The Middlemiss Random Legacy (Completed)

[Beks]

Chapter 70 – Démodé

With the wedding over, our newlyweds get busy right away. Scooter applies for a job at Plumbob Pictures Backlot to start on his path to stardom (and directordom). Kylie heads down to the military base for a handiness class, then hops over to the stadium to get started in athletics.

This is apparently the only screenshot I have to demonstrate Kylie’s hard work. See, she’s in her workout gear. While...watching TV.

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She’s also not feeling well, though. I can’t imagine a reason. Can you?

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Oh, THAT’S why. I am so surprised!

These first few days post-wedding are pretty chill for the Middlemisses. Except when we get our THIRD BURGLAR since moving to Bridgeport. At least they’re all wimps who cower at the sight of young men in boxer shorts and never manage to steal anything.

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Kylie spends her pregnancy tinkering with household objects and watching the kids TV channel.

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Simon joins Kylie and Scooter on the couch after a day of playing for tips in the subway. He needs to decompress and watch some dancing bunnies after getting mugged for the first time. (Sidenote: Look, Kylie's pregnancy dress has POCKETS!)

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Scooter is, of course, excited to become a father. I don't think he has any idea what he’s in for.

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Oh yeah, Kylie also works out while she’s pregnant. It’s interesting that pregnant sims are allowed to do heavy weightlifting, but not run on the treadmill.

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Ah yes. The perfect way to induce labor!

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Kylie heads to the hospital. Scooter meets her there once he gets out of his shift at the backlot. And look! It’s twins! Everyone, meet Cloyd and Gladys Middlemiss. We are down to some truly awful names that will probably come back into style sometime before I’m dead.

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Kylie doesn’t miss a beat after giving birth to twins. Back to her handy-ing she goes, making very animalistic grunting noises whenever she’s using that wrench. It’s honestly kind of alarming. She sort of sounds like she's fighting off some wild animal. Maybe it's because she's been working out?

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Because infancy is boring, let’s skip to the birthdays! The young parents bring Cloyd, the oldest, to his very first cake.

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GAH! I just wanted to mix things up and have the birthday party in the dining room for once...

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Simon, who shuns the idea of wearing clothes in the house, is all over it.

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Okay, crisis solved. Let’s try this again. Kylie is excited all over again, as if her house didn't just go up in flames for five minutes. Ah, those Excitable sims...

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Both babies manage to get through their birthdays unscathed. And here they are, complete with favorite-color outfits and completely random traits.

Look who inherited his granddaddy’s hair color! Cloyd is Disciplined and Hates the Outdoors, and he likes Classical music, Vegetarian Dim Sum, and Hot Pink.

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Gladys takes after her mother. She is Perceptive and Loves the Outdoors. Her favorites are Hip Hop, Fruit Parfait, and White.

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Now that the kiddos are toddlers (and a butler has been hired), Scooter decides it’s time to dismiss the babysitter who’s been watching the babies day and night since their birth.

Poor Jedidiah takes it pretty hard. In his despair he smooshes his whole face into Scooter’s shoulder.

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“But M-Mr. Middlemiss, the babies are my f-f-friends!” *sob*

Don’t worry, he’ll get over it. There are lots of other toddlers to babysit around Bridgeport. I mean…lots. Thanks for everything, Jedidiah!

Commence toddler spam! Okay, both of these pictures are of Gladys…I’ll be sure to get more of Cloyd next time. (I think he was just asleep during my screenshot spree.) (And by "spree" I mean, there were a lot more than just these two.)

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A top priority is teaching these babies to talk. I have to see my babies conversing over the blocks table. It’s essential!

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A couple days into the toddlers' toddlerhoods, during a moment of peace, Scooter and Kylie find themselves in the bedroom again. What could they be up to?

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Could it be the same thing that Simon and his haven't-seen-her-since-high-school girlfriend Julie are up to?

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Who knows. Yes, things are going very well for the Middlemisses this generation. Although Kylie seems to be making friends with the toilet again.

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I wonder what that’s about.

[Beks]

Chapter 71 – Two & Three

Cloyd and Gladys have a speedy toddlerhood. They learn to talk right away (mission accomplished!), and I, being the experienced simmer that I am, discover the “chat” interaction between parents and toddlers for the first time ever. And it’s darn cute.

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“Psst, Daddy…why does Plumbob Pictures Backlot insist on making you wear eyeshadow?”

“You’ll understand when you’re older, darling.”

In other news, Kylie is pregnant for the second time. I feel badly that she hasn’t gone to work once since marrying Scooter. Hopefully she’ll get to go, someday, before she dies. But first, she has three more babies to pop out!

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Simon is the chief breadwinner of the family right now, playing his keyboard for tips all day every day. He mostly plays in the subway, which pads our family bank account with a good two or three grand on a daily basis. But sometimes I like to bring him out into the sunlight and let him breathe some actual air. Downtown Bridgeport is really quite lovely at certain times of day and at certain camera angles.

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Cloyd and Gladys are already developing a friendship, chatting for hours over their blocks table.

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Cloyd seems to be the more reserved twin—his favorite activity is hiding from the butler in the toybox or behind the dollhouse.

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Gladys seems a bit more outgoing and confident. She finished learning the peg box and the xylophone a couple days ahead of her brother.

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Simon is surprisingly (or perhaps not surprisingly) helpful with raising the twins. He’s not around a lot, but when he is, he likes to help teach them their toddler skills.

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“That’s it, Cloyd! Walk tooowards the boxer briefs!”

Before long, Kylie goes into labor. Naturally, she is the calm one, while Scooter absolutely flips his lid.

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“AAHHH! AAAHHH! BABY! BABY!”

“Don’t worry about it, honey. Run along to work. You can meet our new baby when you get home tonight. Toodle-oo!”

Okay, she’s not totally emotionless.

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After a few hours of hard work, Kylie brings her new son, Curley, into the world.

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Let’s skip right to Curley’s toddler birthday because infancy bores me! Ignore Simon––he doesn't think cake smells and baby smells make a very good combination.

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Oh. My. Goodness. This is the moment when I realize how long it’s been since we’ve had a blond Middlemiss, and how few there have been overall! The only genetically blond Middlemiss, I think, was Llewellyn’s little brother Junius, all the way back in Generation Three. The only other blond child was Leola, and she was adopted, so her genetics came from somewhere else entirely. Now, many generations later, we finally have another blondie!

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Curley is a nice blend of his parents, aside from the wacko hair color. Actually, he reminds me a lot of his Uncle Melvin. Curley is a Good Light Sleeper who likes Egyptian music, Dim Sum, and the color Aqua.

For one stressful 24-hour period, there are three toddlers in the house. Luckily it’s a weekend, so all the adults are around to help keep the screaming to a minimum.

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Once their three kiddos are in bed, Scooter and Kylie decide to go ahead and get busy making a fourth.

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And the very next morning, it’s time for more cake!

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Gladys ages up first because she’s awake first. Sorry, Cloyd.

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Seeing a toddler transform into a school-age child before her eyes is just too much for Butler Pauline. Or maybe it’s that she’s been drifting around the house NOT BEING HELPFUL for two days straight without going to bed. GO TO BED, PAULINE.

