The Ghosts of Twinbrook (Life States Dynasty)

[hazelnut]

Chapter 20: Preparing for the Afterlife



“Greats!  I’m preggers!”



“Congratulations, dear.  I am sure that Tavares will be delighted, too.  Thank you so much, both of you.  Now, I have a well-established régime for expectant mothers.  It is all in this booklet: diet, exercise, relaxation, potions.  Unless you have had enough of potions…”


For the last time, Ana went out into the swamps to summon Deirdra.  She supposed she could just have stayed at home but old habits died hard.





“Deirdra!  She did it!  They did it!  Er, that is…  Louisa is expecting a baby. 



“I asked you this once before, mistakenly.  When will it happen?  When will I… die?”
“From what Grim tells me, the birth of this baby will break the last chain binding you to life.  It will happen soon afterwards – I’m not sure exactly when.”
“Maybe it would be better not to know, even though I long for it.  It is so many years since I was parted from my dear Vernon.



“Deirdra, I have three more things to ask you – and I promise they are the very last.  I have written letters to my family, to be read… afterwards.  Could you deliver them?



“And would you keep an eye on them all?  I know some of them have plans… and dreams they wish to pursue.  Could you try to keep some sort of order and maintain the peace – especially between William and Isabella?
“Finally, I have a particular legacy I wish to leave to Twinbrook.  I have been so happy here.”
“Another legacy?  Apart from your medical work?”
“Yes.  Christabel and Emily gave me the idea, although it was only something they said in passing.  I think it may appeal to you.  What I would like to do is…”



“…and then, of course, there is the little matter of my final wish.  I wish to free you, Deirdra.”
“Ana!  Really?  Thank you!  Although I can’t do it all myself.  All I can do is start the process.  Stand back!”



Ana heard Deirdra’s voice in her head.  Freeze the lamp.





Good.  Now heat it.



And now, into the catacombs!  Are you brave enough, Ana?



Well, that was… surprising.  Still, she seemed to have survived... just about.



Now rub the lamp again.



Yes!




“Good evening, everyone.  This is Deirdra, my oldest and dearest friend.  Please make her feel welcome… and now, if you will all excuse me, I really need a shower.  Joseph, I think you would also benefit from a bath.”



“As I was saying, I have known Deirdra for a very long time, since before I came to Twinbrook. Several of you have genie friends; it was Deirdra who showed me where to find their lamps – and over the years she has helped us in many other ways.  I think it is fair to say that we would not have succeeded as a family without her.



“She has consented to help us for a little longer.  As you all know, Louisa is expecting a baby.  Shortly after it is born, I will leave you.  Please do not be sad: I am old and tired and long to rest.  I am appointing Deirdra as my executrix.  Not that I have made a will, exactly: more a set of ideas and suggestions.  Follow them or not, as you see fit.  Please remember that I love you all very much and can never repay what I owe you.  Thank you.”


And, soon afterwards…








Next chapter

[Tilia]

How many Sims are you managing at once now?!  Anyway, yaaaaay, desired life state!

[ladyaya]

How many Sims are you managing at once now?!  Anyway, yaaaaay, desired life state!

Ah...that would be...

Founder > generation 7 which is the fire ghost, who has an old age ghost nooboo which makes eight....and somehow the genie is in the household also....which is nine and supposed to be impossible without help......

[RainBeau]

Is the genie in the household? I don't think she is. I'm pretty sure if you release them when there's no space (which there wasn't since Old Age Nooboo--that sounds funny--counts before being born) then they are not in the household. I'm sure Ana just invited her over or something.

Congratulations Hazelnut and Ana on right first try!

[Snufflesxx]

Maybe hazelnut isn't necessarily doing the story in order. Ana could already have died in game, even if she's not in the story. Plus, how would she bake/freeze/go in to catacombs with the lamp without wishing to free the genie?

[hazelnut]

Warning: don't read this if you share my dislike of 'making of' documentaries!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

How many Sims are you managing at once now?!  Anyway, yaaaaay, desired life state!

Ah...that would be...

Founder > generation 7 which is the fire ghost, who has an old age ghost nooboo which makes eight....and somehow the genie is in the household also....which is nine and supposed to be impossible without help......

I'm only managing up to eight at a time.  I'm just taking advantage of not being bound by dynasty rules any more.  I was going to make things easier by using mods to allow more than eight in the house but either playable ghosts in general or my family in particular seem to be incompatible.  I found that just using Error Trap and Overwatch made their tombstones disappear from inventory and when I tried feeding them ambrosia, they went through all the animations but stayed as ghosts.  (A real pain because the file went very buggy again two Sim days after the end of the challenge and I was hoping mods would fix it.  I'm glad it waited until then but it's still a nuisance for finishing off the story.) So I'm juggling, using Edit Town to temporarily move various people in with Hal and Ed next door.  At various times, the eight family members, Deirdra and Tavares have been in the household.  There are also two Anas (!) because the original one glitched on me, so she's been replaced by a clone of her younger self, quickly aged up, for parts of the story.

Is the genie in the household? I don't think she is. I'm pretty sure if you release them when there's no space (which there wasn't since Old Age Nooboo--that sounds funny--counts before being born) then they are not in the household. I'm sure Ana just invited her over or something.

It hadn't even occurred to me that you could release a genie with a full household, so I didn't try.  Louisa and bump were living next door for a few hours.

