Author Topic: End of the Line Dynasty (4x4)  (Read 179052 times)


Offline Rhoxi

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Hilarious first words! Although, Grim may make him rue them, unless things get cleared up. The private wedding just seems appropriate after the deaths. Huzzah for rainboo-ness!



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Offline hazelnut

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Hilarious first words! Although, Grim may make him rue them, unless things get cleared up. The private wedding just seems appropriate after the deaths. Huzzah for rainboo-ness!
And pink rainboo-ness at that. It's a nice change from green :).



Apologies in advance for this chapter.  You know how there are stretches of dynasty games when very little seems to happen apart from people getting older?  This is one of those times…



(Almost)  Nothing but Birthdays

With three children in the house, the birthdays came thick and fast.  Little Kenneth grew up into a toddler (and it became clear that Goopy’s eyes and Dude’s hair had persisted for another generation).



The young Pesces grew up some more.



And then Andrew joined his sister at high school.



The next birthday was a less happy occasion.



Would Coral get her wish to see her son grow up?  They should probably hurry.  As soon as he’d finished learning toddler skills, she took him to the cake.



He was a cute kid…



…but not for long.  Thanks to intensive tutoring by Odessa, he moved up to secondary school well ahead of schedule…



…and suddenly, her sweet little boy became a sulky teenager with a permanently untucked shirt.



Both of the Pesce offspring were keen painters, so it was no great surprise that Beth entered young adulthood in front of an easel.



Ken, who’d tidied up his image as a result of a particularly odd teenage mood swing, went back to studying with Odessa and was ready for his next cake on Andrew’s birthday...



...and instead of three childen in the house, there were three young adults.





“So, what are you going to do with your life, Ken?  I could pull a few strings if you’re interested in politics – and your dad may have retired but he still has contacts at Doo Peas.”



“No, Mum.  Thanks but I want to make my own way in the world.”

He drove over to the police station first thing the following morning and joined Barnacle Bay’s finest.  His uniform wasn’t quite what he’d been expecting.  Did they have some undercover work lined up?



Andrew, like his older sister, had been a self-employed artist since his teens but he felt he wanted more from life.  He loved kids: maybe he should go into teaching or start up a nursery.  As a first step, he adopted a daughter, Melanie.



Ken helped her with her schoolwork, just as Odessa had done for him, and Melanie was on a firm ‘A’ by the time her birthday rolled around.



All of the recent family celebrations had been uneventful.  It couldn’t last.



For a while, no-one noticed what was happening.



Then Mel went inside to choose her new outfit and Simon turned to his wife to say something about how she must be happy to be in a childless household again – and realisation dawned.



Grim must have had a heavy schedule that day.  Darkness had fallen by the time he came to fetch Coral.



“Oh!  I was beginning to think you were giving me a second chance or something.  Please, will you let me stay a little longer?  My son’s a policeman now, you know.  I’d love to see him in uniform.”
“No, sorry.  It’s time to leave.  I can’t go around making allowances for people just because they beg me.  Do you know how many try that on?  Anyway, I haven’t got over that ‘stinky’ comment yet.  You’re not my favourite household at the moment.  And after all those favours I called in to allow you to move at a moment’s notice…”

And he swung his scythe, still grumbling.


Next chapter

Offline Rhoxi

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Re: End of the Line Dynasty: (Almost) Nothing but Birthdays (2 March)
« Reply #288 on: March 02, 2014, 12:44:36 PM »

Whoah, you just flew through the kids' childhood years. No time to dawdle kiddos, we got a dynasty to finish here!

Offline hazelnut

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Re: End of the Line Dynasty: (Almost) Nothing but Birthdays (2 March)
« Reply #289 on: March 02, 2014, 03:09:49 PM »
Whoah, you just flew through the kids' childhood years. No time to dawdle kiddos, we got a dynasty to finish here!

That's kind of how it felt to play.  Beth had a full-length childhood (which isn't all that long on this speed) but then it got progressively faster for the other two.  I think Ken was a young adult within a week of being born.  It was just: toddler skills, toddler painting and logic books, pegbox; right, cake; get to an 'A'; more cake; repeat.  The game's still being flaky so I'm trying not to complicate things too much.  Also, I kept getting interrupted by real-life stuff while playing through this part, so it didn't really feel as though much was happening in terms of the storyline.  It has improved since :).

