Legacies of the Valley (March 9 -- Sheil) Graveyard

[MarianT]

Chapter 44

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Valerie was trying to think of things to write about in her journal. Not much drama this week, she wrote, no seductions, sigh. Oh, I did become a Grand Master Vampire, but it wasn't as exciting as I'd thought it would be. Before I take on any more powers, I have to select another weakness, and I'd rather not do that.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
I had tea with Elliott, and it was rather pleasant, cozy, being inside the restaurant while it was snowing. Some people were actually eating outside, if you can believe that.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
But it wasn't a very romantic outing. I spent most of the time telling him how cute his son Plotinus was.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
I took him out the other day to try the slide. He didn't know what to make of it at first.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
And then he was so surprised when he slid down. I got a picture to pass on to Elliott. Elliott actually laughed out loud when he saw it, which was great. He said he's been depressed since his partner Gunther died. I said something about moving in with us, but he said he's living with his son Jeffrey now.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
And it's not like Plotinus needs any more people doting on him. Big sister Bridget is always ready to explain the finer points of peanut butter and jelly...

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
...when she's not pretending to be a bear, that is.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
And big sister Vixenna is always there for a hug.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
The two girls get along well with each other, which is a relief.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
I've made a little more progress when it comes to making money -- not from my painting, though. I thought my winter night scene was quite nice, but apparently it was too dark.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
And although I got more tips than ever at the Blue Velvet, over $100 at least, it's long hours for little pay.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
So it looks like gardening is my money-maker, tending the money tree, to be specific. It's producing $11,000 a day. Mother has always said that farming is the way to go, and I have to admit she's right.
Anyway, like I said, no drama, no seductions this week, but I did get a few things accomplished.

More drama in Chapter 54.

[Shewolf13]

Oh, RIP Robin!  I love your little memorials/obituaries. 

Heh, get that Money tree Valerie!  The kids are adorable ^^

[MarianT]

Chapter 45

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Bad smells place. Again.
 
 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Cold and snowy when we come home. Old master shivers and humans around us are slipping and falling down. You can't fall down if you keep all four feet on the ground, and I am comfortable in my coat.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
At home everyone is waiting in the small room of food and soap smells. That's master, old mistress, dimmy, reeny, and mistress.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
The next morning mistress instructs me to watch reeny because she has to work.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Reeny goes to bed, so I watch the flower vase instead.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
I also watch old mistress who just mops. "Don't you try and drink from this puddle!" she says.
 
 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Today is Winterfest, so master and I make sure that mistress bastes the turkey properly.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Dimmy goes away for an adventure, I hear him tell reeny.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
When he comes home, I get to hear him tell her all about it.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
"It was really warm in Oasis Springs, so I could play outside in my t-shirt. I killed five space pirates who were trying to take my freighter!"

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
"I spent some time talking to Grandfather Harvey. He's a doctor at the hospital, but he had the day off because it's Winterfest. I asked him what happened to people who got sick on Winterfest, and he told me they had a ghost staff to take care of them."

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
"Grandmother Harvey gave me a big hug and said I looked just like Mom except I was a boy."

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
"They let me play on Mom's old computer for a while. It was really nice, even if it was pink."

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
After reeny goes to take her nap, everyone else gathers around a tree.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
They sing and laugh when the tree lights up. I have never seen a tree do that before. Mistress says maybe they should have done red and gold to match the house instead of blue and white, and everyone laughs at her.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Reeny comes downstairs and opens a box. There's a dollhouse inside for her.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Then everyone starts opening boxes and hugging each other and saying thank you. Old mistress opens a box and gives me a ball, saying, "Here's your present, teeny!"

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Later that night an old man comes and laughs many times, ho ho ho! Reeny tells him she wants a present and he says ho ho ho! And then I go find a warm place in dimmy's room to sleep. Happy Winterfest!

Teeny has more to say about Kathy and the other Harveys in Chapter 55.

