Winds of Change - Immortal Dynasty (Completed 9/23/12)

[Shirin]

Dear Mother,

Charity and Jared are parents! Because she was with child, she took some time off to focus on her chess championship. At least until she went into labor.

You would think that elderly vampires, being long lived, would not have...issues...about laboring women.

Shortly after this, though, Constance's mate, Carmen, passed on. He pleaded to be allowed to see his granddaughter grow up, but Death said no.

Mother, meet Prudence. As you can see, her hair color is a throwback to Her Royal Grace. And though she is resting in this picture, her eyes are the same shade of green as Carmen's.

I will keep this brief, but I wanted to add two other things. The first is that your spying sneaking gnomes are peculiar.

And the second is that vampirism tends to cause lighter pigmentation, but I wonder what causes this.

As always,
Your devoted son

[Shirin]

Grandmother,

You don't know me, but my name is Faith. Father tells me almost nothing of you - or me or anyone else, for that matter - and he certainly doesn't talk about who the royal people are that we're supposed to be related to. It's maddening!

But I love my father. And every so often when he's writing these letters, he gets this sad look in his eyes. Once he told me it's because you can't see our family.

Well, I can't bring you here, and I guess you can't come here anyway. And since I'm technically the family photographer, I thought I might take some pictures and send them to you. I didn't think you wanted pictures of bored old people, but I did take some of Charry and Pru. Charry is probably the most devoted mother of us all, since I never took Gracie (or Connie or Charry) to the park.

So here's a couple of Charry teaching Pru to talk. And about how it's important to love a man before having a baby.

And the infamous Clawhand also attacked Pru. The poor baby!

But I have to admit, Grandmother, the best was probably the Spring-Rider adventures. Pru liked the seahorsie and riding around like all little mermaids do.

And riding the piggies like all farmers.

And being a good cosmonaut. "Space Station One-Alpha-Nine, there are reports of an angel out here in space. But she has a big butt! I can't tell if it's safe to proceed through the intersection!"

Clearly, she really liked being a cosmonaut.

Here are a couple from her birthday party.

Oh crap! Gotta go, Father doesn't like it when I sneak through his office. Hope you like the photos!

~Faith

[Shirin]

Dear Mother,

I trust Faith's missive finds you well. Prudence is quite the mischievous little imp, but over the years, she has become more studious. Though not as logical as Charity, and so Charity tutors her in homework.

However, we have discovered that Prudence prefers to dabble with inventing metal objects. She makes decorations she calls widgets - I suspect it is a fancy name, and makes one think it serves a purpose beyond being decorative. She makes metal toys (the wisdom of sharp metal objects and small children is questionable, but then, I am what I am. Who knows with these mortals?).

Though, this hobby of hers has led to a very unamusing incident not unlike Sam's and Faith's from so long ago.

Charity, for her part, has become a top-notch ghost hunter. The mayor even offered her a key to the city in a grand ceremony, but when she arrived at the ceremony, the mayor appeared to have forgotten about it. I suppose that is what happens when multiple vampires collapse on the steps to City Hall! Charity swears she heard the mayor mutter something about how a vampire hunter would have been as equally desired as a ghost hunter - at least ghosts do not faint in sunlight.

She was also working on her chess tournament status, but Death was not cooperative. He came for her opponent, Vasyl Trahan, at the start of a match. And then, after doing his reaping, he donned one of our fantasy goggles. He became so engrossed in it, he was practicing his acrobatics!

Not much more to add, Jared and I have expanded the garden to work on an experiment. I have remodeled the house yet again - we are back to two floors, and consolidated many of the rooms. Prudence celebrated her teenage birthday, registered with City Hall as a self employed inventor, and gives me her metal things to sell for her. She is quite the lovely young woman.

