Aaaand welcome back to The Four Legacies! Where we try to get four different families simultaneously through legacies! Sorry about the long wait between chapters, writing Galahad’s Bachelor Challenge took longer than I anticipated.

Anyway, since it’s been so long I thought I start this update off with a little reminder of who’s who.

Let’s start with this fellow. If you can’t recall, this is David Jacobs, the Jacob family founder. David’s a fortune sim with a personality of 9/8/5/1/2, making him a neat, outgoing, serious, nice Aries. He was married to Melissa Fancey and they had three kids – twins Ruby and Gemma, and son Henry, before Melissa walked out and they eventually divorced.

This is Henry Jacobs, the current Jacobs heir. He’s very different from his dear old dad. Henry’s a family sim, who’s got a personality of 10/8/6/2/9, making him a neat, outgoing, serious, nice Cancer. He was the odd one out growing up – he had more nice points that his parents and sisters combined. It never bothered him much though – except when his sisters were picking on him.

Henry married Erin. Here she is, pregnant with their second child and ready to give birth any moment. Erin’s a family sim like Henry, and has a fairly generic Cancer personality of 5/3/5/4/5.

And their son, Ambrose Jacobs. Ambrose is still establishing himself, but he’s got a personality of 6/8/9/2/9, so he’s an outgoing, active, playful and nice Pisces.

And onto the Stantons. Unfortunately the founder, Quinn, died a little while ago. You can see her portrait in the background.

Anyway, the current heir here is James Stanton. He’s a fortune sim with a personality of 7/1/7/10/10. This makes him a neat, shy, active, playful nice Cancer.

James married Ally, a family sim he met at college. Ally is a family sim who’s an Aquarius with a personality of 4/4/4/7/6, meaning she had a pretty middling personality.

Ally and James had twins, a boy and a girl named Luke and Lorelai. As you can see they’re both pretty similar looking. Luke’s personality is 7/1/7/7/5 (neat, shy, active and playful), a Cancer. Lorelai’s personality is 9/10/1/8/7 (neat, outgoing, lazy, playful, nice), a Capricorn.

Like the Stantons, the founders of the Brown line have passed on. Declan here is the current heir. Dec’s a popularity sim who’s an Aries with a personality of 7/8/4/2/5. That makes him neat, outgoing and serious.

Now, Dec always had a very strong preference for women but that didn’t mean he wasn’t open to the idea of a relationship to a man. And what do you know – the only sim he’d ever had 3 bolts with was a guy called Knut Hamilton. They ended up marrying.

This is Knut. He’s a popularity sim, and a Leo with a personality of 4/10/4/4/3, so he’s outgoing and a little mean but everything else is pretty much in the middle.

Knut and Dec have four child, two sets of twins who happen to be the same age. This is the eldest, Eliza. Eliza’s Gemini with a personality of 2/7/10/2/7, which means she’s messy, outgoing, active, lazy and nice. She’s already proven herself a bookworm, and a close friend to Lydie Merton who we’ll come to later.

Eliza’s twin sister is Felicity, or Flic as she is known. Flic’s a Leo with a personality of 7/10/4/4/3, making her neat, outgoing and a little mean. Yep, even if she and her twin look alike they’ve not got a huge amount in common.

Next born was Gavin. He looks a lot like his sisters, but again he’s slightly different – he has the darker skintone of Eliza and the lighter eyes like Flic. Gav’s an Aries, with a personality of 10/10/5/5/3. That makes him very neat and outgoing, and a little mean.

And Gavin’s twin is Harry! Harry’s purple! *nods proudly*

Harry’s an overprotective little boy, always on the look out for his family. He’s a Taurus, and his personality is 4/8/4/8/3, so he’s outgoing, playing and grumpy.

And the final of the legacies was founded by Ross Merton! Ross is an old hippy and a knowledge sim. He’s a pretty happy-go-lucky guy. He initially struggled to find a wife, and he was conflicted over whether he should get a job and eventually become The Man, but he worked it all out in the end.

Ross is an Aquarius, with a personality of 2/2/6/7/8, having a shyness and niceness that is characteristic in all of his descendants.

After one full sim week of searching Ross finally found someone compatible in Kaylynn Spitzig. The pair fell in love, and the rest is history.

Kaylynn’s a family sim, and is one of my very few sims to get a secondary aspiration, knowledge in her case. She’s a Cancer sim with a personality of 6/3/6/4/6.

