Author Topic: The Ghosts of Twinbrook (Life States Dynasty)  (Read 108280 times)

Offline RainBeau

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Re: The Ghosts of Twinbrook (updated 4 January)
« Reply #120 on: January 05, 2013, 04:35:54 AM »
Oooh, what could be the plan? And whom does she love? So many questions!
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Offline hazelnut

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Re: The Ghosts of Twinbrook
« Reply #121 on: January 13, 2013, 10:37:36 AM »
Chapter 13: Living for the Future

 “…So Robert Andrew agreed to join the family.  I believe he and Isabella have worked out some sort of bargain, although they both refuse to discuss it.



“There have been other changes in the household, too.  Dear Charles died at the age of 92.  I find it ridiculous that the rest of the family still called him ‘Kid’ when he was an old man.



"We laid him to rest near Vernon and Cecily.



“But the biggest change concerns my daughter Victoria….”





Vicky met him in the library one day.



There had been other romantic interests before, of course: a schoolgirl crush on a games teacher, whose name she had long forgotten; Damion, who was off limits because he was her big sister’s boyfriend; Isaac, in her early days as a chef.  She was pretty sure Isaac would have liked to take their relationship further than longing looks across the prep table but Vicky had been very much aware of her own longevity back then, and of how much the rest of the family depended on her.

She had probably been right not to marry a short-lifer – she’d seen the effect that losing Tina had had on Will.  The effect it was still having.  But maybe it was worth it: during Tina’s lifetime, she and Will had been happier than anyone else Vicky had ever met.

And now Vicky had met Alonzo and knew he was The One.



They spent a day together at the Spring Festival and, as night fell, Alonzo persuaded her to try the love tester machine.



ERROR 27*/Passion Sensors Overload



Well, in that case…



Vicky asked him to go steady.  Now she had to talk to Mamma.



“…and I want to have my own family while I’m still young enough.  You see…”

Vicky had started to feel the changes in her body some time back.  She was starting to age, even though it wasn’t visible to anyone else yet.



Ana understood.  She herself had felt different as soon as Christabel was born, although it had been some time before the mirror had shown any changes in her appearance.  In her case, of course, it was happening very slowly, but she was growing older.  With half of her genes from Vernon, Victoria was worried that she would age almost normally now that the process had started and she wanted to enjoy life – her own life – while her youth lasted.

With her mother’s blessing, Vicky invited Alonzo over to meet the family – and to ask him a question.







After Aunt Vicky moved out, Isabella took over the housework.  While she was spring-cleaning, she found a staircase hidden away in a corner of the nectar cellar.  What could be down there?  Along with the dusty crates and tatty old furniture, she found a strange machine.



She didn’t stay thin for long.



Izzy had twins, Joseph and Thomas, who both took after their father.



Both parents spent hours playing with the boys and teaching them to walk and talk.





As they grew older, it became obvious that they had inherited more than looks from Bob-Andy.  Tom in particular loved being outdoors and asked their father to teach them both to fish.



Tom decided almost immediately that he wanted above all else to catch perfect fish.  Joe also enjoyed fishing but decided he’d rather become a scientist.  They both joined the scouts in search of like-minded friends – ballet was far too girly and indoorsy.





Bob-Andy was proud of his young sons but couldn’t help being reminded of his first family and wondering how Lincoln and Newton had grown up.  Had they been interested in fishing and gardening, too, or had they inherited their mother’s love of cooking?

He missed Mary so much.


Next chapter



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Offline RainBeau

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Re: The Ghosts of Twinbrook (updated 13 January)
« Reply #122 on: January 13, 2013, 11:34:48 PM »
Aww, Bob-Andy is sad :( I wish he didn't have to be. Congratulations on the boys, at any rate! Two possible heirs to choose from again.
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By samoht04

Offline Tilia

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Re: The Ghosts of Twinbrook (updated 13 January)
« Reply #123 on: January 14, 2013, 11:40:13 AM »
Congrats on the twins!  Such a multicolored family they make up

Offline Dellyo82

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Re: The Ghosts of Twinbrook (updated 13 January)
« Reply #124 on: January 14, 2013, 03:43:33 PM »
I've been reading your story for a while but only just registered today. I really love your writing! :) My favorite chapter so far was the one told from the Invisible Friends' points of view, it was brilliant!
I also enjoyed the newest update very much! Poor Bob-Andy. I wonder what his plan is! Can't wait to read! :)

Offline hazelnut

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Re: The Ghosts of Twinbrook (updated 13 January)
« Reply #125 on: January 15, 2013, 01:53:51 PM »
Aww, Bob-Andy is sad :( I wish he didn't have to be. Congratulations on the boys, at any rate! Two possible heirs to choose from again.

