Romance was in the air when everyone returned from seeing Ada off. Charles and Veronica didn’t have many occasions to dress to the nines, and they liked what they saw.

“Eww,” Forest remarked. “Isn’t is supposed to damage our young minds to watch our parents being gross on each other?”

“I didn’t read that child psychology book,” Veronica said with a chuckle. “But I suppose we can help your delicate mind by going to our own room.”

Charles glanced over at the dining table, where Sky was sitting alone, arms crossed, staring down. “I’ll be right up,” he said. “I’m going to grab a slice of cake first.”

He tapped his daughter on the shoulder, warm ectoplasm touching same. “I’ll cut you a slice too.”

“Check this out,” Forest told Hunter. “It’s awesome. Dad just taught me how to play. I didn’t know he ever engaged in any exercise of the mind.”

“Ok…” Hunter said warily. “It looks really complicated.”

“It is,” Forest said. “That’s the beauty of it. “All the pieces do something different, and you have to line up a bunch of moves and counter-moves in your head.”

“You’ll trounce me,” Hunter said. “I know you’re a lot smarter.”

“It’s Ok,” Forest said. “Sure I well, but you can still think of it as a learning experience.”

“You know what’s the most awesome about this game?” Forest continued as he showed Hunter the complex moves the pieces were supposed to make. “It’s a little model of society. You have pawns that can’t do much, and their job is to be sacrificed to save the leader. Then it’s the leader’s job to get all the most powerful pieces working together to protect him from the powerful pieces on the other side that want to destroy him. It’s just like life.”

“Hmmm,” Hunter said. “I guess that’s like some people’s lives.”

Forest immediately took his queen.

Charles sat down with Sky for an evening snack. “So,” he said quietly, “What’s with the face?”

“You have Mom. Forest and Hunter have each other. Great Aunt Shanni and Great Uncle Adjo are close. Everyone was so eager to see each other at the wedding. Except me. Nobody’s ever eager to see me.”

“Wait,” Charles said. “I’m eager to see you every day.”

“You’re supposed to say that,” Sky pointed out. “You’re my dad.”

“You know, we’re fish of the same color,” Charles said. “I’m a ghost man, same as you. I know it’s hard.”

“You’re like a Sim-Fu god. Everyone respects you. You don’t have to go to school where everyone keeps their distance because you’re so creepy.”

Charles remembered back on his childhood, where people didn’t keep their distance because they almost never saw him. At the time, he’d have given anything just to be more than a shadow. But he couldn’t say anything like that. It would come out as, “You think you have it hard? When I was your age….”

So he just said, “It will get better. It doesn’t seem like it, but trust me.”

She forced a smile. “Thanks for trying anyway. Here, let me clean up.”

“Good grief, Sky!” Charles said. “That is NOT cleaning!”

———-

Not much to this one, but it was a little bit of character activity right after the wedding with everyone in their formals, and it didn’t seem appropriate to let this stuff steal Ada’s thunder.

I’m going to start trying to pick up the pace here. I’m at a point where I want to do an heir vote, and I want everyone to meet Generation 5 as teens before I post one. Plus, it’s high time everyone got to see Avalon and hear what’s going on with your cross-pollination sims.

It’s HARD for me to pick up the pace, though. I seem to have a psychological block against leaving out anything interesting. I have sorted the pictures for the rest of the posts I’m planning to do in Sunset Valley, and it looks like there are five more after this one — that’s including a montage post that includes several episodes I’d expected to post separately. Heh. I’ll see how fast I can put text to them and get them out.

Also, following my strategy of buying expansions from Amazon Download when they go on deep discount after the release of ANOTHER expansion, I now have Showtime. Nobody in Gen 5 will probably have much to do with it, since those characters are essentially complete, I’m not clear how many special lot spaces I’ll need in my almost built-out Avalon to be able to do much with it. We’ll see :).

Charles called on Aunt Shanni as soon as he could get away the next day. He dropped by the Crumplebottom Estate, but Jeanette reported that her mom was at work. Charles dropped by to find her at closing time.

Shanni’s eyes looked empty as he hurried up to her. He suddenly found himself unsure of what to say.

“I didn’t expect you to be here,” he said awkwardly. “You don’t need the money. Why don’t you take some time to heal?”