In fact, Prudence cornered me the other night, said she had been doing some traveling in her time machine. Yes, a machine that allows her to travel the pathways of time. Prudence is most amazing in her inventions, but I digress. She said she had been doing some traveling in her machine, and came across something called an alternate timeline. It was quite complex, but I believe the gist was that, in the beginning, there is only one of us. And for each choice in life we make, another alternate possibility is created. And for each choice made in each alternate possibility, two more alternates are created. And so on, and so forth. Then it become impossible for my old mind to comprehend.

It appears that in this alternate timeline, she came across another line of sons and daughters descended from my Agnes. In this line (they are called the Starrs), they had one daughter whose beauty outshone all others - this one was called Joanna Starr. In fact, Prudence was able to acquire an image of this Joanna Starr, and showed it to me. I agree, she is quite lovely! But Mother, as a devoted patriarch, I feel it only fair to tell you that I am a firm believer that Prudence is as beautiful as Joanna.

This makes me wonder if perhaps it is something in Agnes' heritage that imparts such visions of loveliness into the world.

Alas, I will have to have Faith find a way to tear Prudence away from her gadgets to take a proper photograph and send to you. In the meantime, this is the most...common...image we ever see of Prudence. When she is not at school, that is.

[Audren]

Happy (two) birthdays, Prudence! I liked the plug-in with the Starrs. I enjoyed reading that Dynasty, too

[Shirin]

Thank you so much, Audren And I agree, the Starrs are a favorite of mine as well.

My next challenge - remember to take pictures of Pru that don't involve views of her back.

[Shirin]

Dear Mother,

Faith was successful! Here is a photograph of Prudence.

Do you like the dress? It is one she picked up while time traveling. She tells me she preferred to time travel as a teenager, as there is some unwritten rule with the Keepers of Time about teenagers acquiring offspring while traveling (I did not want to know!).

And here is another of her, just entering her workroom. She is most lovely indeed.

Once she officially reached her age of majority, so many things happened. She asked me to sell her time machine, to make sure she did not give in to temptation. She also started to blow things up. Yes, she's quite destructive!

I do not think this is an appropriate face for one descended of royal blood (she is far too gleeful about explosions).

She also received a phone call from the science center. This involved her taking palladium, a heart shaped pink diamond, life fruit, and some scraps of metal to them. Then she learned how to build what she calls an artificial life form, a Simbot.

She opted to build three of them, two females and a male. The city recognizes them as her children, but not by blood (Simbots do not have blood!). In order of birth creation: Marissa, Madeline, and Matthew.

All three have opted to live elsewhere, so I agreed to use the family funds to purchase them their own residences. I even agreed to purchase a residence for her new Simbot best friend named Raul.

However, the more intriguing part is to come. While in school, Prudence met a young man named Octavio. He was quite attached to her then, but when word came out that she was involved in many of these explosions, he started to dislike her more and more (I do not know why, as she wasn't destroying anything but what the family had purchased, and junk). She invited him over, though, and worked on sweetening him up. I think it worked quite well.

And the best part is, Charity has also joined us.

[Shirin]

Charity Wind - Fifth Generation

Spouse: Jared Wind
Favorite Food: Cheese Tofu Steak
Favorite Music: Hip Hop
Favorite Color: Hot Pink
Astrological Sign: Gemini
Education: Graduate of the Community School for the Gifted
Traits: Genius, Eccentric, Brave, Great Kisser, Friendly
Lifetime Wish: Paranormal Profiteer
Profession: Ghost Hunting
SuperMax Skill: Logic
Building: Landgraab Industries Science Facilities
Property: 28 Hour Wellness Gym
Lifetime Reward: Professional Simolean Booster, Entrepreneurial Mindset, Fireproof Homestead
Black Ops: When Dreams Come True, Stinky Bugs, Archeology Exhibit, Save the Herding, Best Food in Town, Fixing the Celestial Slump
Best Friends: Jared Wind, Prudence Wind, Nawar Madbouli, Josephine Coy, Allen Todd, Ernatto Beratti M81 Covert Edition
Museum Pieces: Painting, Sculpture, Photograph - Toddler; Painting, Sculpture, Photograph - Child; Painting, Sculpture, Photograph - Teen; Painting, Sculpture, Photograph - Young Adult; Painting, Sculpture, Photograph - Adult; Painting, Sculpture, Photograph - Elder
Immortality Achieved: Week 29, Day 5

Museum Value: $117,975

[Audren]

You already have 5 Immortals?  Congratulations, Shirin!

