Outrun the Scythe: A Tale of Daemons and Immortals (Updated 8/3)

[mpart]

I'm absolutely horrible at commenting but I just want to say that I'm really enjoying this so far! I love the dynamic between Heathcliff and Sheila. It's wholesome.
I have to say though, from a writer's perspective, I'm looking at naive Heathcliff and I can't help but think "you poor man, you have no idea what is ahead of you, do you?" There's just something so fun about writing naive characters. They always seem surprised when something bad happens.
As for Heathcliff's reason for becoming a dynasty founder...YES. Do it for the gays, Heathcliff. Do it.

Edit: As for your Sam issue, my name is pretty common so I run into the issue of having the same name as somebody else every now and then. The solution a few of my friends found were calling us "Mpart 1 and Mpart 2." I ended up being Mpart 2. 

[Trip]

SHEILA


YES!

I love Sheila and Heathcliff together. They are really sweet and just a little awkward together, just like family. Also, for all the Sams, is it too late to have one of them go by a middle name? I went to school with 4 Catherines and that was what one of them did. One went by initials if that might be an option? Or maybe there will just be a battle of the Sams! Many Sams Enter, Only One Leaves!

@Chubling: I have a middle name for Samira but not the others. Unfortunately she gets the Sam privileges. I'll defer to fuller names for the others. Become a Samuel. Or something else. That being said Samira is gonna live longer than your average townie. (I have a timeline! She's somewhere around Grandma Beck's age and just keeps goin')

I am SO proud of Sheila after almost eight years of disappointment. Imagine my pain. Not her first time taken over by drunk confidence but the best time for sure.

I'm absolutely horrible at commenting but I just want to say that I'm really enjoying this so far! I love the dynamic between Heathcliff and Sheila. It's wholesome.
I have to say though, from a writer's perspective, I'm looking at naive Heathcliff and I can't help but think "you poor man, you have no idea what is ahead of you, do you?" There's just something so fun about writing naive characters. They always seem surprised when something bad happens.
As for Heathcliff's reason for becoming a dynasty founder...YES. Do it for the gays, Heathcliff. Do it.

Edit: As for your Sam issue, my name is pretty common so I run into the issue of having the same name as somebody else every now and then. The solution a few of my friends found were calling us "Mpart 1 and Mpart 2." I ended up being Mpart 2. 

@mpart: never encountered the name problem until I got into the workforce (my birth name's one of those extremely Gen X names so no classmates with it but plenty of middle-aged college advisors and such) We just never address it in the office and I usually know which one of us is being talked about anyways. But that is 100% the opposite of all writing advice I've gotten for naming characters lemme tell ya!

And don't sweat it about the comments. Heathcliff's big appeal for me is being naive ('cause you are SO right) but also confident in it. While walking that fine line between confidence and complete panic (he kept the Ironstar neurotic trait and I try to remember that it's there).

[Nella]

I love this story, the world building and the character are exceptional. Sheila shoving Louise in the dirty pool was the best scene, I laughed at it but at the same time I saw it as a representation of what Sheila thinks of the world of the immortals. That shows me how good a writer you are.

[Trip]

I love this story, the world building and the character are exceptional. Sheila shoving Louise in the dirty pool was the best scene, I laughed at it but at the same time I saw it as a representation of what Sheila thinks of the world of the immortals. That shows me how good a writer you are.

@Nella: I had this long post planned about how hard it was to get the pool-shoving shot but actually it was easy (make pose in Blender and go) but it was the one after that was a challenge. I forgot that the "pool" is actually a pond on the lot and Louise couldn't actually swim in it like planned. I tried using moveobjects and one of EA's swimming animations (you can force any base game animation with Pose Player as long as you know the name of it) but it ended up being moveobjects, a swimming pose I didn't make because I had wasted too much time on this stupid thing, and the ever great OMSP/"One More Slot Please" for making sure she was peeking above the water. There's one outrageously hard shot that no one guesses is the difficult one in every chapter I guess.

Sheila's in for some kind of awakening tomorrow but no matter what she did to Louise, she left unharmed because she is 100% that kind of character (read: I have no actual conflict for her yet and have a lot of my plate) And thanks for the compliment! I'm still waiting for your dynasty's comeback.

[Trip]

🙠 0.7 🙢

A Year Later or Thereabouts…

My stay at the bed & breakfast was shorter than I expected. At least it meant that I got to play my guitar in peace in a trailer home. My new partner didn’t mind.

Yes, even my rebound relationship with Heath needed its own rebound.

There weren’t too many older women in Moonlight Falls, and when I saw how many of them avoided garlic and sunlight, I understood why. I was an anomaly. Human, elderly, and yet, also undead. I sometimes introduced myself as a “perfect zombie”, and even when I described the land of the dead, no one seemed disturbed by it. I got one ask to say hi to Barry if I saw him again. He made a big impact on people.

I think that had to be the reason a few werewolf children cornered me at the grocery store one day. There was some sniffing going on, but soon they asked me their real question: would I go on a date with their grandpappy? He needed an “appropriate” partner.

And a simple date at a tavern with Pappy Wolff got me a place to stay forever...and a boyfriend too.

“What kind of crazy is he?” Honestly, it’s better not knowing. I’d go mad too if I turned into a lycan once a month, with all of my own insane monthly business well behind me. The mindset of being a dog lingered in Pappy’s head the whole time.

Also, he had an adult child but forgot which one it was. “They all have freckles so it’s hard to tell!” I was ready to believe that sibling marriage was simply a given in his pack.

“What’s a lycan anyways?” I think it’s hard for me to answer.

He disappeared into the night with his pack whenever he was in his form. They would hunt and cause ruckus. It also made me figure out why the town’s dogs went mad every full moon: it wasn’t just the dogs.

That being said, he brought in treasures when he was back to himself. Mostly copper to sell to metal recyclers, and mushrooms, which I liked to fry up. He threw out truffles though, which somehow grew here, and also could have sold for hundreds a dollars a ‘shroom. Or I could have had them on pasta at least.

“I don’t trust something that doesn’t see the sun,” he said. So why dig them up? I blame his older grandson, he seemed like a boy who appreciated fine dining.

“Is his name really Pappy?” No, he just loves being a grandfather that much. Though I choked when I heard his real name.

“Spot? Like a dog’s name?”

“No, for the spots on my face, did we have the freckle conversation yet? It’s gonna be a doozy…”

And I never figured out which name suited Spot the best. All I could think is that I was thankful that werewolves after him got real names. Nothing wrong with being a Dwayne or a Waylon.

“What about your family?” Pappy’s was closer, so I ended up going to a lot of family dinners. They loved eating around the firepit outside. Most of my grandkids had no connection to me, and that was understandable. But as for Heathcliff, I never answered his calls and he took the hint quickly. It seemed like he changed his phone number quickly.