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Cloyd wakes from his slumber and gets his turn for cake.

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Here’s the lovely Gladys. She rolls the Clumsy trait.

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And a very handsome, pink-loving Cloyd acquires a Photographer’s Eye. (I guess he’s going to focus on indoor photography, since he also Hates the Outdoors…?)

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As soon as she ages up and gets changed, Gladys goes straight for the sandbox outside and digs up her first rubber ducky.

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Cloyd, meanwhile, gets talking to a girl named Sophia Hemlock-Shutter, whose father insisted on bringing her over the moment he learned that a legacy boy became a child. I see right through you, Mr. Hemlock-Shutter. (His daughter is really pretty, though...)

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And it looks like Kylie and Scooter were successful in their endeavor!

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Scooter: "Whoa! Your dress is totally permeable!"

Next time, we’ll handle the chaos of three kids. Oh wait, four. Things are getting crazy around here.

[Beks]

Chapter 72 – Beach Drama

I think our current butler is glitched out somehow. Poor Pauline is addicted to coffee to the point where she can’t get a full night’s sleep, and her bed being in the nursery certainly doesn’t help. She also seems to be incapable of showering, for whatever reason. When she’s not passing out from exhaustion, she is standing over Curley’s crib, glaring at him menacingly (or just covering her ears).

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From a builder’s perspective, it’s very handy that Cloyd and Gladys have the Hates the Outdoors and Loves the Outdoors traits respectively. Cloyd is forced to sleep with the “Plagued by Nature” moodlet the whole first night he spends in his new bedroom, whilst Gladys enjoys the “One with Nature” moodlet. Could this be because I forgot to put a roof on the new addition? Oooops. (Don’t worry, I realize the problem just in time for the kids to wake up for school.)

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A couple days into their childhood, the twins bike down to the bottom of the mountain to visit their grandparents for the first time. We haven’t seen Dillie and Nawwaf in a while, so I figure it’s about time we see what they’re up to!

Cloyd decides to wear his astronaut costume, to make an ideal first impression.

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“Gladys, what are you doing? The front door is over there.”

“Nah, I’m pretty sure it’s somewhere in these hydrangeas.”

And…oh dear. The kids walk right into a fight between Dillie and Nawwaf. When she sees her grandkids, Dillie has a bit of a harsh reaction.

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It turns out that Dillie and Nawwaf haven’t been getting along very well since moving into their own place. I’ve gotten a few Story Progression notifications saying they’ve been having disagreements, but I didn’t expect it to be this bad in reality!

It actually seems to be Dillie who’s antagonizing Nawwaf at the moment. She’s the one doing the yelling and the slapping (not pictured, because distressing).

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Nawwaf is the one trying to smooth things over with badly-timed romantic interactions.

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Poor Nawwaf just doesn’t understand why Dillie doesn’t want to hug right now.

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I feel really bad for Dillie and Nawwaf. Especially Dillie. Nawwaf was incredibly flaky in the early days of their relationship, and, well, maybe it was a sign that things weren’t going to work out very well between them. Dillie has certainly put in the effort over the years to make their relationship work. Maybe she’s finally cracking. (She’s also getting very old. I believe she’s over 90 at this point.)

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But anyway…let’s focus on the positives here. The Generation Eleven kiddos are getting to know their grandparents! Yay! 

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“Oh hiya, kids. Didn’t see ya there! How’s it hangin’?”

In the end, it turns out to be an okay visit to the beach cottage. So long as the kids keep their grandparents away from each other, the fighting is kept to a minimum. Cloyd bonds with his grandfather over their shared love of television (and they make the exact same facial expressions simultaneously as they watch, which is adorable).

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Gladys, meanwhile, becomes best friends with her grandmother. They spend a lot of time hugging and talking about their favorite color, white.

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Cloyd’s knack for photography shows up for the first time during this visit. He captures a nice candid shot of his grandmother in front of her drafting table.

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He’s already got the face of a mischievous bystander, about to post a potentially viral photo to social media.

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"My grandma just slapped my grandpa! Hahah!"

Unfortunately, there isn’t enough time before curfew for both kids to become best friends with both grandparents, but at least they're on friendly terms now. And it was certainly nice to see Dillie again. I hope she sticks around a bit longer.

Back at home, Curley is getting some potty lessons from Daddy.

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This kid is just about the cutest toddler ever. (We’ve been blessed with a LOT of cute toddlers in this legacy, I must say. Curley is one of many.) Look at that passionate pout!

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He also has the absolute cutest smile when he’s about to be tickled. I can’t get over this photo. I really can’t.

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Kylie can hardly see over her swollen belly, but she still takes the time to teach Curley to walk. This is her typical state now—very pregnant, yet in the midst of teaching her other kids important life skills. What a mom.

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Scooter is doing very well in his film career. He recently chose the Director path and got promoted to storyboardist. And he’s finally out of that stupid blue tux and that stupid punk hairstyle. Phew!

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And if you’re concerned about Simon, don’t be. Even though he works long, weird hours (playing for tips all hours that he’s awake / all hours that I remember to send him to the subway), he loves his job and does it well. He maxes out the piano skill faster than I ever expected, too.

One perk of playing piano in the subway station until 3 a.m.––sometimes, if you’re lucky, there’s a food truck waiting for you when you resurface.

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One ordinary weekday afternoon, Kylie goes into labor. She’s alone in the house with Curley––Scooter is at work, Simon is playing for tips in the subway, the twins are at school, and the butler is probably conked out somewhere––so she heads to the hospital alone.

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Just as she gets in the car, the twins arrive home from school and start freaking out on the street.

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“Cloyd, where are you going?! Mom’s in labor!”

“I know! I’m going to rescue her! Stay safe, sister––I must ride!”

Cloyd gets about halfway down the mountain before he glitches out and just stands on the side of the road looking confused. I guess the “Baby is coming!” action disappeared from his queue when his mother arrived at the hospital, or something. He bashfully rides his bike home again and waits there like the good boy he is. It was a valiant effort, Cloyd.

A few hours later, Kylie emerges from the hospital holding a boy named Eugene in her arms.

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…And Scooter follows her, holding a girl named Octavia!

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And with that, friends, our household is full, and we have achieved the family requirement for this final generation. Octavia is the last Middlemiss to be born in this legacy.

I would suggest we all take a moment of silence to reflect on this important moment, but actually there are THREE Middlemiss babies screaming for food and cuddles right now, so perhaps we should just leave things as they are. See ya next time!

[Beks]

Chapter 73 – Sandbox Mode

Life is progressing rapidly in the Middlemiss household. With her last maternity leave nearly over, Kylie works hard to get ready to go back to work. She might be the oldest Latrine Cleaner ever in a legacy household, but she’s determined to fly through the ranks as soon as she gets back. (She’s already maxed athletic and is somewhere around level 6 of the handiness skill.)

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Simon becomes an Adult in his favorite spot in the city, and at his favorite time of day—between the subway station and the food truck, in the middle of the night.