“I’m trying,” Shanni said. Her voice was raw. “It’s just–” She brushed a tear out of her eye almost angrily. “It’s just that work reminds me of Agnes a lot less that home does.”

“I’m sorry. You can stay with us for a few days if you need to. You should’t be alone at a time like this.”

Shanni smiled wanly. “I’m not alone. The kids have been wonderful. Especially Jeanette. She’s growing up to be an amazing young woman.”

Then a real smile played on Shanni’s lips. It makes me think of what Agnes said to me when we were getting together. “You’ll do it, and you’ll be the better for it.”

Charles smiled back. “She was usually right.”

Shanni nodded. “And I usually didn’t notice until later. You know thing she said the same day that has helped me through my entire career? ‘The line between trashy and powerful is all about style!'”

Shanni was going to be OK.

“Please come home for dinner at least. It’s the kids’ birthday. They’d love to see you.”

Shanni shook her head. “Give them my love. Jeannette and Garry are making dinner, and I think we need some family time.”

So the triplets’ birthday was a local family affair, but it was plenty happy for all that.

In order of birth, first Forest blew out the candles.

(Better picture, but without glasses:)

Then Hunter.

Then Sky.

The partying ran too late on a school night, but eventually Veronica kicked them upstairs to sleep in their newly renovated bedroom.

Tomorrow would be a long and exciting day.

The next morning, after the hustle and bustle of getting the kids off to their first day of school, Charles heard Veronica calling his name from the yard.

“Oh, Charlllles!” she called. Her voice was almost a singsong.

He found her at the gazebo, engaging in her favorite hobby.

“Hey stranger,” she said with a sly smile. “You know, I keep having this dream where we were wicked young things who used to go skinny dipping and worse at all hours of the day. You ever have that dream?”

“Once or twice,” Charles admitted.

“We did it!” Veronica chortled. “The kids are off to school. Your folks are off at work. We have the whole place to ourselves! It’s been so long I’ve almost forgotten what to do.”

“I haven’t,” Charles said. “I’d be glad to remind you.”

Veronica sank into his arms with a sigh. “It’s good to get some of our own back.”

“They’re great kids,” Charles said, “But I’m looking forward to recovering my hobbies.”

“I couldn’t have said it better myself!” Veronica exclaimed and pulled him down under the water.

——–

Patient readers, the triplets finally grew up!

After the bit with Shanni, which was actually Charles’s failed attempt to get a makeover, I completely redid the lighting at the Salon. I have no idea why nothing I did would make things light up in there. Argh. And now I don’t think there will be another reason for the Samples to go there before they move.

Come to think of it, I had that problem with the dojo when I placed it. There was a lot of lighting in there already, but none of it activated. I had to redo the lighting in there too.

By the end, pregnancy wasn’t sitting so well with Veronica anymore. She got huge. She couldn’t sleep. She had to eat in tiny snacks and spent half her days in the bathroom.

“Please,” she moaned to Charles in a fit of weakness, “just bring back the morning sickness. That part was grand.”

Charles was beside himself trying to be supportive. He massaged her shoulders, fetched her breakfast in bed, and hovered around until she kicked him out of the house to get some space.

“At least try to do something comfortable for yourself,” he said almost pleadingly. “You don’t have to suck it up. Take a day at the spa or something.”

Veronica thought about it. “All right, I will.” She pulled 1000 simoleons out of their joint bank account and bought herself a day of the royal treatment.

And, she had to admit, it worked. She left the spa feeling like a million bucks even with indigestion and a baby stomping on her bladder.

In fact, she felt so great that when she got home and found that Fabian had broken the shower before leaving for work and just left it that way, she had to do something about it.

Didn’t that make a perfect moment for the baby to come?

Charles was at the dojo. She called him on her cell phone, lay out plastic on the seat of her car, and drove herself to the hospital. She could have waited for Charles to teleport home and drive her, but the thought didn’t occur in the haze of contractions.

Charles was there with her by the time she got to the hospital, though, and he never left her side through the long labor.

“AAAAAUGH! Well, THAT was the hardest thing I have done in my entire life!”

It’s a boy! Forest Sample was born at 6:29 AM.

“No! Not again! There can’t be another one in there!”

And another boy! Hunter Sample was born at 6:33 AM.

