything went all right?", Eric asked. "Smooth as clock work!", chirped Loliesha. 

"Lilly-Rose, the flower girl, does she always poop fluorescent green?", asked Monique abruptly.

Eric looked at the younger sister quizzically. "Mega-Radioactive Incredible Hulk green, like in the cartoons, or Kryptonite green from Supersim 7?", Eric asked. "Definately Kryptonite green!", Monique answered, nodding her head. "Freaky, isn't it!", Eric laughed.

Eric's smart phone buzzed in his pocket, he pulled it out and checked the caller ID before answering. "Heya Dylan, whats up bud?". Eric wandered off to check on his sleeping babies while he talked to his brother in law. "Nah bud, Nat won't be home until tonight. A boy. Jerald? Congrats to you and Jazz man! Yeah, I'll let Nat and Lil know as soon as they get home. Ah-huh. Ah-huh. Yep. Will do Dyl, take it easy bro. see ya."

Eric quickly poked his head into both rooms to find that all of the children were sleeping peacefully. He returned to the kitchen and opening his wallet, counted out some simoleons and placed them in front of Monique. Monique quickly noted the amount, "Um, that's twice the fee that Natalie and I negotiated.", she said, pushing the extra notes across the table.

"You have done a fantastic job and earned a bonus!", Eric insisted sliding the notes back across the table.

After the taxi arrived to take the girls home, Eric returned to the boys room, sat in  the rocking chair, and watched his boys sleep. 'It's not that I have a favorite.', he told himself. 'I'm just really looking forward to teaching Chris magic.'

Natalie arrived home much later in the day. She was dog tired and as she sat on the end of the bed and started to change into her sleepwear, Skitty pounced on the bed. and began rubbing against Natalie in that lovable but sometimes annoying 'Give me all of your attention and give it to me neow!' way that some cats have. 

Natalie delayed her much needed sleep to feed Skitty a treat and use the cat brush. Natalie slowly worked her way to the bedroom and under the covers, too tired to finish changing. She was that tired she didn't even object to Skitty kneading her pillow and sleeping pressed up against her head.

The next week passed uneventfully, until Lil accidentally detonated the drier. Lil was not happy with herself.

Apart from the replacement cost,  the room still smelled of charred wire afterwards. 

Everything except the washing machine needed upgrading again.

 

 Lil found some incense and incense holders that Marcus and brought home from his first trip to China.

Eric was working hard to gain a promotion. That meant a lot of extra paperwork, and a lot of extra working out. He tried hard to balance work and home life, but he could Natalie wasn't happy doing the Lions share of the child raising.

"Hey little Nicky who taught you how to walk?", Natalie asked her Vampire son. Nicholas replied with a happy gurgling noise, reached out his arms, and tottered towards his mother. Natalie had only started to teach him to walk earlier in the day. 

"Angel, did you finish teaching Nick how to walk?", Nat asked. "Not I.", Angel replied, trying to rescue her fingers from Jennifer. "But I am not surprised, Vampires by nature are predator or prey, so their natural instincts get them up on their feet and mobile sooner than humans or other breeds.", Angel answered.

Natalie watched as Angel wiggled her fingers at Jennifer, who reached out and grabbed one in her chubby little hands. Natalie knew that Angel could easily evade the genie baby if she chose to. "I thought you were allergic to babies?", Natalie asked trying not to grin. The Vampire looked up at Nat. "I went and raided the supermarket last night and stole some anti allergy nasal spray.", Angel lied. Jennifer taking notice of Angel's inattention , reached out and grabbed a finger from each hand.

The rain continued to hammer down all day, Jazz and Dylan were going to come over to introduce their new baby, Jerald. But with all the flood damage, Dylan and Dominic and the rest of the fire fighting team were flat out.

 
Once the ferocious storm had passed,  Lilli went outside to examine the sad sorry state of her once beloved garden. Between the harsh winter that they had had, looking after Natalie's sprouts, and now this mammoth storm, her garden was a mess. A lot of things hadn't been replanted, and most of the things that had been were shredded.

 Eric finished cleaning the dishes and went to spend some time with his kids. He found Lilly-Rose lying on the see through walkway over the pool, her face pressed to the glass. "When you are a little bit older sprout, I'll teach you to swim.", he said, peeling her off the floor. He snuggled Lilly-Rose in his arms and began searching for her missing t-shirt.

"Hey, I thought you were allergic to babies?", Eric joked when he found Angel sitting on the floor playing with Jennifer. Angel rolled her eyes at Jen, before turning to Eric. "Anti histamines and a pocket full of tissues, the wonders of modern medicine.", Angel replied deadpan.

"Is Jen your favorite?", Eric pushed, having heard from Natalie how uncomfortable Angel was around babies previously. Angel thought it about for a minute before answering. "No.. no.. I don't think I have a favorite, Jen just seems to like me more than others do.. I think.", Angel replied, sounding genuinely confused.

Eric grinned to himself, it had been less than a fortnight, and Angel had gone from being barely comfortable with playing games with Jen, letting the child grab her fingers, to reading books to the whole group. Nicholas had taking a special liking to Angel as well. Eric stole another glance at his watch, he absolutely had to leave now. Eric took a last look at his children who were all listening to Angel read. All of them except Lilly-Rose and Cecilia, who were reenacting Swan Lake.

With the nicer weather coming on, the 'cubs' got to finally spend some time outdoors,

even if it was on the balcony.

 Nick and Nathan had stopped trying to bite and scratch each other, and instead resorted to 'stare-offs'.

And Lilly-Rose had stopped abandoning her clothes at the first opportunity.

Mostly.

Authors Note:

Nick is the only child walking, talking, and potty trained so far, Chris is walking and Potty trained, a few of the other kids have one box ticked. Natalie is rolling teach X to X, like crazy, Eric hasn't had a single child related wish yet, he just wants to shag and be amorous, So Nat is doing most of the work to nab LTW points. I gave Lilly-Rose some amazing 'Snake Eyes' that look awesome in CAS, in game I can't seem to get a good shot of them :/

Jazz and Dylan really did call their child Jerald..with a J.. Dom and Maggie are constantly renewing vows and being cute in public, but no sign off cousin spawn yet.

The pool bar is causing unfinished walls/floor -20 moodlet for anyone seated at the bar.. This is Illogical to me. I triple checked every surface around the pool that I touched to upgrade the pool and no gaps.

For a long time now, Lil's age up time has been set to Never. This is handy as because I keep telling everyone that she is a royal fae, only outlived by immortal vampires. Again, Illogical, I have not cheated in anyway to cause this, and don't recall ever making an age freezing potion. Nraas MC isn't revealing any traits or similar that might cause this.

Today I noticed when sending Lil to a room for posing purposes, that she ghosts through walls instead of using doors.., again MC doesn't show any ghostliness. Illogical!

Spacing (A) What Eric wants to do.

Spacing (B) What Blogger and I cant agree on.

I try to use a single line between text and related images, and multiple spaces generally to show passage of time between image sets, Blogger then randomly adjusts my spacing upon publishing to try my patience.