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He also has a Mid-Life Crisis. His first wish is to get a makeover, and since he’s been such a good boy and has earned us so much money (and also because he’s adorable and I love him), I decide to indulge him for once.

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Off he goes to get some facial hair and a new everyday outfit.

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Simon also pops a wish to go on a date with Julie, his longtime vampire girlfriend whom we never ever see. I guess there’s a reason we never see her…she shows up to the date as a puff of smoke. Literally.

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Since Simon can’t interact with his slowly-frying-to-death girlfriend, he turns to other options. Hey look––it’s Pauline, our former butler!

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Adult birthdays are happening all over the place. Scooter has his while tending to the needs of his new baby daughter. He manages to avoid a Mid-Life Crisis, but only just.

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And a couple days later, Kylie has her birthday also.

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Gladys seems to be enjoying her childhood quite a bit. I pretty much leave her and Cloyd to their own devices since there’s always so much going on in the household. Gladys loves playing outside, particularly in the sandbox.

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She even prefers to sleep outside. I let her sleep in the treehouse on weekends if she wants, but most nights I call her inside so she can get all the nice moodlets from her comfy canopy bed.

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Cloyd’s interests are less clear at this point in time. I’ve never raised a kid who Hates the Outdoors before, and I mean, I built this nice playground for all the kids to enjoy…what else can he do? Oftentimes he gets dragged along on Gladys’s outdoor adventures.

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“Hey, Gladys, I can see the house from here! Do you want to go play inside?”

“Not yet, you dweeb. We’ve only been out here for five minutes.”

He’ll even spend a few minutes in the sandbox, when instructed.

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“Hey Gladys, guess what? Grandpa told me that once upon a time, a vampire lived under our house and grew poisonous fruit in this very soil. That’s why the grass never grew back. He said if we dig deep enough, we might find old bottles of vampire nectar!”

“That’s ridiculous. Grandpa’s Insane, you know that.”

Soon enough, it’s time for the younger twins to become toddlers. This is the last big reveal of this legacy! *sniffle*

Eugene goes first…

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…and then Octavia.

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I have never had twin sims that look so alike. That seems weird to say, but it’s true. My twins always turn out looking quite different from each other. Not these babies!

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Eugene is a Friendly Genius who likes Kids music, Stu Surprise, and White. (So many lovers of white recently!)

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Octavia is Grumpy and Absent-Minded, and she likes Egyptian music, Crepes, and the color Lime.

The very next day is yet another birthday––Curley’s! Here’s one last shot of this boy being an adorable, smiley toddler.

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Here he goes! Please ignore the puddle of pee in the background. It's a constant presence.

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Curley ages up with the Daredevil trait. I realize his shirt and his shorts clash terribly; I promise you I gave him better pants after taking this picture.

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Eugene and Octavia start right away on being productive, educated toddlers. No fun allowed in this house––only EDUCATION.

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Since I’ve paid so little attention to Cloyd and Gladys’s skills as children, I decide to put a little more effort in with Curley. He gets assigned to the oven and quickly learns to make some high-quality brownies and pies.

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The older twins’ childhood is nearly over. Things are racing along towards the end of the legacy.

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Next time, we’ll see some more birthdays, and watch as my game slowly disintegrates under the weight of ten generations of play. See ya then!

[Beks]

Chapter 74 – The Festival of Nothing

My game is, once again, slowly breaking. But this time, the main issue seems to be a loss of free will. Observe.

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Our scene is set on the sidewalk outside the Bridgeport Sports Zone. Set for what, you ask? Some kind of festival...? I have absolutely no idea, but the ENTIRE TOWN is here for it. Notice how nobody is doing anything. They’re all…just…standing there.

The apparent brokenness of free will is coupled with an inability of all visiting sims to stay at the Middlemiss house for longer than five seconds. I throw a birthday party for Cloyd and Gladys, but most guests show up and then leave immediately (after saying it was a great party, because duh).

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“Wow, two people showed up for our party. Great.”

Dillie stops by in her limo, which she apparently owns AND drives now. She just shouts “Happy birthday” through the window, then swings the limo around and leaves.

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When it’s time for cake, only a couple of guests remain. Curley spends the majority of the party staring with unnerving intensity at his older siblings’ cakes, so he’s more than ready for the main event.

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Cloyd goes first.

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He’s cheered on by only three people who aren't in our household: Nawwaf, Pauline the ex-butler, and some girl from school whose name I can’t remember.

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When it’s Gladys’s turn, everyone is still vying for a slice of Cloyd’s cake. Guess who’s not getting a piece?

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Elementary school girl: “Guys, gather round. We don’t want mustache guy stealing ANY of our cake.”

Puberty hits Gladys like a shot to the heart.

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…And gives her the most terrifying growth spurt I’ve ever seen. Like, does anyone have a tranquilizer gun? I’m gonna have nightmares!

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Both twins manage to survive their birthdays and become very attractive teens. Here’s Cloyd, who becomes a Nurturing fellow.

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And here’s Gladys, who becomes an Adventurous young lady.

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So, remember that free will issue I mentioned at the start of this chapter? It’s infiltrated the Bungalow, too. Sometimes I’ll be merrily moving the camera through the house, as you do, and come across scenes like this.

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Kylie: *sigh* “Doing things is just so…tiring.”

If you think doing nothing is tiring, Kylie, wait till you have to go to work. Oh wait, that’s RIGHT NOW.

Kylie gets up in the middle of that night after about one hour of sleep, and I’m confused as to why––until the notification arrives stating that work for her starts in an hour. I’ve had the luxury of ignoring those popups for this entire generation so far, but tonight…it’s actually real!

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Poor Kylie has a rough first day back, running on no sleep and all, but she gets through it. Barely.

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She doesn’t even make it to the bed before passing out from exhaustion.

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While I’m out and about in town, I decide to check on things at the Bridgeport Sports Zone.

Ah, things are going very well! Even more people have gathered at this hot spot (oh yes, it’s labeled as such), and we’ve got all kinds of action interspersed with the hours of standing around doing nothing.

We’ve got screaming townies running away from nothing. (At least, I can’t figure out what they’re running from.)

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We’ve got screaming cops and grumbling vampires.

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We’ve got screaming women going into labor in the middle of traffic.

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And we’ve got all of the above in one picture, with some sort of holographic traffic accident and an Emperor of Evil to boot. And oh hey, there’s Bridgett!

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This weird phenomenon continues into the wee hours of the morning (and is probably still going on...I haven't gone back to check). Most people still stand around staring into space, but they start to Freak Out with increasing frequency as time goes on. Can you count how many people are having nervous breakdowns in this picture?

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Meanwhile, things are moderately pleasant at home, aside from the constant lag and weird social interactions bug. Oh yes, those are messed up too. At least with sims outside of the household, social interactions take ages to complete––both sims will just stand there in silence for a while before getting around to doing the interaction, and sometimes they never complete it at all. I have to cancel the interaction or use resetsim to get things moving again. I was hoping to use that eternal hotspot downtown to get Scooter to talk to a bunch of sims and work on his charisma skill, but the interactions are so bugged that I give up pretty quickly.