Offline hazelnut

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Re: End of the Line Dynasty
« Reply #290 on: March 05, 2014, 12:32:42 PM »
The Price of Adventure

India was bored – and more than a little depressed.  She wished she could go adventuring again.  She wished she’d never agreed to all this.  She hadn’t asked to be a dynasty heir, after all.

When her parents had given her a password for the family website, they had expected her to be inspired by the biographies of earlier heirs (although her mother later admitted to being relieved that her athletic daughter hadn’t chosen to channel her energies into crime like her Bernal ancestors).  Instead, it was two siblings of heirs whose stories she read again and again: Freya Arevalo and Paul Silverman.  If Sophia were to be believed, Paul might well still be alive somewhere.  India wished she could contact him; find out first-hand what tombs were really like.  True, as an heir, she had more restrictions and she couldn’t be a full-time explorer as he and Freya had been but maybe…

She’d pestered and begged her parents to give Laura access to the site as well.  Perhaps her clever twin could come up with a plan.  That silly episode with the Forbidden Fruit hadn’t helped, of course.  Growing up with a dynasty heir and a PlantSim who was the most exotic and popular girl in the school couldn’t have been easy.  No wonder Laura had been so desperate for attention – but her parents had said it just went to show that brains weren’t everything.  Laura would have to prove she’d settled down and seen sense before they’d let her near anything as sensitive as their family history.

Then India was sent to Shang Simla to learn martial arts.  Laura, who’d finally impressed her parents with her dedication to her career in the police, was too busy with a complex case to leave Monte Vista just then but Rob and Sue gave her access to the website before they left.

“Plenty there to keep you busy while we're away,” said Rob, who knew all about being on-call and bored.

As soon as they returned, the twins had started putting together a strategy for tomb-raiding as a team, combining Laura’s brains (and lack of restrictions) and India’s brawn.  China might have been short on adventures but the next time the family had a chance to travel, they’d try it out.

It had worked brilliantly.  That holiday in Egypt was the most fun she’d ever had, despite the occasional mishap with traps.



But then she’d had to leave Monte Vista – and her twin – behind forever.  She wondered what Laura had done with the rest of her life.  Had she become a spy as she’d wanted?  India giggled, despite herself.  What would her parents have said to that?  Not the most sensible and grown-up of ambitions.  Had her twin married?  Had kids?  She must be long dead by now, as India herself should have been, if not for the plan.

The plan.  Take that potion and become young again before the move; find another adventuring partner in her new home and keep herself young; give herself time to explore more tombs, collect more relics.  The website had plenty of suggestions: potions, salon treatments, tattoos or, best of all, Ambrosia.

Meeting Odessa had seemed like fate.  A brave logician who was also an expert cook?  Thank you, Simgods, if you exist.  Odessa was childlike enough to love the idea of tomb-raiding, too.

India had heard that there were hidden underground chambers in Barnacle Bay itself.  It seemed reasonable that somewhere founded by pirates would have some dark secrets and, to be honest, it had been a significant factor when she was choosing her new home.  She asked Odessa but she’d only heard the same rumours that India had.

Then India married Dude and had Simon and there wasn’t much room in her life for dreaming of adventure.  Marriage and motherhood had been fulfilling in their own way and she was still very busy with her career.  As for Dude, he neither knew nor cared about secret caverns: nasty, dark, cold, damp places.  Why bother with them when you could spend your free time at the beach?



Dear, innocent Dude.  Life had been so simple for him: just have fun!  Now the worst of her grief was over, she found herself smiling every time she thought of him.  I’ll do my best, Dude.

But it wasn’t easy.  Losing Moe and Dude had brought home the harsh reality of long life.  She was going to have to deal with a lot of death.  Even with Odessa along for company, it wouldn’t be the easy ride she’d imagined in her youth.  You know, Laura, you might have had the better deal in the end.

Then she’d been called in to see the chairman of the club after a game one day.

“I’m sorry, India.  We’re going to have to let you go.  We need a younger star player.”
“But I’m the best you’ve got.  Highest scorer in the league for the past ten seasons.  Where will you do better?”
“Ten seasons.  That’s the point.”  He’d sighed.  “It’s not all about the game; not at my level.  I have to think about the bottom line – and our crowds are getting smaller all the time.  Did you notice how many empty seats there were out there today?  Our fanbase is getting older, too.  We need to get the kids back into the stadium – and for that we need a young team.  Young fans want someone they can dream about; someone their own age.  Not a widowed grandmother, however well-preserved she might be.”

