Author Topic: Eight Ways to Live Forever: The Waverly Immortal Dynasty ("Complete")  (Read 334099 times)

Offline Hallucination

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Re: Eight Ways to Live Forever: The Waverly Immortal Dynasty (Ch. 70, 7/21)
« Reply #330 on: July 24, 2014, 06:12:11 PM »
I live about ten minutes from Bellevue! Hope you escaped before the rain hit. I'm not a fan of the pinched philtrum and tubercule, but Tegan is pretty darn cute. I may have to steal borrow her clothing aesthetic for one of my Sims it's so gorgeous.
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Offline Trip

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Re: Eight Ways to Live Forever: The Waverly Immortal Dynasty (Ch. 70, 7/21)
« Reply #331 on: July 24, 2014, 08:05:34 PM »
Posting from overcast Portland now.

Bellevue is about half an hour south of my house depending on the traffic on I405. Hope you're enjoying yourself. I'm enjoying your story. Bullies are hard to deal with and schools still don't do enough to help.

I enjoyed it. It's a lovely place and I hope to return one day!

Yeah, I've had m own bad experiences with bullying in schools. Massachusetts started cracking down it a little too late for me to benefit. Sigh. :( (Though I obviously hope that it helps many other victims)

How heartbreaking for Julian and Lita. :( I really, really hate it when story progression does that.

Lilac prince. That makes me smile. :)

I was very mad at the game for nixing Nikita like that! She wasn't the only victim to story progression, but losing her saddened me the most. I wanted her genes!

Can't believe he had the nerve to come to her party!  Good thing papa doesn't know about this XD  I'd hate to see him get arrested.  And it's probably a good thing the Sims aren't actually violent for some of the stuff the game does lol

Oh Heph...  A lilac prince indeed!  And I still love Julian.  It's so sad that he lost a teenage daughter!  Bad story progression, bad!

That little snot! A lot of people liked showing up to Waverly parties. At least he didn't cause much trouble there.

Tegan is even more gorgeous as a teen! She's just going to keep getting prettier, isn't she? :) And it's good to know that Bryant will get his comeuppance.

She was beautiful, and got better as a young adult, yes. Bryant will get what he deserves, but in due time. Nothing happens instantly when you're a Waverly.

I live about ten minutes from Bellevue! Hope you escaped before the rain hit. I'm not a fan of the pinched philtrum and tubercule, but Tegan is pretty darn cute. I may have to steal borrow her clothing aesthetic for one of my Sims it's so gorgeous.

Yes, I escaped the rain...right into Portland's rain. Tegan and company did have weird mouths (as you can see even better when I need to make Jo angry or surprised). Borrow the aesthetic all you want! I actually recycled hers from one of my Life State Dynasty heiresses. ::)



Chapter 71: Trauma Conga Line



“Bryant’s back in town,” Tegan said one afternoon to her mother, “Though I think that he’s fine with girls reading.”

“Gram, you know what to do,” Lily told Annette later that night.

“Spike her orange juice?”

“The other thing.”



As awful as Bryant was, as much as he was likely still a misogynist hiding behind his (admittedly fantastic) talents as a programmer and mathematician, his bad traits did give Tegan more of grandma Annette’s piping hot and sweet baked angel food cake for breakfast. She felt pity for Tegan and had a store of it in the fridge waiting for her. However, it didn’t stop Annette from dishing out rude remarks like she dished out home fries at the diner. Spring came around and love was in the air.

“Maybe he likes you,” she taunted.

“Oh please.” Tegan rolled her eyes. “He’s misguided and I hope he turns around, but he doesn’t like me like anything. Who does?”

“So? I bet my husband said loads of bad things about me before leading me into his bed for, well, things that will come later for you. Whether it’s Bryant or one of those Whelohff boys.” She held her tongue, for the first time in a while, before the name of Hephaestus escaped. Let that happen naturally, she thought, as she dreamed about the wedding of her darling porcelain doll to the older lilac lunatic.

But for Annette, there were other weddings to inappropriately bother the household about.

“It’s almost Love Day,” Annette told Julian one morning, “You’ve been talking about finally tying the knot and what better time to do it?”

“Alright, alright, I’ll talk with her about it tonight. I did pick out my tux, I think. But what if it looks wrong?”

“Uncle Bill didn’t wear a tux when we got married. Stop fretting over it. Just set a date with her. Exchange rings right there if you like. I don’t give a crap.”