Luckily, Scooter has completed most of the skill challenges that require interacting with people. Now all he has left to do is reach level 10 (he’s at level 8 right now) and bombard his housemate and best friend, Simon, with stupid joke after stupid joke. That “Never Dull” reward is priceless in this scenario!

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Kylie’s doing fine as she heads back to work. She’s also nearly finished with her Mid-Life Crisis, during which the only concerning wish she rolls is to have 10 children. And it wasn’t even a crisis wish…I think Kylie’s brain might be glitching out on top of everything else.

The younger twins are having a less-than-great toddlerhood, I'm sad to say. The issues with free will in the household cause their needs to go unmet for longer than usual (the adults don’t autonomously care for them nearly as much as they used to). I’m trying my best to keep up with everything, but having to micromanage everyone in a household of eight gets exhausting. At least Eugene and Octavia have each other to play with and don’t have to suffer from delayed dinners by themselves.

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Curley is the happy middle child, enjoying his newfound independence as well as the perks of having two doting older siblings.

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Yes, things are going swimmingly for the Middlemisses. I’m having lots of fun dealing with the worst lag I’ve ever experienced and trying to get my sims to do things. Any things. The cherry on top is that my game crashes at this point in the story, and I lose two days of play. And those two days took nearly two hours to play because of the constant freezing!

And on that note…because my game is so bloated and buggy and terrible, I may have to end the legacy a little bit sooner than I originally planned. I was going to wait until the youngest child of this generation becomes a Young Adult, but I might decide to go ahead and end it as soon as the oldest becomes a Young Adult instead. Or as soon as Scooter completes his generational requirement (supermaxing charisma). Hopefully, those things will happen around the same time, and we can call it a day. As much as I’ve loved playing and writing this story…these issues are really starting to outweigh the fun, and I will be very ready to be finished when it’s time.

But no matter what, we're not done yet! The kids have got lots of growing and schooling to do. Stay tuned for more of that, and probably more thrilling glitches. Toodle-oo!

[Beks]

Chapter 75 – Bubbles & Bake Sales

And we’re back! I cleared some space on my teeny tiny hard drive, which helped reduce my game’s unbearable lag, and resetting all the objects in town via MasterController took care of the Eternal Hot Spot problem (see previous chapter). Things seem to be running a bit smoother in my game for now. Unfortunately, my eagerness to finish the rest of the challenge as fast as possible is my main motivation here, but fortunately, the Middlemisses have continued to be their quirky selves and provide me with enough entertainment to keep me going. Let’s see what they’ve been up to, shall we?

Scooter is getting close to supermaxing Charisma––he has about fifty more jokes to tell and one more best friend to make, and then he just needs to get to level 10 of the skill (he’s about midway through level 8 right now). As always, Simon gets to listen to joke after joke after joke. And as always, he never stops thinking they’re funny, thanks to that Never Dull reward.

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“Hahaha! I don’t know why I’m still laughing at this! Heh heh heh! Hehhhh…”

I don’t really have any more pictures of Eugene and Octavia as toddlers, for some reason––just this one of Octavia learning to walk. But she and Eugene learn their skills in time for their birthdays, which are coming up sooner than even I realized while playing.

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Cloyd meets a girl at Debate Club and asks her out on a date to The Grind. She’s a little, um, scary looking, but that’s not unusual in a town full of third-generation vampires and their non-vampire kin. (This girl, Eva Angelista-Middlemiss, is of the non-vampire cohort. She’s a great-granddaughter of Clarence, which explains the last name.)

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And look who’s also here at the club! Dillie still knows how to party in her old age. She’s 100 days old at this point and acting like she never passed 30.

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The date isn’t the most memorable on record. Cloyd spends half the evening eating hot wings in the corner by himself while Eva and Dillie rock out on the dance floor.

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At least he has the presence of mind to act jealous.

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Or maybe just a tad creepy.

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“Does your grandson always stare at girls like that?”

“I wouldn’t know, honey pie. Don't stop dancing now, this is my favorite song!”

Eventually, Eva goes over to confront Cloyd and see what’s up.

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“There you are. Why won’t you come out and dance? Are you avoiding me?”

“Of course not. I am concentrating very hard on this bubble.”

“Right, well…I just wanted to say, you don’t need to bother asking me out again. I have a boyfriend.”

“Sorry, could you repeat that? I was concentrating too hard on the––“

“Forget it, Cloyd. I’ll see you at school.”

Yeah, so, that didn’t go very well. (Honestly, I blame Eva for asking someone out when she's already committed to someone.) Cloyd’s not too torn up about it, though. After Eva leaves, Cloyd joins his grandmother on the dance floor and they have a lovely time.

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Cloyd’s awkward date is not the last we see of Dillie. The next afternoon, I send Simon to purchase the Bridgeport hospital––several household members have popped wishes to own more venues, and we’re rolling in dough at this point (mostly thanks to Simon playing for tips), so I figure why not. A few hours later, I click back to Simon and find him playing catch with Dillie out behind the hospital. I love how we keep running into her. She just won’t let us forget about her. What a sweet pickle.

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As for Gladys, she has a knack for showing up for family meals wearing something weird and not letting anyone give her a hard time about it.

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“Uh…Gladys? Why are you wearing swimwear at the breakfast table?”

“Why aren’t you?”

She also likes to hang out in the sandbox that she spent so much time in as a kid. She’s not Childish, but she still enjoys digging things up out of the sand. A glimpse of her future, perhaps…?

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Curley is one of the more avid bakers we’ve seen in recent generations, getting up to level 3 of the skill in just one day. His chocolate cupcakes are making even MY mouth water. (Although, they are chocolate. So that’s really no surprise.)

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He also makes a very cute bakesalesman. Even though not a single customer shows up to buy anything. Downsides of living on top of the highest mountain, a two hour drive from civilization. 

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Aww, look who found the new practice dummy I tucked away in the backyard! I find Kylie out here at one in the morning, swatting away with a fury I’ve never seen in her. (And a dopeyness I didn’t know she was capable of. This is how she was when I found her with the game paused. I laughed, very hard, for several minutes.)

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This poor girl has been Disciplined all her life, but has never been exposed to anything Martial Arts-related until now. Her frustration at being a newbie shows with every kick and whack.

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But see, look how excited she gets when she earns her first belt! Awww. I feel bad for keeping this from Kylie for so long.

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I think our girl has found her Thing.

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Soon enough, Eugene and Octavia have their shared birthday, aging up on the nursery floor. It’s in this moment that I realize they are the last toddlers we’ll see in this story. Let’s all take a moment to tear up.

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And here they are! I have never had two twins look more alike. Seriously, they look like the same exact person, just with different hair and clothes. I should have named them Eugene and Eugenia.

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Anyway, Eugene is now a Friendly, Perceptive Genius.

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And Octavia is Grumpy, Absent-Minded, and Unlucky. Poor girl. Hopefully her next trait will be a redemptive one.

Next time, we'll celebrate another birthday and watch some unexpected family drama unfold. See ya then!

[Beks]

Chapter 76 – The Missing

Welcome back to the land of the Middlemisses. Simon Rubble-Clavier comemmorates our return with some bangin’ on his clavier.