He was right, she realised.  She thought back to her last autograph session.  Hardly anyone had turned up and they’d all been old.  In fact, her phone had rung with news of Fern Annan’s death while she was still having her autograph album signed!  Grim’s underlings had obviously messed up the paperwork and reported poor Fern’s demise a few hours ahead of the fact.  India had hoped it was a total mix-up but she’d checked with the hospital later that evening and yes, Fern was dead.

So now she was stuck at home all day, brooding.  Odessa still nagged her into visiting the Academy at intervals to brush up on her skills but what was it all for?  And now her son was an old man.  It was all his own fault but she really should have kept track of the date and reminded him.  He’d been too busy messing about in that workshop of his to notice that he ought to eat some Ambrosia.  He didn’t seem to mind all that much: there was a lot of his father in hm.  He just said it gave him a chance to retire from business and spend more time inventing and trying to get past the next level of that darned video game.  (Well, actually, he hadn’t said ‘darned’.)  And at least he and Coral had grown old together.

Coral…  She was gone now and India missed her far more than she’d expected.  She hadn’t liked her much to start with: all that talk of hating children and art, not to mention being the mayor’s daughter and nearly as rich as India had once been.  But what Coral said and what she did turned out to be two different things.  She’d been wonderful with Odessa’s kids and had even encouraged them in their love of painting, using her family connections to get them access to areas of the art gallery that were normally closed to the public.  And she’d given India her one little taste of adventure in Barnacle Bay.

It was shortly after Ken’s birth.

“India, I’m getting stir-crazy.  I need to get out and do something now I’m not waddling everywhere.  I want to show you the place where Simon and I got married.”
And so they’d called the limo and driven off.

It was a lovely place.  India could see why it was special to her son and daughter-in-law – but that wasn’t all, apparently.  Coral leaned in and whispered.



“Simon told me you’d heard rumours of the Pirate’s Hideaway.  Well this is it.  Come on, I’ll show you around – but don’t tell anyone else or I’ll have to kill you.”

India wasn’t entirely sure she was joking.  The Goldbeards had once been pirates, after all.  So she promised to keep her mouth shut and waited while Coral poked about in the bushes.



“Here it is!  Come on!”

And she followed her daughter-in-law down the steps and into darkness.



She’d never admitted it to Coral, of course, but it had been a little anticlimactic.  No traps; no puzzles – and any treasures had long been spirited away.  It was interesting, though.



Why were there the remains of a rowing boat here?  Had the cave once been connected to the sea?  Maybe the passage had been blocked by a rockfall – or deliberately walled in to keep the Hideaway’s secrets secret.

They worked their way around to the centre of the maze.  This must have been the treasure chamber once.



All that remained was a solitary chest, its once-colourful paint sadly faded.  She looked inside but wasn’t surprised to find it empty.



No, only the ghosts remained.  Judging by the number of urns, there must be plenty of them.  She hid her disappointment and thanked Coral, promising again to keep the secret.

And that was it.  Her only adventure since she’d moved here.  Maybe she wouldn’t bother with her next dose of Ambrosia; just grow old gracefully, let go and rejoin Dude.

Then Ken came in from work, bubbling with excitement.  The military had asked him to go to Egypt to research a game called Senet, which they thought might be strategically useful.  India couldn’t quite see why they’d chosen a policeman for the job rather than one of their own, even if Ken was an acknowledged genius.  Still, Egypt!  And he was asking her to go with him, ‘since you know the place’.

*   *   *   *   *

Ken’s mission turned out to be something of a wild goose chase.  None of the locals claimed even to have heard of a game called Senet.  Instead, he practised chess at the general merchant’s…



…and tried his hand at snake-charming.



India was pleased to find that the house above the basement she’d been asked to explore had now changed hands and she was free to visit and investigate.  The clues she found there led her to the marketplace, several floors below her grandson’s chessboard.  Odessa stopped to chat and to tutor Kenneth, while India started unlocking the tomb’s secrets.



Then India phoned to say she needed Odessa’s help and Ken went back to his chess problems.