She cooked one less meal that night. And then, about an hour before midnight, the door to Julian’s room slammed and the lock clicked in place. He didn’t come downstairs for a midnight snack or a midnight sculpt-a-thon, and he didn’t even go to work the next morning. Code Aqua was texted to Lily again.

“You poor thing,” she said after cracking the door open. Annette picked the lock for her. Julian, again, missed a day of shaving, though he kept most of his formal suit on. His jacket and white shirt were wrinkled, and he took off his pants, wearing his best jacket with a pair of boxers in need of a wash.

“I know I am,” Julian sighed, “I’m ready to die at this point.”

“I don’t even know what happened.”

“Grab the paper.”

Lily read the fresh newspaper on the porch, and picked out a headline. Good-Bye Julian: Telecaster Retires. No, it couldn’t have been that. She turned to the obituaries and was hit in the face by the first listing. Angelita Coddle, 95. Lily didn’t even read the cause of death or who she was survived by. She ran upstairs as if she was starting a marathon, and gave Julian a bigger hug than she ever gave Bronson.

“I’m so sorry about that,” she whispered, letting Julian lean over her shoulder to cry it out.

He let out all of the tears and saline in his body before letting go of his grip on Lily. “It was a bad evening.”



Not that it started out bad. He exited work with a small award in his pocket, for Anchor of the Year, following his excellent coverage of the new space program (which made for a lot of interviews on Bronson’s behalf; he kept asking why he had to dress up for his own housemate to question him). The office threw him a party at lunchtime, complete with red velvet cake, catered finger sandwiches, and tiny pieces of toast with bruschetta. Lita and the family prepared him a healthy salad back at their new-ish home, at the old Rotter residence.



He also got to throw the confetti out of his pockets and retire with a little more peace in his mind, as opposed to biting “oh god I failed” horrors running through his frantic mind.



So instead of failure, he planted a smooch on Lita and prepared to ask her about wedding dresses, or about seeing Franco for some advice about one. But a knife hit a wooden cutting board in a rapid pace, making pieces of shredded lettuce for the salad the family had planned.

“I hope you don’t mind some guests,” Lita said, looking over at a few non-Coddles getting themselves some water before supper. Felix Kindle and Emma Ball were there, meaning that Julian had no escape from his housemates’ families after all.

“As long as your mum isn’t here,” Julian said. He didn’t need his future mother-in-law having an opinion.

Julian changed into something more comfortable than his coat. The family sat down at the dining room table, which seated four. Their guests could pull up a barstool if they needed to get off their feet. Julian ate a third of his salad before looking over at his beautiful Lita again.

“Honey, we’ve been engaged for a while,” he said, “The landlady has given her blessing. Wanna get hitched?”

“I’ve had a white dress picked out for ages,” Lita said, “And the kids are all grown up. Why not?”

“Tonight?”

“Have a headache. Tomorrow.”



Tomorrow was simply too late.

Lita had a headache, but instead of being a little stress headache, it was something along the lines of a giant tumor choking her, or an aneurysm shooting her down in an instant. Whatever the investigation said later was irrelevant, as Lita floated off the ground to meet the Grim one.



Julian mourned, though just for a few minutes. When the first whiff of black smoke hit him, he bolted out the door, unable to face Grim again, not even for his would-be wife.

“I feel like crap for that,” he told Lily, “I want a spine.”

“You don’t need a spine. You were always there for Lita when she was living, and she knows what kind of person you are, doesn’t she?”

“One who could be better.”

“Can I get you something to eat?” Lily asked. He shook his head no. She still went downstairs for a breakfast of her own, only to be greeted by the quiet sound of screws being unscrewed and the static of a broken speaker.



Bronson squatted and fixed the speaker, again, with it still plugged in. Mortified, Lily ran and disconnected the plug from the socket and gave her husband a kiss on the top of the head.

“Never again,” she breathed, “Not even if you’re old.”

Love Day loomed over the household, and Julian still drew the blinds to the windows in his room and buried himself in his down-stuffed comforter. Franco put himself up on dating sites, with little success even if he lied about his weight. Annette didn’t care about love. Lily and Bronson still had each other. Hephaestus avoided the calls from his French mistress ever since he first lead her into the master bedroom of their cottage along the river. Tegan searched for prom dresses, and prayed to the watchers above that she could get away with going to prom by herself.

