The Smith Legacy: 3.0
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"Interesting," Sylvia murmured to herself as she watched the taxi approach the main Smith home. Michael, who had just finished a batch of his pancakes, came out of the kitchen and looked perplexedly between Sylvia and the television screen.
"What?" he asked, not quite getting it. "You didn't think he'd be chosen?"
Sylvia whipped around to face Michael, her lips pursed and a red eyebrow arched. "And you did?"
Michael didn't answer, but just continued staring at the television screen. Sylvia rolled her eyes and turned away from him again. "This could make things a lot easier for us," Sylvia mused, very pleased with the way things had turned out. "Yes. Yes, very interesting indeed."
In the middle of the evening, a taxi dropped off Clay Smith, his wife and his children on his parents' (and now, once again, his) house. Clay, much to his surprise, had been chosen to be the heir of the second generation of the Smith Legacy. It was an incredible honor to him, of course, and he was well on his way to making that big family that he was meant to produce. With four children under his belt and another along the way, Clay was very well along. Cassidy and the kids were also surprised by this turn of events, but it was nice to be able to go straight from the AHC House into another big house that could fit them all.
Daria and Bill, having heard the taxi arrive, came outside to investigate. They hadn't been expecting their heir to return for another few days, so it was a surprise when they spotted Clay all grown up on their front yard. It was even more of a surprise when they spotted Cassidy with her bulging belly and the other four kids looking up at them with wide eyes. The elder couple shared a look before Bill burst into chuckles and Daria just shook her head.
"I guess I won't be having to teach you about the birds and the bees, then," Daria said, a playful smirk on her lips. Clay bowed his head and smiled sheepishly, turning away from his parents in embarrassment and instead, focused his attention on Alyssa. His parents had warned all of them about how easy it was to get knocked up or to get someone knocked up in college. Oh, if they only knew what their children had been up to...
But Daria had always been cool with the birds and the bees and she had no doubt that Clay had been as responsible as possible and that he was a great father. So with a wide smile, she picked up the youngest child and looked her right in the eyes. "Hello, little one," Daria cooed, recalling the days she held her own daughters like this. "What's your name?"
"Ara," the little toddler replied with little trouble. Daria laughed and her smile widened. Yes, she could tell Clay had done a great job as a father.
"Well, Ara, I'm Daria. But you can call me Grandma."
The other kids were just as eager and excited to meet their grandparents and the feeling was reciprocated. By the end of the night, Daria had been called "awesome," "cool," "my best friend," and "my favorite" more times than she could count. Not that she was complaining at all. It actually comforted her a lot that her grandchildren took to her so quickly. When she'd spotted them on the lawn, her first concern was having them warm up to her. She had missed quite a chunk from all of their lives and now they were being dropped off at a strange house and living with two old people they'd never met before. She wouldn't blame them if they shied away from her.
Luckily, that wasn't the case.
Bill, as usual, also stepped up to the plate and became a constant figure in his grandchildren's lives. As much as others complained about it, Bill loved being on toddler duty. He thought it was fun to teach them the necessities of life and see as they blossomed and bloomed into fully functioning, independent kids. He could even stand diaper duty for that.
All too soon, it seemed like it was time for birthdays! (Too soon for Daria and Bill, that is; everyone else in the house was pretty much sick of them.) It was time for the twins, Leya and Tyler, to age into teenagers. Daria couldn't believe that her oldest grandchildren were already at that age! It just made her feel so much older.
The birthdays called for a birthday party, and nearly every Smith was invited! It was like a huge family reunion, with Smiths of all ages coming to the main house to celebrate. After trying to fit most, if not all of her family into her house, Daria realized just how large the Smiths had become. They were much larger than a football team, for sure!
Soon it was time to blow out candles and make sweet birthday wishes! With a rather large crowd of people behind them, the twins sure felt the pressure to make good wishes.
Tyler grew into a handsome young man, rolling Fortune as his main aspiration and Romance as his secondary. His one true hobby was music and dance and Tyler's lifetime want was to become a criminal mastermind. His personality read as 10/10/2/2/10, making Tyler a Leo. He was turned on by unemployed but charismatic sims, but wasn't so into fit sims.
