a villainous apocalypse - recap (episodes 13-21)
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Smoothie Sims, Inc. proudly presents…
A Villainous Apocalypse
Recap (Episodes 13-21)
“Hey, Selina. You wanted to see me?”
Selina Morgan looked up and smiled at her newest colleague. “Saffron, yes. I wanted to check in with you and see how you’re doing.”
Saffron Bohemian grinned. “Well,” she said, “Vaughn is a shameless flirt and Cherryh’s a bit too obsessed with pink, but I like them both fine anyway, and you and Stephen have been great. This is a nice place, too.”
“I’m glad to hear it. So, you remember the ‘full disclosure’ policy I mentioned when you agreed to join the team, right?”
“Yeah.”
“That means you get to know everything the four of us know. I’d like to bring you up to speed on everything that happened before you moved in.”
“Sure.”
Selina got up and gestured to the computer. “Have a seat and log in to the system. Stephen gave you your username and password, yes?”
“Yeah, he did.”
“Good.” She leaned over Saffron’s shoulder and pointed to the topmost message. “I’ve kept all the emails pertinent to the situation in an archive, which I’ve forwarded to you. From now on, anything sent to Stephen and me will be automatically forwarded to you along with Cherryh and Vaughn. If you have any questions about anything you run across, let me know.”
Saffron nodded. “I’ll take a minute to look through these now, if you don’t mind.”
“By all means. Oh, and one other thing, don’t ever use this email to talk to anyone except the four of us, Spencer, Lex, and Gordon. You’ll need another account for regular use.”
“No problem,” said Saffron. “I have an SPMail account.”
“Great. Well, enjoy.” Selina gave her a brief smile and left her to it.
Saffron opened the message and retrieved the folder, surprised at the small number of files. She had expected hundreds, considering the amount of time they covered. I guess it won’t take me that much time after all, she mused, opening the first.
To: Stephen and Selina Morgan [[email protected]]
From: Marina Smoothie [[email protected]]
Subject: What you’ve missed
All four of Ivy’s children have now graduated from college. Harry has been chosen as the heir, and he married Narissa’s old friend, Mya Garrett.
He and Jon are the only ones still at the main house. Lex became a Rock God some time ago and moved out to be with his high school girlfriend, and Bella has also recently lifted her own restriction by becoming Chief of Staff. Her wedding, and Harry’s, happened just today.
I’m still concerned about what Raikov might be planning, but it doesn’t seem like he suspects anything and I don’t see an immediate need to act, so you two concentrate on settling in for now and I’ll keep you updated on things as they happen.
~Marina
To: Stephen and Selina Morgan [[email protected]]
From: Marina Smoothie [[email protected]]
Subject: Crisis
Bella’s ex-fiancee, Carlos Norris, recently broke into her home and attacked her. Luckily, Ashley and Andrew arrived home from work in time to prevent the worst of it.
I had hoped that we wouldn’t need to worry about him anymore, as it’s been a while since he last acted out, but obviously, I was wrong. We don’t know where he is right now, but Lex and Gordon are trying to find him. I’ve attached a picture to this email--if you two see him, please do your best to detain him and let me know immediately.
I’ll let you know about any further developments as they happen.
~Marina
To: Stephen and Selina Morgan [[email protected]]
From: Marina Smoothie [[email protected]]
Subject: Crisis part 2
Follow-up: Andrew has been arrested on charges of assault using an occult object. Apparently he used a Mr. Mickles doll to defend Bella from Carlos, and the General heard about it and had him taken into custody. Spencer has the doll and we are currently working on a plan.
Carlos is still at large. He tried to break into the Pitts residence again tonight, and Lex and Gordon were able to stop him but had to let him go. They are unable to arrest him because he hasn’t actually broken any military codes.
It might be time to take more proactive measures. Can you locate where he is currently living? If not, I’ll do it as soon as I have Andrew out of there.
~Marina
To: Marina Smoothie [[email protected]]
From: Stephen and Selina Morgan [[email protected]]
Subject: [no subject]
Taken care of. Carlos won’t be harassing Bella again.
Selina
To: Stephen and Selina Morgan [[email protected]]
From: Marina Smoothie [[email protected]]
Subject: Career lifts
Jon’s taken care of the mob situation. Yes, really. You can stop laughing now.
Harry just became a Cult Leader, as well, so occult objects are now legal to own and use, and we won’t have a repeat of the Andrew crisis, thank goodness.
Nothing else outstanding to report. I’ll get back to you on kid profiles.