She still was in Mr. Whelohff’s math classes, and she asked him if he could relay a message to either of his two nephews that she was interested. They both had dates. She asked close to everyone she knew that was interested in girls, even a few other girls in spite of not sharing that interest. All of them had dates or just were not interested. Tegan returned to Mr. Whelohff, desperate to make someone’s night by being their companion rather than go stag.

“Please, Mr. Whelohff, is there anyone else?”

“Listen, Tegan, you know that there is someone else,” he said, “But you and I both don’t want him near you.” Of course, that someone else was Bryant. He turned off all of the girls and gay boys in class with his attitude, and even the adult chaperones wanted to stay 10 feet away from him.

“That is pretty lonely. Maybe we can reconcile, and be friends,” Tegan said.

“Oh why do I have to deal with this?” Mr. Whelohff muttered, “I guess it is your life.”

“Are you going to ask Ms. Kindle out? You said something about liking her, and my grandpa says that she’s single.”



“I guess they’re estranged from each other. No, she’s taken and I’m very happy for her.” He sighed at his bare hands again. “One of these days…”

Tegan barely slept that night, even though she had the privilege to sleep in thanks to a day off from school and Love Day. Bryant was going to be lonely at prom, and he was going to the event. She spotted him at the salon getting fitted for a suit after school. What sort of evil person wouldn’t intervene in such a case, even for an old enemy?



Regardless, she went to the Spring Festival with those questions unanswered. Julian moped, and everyone except for him and Hephaestus was content with their romantic situation. Maybe Tegan could cheer her lilac prince up, flip the gender roles and be the princess who saved him from a crappy Love Day. She could kiss those thin lips if she was older and taller, but at that point, the top of her head fit snugly under Heph’s chin and the soft hairs of his beard if they hugged, and he mastered four different levels of calculus while she was stuck with trigonometry. So she would probably engage in a chaste dance with him, even though he detested the popular music that played over the intercom.



Hephaestus found a different solution, and way to experiment. Francisco, Julian’s illegitimate son, blew a kiss in his general direction. Well, Francisco’s mother was pretty, right? Maybe Hephaestus could use him as a crutch until he found truer love.



So he tried. Francisco melted into the kiss, while Hephaestus stiffly stuck with it.



“Yeah, I’m not gay,” he told Francisco, putting five simoleons in the tip jar regardless.

“Suit yourself,” Francisco replied. Julian cried in the distance, not at his son liking men. That was fine. Charging for kisses to pay the bills wasn’t so fine.



Lily and Bronson changed into clothing more comfortable and danced to the same song that they went steady to so many years ago, attempting to replicate the moves. It likely knocked Lily’s vertebrae out of alignment and into a chiropractor’s nightmare, but the two of them were taken back to their prom night, with Tegan jealously watching. She wanted that, and everybody deserved the feeling of holding a dance partner. Even Bryant, as much as the thought of him in the same room as a girl shook up the remnants of breakfast in her stomach.



Oh well. Hephaestus practiced his aim with throwing horseshoes, and even in a spring rain-shower, she was eager to join him for a short period of time.

For a while, everyone was occupied.



Bronson spun Lily around to the next ten songs on the playlist.



Franco and Annette practiced for future immortal gnubb tournaments.



And Tegan, well, letting go of childhood was tough for her, okay?

She also received a text from Bryant, odd as she never gave him her number, and his demeanor towards her took a sharp turn from childhood.

Your legs are beautiful like wow
Stop going for bad boys. They just want anorexic hussies
I’m a nice guy

She responded from the top of the jungle gym. I’m busy.

Lol you’re just gonna get dumped you—

She stopped reading at the seven insults he threw at her after that.



“You okay?” Hephaestus asked, “I feel a bad presence in you, peapod.”

“Exactly that,” she mumbled.

“Come down from there.”

“Make me.”

“Oh man, I’m going to be so lonely down there, dancing by myself. Who would let me live like this?” he moaned, mockingly.

“Alright,” Tegan said, with a chuckle.



They could do better than the elders, so why not dance?



Neither of them knew how to dance. They both stepped on each other’s feet, bare feet against kitten heels or the worse reverse. They both fell on their rears multiple times, slipping on the sick floor in the rain or attempting a move beyond their abilities.