“YOU! YOU DID THIS TO ME! You have some kind of twisted occult ghost fertility!”

And a girl! Sky Sample was born at 6:37 AM.

Babies are all doing fine.

Mother is doing fine, but it may be a while before she speaks to the father.

When it became clear just how much bigger their bundle of joy was going to be than they expected, Charles called his mother in a panic.

By the time they made it home from the hospital, Zahra and Fabian had turned Lance and Layla’s old room into a fine triplet-sized nursery.

This really was going to take a village.

Charles had spent Veronica’s entire pregnancy worrying about what he would do if his child turned out to be like him. When Forest and Hunter were born with totally normal, squalling, mocha-skinned faces, he was delighted.

But the third child, Sky, realized his fears. Life has a half-ghost, an “occult” according the newspaper, had been no easy road for Charles. How could he wish that on his only daughter?

When he looked back on his isolated, lonely life, though, he had trouble convincing himself that it had been either isolated or lonely. Even beyond his supportive family was Jabari, Zhan Wu, and now dozens of students who looked to him as a Sim Fu master.

There was no use trying to fight Sky’s battles before he even knew what they were.

Veronica fed little Forest and lay him gently in his crib. For a brief moment, all three babies were sleeping.

She drew Charles into her arms. “I’m sorry for being a monster,” she said.

He relaxed against her. “Childbirth is monstrous,” he said. “I’m sorry you had to do it alone.”

“Our children are beautiful,” she said. “I love you with all my heart.”

“And I you,” he replied huskily.

“I also want you to know that I’m calling the doctor tomorrow and getting my tubes tied. If you want any more kids, you can goddamn have them yourself.”

———-

Surprise three times over! Gotta get posts out while I have the time. Plus I know all you really want to do is see the babies 🙂 🙂 :).

In case you didn’t catch it, the naming theme is nature words. What else would an eco-hippie name his kids? (Sure, Veronica named them too, but Charles is still the patron dangit.)

The multiples thing wasn’t an accident. I gave Charles Fertility Treatment, and I managed to get enough Happiness Points to give it to Veronica too by their wedding night. In Gen 2, I had given just Layla Fertility Treatment, and she didn’t get twins until her second pregnancy. I wasn’t sure what the probability of multiples was, and I didn’t want to take any chances. Once the honeymoon vacation and maternity leave were up, Veronica was going to be a full adult before she even got to start her new job as a Ghost Hunter, and she has a career LTW. I didn’t want her to take the career hit for multiple pregnancies and run the risk of not making her wish.

And I knew triplets were a possibility, but I thought, “Hey great! Three’s a charm!”

I had no idea how hard it would be to skill three toddlers before their child birthday. The whole five-adult household has been skilling in shifts and dropping almost all their personal wishes for the whole life stage, and it still will be a near thing. Charles and Veronica spent about a week with an unfulfilled wish to Woohoo sitting in their queues. Ah, that is perhaps too close to what new parenthood is really like :).

Veronica got a wish to spend 1000 simoleons at the spa, and she got a huge mood bonus for a WEEK! Don’t say the spa never did anything for you. It got her through a whole lot of the grind of starting a new job and endless endless toddler skilling.

Oh, and sorry about the crappy unfinished state of the nursery. The house had routing problems in that room, and I had to restructure the wall just a little bit. I THOUGHT I had repainted everything properly in the inside, but man was I wrong! And the roof doesn’t even connect property to the half wall! I’d’ve paused everything and gone into Build Mode to fix it, but I’d already had to reload twice at that point and just want to save and GET OUT.

I’m not entirely sure what I want to do with Sky. On one hand, I’m glad one kid turned out to be a ghost. OTOH, Charles’s aging is completely borked and I’m just aging him up using Twallan’s mods when Veronica has a birthday because they are exactly the same age. Cyclone got so borked that I had to annihilate him. It just seems like there are real game issues with playable ghosts, and I’m not sure I want to risk it again. I have been boosting Charles’s fishing and Fabian’s cooking with the thought of feeding her ambrosia before her YA birthday. She can still be a ghost child for story purposes, but unless I can find some fix for the aging trouble, I think enough ghosts is enough for one game.

(Oh, and I have to say that I thought Veronica’s game-generated maternity wear was adorable. It’s the first time I think I’ve liked any of the maternity wear.)