~Marina
To: Stephen and Selina Morgan [[email protected]]
From: Spencer Langley [[email protected]]
Subject: Bad news
Selina,
Ivy and Kieran have both passed away. I’m really sorry. Please let me know if you need anything.
Love,
Grampa Spencer
To: Stephen and Selina Morgan [[email protected]]
From: Marina Smoothie [[email protected]]
Subject: Okay, so kids
Right, so Harry and Mya have three kids and no plans to have any more. That’ll mean four lifts this generation, and I assume whoever is heir (my guess right now would be Azula) will have two kids who will finish the job.
Azula is the oldest, a Popularity Sim. She’s befriended most of her cousins and several schoolmates, and will be a huge connection-building asset in the future, which is why I have her pegged as the best potential heir, but we’ll see how that goes.
Elle is the middle child. She’s about to become a teenager, and if she does not pick Knowledge as her aspiration, I will be very surprised. She’s very quiet and insecure with most people.
Billy, the youngest, is almost not old enough to assess at the moment. Harry and Mya tell me that he’s a very friendly little boy, though, and his best friends are Jon’s kids. Family or Popularity, maybe.
Speaking of Jon’s kids! I haven’t told you about his little intergalactic trip. Shortly after Ivy died, he was abducted, and brought back blueprints of the alien technology we used to have before it was all lost in the power plant explosion. He also brought back a little alien present, naturally.
All in all, there are fourteen children total this generation: the three main house kids, seven first cousins, and four second cousins (two of which are your own grandchildren, Phillip and Barbara. Remind me to snag pictures of them to send along later. They’re great kids, you’ll be very proud of them.)
---
Left: Phillip and Barbara Morgan
Middle, top row: Edith Pitts; Riku, Cid, and Kirby Fox; Elle and Billy Fitzhugh
Middle, bottom row: Michael Holm; Calandra and Delaney Pitts; Azula Fitzhugh
Right: Robin and Woodpecker Vetinari
Also, Mya has finally lifted her own career (Athletic) and plans to celebrate by opening a family business to help kickstart the economy.
That’s all for now! I hope you’re both well.
~Marina
To: Stephen and Selina Morgan [[email protected]]
From: Marina Smoothie [[email protected]]
Subject: An apology
Really quickly, before I get to the real reason for this email--Mya’s first business, Sierra Spa, has done really well. She’s about to open the second, a flower shop called Azula’s Azaleas. I expect this one to go equally well if not better, since she’s got Harry, Azula, and the family Servo Gabriel helping her out and they’re all fantastic with customer relations.
Elle’s now old enough to help out so she’ll be with them as well. Billy is still too young but I’m not terribly worried about him since they’ve made arrangements for him to spend afternoons at Jon’s and they generally close up before he has to go to bed, so he’ll still see them all. In other words, things are going well for the main family so there’s no need to worry about them at the moment.
Moving on to the more pressing business, first of all, I owe the both of you an apology. I was wrong to make you leave without saying goodbye to Gordon. He’s been a mess ever since he found out you were gone, and even though he’s trying for the sake of his wife and kids, things really haven’t gotten much better for him. I am very sorry about this and I think I underestimated how well he would cope and his ability to keep a secret.
So here’s what I’m proposing: I know your cover band does seasonal concerts in Sim City. I don’t want you two to come into Sierra Plains if you don’t have to, but it occurs to me that Sim City is less than half an hour away and would be an ideal place for a meet-up.
Would you do me the favor of having Cherryh invite Lex to your next concert? Make sure he stays around long enough afterward to talk to you. Most likely, he’ll bring either Rhi or Gordon along with him. If he doesn’t bring Gordon, arrange to meet up with them both at a later date. My idea is this: Lex and Gordon are both closer to the main family than I am at this point, and they will likely be able to bring you more pertinent news, faster, than I will be. Plus, given the number of people in the extended family who go into Law Enforcement these days, it’s probably a good idea for the two of you to be secretly involved with the police force. Once Lex and Gordon get older, they can pass the job on to younger members of the family who also join the force.
This will also give you the opportunity to reunite with Gordon. I wouldn’t mind if he introduced his family to you, either, but the rest of the terms still stand--do not, under any circumstances, tell them that I am the Creator. In fact, when you make my request to them, don’t mention me at all. I guess you could say that there is a Creator when you try to explain Selina’s immortality, but don’t tell them who it is. Once you’ve seen them, please write and tell me how it went.
Again, I’m very, very sorry about all of this. I care deeply about all of you and if I’d known that this would happen, I would have let you speak with Gordon from the beginning.
