3.18 Love Day or The Last Day Before The First Day Of The Rest Of Your Life

Natalie had been out to check the mail earlier in the morning as the children were leaving for school. She had found a postal card in the letterbox regarding a small crate that the postman had refused to deliver, and decided to collect it on her way to work. Natalie bumped into her brother Dominic on the way to the post office. Between the catch up with her brother and the queue length in the post office, Natalie knew she was going to be late. Today was Love Day, and Nat knew that it was going to be a busy day at work. 

Lilly-Rose's Love Day had started with a fizzle when her boyfriend, now ex-boyfriend, Broderick Burchett-Sands had dumped her, because now that he was an adult, he wanted different things in life. Lilly-Rose wasn't exactly shattered, but it left her confused. It was okay that he was a Vampire, and that she was a Plantsim, but now that he had reached a new age state before her, it was taboo?

 

 Of all her extended family, only Lilly-Rose found herself single in Love Day, except Lil, who had been single since Granma V had passed away almost two decades ago. Even Nick had miraculously gotten a girlfriend.
Janet thought Nick was teasing her when he first asked her out on a date. It was common knowledge at school that Nick could have his pick of girls, even among those that already had boyfriends. What was less common knowledge was that more than half the girls at school had sent him texts of themselves in underwear or less at least once.

Nick liked Janet simply because wasn't constantly throwing herself at him, and he could be comfortable in her presence, the fact that she had a brain and a good sense of humor was also helpful.

 Love day happened to land on the second last day of school before graduation, and the Jettstar siblings decided to invite their significant others over for a picnic in the nearby park.

Nick invited his girlfriend, Janet Wallace.

 

Nathan invited his girlfriend, Eve Jones-Wong.

John invited his girlfriend, Tamara Goodstone.

"Heya Nerd", "Who are you calling Nerd, Fairy-floss ?" 

 Chris invited his girlfriend, Joline Greenwall-Jonas.

Jennifer invited her boyfriend, Oliver Worthington.

Sophia invited her on again, off again, boyfriend, Leonard Ronson (AKA Love Sick Puppy)

Cecilia invited her new boyfriend, Marlon Teppish-Holland.

Ceci had been studying romance among different human cultures,

and was interested in gathering data for her own research.

Lilly-Rose had felt the need to discuss her recent relationship issues with someone her own age but unrelated, and considering almost everyone she knew well enough to pour out her soul to was already in the park sucking face with one of her siblings, she turned to the only otherperson she could think of. 

Nadia Kurilenko was a recent import from a Bridgeport detention facility, and was residing next door with 'Warden' Sparrow. Lilly-Rose and Nadia had become solid friends quickly in the first week. Nadia was rumored to have dated several celebrities in Bridgeport, and if anyone understood relationship, it should be her. The truth of the matter was Nadia liked girls more than boys, misread the signals that Lilly-Rose was sending out, and one thing lead to another. Rapidly.

Lil spent her love day in the garden, then channel surfing with Spot...

 

 And reminiscing in her rocking chair.

Eric and Natalie spent most of their Love Day afternoon together worrying about the future.

Angel and Genevieve spent most of their day locked in their room, only coming

out at early evening to see if the starts where out. 

 "Did you see that?", Jennifer whispered to her brothers, "I am sure Lilly-Rose just kissed that Vamp girl, and I don't mean 'peck on the cheek'. "I'm pretending I didn't see it", Nick whispered back. "I'm pretending Lilly-Rose is not my sister, because it's such a turn on!", John smiled, knowing the reaction he would get from Jen.

Even though Natalie had brought home a package addressed to 'The Jettstar Residence', the stylish writing clearly indicated its origins, and Lil dreaded opening the small crate. Lil's brother, the Fae King had written her several letters offering her a position at court as a Royal advisor, which Lil had politely declined. The crate was clearly a bribe.

As Lil began removing the binding straps, the crate rocked as something inside thumped hard against the inner wall. Lil carefully put her ear to the crate, from within, she could hear faint mewlings, as if the crate contained a litter of kittens. Her brother wouldn't send her kittens though, and she quickly pulled the remaining straps off and opened the crate.

