The Smith Legacy: 2.1
56 PNGs underneath the cut.
Life in the Smith house went pretty smoothly. There were few hiccups and the family seemed happy and content once again. It seemed nothing could disrupt them--or could it? Seemingly completely forgetting that Daria had just married Bill, Addison brought home Corbin, his co-worker and Daria's ex-fling who she never really broke up with. Daria and Bill were both home and had no idea that Corbin was at their house that afternoon. Maybe Addison hadn't forgotten about Corbin and Daria's romantic past and was just trying to get the two adults to act like adults. However Corbin had ended up at the Smith house, things were certainly going to go down.
Within hours of his visit, Corbin had found Daria...in Bill's arms. Needless to say, he'd been angry and confronted Daria about it. She didn't understand how her being with Bill now that they were married and living together was any different from her being with Bill when they'd just been fooling around (from Corbin's perspective, of course). She was angry at Corbin for being angry at her. Surely, he had no right! They'd always had a no-strings attached relationship and for him to be upset with her for not being with him exclusively was ridiculous, to say the least. Perhaps Corbin was just upset that he'd been the only one who hadn't known about Daria and Bill.
Not that it mattered to Daria. The way she saw it, Corbin could get as mad as he wanted to. She was sticking with Bill no matter what. None of her old flames--not even Corbin--could tear her away from her husband. Daria might've been a Romance sim, but Bill was more than enough to fulfill her needs. He was a Romance sim himself--he'd understand what she needed and they could work things out. In fact, they had been working things out and thanks to Bill, Daria didn't find a domestic life to be dull or unsavory at all.
And while Corbin was still at the Smith house, Daria popped! She was pregnant again and actually pretty happy about it. Pregnancy wasn't difficult at all (thanks to her robotic genes, but she didn't know that) and she still needed to pop out a couple of more kids before she was done with the whole pregnancy deal. Bill was also a very supportive husband and Daria's parents--who had been through this so many times before--were also backing her up. It was a great environment for a pregnant woman.
Besides being a supportive husband, Bill was also an enthusiastic father. He loved Ava and he made that very clear. Whenever he wasn't working or helping Daria out, he could be found upstairs in Ava's room, playing with her or teaching her a new skill. Daria would sometimes creep in to watch him in action. She couldn't even believe it. Who knew that Bill Tse, her former boytoy, would make such a great family man? It almost made her laugh. Ava clearly appreciated all the time and attention her father gave her. Some days Daria thought their daughter liked her father more than she liked her mom, but to be honest, Ava loved them both equally.
Bill's parenting skills made Daria and Ava happy, but they also comforted Daria (and her parents as well). It reassured her that she'd made the right choice in marrying Bill. He was everything she could want in a husband: responsible, caring, active, sexy--the list went on. Carver and Kittredge were also pleased with Bill's behaviors. It was almost as if he had been created by them as the model for the perfect man. Kittredge said this out loud and an idea passed through Carver's mind, but he decided he'd save it for later generations. Those scientists sure are mysterious and all...
But as much time as he devoted to his daughter, Bill made sure to devote to Daria. He honestly felt blessed that she'd chosen him to be her husband even if it did take the birth of Ava for Daria to realize they were a great match. Bill had always thought they'd had great chemistry and even though as a Romance sim, he'd never imagined he'd one day marry Daria Smith, he couldn't complain at all. It didn't feel like settling at all.
Soon it was time for little Ava to grow up and boy, did it seem like just yesterday she'd be born! Addison cradled his granddaughter, amazed that this was the last time he'd be able to hold her in his arms like this. He had enjoyed her toddler years so much! Ava had been an absolute darling. Clearly the term "terrible twos (and threes)" didn't apply to her.