I'm mean.  Plus, I think the Bakers' bios imply pretty strongly that he was Mary's husband.  I didn't want it all to be straightforward - just marching into a town and thinking you can marry the ghosts and they'll all be perfectly happy about it   ::).  Hence grumpy Steward and sad Bob-Andy.  On the other hand, I'm a softy really.  The next chapter or so won't be very cheerful either but things will improve (that is, assuming the Sims co-operate.  There's a certain amount of friction in the family at the moment).

Joe and Tom are lovely.  They both have better traits than either of the gen 5 twins.  Not as good as Fred and Liv but probably the best of the potential heirs.

Congrats on the twins!  Such a multicolored family they make up

Thanks.  I kind of wish I had a green ghost, just to balance the colours up :).  Of course, they're probably all pale green underneath the ghostliness...

I've been reading your story for a while but only just registered today. I really love your writing! :) My favorite chapter so far was the one told from the Invisible Friends' points of view, it was brilliant!
I also enjoyed the newest update very much! Poor Bob-Andy. I wonder what his plan is! Can't wait to read! :)

Thank you.  I enjoyed writing from the imaginary friends' points of view.  They're so different - Brian is a sweetie, apart from his commitment issues (oddly, his traits are nearly the same as Deirdra's), while Riley is completely mixed up (neurotic, hates the outdoors, hydrophobic, mean-spirited and unlucky).  Credit for their chapter titles (and several others) goes to my daughter, by the way :).

Offline RainBeau

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Re: The Ghosts of Twinbrook (updated 13 January)
« Reply #126 on: January 16, 2013, 11:30:08 AM »
Oh yes, it makes total sense the way you did it. Very realistic. And we Watchers may plan, but the Sims will do their own thing!
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Offline hazelnut

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Re: The Ghosts of Twinbrook (updated 13 January)
« Reply #127 on: January 16, 2013, 01:15:52 PM »
And we Watchers may plan, but the Sims will do their own thing!

This lot certainly will  :P.  The random traits, I suppose.

Offline hazelnut

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Re: The Ghosts of Twinbrook
« Reply #128 on: January 16, 2013, 01:29:58 PM »
Chapter 14: The Trials of Life

 “Sometimes, Deirdra, I think it is the animals’ deaths that are hardest to take.  First Cecily, then Archibald and now Marmaduke.  It seems such a short time ago that Emily brought that tiny kitten home and now he is gone.





“He was such a great little hunter.  He loved to fish.





“We all loved him dearly.  Even the Grim Reaper seemed to find him appealing.





“Do you know, I actually talked to him this time?  Grim, I mean.  Small talk, almost.  We even found we had some things in common.





“He still refused to take me until all of the tasks are completed, though.  I wish he would relent – not so much for myself but for the rest of the family.  Living with all these constraints is beginning to take its toll on them.



“Isabella and Robert Andrew barely speak to one another.  I had noticed they were no longer sharing a room but their relationship seems to have broken down completely.  Emily, bless her, is best friends with everyone and tries her best to heal the breach but I think it may be beyond even her to repair.



“And then there is William.  He loved Tina-Patricia so much.  I think living on without her is affecting the balance of his mind.  We keep finding him alone in the garden at night, staring into the darkness.”



Izzy and Bob-Andy tried not to let their feelings spill over into their relationships with the boys.  Izzy still helped them with their homework, while Bob took them to his favourite fishing spots and taught them to garden.  Of course, Tom and Joe realised that not all was well in the household but they spent so much of their waking lives at school or working at their part-time jobs that they weren’t around the house all that much.  They were developing other outside interests, too.





They had agreed that Joe would be heir unless something unexpected happened.  Tom was prepared to take over if necessary but he really wasn’t interested in girls.  Marrying and having a family didn’t appeal at all.



It was at the twins’ graduation that the family first noticed signs of friction between Izzy and her grandfather.  Will seemed to deliberately go out of his way to bore her and she passed out on the town hall steps in front of all of the other parents and students.



Now Ana was even more worried about them both.