Leya grew up looking very exotic (and was seemingly fond of purple and pink hues--colors that accented her alien skintone very well. Her primary aspiration was Fortune--same as her younger twin's--but her secondary aspiration was Popularity. Leya's one true hobby was tinkering and her lifetime want was to become a business tycoon. Leya's personality read as 0/0/10/10/10, making her a Sagittarius. She was turned on by bejewled, athletic sims, but turned off by sims who stank.
The party had been going very well--too good, in fact, for the other people in the neighborhood who hadn't been invited to the Smith's little shin-dig. No one knows who exactly reported a noise complaint to the cops, but the police replied quickly--and it was the same policewoman who had broken up Smith parties before! Surely she was tired of ruining a good time.
The excitement didn't stop once the guests went home though! Cassidy went into labor that very night, with only Daria as her witness.
And thus, Samantha Smith was brought into this world! Yes, another girl, who looked much like her older sisters--pale skin, green eyes and black hair. Carver and Kittredge worried that the fourth generation would simply be full of clones. It was beginning to look that way--except for Leya and Tyler, of course.
Life for the Smiths was smooth and simple. All was good. Bill had finally made it to the top of his career after a long life of hard work and though he didn't show it immediately, he was very happy and proud of himself. As was the rest of his family. Bill considered retiring right then and there so that he could stay home all day and look after the smaller children, but luckily, everyone's schedules worked out so that someone would always be home. Even Leya and Tyler, who had taken up jobs as soon as they'd transitioned, weren't too busy to look after their younger siblings.
Some of the younger ones wouldn't be staying too young for too much longer though. Ara's birthday crept up on the Smiths very quickly, but the tyke was ecstatic to be growing up and getting to be a "big kid"! Clay couldn't help but be impressed by his brood--it seemed that the Smiths were just a family who had a lot of kids per generation, but he and Cassidy were both Knowledge sims and yet they'd been popping out kids like they were Family sims. Clay just stayed away from telescopes for the most part--he had the feeling that the aliens weren't done with him yet.
And so Ara grew into a cute little girl. She looked a little different from her older full-sister, Alyssa. Mainly, Ara's skintone was a shade or so darker. She looked a bit like her Aunt Olive, except with green eyes.
It was also baby Samantha's birthday that night and Daria brought her youngest (and smelliest) granddaughter to the cake.
She grew up to be quite the cutie as well, what with her braids and overalls. Yes, there was no doubt that the Smiths were full of pretty people.
Daria could feel her old age creeping up on her. She knew her days were limited and more so than Bill's. She dreaded the day she'd have to say goodbye to her precious family, but she was also happy about her life and where she'd ended up. Things couldn't have gone better for her. Before she'd married Bill, Daria had entertained thoughts of staying single and promiscuous forever--which would mean eventually dying alone. Back then, she'd been okay with a future like that, but now she knew she wouldn't have ever been able to survive like that. Now Daria was surrounded by people who loved and cared for her and she wouldn't trade her family or life for anything. These were her glory days.
Leya, much like her grandmother, took to painting and would paint her parents' portraits for the family's urn room. Leya felt weird thinking about how she had that duty, but it was an important duty and someone had to do it or nobody would be properly remembered. She had the highest creativity thus far and spent most of her time either at the piano or the easel.
However, painting wasn't Leya's only extracurricular. She also had a job as a mascot in the Athletic career. There never seemed to be an opening in the Business career, so Leya took what work experience she could get. She was aiming high for all kinds of scholarships and she planned on getting the Overachiever's one.
Back home, Ara was too young to be thinking about scholarships and college, so instead, she spent her time hanging out with her grandmother. Ara had been coddled by all the adults in the house when she'd been a toddler (because, for a while, she'd been the only toddler in the house), but she took a special liking to Daria. They'd eat breakfast in their pajamas together, sometimes in the family room at the bar, separate from the rest of the family. Ara didn't have any friends in the neighborhood to hang out with who were her age just yet, so Daria was more than content to spend her free time with her granddaughter.