They televised the Christmas performance of The Nutcracker every year. I had to watch Heathcliff perform in it every year in Twinbrook and somehow never got tired of it, so clearly he could at least make the cut for a Mouse King. I watched for him there and elsewhere too. They televised old ones like The Enchanted Forest anyways.

It was easy to spot Heathcliff on any stage. He was so warm and vibrant and always had a strand of hair that escaped his bun and flowed in the air. His face also took to stage makeup well. Maybe kabuki or drag would have been better callings. But he did not make the cut for the ballet, and I was getting worried about his other options.

Maybe he’d marry a rich man instead, I always wondered why Matthew Hamming never wed after all. Though if he asked for my hand instead, I’d have some bad news for Spot!

Even as a bad grandma, I would never forget about Heathcliff. If I found out I was dying, I’d make the trip to Bridgeport myself and either apologize or ask him when his next performance was. Plus I’d probably get better care at its biggest hospital. But for a while, I had to forget. There was a lot to admit to him that was uncomfortable. About how I acted for the most part, but I would have to explain Spot as well.

Maybe I lamented about how I didn’t spend any of my new life running away from Twinbrook, torturing myself in the Ironstars’ shadow. I was told I could never leave, but I never tried to either.

My time with Spot was precious. We took bets on who would die first and how. I said I go first with cardiac arrest, not unlike all the men in my family. Pappy said killed by a Van Gould vampire and dying as a martyr. I told him I wouldn’t accept it.

Besides that, we mostly had lazy days. I got lazy with repairing clothes and dyeing out my greys, so why not go even further? We’d go fishing sometimes or to the nearby beach, but I had to admit that cuddling and plucking on my guitar was the best, especially when we ended up falling asleep instead. The perils of being old…

“We’re here with the Lowell Sun for an interview about illegal hiking...”

“Dangit Spot, where did your pack go last week?” I asked him, jostling him from his nap. The voice sounded familiar but it was something I had trouble placing.

“What? No trail is off limits! I’m giving these Yanks a piece of my mind.”

“Surely you’d rather have me speak,” I said. I at least knew several werewolves.

“Not in a million dog years.”

Of course, he got stunned the moment they opened the door. I was about to run to the bathroom to hide when two voices called for me. The same one that boggled my mind, and the one that I would never forget.

“You didn’t have to say you were from the Sun,” I told them. Barry and Cara were back, though dressed as they were when they lived on Earth, or so I thought. Cara always liked shades of green and blue, like the algae that bloomed on the delta. Barry opted for jeans, a white shirt, and a colorful tie. He also used to wear glasses and had a lot of curly hair that he usually his beneath a hood.

Perhaps Sun reporter was his past life. He held a notebook like all my words would be used against me.

Words like: they were both gorgeous holy crap. I had a lot I could say about that.

“I’m sorry about your boyfriend,” Cara said. “That was Barry’s stun gun...though that’s the nicest thing I will have to say now.”

“Well, if it’s my time to die, so be it,” I said. “It’s been nice here.”

“You know me, I deal in the opposite just as much now,” said Barry. “First resurrecting my daughter’s favorite band and now some things you don’t wanna hear.”

“I mean...I’ve listened to you before. I don’t know if it’s made things better or worse for the world, but then again, it didn’t make the tabloids and that explains so much…”

“Let’s go somewhere quiet,” said Cara.

I looked over at Pappy, by my feet. Nothing was broken, and he was still awake enough.

“Go smooth this over…”

“I really didn’t want to drag you to our world again, you’ve been through too much already,” Cara said to me. We held hands as we walked towards the road.

I blushed as she carried me away. “Oh, if only you knew.”

“Yeah, no one asks to be the only human handling the essence of zhesomili,” said Barry. “I’ll grab it and keep it safe, that stuff stinks when you break it.”

The elixir that Heathcliff gave me was the only one I held. If nothing else, I liked that Barry would safely dispose of it. And that he could find it in my drawer? I didn’t think it smelled like anything in the bottle. He had to have known how, meanwhile Heathcliff didn’t even know what it was made of.

Moonlight Falls had two beaches: one close to Pappy’s trailer home, and one on the other side of town. He could still drive but I wanted to leave him as far out of this as possible. Maybe a werewolf was as weird as a daemon, but they were forged from the lunacy of the Earth instead of from a supernova.

And we had another firepit lunch, since Barry brought marshmallows.

“So I did meet Louise around a year ago,” I told Cara. “Nice girl.”

“I couldn’t say no to having her work with her grandparents.”

“She must have joined right after I came back.”

“Yeah...I was shocked too,” she said.

“And whatever we’re here for feels like a Barry idea,” I said.

He went for a second helping of marshmallows instead.

“He met with Heathcliff a year ago,” Cara said. “That’s what he doesn’t want to tell you.”

“Louise did,” I said.

“See, that’s why I like that kid. And I mean, we don’t mind the immortals. We like the idea of what they’re supposed to do and we meet with happy mortal helpers all the time...when they die, but people are honest then. So it comes from a different place for us, and I think that’s what Heathcliff thinks too.”

“And you let your family go through that?”

“Yeah, probably,” said Barry. He had a mouth full of sugar though.

“We know some but we couldn’t get them to come with us,” said Cara. “Whatever. What happened to you wasn’t normal. I wish there was something I could say that would convince you.”

“I mean...I get that Vega wasn’t normal and nothing good comes from her...but you’re not the ones running mortals around. And it’d be nice if you were, but I know I kept you busy.”

“We’re busy, but you’re not. Does it really take an hour to get to the point now?” said Barry. “The world needs immortals no matter what. I’m tired of the selfish and lazy ones too, and I didn’t bring you back for my own stupid needs. They asked for immortals and I figured I would test you out.”

“That’s awful, I hope you know that,” I said.

“But you’re only here because an immortal let you be.”

That one stung. It stung for my whole life and always rammed me right through the heart. My mum would say it when I asked why she decided to spend the rest of her life with Vega. But I never thought about who else was on earth because of her too, even people I loved more than anything. Without Vega, there would be no rejection from Screwtape, but yet, there would be no Heath.

“I mean, it’s nice to make sure people can have families,” I said. “You really think I’ll be a good immortal?”

“You’ll be the best immortal, if you ask me,” Cara said. She and Barry surrounded my chair even though it seemed better and better to escape them. Even if they were both hot.

Barry rolled his eyes. “I’m not gonna go that far.”

“But she’s been through a lot!”

“Is that the criteria for it?” I asked.

“Well, it changes your outlook a lot if you’re hurt or have lost someone. That’s probably why they found Heathcliff,” she said. “You need to understand what people are going through. And, well, you’ve lived two lives already.”