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Octavia, a newly-aged-up child, pops a wish to learn the writing skill, so I send her downtown on her bike to take a class. As she’s heading in to the business office, she runs into someone we haven’t seen in a while. She’s completely starstruck by the mysterious, scantily-clad vampire who used to live in her house when her grandparents were young.

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Back home, Eugene’s first autonomous action is to play chess on the computer. He’s got a lot of logic still to learn, you see, considering he doesn’t seem to realize that the computer isn’t even on.

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That evening, I get a rather distressing notification––that Kylie has a reputation as a Cheater. What’s more, Scooter has the “Betrayed” moodlet that lasts for five days. I’m very confused at this point, because Kylie hasn’t flirted with anyone to my knowledge since marrying Scooter, and when I check her relationships I find that ohhhh she still has a romantic interest. Oopsies.

Things HAVE been a bit tense between these two lately, though I haven’t been able to put my finger on why. Well, now I know. Kylie consoles herself with some super smooth martial arts movements (I realize my lingo is lacking and I am sorry), then calls up her old flame, Max Angelista-Middlemiss.

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Meeting Max out in the front yard, Kylie explains her dilemma with her husband and asks Max if they can just be friends.

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Max and his very hairy forearms are not okay with that.

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“WHAT? We’ve been romantically involved for THIRTY YEARS and you’re breaking up with me NOW??”

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“But—but—we haven’t been romantically involved! I haven’t even seen you since before prom!”

I don’t know why it takes so long for the “Attractive Company” moodlet to trigger between them, but eventually, it does. I love the look on Max's face as the hearts fly up.

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“You’re a real jerk, you know that, Kylie? A beautiful, sexy jerk.”

Poor Max. The confusion is real. But eventually he seems to resign himself to the fact that he’s not getting any action from the legacy lady he never even actually dated and heads home to his wife (!) and children (!!!).

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The trouble isn’t over for Kylie, though. Mr. Scooter here doesn’t care one bit that his wife went to so much effort to ease the tension between them. All he wants to do is scream while wearing his swim trunks. Poor Kylie is so startled she goes and gets herself stuck in the kitchen island.

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She's then forced to plead for forgiveness for something she never even did.

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“Please, Scooter, I promise nothing has ever happened between Max and me! He told me I was cute at study club in high school and we never talked again! Please believe me!”

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“I don’t make the rules, Kylie. The laws of Bridgeport and all Sim worlds clearly state that being romantically interested in someone other than your partner counts as cheating 100% of the time, regardless of how long ago the interest occurred. Time is irrelevant. Except when it comes to moodlet duration.”

“Yeah, speaking of…how’s that ‘Betrayed’ moodlet treating you?”

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“Oh, god, it’s awful. I can’t believe I have to get through four more days of this.”

Kylie and Scooter’s relationship is in the red, and it’ll take time and work to mend it. In the meantime, I’ve decided to focus on other things.

Like Curley’s birthday! I use Master Controller to age him up before school so he can go to prom with his older siblings. (Note the paintings on the wall in the below screenshot. The one on the left is a sketch by Dillie, and the one on the right is by Bao. Remember Bao, Peach’s spouse all the way back in Generation Five? How the time has flown!)

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Curley ages up into a good-looking teen. I think he was sort of blinking when I took this screenshot, because he looks much better in-game. Also, I really wish there were more curly hairstyles for boys and men. This is the best one I could find and it's not even actually curly. Curley takes on the Easily Impressed trait. I guess that means he doesn’t mind that his hair can’t match his name perfectly.

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That night is prom, and three of the five Middlemiss kiddos are old enough to go. They all head out together, looking like the sickest band that ever was an hour late for something.

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It’s an eventful dance for everyone. Curley is voted Prom King the moment they walk in the door, and a couple hours later, Gladys is crowned Prom Queen (and apparently tears up when handed the crown…aww). Gladys and Cloyd also find themselves a romantic interest each––Gladys falls for a very pasty vampire named Marshall Hemlock-Belle, and Cloyd meets another vampire named Tiffany Slayer-Striker. (So many of these hyphenated last names just sound so violent.) Additionally, both Curley and Gladys get into fights. I guess that’s not too surprising––Curley is a Daredevil, and Gladys is Adventurous and, well, Clumsy. Maybe she just tripped and fell into a fight that someone else started.

Prom ends really late at night, for some reason––Gladys and Cloyd don’t leave the school building until after 11:30 p.m., and of course one of them (Cloyd in this case) gets rounded up by the police within seconds.

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Then the scariest thing happens. Cloyd gets into the cop car, Gladys disappears into a taxi, and then BOTH of their portraits DISAPPEAR FROM THE LEFT SIDE OF MY SCREEN. The cars vanish with a pop and I lose sight and control of both sims. Completely. WHAT.

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Police Officer: “What happened to those two teens I was just arresting? They were standing right here!”

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You’re just as confused as I am, lady. I pan the camera home; the twins are not there. Curley made it home hours ago––he managed to get out of prom relatively on time and then took the family motorbike home. But where are Cloyd and Gladys?

The rogue teens don’t get home until 5 in the morning, when the Overwatch nightly sweep locates them and brings them home. Thank you, Overwatch! They arrive a little hungry, but otherwise completely fine. (And Cloyd arrives home msyteriously well rested for a teen who’s been up all night.) I guess when they got out of prom too late and broke curfew, the double arrest that should have happened just glitched out and made them disappear. It’s almost like they were kept in the brig overnight and then released just before dawn.

Anyway! They’re home, safe and sound. And I’m never letting them break curfew again.

Next time, Cloyd and Gladys will SAFELY, WITH PROPER SUPERVISION, get to know their romantic interests. See ya then!

[Beks]

Chapter 77 – Encrypted Love

Our elder twins, Cloyd and Gladys, are both of eligible dating age, and since they both met potential partners at prom in the last chapter, I think it’s time we let them explore their options more thoroughly.

We’ll start with Cloyd. Cloyd met a girl named Tiffany Slayer-Striker at prom and found her utterly charming. A few days later, he calls her and asks her to meet him at the park by the school.

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Tiffany arrives wearing the same pizza shirt she wore the night they met. (I admire a girl who will wear a pizza shirt to prom. That’s all I’m saying.) She’s cute, isn’t she? Hardly vampiric-looking at all! And what’s more…it takes me embarrassingly long to figure this out, and also I apparently left this out of the story, but um…once upon a time, Simon had a vampire girlfriend that he went to visit once or twice. I swear I included that in a chapter, but I can’t find it in my past posts, so I guess I cut it out to save space or something? Anyway, that happened, and, well…Simon and his girlfriend (whose name I can’t remember) had a child together. And…

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Yup. You guessed it. You’re looking at her, all grown up.

Cloyd really seems to like Tiffany. He actually looks genuinely bashful as he offers her a bouquet of flowers he stashed in his pocket beforehand! Tiffany has some nice traits, too, and is perhaps the most sane and normal vampire we’ve encountered in this town. And the fact that she’s the daughter of Simon only makes her more perfect.