Offline RainBeau

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Re: The Ghosts of Twinbrook (updated 16 January)
« Reply #129 on: January 16, 2013, 06:36:24 PM »
Yes, random traits can have unforeseen effects. Sometimes funny, sometimes...well, not. It's a shame there is so much conflict in your household. I live in fear that one of my future heirs will roll Evil and it will conflict with Marjorie's Good trait...
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By samoht04

Offline hazelnut

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Re: The Ghosts of Twinbrook
« Reply #130 on: January 19, 2013, 10:39:04 AM »
Chapter 15: Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous

As planned, Tom moved out after graduation and Joe focused on his tasks.  He’d registered as a self-employed gardener as a teenager and now he was working hard to develop the skill and earn promotions.





He’d soon reached the top of that career and looked for something else to do – after all, he was a workaholic.  He still wanted to be a scientist but there was no need to rush into things; he came from a long-lived family.  He could learn useful skills for later while working in a different job.





The way Joe saw it, if he was trying to woo and win a fire ghost, “I’m a firefighter” would be a particularly good chat-up line.



It worked well – although so did talking about science.  Or almost anything else.





The Clays had never intended to have children.  He was a successful businessman, a self-made millionaire; she was young, cultured and beautiful.  In a later period, she would have been called a trophy wife.  So when she found herself pregnant it was a minor disaster.  When the baby finally arrived, it was twins.  They named the girls May and Lucy and immediately handed them over to a succession of nursemaids while Mummy concentrated on getting her figure back.  As soon as the twins were old enough, they were packed off to boarding school.

Some months before they left, their mother fell ill.  She visited famous spas and tried alternative therapies, to no avail.  Then she realised what she’d been denying: she was having another baby.  This time it was a boy.  They called him Harwood, an old family name.

At first, no-one at school could tell the twins apart.  They had fun swapping roles to confuse people and soon the other girls took to calling them both ‘Macy’.  Even after their personalities became more distinct as teenagers and they started dressing slightly differently, they didn’t quite get their own names back.  They were Macy and Lacy for ever more.  (Except to their parents, naturally).

Meanwhile at home, Harwood was growing up.  His parents had realised early on that he was… different.  He’d never fit in at boarding school: they’d have to keep him at home.  Still, they could always pretend he didn’t exist.  There were more eminent families than theirs who kept ‘special’ children hidden away.

It was a considerable shock when they realised what a talented artist he was.  Suddenly he was their son again.  Journalists and critics were invited over to meet him (under strict supervision, naturally) and admire his work.

After completing their studies at the Academy for Young Ladies, May and Lucy were sent to an exclusive finishing school to better prepare them to be good, ornamental wives like their mother.  It was towards the end of that year that they heard that both of their parents had been killed in an air crash.

After all the formalities had been taken care of, the three siblings decided to leave Bridgeport and live quietly somewhere else.  Harwood was tired of being on display as a prodigy and the girls, inspired by a brilliant, feminist teacher at the Academy,  certainly didn’t want to start on the round of parties and presentations that was expected of debutantes.  They chose to relocate to Twinbrook, moving into a ramshackle old house in the centre of town.  It was a perfect spot for the artistically inclined, looking out over the new reservoir.

Soon after they moved in, Lacy met another new arrival in town.  Juan shared their love of art and, even better, he shared Lacy’s passion for inventing.  Best of all, he was about as far from her mother’s concept of the perfect spouse as you could get.  The grapevine whispered that he was a gypsy – his looks certainly fitted.  Half of the women in Twinbrook were smitten with the dashing young stranger but he only had eyes for Lacy.  After a whirlwind courtship, they were married.

No-one was entirely clear how the accident happened – or even exactly what it was that had happened.  All they knew was that Juan, poking around in the junkyard in search of interesting materials, heard a loud bang from the top of the hill and looked up to see his house on fire.  He called the fire brigade and then ran up the hill shouting his new wife’s name.

It was too late by the time he found her.  Macy, who must have called in to visit her twin, was still alive but only just.  She was rushed to the local hospital, along with Juan, who hadn’t even noticed his own extensive burns in his efforts to save them.

Juan insisted on burying Lacy in his junkyard.  He said he couldn’t bear to think of her being in the place where she must have suffered so horribly but he still wanted her to be nearby.  Macy, who followed her sister a few days later, was buried in the family’s garden, in a spot where she’d loved to sit and paint.

Harwood stayed on alone in the big old house but eventually realised it was too large and too dilapidated for him to cope with.  New houses were being built on the island in the lake and he moved into one of them.  His old house was pulled down and replaced with a launderette but Harwood insisted that Macy should remain undisturbed.