“You know, you’d make for a pretty good…chaperone,” Tegan said, biting her tongue for a second before saying “date.”

“I don’t like those types of things,” he said, “But you’ll be a good date for someone. Someone nice, I hope. I don’t want our lovely peapod to be the world’s chew toy.”

“What if it’s for the greater good?” she asked.

“Not even for that.” A synthesized buzz, the intro to a new song, played over the speakers. “I can kind of tolerate this one. Let’s dance.”



The whole family danced for the rest of the night, partnered or alone. Hephaestus and Tegan slowed down their pace and moved and made fewer mistakes. Bronson and Lily worked up a sweat that still couldn’t kill their woohoo drive for the night.

Tegan slept soundly that night, but Hephaestus stayed awake, looking at pictures of curvy pin-ups alongside his newest research into genetics. Whatever, who didn’t like models and cell biology? Bronson walked into his room at that moment.

“What the hell are you doing?” Bronson asked.

“Appreciating.”

“I warned you about this before she was born. I’m saying it again. Not a hand on my daughter. Not an insane hand on her.”

“We weren’t slow-dancing or anything.”

“I know everyone in this house well, boy,” said Bronson, “My daughter is not your plaything. You let her romance naturally, even if it is some high school kid. She’s lovely, but I’m a tough man. I’m all for toughening her up through mistakes.”

“I’m not doing a thing. Maybe I sensed a bad aura on her last night.”

“And if you decide to pounce on her when she’s legal and I’m dead and gone, get your defective mind checked out first before I summon a tank from the afterlife to your exact location. If you get yourself checked out, it will just be an angry new recruit instead.”

“Fine, Mr. Curious, fine. Let me sleep.” Hephaestus plopped down on the pillow, dressed in his finest heavy coat and boots.

“I just don’t want her to get hurt, that’s all,” he said under his breath, before the motion-activated lights dimmed and shut off.



Word Count for this chapter: 2,453
Word Count so far: 120,895
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Offline Shewolf13

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Re: Eight Ways to Live Forever: The Waverly Immortal Dynasty (Ch. 71, 7/24)
« Reply #332 on: July 24, 2014, 08:23:25 PM »
Oh Heph is just too cute!  I love how close he and Tegan are.  Eeek, interesting threats there Bronson.

Offline RaiaDraconis

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Re: Eight Ways to Live Forever: The Waverly Immortal Dynasty (Ch. 71, 7/24)
« Reply #333 on: July 24, 2014, 08:33:34 PM »
Mean-spirited though Bronson may be, he loves his daughter and will protect her at any cost. Perhaps he realizes that, should Tegan choose Heph as her partner, she will inevitably be faced with a terrible hurt when he passes away long before she does.

Bryant as a real piece of work, isn't he? I'm glad that Tegan at least has Heph to (ironically) keep her sane. :P

Offline Gwendy

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Re: Eight Ways to Live Forever: The Waverly Immortal Dynasty (Ch. 71, 7/24)
« Reply #334 on: July 25, 2014, 12:34:16 AM »
Bryant can seriously go fall in a hole and stay there until the Reaper comes for him.  >:( What a jerkwad.

Seriously, Bronson, don't you remember Nikita from the last chapter back? Hephaestus is perfectly fine and ideal in comparison to I'm-Surprised-He-Doesn't-Come-Complete-With-A-Trilby Bryant.

Seriously, Tegan-sweetie, he's so not worth your time like that.
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Offline notjustabook

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Re: Eight Ways to Live Forever: The Waverly Immortal Dynasty (Ch. 71, 7/24)
« Reply #335 on: July 25, 2014, 03:38:54 AM »
I really, really like Tegan. Like her face and her skin colour and her look. She's so cute!



Offline Ausette

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Re: Eight Ways to Live Forever: The Waverly Immortal Dynasty (Ch. 70, 7/21)
« Reply #336 on: July 25, 2014, 11:34:53 AM »
Stop going for bad boys. [...] I’m a nice guy

 :o Red flag, red flag! Gee Trip, you write horrible teenagers a little too well.

Tegan and Heph on the other hand are adorable :D . Lily and Bronson have nothing on them and that's really saying something. More Tegan screenshots, please!