“And how many lives do you want me to live now?”

“I don’t know if that’s important…”

“Guys, you’re asking this old bag to serve you for eternity. It can’t happen even if I want it to, even if you make it sound appealing, I just cannot.”

“Sounds like an easy problem to fix,” said Barry.

“No? They’d have sold it at a premium if it was--”

It happened quickly. One second, my feet stung with glass and my boots became wet and heavy. The next, I was as young as the day I became a legal adult. My skin tightened up, my hair was jet-black again, and I was...kind of beautiful? I never really had a chance to admire myself. It was always done for Screwtape.

It was so overwhelming, though…

“Easy there, can’t have you fall in the sea after all our hard work.” Barry held me under the arms and I didn’t move another inch. Who knew how heavy souls could be.

“Listen, I know what you’re gonna do now. I have to do this so you didn’t waste your precious potion.” I started to free myself of Barry, or did he free himself of me? What was their schedule supposed to be like again? “And I have so many questions.”

“Too bad, no one can stop murphy bed accidents,” Barry said. He walked away and his trusty scythe appeared out of a hole in the sand.

“Wait, this is it?” I was only stopped from clinging onto him by the warm embrace of Cara. Hopefully no one died on her watch. “You’re leaving me out to dry! You never even told me why you want this.”

“I can’t believe it,” I muttered. “What am I even supposed to do? And if Heathcliff found out--”

“He doesn’t have to,” said Cara. “You can find him when you’re comfortable with it.”

“That still doesn’t explain anything about being immortal. I don’t know the rules or what you want me to do for 500 years, or any of that! Vega wouldn’t tell me.”

“Yeah...that sounds right.”

“And do I have to do it from Spot’s trailer?”

“No, uh, this is gonna be a doozy but Barry’s son-in-law had a huge house here! Sorry for the excitement. We went to so many Halloween parties and seances there and as always, I treasure the memories,” she said. She grinned like she had done many of them before. “I can vouch for it but it’s been empty since he left it.”

“He died?”

Cara shrugged. “I watched you die too. Nothing’s as permanent as it seems.”

Oh, how I was cruel too.

If nothing else, I was in a setting I wanted to live forever in. I easily turned my summer in Moonlight Falls into a year, planning where I’d be buried and who’d get my money. They wouldn’t have approached me anywhere else if they even hoped for this to work.

It was mean to blame Barry for my hesitancy, but he was like an annoying coworker. Cara was the woman who was supposed to be my best friend. When I looked in her eyes, I knew she was aching for the chance to do it right. I was too. I didn’t think I was making it subtle either, since I leapt into her arms when she resurrected me.

“I am going to need a crash course and the one thing I was too scared to ask...at prom,” I said. I still remembered her first embrace.

“I can’t marry you.”

“I know that.”

“I don’t want you to feel like how Screwtape made you feel...even though he was kind of cute.”

“Wasn’t he?”

We agreed on a kiss pretty quickly. Cara leaned in for it so I didn’t feel like I was the one making the decision. I treasured every second of it, but there was even more to treasure: more time with Cara. She would help me buy the house from Barry’s family and clean myself up.

“You’re right,” she said. “There’s a lot to do.”

As long as Pappy wouldn’t mind.

My old plaid shirts from Heath were turned into something better to wear, for starters.

“Oh, and Barry got rid of the lead paint ages ago...”

I didn’t know what to expect from the house, but it was massive. Cara promised a book inside that explained everything that we didn’t talk about. Though we talked about a lot as I aired my grievances about living with Vega. I wasn’t allowed to move out so I could be monitored and guided better, but most mortals actually liked it. They valued the stability. Daemons valued idols and physical symbols, so that’s why they commissioned so many portraits and sculptures. Plenty of humans were immortals too, so I wasn’t special.

Someone had to learn how to cook ambrosia, though I could choose who.

Most importantly, I finally figured out I was bisexual that day. It was a feeling made to be an “issue”, but whoever I married wouldn’t be an issue. It could be Pappy. It could be the woman who lived in the haunted mansion nearby. Being bi just opened my world up more. But it also meant I shared a trait with Vega, so maybe being bi was awful.

Oh, as if I could forget her short relationship with Alhena’s aunt. I do blame Screwtape for making me fear the half of me that could forget him and his kind entirely.

The best part was that it meant I could be with…

“...slow down, you gotta get used to life without me,” Cara said while she leaned away from me.

“Not even one for the road? And I don’t know where to begin.”

“Well, begin with telling Spot the news.” She walked away. “And it’s a vending machine accident.”

“Wait what?”

Cara was right with her busy life. Maybe there was a taboo with a servant of Death being so close with someone who now wouldn’t die. I wouldn’t want her to be threatened. I didn’t know her boss, but I feared them either way.

The worst part was her being right about Spot, especially as his life was winding down. I mean, I had to start with how I was gone for two days with a mysterious pink woman!

“See, I can smell you from five miles away! But you’re all young and cinnamon-y now.” I came to love Pappy’s hugs, even when he dug his nails into my back a little. It was a werewolf thing. “Are we upgrading?”

“We are...it’s gonna be a long story.”

“Well at least I’ll die in the first chapter!”

He wasn’t even mad about the thought of that, but I wouldn’t let Pappy’s legacy slip through the cracks. I was beholden to make every last day his best, even before meeting with my two favorite daemons.

Maybe Barry had a point with choosing me after all.

[Chubling]

Ah Pappy. It's like some sims were added just to be early pollinators. I can't wait to see where your towns genes end up and I hope you don't get a string of identical faces like with the Waverley's. It was a good face, but, you know, still.

YES SHEILA. Just to be safe you should make out with every of age woman in town. For...uh, science.

[Trip]

Ah Pappy. It's like some sims were added just to be early pollinators. I can't wait to see where your towns genes end up and I hope you don't get a string of identical faces like with the Waverley's. It was a good face, but, you know, still.

YES SHEILA. Just to be safe you should make out with every of age woman in town. For...uh, science.

@Chubling: just doing the elder roundup. He's no Harwood but he got me kids and fishes. The Ironstars also had a chance of the exact same face pattern happening since Alhena and Heathcliff are near-identical matches (at least Tegan and Phil had very different body shapes?) but I can't judge anything based off the second gen of a dynasty.

[Chubling]

Truly, who is a Harwood? He is the king of the pollinators thanks to all that sculpting skill he starts with. Superb genes, a skill useful to the dynasty and just the right age to do his job and get out! And he doesn't need to be cured before moving in. The GOAT.

