Crux, the Last Heir

Corvus has learned what he needs. Canes Venatici has the weekend to learn or do what he wants. Volans and Theia trail each other around like stalkers. Phoenix continues her astral studies. Crux brinks on childhood. Theia tends to the toddlers and Volans, well, he tends to the house, but only in the dead of night. As the tenth heir and ultimately the ender of of the Seraph Legacy, I won't hold Crux to the 3 child rule. I see no harm in ending this curse and as Phoenix has made due the coming of a tenth heir I feel my duty is complete in the first place. Crux will age to adulthood naturally, reach the top of her career, cap all her skill and become a monster. That will be the end of my Monstracy.
Crux caps her musical skills mere hours before her childhood. Phoenix becomes an infallibly good witch. The weekend was terribly droll. Canes Venatici called all his skills three days prior his due teenagerhood. That's my new record. He grows up well.
The grown-ups do as they please. Which, for the most part, involved bathing, preforming tai chi and playing the piano. Theia invites over the headmaster, as the last kiddies are now children. They got in.
Hmm, Lepus and Perses register as family. Too bad. HA! He shares three bolts with Dorado, though. The two were engaged by their first date, married the day after, moved out, and had a daughter, Hecate, who's exactly like her father and half siblings in every aspect. The genes are strong in Perses.
Canes Venatici becomes a teenager and a wealth sim. LTW: Top Law. Gosh, isn't that popular lately. Crux and Corvus get to know their half sister, Hecate. Crux skill capped all skills. Canes Venatici might have a gambling problem. He only plays the cards. Crux has no attention span. Unless otherwise told, she pingpongs between activities than [somthing clever here.] That's just kids though. She was a pirate in the tub, jumped on her bed, settled down to contemplate Hera, someone I don't think she's even met, then played pinball and the Law podium. All in an hour.She must be as bored as I am.
Anaxagoras and Cymmi played together in death. How can dead dogs be so cute?! Okay, all the kids are capped now. Man. Old people do not walk by this place anymore. Oh. Theia died. In the bathroom. How sad. We will remember you fondly, Theia. Crux and Corvus grow up. Crux rolls romance, Corvus, Knowledge. Let's see if Grandpire Volans can seduce Medusa and her household into dropping by. Eos, Leto, Selene, Persephone and Medusa meet the tenth gen boys. Persephone registers as family, and I'm having trouble remembering the girls' aspirations. Leto's romance, Eos is family, I think, not sure. Well, I can check. Nope, Eos is finance, er wealth. Corvus has his gaming job, but Can'es Venatici and Crux' haven't shown up yet. Law might be one of those jobs that require a degree. We know music isn't. A! Law showed up for Canes Venatici.
Welp, it's Friday and the kids have no friends or even acquaintences. They'll take the neighborhood by storm and make a gajillion friends, by gum. The kids head to the bathhouse, meet Sandalphon and Pandora, then to the plaza and meet Dorado, Helios and Themis. Oh my gosh, I am so bored! Nothing left to do! I'm sending the kids to college. At least they'll have class to go to. They apply for their scholarships and amass $21,750. I thought it would be appropriate to pay homage to some of the Ebonwood founders by naming the new Ravencrest dormitories in their honor. Hyperion Dormitory, Pavo Pavilion, Astraeus Establishment, Menoetius Manor and Columba Quarter. The tenth generation tykes set up at Pavo Paviliion.
Well... the place looks great. The kids pick their ooms, they're dressed like shit, but that's easily fixable. However, the kids have, like zero friends, so their influence capability is nonexistent. We need to address this situation, lest they'll be kicked out.
They spend their first day in college getting to know thei dorm mates. Corvus has a terrible time connecting with people. He's not friends with Volans, Phoenix or Crux, but! He did fall pretty hard for a sweet blonde boy in the dorm named Ash. I squeed at their love. Crux also found some date fodder and I feel like I left Canes Venatici in the wind, so he falls for a sweet little number, too. Dating, folks. It raises influence like a sumbitch. I had Crux and Corvus study couples counseling so they can have each others backs when shit goes under, because... shit will go under.
The good news is they all got enough friends and aspiration to get their term papers dealt with and completed their first semester with flying colors. Oh my gosh, this is so much better than waiting out their teen years. I don't even care about rerolls right now. They also work on some extra carricular badge building: Canes Venatici on pottery, Corvus on seamstressing and Crux on flower arrangement. Yeah, just badge building and going to class. Time for those rerolls. Crux rolls... romance. Which she is, grilled cheese wins again. Corvus rolls wealth, and Canes Venatici rolls a 6. What a way to end a legacy.