And here's Ava as a child. Though she was very pretty, her looks bothered Carver and Kittredge a little bit. The scientists worried that Jane's genes were being flushed out of the family too quickly. Ava looked more like her father than her mother although she seemed to have Daria's eye-shape... And even then, Daria looked more like Addison than like Jane. Were the robot genes not as dominant as the scientists had thought? Carver and Kittredge shared a look; it looked as if they'd have to start doing some experiments in the near future.
But life went on in the Smith household. None of them knew they were being carefully watched every day by two scientists. The thought probably had never crossed any of their minds. Addison continued to prove that he was a terrific grandfather. Ava loved every adult and elder in her house. Seeing as she was still an only child, most of their attention went directly to her. She was going to warmly welcome the baby that was on its way, of course, but she couldn't say that she didn't appreciate being the center of her family's attention.
Speaking of the baby-to-be, it was finally coming! Daria gave a solo birth in the kitchen. Her parents, Bill and Ava were either getting ready to go to work/school or still asleep. Not that Daria minded. She'd been through this before. She just hoped she didn't have to birth twins.
And so Daria gave birth to a lovely little boy named Noah. He looked like most babies, but he was a shade or two darker than his older sister. Daria was happy to have a little boy of her own. However, although she liked her children, Daria was eager to have her last child.
Ava's first day of school came and no one in the family was more excited than Ava herself. She had more skills under her belt than the typical toddler (thanks to all the help she got from her dad) and was more than qualified for her classes. But Ava was excited to go to a real public school and meet other kids her age. She was eager to make new friends and meet her teachers and be the best in school! Her family just couldn't believe it was time for her to actually leave the house on a regular basis. She had definitely grown up quickly.
Daria and Bill were well on their way to that third child. Their romance hadn't fizzled once since being married and both were grateful for that. As Romance sims, they had dreaded marriage, seeing it as one contract away from social death. They thought marriage would make them too domestic and boring and that it would suck away all their youth and happiness. It was quite the opposite! Neither had been happier with their lives and even though things were a little simpler, they were far from bad. And you try telling a parent that they're not active! These two spend a good amount of time chasing after their children!
Not to be outdone by their daughter, Jane and Addison could be heard down the hall also not letting the fire in their romance fizzle. Romance was apparently in the air that night.
After the two couples were done being romantic, they gathered the rest of the family in the kitchen for Noah's birthday! As Jane held her little grandson in her arms and bent over to blow out the candles for him, she felt (well, more heard than felt) an odd creak in her back. It sounded almost inhuman, like an old hinge that hadn't been oiled in a while. Sure, Jane was older and she wasn't as quick and efficient as she once was, but she hadn't thought her age had really been catching up to her so quickly. Perhaps she didn't have as much as she'd figured. She'd have to really start treating every moment like it could be her last.
Unfortunately, for someone very dear to Jane, it was his last moment. The moment after Noah aged up into a toddler (and had a very nice birthday reception), the dreary Grim Reaper floated into the Smith house and made way to take Addison from them. The entire family burst into tears on the scene as Noah crawled around on the floor, confused by all the grief and craziness that was going on above him. Although he felt sad to be leaving his family behind, Addison had to admit that he'd lived a very satisfying and fulfilling life and that if it was really his time to go, he'd gladly accept Death. And so he left with the Grim Reaper and his tropical looking Hula Girls as his family watched on in mourning.
And so the first urn was placed in the Smith family shrine, hidden away on the second floor behind a secret door. Addison's portrait showed a bold looking man, old but strong, painted by Daria herself. She felt it stated perfectly, without words, just the kind of man her father had been. Michael Carver and Sylvia Kittredge could hardly believe that Addison had already passed away. They'd grown so attached to him... His death only made them wonder when it would be time for Jane to short-circuit and pass away...
It was a hard day in the Smith household. Daria was nearly inconsolable. She tried to brush her father's death off and put on a brave face in front of Ava and Noah, but she couldn't even manage to when she was changing Noah's hairstyle. It was all so sudden! And on Noah's birthday too. The mood had changed drastically. Instead of tooting horns and throwing streamers, the Smiths were playing funeral dirges and crying deeply. Noah continued to have no idea what was going on around him, but the young one would understand in good time.