PASS DOWN THE LIPS HEATHCLIFF! You have one job! Well, many jobs, but that's the important one. Though, honestly, Bridgeport has pretty good lips floating around. You have your pick. I shall resist going on a long tangent about the genetic pools you are dealing with with both dynasties. I spent a long time thinking about them both lately. I can't wait for the townie kids and see who you kept around. I'm going to sob quietly to myself about my cowardice anytime I see any Hall or (non-Sam) Goth kids. I have done nothing but regret not going for them! I played a cowards game and got a cowards reward!

[Trip]

Truly, who is a Harwood? He is the king of the pollinators thanks to all that sculpting skill he starts with. Superb genes, a skill useful to the dynasty and just the right age to do his job and get out! And he doesn't need to be cured before moving in. The GOAT.

PASS DOWN THE LIPS HEATHCLIFF! You have one job! Well, many jobs, but that's the important one. Though, honestly, Bridgeport has pretty good lips floating around. You have your pick. I shall resist going on a long tangent about the genetic pools you are dealing with with both dynasties. I spent a long time thinking about them both lately. I can't wait for the townie kids and see who you kept around. I'm going to sob quietly to myself about my cowardice anytime I see any Hall or (non-Sam) Goth kids. I have done nothing but regret not going for them! I played a cowards game and got a cowards reward!

@Chubling: my whole simming life is in honor of Harwood...well at least when I can stop in Twinbrook. I let Heathcliff off easy gene-wise. He either does the right thing or I have exactly one immortal with the lips (and it's him)

Also my Hall kid turned into a vampire immediately, so she gets to taunt you for generations.

[Trip]

🙠 0.8 🙢

A Year Later or Thereabouts…

There can be a lot of background to one scene. Consider this one: me being an absolute couch potato, no hair dye, and three new piercings. I could say that my friend Victor Sharpe roped me into it. We had a few unlikely things in common.

He was a redhead, I wondered if I’d look good as a redhead.

His favorite movie was House with No Doors, my fifth-favorite movie was House with No Doors.

He was part-daemon, I was part-daemon.

I thought I hit the lottery meeting him, though my grandma dropped his name during our trip out west. He was the grandson of one of her friends, and the mum in the middle was Louise from my meeting on that strange planet. I should have guessed with the big ears.

How small and strange this world had become for me. I had so many questions about being a daemon, but Victor mostly ignored his background. I told him about my meeting and he laughed...and asked how his mum was doing. She didn’t visit him much. Or raise him well.

So I said nothing about being an immortal. I thought that maybe it wasn’t meant to happen. I wasn’t making any progress on it.

Victor was sitting with a bum who failed his ballet audition. It’s hard to run from that story forever. I didn’t even tell him when we met and I was limping on a set of crutches and loopy on the meds they gave me. Oh, and my dye job was looking terrible.

That story started as a beautiful day at the end of summer, and I made it to the final auditions for the Bridgeport Ballet. It was a lot of work getting there, but easy work. I simply had to be the dancer I always was for the first rounds. Barre and centre work was my entire life. And my physique passed their tests after some planning. I got paranoid about all the street food and sushi places and my guilty pleasure of Devil Dogs. God forbid I start on beer.

It's easy to think that you can take every precaution in an audition and succeed. Ballet gave me nothing but success after all.

The final audition was to show them five minutes of a contemporary dance. Ruth and I spent months piecing our ideas together. She was a flawless choreographer who wasted her talents in a school, if my opinion meant anything.

Three judges observed me, with reams of notes in front of them. There was no room for thinking about them, or a need to.

On stage, I was flawless and masculine.

But skilled and delicate on my toes.

And my hubris wasn't nearly as heavy as stage props.

My bad landing and the weight of the stage lamp made it a terrible injury. The lamp was probably gone too which was the only thing Mr. Sleep was yelling about instead of getting me to the hospital. My ankle and foot were both crushed, and two vertebrae ruptured.

Of course I'd walk again. After surgery it was easy to get around on crutches and even those wouldn't last. But dancing again was far off in the future, once I was too old for any ballet to want me anyways.

So that led to becoming a couch potato with Victor, after I met him at his bartending job one night. I still got around the city on foot as best as I could, but I didn't think about my future. I was waiting for a miracle so I could have one. Until then, it was horror movies and embracing my natural hair color.

I hated having black hair. But mentally, I couldn't bring myself to a salon or the bathroom to change it.

There were still some things to clear up about Victor. Did I want to bring him into daemonic life? No. I didn't feel like a daemon anymore either. The whole idea of becoming an immortal felt like a scam and if Pilona would wither and die...well he should have found me in Bridgeport first.

Was I intent on finding more Twinbrook brethren in the city? Not really, but it’d be nice.

Was Victor my boyfriend? I wouldn’t say no if he wanted it, but he was pretty much asexual. He didn’t use the word, but I told him it was okay to.

Buster wasn’t my boyfriend either, but we got close to make living together a little more fun. He shaved with a dull razor and smelled like onions but I wasn’t gonna be picky. Maybe he was making me into the bum I was, but I held out hope that something would change me.

And he almost never got a knock on the door.

“Alright, you know our guest policy. We put the stolen Do Not Disturb placard out, we were gonna banish Victor to the bathroom,” I said. “Uh, Victor?”

“Probably my grandma. Forgot I invited her,” he said.

“Whatever.” At least Grandma blushed whenever she talked about her. What even happened to her? I tried calling but gave up when she stopped answering and I was in the hospital.

Anyways, I opened the garage door behind me.

“This is why you wanted to see Victor?” Cara asked. My uncle prodded her in the shoulder with his cane. “And get that thing off me. I wanted to do you a favor.”

“Hey meemaw!” Victor said from the kitchen. He must have been microwaving a burrito. We were down to our last dumpster burritos but I couldn’t tell him no.

“Look at this, I didn’t drag you into deep space just for you to live in a dump!” said Pilona. He almost hit me with his cane too. “Who even is that scared man? I surely thought you had better taste than that.”

“Well you should’ve found me in a hospital and paid them with your space dollars. That one really hurt.”

“So I had two of my ladies oil the stage and they failed to follow-up. I have a place to show you and lounges to bribe our way into. It’ll make up for this utter garbage.”

“You have a lot to live up to,” I said. Though I got kicked out of enough lounges here to accept that deal.

“It is a modern home! I bought it from the late Orange Bailey-Moon after he dumped me,” said Pilona. “It is all yours but I do have to take my groundskeepers back.” Two women in black dresses tended to the plants in the atrium. It was a nice atrium and looked...moist. And greener than the hills of Bridgeport.

I saw the outside two. It filled the property and had two floors. Pilona insisted that I could expand it all I wanted as long as the city didn’t complain.

They’d have a lot more to complain about that a five-story house with me there, that’s for sure. I’d just invite Buster to live with me and turn it into a dump. But then again, he liked his little shed and busking on the streets. You had to be a sulking, opulent weirdo to be an immortal, or maybe that was just the Ironstars.

