Welcome back to the Vetinari Dualegacy! This is Chapter 24.25: This Kiss!

This one's short and sweet, people. More babies, toddlers, growing up, some business hijinks—the usual stuff.

Yes, I am back to using song titles for chapter titles. No, I still have not quite figured out PaintShop Pro.

Prettacy heir Lindsay is pregnant again and working on her novel. There are a couple of snapdragons in the room, which make it a pretty good place to hang out.

Gen 9 twins Lawrin and Jojo are getting ready to grow up any day now. Whitney makes sure to get some grandma time in while they're small.

It occurred to me that I hadn't given stats on anyone in the last chapter, mostly because I hadn't written anything down. Yay?

Lawrin's a 5/10/5/3/5 Leo—yet another naked hot-tubber! I haven't had one of those in the main Prettacy house in a while.

Joe Cotton's a 2/8/10/3/10 Pisces, making him the Prettacy's first Creepy Smiler since Chad! I have no idea where the Nice Points came from. Daddy Nikolai is an Aries 5/8/5/2/5, so he doesn't exactly go around grinning at everyone in sight.

This is the Prettacy Kitty, Jasmine. She's currently pregnant, and enjoying being the only pet in the house.

I appear to have picked up the portrait glitch somewhere along the way. When I go to frame something out with the little green box, what actually gets painted bears only vague resemblance to what I wanted. Like this lovely picture of Whitney's right nostril.

After numerous attempts to get the portraits painted, I decided just to crop some snapshots to the proper size and dump them in the Custom Paintings bin.

This didn't used to happen. It started happening back on my now-dead laptop, and didn't magically fix itself with a new computer to use.

Lindsay and Nikolai give Lawrin and Jojo a quick Aspiration boost on their birthday.

Yes, they are very adorable.

With slightly mistimed sparklies and a pile of trash in the background, the twins grow up into their jammies. Jojo likes pink. I think it suits him.

Jojo got a pretty good mix of Lindsay and Nikolai's features.

Lindsay looks like a miniature version of her mother, with paler skin and black hair.

Jojo is delightfully random. There's nothing in the house he's drawn to more than anything else, and he gets along with everyone who lives there, including the cats and Slartibartfast the parrot.

Yes, we have kittens now. Little Brown Kitten is Lindsay, and Sadface Cream Kitten is Lilah. Lilah is my favorite just for that facial expression alone.

On her first day of school, Lawrin brings Duncan Landgraab home with her, and wasted no time making friends with him.

Jojo didn't bring anyone home, and rocked out to the stereo instead.

Super-pregnant Lindsay called the Headmaster over, and he let Lawrin and Jojo into private school, perhaps because he didn't want to incur the wrath of the pregnant lady.

Jojo couldn't care less about school. He just wanted to dance with Grandma instead.

In the mornings, once I chase Jojo away from the telescope and get him some breakfast, he'll go dance. Lawrin's usually right there with him.

On that particular morning, Lindsay decided to go into labor. To be fair, it was about time, and we were all more than ready for it.

Happily, there was just one baby, and that is Ben Ali, who has identical coloring to Jojo.

In case you were wondering, yes, the parade of boys continues.

Also in case you were wondering, the name theme this generation is “Kentucky Derby winners with people names.”

Even Nikolai seems unimpressed by another boy.

I kid. It was a New Someone to Meet. He was thrilled.

Over at the Uglacy, Tess goes out to pick up a mate for Mr. Finch. We settle on a mastiff named Drusilla.

Nummy Theo would like it to be known that I still haven't re-downloaded his suit, and will not be showing his face until that happens.

I have since re-downloaded his suit. I just haven't popped open his lot and put him into it yet. Don't get me wrong, I miss seeing his face...

...but NOT seeing his face is OK with me too. *drool*

Nummy Theo Harrison courtesy of Dicreasy's Victorian Legacy.

Francie's a little more hands-on with the twins than she was with Jack. This is a good thing, since there are only two Permaplat Sims here instead of three, so everyone's got to chip in.

Drusilla and Mr. Finch waste no time making friends.