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Re: Eight Ways to Live Forever: The Waverly Immortal Dynasty (Ch. 71, 7/24)
« Reply #337 on: July 25, 2014, 05:39:56 PM »
Just caught up on this story.  Three things:  Oh my goodness!  You were in my hometown for your vacay?!!!  I hope you had fun.  So now you're back and missing what's going on in Eugene this weekend which is a HUGE fairy convention.  I get to miss it too, darn it.

Second:  "
“I’ve been seeing double, lately,” Hephaestus said.

“Yeah, I do too when I binge a whole series on Netflix. It’s called focusing, dear,” she said."

Have you been peeking in our windows at night?  Round the clock episodes of House till we couldn't even keep our eyelids open with toothpicks, and now we've become Whovians.

Third:  I think you are the best writer here and that's saying something because there are so many good ones.  You definitely have a way with words and a great command of the language and it's idioms.  I love the pictures but what you write under and above them makes them come alive.  I have a personal problem with vampires or things that look like vampires, but you have managed to actually make them cute.  Tegan is beyond adorable and the crazy members are perfect.  Makes me want to try insane sometime.  Do write a book, please.
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Offline Trip

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Re: Eight Ways to Live Forever: The Waverly Immortal Dynasty (Ch. 71, 7/24)
« Reply #338 on: July 25, 2014, 10:29:56 PM »
Oh Heph is just too cute!  I love how close he and Tegan are.  Eeek, interesting threats there Bronson.

Bronson has an army at his hands! He better use his arsenal wisely. ;)

Mean-spirited though Bronson may be, he loves his daughter and will protect her at any cost. Perhaps he realizes that, should Tegan choose Heph as her partner, she will inevitably be faced with a terrible hurt when he passes away long before she does.

Bryant as a real piece of work, isn't he? I'm glad that Tegan at least has Heph to (ironically) keep her sane. :P

Funny how Heph can defy his own mind like that. He's insane, but he's more than functional, especially for the darling peapod.

Bryant can seriously go fall in a hole and stay there until the Reaper comes for him.  >:( What a jerkwad.

Seriously, Bronson, don't you remember Nikita from the last chapter back? Hephaestus is perfectly fine and ideal in comparison to I'm-Surprised-He-Doesn't-Come-Complete-With-A-Trilby Bryant.

Seriously, Tegan-sweetie, he's so not worth your time like that.

I really considered re-shooting any future scene with Bryant so I could make him over with a trilby and neck-fuzz. But the game just gave him normal, hat-free hair. :( He was more of a "bland jerk" during the game than a neckbeard.

He really can fall into a hole, but nothing stops for the family that quickly.

I really, really like Tegan. Like her face and her skin colour and her look. She's so cute!

The cutest! Just wait until she's all grown up. ;)

:o Red flag, red flag! Gee Trip, you write horrible teenagers a little too well.

Tegan and Heph on the other hand are adorable :D . Lily and Bronson have nothing on them and that's really saying something. More Tegan screenshots, please!

I forget how short it has been since I've been in high school. Teens are the worst, though it took Bryant a long while after that to be tolerable.

I'll share all that I have! In due time. ;)

Just caught up on this story.  Three things:  Oh my goodness!  You were in my hometown for your vacay?!!!  I hope you had fun.  So now you're back and missing what's going on in Eugene this weekend which is a HUGE fairy convention.  I get to miss it too, darn it.

Second:  "
“I’ve been seeing double, lately,” Hephaestus said.

“Yeah, I do too when I binge a whole series on Netflix. It’s called focusing, dear,” she said."

Have you been peeking in our windows at night?  Round the clock episodes of House till we couldn't even keep our eyelids open with toothpicks, and now we've become Whovians.

Third:  I think you are the best writer here and that's saying something because there are so many good ones.  You definitely have a way with words and a great command of the language and it's idioms.  I love the pictures but what you write under and above them makes them come alive.  I have a personal problem with vampires or things that look like vampires, but you have managed to actually make them cute.  Tegan is beyond adorable and the crazy members are perfect.  Makes me want to try insane sometime.  Do write a book, please.

Nope, I'm still in Portland, though I'm more interested in urban hiking and coffee.

I based the Netflix line off my own experiences. I saw double too after binging on Breaking Bad. Nice to see that you're in a similar boat.