“We also have two studios, I’m not going to waste your time seeing if you’re a skilled painter. I didn’t hire your great-grandfather to do that.”

I rolled my eyes because that story was getting old. I bet Great-grandpa Harwood was awesome. He could carve oak and sandalwood, cut through ice with a chainsaw, and, I dunno, maybe he won a lot of money playing blackjack once. They needed a better biography for him, that was for sure.

“Ah I shall miss this place!” Pilona plopped down in a beanbag chair near my sculpting station. One of his ladies brought me a clay block to work my magic on. “And I dread what you’ll do to the interior, but it must be out of my claws now.”

I mean, I’d keep a lot of the color scheme. But I needed a place for a dance floor, a DJ turntable, and a home arcade like the Ironstars had. Even they were more fun than Uncle Pilona.

Everyone would get customized bedrooms too. Pick the walls, pick the carpets, and pick the mattress firmness. I was getting picky after my injury. A lot of people lived with Vega and almost got to express themselves. Might as well take it from almost, and have more fun stories to give my descendants.

Oh god, I was going to have those? But I’d make a cool grandpa.

I mean, I wouldn’t fall asleep in the middle of the day like Pilona did. And there I was about to ask important questions about the family.

“Alright, I think I got this sexy sculpting gene after all.”

“You’re not even done,” Pilona said. “Do you think anyone in your family leaves sculptures unfinished?”

“It’s not like my mum has the roaring nightlife to look forward to,” I said. “We had a promise you know.”

“Yes, and you’re not getting into the Prosper Room looking like that. And what happened to your unique style? Throw a stone and you’ll hit someone with black hair.”

He thought that teal streaks like my dad had would look the best. I can’t say I never wondered what I’d look like with them! Uncle Pilona at least had some sense of style for a man who seemed to eschew human society. He knew I liked teal, he knew my inseam was 34 inches, and he knew how to tie hair into a bun. Sadly, I almost forgot how to do that.

I looked like a brand new Heathcliff, shimmering with gold-stitched clothes and jewelry. Pilona warned me that they were shooting an episode of Little Celebrity in there, but he knew which contestant was getting voted off that night.

Spoilers please!

“Heyyyyy Uncle Pilona, I thought you’d miss my 21st birthday bash like you did last time!”

Katelyn Missoni, how sad I was to see her go from the screen. I loved her cat fights with Apollo, getting fooled by Kirby’s pranks, dancing off-beat when Suzy got drumming. I never thought I’d be sharing a lounge with her...or that she was related to me?

“It goes beyond blood, she could be your surrogate after all without it being that weird,” said Pilona. “Oh it is a long story about mining and her daemon grandmother. Sometimes I felt closer with her than any Ironstar.”

“Oh that’s funny,” said Kate. “Which one is this?”

“Just one of Vega’s, what a sad state of affairs, isn’t it my dear?”

“Nah, it’s fine,” I said. “Nothing motivates me like being born into failure.”

“Well, you gotta sign a release to be on camera.”

“I have all night.”

“Look, we’ll give you a bottle of champagne as long as you spray some at Kate,” said one of the camera operators. “It’ll go over well in the ratings.”

“Free champagne?”

It wasn’t the moment of acting that would make Pilona say that I shouldn’t be a sculptor. I was probably chained into that so I could save his soul with idol worship or whatever they did. But I had half the bottle left.

“Yeah, old uncle Pilona told me everything he told you,” said Kate, once we sat on the bar with our drinks. “Like, he thought I had the sympathy to save his life and was a secret sculptor?”

“Crazy. Wanna join in?” I asked.

“Can I bring a friend along?”

“How many?”

“Oh there’s that hunk from Twinbrook...not you but Tom Wordy? I bet I can make him do anything. And Matty over there is gonna get voted off tonight too,” she said.

“I’ve heard worse ideas,” I said.


Get cultured! Heathcliff’s moves inspired by Jorge Barani’s variation on Don Quixote and Roberto Vega’s White Swan variation.

[Chubling]

@Chubling: my whole simming life is in honor of Harwood...well at least when I can stop in Twinbrook. I let Heathcliff off easy gene-wise. He either does the right thing or I have exactly one immortal with the lips (and it's him)

Also my Hall kid turned into a vampire immediately, so she gets to taunt you for generations.

Of course she did! And I bet she is lovely because Helen has great kids. Ugh. So many cowardly regrets!

Poor Heathcliff. That's rough to get an injury like that. Always devastating to have your dreams crushed like that. But at least he has some new goals to distract himself. And I'm sure a patriarch with bitter, lost dreams will be fine and in no way cause problems for later immortals.

Also, you have my sympathies for trying to decide on those first pollinators. Everyone is so young! Only one old man!

[Trip]

Of course she did! And I bet she is lovely because Helen has great kids. Ugh. So many cowardly regrets!

Poor Heathcliff. That's rough to get an injury like that. Always devastating to have your dreams crushed like that. But at least he has some new goals to distract himself. And I'm sure a patriarch with bitter, lost dreams will be fine and in no way cause problems for later immortals.

Also, you have my sympathies for trying to decide on those first pollinators. Everyone is so young! Only one old man!

@Chubling: once I gave Heathcliff his Savvy Sculptor trait, all his complexes went away. (that being said he became a dad and then I left his file alone ever since, everything's gonna be different with his kid + two others in the house)

The pollinator game was a difficult one and there was some chance involved. Which sounds super-ominous I know!

[Trip]

🙠 0.8 🙢

And so their stories started on the West Coast, each with a tome about their new lives.

What the two of them had to do was hard enough. Mastery of a skill and a good career all in one normal lifetime? Maintaining friendships? Seizing opportunity? Most people died without it.

But what Sheila lived through and warned Heathcliff about was the worst: being the mortal roommate. And roommates they would have…

The full moon rose over my new house. I had a month to furnish it but didn’t make many steps towards it. Apparently Barry re-did the walls before putting the house on the market. He thought that the dark interior of the house would be off-putting. Clearly he didn’t know me well enough but I’d save the hard work for painting my bedroom’s walls black again.

It was the first time in my life that I had been studious. The rules given to me were familiar though justified as poorly as I hoped they weren’t. Was there really no way to help people without breaking someone’s spirits? I didn’t believe it.

I couldn’t move out of Vega’s house when I was living with her. Of course we fought, and I asked why, and got half-answers and a lot of her storming off. It’s in the rules, you moron was a better start that I thought.

The whole section wasn’t long. I could only take on housemates as a lifelong project of sorts, always fighting for their prosperity and happiness. I’m sure I could pick the others well, but I already had one housemate--

“It’s horrible! I’ve tried everything but I’m just a man!” Pappy got down on the floor to cry on my shoulder. “What kind of wolf am I? What did you even do to me?”