Jane also tried to put on a brave face in front of her grandson. She'd taken him up from Daria when her daughter retired to her bedroom to cry herself to sleep. Not even Bill could get through to Daria. Jane was doing her best not to completely break down, but she couldn't help thinking that Daria was lucky to still have someone by her side, someone to love... Jane tried to concentrate on helping Noah skill and start his toddlerhood on the right foot, but by then Noah seemed to have picked up on the general mood in the house, and was pretty disagreeable and upset. Jane didn't know what to do and her mind kept drifting.
Eventually, she gave up trying to fool and distract herself and just had a long, good cry in the middle of the kitchen, right where Addison had stood only hours before. Noah watched on, still upset and confused but also wanting to comfort his grandmother, but Jane was in an entirely different world by then. All she could think about was Addison and how she hadn't even been able to say a proper goodbye to him. Yes, it was a sad day in the Smith household indeed.
But as with all things, the Smiths had to move on with the rest of their lives. And as they say, when one door closes, another door opens. Or rather, as someone dies, another is being born. And that's definitely going to happen what with Daria looking as pregnant as she does right now! She was pleasantly surprised by this bump and really excited to have her third and final child.
The child didn't take very long to come along and pretty soon, Daria was looking into the brown eyes of her new baby boy, Jesse Smith. He was much paler than expected and Daria hoped that wasn't because he was unhealthy or anything. The last thing the Smith family needed was another tragedy.
However, despite how shaken up Daria had been by her father's death, she seemed to be doing well with Bill by her side. The two were still happy together and going strong, now with three children! Who would have thought that two Romance sims could get together and have such a blissful marriage? Or go on to have such a picture perfect family? Kittredge and Carver were both still surprised at this development, but they were very happy for Daria. She had come a long way from her scandalous years as a teenager and young adult.
Of course, having children and being responsible for other people would do that to a person. Soon it was little Noah's birthday and Daria couldn't have been smiling more brightly than she was when her little man leaned over to blow out his candles. Even Jane managed to smile on her grandson's birthday although some worries lingered in the back of her mind. The last birthday, Addison had died. What if this birthday was her time to go...?
Luckily, the birthday went well without any deaths. However, halfway through the night's festivities, Addison floated throughout the house, testing out his new life as a ghost. Jane was the only one who noticed him that night, but he didn't scare her. She wasn't sure how she was meant to feel about Addison's ghost; seeing him made her miss him even more and it made her long to join him in the ghost afterlife, but she didn't want to leave Daria and her grandkids just yet. Still, Jane had a wish to fall in love even though she knew no one could fill the hole in her heart that Addison left when he passed away. What was a Family sim to do?
In other news, Noah grew up to be a handsome, although somewhat smug looking, young man. He took after his father (and grandfather, for that matter) considerably.
Noah also loved to play with Ava. The two had a great relationship--as all Smith siblings do--and it was most due to their closeness in age. Noah didn't even find the things he did with Ava particularly girly. Playing house? Pssh--didn't all boys do that? Even if they didn't, Noah didn't care. He was spending time with his sister and she was awesome. Her being a girl had nothing to do with anything.
Daria loved all her children and she loved to see them getting along with each other. They all loved her and Bill (and Jane) very much as well. Basically, the Smiths were a happy-go-lucky family--with a couple of bumps every now and then. But was Daria ever surprised when she found herself pregnant for a fourth time! She had gotten used to pregnancy and seeing as she was a Smith, the pregnancies weren't rough for her, but she certainly hadn't expected to have this many kids when she married Bill. They had already had the three kids required for a legacy heir--when would they stop?
Bill also took surprisingly well to being a father. He looked after each and every one of his kids and did a great job at it too. In fact, he was the only one who wasn't busy enough to forget about little Jesse's birthday and helped age the baby up. Jesse remained pale, but by now Daria and Bill figured it wasn't because he was unhealthy. He just was...pale. Bill took to calling him Mini Edward--after Edward Cullen, but Daria would glare at her husband any time she heard the nickname.
