The Four Legacies - The Mertons. Chapter 1
Hey everyone. Welcome to Chapter 1 of The Four Legacies. You might want to read the prologue first since it may well explain a couple of things. If you can’t be bothered or have and can’t remember then the basic run down is that 4 friends from Belladonna Cove decided that they want to start a legacy apiece.
You’ll probably want to read the other 3 Chapter 1s as well. Yes, that’s right, the 3 other Chapter 1s. There’s one for each founder. This one focusses on Ross Merton, who, if you couldn’t tell, is the hippy of the group.
“So you see those stars there?” Ross said, pointing to the sky. The red headed woman beside him, Kaylynn, looked up at where he was pointing, her eyes wide and a huge grin on her face.
“Yeah? The ones that look like a pan?”
“Yeah, them,” Ross grinned. “They’re called the Big Dipper and-“
“That one over there?” he pointed to another constellation. “That’s Orion.”
Kaylynn squinted up at the sky then shook her head.
“Don’t see it,” she said, then relaxed against him. Ross smiled.
“It’s there,” he assured her. “It really is.”
“I’m sure it is,” Kaylynn responded, just staring straight up at the sky. The two of them lay in silence for a moment, then Ross spoke again.
“You know, I’m really glad I found you.”
“Oh?” Kaylynn raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah. I think I was about to give up completely and go get acquainted with a telescope.”
Kaylynn grinned.
“That’d be interesting.”
“Yeah,” Ross smiled. “It would be.”
“So was it really that bad?” Kaylynn asked.
Ross stared up at the sky, a slight smile on his face.
“Well, it was all right, I guess. It wasn’t too terrible, but it was kinda dull.”
“So what happened before we met? You know, after you moved here?”
“Nothing much,” Ross shrugged.
“Oh come on, something had to have happened,” Kaylynn insisted. She waved a hand towards the sky. “You must have some story to tell me. There has to be something - like what your first job was, who were the people you met, anything at all.”
“Well...” Ross bit his bottom lip.
“Come on,” she said. “Tell me about your life here before we met.”
“Okay then,” Ross sighed. “But I’m warning you, it’s not all that interesting.”
“I don’t care,” Kaylynn grinned, looking straight into his eyes. “Just tell me.”
“Fine...”
‘Well, I didn’t have a lot when I first moved in. I was hardly able to afford a roof over my head. I mean, I know you say I have nothing at all these days, but I have a lot more now than I did then. Back then... Well I only got what I absolutely needed. You know, the sort of things that I couldn’t possibly survive without. I only have the most essential of the essentials, and -‘
‘Hang on,’ Kaylynn interrupted. ‘You told me you’ve had that chess table since you got here.’
Ross blushed.
‘Well I have, Kay,” he said, looking away from her. ‘I just - you know I’m a knowledge sim, right? Well us knowledge sims tend to have different views on what’s essential to most other sims.’
‘But... a chess table?’
Ross nodded.
‘Yeah. Just trust me on that, okay?’
‘Fine. Just get on with it.’
‘So, like I was saying, I didn’t have much. I did have a plan though. You know how expensive it can be to buy food. It’s loads more than it costs to grow them so... I bought myself a few squares of decent soil, fertilised it and then planted a few tomatoes.’
‘Tomatoes won’t save you that much money.’
‘Yeah, but when I can I’ll start growing some other crops, and I’ll start catching fish in a little while. After a while I won’t need to ever spend any money on food again.’
‘Still won’t save much.’
‘But it’ll be something, right? And we’ll need as much money as possible if we have those six kids you want.’
Kaylynn opened her mouth to respond, to refute it, but closed it again. She shook her head and smiled.
‘Carry on then.’
‘I got myself a job right off the bat. I didn’t care a whole lot about what job I got. I just didn’t want to work for one of those companies that always hurt the environment, or work for the army or a corrupt government or something’
‘I know,’ Kaylynn said, and Ross smiled.
‘I’ve told you then?’ he asked sheepishly.
‘Just a few times,’ she grinned.
‘Ah, well, I was lucky, you know. When I first opened up the paper there was a job for the military in it. I know it’s well paid and all, but it just wasn’t for me. I just couldn’t bring myself to work for anyone I considered morally wrong. So I skipped that one. Next was the chance to work for science. I’d be selling my body for medical science, basically. Good money again, and not as objectionable, but...’
‘Not for you?’
‘Yeah.’
‘So what job did you end up getting?’
‘Playground monitor,’ Ross grinned.
‘Wait, you went straight into the education career? I thought you went through a few different jobs first?’
‘Nah. Straight into education.’
‘Now work wasn’t all that interesting, you know. It was really dull and I didn’t get to do anything. After a day or two I remembered what I was around here for. Quinn had told me and the others back when we were still in Belladonna that to complete this challenge we needed a few generations of descendents. Can’t remember how many exactly, but I needed to find myself a wife to actually do that.’
‘Is that the only reason you want one then?’ asked Kaylynn, and Ross could hear the disapproval in her voice.