Amelia was third born and it was decided pretty early on she’d be heir. She’s done a pretty good job so far, having become perma-plat within about two hours of becoming as teenager. She’s a knowledge sim, and a Cancer who’s very like her mother in personality – 6/3/6/4/8.

Amelia married Ichelle Fairchild. The pair met by chance as Dec’s twin brother Ed dragged the two of them out when he was on his search for a wife. Completely by chance Ichelle was there and the pair managed to hit it off. One thing led to another, and now their married with a bunch of kids.

Ichelle’s a knowledge sim like Amelia. She’s also a Pisces with a personality of 5/3/7/3/7.

Now the oldest of gen 3’s main line is Lydia “Lydie” Merton. If there’s nothing else you can say about Lydie then it’s that she’s scared of nothing, which has gotten her into trouble.

Lydie’s a Scorpio. She’s neat, shy, active, serious and grouchy (10/3/9/3/1).

Next born was Rosa Merton. Rosa’s ambitious, she’s already got ideas for businesses she wants to open up when she’s older and she can’t wait until she’s old enough to start them.

Rosa’s a Capricorn. Her personality is 10/3/3/8/1, which makes her neat, shy, lazy, playful and mean.

Then came Ivy. She’s like her grandfather, a bit of a hippy in training. She’s a Pisces, shy, active and nice (5/1/7/4/8).

And the final sim of the main line is Alana. She’s a sweetheart – if you don’t listen to her sisters. She’s a Libra, with a personality of 5/10/6/4/10 (outgoing and nice).

And that’s it for the recap of who everyone is. At least for the main lines. A few others will appear in the chapter who aren’t listed, but if you can’t remember who’s who then I recommend you go back and reread earlier chapters.

Ding Dong!

Galahad jumped out of his seat in the living room at the doorbell, all but running out into the hall. He stifled a laugh when he saw Amelia’s daughters goofing off at the window and his parents stood by the door, his father chuckling at the girls’ antics and his mother shaking her head, though he could see she was trying not to laugh.

Galahad pushed the front door opened and threw his arms around his mother, hugging her tightly.

“You made it!” he said happily.

“Of course, honey,” Kaylynn said. “We wouldn’t miss this.”

“Thanks,” he whispered.

“Uncle Galahad!”

Letting go of his mother he turned to his nieces, the four of them grinning up at him. He blinked as the four of them let loose a barrage of questions, none of them giving him time to answer them.

“Do we have a new auntie and now?”

“Mum said you married a boy and a girl! Can you do that?”

“Granddad said we’re getting another auntie today who’s our age!”

“Uncle Galahad! Sign my cast!”

“Cast?” he asked. He glanced down at her right arm and sure enough there was a cast, already signed by a few people. “How did you do that? When did you do that?”

“Oh last week when you were doing that TV show thingy – Mum says we can watch it when it comes out!”

“That’s great – but how did you break your arm?”

“Oh, the floor was made of lava and I landed funny when I tried to jump to the fridge,” Lydie shrugged, then brightened again. “So will you sign it? Pleeeeeease?”

“Erm, maybe later,” Galahad said with a shake of his head. He jerked his thumb inside. “Why don’t you guys go meet your Auntie Natasha? She said she was making grilled cheese for lunch.”

That suggestion was all it took to get the four girls running off to the kitchen, already arguing over who got the first sandwich. Kaylynn followed shortly after, determined to go meet her son’s not-quite-daughter-in-law.

Galahad, meanwhile, left Ross into the living room. He stood by the window, looking back at his father.

“So you managed to get Nev’s remains?” he asked eagerly.

“I do,” Ross confirmed gravely. “The council finally released them on Wednesday.”

“That’s great!”

“Galahad-”

“So do you have any idea it takes to resurrect someone? I mean if life had that much paperwork I can only guess how much paperwork there is in death.”

“Galahad-”

“Or maybe it’s less. You never know, paperwork might just be a living thing and Death doesn’t bother with it.”

“Galahad, will you slow down!” Ross finally managed to cut across Galahad. Ross sighed. “Look, son, I know you’re eager, but you need to calm down.”

“Dad, how can I not be eager? I’ve been waiting for five years now for this.”

“I know,” Ross admitted. He shook his head. “I just – I want to be sure you’re ready for what you’re taking on. Raising children isn’t easy, and I can only guess how strange it will be to begin with.”

