Sunday, October 7, 2012

Chapter 23: Welcome to the Family

  Kit heard the doorbell, he had been waiting for it all morning.  His sister Nira was in the shower, so the timing couldn't have been better.  "I'll get it!" he yelled as he made his way to the door.  He flung it open, and there stood Tristan Van Gould, pretty boy.  Kit opened the door wider for him and gestured for him to come in.

  "I would have expected her father to be leading the Posse for my head." Tristan commented as he passed by Kit.

  Kit shut the front door.  "Chaine?  No, Nira effectively neutralized her Dad.  He won't do anything, he doesn't want his Princess hurt."  Kit started up the stairs.  "You can wait for her up here, in the living room."  Tristan followed Kit, and Rylan brought up the rear.

  Tristan glanced behind him, and then back at Kit.  "So, you're the welcoming party?  You think you two, can take me?"  Tristan said in a tone that suggested he thought that  was impossibility.  He was after all, a full grown vampire, with a host of vampire powers at his disposal, while they were still teenagers, and werewolf teenagers at that.  Kit smiled at him.   He turned to his brother and rolled his eyes.  Tristan was begging for a little lesson in humility, among a few other life lessons Kit wanted to give him.


 

  "Vampire, it's what's for dinner."  Rylan growled, offended by Tristan's attitude.  Vampires were so full of themselves, he thought disgustedly.


 

    Tristan chuckled at the two brothers.  Really, werewolves could be so predictably... short tempered.  Tristan closed his eyes, and held his hand out, concentrating.  "There will be none of this fighting nonsense, now you two go away and play fetch, or whatever it is you werewolves do."  While Tristan did not need the theatrics to use his powers, he always thought it was a nice touch.


  

    He opened his eyes to find Kit staring at him, and Rylan shuffled around in place, laughing softly.    "Was that supposed to impress me?"  Kit finally asked.

  Tristan frowned at Kit.  "Hmm, I must be having an off day."  He tried again, this time without the theatrics.  "Funny, "Tristan commented, "That always works on everyone.  Well, " he amended, "It never did work on Nira." He contemplated that for just a few seconds, before continuing on.  "No matter.  We shall have to do this the hard way then.  I will be sorry though, that I have to hurt you.  I did promise Nira that I would try not to."  Gone was the devil care attitude, and in it's place was a fanged vampire, ready for a fight.

  Kit smiled to himself, this was what he was waiting for.  "I will hurt you, " he told Tristan, "and I won't feel badly about it either.  Not your pretty face, no, Nira would see that too easily.  But your body, that is a different story, and she best not see that for a long time!"  With that said, Kit found all of Chaine's teachings, all of his late night practices, coming to the forefront.  Really, he did not even have to think about it, his mind and body were one, and everything just flowed.  Tristan didn't even know what hit him when he hit the floor, out cold.

  "Kit!"  Rylan protested.  "You were supposed to let me have a shot at him too!"

  "My apologies Ry."  Kit was looking at his hands in amazement.  It was so effortless.  All those hours spent with Chaine, they didn't seem to be a complete wash after all.  "I expected it to be a bit harder."  He told his brother.  "Tristan is easily one of the most powerful vampires here, that is one reason why he attracted our sister."  He sank to his haunches, and stared thoughtfully at the still form on the floor.  "I'd best wake him then, "Kit finally decided.  "Before Nira shows up."  He reached into his pocket and pulled out a vial of blood red liquid.  He poured it into Tristan's gaping mouth.  The study of Alchemy had its uses.

  Tristan came to, almost immediately, sputtering and coughing.  "What the hell happened?"

  Kit stood back up.  "I'd say you lost." he said mildly.

  Tristan winced, as he picked himself up off the floor.  "I never lose." he said as he looked at Kit.  This time his look had respect in it, along with a healthy dose of fear.  "However did you do that, that whatever you did?  Werewolves fight yes, but, not, like..." his voice trailed off.

  "I must not be your average werewolf."  Kit said lightly.  "That was a warning Tristan, do not hurt my sister.  We are stuck with you for life, it seems, because of the baby.  But I would not hesitate to track you down and kill you, if you so much as cause one real tear to fall from her eyes."  He held out his hand, to shake Tristan's.  "Welcome to the family." he said, as Tristan shook his hand.

