Chapter 28: A Legacy to Leave

He's definitely not her boyfriend, but Martin isn't above getting off the bus early so he can pee at Melody's house. He's REALLY got to go. You know, go.

Inside the Grisby household Martin meets Judith, Melody's older sister.

 

"Don't bother me when I'm gaming," Judith warns. 

"I'm in my own little world. Just like Mom."

Martin and Melody play tag in her front yard. The Grisbys own an envious property, but Marlene (the "sane and plain" twin) squandered away the family's liquid funds shortly after her mother Laurel's death and promptly moved in with some guy, rather than stick around to care for her insane sister. Thus the property itself fell to Lori, who works part-time at the book store and is content to let her house collect dust.

Lori has four children, all daughters, Melody being the third. Lori claims there are three fathers between the four, but no man in town will publicly own up to this.

"Call me."

With Arthur now a teenager and perfectly capable of babysitting his younger brothers, Sacha and Jazz feel free to party down at the grind.

Being so close to the very top of her field did wonders for Sacha's self-confidence.

!@#$ing racist black-lights.

Even when it's not her own cooking, Sacha can't resist kicking it up a notch.
 The mixologist isn't impressed.

"Jazz, I'm trying to eat onion rings on this particular table."

"I'll hurt you if you step in my food."

"I'll bite you so hard..."

"Wait, was that Grandpa Yuri spying on us four pictures ago?"

Yuri was probably spying on Lady Lurking Lori, here. A vampire has to make sure his grandchildren don't kill anyone.

The infant she's carrying is named Bernice. With those glowing eyes and deathly pale skin, Bernice could conceivably be the daughter of the remaining Cantina son. But no one dares suggest it.

A bit of a traffic jam on the way to school. The blond twins Drumheller and Josephine are there, Drumheller sporting a different haircut than when we last saw him. The teen standing off to the side is Rickie, their older sister, and once again be glad she's facing that way.

They have another sibling, a sister named Carolyn who is too young to be in school.

"She was born in December," Halen joked. "Get it? Carolin'?"

Little Cody and Judith are here, too.

The girl with Lorraine Cantina's haircut is her daughter, Kacey. The evil one is Waylon Newbie's daughter, and the kid cowering at the thought of stethoscopes is Patricia's son (which makes sense; she's a doctor). Arthur would just like to get inside the building before he ages up and burns to death out here, if you please.

Another burglar shows up that night...

"You got me. But none of us can resist trying to raid this place for recipes."

Everyone is various states of annoyed, except for Marty, who thinks this is COOL.

Too bad the burglar again beats the pants off the cop and escapes.

Once her path is cleared, Sacha waltzes into the middle of the kitchen and passes out.

The next day, Jazz is steamed to learn that cop got a promotion. He hopes it was to a desk job.

Pavel becomes a child. He's going to be late for school.

The greatest experiment.

Jazz is a hero.

 "I... I have to paint you," Martin says.

Melody's response: "What?!"

 Melody sleeps over one night. By this time she's discovered Martin is her third cousin. Initially upset by the news, Melody's clingy nature overcame all else. She wants to keep her only friend.

He thinks she's his muse.

Painting is overdone in this house. Arthur decides he must work out his angst through sculpture instead.

"That painting IS creepy."

Sacha and Randy are having a chat about gardening, when suddenly...

Unlike his daughter Leona, Randy doesn't take it like a man. Having already experienced the unspeakably horrid chills of death twice now, he pleads for his life to be spared again. This time, Grim ignores those cries.

Randy leaves behind three granddaughters, eight great-grandchildren, a disorganized garden, a few useless gizmos, and a house full of pixel-art paintings.

He was eccentric, but to some... he was inspiring.

"Bro, you gotta stop hanging out with this girl. She's not cool."

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Etc.: The Spire Cut Rainbow Gem took five restarts without saving the game. I am in love with it.

Still working on Sacha's LTW, which is to reach the top of her career. She's SO close, but all of her coworkers died of old age and she had to "meet" their replacements before she could socialize with them during work hours. Since the "meet coworkers" option is stupid and rarely actually achieves what it's supposed to, I had to hunt these people down manually to get her back on the right track.

I can't believe the house was burgled twice during Sacha's generation (and it's not over). Burglars are very rare occurrences in the game.

Also, fail-cop really did get a promotion immediately after his failure. Thanks for that, SP mod.

I have to say, I'm really enjoying this generation. I'm sad that I must kick Arthur out soon. Pavel's traits are brave, excitable and adventurous... so he goes around being, well, over-excited and generally adorable.

Arthur's sculpting was a thinly veiled attempt to get woohooium for Jazz to transfigure. Arthur found one woohooium, and one emerald. He has not broken any sculptures since then. I fear he may be too high-level.

Melody's name may match her future career, but so far her traits don't. I actually don't remember the two she has aside from Good Sense of Humor, only that they don't match and oh well. No one said she had to be good at her rolled career.