[Shirin]

Thanks!

Yeah, 5 Immortals, and Charity's husband nearly ruined it. Someone didn't eat their Ambrosia, and he made a beeline for it.

Thankfully, I cancelled it before he reached it, but holy cow...

I also went and remodeled the house entirely to be one story, but there's this huge open space in the middle of the house that's driving me nuts - however, my mother told me to leave it alone. Sooo...I am.

Now I'm just waiting for Jared to kick the bucket so Prudence can bring in the next generation, but in the meantime, I can work on her supermax and career. And friends, now that she's done blowing stuff up.

[Shirin]

Dear Mother,

Let me start this off by saying that you are sending me entirely too many of your little sneaky spies. Constance commented just yesterday that we appear to be having a gnome convention on our lawn - I believe Charity told me that she once managed to count over twenty of those ridiculous creatures. But every time Faith attempts to photograph it for you, they disappear to a new location.

Also, your gnomes have peculiar habits. Apparently, your vampiress opted to save someone the trouble of staking her in full sunlight - she staked herself on our garden fence!

And I do not want to know what your magician is doing. I suspect it is related to the several gnome whelplings that are appearing now. Please, I beg of you, Mother, tell them to stop.

Now then, where was I? Oh yes. Prudence and Octavio. She persuaded him that a life as her mate, having no duties beyond siring her heir, was far more comfortable than that of a babysitter (I wonder about the term - do they truly sit on babies?). Of course, he was quite happy to accept, and to prove to her that he was more than capable of his conjugal duty.

However, Prudence and Octavio decided to wait on their child. Prudence wanted to work on her inventions first, as she insisted that she would unlock the secrets of making masterpiece inventions after building over one hundred of these floor sprayers. She calls them something else, but I do not understand how floors can be hygienic. They are either clean, or they are not. Octavio also decided to work on his writing and his painting.

Faith, Grace, and I attempted to become schoolteachers, but when we began to receive negative marks for attending to our duties, we all left. Imagine the nerve!

And so we plodded along - Jared and I gardening, Constance finding gems, Faith painting and sculpting, Grace cooking and cleaning, Charity solving unsolvables (which is contradictory in of itself) and digging holes in the backyard with a miner. And we watched in awe as the gnome convention grows.

But then it happened. Jared passed on, hand in hand with Death.

But before he left, he had a comforting smile for his wife and companion of so many years. "Weep not, my lovely princess. We shall meet again when the time is right."

And another smile for his beloved daughter. "This is a circle for you, baby girl. What Death takes, Love gives. Remember all that I taught you, that mercy shall temper all wrongdoings, and that to achieve all your grandfather Valor dreams, you will eventually need a little courage and a little patience."

Mother, it would appear that Prudence and Octavio understood Jared's missive. Especially as Octavio is advancing in his years as well.

As for me, Mother, I do understand Jared's missive as well.

A little courage, a little patience.

[SimBlip]

Congratulations on your second Immortal! Me thinks Her Royal Grace will be most pleased with that.
This is a lovely story. Well done.

[Shirin]

Thanks, SimBlip 

[Rhoxi]

It's a little bit late, but I just have to say I love Prudence cheering at the explosions. "Stuff go boom, wee!"

[SimBlip]

Oops, I made that comment just after reading about Faith and it turned up here.
Well, I'm totally caught up now and must congratulate you again on FIVE Immortals!
I so enjoy your writing style. The descriptions of modern gimmicks are hilarious. This is a splendid story.

[Shirin]

@Rhoxi - Yeah, Prudence's gleeful smiles and cheers made me think I should have given her the Evil trait

@SimBlip -  Thanks again, I appreciate it. My favorite is always the babysitter thing.