This is SO much easier with dogs, y'all. My cats would rather kill each other than be nice, but it takes the dogs a grand total of a day and a half to be ready to mate.

Of course, Mr. Finch is a laid-back dog if there ever was one. Aside from watching Jack pee at every opportunity, he doesn't mind the occasional toddler-mauling.

And I don't normally use the toddler blankets in my main houses, but I needed it for less than a day, and it was less of a hassle than buying a whole new crib for Jack.

Before too long, Stevie gave Jack some quick Aspiration, and stood back while Jack twirled into childhood.

Jack, as I am sure you will in no way recall because I didn't tell you, is a Libra 1/8/1/10/8. So, he finger-guns, when he can be arsed to get out of bed.

Terminal laziness is the one personality trait I can't live with, so literally the first thing I did was have Stevie Encourage him up to 5 Active. Jack wasn't even out of his jammies yet, had no makeover, but dammit, he was doing jumping jacks in the front hall.

He got an impressive mix of Stevie and Francie's features. The placement of Stevie's eyes (but not the alien black, sadly), Stevie's brow, mouth, and jaw, and what look to be Francie's nose and cheekbones.

The twins are spoiled rotten. It seems like every hour of the day or night, someone's in the nursery to tuck them in, and they rarely cry for long when they're hungry or stinky. That's Stevie with Paulie and Tess with George.

Tess is an awesome grandmother. I know this is not a shocking revelation, but it must be said.

For one thing, she's always ready with a big platter of grilled cheese sandwiches whenever Jack gets hungry.

I think the hair sort of helps. It hides the worst of the line where his eye sockets meet his cheekbones, at least. I do suspect that when he hits Teen, the hair will start glitching through stuff and I'll have to change it, though.

Yeah, I really do not see this ending well AT ALL.

Before long, it's time for the twins to grow up.

Take a look at Paulie the last time he'll be cute!

Ooh, but he looks like a miniature version of Francie, though. I don't see any of Stevie in his face, aside from the eyes. He's got the alien eyes, though, so he's still my favorite!

Also, he's not a lazy bum, which helps. Paulie's a Sagittarius 2/7/10/10/6.

Francie grabs George while Stevie puts Paulie down for a nap.

Yes, George, the facial enworsening will happen to you, too.

Xander showed up to see what all the fuss was about. He used to stay out in the yard before I had to rez and re-kill him. Now he comes into the house and wreaks a little havoc.

Sigh... George looks like a mini-Stevie. I don't see any of Francie's features in him. Not even the broken, wonky nose or completely absent chin.

He's a Pisces 5/8/5/2/5.

It's sort of weird, because I always thought of Pisces as being shy, because every other Pisces I've had has been shy, but George and Jojo are both Pisces finger-gunners.

BEHOLD THE WRATH OF XANDER!

Jack was not amused.

I sort of wish Xander would go back to haunting the lawn. That was so much less traumatic on the small children.

The dogs get down to business, and Brad heads out to cheer for it, as you do.

Of course, there were toddlers who needed training, and only two Sims who could use the Thinking Caps and make Smartmilk, bad backs and tiny bladders be damned.

DAMMIT, XANDER!

Sweet cracker sandwich, it's bad when PseudoBruty's the well-behaved, not-irritating one!

Francie drinks a lot of her skill points, so she got herself platinum enough to teach the twins how to talk.

Stevie's mostly chained to the robot-making bench when the others are home. Aside from that, he needs his Cosmetology badge, and he's got two top-level businesses left before I cheat him Permaplat.

I don't mind when Finn does this. He haunts a lot less than Xander does, and doesn't scare everyone on the lot when he does haunt.

Archie is a surprisingly well-behaved ghost now.

I had Brad use up all his vacation days and then retire. He can turn his media empire over to the young kids, and focus his energy on his young grandkids!

Despite Jack not having started school yet, he followed Jojo home one afternoon.

And don't believe Jojo's face—he was not in any way annoyed by anything Jack said or did!