Of course, everyone in the house loved family time. Clay tried to get everyone together as often as he could. It amazed him that after growing up in this house, it was now he and Cassidy who were able to sit at the ends of the table. They were the heads of the family--the ever-growing Smith clan--and it still hadn't fully sunk in.
Clay hadn't really been able to enjoy the role of father while he'd been in college, but now that he'd graduated and was living in a home all his own with a secure job and with Cassidy by his side, he was really able to be a good dad for his kids. The kids couldn't have been happier. Although they'd loved growing up in the always hectic AHC House, living in the Main House was even better. Besides, it meant they could play Don't Wake the Llama whenever they wanted!
Leya also made a great older sister. In her free time, she loved to look after her curious little sisters--especially Samantha, since she was the youngest! Leya really didn't mind babysitting. She actually really quite liked it. Not only was she able to get close with her younger siblings, but she got to take a little bit of stress and work off of her parents' hands. Leya loved to help out when she could.
So did Tyler, for that matter. Whenever there was a household chore to be done, Tyler was on it. It didn't matter what time of the day it was. He acted more like a Servo than his great-grandmother did! Carver and Kittredge were certainly impressed by this. Leya and Tyler were the most obedient children they'd seen in a while and they autonomously helped others. The scientists were convinced it was all to do with their alien genetics and kept a close on the twins.
But nothing unusual seemed to be going on in the Smith household. Bill and Daria remained almost sickeningly romantic (as did Clay and Cassidy), the family was closer than ever...
...and of course, there were birthdays. Now, this one's a double birthday! It was both Alyssa and Samantha's birthdays.
Samantha grew into a very cute little girl who, like most of her sisters, looked more like her mother than her dad. She also seemed to develop a rather old-time fashion, but it suited her very much.
Alyssa blossomed into a beautiful young woman herself, and chose Pleasure as her main aspiration, with Popularity as her secondary. Her one true hobby was fitness and her lifetime want was to have fifty first dates--something she'd definitely have to start working on immediately if she expected to achieve it. Alyssa's personality read 5/9/3/6/4, making her a Leo. She was turned on by sims with glasses and grey hair (also known as, the older folk), but turned off by athletic sims.
Cassidy, much to her (and Clay's) surprise, turned out to be pregnant once more! The couple realized they'd have to expand on the second floor if they expected to house all their kids under the same roof. That wouldn't be much of a problem though. The Smiths currently had more money than they knew what to do with and with everyone of working age with a job, the money just kept on coming in.
Leya was very supportive of Cassidy during her pregnancy. Cassidy had initially worried that neither Leya nor Tyler would like her, seeing as she wasn't their mother and she also worried that having kids of her own would further ostracize the alien twins from the rest of the family, but things were quite the opposite. Leya and Tyler accepted their siblings as if they were all full siblings and Leya even expressed to Cassidy that she felt as if Cassidy were her mother. It was one of the most touching sentiments Cassidy had ever heard.
But Cassidy would definitely need that support. Her pregnancies had all been pretty hard on her and it wasn't surprising--it was the first time a full mortal had carried a Smith's baby in the family lineage. Before this, women from the direct Smith line who carried the robotic gene had been the child bearers. It was easy for them to carry children. But now it was Clay's superhuman baby that Cassidy was carrying--it was more than a little taxing on the female. Still, she had more than enough experience and with great care, she would have little to no problems with the pregnancy.
Samantha could do with a lesson or two on great care. She almost always forgot about her muffins and never reached her Easy Bake oven on time. She wanted to be a good cook someday, but maybe she needed to keep her nose in some books a little more before she tried experimenting with actual food.
Seasons had come to Eden at last! The main house was the first to be blessed with a blanket of snow and boy, were the kids happy about that. Everyone was fascinated by the white stuff falling from the sky. So much of it fell and stuck, in fact, that the next morning, the kids had a snow day. Even though they'd never seen snow before, they knew that if something was able to cancel school, it had to be good.
Leya seemed to have no qualms about swimming and wandering around the house in no more than her bathing suit. Carver and Kittredge wondered if she was unaffected by cold temperatures or if she was just insane.