This tomb was tricky.  It almost seemed to be taunting them.  They could see their goal but how could they reach it?



Finally, Odessa figured it out.  She was proving to be as good at puzzles as Laura had been.  India collected the relic she had been asked to find and set out on her next adventure.



While she was finishing her quest, Ken mastered logic and expressed a wish to learn potion-making, so India used her status as the holder of a level three visa to buy a holiday home.



It wasn’t much: just a patch of sand with the essentials for survival, plus a chemistry bench, but Ken seemed happy.



India had now completed every Egyptian tomb except one: Abu Simbel was still unexplored.  Odessa helped her to collect the offerings needed to gain entrance, then went off to visit friends while India started exploring.

The puzzles were easy at first.  She read the plaques carefully and made her choices: blue or red?  Only one stumped her for a while.  Which way up was a rainbow?  She knew the mnemonic for the colours, of course, but which was at the top?  Then she shrugged.  Play a hunch – there wasn’t a violet path, after all.  At worst, she’d get singed and she’d survived that before.  Red.  Phew!  No traps.

She gradually realised that there was an odd duality to this place: almost everything was twinned in red and blue.  In fact, it was like a mirror.  She took a break and called Odessa.



Working in parallel, they breezed through the remainder of the tomb.  Odessa went to see how Ken was getting on and maybe try making a potion or two of her own while India cleaned up the two areas they’d bypassed on the way in.



It had been quite a while since she’d fought a mummy but she hadn’t lost her skills.



With the Red and Blue Priests disposed of, Egypt was officially finished.  Where next?  Now the Eyes of Horus were in their possession, Odessa would be able to follow India everywhere.  Maybe they could get past some of those giant boulders and see more of China – and she still hadn’t visited France.

Perhaps adventuring was worth the price, after all.



As you’ve probably gathered from the story, the Senet Strategy opportunity cancelled when they arrived in Egypt.  At this stage, I don’t know whether it was a one-off glitch or the same bug that affected my Life States game.  Ken had another travel opportunity – that police career one to visit China and talk to the locals – but it fired only a few hours after their return from Egypt.  Since it would have been a couple of days before they could have travelled again, I cancelled it, hoping that a non-travelling one would pop up instead (which it did).

Ken, incidentally, is named after a Legacy spouse, who was called Kendell rather than Kenneth.  Since the few Kendals I’ve met have been female (when they weren’t a Lake District town or mint cake ;) ), I think of it as a girl’s name.  So I changed it to Kenneth, which is a family name.

Kendell was also in the police.  He was my first Superspy.  I’d had several Sims in that family with suitable traits, and someone had already gone through the Forensic branch, but no-one would roll the International Superspy wish.  Even his mother-in-law, who was a brave genius, somehow ended up wanting to be a journalist instead.  Then Kendell joined the family, with the wish already in place.  Of course I remember him fondly :).

Offline Rhoxi

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Re: End of the Line Dynasty: The Price of Adventure (5 March)
« Reply #291 on: March 05, 2014, 07:31:28 PM »

Aw, I think it's sweet that you're coming back to India after all this time. It's nice that she finally got to fulfill her dreams of adventure, however belatedly.



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Offline hazelnut

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Re: End of the Line Dynasty
« Reply #292 on: March 07, 2014, 03:18:52 PM »
Aw, I think it's sweet that you're coming back to India after all this time. It's nice that she finally got to fulfill her dreams of adventure, however belatedly.

I like India a lot, so she may well get another chapter or two, depending on how the travelling goes.



A Lesson in Perspective

Andrew decided to take the plunge and found a nursery.  He had plans to expand it into a small private school later, if everything went well.  Melanie moved out with her adoptive father, after Ken’s tutoring had ensured her success at high school.



Ken had finally been promoted into a uniformed rank…



…and threw himself into the job, questioning suspects and witnesses after work every evening and then writing up reports well into the night.



It was reaching the point where he’d have to decide which branch of the career to follow.  India was keen for him to become a special agent: she’d be more than happy to train him.  On the other hand, he really preferred the analytical part of the job.  Working out whodunnit (or, more often, how and whydunnit) was far more satisfying to him than chasing after criminals.  The only problem was, he’d heard that the forensic department liked their employees to have artistic abilities as well as brains.  He’d been too single-minded in his pursuit of intellectual excellence, it seemed.  On the other hand, he did know a couple of painters…

“Hi, Beth.  Could you help me with…?  Mmmph.”