  "I love your sister." Tristan told her brothers.  "I do not want any harm to come to her either."

  "Good.  Then we are in agreement."

  "Agreement with what?"  Nira asked as she entered the living room.

  "We all want you to be happy." Tristan answered her, his eyes lighting up at the sight of her.

  Nira smiled happily.  "Oh, you guys made friends!  That does make me happy!" She threw her arms around Tristan and hugged him tightly.  He winced.  Nira pulled away, and looked up at him.  "Tris, what's wrong?"

  "Nothing, " he lied, "I just joined the Military, and that basic training was a killer."

  "The Military?"  Nira said in horror.

  "Yeah, I was going to come over and tell you the news anyway, before you called to ask me to come over.  There is a war going on, and the Military needs more people to help fight.  With this baby coming, I need an income coming in, so I can provide for you two properly.  It comes with a really big sign on bonus, enough to hold you until my first checks start coming in."

  Kit and Rylan quietly made their escape, while they still could.  "Are you crazy!"  Nira's voice was almost a shout.  "I need you!  Not your money!  Not your dead body laying in a grave somewhere!"

  Tristan tugged Nira closer to him.  "Listen Nira, " he said earnestly, "We have a baby coming.  It is time to set aside childish things, " her eyes flared up with fire at the word childish, but Tristan shook his head at her.  "You are acting like a child, and glaring at me will only emphasize my point.  We are to be parents to this little one, what we want does not matter, this baby must come first.  I am good at fighting, " he frowned briefly at the thought of the last fight he was involved in, but forged ahead with his words.  "The Military needs good fighters.  I promise to stay as safe as I can, and not take any unnecessary risks.  I would like our child to have my name.  I would be most honored, if you would marry me, before I leave."

  Nira started to cry, real tears.  Tristan was glad that Kit had already left the room.  "Tris!" she sobbed into his shirt.  "I am going to miss you so horrendously!"

  "Was that a yes?"

  "Yes!  I'll marry you!  How long do you have before you have to ship out?"

  Tristan kissed her lips softly.  "Not long, long enough to ask your father's permission to marry you, have a quick wedding, and see the birth of our child.  You could live at the Van Gould mansion, if you so desired, or you could stay here with your family, until I return."

  "I would rather live with my family, not that Aunt Keilani isn't great or anything, but she isn't my mother, she isn't Daddy."

  Tristan nodded his head.  "I thought that would be what you would want."

  Tristan found himself feeling unaccountably nervous at the thought of talking to Nira's father.  He found Chaine, just as Chaine was getting ready to come back into the house.  "Sir, may I have a word with you please?"

  Chaine grunted.  He gave the young man in front of him a hard look.  He was reconsidering his promise to Nira to not touch him.

  "I signed up for the Military, and I will be shipping out soon.  I want to do what is right by your daughter, and by my soon to be child.  I'd like your blessing on our marriage, Nira would stay here, " he hastened to add, "while I was on tour.  It would mean a lot to her, and to me, if you would give us your blessing."




  Chaine grunted again.  He knew what he would like to say, what he would like to do.  But then he thought of Nira, and the time she had passed out cold; in the end Chaine just wanted his daughter to be happy.  "Very well." he said grudgingly.  "You better treat my daughter right, or all bets are off."

  Tristan smiled at Chaine.  "Yes sir." 

  Tristan would have married Nira right then and there, but the baby had other ideas.  "Ooouuchhhh!"  Nira yelled. Everyone ran towards her to see why she was yelling, Kona was the first to arrive. "My water just broke!  Yeooowwch!" she panted.  "This hurts!"


 

  After several hours of Nira hollering and carrying on; and cursing Tristan out in between pants, in the wee hours of the morning, Rhys was born.


 
 
   After a little while, Kona held his arms out, and Nira placed her son into her Grandfather's arms.  "Hello little Rhys."  Kona said softly.  "Welcome to the family."

  Tristan took the opportunity to pull Nira aside, so that they could say their vows to each other, before something else came up.  "I know this isn't the big wedding, you wanted.  But I swear, after my Military duty is done, we will throw one huge reception and get married again."