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Yup, I think these two were meant to be. They share their first kiss and become boyfriend and girlfriend before the afternoon is halfway over. Hooray!

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After that, it’s Gladys’s turn. She takes the family motorbike out for a spin and meets Marshall Hemlock-Belle at the graveyard.

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Gladys’s date with Marshall doesn’t go nearly as perfectly as her brother’s did. She quickly finds out two things about Marshall––one, that he’s Unflirty, and two, that she’s not attracted to him at all. Right after the date begins, Gladys heads down into the secret crypt bar (how did I not know about it sooner...?!?!?) and orders herself some wacko electrified drink, leaving Marshall alone among the gravestones aboveground. Almost as if she’s avoiding him.

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Eventually, Marshall stops lurking creepily among the dead people and joins his date down at the bar. He spends the rest of the night ordering plate after plate of poor-quality Frogs Legs, while Gladys “Spills her Sorrows” to the mixologist and looks around dismally.

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Is this the face of a girl who’s enjoying her date? I don’t think so. In fact, she looks a little HEY MARSHALL WHAT ARE YOU DOING???

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Oh right. He’s a vampire. Doing vampire things. Well, Gladys clearly doesn’t care.

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Gladys decides she’s had enough and tells Marshall that she just wants to be friends.

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Marshall isn’t happy, but at least he doesn’t bite her. He kind of just looks like a disappointed muskrat, to be honest.

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So Gladys still has some partner-hunting to do, but we’ll get around to that. Let’s check back with the younger Middlemisses first.

Octavia takes after her older sister in regards to her enthusiasm for the sandbox. The search for buried vampire wine continues!

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Eugene works to distract Gladys from her troublesome love life with a game of chess. He’s starting to pick up the skill more quickly now that he’s gotten off the broken computer from last time.

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And things are slowly improving between Kylie and Scooter!

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Well…

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Okay, maybe not. We’re still in the confines of the five-day ‘Betrayed’ moodlet. *sigh*

I also have a couple of pictures of Gladys doing slightly weird things. I think she does this after losing that chess game with Eugene. I hope that Adventurous trait is emboldening her to try again in the love department.

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Then later, I find her upstairs crying in front of the fish tank. For some reason I took a screenshot of this. So here we are.

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It’s a full and busy household right now with three teens and two kids running around. At least they all seem to get along pretty well. I think Gladys is just being sulky here––the others are all happily playing a game of tag in their pajamas.

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I get tired of Gladys’s sulking very quickly. I’m eager for her to find a real relationship, one that she’ll be happy in. Luckily, Debate Club seems to be an ideal place to meet potential partners. On Monday, Gladys meets not one, but TWO guys with whom she shares an attraction. I spy on them as they exit the school and immediately pick my favorite out of the two. After Debate Club ends that afternoon, I send Gladys over to the Missoni-Jones household so she can get to know their son, Marlon.

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She runs into a bit of a mishap with Marlon’s younger sister, though.

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“Moooommm, there’s some lady trying to get into our house and she won’t stop melding with me!”

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“Rrrrghhh, I just want to go on a DATE with a BOY! Why does everything have to be so COMPLICATED?"

Gladys does finally manage to get inside the house (and into Marlon’s adorably weird, periwinkle living room), only to find that Marlon isn’t even home. *sigh* She calls him and decides to cut to the chase, asking him on a proper date at Hubert's bistro on the water.

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And here’s Marlon. He’s very quick to apologize for his aloofness and starts flirting with Gladys right away.

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Yeah…I'm liking the looks of things already. Enjoy the night, you two!

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That’s all we have time for. Next time, I have no idea what happens, because I haven’t played that far ahead. Toodle-oo!

[Beks]

Chapter 78 – The Cusp Of Greatness

This last generation of the Middlemisses is humming along nicely, now that my game has decided to behave (at least for the moment). With five young’uns in the household––three teens, two kids––things are busy, but not overwhelming. The kids are all doing well in school. The teens go to study club together every day after classes let out. Everyone is making friends, doing their homework, making it home before curfew. And since the weight of the legacy still rests on Scooter’s shoulders, the kids have no real stresses beyond their everyday accomplishments. All they have left to do is make it to adulthood without killing themselves.

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That said, they each have their eccentricities. Gladys is probably the most expressive of the group, looking adventurous one moment and like she’s rocking out at a party the next. Or maybe she’s reacting to her own B.O.?

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And Cloyd, as you can see, is the more, uh, derpy one. I’m really not sure what he’s doing here. I almost feel like he's waving to me. With crossed eyes. I feel uncomfortable.

As she works her way, slowly but surely, up the ladder of the military, Kylie is continuing to learn Martial Arts. She’s not a young pupil, but she’s a very eager one. One of her favorite places to practice meditation is the beach, for obvious reasons.

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She stays out there long enough to earn a new belt and show it off to her Watcher under the stars.

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Scooter is on the cusp of greatness at this point. As the final heir in this legacy, he is just a day away from a promotion in his film career; he’s completed all his charisma skill challenges (including telling 100 jokes); and he’s nearly reached the end of the charisma skill itself. Another day or two of steady work and he’ll have accomplished everything he set out to do.

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In the meantime, here he is looking dopey in front of the mirror. I guess even Assistant Directors with decades of social interactions behind them still need practice sometimes.

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Gladys’s dating ups-and-downs seemed to be resolved at the end of the last chapter. She had that rough date with a vampire, then hit it off with a couple different guys from study club (neither of whom she ever ran into again), then finally had a decent date with Marlon, my boy of choice for her. But the next time I opened my game, I found that Gladys wasn't as satisfied with that outcome as I'd thought. Since I'd last played, Gladys had popped not one, not two, but THREE romantic wishes relating to various girls in her class. Oh. Could that explain her ambivalence in trying to date guys?

I think it could. One of her wishes is a whopping 1,000-point wish to kiss a girl named Laurie. Gladys, being an adventurous soul, doesn’t hesitate to give Laurie a call and ask her to meet her at the Butterfly Dome on the other side of the city.

It takes a while, but Laurie finally shows up at sunset.

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And sparks fly.

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Romance develops between these two with all the ease of love that was meant to be. All of a sudden, things have fallen into place for Gladys, and I feel silly for trying to push her into something that wouldn’t have made her happy. See, beautiful things can happen when you let your sims decide things for themselves! At least…some of the time.

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With a lot of sheepish whispering and hand-holding, Gladys and Laurie officially become a couple, and win the award for best first-date scenery. Gladys’s film director father would be proud.

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Eugene and Octavia are doing well, too. They are persistent in asking their big brothers and sister for bedtime stories every night, and I’ve never seen such an obliging and caring set of older siblings. It’s really quite sweet.

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I also like how close the sets of twins seem to be. See, Octavia looks like she’s about to swat a fly that’s landed on her brother’s nose! How thoughtful!

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As for the extended family…Dillie still makes her presence known every once in a while. On this particular day, I spot her while the kids are on the bus home from school. She’s walking alone across the bridge into the city. Why she doesn’t take a taxi, or a bicycle, or the subway, or any other transportation at all, is beyond me. In any case, it’s lovely to see her when she appears. MasterController tells me that she's about 105 now. She might be the longest-living Middlemiss ever––definitely in recent memory.