The Prettacy ghosts are troublesome, too. See, when I got the graves back at the Uglacy, I did it outside by the portrait wall because that's where the graves go, but everyone kept coming all the way out from the house to cry. Eleven times. That was irritating, especially when I was dealing with a hungry toddler and Elder bladders. At the Prettacy, I got the graves back in the front hall to minimize distance traveled, only I forgot that the first time the ghosts haunted, they'd haunt where they were killed... smack in the middle of the first floor. So, ghosts who rarely came in the house are now there for a whole night, terrorizing just about everyone.

I guess the moral of the story is that having to get graves back is a big pain in the ass, and there's no good way to do it, and you should just hope that it's something you never have to do.

Nikolai's really good with Ben. Everyone else has a work schedule, or just a weird sleep schedule, but his job is to make friends, so he's around whenever Ben needs anything.

With Ben's birthday, it's the end of the Gen 9 babies!

Jasmine does not approve of sticky toddlers.

Ben looks identical to Jojo, but he's not a clone—their personalities are almost totally opposite. Ben's 10/1/10/7/2. Ben's a neat freak; Jojo's a slob. Jojo finger-guns; Ben's super-shy. Ben's on the playful side; Jojo's fairly serious. Ben's a meanie; Jojo's a creepy smiler. The only thing they have in common aside from the face is the maxed Active.

Nikolai got roped into teaching Ben to walk.

Artie rolled the Want to potty-train Ben, because that it how he rolls.

Artie has gotten seriously family-oriented in his old age. Looking at his Want Panel, you'd never know he's a Fortune Sim. It's all, Family Member Gets Engaged, Family Member Gets Married, New Family Member, Have a Grandbaby, Teach Ben Ali Potty Training, Play with Ben Ali.

These two are thick as thieves. Definitely not the feuding siblings of the days of yore!

Lindsay finishes her novel.

I think I forgot to show the picture, but she's Permaplat. Has been since before Jojo and Lawrin were born. She is The Law, at least until I switch her into something with better hours.

Whitney's keeping busy, too. After all, there's someone in the house she's not already Best Friends with, and clearly that must be changed as soon as possible.

The kittens grow up. That's Lindsay on the left and Lilah on the right. Lilah's face was cooler, plus she made the adorable Sadface, so I sold Lindsay and Jasmine to Aurie.

Then it was time for the ceremonial Passing Along of the Business Perks, which I already did once, but then I had to do the minor rebuild, so I had to go through the whole thing again.

At least at Swings 'n' Things, I can set the ticket price low enough that they sell themselves, and then not have to fiddle with running the actual business.

I do turn motive decay off when Passing Along the Business Perks, though. Yes, I freely admit to cheating. I can do it with snapdragons and Energizers or coffee, I HAVE done it with snapdragons and Energizers and coffee, and I see no reason to do that and make an already far-too-long process even longer. If there were a cheat for Business Perks, I would happily use it every single time, without shame. Seriously, Passing Along takes WAY TOO LONG.

Delvecchio didn't mind, though. He came over from the other side of town to give Lindsay some money and hang out with The Todd.

Of course, where there are community lots, there are SimSelves. This time around, surprisingly well-behaved SimSelves.

Blite writes Ten Caesars, and professorbutters wrote the Squeaky Clean Legacy.

Nummy Theo Harrison's roommate Oz Warner showed up and got off on the extremely wrong foot with Gen 3 Prettacy spare Gerry.

Oz Warner courtesy of ladylarkrune's Yakko's World OWBC.

Then, of course, Lark herself showed up, and Oz was suddenly on his best behavior.

After what seemed like forever, Whitney and Lindsay finished up and were allowed to go home.

Blite was sad, because his access to hot spares was cut off.

Artie potty-trained Ben and then taught him to talk.

The man is seriously a stealth Family Sim.

But look how cute! Ben is ADORABLE.

On the weekend, Lawrin and Jojo called up their friends and friends' siblings and had a big kids' day. Clockwise from the girl in the purple shirt in the foreground, it's Maui, Jack, Tyler Landgraab, Tahiti, Jojo, Duncan Landgraab, Lawrin, and Kinsey Landgraab.