Inside, Bill and Samantha stayed warm and cuddly by spending some time together.
Tyler and Leya spent some time together themselves, and their little sister Ara stayed up quite late (and definitely past her bedtime) to play with them, but she couldn't keep up with their twin games. Tyler and Leya, despite how close they were to the rest of their family, definitely shared a bond that was unlike any other bond either of them had with anyone else. Ara eventually quit trying to play with them and went to bed.
That left Leya and Tyler alone to play with themselves, nothing either of them minded. They were best friends and as thick as thieves; they loved each others' company.
They decided to take their fun and games outside so they wouldn't wake any of their sleeping family. Luckily, the snow from days before had melted and it wasn't too cold out. It was late--very late and certainly into the hours of the wee, early morning. The two were engaging in a friendly but aggressive game of catch when...
Tyler meant to scream, but no sound came out. He wouldn't have been quick enough to alert his twin anyway. Tyler watched in horror as a dark-cloaked and masked figure sneaked up behind his sister and proceeded to knock her out. Tyler gasped and opened his mouth to call for help...
...but it was too late for him too.
Everything faded to black.
The next morning, Clay and Cassidy knew something was off without either saying anything. When neither Leya nor Tyler showed up for breakfast or rose from their room at all, the couple knew what was wrong. To confirm it, Clay checked the twins' room. It was empty. Clay had to go to work so he told Cassidy not to worry as he left. He assured her that things would be sorted out when he got home.
But Clay's words couldn't soothe Cassidy's worries alone. Tyler and Leya were like her own children and now they were missing. Unlike Clay, she couldn't go off to work to ease her mind since she was on maternity leave and besides the pregnancy, Cassidy didn't have many other distractions. She knew she was going to be fretting about the twins' whereabouts all day.
In fact, Cassidy was so worried that she rushed over to the telescope, wondering if she could find any trace of Tyler or Leya in the stars. Of course, it was morning and all Cassidy saw were some disturbing images of her neighbors that would possibly scar her for life, but she still worried that the twins' other father had returned to take his children back to their home land or whatever. If that was the case, Cassidy wished he'd at least left a note.
Cassidy tried not to freak out too much in front of her other kids, who still had to go off to school. Ara, who had hung out with the twins right before their disappearance, was the most curious about where they were, but Cassidy just insisted that she not worry about it. Cassidy had briefly contemplated keeping the other kids home from school that day, just to make sure somebody didn't kidnap them too. That was one step in the direction of paranoid though, and she didn't want to go there.
Bill and Daria were also aware of their grandchildren's disappearance, but took to dealing with it in different ways. They didn't know what else they could've done.
Cassidy made frantic calls to the local police station trying to get someone--anyone--to help. All she got were apathetic apologies and statements that it was too early to call in for a missing persons search. Each time she called, Cassidy hung up in frustration until Daria confiscated the phone from her, concerned that she unnecessarily stressing herself (and the baby) out. But Cassidy didn't know what else to do. Tyler and Leya were gone. She didn't just want to sit on her butt and do nothing!
But that's what ended up happening. Days passed and no one heard from the police or the twins. No one heard anything. The Smiths called around to other Smiths, asking for everyone to keep a look out, for everyone to call if they heard anything. Even Ava (who had recently divorced Trent) was willing to reunite with her ex-husband to find the children. But nothing popped up. It started to affect the other kids. Their cousins visited less. Samantha and Ara turned to their dollhouse, making up scenarios in which Leya and Tyler returned or were never gone. No one knew what could've happened to them.
Cassidy popped again and she knew the baby would be coming soon. She just hoped that they found Tyler and Leya before that time.
All of the stress and worrying on top of her already difficult pregnancy was really taking a toll on poor Cassidy. She barely had any energy and found herself collapsing into her dinner plates quite often. Clay insisted that she take it easy for her sake, but Cassidy was too worried about the twins and her other children. What if someone out there was after their family? Cassidy knew she was being paranoid, but she couldn't help but think of these things.
And someone out there was after her family. Just not for the reasons she thought...
Leya (or ALIEN-F-001 as she was in their records).
Tyler (or ALIEN-M-002 as he was in their records).
