A Real PirateLeo had always been aware that he’d have to produce an heir sometime but it had been easy to put it off. He was too busy with his skills and career. Besides, flirting with potential clients was an important part of his strategy; part of making each one feel special (and therefore more willing to pay his exorbitant fees – and often a hefty bonus on top). If he was known to be married, that little ploy was going to lose a lot of its effectiveness. None of the townswomen seemed particularly interesting anyway. What had happened to Barnacle Bay’s pirates? The old families were gone and the town was full of interchangeable, bland nobodies.
His visits to the cemeteries had suggested the solution: he could marry a ghost, as so many of his ancestors had done. It hadn’t always worked out well for them and might not for him – but at least his child would have an interesting mother. By talking to his spectral friends, he’d discovered a number of women who’d met untimely ends. He hadn’t managed to meet all of them in ghostly form but he’d helped himself to their tombstones anyway. All he needed to do now was to revive them and choose one. He’d been hoping for a call from the science lab but it never came. He knew that genies could also restore the dead to life – but his family hadn’t been able to summon genies since the Hidden Springs days. On the other hand, nobody had even tried recently, so maybe he should give it a go. He bought a dusty old lamp but somehow never quite got around to rubbing it. There was plenty of time yet – and maybe he’d meet a living woman who appealed to him and save all the bother.
Then his parents died and he suddenly became aware that time was running out. Accepting that job at the business office had completed his requirements. It was time to get on with the next phase of his life. He rubbed the lamp.
Whoa! He hadn’t expected it to be so… explosive. At this rate, he’d soon be surrounded by a crowd of curious onlookers. Maybe he’d better go somewhere quieter before he tried any serious wishing. He sent the newly-emerged genie straight back into her lamp and drove home.
So, who should he revive first? He sorted through the tombstones. Ah yes! Victoria Skullfinder: he liked her name: she sounded like a real pirate. He put down her grave.
Then he rubbed the lamp (a little less enthusiastically this time), introduced himself to the genie and apologised for the abrupt way he’d treated her outside Doo Peas.
Then he asked for her help. She clapped her hands, rose into the air and glowed…
…and there was Victoria’s ghost, out of her tombstone in the middle of the day. As the genie drifted back to the ground, Victoria solidified. She was alive again.
She didn’t look much like a pirate, although he probably shouldn’t have said so.
“Why can’t ghosts keep up with fashion? If you’d spent a couple of centuries in a corset and six petticoats, you’d want a change, I can tell you.”
She didn’t act like a pirate either. How could she not like his rebelliousness?
But then it turned out that she was as evil as he was - and a genius to boot. This was much more promising. They discussed nefarious plots and evil schemes until Leo was reasonably convinced that she was the woman for him. He asked her to move in and then tried something more romantic.
It turned out that she liked to flirt – and thought he was good at kissing, for a beginner. She seemed more than willing to help him practice, too. It was definitely worth taking this further. The bistro was still open, so he invited her out for dinner…
…and then asked her to go steady.
The next morning, Victoria updated her image again. Taking inspiration from Leo’s outfits, she chose something piratical but practical for daytime. She’d noticed Leo’s eyes light up at the mention of corsets. Honestly, men! Still, it was useful to know. She'd keep that weapon in reserve. Once she was happy with her new clothing choices, she asked Leo to show her around the island.
“This beach used to be my favourite place. It’s hardly changed – unlike most of the island. I can’t believe the Goldbeards gave the town an art gallery. Stealing art was more their style.”
Leo had avoided Crowe’s Nest Campgrounds in their tour. He’d been wondering why she’d been buried there but it had seemed a little indelicate to visit the place where her grave had been Now, though, in this peaceful place where she seemed so relaxed, he asked her how she’d come to be buried in a park rather than the cemetery.
“Because I died there and no-one bothered to move my grave. It wasn’t always a park. Back in my day it was Crowe’s Nest – and you wouldn’t want to spend any more time there than you had to. Jack Crowe had a heart as black as his name. His base was in a little place called Bridge Port, two days’ sail down the coast – but he was trying to get established here as well. With the Beardies at each other’s throats…”
“The Beardies?”
“The Goldbeards and Inkbeards. They were the two most powerful pirate clans. Crowe reckoned if he could stir up more trouble between them, maybe he could get them to wipe each other out. Certainly they’d be too busy feuding to notice that he was getting all of the smaller pirate families to join him and gradually taking over the island.”
“So what happened – to you, I mean?”
“Crowe thought I was spying on him – which I was – and beat me up. That’s the last I remember, which is probably just as well. He liked setting fire to his enemies.”
“That’s awful! Uh, you know you’re safe now…?”
“Well, being dead’s safe, in its way. But yes, Jack Crowe is long gone. I heard that the Beardies worked out what he was doing and gave him a taste of his own medicine – burnt his Nest to the ground.”
“Good riddance!”
“So, Leo, are there any pirates left at all – apart from you?”
“I’m not one, really. I’m an architect. My grandmother was a Beardy - a Goldbeard, in fact, and I’d like to be a pirate, too… but the opportunities seem to have gone. Everyone’s respectable now. I do my best to undermine their safe little society but I’m on my own there.”
“Not any more.” And she kissed him again.
As they sat watching the stars that evening, he told her about his family, about needing to produce an heir soon – and about his wish to keep the pirate genes going.
“I have a bargain for you. Take me to that restaurant again and I’m in.”
And later…
Leo could have sworn he heard distant chimes.
On the other hand, no harm in making sure, especially with Vic wearing that corset.
It soon became clear that the next generation of Golds was indeed on the way.
As they left the hospital with their new daughter, escorted by Tim, who had driven them there (Leo wasn’t leaving another labouring woman in charge of a car), Leo clapped his hands in glee. His Abigail would be a proper little pirate.
Next chapter
Summary – Generation 11Heir: Lionel/Leo
Traits: evil, artistic, rebellious, kleptomaniac, avant garde, great kisser (rebel influence)
Lifetime wish: Street Credible
Unique maxed career: Architectural Designer
Two unique best friends: Donald Burt, Nora Coley
Three unique skill challenges: Master Muralist, Always Wanted, Precision Sprayer
Four unique opportunities: Commissioned Street Art, Deliver a Painting to China, A Small Painting, Business Model
Buildings bought this generation: Landgraab Industries Science Facility
Newly-upgraded properties: none
Vacations used: 2 out of 4
Despite finishing his lifetime wish and skill challenges very quickly, Leo was the slowest heir so far to complete the requirements. It took him a while to max his career through renovations (I didn’t want him to use the drawing board much because sketches count as paintings in the skill journal and he couldn't risk getting any painting challenges) but, as usual, the opportunities were the real problem. I was hoping for Oh My Ghost! but, despite seeing both of his parents and a few townies die, it didn’t fire for him. I’d also have liked another painting opportunity, ideally to deliver a painting to France, so that India could start on her final set of tombs. In the end, he had to use a celebrity opp. I’d been trying to save them for future heirs who may need them more but Leo really was running out of time: Abigail was born on the day before his elder birthday.
…And we have another greenishboo. Since Victoria has very pale green skin, I was expecting Abi’s skin colour to be either a bright green à la Dora or somewhere at the pink end of the rainbow slider. As it is, she seems to have inherited both the slider and her position along it from Leo.