‘Nah, the company’s good too,’ he grinned at her. She smiled back. ‘So I decided to head downtown one day after work. Maybe I’d get lucky while I was there and find someone who’d catch my eye.’
‘And did you?’
‘What do you think?’ he responded with a grin.
‘Well, I did meet some interesting women while I was there.’
‘Oh?’
‘Yeah,’ Ross sighed. ‘I ended up going to the Crypt O’ Night first. I got out the taxi there was this fascinating women there. There was just something about her that instantly attracted me to her.’
‘I’m not sure I like the sound of that.’
‘Why? Don’t you like Christa Hunicke?’
‘Oh, you mean the witch?’
‘Yeah. Who else would I be talking about?’
‘Never mind.’‘So I talked to Christa for a little bit, then I headed inside.’
‘The women inside the Crypt O’ Night, well they were more than a bit... vapid. They weren’t the sort of women that I was too interested in, They were all kinda boring, and I wanted to get away from the lot of them and never go near them ever again.’
‘So you just left?’
‘No, there was one sim there who caught my interest. I can’t remember her name now, but she knew what she was talking about. She had a brain in her head, you know what I mean? We had a nice long talk too, about chemistry of all things.’
Ross felt Kaylynn stiffen next to her. He looked at her.
‘Something wrong?’
‘No,’ Kaylynn frowned. ‘Just carry on with the story.’
‘Well I must have spent an hour talking to her, and I was really getting into it, but then... It was like I could hear this little voice in my head. It was telling me that she wasn’t the girl for me. It told me that I needed to keep away from her, that she would not be good for me. That voice sounded an awfully lot like Kate, now that I think about it.’
‘After that I didn’t really try again. If those were the best that Quaver Kanyon had to offer then I wasn’t interested in taking them up on it, you know? I just began staying home after work. I focussed on skilling and growing the tomatoes - they were growing really well, by the way.’
‘They still are,’ Kaylynn glanced over in their direction. ‘They’re really big. Must be about ready for the harvest then.’
Ross looked over at them with a smile.
‘Yeah, just about.’
‘I focussed on my job too. I was advancing pretty fast and I didn’t really have much time to do much else. Things were pretty busy and I wasn’t too interested in searching again for someone to spend the rest of my life with at this point.’
‘I was still meeting people though. They would walk by the lot and I’ go up to greet them - I mean, you never know, right?
‘But they were like the sims at the club. None of the women I walked to were particularly interesting, and if they were then there was something else about them that I couldn’t stand. Whether it be them being too enthusiastic about everything...’
‘Or in some of their cases they were just a little... weird. One sim, she was more than a little odd. She, well she made me very nervous to be around her. I just bid her farewell as soon as I could and then I kept well aware from her. She was just a little too intense for me, really.’
‘That was pretty much all I got up to to begin with. I went about my business as you do. I worked, I skilled, and tended the plants. At one point I met this really friendly dog. He was black and had these amazing glowing yellow eyes.’
‘Glowing yellow... Ross!’
‘What?’
‘That’s the leader of the pack! If you’re not careful then he’ll bite you! You’ll get turned into a werewolf!’
‘Really?’ Ross looked at Kaylynn quizzically, his head tilted to the side. Kaylynn nodded. ‘Cool! I wonder if he’ll come around here again anytime soon? Maybe I could get him to bite me!’
‘Ross!’
‘Fine, fine. I won’t deliberately get turned into a werewolf. Happy?’
‘Very.’
‘Things just got busier from then on and I didn’t have much chance to even greet anyone who walked by my lot. Then one day it happened. I climbed out of the carpool for one last time and there were two people on my lot. There was this old woman with her hair done up high on her head playing chess, and this other woman, this stunning, gorgeous - radiant looking woman.
‘She had her red hair tied up tight on the top of her, and these dark blue eyes that I just fell into I...”
‘Me and this woman, we got to know each other so well. We talked and talked, and within a an hour we were dating. We laughed and joked...’
‘We flirted too. I gave her backrubs and she gave me them too.’
‘We kissed and made out and generally just enjoyed ourselves. She was the love of my life. I couldn’t do without her. I didn’t want to.’
Ross sat up a little and looked at Kaylynn. She was staring up at the sky, not looking to the side, nor at him or anywhere else. He smiled.
‘Maybe you know her, Kay. Her name’s Kaylynn Spitzig. Sound familiar?’
Kaylynn was silent for a moment, and Ross wondered if he should have gone about how he’d told that story. But a moment later those thoughts were gone as his arms were full of Kaylynn as she hugged him tight.
“Did you have to tell it like that?” she asked in a quiet voice.
“Probably not. You okay?”
“Yeah,” she said, letting go slightly. “I never knew you could be so romantic.”
“Well now you do,” he said.
The two of them lay back.
“So that was everything?” Kaylynn asked after a moment.
“Yep. Everything up until I met you. You know the rest,” he replied with a shrug.
“Yeah,” she said. “I guess I do.”