“Nothing. You know I liked you as a wolf.” It was shocking to see him so normal on a full moon night, though. Well, normal for Spot. There were rumors of full moon lunacy but he was already a bit of a lunatic. I thought back to the jolt that Barry gave him though. What if I was in its path instead, for starters? And what sort of power was behind it anyways? There wasn’t any other way to find out...and yes, I did try with the rule book.

Instead, there was a mouse that pattered around our kitchen at night. I made peace with him. He could live in our kitchen as long as he didn’t eat my fruit. I left him out a little peanut butter in the corner each night. I mean, Pappy would lick it up first a lot, but my efforts seemed to be appreciated.

But unless I wanted to murder, there was no other way to summon Barry or his fellow servants. I put out a mousetrap and winced when it caught the little rodent.

They did not send out Barry. But I got Lola, dressed like she was going to gothic Woodstock and sharing his last name…

“...a cousin to his mum. There are a lot of us,” she said. “Oh, but I should leave those stories for another time. You obviously have an important question to ask me.”

“Yeah, did you take away my boyfriend’s lycanthropy?” I asked. “Or, you know, did Barry do it?”

“Of course he did, he was an abomination of nature after all. We advise against living with them.”

“Well that’s mean.”

“Page 214, Sheila. Page 214.”

I glared at her as I walked towards the door. I needed a walk in the moonlight after that night. “I thought you were all about being kind to others.”

“Most people don’t want to be a werewolf,” said Lola. “You should ask next time.”

But it meant I was stuck with Spot for the rest of his dwindling days. And that our relationship didn’t feel the same at all. I couldn’t convince him that I had nothing to do with it, but somehow he accepted staying in the house. I’d do anything. He could invite anyone over that he wanted to. He could break up with me or patch things up. I could do fun and new things in bed (the perks of being young again!) Or we could just open up the relationship and see where things went.

It wasn’t like I was planning to die with Pappy anymore. That was unrealistic.

He said that he had a romantic bucket list for before he died. I said that he could go for it. There wasn’t much that could offend me.

Okay, besides dumping me for Doreen Caliente! I was offended on his behalf of course.

Spot otherwise spent his days wandering around town and going on fishing trips. He always liked fishing and most of his friends did. I would need a special fish to turn into ambrosia, so it was a hidden perk. I think that was when I understood the real role of the immortal’s mortals. You helped the people who wanted to hone those useful skills anyways. Or at least in theory.

After all, there was a time where I loved to paint. I wanted a life beyond painting portraits of myself just because daemons were obsessed with their own faces. That was page 200, by the way. And it would be hard to find someone with that natural interest. I wouldn’t forgive myself if I didn’t.

So I got a job to distract myself. And I wanted to see if I had a life beyond painting. The local theatre needed musicians and stage hands. My guitar playing impressed nobody, so I was the latter until I improved. But I made friends. Rainflower, my boss, was the kindest and cuddliest guy I ever knew. He was a homeless busker who turned into a theatre owner with a massive inheritance.

And Helen could drum and lived in a haunted house and...I didn’t get the chance to ask her much at first. She left on maternity leave not that long after I started. We all sent her a card though. I said to “enjoy it while it lasts.”

Maybe watching my son die affected me more than I thought it did.

For two whole days, I told myself that I would never fall in love with a coworker. If I could keep that promise before in Twinbrook, I could do it there. Most of my co-workers were married with children. Rainflower had his family. Dahlia Goodfellow, a busking fairy, had her family too and a judgmental mother-in-law. Helen was in a situation I wasn’t gonna ask about.

And then there was the beautiful, single Bianca Crumplebottom. She was a witch and I didn’t need a spell to want to kiss her after work one night.

Now she didn’t want to live with me or even take it much further than workplace flirting. Somehow, I was relieved. I was bracing myself for my first rejection in Moonlight Falls. Instead, I never took it so well. I realized it was fun. It...told me about who I wanted in my life. At least while I was still young.

“Just remember to wait for true love!” said Bianca’s sister, Belinda. “You’ll be better off in the end, sister.”

“Hell no, I’m gonna follow around tour buses,” said Bianca.

And for a bit, everything was doing fine. Bianca’s kiss inspired me to finally have a presentable bedroom. Pappy and I were using sleeping bags for months at that point. He didn’t mind, but my back still hurt like I was an elder. Maybe that was always going to be an issue. I did sleep pretty well as an Ironstar. Sometimes I didn’t even want to wake up.

Black paint was bought, and I settled down to a night of transforming my room into my little dark hole. I chose the master that looked out to the road, but I’d give it up if anyone asked. The extra room in it would be nice for a little bedroom recording studio though. I suddenly had dreams of recording a demo.

The house was usually quiet. So much for the seances that Cara bragged about. I expected a haunting of my own and a story to tell my immortal descendants. Or perhaps, a new spectral friend, since I used to be one of them. Even the usual pattering was only mice, or a possum at most.

This one was louder. It sounded like boots above me.

“Oh what the hell is this?” I asked, right as I loaded a roller full of paint. “Do we even have an attic?”

The ladder to it crashed down suddenly. A bit of light poured in from the attic. We weren’t alone, or I had to tell Spot to stop scaring me.

It was warm as I ascended. The voices grew louder. “What are we doing today?” “A test you imbecile...sorry, but you are the worst rookie I’ve ever taken on...conjuring the ghosts of the past will take a lot out of me, but your childhood stuffed toy will suffice…”[/i]

What could it be? My mind went through a bunch of nightmarish scenarios from daemons to worshippers of them. Or robbers. Or Barry lying to me about the ownership of the house.

“Ah, squatters!”

“Here’s to our immortal.” Barry clinked his bottle with Cara’s. There was a lot of revelry in his swamp that day. Felan was horrified when Mo decided to bring some beer back from the land of the living. It was a fitting reward after bringing back a man who died while buying some. So everyone was neglecting their work and letting souls escape into the aether. Barry’s grandmothers could outdrink him twice over and they were being kissy and gross in back of him. “Did she expect you to set her up?”

Cara exhaled slowly. “I had to be nice about it. It’s not like we can just give her a spouse.”

“But what better place to test it than Moonlight Falls? We already got one zombie immortal there.”

“And the Goths.”

“See? Perfect experiment, and this one’s actually useful unlike Olivia.” Barry smirked before he headed to the well. He put his palms over the water until the surface tension broke.

Moonlight Falls had many women. It even had Frida and the aforementioned Olivia Goth, who understood the value of a second life like Sheila did. But Barry was certain in his judgment. They were lovely, but there was someone even more perfect out there for her.

There was a future in her golden hands.