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The next day is an exciting one for the Middlemiss family, for several reasons. First of all, after a long and intense training session with Kylie, Simon decides that he wants nothing more than to kiss the married woman he’s lived with for two decades.

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They get right back to training, with renewed vigor.

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“This is what you get for trying to kiss a married woman, you inappropriate nincompoop! Now push! HARDER!”

“Ahhhhh I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry! I’ll never do it again, I promise!”

Secondly, Scooter finally reaches the top of his career and becomes a Distinguished Director, achieving his lifetime wish. Congrats, Scooter!

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Thirdly, the youngest twins are having a birthday! After this evening, we will have FIVE TEENAGERS in this household. Can you believe it?

Since it’s such a big birthday and it’s been so long since we’ve had a party, Kylie calls up the close friends of the family and invites them over to celebrate the occasion. The old nursery is also converted into a bit of a party room.

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Dillie and Nawwaf are both invited to the party, of course, but unfortunately, Dillie never shows. I figure she’s decided to walk up the mountain, since that seems to be her preferred mode of transportation lately…until I get a notification. The dreaded notification. The one that says that Dillie Middlemiss has passed on. RIP, Dillie my darling pickle. If only you’d lived another night to see your youngest grandchildren grow up.

In spite of this gloomy news, Eugene is more than thrilled to take a walk of fame to his birthday cake. (And I am more than thrilled to delete this stupid window and replace it with a large one I can actually take screenshots through.)

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Make a wish, Eugene! (There’s Grandpa Nawwaf in the back with the green jacket, if you’re wondering.)

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Octavia follows with her own cake, looking very suspicious as she prepares to blow out her candles.

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Teenage Eugene picks up a pair of glasses that may or may not have fake plastic lenses. He rolls the Flirty trait, to supplement his Friendly, Genius, and Perceptive traits.

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And Octavia rolls the Athletic trait. Finally, a positive and useful trait! (Her other traits, you may remember, are Grumpy, Absent-Minded, and Unlucky.) Octavia also grows up into a striking resemblance of Dillie, which is kind of perfect considering Dillie passed away about five seconds ago. I like to think of it as a beautiful way to remember her.

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That’s all for now, folks. We are so incredibly close to the end of this legacy. Until then!

[Beks]

Chapter 79 – The End

Can you believe it, folks?

We have reached the final chapter of the Middlemiss Random Legacy.

There’s not a lot to say by way of introduction, so let’s get into it. It’s time to send our favorite family out with a bang!

It’s Friday, and the five Middlemiss kiddos of Generation Eleven head off to their first and last day of high school as a full bunch. That is, for Cloyd and Gladys, it’s their last day of high school; for Eugene and Octavia, it’s their first. (Also, I swear all five kids are here on the bus, even though the game failed to render either of the girls. I guess the bus is deceptive in terms of its capacity.)

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See? They all made it. Once again, these kids look like a band or something whenever they’re all together. Although I wouldn’t wear Octavia’s fruit dress, personally, if I was performing on stage (cute as it is).

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While his kids are at school, Scooter goes to the library for possibly the first time ever and spends the day reading the level three charisma skill book. And by dinnertime, he finally, FINALLY maxes his charisma skill. And with that, his requirements for the challenge are complete!

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I have this picture of Simon standing outside Hubert’s Diner looking nostalgic. I think I sent him there for a nice dinner after a long day of playing for tips in the subway, and took this picture to comemmorate it? Or maybe I was just impressed by how buff he looks. I’m not sure. In any case, Simon doesn't get enough screen time in my opinion, so let's all enjoy his cute face (and massive shoulders) for a moment.

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The school day ends and the entire teenage population (half of which is Middlemiss) exits the school at the exact same time, breaks the laws of physics, and merges into a single mega-teenager. Yes, you can definitely see evidence of all five Middlemisses here. I mean, just count the noses alone.

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After school, Octavia goes to her new friend Jacklyn’s house and finds her way to the old periwinkle piano we spotted that one time Gladys came over here to try and woo Jacklyn’s older brother. Remember that? Anyway, Octavia spends hours playing and gets up to level 3 all on her own. Perhaps our Grumpy, Absent-Minded, Unlucky gal has found her passion at last! (I mean, I thought it was going to be Athletics, but hey.)

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Now at the peak of his career and with the pressures of his life behind him, Scooter can finally relax. He chooses to spend some time perfecting his spaghetti skills. He’s actually the best cook in the family right now, and with five kids, a wife, and a best friend to feed, he’s gotten pretty good at spaghetti.

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Because it’s the end of the challenge and I’m getting nostalgic, I take a lot of screenshots of the family eating dinner together. I’m not very good about having everyone sit down and eat together––this is a rare occasion. Of course, some people choose to sit outside or at the counter in the kitchen…but we’ve got most of the crew here.

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Okay, half the crew. Plus some blue-haired kid that came home with Eugene after school.

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The next day is Saturday—the day of a very important, legacy-ending event. I start setting up the yard in the morning, and the adults of the household quickly take advantage of the new activities available. And the new opportunity to be scantily clad at 9 a.m., I guess.

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As the party draws near, Curley, Octavia, and Eugene make sure the new fire pit is in working order.

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Curley: “Watch this, guys. I’m gonna swat at the fire and not get burned! Whoa!”
Eugene: “According to this book, Jimmy Sprocket literally eats fire, so…”
Octavia: “I’m so glad I’m moving out today.”

The party begins. The family dresses their best and the guests begin to arrive. Curley is in the kitchen when a very pretty girl from school runs through towards the back door and gives him a flirty little wave.

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Curley: “What? A girl waved at me? Where??”

Even though there’s cake on the horizon, Scooter still insists on practicing his cooking (again) and fires up the grill out back for the first time SINCE WE’VE LIVED IN BRIDGEPORT. All right, man. He and Simon spend half the party chilling over by the grill and talking about meat. Like the true middle-aged men they are.

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Scooter: “You know, next time I’m gonna have to try a different brand of salt rub. This one was way too garlicky.”

Simon: “You used salt rub on these? These…hot dogs?”

Gladys is reunited with her girlfriend, Laurie. Her former flame, Marlon (he of the periwinkle piano), stands nearby and tries to uphold his manly pride. You’re doing great, bud. For the record, I’d date you if I was a seventeen-year-old sim.

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And over by the stereo, Cloyd locks lips with his lovely vampire Tiffany. Jeez, guys, why don’t you rub it in Marlon’s face a little more?

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The romance doesn’t stop there. Curley tracks down the girl who waved at him earlier and tries his luck. Jane Cook-Schlick is all about the boy with the anomalous blond hair. Hooray!

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At last, it’s time for the main event—the final birthday party of the Middlemiss Random Legacy. Are you crying? I’m certainly not crying.

Gladys goes first because I THINK she was born first, but I actually can’t remember.

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Cloyd follows (and gets the bigger crowd, for some reason), looking wistfully up at the stars as the cheers rise around him. It’s all down to you now, kiddo.