Four extremely rare Dragons tumbled from the crate, and they where all different colors. Lil was shocked, she picked them up one at a time, and touched her forehead to theirs, as is the proper greeting of a Dragon.

Lil noticed that each wore a simple collar with the Dragon's name engraved into it.

The Black Dragon was named 'Midnight', and the Red Dragon was 'Sparky', which was appropriate. The Purple Dragon wore a tag naming it 'Buddy'.    

 

The last Dragon to rumble from the crate was a Dark Green, by the name of 'Daisy', although Lil had to wait until the Green had explored the garden first before it allowed Lil to greet it. 

Authors Note:
Lil has had the dragons since the RLC started, although only Daisy has been used for its gardening powers. The kids are one game day from aging up, except Sophia who is now somehow 11 days off... because a new heir is taking over after my next play session, I am trying to tie up all the loose ends before its officially time to say goodbye to the 'spares'. I had originally planned to introduce the dragons when Angel first come to stay, but it never eventuated. The new heir will definitely be moving to a new town, as I have decided to abandon Elba and build a new house, as everything has become 'too big!'

Also, Im debating wether to send them all to Uni, or just the heir and pretend they all studied at different places... juggling 13 sims and a dog can be hard work!

3.17 A day at the Funbox

"Hello, Im Natalie Jettstar, would you like me to read your future?" Natalie asked a random almost stranger, reaching out to shake his hand, like she had been doing for most of the day. "Look lady, I know who you are, and some of my friends think you are brilliant, but I gotta admit, I am super skeptical about all this mumbo jumbo" Kevin admitted.

"Oh, okay.", responded Natalie. "Let me just offer you some advice then, if Sylvia calls tonight and suggests you meet her at a restaurant, burn the pink shirt and wear the black one with white diamonds that you hide at the very back of the wardrobe. And when she asks you puppies or kittens, it is a trick question, the right answer is both."

Another snow day, another night out instead of study and homework. "So have you asked any chicks to go to the prom yet?", John asked Nathan. "Nah probably go stag like the last one", Nathan replied without taking his eyes from the table in front of him.   

Chris purchased a mini pizza from the bar and nibbled at it while studying the electronic 3D chess table. By the time the pizza was finished he has worked out all of the possible move combinations allowable by the extra dimensions. 

 

Chris ignored the outside world while he practiced, and focused. There was the board, the pieces, and himself. For the next two hours, the outside world ceased to exist for him

Sophia wandered around the outdoor section of the 'Funbox' looking for amusement. It was mostly made up of old fairground stalls, even the old kissing booths had been dumped here, not that they were getting any business. Sophia, like the rest of her siblings was currently dateless, as all of the boys in school were either too afraid to ask her out, or they were related. Her previous prom partner was now an adult, and while she still had a thing for him, he never called or gad time to hang out.

Sophia slyly scope out the guy in the kissing booth, she couldn't remember his name, but she knew he went to her school. She casually walked up to the booth as if she wasn't interested, and leaned against the love tester machine. She was filtering through a list of opening lines when her elbow brushed the metal contact.

The machine lit up, and the lights worked their way to the top. An allegedly sultry digital voice announced

Wild! - The raw power of your touch brings to mind a wild panther!

Prowling through the jungle for its prey

Rawrr 

 

The only thing that moved faster than her feet, now carrying her away from the booth, was the bright red color of embarrassment that traveled across her face.

"So, what you are suggesting is that whoever gets the highest score gets all their weekend chores done by the other two?", Nick asked Jennifer. "That's the bet, if you two are brave enough", replied Jennifer. "Total score of five games, and a sudden death round in the event of a tie?", Lilly-Rose asked Jennifer for confirmation.

The battle for the title of Skeeball Lord was soon over, Jennifer was only just behind Lilly-Rose in points, but Nick, who swore he had never played before, had more than doubled their combined score.