“Don’t you think I can do this?” Galahad asked, frowning.

“It’s not that,” he replied. He paused, thinking how best to put this. “I’m certain you’ll do a wonderful job raising Nev, but you have to admit that raising your own twin sister who’s been dead for so long will be – a different experience.”

“I know,” Galahad said, pausing briefly. “I’m as ready as I’ll ever be. I’ve been preparing for this since my first year of college, since the night I first got the phone! Yes, it’ll probably be a little strange, but I need to bring her back.”

Ross looked uncertain, but one look at Galahad face told him that he wouldn’t change his mind. The boy could be so stubborn at times! He nodded. Ross pulled the urn carefully from his inventory and handed it to Galahad. Galahad took the urn almost reverently.

“Thank you,” Galahad whispered gratefully. “Natasha should be serving up lunch now. We’ll eat, then I’ll use the phone.”

After lunch Galahad led the way outside. He stopped by the phone he’d gotten from the secret society all those years ago. He took a deep breath, then picked up the receiver and dialled.

“H-hello? Erm, my name’s Galahad Merton and – yes, I want Guinevere. How did you… Oh, ten thousand simoleons?” Galahad hesitated slightly at the amount, did they have that much left over from buying the house? Probably. “Yes, it is quite reasonable. Of course – take it. You mean? Of course! Thank you!”

Galahad hung up the phone. It took all his self control not to dance a little jig. Turns out there was no paperwork in the afterlife! Nev could be returned to life right now!

“So it all went well?” Kaylynn asked from behind him.

Galahad started to turn and speak when something else caught his attention.

The gravestone vanished with a pop! A puff of green smoke appeared right next to the phone. Gradually it cleared, slowly revealing a figure in a girls’ private school uniform.

As the smoke cleared everyone got a good look at her. Her uniform was covered in green soot and more than a few years out of date. She had dark blue eyes like Kaylynn, Galahad, Amelia and Ivan. She had short red hair, cut in the same style Galahad wore his. And she was cheering.

“THAT WAS SO AWESOME!” she yelled. Letting out a laugh, she looked at her assorted relatives and grinned. “Can I do it again?”

At about the same time, back in the canyon Henry was flirting with his wife. Or, I should say, trying too.

“Not now, honey,” Erin said with a shake of her head. She winced as the baby kicked again. “The bump is being pretty active today.”

“You don’t think-”

“No, can’t be,” Erin dismissed the thought. “I’m due for another wee-aaaaah!”

“I THINK THE BABY’S EARLY!”

Men, as Erin was quickly coming to work out, were useless when you’re in labour. They only know how to panic and look concerned. She had no choice to get on with it though, and after one agonising hour she held-

-a second son! She was a bit darker in skin than Ambrose had been, and he’d inherited Henry’s brown hair and eyes instead of her black and grey. There was definitely none of that first born syndrome that she heard afflicted so many legacy families. In fact, the boys couldn’t look much more different.

“What shall we call him?” Erin asked quietly as she held her second born while Henry cooed at him.

“I was – what do you think about Noah?” Henry looked up from Erin hopefully. She nodded.

“Noah Jacobs it is then. I’ll go put him in his crib.”

The rest of that afternoon sped by for the Mertons. The new baby had everyone’s attention for the time being. Henry, David and Erin were always playing with him or holding him or feeding him. On the rare occasion he was placed down in his cot Ambrose wandered over and looked in. He’d wondered what was so special about the next baby. Maybe it did something special?

But as far as Ambrose could see it did nothing but lay there. Quickly growing bored, Ambrose toddled off to find something more interesting, like his rabbit head.

Ambrose played for a while. He didn’t know how long, but his Mummy had given him his dinner. He knew his Daddy would be along soon to give him his bath. Ambrose liked his baths, but he didn’t want one tonight. Instead he wanted his Grandpa. His Grandpa was in the kitchen, and Ambrose was going to find him.

Grandpa had a friend in the kitchen.

Grandpa’s friend floated and carried a bit stick with a pointing thing on.

And then Grandpa was gone.

David Jacobs lived to be 78 years of age. During his life he opened – and ultimately had to close – two different business which were popular for the duration of their run. He was responsible for the Jacobs family quickly accumulating more funds than they could ever possibly spend.