[Shewolf13]

I love the pupper's narration.  They're some of my favorite, especially his names for everyone hehehe

[MarianT]

Thanks! I'm not sure that Penny and Sebastian are happy about being old mistress and master, though.

[oshizu]

Will Octavius press charges against Jeffrey for libel?
Sheesh, Vincent even let Jeffrey consult his FLAP therapist!

Robin's obituary was great. The mention of the lost axe brought a nostalgic smile.
(I've been playing, though, My Time at Portia instead...)
Valerie and Elliott's Plotinus is the cutest! I'm surprised she offered him a place in her home.
Teeny is the best narrator of all.

By the way, don't laugh but it took me forever to figure out the mystery behind your Watcher's Diary.
It's a season's worth of days in your calendar! Haha, i feel pretty dense now...

[JudesSims]

This sounds like an interesting challenge! And, something I might like to try myself since I'm such a sucker for legacy games. LOL

[MarianT]

@oshizu, I probably won't keep the Watcher's Diary going through 10 generations (although it might be interesting to see if we get any climate change), but I did want to know what weather trends were. Of course, playing in different towns messes that up a bit, but my last 4 families have all been in Willow Creek, and I can say with some certainty that Willow Creek is snowy and freezing in the winter. Indeed, most of the past two weeks they've had blizzards, and poor Teeny hasn't been out for a walk.

@JudesSims, It is interesting. I use the points to earn "free" days -- days when I can control everyone and don't have to worry about points. That way, they have some value than just filling a space on a spreadsheet.

[MarianT]

Chapter 46

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Winter is a rough season. When Xeno goes outside to look for food on the picnic table, all he can find are frozen tofu dogs -- cooked, but still frozen.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Passers-by on the street have a tendency to slip and fall.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
And runners can even die before reaching the warm shelter of the gym.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Jas focused her first speech on the importance of dressing warmly in winter, but no one paid any attention to her because they were all busy reacting to the death.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
The bright spot in the season is Winterfest. It was the first time that Saffron could participate in tree-trimming.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Later, she and Xeno and Sage were able to get presents from underneath the tree.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Later the next day, Jas went to Planet Honey Pop to sing a few songs. She resolved to find out when their karaoke competition was, as the bartender told her she was the best singer he'd heard so far.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
She came home to find Saffron sitting upstairs to watch a late-night horror film about werewolves and Xeno playing alone with the doll house. She sent both of them to bed and went downstairs.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Arthur was still awake, and playing chess. "Take that, Control!" he shouted. "Face it, I'm a better player than you and a better agent, too."

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
The next day Jas saw him give Saffron a very warm hug before she went off to school. "You be careful," he said. "There are lots of bad people out there."

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
And he had another big hug for Sage as he went off to work. "Be a good girl while I'm gone," he urged.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Sage was subdued while Jas tried to teach her numbers. (Watcher's note: And succeeded. This was the first time I've seen a toddler actually think the same number as the flash card the parent was holding.) "Is Daddy going away?" she asked.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
That night, Jas confronted him. "Is there something going on that I need to know about?" she asked.
"I can't tell you yet," said Arthur. "I need a little more time."
"Both Sage and Saffron seem to think you're going somewhere," Jas continued.
"I don't know," said Arthur. "Victor Feng is angry with me and I don't know what's going to happen."
"So?" said Jas. "He's the leader of the Other Party. His opinion doesn't matter at all."
Arthur held his tongue. This probably wasn't the best time to tell Jas that Victor Feng was his boss. If he could just get that promotion, he would be out of Feng's power entirely, and Jas would never have to know that he'd been a spy.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Simkit has posted again on the Internet:
It's come to my attention that some of you are actually foolish enough to go riding around on those robotic vacuum things. Don't you realize they're dangerous? And evil, too. They come right at you with no respect for your felinity. I shun the things myself and would advise any cat with any intelligence to do the same.