Cecilia had spent most of her time there experimenting with friction, velocity and hydrodynamics. Eventually the experiment became less than entertaining, and stopped revealing new data results. She got dried and redressed inside and wandered back out to find another source of scientific amusement.

"Seriously Ceci, nobody does a 360 on their first day, get off of there!", Sophia warned her sister. "If I can increase by upward velocity and get sixteen more degrees in my rotation, I can land it! I'm so close!", Ceci insisted as she shot passed. "You are so close to breaking your neck, you dork! Oh my maker, you show pony!", Sophia's tone changed as Ceci pulled a perfect 360. Ceci followed it up with not one, but six consecutive 360 degree spins then wound down before offering her sister a turn. Sophia rolled her eyes and walked away.

Nathan had decided to go for a late night hunt and discovered a back yard full of gnomes, he had no idea where they had all come from, had Spot been gnomenapping?

Spot sighed a big doggy sigh, his humans had been so busy all day that no one had even had time to play fetch with him.

Eric on the other hand had nothing to do all day, and for an ambitious sim like him, the nothing to do-ness was grinding on his nerves. Eric was only required at work one day a week, now that he was a fully qualified astronaut. The replicators were full, there was no need to cook, everything in the house was in working order, there was no need to repair, the dishes were done, the washing washed, the drying was almost dry.

Natalie was heavily focused on alchemy, her psychic sensei for some reason was insisting that it was a skill that she needed, but wouldn't explain why. Nat had just been reading up on acquiring luminous salamanders for the 'Midas Touch' potion, when she sensed her husband watching her.  

 Her gift brought her images of her family scattered to the winds, and while everyone seemed to be happy in her future vision, it brought her no joy in the present.

Authors Note:
Her vision was most likely manifested by the maker's separation anxiety generated by the fact that the octokids are off to university soon....

Personal Note:
I said some pretty hurtful things about 'Lady Luck' in the past, and she holds grudges. If I vanish offline for a month or two or even three, after another post or two don't panic, I haven't quit, its just my life be like .... FML. Again.

3.16 The Inquisition

Johnathan read the message on the school door, 'Snow Day' it proclaimed. His gaze wandered over the ankle deep grey slush lining the path. "Another snow day!", he called out to his siblings and the few other stragglers who hadn't quite reached the door yet. Most of the students milled around for a few minutes in small groups.

Most decided to head to the library, or the newly reopened fun-box. Jennifer suggested Mick's Karaoke instead, and it didn't take long to convince her brother's and sisters. "Sophie, call mum and let her know where we are going.", suggested Jennifer as she was spreading the word to a few other school mates.

"Snow day!", fumed Natalie, "There is no snow on this side of town, not until much later in the day, and Lil is worried about the garden. You all need to come home and help harvest, then you can go play."

The entire household helped Lil with the harvest, even Genevieve who had to run inside every time the sun poked its face out from behind the clouds. Spot kept hidden in his doghouse, the last time he had squeezed through the fence to gain access to the garden, he had the misfortune of digging up and sampling one of Lil's award winning ghost chili plants. Lil didn't even have the heart to punish him.

The harvest was almost complete when the sky opened and unleashed a cold wet deluge of almost snow.
Every one rushed inside to get dried, and Genevieve and Angel decided to tag along to the karaoke bar.

 By the time the group arrived all of the other students that had showed up had already gone home. Other than Mick and the barmaid, there were only three other customers.

Everybody knew Nina Teppish, the short haired Vampire lady had lived next door and had gone to school with Natalie, and they knew Nina's nerdy husband, whats-his-name. The other customer was a big city reporter who for reasons unknown, was now living and working in Elba. Jennifer started off with 'Girl's just wanna have fun'.

Nobody reached for the microphone, so she picked another song and went for the harder music style version of 'These boots were made for walkin'. 

Sophia, who had aspirations of popstardom, despite not having the vocal talent of her Genie sister, pushed the button combination for 'Funky Town' and pulled it off brilliantly. 

"I'm going to need a volunteer from the audience for this next one Lilly-Rose!", Sophie said, waving frantically at Lilly-Rose to join her.