Then the Waverlys should look fine, because I used the werewolf fangs on them, not the vampire ones. ;) Thanks for the compliments! You have some writing chops too, but I'm very bad at commenting and worse at commenting through PM. One of these days. ::)

Updates coming...sometime soon. I was out all day on an excursion, but I'm back at the hotel with my laptop and glorious wifi. But I saw the six comments and replied because that's a lot of comments! I need to find the secret to this and abuse it more.
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Offline AkonIsAwesome

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Re: Eight Ways to Live Forever: The Waverly Immortal Dynasty (Ch. 71, 7/24)
« Reply #339 on: July 26, 2014, 01:19:56 PM »
Wow, Bryant makes me happy I never had to go to school before college... on the other hand, Tegan and Hephaestus are incredibly adorable! I hope things do work out for them. Looking forward to the next update!

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Re: Eight Ways to Live Forever: The Waverly Immortal Dynasty (Ch. 72, 7/27)
« Reply #340 on: July 27, 2014, 10:02:11 PM »
Wow, Bryant makes me happy I never had to go to school before college... on the other hand, Tegan and Hephaestus are incredibly adorable! I hope things do work out for them. Looking forward to the next update!

Nah, there are a lot of great people you can meet in high school too, and plenty of jerks in college. Something will work out of them, but there needs to be a convoluted story behind it or else I wouldn't write it. ;)



Chapter 72: The Bass



Lily woke up to a beautiful spring morning, with a chickadee and a cicada battling in a nearby tree for the loudest song. She rolled over, hoping to give Bronson a good morning squeeze, but his half of the bed was unmade and empty.

“It’s his day off. The crap?” she asked herself.

She came downstairs to the foyer and a beaten-looking Bronson and Franco. The latter held his hand over a black eye and a nosebleed, and the former doubled-over in pain around his core.

“What the hell, guys?” Lily asked, “You’re both elders. Act your age.”

“He expressed a very strong opinion,” Franco said, “But we should put it past us. Bronson?”

“Sure,” he sneered.

“Honey, what was that all about?” Lily asked, after she got breakfast out of the fridge for the two of them.

He could have told her. It was about Hephaestus. It was about something that would turn Lily’s stomach inside-out. But the night before, she griped about how stressed out she was about the lack of magician gigs around town, and how she still felt like she had no time to sculpt or spend time with her daughter or just enjoy herself in some way. Bags formed under her eyes.

“…He had a pretty awful remark about the military,” Bronson said, after hesitation.

“That’s pretty out-of-character for him.”

“Your gram got him drunk, I think. We’ll leave him alone.”

Lily accepted the explanation, just to keep her sanity for that morning. Perhaps she could wait out the lack of work by taking a vacation to France, especially because Bronson accumulated vacation days over the years, and after exams were over for Tegan, missing school didn’t mean missing much for her. Plus, the sculpting stations in the garden still stood, right?

They left the elders that weren’t Bronson behind in Twinbrook, to perfect their own crafts, and so Annette wouldn’t be left alone, and so she wouldn’t get drunk off nectar and embarrass the family in France either.



Hephaestus, in his boxers for once, managed to fill in a fraction of that void. Much to Tegan’s joy. Even Lily smiled at the beautiful, lean muscle of her step-brother, but just in appreciation.



Hephaestus needed his boxer shorts to catch Lily’s attention, while Bronson’s jeans and plaid shirt were all that she needed to attack him with a kiss and her tongue. The other two diverted their line of vision away from Lily and her old soldier making out on the lawn, or they breathed a sigh of relief that at least it wasn’t Annette, hammered enough from overpriced plane juice to mistake Julian for Bill, and making out with him on the lawn.



“Ain’t that cute?” Tegan asked, when her dad caught her mum in a moment of passion.

“Yeah,” Hephaestus sighed, “I used to have a girl like that. She’s still here, I think.” He tried calling Bianca that morning, but after a few French curses, she hung up on Hephaestus and he shrugged before heading to some solo sculpting practice, as Julian complained about feeling his age back at home.



Tegan procrastinated, until Hephaestus almost threw a blowtorch at her head, straight for the bow. “You have to work too,” he said.

“Yeah, inventing.”

“You still like it, right? I hope you do, because you have a gift. It’s a silvery part of your glow that won’t leave no matter how much you hate tech.”

“I still like it, I hope. It’s just physics, and it always will be?” she asked. He took pity on Tegan’s unsure inflection.

“If that’s what you’re comfortable with, it’s just physics.”