 

  "Just bring yourself home, safe and sound, that will be enough for me."  Nira told him.

  Kona brought Rhys to the nursery, and looked at his great grandson.  His coloring was just a bit unusual, Kona thought to himself. 



    Kei came up behind him.  "I cannot believe I am a grandmother." she said in disbelief.  Kona smiled at his daughter.  "Grandchildren are delightful." he told her as he placed Rhys in her arms.

  Kei stared down at the scrunched little face that was making mewling sounds.  "They do have certain appeal about them." she said softly.


 

  Nira stayed home from school, so she could spend Tristan's last day with him and their new baby.  All too soon though, the evening approached.  "Are you coming to the Send Off Party my father is hosting?"

  "Are you going to be there?"

  "Of course."

  "Then I will be too."  Nira told him.  Kei had volunteered to stay home with Rhys, parties were not her idea of fun, but Kona came along.  Emilie was going to be there afterall.

  Nira stayed by her husband's side throughout the night, and Tristan kept his arm around her.  A few hours into the party, and Tristan tugged her upstairs, away from the crowd.  "I want you to myself for a little bit." he whispered to her, and Nira was more than happy to oblige.

  "Uh, Gramps, a little privacy please?"




  All too soon, it was time for Tristan to leave.  And Nira clung to him and cried her heart out.  "Nira."  Tristan sighed as he held her close.  "It'll be okay, you'll see.  I'll be back every once in a while, whenever I get leave, to see you and Rhys.  I'll write often, and you'll have to send pictures of Rhys and pictures of you."

  When Nira finally got home, she was just in time for her older siblings birthdays.  First was Layla, the oldest of them all.  She had always been the quiet one of the bunch, she hated being the center of the attention.  She already had plans to marry her boyfriend Bryce, have a family, and work side by side with her husband at the Science facility, cross breeding robots.  Once she figured out how to make them.

  Layla:

 
  

  Kit was more than ready to be an adult, and he embraced his birthday.


 
  Chaine had a gift for him, another book.  "Another book to study?"

  Chaine smiled.  "No, you have done all that I asked of you and more.  You will become greater than I could ever hope to be.  This little gift, " he handed Kit the book, "is a final gift from your father.  I was to give it to you when you left childhood behind, your Highness."

  Kit smirked.  "You'd best stick to calling me Kit, or I will get some strange looks."  He stared down at the book in his hands, it seemed plain and assuming, but he couldn't figure out how to open it.  It was wrapped in some sort of clear hard container.

  "As you wish....Kit."

  "How do you open this thing?"  Kit asked him, and he went to hand the book back to Chaine, but Chaine shook his head.

  "It is encrypted in some way, you'll have to figure out how to open it yourself.  I will be of no help to you.  But your father would have made it to where you, and only you, would be able to figure out how to open it."

  Kit frowned at the book.  "My father was entirely too fond of puzzles." he grumbled.  "Just once, if I could read something without having to decode it first!"

  Chaine left Kit there, sitting on his bed, turning the book backwards and forwards.  Chaine went looking for his daughter, to see how she was taking Tristan's departure.  He found her in the nursery cuddling Rhys.  "Ahh, Rhys, I miss your Daddy, but we're strong, we can do this."


  Kit kept turning the book over and over in his hands, puzzled.  He brushed his hand across the front, and blew on it to dislodge some dust that was on it.  He nearly jumped out of his skin when the book suddenly lit up, almost as if from within.  He saw what looked like a cursor blink from a computer, it was projected just a little bit above the hard cover.  A numbered light pad showed up, and Kit stared at the book fascinated.  "I'm supposed to enter a code?"  His mind flashed to the huge book of codes that he had been given many years beforehand.  Codes of the Whens, that were to be somehow entered into the Portal.  A Portal must have something similar, Kit reasoned to himself.  He was beginning to believe, that maybe, not all of what Chaine said was nonsense.  He had in his hands, an object that clearly didn't belong here, the technology was like nothing he had ever seen.  "What code?" he mumbled to himself.  That book held literally thousands of codes, and what would happen if he chose the wrong code?