~Marina
To: Marina Smoothie [[email protected]]
From: Stephen and Selina Morgan [[email protected]]
Subject: The meeting
Gordon ended up coming with Lex to the concert, so we were able to sit them down to talk with them right away.
Honestly, it went about as well as we expected it to. Better, in the respect that Lex and Gordon listened to what we had to say calmly, agreed to your proposition without having to give it much thought, and didn’t yell at us at any point.
There were some unpleasant moments, especially with Gordon (though Lex did give us a bit of hell over the Carlos incident before he knew we’d ended it), but we’re hopeful we can overcome that with time.
So, I expect we’ll be getting notifications from Lex or Gordon from now on? We’ll be sure to let you know if something happens on our end or if we have any questions. Also, Stephen says to tell you he’s forgiven you. I’m not sure I have, but, well…you understand.
Selina
To: Stephen and Selina Morgan [[email protected]]
From: Lex Holm [[email protected]]
Subject: [no subject]
Hey, Aunt Lina. Thanks for letting us know how far you’ve been caught up on so we know where to pick up. Sorry it’s been a little while, but here’s the most recent news.
The Fall Class just left for college, which means all the kids this generation are there now. My son tells me they get together quite a bit and that all three of Harry’s kids have met someone they could end up married to. We don’t know which is the heir, though. I suspect Harry is going to try to have a talk with them about that soon, but…to be honest, I can’t see that going down well.
I guess no one told you about this, so let me explain. Mya’s got all five of her businesses now--the last three were a clothing boutique, a toy shop, and an electronics store, and all five are pretty successful.
I’m proud of her since she’s my friend and all, but at the same time, it’s really hurt her kids. They spent a lot more of their time at the businesses than they wanted to, and they didn’t really have a whole lot of space to just be kids. Jon told me that the night before he left for SPU, Billy had a screaming match with Mya and ended up staying the night at Jon’s because he couldn’t stand being at home anymore. He’s not speaking to Mya at all.
Azula’s openly angry as well, and Elle…well, no one really knows how Ellie feels because she never talks about it, at least as far as Mikey’s told me. I completely understand why it’s rough for them, but it’s going to make the heirship matter difficult--if any of them felt like I did, none of them are going to want it. And Harry seems completely oblivious to all of it. They’re probably going to talk about it before Azula graduates, and I’ll update you again at that point.
Also, just in case you haven’t heard, Aunt Ray and Uncle Spider passed away not long ago. They lived to be pretty old and they were happy, though, so I hope you won’t feel too badly about it. Everyone from our generation (except for Jon’s wife Suzy, but she’ll have her birthday pretty shortly) has eldered now, as well.
I hope you and Uncle Stephen are doing well!
Love,
Lex
To: Stephen and Selina Morgan [[email protected]]
From: Marina Smoothie [[email protected]]
Subject: An idea
Attachment: saffronbohemian.doc
I’ve just had another idea I think might help you. It occurred to me that you might want someone who is friends with the current generation to work more closely with you than either Lex or Gordon will be. Plus, it might benefit you to have someone on the team who is a fresher, less suspicious face than Vaughn or Cherryh. I have the perfect candidate. Her name is Saffron Bohemian. She’s part of Azula’s crowd, is friendly with Elle, and her sister is dating Billy, so she’s got connections to all three siblings and will be able to hang around no matter which one is heir.
I’ve attached her pertinent stats and some information from her home universe that might be helpful to you in pitching the idea. Whatever you do, it’s up to you, but since the idea came to me I thought I would suggest it.
~Marina
To: Stephen and Selina Morgan [[email protected]]
From: Lex Holm [[email protected]]
Subject: Heir decision and a concern
Well, we have an heir. It’s Elle.
I can’t say I’m surprised--it’d be a cold day in hell if Azula or Billy agreed to do it. From what I’ve heard, though, she’s not very happy about it and basically felt pressured into it for that reason.
She’s had some extra troubles of her own, as well, since the night they decided heirship she had an argument with her long-term boyfriend, Stuart Legacy, and broke up with him.
Between Mikey and Azula’s boyfriend Dominic (who’s been living with us), I’ve heard a little news about what’s happened since, but it’s not as reliable as I’d like. You might want to ask your new recruit about it and see if she knows more details.
I do know that Ellie has a new boyfriend. His name is Tristan Smith. They apparently met through Azula, but only the once before Elle and Stuart split. No one I’ve talked to knows enough about him to give an opinion either way except Azula and she seems to think he’s decent enough, but Billy and Bella’s daughter Edie seem to have concerns. I don’t know. We’ll see what happens.