Blood had been taken and tests had been done. Normal mental activity had been monitored. Vital signs had been taken. Everything about them had been noted, from the natural dilation of their pupils to the specific pigment of their skin. No detail was too small. No detail was overlooked. Carver and Kittredge were dealing with aliens--robotic aliens--and this was big stuff. Bigger than either of them fully understood, Sylvia Kittredge was sure.
Neither scientist was an expert on alien activity, but after working in Strangetown for so long, they had picked up on a couple of things. They knew aliens skilled faster and were inherently more intelligent than normal sims. Perhaps their communication skills were more advanced or simply different. However, both scientists were experts when it came to robots. They could easily tell you how the twins differed from everyone else in their family, but they didn't want something to present for show and tell. They wanted something they could use in their experiments. They wanted something even more superhuman. And so, the scientists tested the twins on just about everything they could think of.
The twins were sedated at first, but they'd only been given a dosage to calm them down for a max of eight hours. Maybe it worked differently on them--it was a possibility. The sedative was designed for regular sims. Leya and Tyler Smith were anything but regular sims. The greenish-blue creatures seemed comfortable in the home of their captors. In fact, unless directly addressed, they didn't even seem to notice Kittredge or Carver. They conversed solely with one another and seemed happy to do so.
Carver mainly administered the tests--it was Kittredge who took notes. Careful, heavily detailed notes, written in mostly her own original shorthand. Kittredge knew they'd have to return the twins to the main Smith house before their disappearance got too suspicious, so she made sure she took note of everything she could think of. She compared the twins to each other, she compared them to other aliens and most importantly, compared them to the rest of their family. Kittredge couldn't help but be proud of her work; she was doing research on subjects the scientists back in Strangetown would probably kill to have their filthy hands on.
Back at the main Smith house, life went on as normally as it could without the twins. Alyssa, now a teenager, was well on her way to discovering boys and found a particular interest in Marvin Smith, her first cousin once removed. You see, Marvin here is Abigail Smith's son, making him Alyssa's grandmother's nephew (or, more simply, her dad's cousin). Now, neither Marvin nor Alyssa knew each other before they met at school and well, they had such terrific chemistry that I just let it be...
However, things progressed quickly between the two, and before anyone could even blink or ask who the new boy was, Alyssa had him upstairs and undressed in the hot tub. Who would've thought that a sweet little thing like Alyssa could be so raunchy?
While Alyssa focused on her first teen romance, Cassidy was in the midst of a mental breakdown. With the twins missing and her pregnancy being much harder than she'd expected it'd be, it was only a matter of time. Cassidy dipped low into aspiration failure, but luckily, the Sim Shrink arrived just in time to save her from insanity. But just barely.
Once she got back on her feet though, it was right into more madness! In the midst of all this panic and worry, Cassidy went into labor again! It felt so surreal--she couldn't believe Tyler and Leya would be missing the birth of one of their little siblings. Well, it wasn't as if Cassidy could hold the baby back from coming.
Cassidy gave birth to another lovely little girl, whom she named Roxie. Roxie had the same coloring as pretty much every single last one of her older sisters. Cassidy was just glad her pregnancy was over. Perhaps Roxie would be the last one for her and Clay.
Soon after giving birth to Roxie and making sure her baby girl was settled and fed, Cassidy went right back to the telescope. She wasn't going to be complacent like the rest of the family. She was still seriously worried about Tyler and Leya. They might've been teenagers, but they'd been gone for too long and Cassidy didn't think them capable of taking care of themselves for that long just yet.
But she'd apparently been wrong. The twins gave the family the shock of their lives when Cassidy found them casually playing pool in the family room as if they'd never left. When everyone started freaking out about their sudden reappearance, the twins seemed confused. Cassidy and Clay immediately started grilling them about their recent whereabouts, but neither Tyler nor Leya seemed to realize that they'd been missing for days. The adults in the house were more than puzzled, but they chose to drop the subject for right then...