She stayed there for a long time.  She would sometimes venture into the gym next door for a shower but she was too shy to visit other ghosts.  Lacy drove over to chat from time to time, especially after Juan grew old and died, and she sometimes popped over to the cemetery to chat with the ghosts there.  It was Lacy, of course, who told her about the strange family who were marrying and resurrecting ghosts from around town – and that one of the fire ghosts would be the next to join them.

So she wasn’t too surprised when the ghostly young man turned up at the launderette one night.  The ghostly young fireman.  In his uniform.  With hair she wanted to run her fingers through.  She’d never fallen in love while she was alive.  Opportunities are a bit limited at a girls’ school, after all.  Now, in death, it seemed to be happening to her.  Before long, they were watching the stars together.





Joe and Macy were Will and Tina all over again.  Their relationship progressed rapidly – until she disappeared with the approach of morning.



That was OK.  Joe had been a scout, after all.  He was prepared.



A few hours later, Macy joined the household.

They spent the day at the fire station (well, almost anything counts as a date if you’re in love).  Joe maintained the fire engine and alarm and upgraded his extinguisher; Macy dabbled at the inventing bench and tried to regain her old painting skills.





When night fell, they moved on to Hollowlog Springs.  What could be more romantic than a proposal with a unicorn in attendance?







Ana had reached a decision: it was time to retire.  Her family needed her more than her patients did.



Her descendants had done so much to help her – they had devoted their whole lives to breaking her curse.  Now that her life was drawing to an end, it was time to start thinking about what she could do for them.  Clearly, William and Isabella needed her most.  It had reached the point where they couldn’t meet without fighting.







She encouraged William to take up the guitar again: it was years since he’d played for them.  Then she reminded him of how much Tina-Patricia had enjoyed singing.  Maybe he should work on his vocal skills, too. 



Isabella needed an interest outside the home.  If she and Will saw each other less, there would be fewer opportunities for disagreements.  Maybe she could get a job?  Isabella was nervous at the idea of leaving the house but finally agreed that it would be good for her to get out and meet new people.  Journalism would be another way to apply the skills she already had.



With that problem at least partially solved, Ana turned her attention to plans for their future.  It was time to dust off her old chemistry set.  She should probably have a word with Christabel, too – some of their descendants would definitely benefit from her expertise.

And then there was Deirdra.  Ana was aware of how much she owed to the genie and she wanted to ask for even more help.  Still, she knew how to repay that debt.

Offline hazelnut

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Re: The Ghosts of Twinbrook (updated 19 January)
« Reply #131 on: January 19, 2013, 10:49:14 AM »
Yes, random traits can have unforeseen effects. Sometimes funny, sometimes...well, not. It's a shame there is so much conflict in your household. I live in fear that one of my future heirs will roll Evil and it will conflict with Marjorie's Good trait...

It's odd - Will and Izzy's traits aren't opposites (and one of the happiest couples I've had in a game had three sets of opposing traits - that was in a legacy).  He yells at and bores the others from time to time but they seem to get over it.  I think it's Izzy's over-emotional trait that's making it worse with her.  They really were fighting all the time.  If I'd disabled memories I probably wouldn't have spotted it for ages because I'm always concentrating on the current heir.  As it was, I noticed they both had lots of memories of getting into/winning/losing fights - at least one a day.

I'd put Will's guitar into the family inventory because they all kept staying up half the night listening to him playing and then being tired when they had to go to work but I've now decided that's the lesser evil and he's got it back.  So far, that and putting Izzy into a rabbithole career seem to be working.  They still hate each other but they're not fighting.  They're not actually enemies, merely at 'disliked' status, but their relationship bar is completely red.

TheTripWasInfraGreen

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Re: The Ghosts of Twinbrook (updated 16 January)
« Reply #132 on: January 19, 2013, 10:52:58 AM »
Macy!

I always interpreted her as Harwood's wife rather than his sister, but I like your story much better. ;D

Offline hazelnut

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Re: The Ghosts of Twinbrook (updated 16 January)
« Reply #133 on: January 19, 2013, 10:55:18 AM »
Macy!

I always interpreted her as Harwood's wife rather than his sister, but I like your story much better. ;D

I almost made her his wife.  I think it would work equally well but after Bob-Andy I didn't want another ghost who should really be married to someone else.

Offline RainBeau

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Re: The Ghosts of Twinbrook (updated 19 January)
« Reply #134 on: January 19, 2013, 02:00:19 PM »
I figured that was the reason, and I agree. It's much easier to handle that way. No more drama.

I'm sorry Will and Izzy get along so badly. It sounds like they could use something to improve their relationship!
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By samoht04