One birthday that didn't get forgotten was Ava's, but then again, she was turning into a teenager at long last, so it would be a tad difficult to forget! Carver and Kittredge couldn't believe she was already growing into a teenager. It seemed as if time had passed so quickly.
And what a beautiful, stylish teenager she was! Ava had certainly aged beautifully. She grew up to be a Fortune-oriented sim with Pleasure as her secondary aspiration. Her hobby of choice was Film and Literature and her lifetime aspiration was to become a world class ballet dancer. Her personality stats read 5/6/3/5/6, making Ava an Aquarius. She was turned on by hats and creative sims, but dislikes fit sims.
Barely twenty-four hours after Ava's transition into teenagedom, Daria gave birth to her fourth child and second daughter, Olive Smith. She certainly looked more like her father at that young age. Ava was excited about having a baby sister. She kind of thought of Olive as a small doll, except one that would of course grow up and actually need to be fed and go to the bathroom and such...
Seeing as she was a teenager, Ava knew she couldn't just lollygag around the house, especially when her parents and Jane were so busy with their own lives! While she filled in as babysitter when she could, she wanted to get her name out in the world early and make a good impression on the right people so that she could live comfortably after college. Her mother assured her that simply being a Smith meant she wouldn't have to worry about much in life, but Ava was a pretty independent young woman--just like Daria. Seeing her daughter's determined spirit made Daria smile; she and Bill had certainly done something right.
Time sure passed by quickly in the Smith house! Carver and Kittredge weren't sure if they should've been worried about that or not. Things seemed to be going fairly smoothly and normal for the Smiths. It was the normal that worried the two scientists. The third generation was just beginning to blossom and nothing seemed particularly unusual about them. According to the scientists' observations, the third generation skilled and behaved just like any average child would. Perhaps the Smiths were growing too...human?
They chose to dwell on the subject some other time. Right then, it was little Olive's first birthday!
She grew up to be quite the cute little toddler with quite the head of hair on her! She certainly looked more like her father than her mother, something she and big sister Ava shared, but she was definitely a pretty one--like all the Smith children, it seemed. She also took to the songs on the radio and can be seen above dancing on the floor to some upbeat Lady Gaga.
However, things didn't remain upbeat throughout the house. Just as had happened on Noah's transition into toddlerhood, there was a death in the family. The great legacy founder herself, Jane Smith, was passing away. Even Grim seemed upset to have to take her from her family (especially on such a day), and compensated with hula girls, alcohol and the promise of sunshine forever. Jane was surprised by the offer; all she really wanted was to be able to be with Addison again. With a mischievous smile on her face, she waved her family goodbye and ventured off into the afterlife.
Noah seemed to take it the hardest. He'd been very close with Jane and he felt like he didn't get enough time with her before she had to go. He wasn't alone in this feeling. Over in a dark shack on the edge of town, Carver and Kittredge could be found watching the family with tears in their eyes. Jane Smith, their original experiment, had gone and there was nothing they could do about it.
"At least she had a good life," Sylvia Kittredge sniffled, trying to be optimistic.
That was all anyone could do. Be optimistic and remember the good times that had been had--with both Jane and Addison. May they both rest in peace.
Ava, being the oldest of the third generation, was the grandchild that had spent the most time with both of the elders. She took both Jane and Addison's deaths to heart, but wasn't as obvious about it as her little siblings. However, her coping mechanism...wasn't the healthiest of choices. The scientists worried.
But, as it does, time went on and another birthday approached. Jesse was growing up and it was something to be celebrated, so the Smiths put on their happy faces and celebrated it!