"A duet, cool, how about 'dream a little dream of me? You do Ella and I'll cover for Louis?", asked Lilly-Rose. Even though she rarely sang unless asked, Lilly-Rose had the amazing ability to sing soprano to bass, and Sophia loved to rope her in for duets. 

Sophia stepped down after her second song, which was an ancient family karaoke tradition that had started a few weeks ago. "Nick, up here buddy", insisted Lily-Rose. "Not going to happen, you know how I am in front of strangers", Nick whispered. Lilly-Rose covered the microphone with her hand. "C'mon shypuss, Mick's in his office, Lois is outside having a cigarette, Nina and the nerd went home, the only stranger here is that drunk newspaper guy who looks like he is about to pass out, so get your ass up here!"

His brothers and sisters gently encouraged with reassuring words as they herded him towards Lilly-Rose. Lilly-Rose pressed the buttons for 'Paint it black', after having heard Nick belt it out in the shower a few days ago.

 The drunken reporter tried to heckle Nick singing. Nathan grabbed the guy by the shoulder and whispered something in his ear. The drunk staggered out of the door, and Nathan followed.

Angel was on the wrong side of the bar as usual and Genevieve was just suggesting that she might duck outside for breath of fresh air when Nathan returned. Both Angel and Genevieve detected the tiniest scent of alcohol infused blood in the air as Nathan swung the door open and re-entered the bar.  Lilly-Rose handed the second microphone over to Nick, who summoned Jennifer and handed the microphone on. Nick selected 'The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades'.

"Do I need to call an ambulance, or maybe the morgue?", asked Angel, after Nathan had scrubbed the blood from his knuckles in the bathroom. "What? No, he is sleeping it off in the backseat of his car, after he bumped his head a dozen time trying to get in, I suggested he give me his keys and have a nap. He'll be fine", Nathan lied. 

The next morning before school, Sophia slipped quietly downstairs so as not to wake her sisters. She had intended to put in twenty or so laps, but found the newest member of the household already there. Sophia decided to get to know the latest addition instead of swimming. "So, how come you aren't deathly pale like Nick, or Angel or Nina?", Sophia blurted out, instantly regretting it. 'Good one moron', she chided herself, 'Even Ceci would be less blunt.'

"Light skinned people such as yourself, or those born of two Vampire parents are always become the classic chalk pale look, but my skin was almost as dark as my hair is now, when I was turned.", answered Genevieve. She waited for the next question, she didn't need Vampire gifts to see that the were more questions to come.

"So how old are you, and who is older, you are Angel?", Sophia quizzed. Genevieve took a minute to formulate her answer. Her life and her after life had been tumultuous and difficult at times, and there was much she was not willing to share.

"I was born on Saint Domingue on January 1680, a slave child born to enslaved parents on a sugar plantation, In the dying light of the last day of 1695, both of my parents shrugged off their mortal coils and their chains, and I found the means to escape. I knew the taste of freedom for almost an entire night, before I was tracked down by a Vampire, he told me that I was such a feeble skinny wretch that I would hardly slake his thirst, and he bid me entertain him while he debated my fate." There was no emotion in Genevieve's voice.

"I sang every last song that my mother had taught me, I danced before him in rags as if my very life depended on it, and when I finally dropped to the ground exhausted, he sunk his fangs into my neck, then fed me from his wrist.", Genevieve continued, as if she was reading the ingredients list on the side of a cereal box. 

"So...I'm older than you?", Sophia said, not sure how to appropriately respond to Genevieve's tale. The school bus announced it's arrival by the honking of it's horn saving them both from the uncomfortable conversation. Genevieve was reminded of a run in with the Spanish Inquisition in 1720 with her sire, although they had gotten in a few more questions.   

3.15 Reunion

Spot missed his sisters and his parents who had vanished mysteriously, so he alternated between following their scent around the yard and investigating the new smells that flooded his nose.

He particularly liked this one.