That’s it for now. Stay safe.
Love,
Lex
To: Stephen and Selina Morgan [[email protected]]
From: Spencer Langley [[email protected]]
Subject: Marina will be out of town indefinitely starting today
I know this is rather sudden and I don’t mean to alarm you, but we had a bit of a situation yesterday and today. Marina didn’t even tell me about it until it was mostly over.
To sum up: Azula’s boyfriend Dominic and his two siblings are Marina’s Sims from another neighborhood, whom she brought to Sierra Plains so that they could stay together in at least one mini-verse. Marina and Dominic ran into each other at Mikey’s wedding, Marina panicked…
…and she ended up having to explain who she was to him and also to Harry and his kids.
Needless to say, it didn’t go over well. Harry and the kids now know of Marina’s involvement in sending Rhys to Sierra Plains to begin with, and I don’t imagine it’ll be long before the rest of the family hears as well (so you’ll probably get emails about it from Lex and Gordon, too).
To make Dominic and his siblings feel more comfortable about staying in Sierra Plains, Marina offered to leave. She’s going out to Veronaville tonight to help another Creator out with some problems there. I will be able to reach her if necessary, but if we can avoid it we’re not to call her back, and she says she doesn’t know when she’ll return.
Honestly, I’m not too worried about your group. You’ve got Lex, Gordon, and Saffron to keep you updated, and when Lex and Gordon retire they’ll probably find you new informants themselves. Dominic, who’s planning on going into Law Enforcement as soon as they have an opening, will actually probably be an ideal candidate once he’s calmed down a bit, and I’d also suggest Billy since I think that’s going to be his lift. Regardless, I think you guys will be fine, and it looks like Azula, Elle, and Billy have an attack plan for career lifting this generation so I wouldn’t worry about them either.
All the same, let me know if you need anything. I’m going to lay low myself for a while until the initial shock blows over, but I’ll do my best to help.
Love,
Grampa Spencer
To: Stephen and Selina Morgan [[email protected]]
From: Lex Holm [[email protected]]
Subject: Elle’s wedding
Elle and Tristan got married today in a very small ceremony at home. I expect to see babies from them shortly. :)
Regarding career lifts, Azula’s become The Law (as you may already have heard from Saffron), Tristan is currently in Politics, and Elle is looking for either Law Enforcement or Slacker but hasn’t found either yet. Billy will take whatever she doesn’t, although he would prefer Law Enforcement. We’ll see, I suppose. I’d be happy to have either one of them on the team.
I’ll keep you updated as I hear more. For now, everything’s going smoothly. Stay safe.
Love,
Lex
Once she had finished the last archived email (dated the previous day), Saffron snorted and moved to log out of the system. Selina hadn’t been kidding about getting her up to date, although she had already known most of the content of the most recent emails. She also knew where Azula and Dominic currently were, though she planned to keep that under wraps as Azula had asked, unless Selina absolutely needed to know for whatever reason.
Before she could sign out, a beep from the computer let her know that she had a new message. She clicked over to her inbox to read it.
To: Stephen and Selina Morgan [[email protected]]
From: Lex Holm [[email protected]]
Subject: URGENT re: Azula
Spoke too soon in the last email. I’ve been trying to leave you a message on your cell but your voicemail box is full so I’m leaving one here…
Saffron quickly scanned the rest of the email, then bolted from her seat.
“Selina! We’ve got a problem.”
Selina and Stephen both turned to her. “What’s the matter?” Selina asked.
“We got an urgent email from Lex,” said Saffron. “Azula’s in trouble.”
***
That’s it for the recap, but the next episode is up NOW so you don’t have to wait to find out what comes next! I hope you enjoy :)
Guest Sims
Saffron and Snow Bohemian - The Bohemian Legacy
Dominic, Kahlen, and Trent Doran - The Boolpropian Round Robin Legacy
Stuart Legacy - A Victorian Legacy
Stephen Morgan and Vaughn Fitzhugh - The Morgan Legacy
Cherryh Nebula - A Planetary Apocalypse
Cameos/mentions: Gene Novella (The Novella Legacy), Claudius Caesar (The Ten Caesars), Evil Susan Agelenidae (The Science of a Legacy), Spider Jerusalem, Cassidy, and Larch Vetinari (The Vetinari Dualegacy), Derrial Book Whedonberry (Whedonberry), Aylee Devereaux (The Devereaux Legacy)