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Sidenote: Check out the woman standing behind Cloyd. Those massive jowls! I can’t remember if I pointed her out in past chapters, but she definitely came to a sleepover as a child and has been sporting those jowls since toddlerhood. Yikes.

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And here they are. Our grown-up twins.

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Gladys’s final set of traits: Loves the Outdoors, Perceptive, Clumsy, Adventurous, and Eccentric. Her lifetime wish? To be a Great Explorer and explore all the tombs in Egypt, China, and France.

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Cloyd’s final traits are Hates the Oudoors, Disciplined, Photographer’s Eye, Nurturing, and Can’t Stand Art. His lifetime wish is to be Surrounded by Family.

And with that, my friends…the Middlemiss Random Legacy is finished.

[Beks]

Chapter 80 – The Beginning

Hah! Did I fool you? Come on, you can’t finish up a months-long legacy story on chapter seventy-nine! That’s a PRIME NUMBER! More importantly, we don’t yet know what happens to the Middlemiss family after the older twins age up!

But before we get to that, I feel compelled to take a bit of a trip down memory lane. Because in order for there to be an end to this story, there had to be a beginning. And a really, really long middle. And a long line of wonderful sims with unique personalities, quirks, and life stories.

There was Odile, our writer, and Lincoln (oh, Lincoln).

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There was Roberta and her Imaginary Friend-turned-lover, Buddy.

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There was Basil the prodigy, the boy born to be famous, and Sherita.

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There was also Basil, the tattoo obsessive who was also afraid of tattoos that one time.

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There was Llewellyn, the pioneer of Riverview, and his darling Elaine.

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There was brave Peach, the first Middlemiss to venture to a new country…

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…in order to find and fall in love with her very own singing firefighter, Bao.

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There was Granville, the hardest-partying evil villain that ever lived…

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…aside from his dark queen, the terrifying and incomparable Randi.

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There was Bambi, the cutest insane sim I’ve ever played, and the most persevering journalist…

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…and Jarrod, her faithful husband and fellow lover of country life.

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There was Hubert, the kindhearted, photogenic chef.

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Oh, and his brother Clarence, who got married in a bar and probably died with the ghost of a cocktail glass in his hand.

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There was the beautiful Polly and her identical twin daughter, gifted architect and beautiful pickle, Dillie.

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And we can’t forget our nectar-making vampire, the glorious pyromaniac Bridgett Talon-Schlick (who still lives on, eating men’s forearms, in Bridgeport forevermore).

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And finally, there was Scooter the great, and his beloved Kylie.

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What a ride it’s been! And now that we’re back to the present, we can finally take a peek into the future.

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First, the adults. Scooter and Kylie grow old together living in their big, empty house. (Well, it’s empty until their grandkids come to visit. I’m pretty sure there will be a lot of grandkids.) Scooter continues to direct films when he wants to, but he also takes a lot of time to relax, read books in weird places, and cuddle with his wife. Kylie achieves her lifetime wish of becoming an astronaut. She’s one of the oldest sims ever to do so, but she does it all the same. She also practices martial arts in her spare time and lives a long, healthy life as a result.

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Simon, who has spent his whole adult life playing his keyboard in subways, decides that it’s much more fun playing his keyboard in the open air. He becomes Bridgeport’s most celebrated street performer, and even travels to surrounding cities, becoming a celebrity throughout the sim world. Any tips he doesn’t need to support himself go to charity––they are NOT funneled directly into a legacy family’s bank account. This makes him very happy indeed.

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As for the kids, they have a variety of exciting futures. Cloyd (who, it turns out, is actually the oldest––I got it backwards last chapter), our nurturing photographer with a hatred for the outdoors, builds a quiet, cozy life in a mansion with his high school sweetheart, Tiffany (who, being a vampire, is just as happy to remain indoors as he is). Cloyd becomes a renowned photographer of strictly indoor settings with a minimalistic, not-artsy-fartsy style. He and Tiffany also fulfill their dream of having a large family and raise a bunch of precocious kids.

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Gladys becomes the adventurer she was always meant to be. Together with Laurie, her partner in crime, she travels to distant lands and explores tombs and new cultures to her heart’s content. When she’s not dropping valuable treasures and tripping over sand dunes, Gladys solves tomb puzzles more perceptively than any explorer preceding her.

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Curley’s Good, Daredevil, and Light Sleeper traits serve him well as Bridgeport’s new fire chief. He works long days and nights fighting fires in the heart of the city, and has way too much fun doing it. (I know, he looks very stressed in this picture, but I swear he's having fun.)

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Eugene, being Friendly, Perceptive, and a Genius, was born to be an investigator. He quickly rises in fame and ability and becomes Bridgeport’s very own Sherlock––complete with the hordes of adoring women, who are drawn to his natural flirtatiousness (though he pretends not to notice).

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And Octavia? Octavia’s stint on the periwinkle piano as a teenager was more than just an attempt at passing a boring afternoon. Octavia falls in love with music and ends up performing nightly in all of Bridgeport’s most exclusive clubs as the city’s most beloved pianist. Classical music holds her focus like nothing else, and she can be as gloomy and grumpy as she likes behind the lid of the grand piano.

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So you see, the Middlemisses go on to live happy, adventurous, and successful lives. And I, the watcher, go on to live my own life, leaving the Middlemisses behind. ’Tis bittersweet.

(I’ll leave you with this outtake from when I was trying out animations for the family portrait. Ah, I’m going to miss these sims.)

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///

Author’s Note: Thank you so much to all of you for reading this story! It’s hard to believe we’ve made it to the end. I’ve had nothing but fun playing and writing the Middlemisses. I will remember Odile, Roberta, Basil, Llewellyn, Peach, Granville, Bambi, Hubert, Dillie, and Scooter with great fondness, and I hope you will too. (Not to mention all their kooky, wonderful relatives and friends.) Thank you as always for reading, and may your own stories (lived and created) bring you all the excitement, laughter, and fulfillment that you hope for. Until next time! –amaranthin

[hazelnut]

Congratulations on making it all the way through!

[Cordy]

I really enjoyed this! Congratulations on finishing. Are you writing anything at the moment?

[mpart]

Congratulations! I just finished reading this story and I love it! It was definitely a rollercoaster. 
Poor Lincoln. 

[Beks]

Thank you so much for the kind comments, everyone!

Congratulations! I just finished reading this story and I love it! It was definitely a rollercoaster. 
Poor Lincoln. 

Poor Lincoln indeed! I think that pretty much sums up the whole legacy, in a way. Nothing was more memorable that Lincoln's untimely death. I'm still sad all these months later.

I really enjoyed this! Congratulations on finishing. Are you writing anything at the moment?

Thanks Cordy! I'm so glad you enjoyed the Middlemisses. If you're wondering whether I'm writing Sims things, I'm still working on the Honeyheart Short Dynasty, and I also have another story in the works that I hope to start posting really soon. As for outside-of-the-Sims things, I'm trying to get back to writing poetry a little bit (I used to write it quite a lot, especially when I was in college), with limited success so far. And by that I mean I've written, like, one not-good poem in the last two weeks. But it's something!