He hadn't noticed that she was in her underwear.  Very nicely fitted underwear.  It suddenly occurred to him that the girl who’d been like a big sister all his life was an attractive woman – and not a relative at all, in fact.  A similar realisation seemed to strike her.  Maybe it was the uniform.



He managed to mumble out his request and, slightly disappointingly, she got dressed before launching into a discussion of colour theory.

The lessons continued over the next few evenings.  After all, improving his painting skill was more important than filing reports – or so he told himself.

Time was passing.  Beth had her adult birthday…



…and so did he, in the middle of an art history lecture.





The following weekend, he made a decision.

“Beth, would you like to go out somewhere?  I hear the bistro has a new menu – and maybe we could go and see a film afterwards.  That is, if you’d like to.”



She would.  The bistro food was good, although Ken privately thought that Beth’s mother was a better cook.  The sun was shining, so they chose to eat outside and watch the world go by.  Then she said it.



“You know, I’ve always wanted kids – and time’s ticking past for both of us.  Especially for me.  I think we should probably start a family sooner rather than later…”

Not a good choice of subject.



It wasn’t that Ken was totally opposed to the idea of children – after all, he knew he’d have to produce an heir at some point.  But why all the hurry?  It was their first date, for Grim’s sake!  Couldn’t she give him time; let them enjoy being a couple for a while without all of that broody stuff?

They didn’t go to the cinema.

*   *   *   *   *

All things considered, it was probably just as well that the army sent him to Egypt at that point.  He asked Beth if she wanted to go – it might have looked odd otherwise – but she said she’d welcome some time on her own to work on some art projects she had in mind.  India and Odessa didn’t try to dissuade her.  They’d probably picked up on the vibes.

The holiday gave him some much-needed breathing space.  He still couldn’t quite forgive Beth for pressuring him, as he saw it, but he had time to calm down and gain some perspective.  When they arrived back in Barnacle Bay and she rather awkwardly suggested carrying on with the art tutoring, he agreed.

The following week, the paparazzi were waiting outside when Ken left work.

“So, Ken, how does it feel to be boss?”
“Mr Gold!  Any comment on the leadership of the Forensic Service?”
“Photo, Ken?  Smile for the camera!”



He walked past them all with a straight face and a “No comment”.  He waited until he was in the car for the childish fist-pumping and “Yes!!!”

That evening, he stood in the living room, thinking.  He was at the top of his career: it was probably time to marry and settle down.



If only he hadn’t completely blown it.  He and Beth were still on speaking terms, sort of, but romance?

The pharaohs were watching.

“All right for you lot, wasn’t it?  Dynasty heirs without all of the tasks; arranged marriages, probably to your sisters.  Ew!”

Although, come to think of it, Beth had once been like a sister to him.  No, better not to go there.  Things were complicated enough as it was.  So, what should he do?  Heck, he was supposed to be brave, wasn’t he?  Better just to face up to this.



Beth was in the kitchen, as she usually was these days.  Odessa was teaching her to cook.

“Beth?  I’m sorry.  I was an idiot.  Will you marry me?  Please?”



He was expecting to be laughed at.  Instead, she melted.

“Ken, really?  After what you said?”
“Yes.  I was wrong.  Let’s have millions of kids, as soon as I’ve finished my tasks.”
“Well, I’m not sure about millions.  Just…”
“Just what?”
Just think of the stretchmarks. “Just forget I said anything.  I was about to put my foot in it again.  But yes, Ken.  Yes.  We’ve both been a bit silly and I think it’s time to stop.  Let’s get married.”
“Maybe in a day or two.  Give our families time to plan something completely over the top.  But for now, what about dinner at the bistro?”




Next chapter

Offline RainBeau

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Re: End of the Line Dynasty: A Lesson in Perspective (7 March)
« Reply #293 on: March 07, 2014, 03:50:32 PM »
Aww, what an adorably awkward courtship :)
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By samoht04

Offline Rhoxi

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Re: End of the Line Dynasty: A Lesson in Perspective (7 March)
« Reply #294 on: March 07, 2014, 10:06:04 PM »

Hehehe. So cute! But really, it took seeing her in her undies to realize she's attractive; you couldn't just, oh, I dunno, look at her face?! How typical.  ::) I love all the pharaohs staring down at Ken while he thinks about marriage.