As Hephaestus promised, it was just physics. Just bonded metals and moving parts moving other parts by their mass and momentum. Tegan welded and hammered until physics made a crank or a lever set off a chain reaction.



Physics also hurt, but while a lot of things hurt Tegan and turned her off to them entirely, the smooth metal called to her purported silvery glow. She bandaged up her bruised thumb and continued until the first prototype for a floor hygienator sat on the bench, with a clockwork-based timer that dispersed bursts of peppermint oil into the air at intervals.



Meanwhile, Bronson got up to old antics.

“Sacre bleu!” the young Frenchman blurted, “Are you out of your mind?”

“It’s how we say ‘hello’ back in Simnation,” Bronson said, lying. “It’s how we enjoy freedom from overpriced coffee over there.”



Lily made sure to acknowledge that the old man still had a lot left in him.

“I was thinking,” Lily said, leaving Bronson to finish the sentence.

“A little romp back home?” he replied.

“Later. I’ll need a coffee first, you know, and I don’t care if we’re rich. I’m not paying 10 for two coffees and a pastry to split, am I?”

“We gotta do this ourselves, don’t we?” Bronson asked.

“You know the drill.”



Bronson decided to ignite the plaza with his words



What he didn’t know was that a lot of Champs Les Sims was getting ignited, in many different ways.



Yes, the two young ones did their best to keep that a secret.



They had a lot of time to fight the fire on the lawn. Bronson drew a sizable crowd, though the topic quickly shifted from prices to the defective espresso machine that underexposed the beans and made uninspiring, weak espresso that wasn’t worthy of the divine, fresh-baked croissants offered for the same, jacked-up price.

The barista came out and threw a tantrum over how that was just how the machine was made. Bronson pointed out the design flaws and kicked the barista to the ground for laughs.

Bronson, after making sure that the grumbling barista at the café gave everyone discounts on croissants that night while the espresso machine was being assessed, shot a nasty look at another blond Frenchman. This one was no older than Tegan, outspoken about bad coffee, and had the smoothest voice and accent that he ever heard.



His nasty look turned out to be one of shock and horror, as he then noticed the big blue eyes and the slender build.

“Oh, for the love of god.” He still got a nighttime pastry for him and Lily, though, while his face contorted with disgust over what he just saw. He pushed his small plate with the croissant away, crossing his arms.

“You noticed that blond kid, right?” Lily asked. She must have been psychic.

“Good lord, yeah,” Bronson said, “The dates line up and everything.”

“And he hasn’t spoken with his mum in a while. I’ll have a talk with Heph tonight.” For fifteen minutes, Lily nibbled at her pastry without saying a word about Hephaestus. She was silent on her Kenspa while coming home. She banged on the door after climbing the stone steps.

“Hephaestus? HEPH, OPEN THIS DOOR BEFORE I TEAR YOUR LUNGS OUT-“ She grabbed the megaphone too.



Lily’s screaming couldn’t break the wall of classical piano lessons, though. Hephaestus thought that a fishercat was yowling outside, and he quickly told Tegan to stay indoors and listen to his piano work for mistakes. He played his first original concerto to an attentive Tegan. She tapped her toes in rhythm, perhaps thinking that she was helping him keep time.

“You’re pretty good with rhythm,” he said, “So I have a little gift for you upstairs.” He stopped playing the piano and realized that there was no fishercat, but an angry Lily. That was worse. He had to run. With all of the world’s luck, Tegan would be distracted by what he had for her.

“I can’t believe you,” Lily said from downstairs, “Abandoning your child like that?”

“Child?” Hephaestus asked.



It was at that sentence or around there that Tegan found her gift in the kids’ bedroom: a white-and-blue double bass, pre-tuned and with her full name engraved on the back. Unless Hephaestus bought new bedsheets, the instrument was his gift.

“Did you…do it with her some years ago?” Lily asked, shaken.

“Sure. I didn’t know this happened! She never called me about it! Last time I tried, she didn’t even mention a kid.”

Tegan pretended not to listen as she carried her new bass downstairs and out the front door. She could barely determine where each fret was in the darkness of the French nighttime. In fact, all she had to go by was remembering how guitarists on the side of the road formed chords and notes. Any other night, Hephaestus would show her the way, probably in the daytime or under a lamp too, but he was busy. His voice faded as Tegan walked further and further away from the front door.

“Stop hitting me, Lil!” he cried out.