He married Melissa Fancey but eventually they went their separate ways as it became clear Melissa was not cut out for family life. Before she left, however, they had 3 children together, and through those children had six grandchildren.

David, you will be missed.

As Ambrose sat on the floor sucking his fist, he wondered why Mummy and Daddy were crying. Grandpa had just done magic! Magic was good! So why cry?

He couldn’t understand it. Though Grandpa was taking a long time to come out of the shiny box.

Ambrose got up and walked toward the shiny box. He didn’t know how Grandpa fit in there. Ambrose was too big to fit in there! Grandpa definitely was. You might fit the baby in though.

Ambrose examined the shiny box. Okay probably not.

His parents had gone off to their bedroom, probably to make each other happy. Last time they did that Mummy had told him she had a baby in her belly. He wondered if it would happen again.

Ambrose sat down next to the box. Grandpa would have to come out soon, and he wanted to be there when he did.

In contrast to the mournful events in the Jacobs, across the road in the Stanton house something joyous was about to happen: the twins were growing up and out of nappies at long last!

“Who’s going to be a big girl then?” Ally asked, laughing happily – no more nappies! She and James were so eager to get this part of the twins’ life finally over and done with that he’d told her to go ahead and grow them up before he got home from work.

“Me! Me!” Lorelai laughed, bouncing up and down. “Me grow big! Now!”

“All right,” Ally grinned and swept up her daughter into her arms. “Let’s take you to your cake now.”

“Cake!”

Ally carried Lorelai into the kitchen, over to the cake.

“Ready, baby girl?”

“Cake! Fire!” Lorelai exclaimed gleefully. She squirmed in Ally’s arms, leaning forwards. “Get big now!”

“Okay, okay! Make a wish, Lore!”

Ally leaned in with Lorelai, Lorelai struggled to blow out the candles. Discreetly Ally leaned in and blew out the remaining few.

Lorelai was placed down on the floor as soon as the last candle went out. To start with she sat there, wondering what was going to happen. Then a tingling started, spreading from the very tips of her toes all the way up her body right to the tip of her nose.

And then she exploded.

As Lorelai landed and looked down her new bigger body. She still had hands and everything! But – ew. She wrinkled her nose. A green dress? She hated green!

“I’ll be right back, Mum!” she said quickly, running off upstairs. “I’ve got to get changed!”

“But what about your brother?”

“I won’t be long!”

Shaking her head, Ally walked back into the nursery and picked up Luke.

“Hey, little man,” Ally said. “Let’s get you to the kitchen. Lorelai should be done soon.”

“Lore busy?” Luke asked. “What doing?”

“Oh, getting changed,” Ally replied. She sighed and shook her head. “Come on, Luke. Let’s go blow out your candles.”

Upstairs as Ally was collecting Luke, Lorelai was perfecting her look. She’d found her room easily enough, and in the wardrobe back bee the cutest clothes! All in pink, not like that icky green dress. She pulled them on, then quickly restyled her hair, shaking out her curls until they rested on her shoulders.

She nodded at her reflection. Yes, that would do quite nicely!

Lorelai ran straight back downstairs to the kitchen. She got in just in time. Ally was at the cake with Luke. She glanced over at her daughter and smiled.

“You look lovely, darling,” Ally told her.

“Thank you, Mama,” Lorelai replied, beaming. “Can we have cake now?”

“Just wait for your brother.”

Growing up Luke didn’t take long – in fact he was getting impatient. While his mother was talking to Lorelai Luke leaned forwards and blew out the candles – all by himself. As soon as he was grown Luke grabbed a slice of his cake and hurried to eat it at the table.

“I can’t believe you haven’t changed out of your transition clothes,” Lorelai told him as she sat down beside him, her nose wrinkled in disgust. “They’re all – green.”

“I like green.”

“You’re weird – and you haven’t sorted out your hair either!”

“I can do it in a minute,” said Luke, shrugging his shoulders and taking one huge bit out of his cake. “It’s not like there’s anyone here to see us but Mum and that guy she works with.”

“I can see you,” Lorelai sniffed, but she could see she wasn’t going to persuade him any time soon. “You’re going to change soon, right? You won’t just go to school like that in the morning?”

“Yeah, I’ll change.” Luke sighed, rolling his eyes. His sister hadn’t been this annoying before their transition! “But first, cake!”