...because it was birthday time! Ara was finally approaching teenagedom and she couldn't have been more excited about it. Now that the twins were back, she could spend even more time with them and maybe she'd understand them more as a fellow teenager! She sure hoped so. Leya and Tyler definitely cheered the loudest at Ara's party--probably to make up for the time they'd lost.
In fact, the twins spent most of the party catching up with the rest of their family. After some talking, they quickly realized that they had disappeared, but neither of them remembered the event nor could they remember anything about where they'd been. Since neither twin seemed particularly worried about what happened to them (and since they both seemed to be perfectly fine and unchanged), Cassidy and Clay let the issue slide. The couple was obviously still worried about what could've happened to their children, but until they had more of a lead, they couldn't do much of anything.
(On another note, Ara aged beautifully and chose Romance as her main aspiration, with Grilled Cheese as her secondary. Her one true hobby was nature and she had the lifetime want to have twenty simultaneous lovers. Ara's personality read 2/9/3/7/4, making her a Libra. She was turned on by sims in swimwear and hats, but turned off by fit sims.)
More and more each day, Daria could feel her age creeping up on her. She didn't dare mention it to anybody in her family--not even Bill. She didn't want to cause any worry or anxiety, especially not after what happened with the twins. Daria was prepared to go though. She had truly lived her life to the fullest and now that Leya and Tyler were back, her life was once again complete and she was more than content with the end result. It'd be sad to go, but it had to be done.
The littler kids who were yet too young to be thinking of death spent their days (and in Samantha's case, nights) playing in the pool or with their toys. They were a little spoiled and they knew it, but they were good kids too. Clay and Cassidy were just proud that all their kids were straight A students and besides some questionable choices in romantic partners, none of them had ever done anything truly bad.
Tyler was more than happy to return to work. His boss had also wondered about his whereabouts, but Tyler told him the same thing he told his family: he had no idea what happened, but he felt fine. Perhaps Tyler really did a great job at work that day or maybe his boss just felt sympathetic, but whatever it was, Tyler came home with a promotion! He was now at the top level of his job--just like his sister.
Said sister was inside the house, cradling their youngest sister, little Roxie, as she prepared to transition into toddlerhood. Despite not being a Family sim, Leya really loved to look after her little sisters and she could imagine being a mother one day. She'd heard about her great-aunt Bailey marrying an alien girl, so she hoped it wouldn't be too hard for her to find love either.
The Smiths had thrown a party for Roxie's birthday and of course, within hours, there was a noise complaint and that female cop showed up to once again end the festivities. The Smiths were really beginning to wonder what bitter neighbor continued to call the cops time after time.
Despite her party being broken up, Roxie still grew into a cheerful and very cute toddler.
However, the next day, there wasn't much cheer to be found throughout the house.
Daria's passing was a heartbreaking affair. Everyone in the house was torn up about it. She'd easily been the favorite in the house--there was hardly a soul that Daria didn't get along with. She would be dearly missed.
But, as seems to be typical in the Smith house, with every death, there is a birth! Cassidy found herself pregnant again! Counting Leya and Tyler, Clay had six children already. This was the fifth one that Cassidy would be carrying for him. She didn't know how many more she could go through, but she hoped this pregnancy would be easier than the last.
Bill, ever the Romance sim, tried to overcome his grief over the passing of his wife by macking on another female--his longtime friend, Stephanie Mott. However, their chemistry was weak and Bill wasn't very into it. His thoughts kept drifting to Daria. The couple didn't get very far in their pursuits.
Downstairs, other couples were blooming. Tyler had taken none other than the notoriously mean Melody Tinker home from school and the two hit it off. Tyler got his first kiss from Melody that night and he was about to ask her to go steady with him when she claimed that she needed to leave. His sisters certainly didn't approve of Melody--they spent the entire night either distracting Tyler or picking fights with Melody.
Well, everyone except Ara, that is. She was too busy striking up her own romance with the very handsome, but also very much older than her Silas Mott. Maybe there is something in the cards for these two? Only time will tell.
Barely twenty-four hours after her passing, Daria was already haunting the house.
Bill could've sworn he felt her presence.
(A note: Wow! This took me ages! -.- Thanks for reading, guys.
The next update should come a little quicker. Hopefully.)