“Better than getting the worst bedroom on Little Celebrity, ain’t it?” I asked Matty. He didn’t speak to me when he first saw the house. “Come on, everyone wants a little piece of a big Bridgeport mansion.”

“You never talked about the taxes,” he muttered.

“What?”

“The taxes.”

“Why not paint instead of be my accountant? My uncle has ladies that do that for us,” I said. “Weren’t you an award-winning painter?”

“In middle school, sure, I don’t know what that’s supposed to mean now.”

“And I’m expected to be a world-class sculptor because I kinda look like one. We all have things to learn here.”

I personally thought that Matty was underselling himself. He had to be bribed with money and solitude but soon disappeared into a hole. The hole being the art studio with the greatest view of the city skyline. I felt like Pilona cheated me out of something with the sculpting studio.

But unlike Matty, I had a lot of time ahead of me.

Kate and I walked to her friend’s house. I asked her a lot about Tom Wordy. I was aware of his music, he had one single that Grandma and I listened to on our road trip, and it was a cool mixture of rap and rock. That was gonna be in-style again, right? And two years before, he survived what should’ve been a fatal shot to the chest. But from Twinbrook? Apparently he was too young to know my parents and too old to know me. And he didn’t talk about it much to Kate.

As for Kate, a quick primer: she grew up overlooking vast unethical mines of rare earth metals. And it didn’t phase her one bit. I was definitely siphoning from it too with Uncle Pilona so I forgot that detail fast. I was still mad that she was more of a daemon than I was.

I didn’t forget to ask my other two friends about this dynasty. Buster and Victor enjoyed a simpler life. Victor said that his grandma didn’t want him to and he wouldn’t say no to her.

Besides, none of them had access to the bank accounts that Tom did.

Kate told me I could hang out in his studio/arcade/garage room. Basically keep myself entertained without breaking anything while she did the actual sweet talk. Somehow she knew Tom better than me, her real Twinbrook best friend.

Well, I had my hopes about that. She was a great woman, a certified ally brought down from the heavens by Pilona to drink and banter with.

I wondered if she liked my music too. It’d be a chaotic and fun lifestyle unlike sculpting though I wasn’t going to make instant magic in the recording booth. For one, my mind was on what was being said upstairs instead of in music.

Those two years of piano lessons wouldn’t be in vain.

Kate figured this would be an instant deal for Tom. He was a fascinating man for sure, flaunting all the bling he owned one hour, and floating in a world of baroque music and artistry the next. There was a moment in life where he could have been any kind of artist he wanted to be. He was a brilliant multi-instrumentalist, dabbled in watercolors, and went to museums in secrecy. It would ruin his tough-guy image if he was caught.

Like me, Tom also got an A in ceramics in high school. So basically he was the next Harwood Clay before I'd ever be.

But I was never meant to hear the conversation. And I respected that about their friendship. I would definitely tear apart many of them if I lived for hundreds of years, and that’d all be by accident. I had to prevent malicious intent. It just wasn’t my kind of thing to embrace.

Though what were they saying anyways? One has to wonder...

“...yeah, so, his great-grandpops was the sculptor to go to if you were a daemon. We totally had his pieces all over our house. But he’s also a total novice and, you know, he can’t intimidate you? I think you’re never gonna meet anyone like him again.”

“You must be crazy if you think I’m rooming with an Ironstar for the rest of my life.”

“But I turned out fine! There are so many Ironstars anyways…”

“...come on big guy, all you gotta do is sculpt with him. We’ll have our own li’l corner of the house where I’ll tell you how handsome you are.”

“And I get to bring Sugar around…”

“Yeah, like, I’d love to see Sugar more.”[/i]

Less listening, more music! I had no delusions about my talent, but it was fun. And it’d be even more fun for Tom to hear it. Maybe a few notes would almost be good enough to sample.

“Oh I know who this is,” Tom said, once we met. There was a disappointed sigh in the mix.

“Yeah, bask in my family’s glory all you want. I just wanna sculpt and show you my new mixtape.”

Tom listened to it. He told me to keep sculpting.

But he would have to sculpt too. There wasn’t much kicking and screaming, but he said that he was only being nice to me because his PR team wanted him to. I wouldn’t know the difference. I had it in my head that I would change Tom for the better. And what was there to improve besides a little attitude? He’d still make great music and had a killer bod.

I wasn’t going to cross that line but I had to say it. The guy was ripped.

And he ripped my sculpting to pieces simply by being there. I blame it on the Twinbrook water making the two of us talented and beautiful (if I had to be honest again). But I didn’t need another thing to be jealous of either.

“Khama was right, you two are the most boring daemons in the galaxy,” said Irisa. The two of them plus Screwtape were taking a light stroll through Midnight Hollow. It was a town of daemons and a place that the light of humanity never touched. “Perfect for dragging her out of revelry.”

“Don’t shove your arms into me, woman,” said Vega. “And I have a fun side.”

“Mother, you forbade us from patronizing the dance club at Twinbrook’s town limits,” said Screwtape. “And I am forever thankful for it.”

“See what I mean?” said Irisa.

Vega was out of the loop on what the daemonic world was up to. Being an immortal was actually the worst way for Heathcliff to connect with that side of his ancestry. His whole life was now about humanity as a daemonic ambassador and life coach. Was that she was supposed to be? It was all in the past though. She figured that her fleshy great-great-grandson wouldn’t last a week among her kind and his immortal life in Bridgeport was for the best.

What she missed was...everything. But Khama and Life’s fellow devotees spent ages in a debaucherous drowse, and it was catching up to them. One scandal from the salacious Order of Luxury destroyed that sect and turned every daemon into the same prude that Vega wanted to be. It also threatened their best ally: Khama.

Enter Vega, who always loathed them anyways.

She also loathed Khama and especially one of her former dancers, Amamela. But at least Mela was dead and Vega was out of options. She was persona non grata among people she thought liked her. At least she wanted those reforms as much as Khama did.

But why they wanted Holi to fund it was anyone’s guess. She was a party-happy mess after her daughter died...and before it too. The aspirational image for absolutely no one.

Regardless, she was meeting them in Midnight Hollow.

“You look so proud of yourself,” said Vega.

“It is like finding what I lost. I have not felt this way in over a century,” said Holi, looking towards the hazy golden sky and smiling. “But I assure you, it is just a coincidence.”