Congratulations Hazelnut and Ana on right first try!

Er, well, not exactly first try.  I found in testing that, although a baby's sex and appearance seem to be set at conception, the ghost overlay gets decided at birth.  Poor Louisa had one pregnancy but four labours before the right sort of ghost popped out.  Ouch!  (There were two fireboos and a human before this one - which does mean that I know the new nooboo has green skin.)  I was really expecting Macy to have to have a string of kids before the generation 7 heir arrived, so I suppose my good luck there just got balanced out  .

Maybe hazelnut isn't necessarily doing the story in order. Ana could already have died in game, even if she's not in the story. Plus, how would she bake/freeze/go in to catacombs with the lamp without wishing to free the genie?

I am still mostly playing in order (with some going back to earlier saves for particular screenshots) - and I still don't know what the ghosts look like in human form, although the game is a little way ahead of the story.

[Tilia]

Warning: don't read this if you share my dislike of 'making of' documentaries!

(slightly off-topic) My mother has become obsessed with the "making of" special on the Braveheart DVD.  She has tried to force me to watch it no less than three dozen times.

(on-topic)  I very much enjoyed this explanation

[hazelnut]

(Also slightly off-topic.) My trouble is that I get tempted to watch the things and then keep noticing the details that don't quite work (which I'd probably never have spotted otherwise) - the Lord of the Rings films being the prime example.  It spoils the magic.

Thanks

[hazelnut]

Chapter 21: Release from a Life Sentence

Ana knew immediately that Louisa’s baby had been born – suddenly she felt desperately tired and frail.  Still, she was determined to meet her new descendant and made her way to the nursery as fast as she could.



“Welcome to the world, Samuel.  May you live a long and happy life... for as long as you want to.”



“Good night, little one.”

Then, as so often before, she felt herself growing light.





“Is this it, Grim?  Will you take me this time?”





“Yes, Ana.  It would be neither amusing nor fair to refuse you again.  You deserve your rest.  Come with me.”




Ana might have told everyone not to mourn but they couldn’t help it.





They held a funeral and invited the rest of the family.





Chris spoke of her early memories of her mother – the misunderstandings as well as the eventual love and trust.



Then Will spoke of his grandmother and of the string quartet he was writing in her memory.



“I wanted to write an opera based on her life but you all know what she thought of opera.  I think ‘overblown nonsense’ was the mildest description.”


Afterwards, they moved her urn to the last remaining free space in the mausoleum.



And late that night…



“Hello again, Mamma.  You and Papa can move on now; your business here is finished.  We – Alonzo and I – came to fetch you both.”



“Vernon!  It has been such a long time.  Sometimes I thought we would never be together again.



“I missed you so much.”



…And then it was time to go.

[StratfordT]

Congrats on making the HOF! An excellent story to be sure.

[hazelnut]

Thank you

[Ausette]

Congratulations on a beautiful story, hazelnut and Ana! I reread the whole thing the other day in preparation for the ending, and it's all come together absolutely wonderfully. I can't believe the amount of writing and preparation that must have gone into telling it (If I may ask,  how many attempts did it take before Grim would shake Ana's hand instead of swatting her away with his scythe?  ). Thank you so much for sharing your story and characters with us. I think I'm going to go and read your Household Skills project now.

[hazelnut]

Congratulations on a beautiful story, hazelnut and Ana! I reread the whole thing the other day in preparation for the ending, and it's all come together absolutely wonderfully. I can't believe the amount of writing and preparation that must have gone into telling it.

Thank you.  I'm glad you enjoyed reading it.  The prologue took a lot of preparation (and the epilogue looks as though it's going the same way  ) but the main part of the story was pretty straightforward to write.  I'd probably have finished the challenge a few Sim days earlier if I hadn't been trying to get particular screenshots to fit the story as I went along - and probably quite a lot sooner in my time, although just writing posts to record what happened would probably have taken almost as long.

(If I may ask,  how many attempts did it take before Grim would shake Ana's hand instead of swatting her away with his scythe?  ).

Three.  The second time, she begged and he swatted.  The first time was just plain weird.  Ana and Grim just stood and stared at each other for several hours while the others mourned and then she did that dissolving into yelllow dust and going into the urn thing that NPC ghosts do.  I think the poor game's getting confused  .

I think I'm going to go and read your Household Skills project now.

As you may have discovered by now, that's just a recording-what-happened sort of story.  Having come up with the idea for the project, I wanted to play it and take screenshots but it was never going to be a proper story (although I do have an idea about the ending, if I ever get that far.  It's still a very long way off, especially since I keep neglecting it in favour of other things!)

[RainBeau]

Wow! Such a fitting ending, a beautiful funeral, and a well-deserved rest for poor old Ana. Congratulations to both of you! Well done taking the screenshots as well, I know form experience how hard it can be to get everyone to do what you want.

I love the skeleton and spider-web decorations. Very appropriate for a family of ghosts! I just loved this story, thank you hazelnut.

[Rhoxi]

What a great story! I've been reading through it these last couple of nights. The idea of doing an all ghost line of descendants with townie ghosts is so original, plus your story telling made it quite a treat. We all knew it was coming, but it was oddly hard to see Ana go--even though it's what she wanted. I haven't played much with ghosts, myself, so it was interesting to see all the different colors and hear all about the townie ghost's back stories. Well, thank you for a wonderful story! It's been a pleasure to read.