Lorelai looked at him, giving him the most inscrutable of looks. Then she nodded her head.

“I guess cake is pretty important,” she conceded, then gave him a look of disgust as he took another huge bite out of the cake. Brothers!

Ten minutes later Lorelai hesitated outside Luke’s door. It hadn’t taken long for him to finish his cake, but Lorelai had taken her time. She hadn’t wanted to spill anything on her clothes. She’d succeeded, but now she was curious – what clothes had her brother chosen? Had he actually fixed his hair? And what was his room like?

After a moment she raised her hand and knocked. She waited a moment then –

“Come in!”

Walking inside, the first thing Lorelai noticed was that Luke’s room was very blue whereas hers was pink. She was relieved to see her brother had changed, though his hair was a mess and he was wear – she scrunched up her nose again – green. At least it was better than what he’d transitioned into.

“Mind if I play too?” she asked, stepping inside. Luke glanced over his shoulder. He nodded.

She began searching through her brothers toy box. It was full of boy’s toys! Which she supposed made sense, but still. There had to be something she could play with – ahah!

Pulling out a boat – that, at least, she could do something with – Lorelai sat down next to her twin. The two of them played for a little while, Lorelai sneaking glances at him every so often.

“What do you think school’s going to be like?” she asked him as she raced the boat across the floor: they had to hurry or they would be late for the ball!

“I dunno, probably really boring. Mum said Dad’s going to try and get us into private school tomorrow. He think’s we’re a shoe in!” Luke grinned broadly at her, and Lorelai had to smile back. After a moment Luke frowned. “What’s the shoe going in?”

“I think it’s just something adults say,” Lorelai replied, trying to sound wise. She thought she did quite well.

“Adults say some stupid things,” Luke said firmly, nodding his head seriously. He looked at the rocket in his hand, then made blasting off noises as he raised his hand quickly. “I’m going to the moon! You wanna come?”

Lorelai glanced down at the boat, then back to her brother. She nodded – well, the boat could always be a spaceship, right?

Over the next couple of months the four main legacy households settled into a routine around the children, whether they be infant, toddler or child. It was a simple but uneventful routine as the children of the main lines skilled and studied in preparation for their futures, the only vaguely interesting thing to happen was Lydie finally had her cast removed. It was a wonderful little bubble that unfortunately didn’t extent to their extended families who were dealing with something new: large numbers of teens bringing waves of hormones and chaos.

For everyone time sped by, for the extended family because everything was far too chaotic for anyone to stop and think for more than a minute at a time, and for the main lines because of the ordered routines they had all put into place.

It was almost two months to the day when Ross felt a chill settle over his old bones as he went to pay the bills. Sighing, Ross headed outside to go send off the bills, hoping he had enough time left to do that. He’d known this day was coming soon, he’d said as much that afternoon, but he wasn’t quite expecting it to be this quick.

Ross managed to get outside before he felt Grim appear not too far away. Sighing, he placed the bills on the ground and turned. He’d lived a good and fulfilling life, and that was all he could have done.

Moments later Ross was gone. The Reaper looked at Ross’s grave for a moment before turning and fading away.

Ross Merton lived to be 78 years of age, dying perma-plat. He left behind a beautiful wife, five children and 13 grandchildren. He became Education Minister, maxed all his skills, get abducted by aliens twice and struggled to find himself a wife until Kaylynn walked by.

Ross was also the last of the four founders to die. Although three of the co-founders remain the hood just won’t be the same without him anymore. His death truly marks the beginning of the end of the first generation.

While everyone grieves in their own way, the reactions of the Merton household were fairly uniform. Kaylynn cried for her husband.

Amelia cried for her father.

The girls all cried for their grandfather.

And Ichelle… Ichelle didn’t cry. It wasn’t that she didn’t miss her father-in-law – the pair of them had gotten along famously. It wasn’t that she wasn’t mourning his passing. No, it was that her method of dealing with loss meant helping others get over theirs. She found it helped, especially when she say the smiles on their faces.

And that’s it! The chapter’s shorter than I would have liked but there’s not much I could do about it. My hood has gotten corrupted and I need to rebuild. I hate rebuilding! Unfortunately I don’t have much choice in the matter: it’s rebuild or start over and I’m not losing these guys!

So for now I’ll leave you with a picture of Harry being cute and purple. Here’s hoping it won’t take too long to do the rebuild! Until then, goodbye!