“Don’t abandon your kid next time!”



But their voices were drowned out by the low, acoustic bass, playing in rhythm but struggling to find a groove. Maybe next lesson. Tegan needed something to drown out the fighting going on. She swore that her dad joined in and pinned her slender prince down on the hard floor, after hearing the thud of two men on the floor. But strumming along the low e-string drove that memory out of her head.

She didn’t fall asleep easily that night, though Hephaestus nearly stumbled into a deep slumber before he reached his bed. Tegan sighed. Her eyelids grew heavy, until they were jolted awake by the realization that Hephaestus was alone, in a single bed with cold sheets and just a pillow to hug and snuggle, if he needed it.

“I wish you well.” She kept that to herself that night. Some of Julian’s daughters were sort-of his age, weren’t they? She would hate it if his beautiful, silky hair and lean, toned butt (hey, if Lily thought so too…) went alone for much longer. It was tough to keep track of his age, but Tegan noticed a few lines in his forehead if she looked hard enough.

“Wish you well,” he mind repeated. It kept her from sleeping, as did her phone vibrating on the table. Everyone else slept through it. A multi-part text kept her phone going wild.

“Is Julian worried about us?” she said under her breath. Tegan hated that phone, but she still liked staying in contact with others and paid the price in her disgust for the glass touchscreen. As if running her fingers across raw sewage, she pressed the icon for messages and lay back in bed to roll her eyes at another monologue from Bryant.

I know we’ve gotten off on the wrong foot. Geez, Tegan, I’ve been a jerk. I just want to be a real nice guy now. You’re actually good at math and stuff. And I know I’ve said it, but wow you’re legs are so stunning.

Heck, maybe we can go to prom together? Pairing up the spares?


She instinctually flipped to the next message, that one being from Julian.

Oh god oh god oh god make it stoooooooop-

She’d address that one later. Tegan flipped back to Bryant’s message, right below his last one with seven insults. She could tell him off right there.

Thanks Bry. =)

Tegan slept soundly until late that morning. She didn’t get a message back from Bryant, but she did get a horrible feeling in her gut when she thought about the response again.



Word Count for this chapter: 1,896
Word Count so far: 122,791

This is kind of a two-parter with the next chapter. There's just going to be a gap because this was long enough and I have nothing from the next one written! :(

Why yes Hephaestus had an illegitimate son who just so happens to be Tegan's age. Does the plot thicken? Well, no. I just wanted to spread Heph's wonderful genes around.

I also have a lot of building to do for the next Roaring Heights chapter. I hate building mansions, but I must for this one character! Sigh.
No respect, no chance, cease and desist when I chant-

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Offline RaiaDraconis

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Re: Eight Ways to Live Forever: The Waverly Immortal Dynasty (Ch. 72, 7/27)
« Reply #341 on: July 27, 2014, 10:14:50 PM »
:o

That...was definitely unexpected. Poor Heph, not even knowing he had a son! Clearly this doesn't seem to faze Tegan though. :)

Offline Shewolf13

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Re: Eight Ways to Live Forever: The Waverly Immortal Dynasty (Ch. 72, 7/27)
« Reply #342 on: July 27, 2014, 11:39:58 PM »
Heph has a son!  Oh my!  That is wonderful and oh so sad at the same time...

Offline AkonIsAwesome

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Re: Eight Ways to Live Forever: The Waverly Immortal Dynasty (Ch. 72, 7/27)
« Reply #343 on: July 28, 2014, 10:35:36 AM »
This story is so convoluted and awesome. I really enjoy your writing and can't wait to see where this goes next! Also, building mansions? Looking forward to seeing those. I've never been able to build well and love getting to see nice buildings!

Offline Deme

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Re: Eight Ways to Live Forever: The Waverly Immortal Dynasty (Ch. 72, 7/27)
« Reply #344 on: July 28, 2014, 11:47:30 AM »
*blinks* Have I made it at last to the current end of the thread? I have! I'm all caught up!

And boy, what a ride it was! This is a really impressive dynasty, and it just oozes care and thoughtfulness. Your writing is, as always, excellent, and your layering of narrative just shows how much sheer patience (which I find more impressive than anything else) you've put into it. I'm certainly looking forward to the rest!

And reading it all on a binge has me thinking about a few ideas for my own dynasty...
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The Avyan Immortal Dynasty