Nathan, enjoying the extra senses that his wolf form supplied, detected the new pup in the back yard and decided to hunt across the road in Plumpuddle Park instead. Not that he was looking for meat, he was far more interested in bugs, and butterflies, and other things that people found collectible. 

Chris had managed to summon a fireball about the size of a cigarette lighter flame, which he was happy with, and his father had told Chris that he was proud of his achievement, but that he wasn't allowed to practice unsupervised. Eric had other things to attend to for the moment, so Chris went over his favorite chess moves while waiting for his lessons to resume.

Although Spot wasn't big enough yet to climb up and down the stairs, Spot had managed to find his way into one of the gravity tubes and get to the second floor, so he curled up at Chris's feet for a nap.

The next morning, Natalie marched her children to the bus stop to make sure nobody dodged school. She did several head counts.

"Where is Lilly-Rose?", Natalie called out. "She was here a minute ago!", called back John helpfully.

 "I am right here waiting for the bus Mother, were did you think I was?", yelled out Lilly-Rose, who had just just discovered a new trick. Lilly-Rose had stayed up late doing homework, and was wishing she was still in her nice comfortable bed, getting more rest, and then it happened. She brushed the excess soil off of her clothes, and contemplated the usefulness of her new found gift.

Natalie curled Spot up in her arms and walked inside, now that she was satisfied that all of her children had made it on to the bus.

A deer bounded across the road in front of the bus, the driver swerved to miss it.

It wasn't the bus that made the deer decide to avoid this place in the future, 

but the large collection of very unusual smells. Some of those scents

triggered a 'Danger' warning in the back of the deer's mind.  

Angel crept out of the back door while Natalie had been marching her kids out through the front. Angel had organized several clandestine meetings with this particular vampire over the years of her exile at Lil's house. Angel's plan was slowly coming to fruition and King Jasper's rules were not going to deny the ancient one her hearts desire. "Do I introduce myself as Asala?", asked the younger looking Vampire.

"You've been out. And brought home a guest" said Lil tersely. Lil and Angel had become best friends over the years of Angel's exile, and Lil chafed almost as much as Angel over Jasper strict terms of the exile, but rules were rules. While Angel's father's agents weren't actively looking for Angel, assuming she was dead, that didn't mean that someone might not recognize her.

"You shouldn't have brought her here, how do you know she isn't an agent of the Counts?", Lil asked, the worry in hear voice readily apparent. "Her name is Genevieve DeWinter, and it was her that first showed me an alternative to my fathers path", Angel explained. "My father sent me to Paris to kill one of his agents that had gone rogue two hundred years ago, and..", Angel hesitated for a moment, "And I fell in love instead", she finished.

"There are only two people in the world Lil, who I could thank for putting in the effort to help me clean the dark stains from my soul, and Genevieve is the other one.", explained Angel. "I have a letter I want you to send to your brother regarding my exile."

 

Angel had explained several times to Genevieve that Lil was her friend, not her jailer, but she couldn't help thinking her plan of disappearing to Paris was still the better option. Genevieve was glad Angel had given up her ties to her father, but had never been happy with the idea of exile. Eventually Lil and Angel finished their discussion, and the older Vampire returned to her side.

 'I did not see that coming!', thought Lil as she carried the letter.

Authors Note:
Angel met Asala Karim ( A University Life townie ) when she went to uni with Nat, Dom, Dyl, Maggie, Jazz and Eric. Despite the whirlwind romance, and the apparent eternal faithfulness, I couldn't seem to get them together. (Probably because my house is already overloaded.) Most of the time when Asala was invited to visit, I was unable to locate her in Elba, until I got a popup saying she was going home.

Eventually I cloned the original to my sim bin, and added her to the house as Genevieve, after changing all of her personality settings and adding a tattoo of significance. Just because you haven't heard anything about Genevieve so far, doesn't mean she hasn't always been there, I have always considered her Angel's secret soulmate.


Angel and Genevieve have had over a dozen undocumented discrete rendezvous since Natalie took over as Heir and are finally together as a couple, and are now finally a couple.