Jas's story continues in Chapter 56.

[oshizu]

Saffron and Sage are too cute!
Xeno is Ted's hybrid son? I've played that much with aliens--how closely does a hybrid child's human disguise resemble their human parent?
He is terribly sweet!

Wow, lots of deaths in your winter season!
Hurry up and get that next promotion, Arthur, so you can stop spying on your family!

Lol, Simkit is a trendsetter and opinion leader in the feline community!

[Shewolf13]

Awww, I hope Arthur succeeds in his promotion soon! Love Jas giving her speech.  The kids are delightful.  And Simkit is just too much! hehehehe

[MarianT]

@oshizu, I think the alien's disguise is based on the human parent. It's hard to tell, though, because I made Ted as an elder, so don't know what color hair he would have had. Xeno is full alien. You get a hybrid when an alien and human marry, but when the child is the result of alien abduction, he's full alien.

@Shewolf13, Arthur should get promoted in the next chapter. I about freaked when I saw Simkit with her back up and a red line through the vacuum cleaner. I thought all the cats loved it, but apparently not.

[Shewolf13]

I haven't played with the vacuum oddly enough.  I knew they could ride it.  Had no idea they could hate it either lol

[MarianT]

Chapter 47

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Cupcake doesn't get enough attention. Now that she's been trained not to eat off human plates, no one seems to care when she gets up on the dining room table.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
So she has to go remind people of her presence while they're doing something else -- like upgrading the rocket ship.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Gus had so much success with the Golden Balampalsoh relic that he decided to try the Zazatotl one. This one worked too, but not in a way that made him happy. For several days he had visions of delicious meals, and the only way he could make them go away was by fixing something from Selvadorada.
 
 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Playtime is skill-building time -- that's always been Gus's philosophy. He encouraged Shane to work on his motor skills by being a sea monster.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
But not all games build skills. Still, Shane has become better acquainted with his cousin Robin by playing voidcritters.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
The Maldonados celebrated one very important holiday -- Selena's birthday.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Shane gave his little sister a big hug and promised to teach her how to play voidcritters.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
The Maldonados also celebrated New Year's Eve. Gus later planted one each of the seeds they brought him. He's going to try keeping a garden without building a greenhouse.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
The whole family stayed up to watch the countdown to midnight. They were joined by a couple of the gnomes.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Gus and Madilyn toasted each other at midnight, while Clint headed off to bed.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
But even though you can take the explorer out of the jungle, you can't take the jungle out of the explorer. Gus tried to tell himself that searching the laundry for coins was just like excavating for treasure, but it wasn't.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
He tried to help Selena with her medieval castle diorama, but she had retained the independent spirit of her toddler days. "I want to do it myself," she said firmly.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
And Gus wasn't making much money from authenticating artifacts. "Rare find," the director of the museum told him, "but poor quality. Look at all those cracks. Dr. Soriano would never bring us something in this condition."

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
So at New Year's Gus made the resolution to finish up his aspiration. Digging in a temple -- now that was something real.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Something else that was real was the poison dart that struck him while he was attempting to solve one of the temple's puzzles. Gus thought the dart might have bounced off him harmlessly, but then he noticed that he'd broken out in a rash.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Luckily Gus was able to get the antidote from one of the vendors in the market. Unluckily, she was the same vendor who had triggered Madilyn's jealousy before.
"I thought you said there was nothing going on between the two of you."
"Madilyn, I'm standing eight feet away from her."
"In your bathing suit."
"That's because I had to swim into and out of the temple. And I didn't put my clothes back on because the rash was itchy. Satisfied?"
"I guess," said Madilyn.
Gus figured this was not the moment to tell her that his new aspiration was to become an Archaeology Scholar.

Gus's adventures continue in Chapter 57.

[Shewolf13]

Oh my XD Poor Gus. I feel bad for him. I giggled a bit too much at the poison spots though XD