Lawrin is a total Pop Sim in the making, just like her parents and grandmother.

Whitney was nice enough to serve up cocoa and sandwiches for lunch.

Kinsey inhaled a sandwich and then decided to challenge Artie to a game of chess, at which she cheated him mercilessly.

And then she laughed at him for falling for it.

I have never, ever seen this before. In nine generations of piss-mean Sims, I have never seen one cheat and then laugh at their opponent.

Needless to say, Kinsey is nice point-deficient.

Like I said, the ghosts are a bit of a problem. That's the founder's spouse Calista getting Whitney, and Raven's husband Tom (whose hair fell victim to the loss of my Downloads folder) waiting his turn.

The last of the pre-birthday snuggling at the Prettacy!

Everyone turned out for Ben's birthday, including Flavius Marius, who just stops by sometimes.

Flavius Marius is courtesy of Blite's Ten Caesars.

Like I said, he's a facial clone of Jojo.

And for some reason, I'm totally stuck on purple clothes for my kids right now. And not just the ones descended from PurpleBunny and Bell, either.

Moving on to someplace that's else...

“Hey. I need your help for this last bit. I've rewired myself as much as I can, but there are some circuits I just can't reach.”

“Your morality chip?”

“Never had one any more than you did.”

“I suppose this is all part of the Boss's plan?”

“That's all I'm programmed for. He said he'd told you about me, that I might need your help.”

“Sure, he told me what his general plan was. I can help you on your end, but I've got no control over what's happening at the Uglacy, and if I make a move, Cypress'll drop me where I stand. You may think I've got no sense of right and wrong, but you haven't met Cypress.”

“I know everything about Cypress that I need to.”

“All right, just let me pry this panel off.”

“Careful! Do you know how much polishing it takes to stay this shiny?”

“So your plan is to lull Cypress into complacency by giving him a reflective surface to monologue into?”

“It's better that you don't know the exact details. You can't be made to tell Cypress what you don't know.”

“I wouldn't worry. I've avoided him this long, and he'll kill me before he captures me. It may occur to him that I was worth more alive, but by then it will be too late.”

“Hey! Watch the microprocessor! I might need that!”

“You sound like Larch whenever anyone tried to mess with his fauxhawk.”

“Sometimes I pretend that my antenna is a fauxhawk. Don't ever touch my antenna.”

“Ick. Wasn't planning on it. Just this last chip, and then I'm done.”

“Yeah, that's it. I can feel the change. That's what I needed. Thanks. I won't be seeing you again.”

“The pleasure was all yours, I'm sure.”

“I haven't been programmed for pleasure. Quite the opposite, in fact. Goodbye, Sycamore.”

Speaking of Larch, he proves that Xander's not the only ghost with a haunting agenda.

It's getting pretty impossible to go outside after dark now. And even inside's not as safe as it used to be.

Drusilla has her puppy, Groosalugg (the brave and undefeated).

Did you know that Brad is a Pop Sim? I'd almost forgotten!

I let Tess retire too. She was a Showbiz Icon. It took her a while to get the last couple of promotions, for no good reason that I could see.

Jack's cousin Kati followed him home from school.

Wanna guess who didn't inherit the bazillion Nice Points?

Kati, don't kick your cousin! I may need him later!

The last toddler Aspiration boosts of the generation!

Paulie and George are kids!

Trust me, they look like Tiny Frances Worthington and Tiny Stevie.

To facilitate the Passing Along of more Business Perks, I set Stevie up with a ticket-taker lot called Attractive Stuff filled with, you guessed it, attractive stuff. Hot tubs, bubble blower, MyShuno, poker table, pool table.

Blite was one of the first customers, because, hey, there might be hot spares here. You don't know until you show up and see a married gay guy and a half-alien married to a SimSelf who WILL kick your butt if you make him cry.

See? TOAST HAS HER EYES ON YOU.

Meanwhile, Billy is on the bubble blower, completely oblivious.

EphemeralToast wrote the Apocalypso-A-Go-Go.