And Jesse looked quite handsome as a child even though he still looked quite pale. Bill still teased him about his strangely white skin--calling him nicknames like Ghost or Vampire. Jesse didn't mind so much. He liked that it made him different from both his parents and his siblings. No one could tell where Jesse's paleness came from; no one else in the family lineage was as pale as he.
But, as has been said, Jesse liked to be different. Maybe that was why he spent more time in one of the vacant bedrooms of the house, playing with the dollhouse. By himself. Daria sometimes worried that Jesse didn't interact much with anyone else in the family, but when she encouraged Jesse to go outside and play with his siblings, he'd just shake his head and say that he was having a lot of fun with just his imagination. Carver and Kittredge decided to keep a close watch on the small boy.
Soon it was time for two birthdays on the same night! Olive was becoming a child and Noah was becoming a teenager! Both were very exciting ages and Daria could hardly believe it was that time. It seemed like just yesterday she had married Bill and only had little Ava. Now Ava wasn't so little and she was helping her littler siblings grow up! Had the years really gone by so fast?
Olive was very pretty and kept the girly dress fashion she'd been flaunting in toddlerhood. She also kept her long hair. She certainly looked more like Bill with her black hair, dark brown eyes and thick eyebrows. She also had his nose and general facial structure.
Noah, who also looked more like Bill than like Daria, changed his style a little, going a little edgier than the clothes he wore when he was a child. As his main aspiration, he went after Pleasure with Fortune as his secondary. His lifetime want was the become a prestidigitator and his predestined hobby was sports. His personality stats read as 5/5/9/7/1, making Noah a Sagittarius. He was turned on by red hair and high mechanical skill, but turned off by high logical skill.
Though Noah spent some time bonding with his siblings when he was younger, he wasn't nearly as present as Ava had been. Ava had managed to get Jesse to come out of his shell every once in a while and Jesse admitted that playing with Ava was more fun than imagining all by himself. It became very apparent early on that Ava was the favorite big sibling. She just got along well with everybody.
However, the entire Smith family pretty much ran as one unit. They were all close to one another. Well, Jesse was getting there. While he used to prefer playing by himself, Ava helped him open up and he bonded well with her and Daria and Bill. Bill especially liked to spend his free time with his kids. He'd never imagined that domestic life could be so fun, especially for a Romance sim like him, but his life had turned out wonderfully. There wasn't a single thing about it that he would've changed.
In fact, he stayed this excited even when Daria popped again and announced that she was pregnant for a fifth--and hopefully last--time! Ava was surprised. She was about to head off to college and her mom was going to give birth to another sibling? One that she wouldn't be around to raise through baby and toddler years? Ava didn't know how she felt about that, but it couldn't be helped. All Daria knew was that being pregnant so often kind of got in the way of her career ladder climbing. While she was pretty high up in her career and almost at the Hand of Poseidon level, she had missed so many days of work to just stay at home and take care of her pregnant self.
With another one on the way, Bill kept his older children in mind even more. He knew the time for Ava and Noah to leave for college would be coming sooner than later, so he stressed hanging out with them in particular and doing the things they liked. He'd spend hours in the family room when he was home, just shooting pool with Noah or hanging out on the floor with Ava or playing Don't Wake the Llama with Jesse. Bill was quite the family man and with Jane and Addison gone, he felt he had to step up his game in order to ensure that the kids didn't feel any emptiness in their home life.
If any of them were feeling any emptiness, it certainly wasn't obvious. Noah's pleasure-seeking ways were beginning to kick in though. He was constantly rolling wants to go out on a date and tried to strike up conversations with the women who came home with his parents from work or what have you. While he found some good acquaintances with some of them, he never really did reach the romantic level he was persuing. Emmy Fuchs admittedly thought he was kind of cute though.
In other news, Daria was going into labor! Alone! Everyone was either at school or at work and she was left at home to give birth in the family room (funnily enough).
And as much as I hate to leave you with a birth cliffhanger, that's the end of this update. 'Til next time (which will hopefully come sooner than this one did), friends! :]
Thanks for reading!