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Re: End of the Line Dynasty: A Lesson in Perspective (7 March)
« Reply #295 on: March 08, 2014, 05:58:17 AM »
Aww, what an adorably awkward courtship :)

The Golds seem to be going in for awkward romance in quite a big way - but what else could I do with Ken pulling those faces?

But really, it took seeing her in her undies to realize she's attractive; you couldn't just, oh, I dunno, look at her face?! How typical.  ::)

Yeah, typical man  ::).  But then, she seems to be a typical woman (at least, in this dynasty) - they mostly seem to have a penchant for men in uniform  ;).  I thought it was funny that Ken and Beth had been quietly coexisting all that time and then chose that particular moment to go into 'we're so alike' mad-attraction mode.

I love all the pharaohs staring down at Ken while he thinks about marriage.

Me too - although I've just noticed that they're also in the screenshot where he's asking her out.  The trip to Egypt must have been earlier than I remembered.  Oh well.

Offline hazelnut

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Re: End of the Line Dynasty
« Reply #296 on: March 09, 2014, 10:30:25 AM »
A Big Wedding

As Ken had predicted, Odessa launched into wedding plans with great enthusiasm.  She’d make the cake and prepare the other food, of course – and then she had a few ideas about decorations.  How many guests were they inviting?  Would there be bridesmaids?  Had they thought about colours?  And so on.  And on.

After putting her foot down and refusing some of the more elaborate suggestions, Beth left her to it.  She and Ken spent most of that weekend in the library or at the park.  He still needed to put in a few more hours of skill tutoring.  She knew he’d been intending to finish most of his tasks in Egypt but the locals’ professed ignorance of Senet seemed to be symptomatic of a general lack of interest in intellectual pursuits.  No-one wanted him to teach them logic.  So he’d been putting in a few hours after work every day since his return to Barnacle Bay and now he could really concentrate on finishing this requirement, while Beth read books and refused to answer her mother’s phone calls.



*   *   *   *   *

“What do you think, India?”
It was the morning of the wedding and Odessa was fussing over the finishing touches.
“It’s very… pink.  Very romantic.”  Also ever so slightly tacky.  Not that she’d ever say that, of course.  Odessa was her best friend.  But maybe she should have been more involved in the preparations, toned things down a bit.  Leaving someone so childlike in charge had led to rather an excess of pink hearts.  Still, everyone loved Odessa and would forgive her almost anything – and Ken and Beth were so wrapped up in one another that they’d probably hardly notice the décor.



As if to compensate, Odessa had chosen a decidedly middle-aged mother-of-the-bride outfit.  She said she wanted to look respectable – which meant hiding her tattoos, apparently.  She’d tried to persuade India into an equally frumpy outfit but had had to admit defeat.  Mumsy outfits just weren’t designed for sports legends:  India’s muscular development made her look fat instead of fit.  They eventually settled on a sleeveless dress to show off her well-toned arms and (according to India but no-one else) to draw attention away from the short skirt making her calves look enormous.  Simon simply wore the suit he’d had for a while.  He looked smart enough, he said.  Why fuss?  Everyone would be looking at Ken and Beth anyway.

Beth was wearing a simple dress in the palest of green brocades, with a matching waistcoat for Ken.  Her mother had insisted on the top hat and tails and Ken went along with it, although he said he felt silly.  Similarly, Beth would have preferred her usual hairstlye, maybe with a fancier slide, but Odessa had marched her over to the salon for an elaborate updo.

As the happy couple walked over to stand under the bridal arch, the bride’s mother and groom’s father took their places in the front row.



“Simon!  This is the bride’s side!” hissed Odessa.
“But there’s only Andy and Mel apart from you.  There are loads of Gold friends and relations.  Why not even it out a bit?  Besides, I can hold your hand if you start to cry…  Or if I do, come to that.  I wish Coral was here to see this.”

Quite a few sniffles were heard as the bride and groom made their promises and exchanged rings.





Then, as yet more hearts fell from the arch and the newlyweds kissed, almost everyone started scrabbling around for hankies.





India, blinking hard (not crying, obviously – just a touch of hayfever from all of the flowers), looked around.  She knew almost everyone here – but who was that woman in the front row?  She was certainly acting like one of the family.