[Trip]

🙠 Outrun the Scythe: The Dynasty Behind the Curtain 🙢

Stats (Spoiler Alert)

Bridgeport:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Generation One: Heathcliff Ironstar Rake
Traits: Neurotic, Savvy Sculptor, Party Animal, Flirty, Perfectionist
Spouse: Romeo Rake
Supermax: Sculpting
Career: Sculptor
LTW: Master Romancer
Ops: The Importance of Sculpting, An Old Ruse, Sims on Ice, Oh Scrap!, The Banquet Centerpiece, Sculpture for a Friend
Building: Beckett Theatre
Property: Boggard Overlook, The Brightmore
LTRs: Suave Seller, Artisan Crafter, Moodlet Manager
Best Friends: Elvira Slayer, Apollo Bloom, Enyo Strong, Devin Ashton, Katelyn Wordy, Brigit Hemlock
Museum Pieces: YA Portrait/Sculpture/Photo, Adult Portrait/Sculpture/Photo, Elder Portrait/Sculpture/Photo

Immortal at 78 Days

Generation Two: Taras Boubla Rake
Traits: Genius, Grumpy, Party Animal, Snob, Natural Cook
Spouse:
Supermax: Science
Career: Culinary
LTW: Culinary Librarian
Ops:
Building:
Property:
LTRs:
Best Friends: Morgan Wordy, Moscato Sharpe
Museum Pieces:

Moonlight Falls:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Generation One: Sheila Drudge Hai
Traits: Neurotic, Savvy Sculptor, Party Animal, Flirty, Perfectionist
Spouse: Carmella Hai
Supermax: Guitar
Career: Music (Rock)
LTW: Swimming in Cash
Ops: The Set Up, Some Hogan Rock, Stick Around for the Music, I got Your Back...up, Tons of Tips, In The End (A Skilled Guitarist, Sorting the Section x2, Raise the Fun(d) x3, Local Musician Showdown x2)
Building: Gypsy Wagon -> The Slymer Rromani History Centre
Property: Park -> M.J. Drudge State Park
LTRs: Opportunistic, Motive Mobile, Fertility Treatment
Best Friends: Carmella Hai, Malcolm Harris, Violet Slymer, Bianca Crumplebottom, Daydream Ivy, Calvin Goth
Museum Pieces: YA Portrait/Sculpture/Photo, Adult Portrait/Sculpture/Photo, Elder Portrait/Sculpture/Photo

Immortal at 75 Days

Generation Two: Judah Hai
Traits: Neurotic, Eccentric, Loner, Shy, Savvy Sculptor
Spouse:
Supermax: Inventing
Career: Inventor
LTW: Renaissance Sim
Ops:
Building:
Property:
LTRs:
Best Friends: Rhodes Hai
Museum Pieces:

Questions, Answers, Other things?

Q. Is this HoF compliant? What if you fail?

Yes and we will hopefully not answer that question! But the answer is just continue the story as usual if I fail the challenge side of it for either or both bloodlines, I still have an HoF entry and always will. Though having two dynasties is a bit of an insurance plan too.

Q. Is this because you're salty about not being in first place for museum value?

Only a teeny, tiny bit.

Q. What expansion packs? What settings? What cool family quirks?

This actually is switched around for each dynasty.

Heathcliff:

• Packs disabled: Pets, Supernatural, Seasons, Island Paradise, Into the Future
• Family trait: Party Animal
• Misc: Every immortal has to buy and upgrade a club, bar, or lounge. Because Bridgeport has nine, Heathcliff gets two. Vampires are on, celebrities are only off for the active household (this had its drawbacks but ah well)

Sheila:

• Packs disabled: Showtime, University Life, Island Paradise, Into the Future
• Family trait: Neurotic
• Misc: No changing the traits or LTWs of mortals. Learn to live with them! I am able to choose traits and LTWs of mortals who are born into my house or otherwise grow up in it. All supernaturals are on, celebrities off entirely, seasons are a week long each, lunar cycle is enabled and 10 days long. Hail is off because I guess that's my irrational weather fear.

I do turn all/most/the rest of my packs on for screenshots, though. Don't be rude about rain in Bridgeport all the sudden.

Q. Where does gameplay stop and storytelling begin?

It's all storytelling, always has been.

Not really, it's a ratio of 80/20 for story/gameplay. Some people are here for that, some of you might be skeptical. Life's unfair. Here's how it goes:

• I play a generation for each bloodline (so double the commitment). No cheating, no mods, lots of rules, I cry sometimes but it's a healthy cry. Decisions are made that might play into the plot but surprises are accepted.
• I reflect on what I've done gameplay-wise, sort through what screenshots I have (not many), etc.
• I revise the plot based on the gameplay that has happened. Compromises are made but I am generally happier with the end result versus my original plot.
• I reshoot what I need to accomplish the plot, which is a ton.
• Somewhere along the line I abuse a bunch of Blender rigs.

One day the birth of a chapter will get its own dedicated post but I would need to commit to documenting one from the beginning.

If it's a posed screenshot, you can probably tell. They're done in copies of my dynasty files and never affect my gameplay. If you're confused about where movie magic kicks in, just ask me because I know the answer.

Q. Why the A in Daemon?

While my daemon species does borrow from modern/"western" ideas of demons because I indeed live in a modern western society, I want to a) invoke the idea of daimons/daemons from Greek mythology even more, and b) separate myself from the idea that this is a commentary on anyone's religion. I don't want it to be! Maybe I should have chosen a different name but they have always been d(a)emons in my head.

Q. Besides the Ironstars, are there other related stories?

Not yet.

Q. Who does the poses?

Mostly me! A lot of my posing does involve splicing EA animation stills with my own work so if something seems just a little familiar...welcome to my twisted mind.

For the rest I'd like to thank (among many others) Blams, NotJustABook, Aikea-Guinea, Spladoum, and Bee. You make my world go 'round when I'm lazy.

[Trip]

A few notes from the player:

1. Might be obvious that Heathcliff quickly got a great house thanks to Tom coming in with a nice car. His household has two (one Margaret Vaguester, one Bwan Speedster) so here's how to get both: invite one of the adults over (Tom, Big Hartley, Sugar), and if they arrive with a car, move them in. Invite another adult over for the second car and move them in. Because housemate Lil Bling is a teenager, you need to leave him behind with someone else or move him in with the three adults, which is the catch to this. Now I didn't do that and only moved in Tom, but I could have! No one in the "Big Bling" household has any dynasty attributes to begin with but Tom was a fast learner/pollinator extraordinaire/definitely not brought in just to fulfill Katelyn's Gold Digger LTW.

The house also benefited from Matty joining the architect profession for the sick discount.

And how about Sheila? Well we have to leave that for a later chapter...

2. I don't have any chapters left in my buffer and my life has been...full. Instead of sharing the bad news of depression, death, and family health issues (don't worry we're hopefully past whatever that was) I can share the good news of Tater. Yes I went off the chihuahua deep end. We're hopefully past the worst of his adjustment issues to this strange new household. He came in afraid of everything and is now only afraid of the bathroom.

So I'll be taking a bit of time to have some chapters reader, work on other projects, and release some outtakes.