Rhea showed up to remind me that I haven't killed him yet.

“So then, there was a bet to do with the Cow Mascot, but I don't really remember what, and then I ate a piece of buzzy pizza...”

“WHY ARE YOU TALKING TO ME?”

Even Gin doesn't like Rhea!

GintasticNecat writes the Science of a Legacy.

And then there was the hot tub nudity. Given the high percentage of clothes-eschewing Sims in my neighborhood, I should have expected this. That's Becca naked on the far left, Bee naked in the front, and Ellie Landgraab trying to decide where to look on the right.

And it turns out that even patched, the hot tubs will still catch fire, and boy howdy does a customer being on fire really cost you loyalty stars.

Happily, Ellie was saved, and then I installed sprinklers, so no one else caught fire again.

The poker tables saw quite a bit of use too. Howie kept coming back to support his brother, Delight lives around the corner, Indy can't stay away from community lots, and Jeeves Landgraab made the trek over from Bluewater Village.

I decided that Malcolm needed a Servo to help him at his businesses, when I'm in the mood to run them, so I had him make and initialize Jeeves.

“All you Servos look alike. Are you Jeeves, or someone... ELSE?”

“Get your eyes checked, meatsack! I'm not that namby-pamby Landgraab bucket of bolts!”

“Crazy Gay Huggy Servo, then. Just keep your hands to yourself.”

“Pffft, you're not my type, Squishy.”

Smoothiequeen writes the Villainous Apocalypse.

Kitty and Rose Greenman showed up later, and played a few hands with Edmund Fitzgerald and Artie.

Stacie, perhaps as a protest to the nudity in the other hot tub, got into hers fully clothed.

I really have no idea what happened there. I know that yellow dress isn't categorized as swimwear! And Lea was wearing a pretty purple bikini, not a spring dress.

Stacielee writes Whedonberry, and leaths writes the Barsoom Legacy.

Becca did NOT throw us the star Stevie needed to reach Level 10, but given her state of dress (which is NOT), and the person who DID throw us the star is sitting in the hot tub, I'll just show this picture of Becca and pretend like you can see the star without it being totally inappropriate for minors.

Becca: so very, very pretty. So very, very naked.

Moving on to a totally different community lot...

“Now there's a sight for sore eyes!”

“What is?”

“You're smiling, Cassidy.”

“I guess I am. I'm glad I didn't forget how.”

“Whoever you were with before is an idiot if he didn't do whatever it took to make you smile as often as possible.”

“He's an idiot for making me not smile, and I'm an idiot for staying.”

“You're not an idiot. You made a mistake. Everyone does.”

“I guess.”

“You have to forgive yourself eventually, Cass.”

“I think maybe I'm starting to. My sister and the kids are being really great. I've never been part of a family like this before. It's easier to put my life back together with people on my side, holding me up.”

“Geez, is that the time? I've had fun, but I have an early morning at the bakery tomorrow. I should get going so I can get some sleep.”

“Understood.”

“I mean it! I've had fun with you tonight.”

“I know. And, me too.”

“I'll call you tomorrow, Cassidy. Have a good night.”

“Yeah, you too.”

Why is this so hard? I know what I want to do, but I just can't do it! I don't want to mess things up, I don't want to make a mistake, I don't want to ruin the only good relationship I've ever had, and maybe I'm ruining it by second-guessing every little thing but I just don't trust myself any more! What if I do what I want and it turns out as badly as everything else I've ever wanted? I can't let Spider down. He wants me to make the most of my life. I can't screw this up. But he wouldn't want me holding back because of him either, because I'm too scared to take a step forward in case it's the wrong one and he has to pull my ass out of the fire again.

God, why is being okay so much harder than being messed up?

Ah, the hell with it!

“Gilbert! Wait up!”

“What do you need, Cass?”

“Maybe tomorrow, I'll call you.”

“I'd like that, Cass. ...Do you know what? You're smiling again.”

“I guess you just bring it out of me, Gil.”

“I wonder what I could do to keep that smile on your face.”

“I'm sure you'll think of something.”