Congratulations to both you and Journeyman for reaching new heights! 
I am just so proud of my dynasty so far because I never can get far in games generation-wise. I bet Journeyman is pleased too.
---
Life felt very mundane for a bit. I bought a motive mobile and felt much better when I went to work. Marc still painted and upgraded the bathroom in his spare time, Julienne sculpted, and as winter settled in, DeAndre and Skeet were more-or-less out of work.
Then I saw Zo Whelohff strut through the house one night. With two bored, somewhat deprived elders lazing around the house, I had a good idea of what happened and I didn't want to think about it at all. Sorry about that, Zo.
Better news?
Willow kept getting older. I wanted her to improve her skills, but she begged to learn martial arts and I couldn't fulfill that until she was much older.
"Look sweetie, I'll take you to Shang Simla when you turn 18 and then you can learn all you want."
"But why?"
"It's just the way I run."
In the mean time, the heavy snow in Twinbrook meant that Willow was missing a lot of school. Marc was definitely the smartest in the house, and he stepped up to tutor Willow.
When she wasn't biking around in the snow to visit a friend. The winter festival was in town, and Willow ended up staying for a while getting pelted by snowballs. I doubted that there were any children in Twinbrook for her to play with (Marc and DeAndre had kids, but they were almost grown-up, and Skeet's kids were either adults or babies), but she proved me wrong. Willow had a nice new friend her age.
"That's nice Will. What's his name?" I was hoping for her to find a nice guy. You couldn't start too soon.
"Daddy, she's a girl! Her name's Gwen."
"Racket?"
"I think."
I don't know what else she could be. I almost forgot about Gwen and how she was almost exactly the same age as Willow. When I first saw her, I knew that she was a Racket.
"That's really nice, Will." I thought her childhood would be truly happy now that she had Gwen.
The next night, I came home from work to find DeAndre begging for more time. Just one more date with Gala, time to see his daughter graduate, one more song to play on the guitar, or one more game of tag with Willow. But the reaper was stern, and DeAndre left the mortal world hardly a day past 90.
Willow was distraught. DeAndre was one of her best friends from her toddler years, and they still loved to chat and hang out before his death.
I needed to give her a hug. I felt like I barely knew my daughter, and I didn't want to spend eternity living with a stranger.
DeAndre died without completing his wish of swimming in cash (Harwood suffered the same fate), and with Julienne and Skeet not getting younger and with similar wishes, I had to rectify things.
So I threw a strange elixir at myself that was rumored to let me turn furniture into gold.
Let's just say that it was really fun.
Even Marc liked my golden armchairs and ate his midnight toast in them. He probably liked it even better when I sold them at double and fulfilled Julienne's and Skeet's wishes in one fell swoop.
Anyways.
Willow's childhood years were limited. One day, I looked at a new Willow. Almost tall, and almost all grown up. Though I couldn't help but say that she looked just like Morticia from Union Cove. I guess I missed that place.
"Dad, since it's my birthday, can I please go to Gwen's house?"
I wanted to go with her, just to see how Gwen was doing. Turns out that she got her growth spurt before Willow; Gwen was standing there as tall as me! I chatted it up with her, letting my talk about the conspiracies against me slip.
"Dad, stop that," Willow whispered from a few feet away. But Gwen was utterly enthralled by what I had to say. Clearly the forces that stopped my past attempts at a dynasty were the same that took her father, according to her. So Gwen was a tad crazy, but it made sense. She was a Racket after all. She was also very amiable and shared Willow's love of music.
And I couldn't see a sliver of Harwood in her. But when I almost remarked about her apparent lack of a father in any sense, Lolly pulled me aside and assured me that, yes, Gwen actually had a father and it was Harwood. Strange.
Since she was a Clay, I couldn't just leave her alone. I asked her a question.
"Look Gwen, I know that you and Willow are great friends, and maybe I can offer you a place to stay away from all the Racket mayhem."
I looked over at Lolly, and she was nodding furiously. "Maybe you can see dad again," she told Gwen.
"That would be splendid! They can't keep the secret away from me anymore. I'll tell dad you said hi, mummy."
We brought her home and cleaned her up a bit. I have to state this again: I didn't just bring Lolly home and change her name. Even if I did, Marc was on borrowed time and I needed a new painter under any name.
And so the cycle of a revolving door of Grave roomies went on.
---
(Yeah, Gwen's aging was a little messed up before I moved her in. She was actually born a few days after Willow was, but the game aged her up to young adult quickly for no apparent reason. I'm just going with "she had a growth spurt and dropped out of high school" explanation for the story and I'll just pretend she's the same age as Willow.)