  He laid back down on his bed, and closed his eyes, the book across his chest.  It was late, and he needed sleep, but he doubted he would be getting much of it.  His mind kept whirling away.  His Dad must have left him a clue somewhere?  But where?

__________________________________________

  I had horrendous terrible freezes while Nira was giving birth to Rhys.  I ended up posting about it on Twallan's site, because I got a bunch of Woohooer ScriptErrors.  Funny thing, it turned out to be because of the Alcohol mod I had installed some time ago, for a character that I haven't done very much with yet.  Whenever someone would jam, it would somehow call up the Alcohol mod because it was overwriting most of the socials, which would call up the code from Woohooer (somehow?  I'm clueless on mods and how exactly  the code works!), which would eventually lead to fail because too many processes were being called up at once and the game runs out of memory after---64th?  I think it was, process.

  What a pain that was!  Since I wasn't really using it, I just removed it.  Funny, though, I would never have connected my freezing troubles to an Alcohol mod!

  Generation 3 is now in charge, even though the 2 helpers are not quite adults yet, Kit is, and he is the heir.  Kei made it to Empress of Evil, and has a red glow around her, now she really scares sims away!  She's crankier now too---she uses her evil trait a lot, when before it was very seldom.

  Single roll, poor sims.  I had to *send* Tristan away, which is a pity, because he looks so gorgeous!  Though, he's really not gone--he's living with his father, lol.  For story purposes, he's out fighting a war.  But I can always bring him in every once in while for "leave".

  A little shorter than I usually do, but it was a good place to break, otherwise it would be longer than I usually do.  lol
 
 

Next: Chapter 24: Best Laid Plans

11 comments:

  1. Kit and Layla grew up lovely!
    Just so you know, you can have Kei quit her job if you find the aura of evil is too annoying. The rule about careers is you can only make money from what you rolled, but you don't have to stay in the job forever if you can afford to blow it off.
    Great chapter!
    The single parent rolls can be tough, but having a partner off to war is a great way to handle it. I used to have Thierry Tricou visit his family pretty frequently while he was away for his war, it works out pretty well and they can still establish a relationship with the kids, and get a little woohoo in, lol.

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    1. Thanks! :)

      I may end up doing that, since Kei is taking the Empress of Evil a bit too far lately. lol

      Tristan and Nira were just too cute together, I didn't want to break them up. So I had to send him off, and war makes a convenient excuse. :)

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  2. Nice chapter, I like the idea of having a partner off fighting a war to explain the singleness :)

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    1. Thanks! It's handy, for all of the reasons Cali outlined above. :D I couldn't kill him, he was too pretty! lol

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  3. Great chapter. I'm really excited that Kona is still around. I don't think I've ever had a great-grandparent in the Sims....

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    1. Yeah, I have the age set for Normal, but I maxed the ages for teen, young adult, and adult, because they are my favorite ages. So Kona hasn't turned into an Elder yet, but he's inching closer to it. I will be so sad when that inevitable day comes and Grimmy takes him away. Kona will be happy though, he will be reunited with his beloved Kanani. :)

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  4. THE BOOK OF OMENS. Good luck Kit!

    I hate to sound so superficial, but the family is really beautiful. Layla especially.

    And lol... a great-grandparent still being around. Rare for sims!

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  5. Kit will need it, I have a lot in store for him!

    Thanks! I thought Layla turned out well. Poor girl, she was so well behaved, her siblings took center stage and she stayed in the background. She was quite content staying in the background though. :D

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  6. Layla turned out stunning, wow - love that long elegant face!

    Like everyone else, I like the solution you found for your single roll with the military idea. I'm also grappling with how to deal with single / kids for my heir esp. with the career roll but I think I've got it figured out how to make it work but the romance will definitely be a long distance one (travels). :)

    All of your family are such good looking sims - such lovely skin colors.

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  7. Thanks!

    My brother was in the Iraq, and my SIL always commented on how she felt like a single parent. Tristan looked like he could handle himself in a fight, so I had him join the military. :)

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  8. Dang, now I wish I had caught up sooner! Now it looks like I copied you :(. Oh well, you do a much better job writing than I do :).

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