Melanie had worked it out.



Danica had somehow disguised herself as a human for the occasion, although her walk still gave the game away.



After the ceremony, everyone gathered around to watch as Ken and Beth cut the cake.



Then, as evening fell, the guests settled in for some serious overeating, while the bride and groom disappeared indoors ‘to change into something less formal’ and somehow failed to reappear.



The newlyweds found it almost impossible to snatch any more time alone over the next few days.  The paparazzi and random strangers were constantly interrupting them to ask Beth to pose for the camera or to sign autographs.





Ken was old news but his reclusive artist bride was endlessly fascinating, it seemed.  Even the moment when she realised that she was having a baby was duly recorded and appeared in the papers the following morning.



*   *   *   *   *

As the end of Beth’s pregnancy approached, Ken managed to mislead the reporters and sneak her off for a quiet day on the beach.  It was as close as they came to a honeymoon.







At sunset, they swam across the bay to have a look at the family’s old house.  There was still no sign of repair work starting on the bridge.  A pity – the little island was such a lovely setting.



Then Beth complained of cramp.

“Unless it’s…  Let’s get back to shore now and walk back along the beach.”

It wasn’t cramp.  Ken carried her over to his police car, settled her into the back seat and drove off to the hospital with the siren on and lights flashing.  Of course, as the midwife pointed out, they needn’t have hurried.  Beth was only in early labour and it was hours before their son made his appearance.


 

Next chapter



I finally found Spot Dalmatia!  He was one of the strangers that Ken tutored and questioned in the days before the wedding.  When I spotted his name in the list of possible wedding guests, he had to be invited.  Sadly, volunteering to help clear up was the last thing he did.



Also, that's the first time outside a resort that I've seen a buffet table with anything other than the standard roast/autumn salad/key lime pie line-up.  Admittedly, I don't use them much, so could easily have missed something.  Do the different designs have different foods, has it become more variable with a patch or is it a side-effect of owning Isla Paradiso?  Or it could be an unusually benign bug, I suppose.  It seemed to have a lot more than eight servings of everything, too.  I started getting the household to grab a plate and then put it in the fridge but there always seemed to be more left and eventually I gave up and just sold the table complete with remaining food.



Summary – Generation 10

Heir: Ken
Traits: good, brave, ambitious, genius, workaholic
Lifetime wish: Forensic Specialist: Dynamic DNA Profiler

Unique maxed career: Police (Forensic branch)
Two unique best friends: Layla and Jordan Lytle*
Three unique skill challenges: Teacher Extraordinaire, Master Chemist, Skill Professor
Four unique opportunities: Fixing the Books, Photo Evidence, Smuggle Check, Extensive Case Work
Buildings bought this generation: Doo Peas Corporate Towers, Llama Memorial Stadium
Properties bought this generation: (none)
Vacations used: 1 out of 4

*Layla is Ken’s partner at work.  I’m not sure whether Jordan is her mother or an older sister.  Ken ran into a slight problem with his best friends when he was accused of public WooHoo just before the wedding.  Who knew there were spies backstage at the theatre?  Ken made a lot of phone calls  during Beth’s pregnancy and managed to repair the damage in time.  The Lytles were probably upset at not being invited to the wedding, too – India is dangerously charismatic these days and I daren’t let her meet potential best friends.

Offline Rikki8528

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Re: End of the Line Dynasty: A Big Wedding (9 March)
« Reply #297 on: March 09, 2014, 10:35:19 AM »
Peaboo! Yay! Is his name Pea?

Offline hazelnut

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Re: End of the Line Dynasty: A Big Wedding (9 March)
« Reply #298 on: March 09, 2014, 03:49:53 PM »
Peaboo! Yay! Is his name Pea?

Pea?  Er, no, in fact.  Nor is it Poddington.  In fact, he initially looked grey on my monitor (no, not Gandalf either) but appears to be more of a washed-out turquoise on closer inspection.

Offline RainBeau

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Re: End of the Line Dynasty: A Big Wedding (9 March)
« Reply #299 on: March 09, 2014, 04:02:35 PM »
I'm not sure if it's a patch but it's definitely not Island Paradise as buffets started offering more varied dishes long before that EP came out.  Congratulations to the newlyweds/new parents!
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By samoht04

 

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