The kids got gold badges in all three of the aforementioned hobby items and after rerolls Canes Venatici invites over the one person he's bothered to stay in touch with since joining college. Eos. She brings along Leto, Selene and Medusa and the boys assess the goods. I messed up Corvus. His gender of choice is male. He doesn't find any of the girls remotely appealing. Never the less he went on a date with Selene and the next time the girls came over, he took out Eos. Not very stealthily, though, as he was caught by Ash and Selene and made enemies of them both. As his relationship with Leto and Medusa are nonexistent my hands are kind of tied. Corvus is promised to Eos the mean witch.
Canes Venatici on the other hand, shares two bolts with Leto and Selene and minus for Eos. He took out Leto and Selene and successuly hid his affentions from the other and his dorm romance fodder. During his first date with Leto, he proposed to her. That settles the boys. Since Crux is to be the last heir and without children, I'm not really concerned about her finding a lover/spouse. The kids graduated Summa Cum Laude and moved back to Ebonwood and the Seraph Legacy Lot. Canes Venatici and Corvus take their brides-to-be and their substantial dowries and leave the lot totally financially loaded.
Volans invites over his long time friend Oceanus, and his son, Crius to introduce them to his granddaughter. I totally forgot Crius was also a grilled cheese sim. He and Crux share 3 bolts for each other. Ah me, dead love. Muertos Amore. I'm pretty sure I just used two different languages. Whatever.
To keep Phoenix youthful, Crux partook of Phyllis' cake. Phoenix drank her daughter and, after ensuring herself a few more days of adulthood, took to the phone-of-death and brought back Crux. As a zombie. After Canes Venatici and Corvus made off with their wives they emptied out the family coffers. Crux is hardly upset, she still has her relationship with Crius and he moves in with her. Their love is now as undying as they are.
Canes Venatici and Corvus become fathers. Venatici and Leto have a daughter, Gaea, and Corvus and Eos, a son, Dionysus. Hahahahaha! I just noticed the lot Eos now lives is called Witchwood. Glorious. Her LTW is to become a criminal mastermind and she gets the job before she gives birth to Dionysus. Corvus' is to top the adventuring business as a space pirate. Thus far, he's had no luck. Until he does he is charged with taking care of his house and child. Dionysus becomes a toddler and goody. He doens't have the accursed Ivy nose. Handsome boy and a Scorpio, 10/9/9/2/5.
Ah, an affinity for science. I'm so pleased. Corvus got his job in adventuring. He makes a hot hostage negotiator. Zombie Aunt Crux is a frequent visitor. Canes Venatici and Leto don't need jobs, just Canes still wants one in slacker. It wasn't hard to get. Leto will remain unemployed as her LTW isn't career oriented. Her utter delight is mechanics and tinkering, so her pimp daddy gets her a robot station. Aunt Selene stopped by to help with Gaea. She's so affectionate with her. It makes me sad she doesn't have kids of her own. Gaea has the Ivy nose and the same stats as her father. Woop-de-doo.

So Volans went on a date with some random townie. I figured, hey, what's one more vampire? Before the date ended, however, his date, Jill, died from fright from all the ghosts. As poor vampire Volans weeped at her loss, I cracked up laughing. Not very nice, I know, but as far as I'm concerned, she ended up dead one way rather than the other. I was amused. Am amused. That's just entertaining to me. Phoenix has been making use of the Magus Mutato spell and Phyllis. Whoever stops by runs the risk of being eaten or turned into a nice witch. I think it's a fair trade off. Volans did get to turn a townie into a vampire the next night... And then my game crashed. Delightful.
Crux lost six-tenths of her skills when she turned into a zombie and doesn't have a job yet. Time for the light bulb helmet, Handy little bugger. Two or three days later she's capped again. Still jobless though. Crius just follows her around like a puppy, standard 3 bolts fare. Effit, She gets a job as a clam rangler... weird as that sounds, it's in the Natural Science career. Shit. Game crash. At least I saved when she recapped all her skills. I think... Win. I did. Also, she got her job in Art. Super excellent. She and Crius are so so very in love. They could zombie groan at each other all day and absolutely love it. They've become complete slobs, though. Leaving Volans to clean up after them. It's like he's a dad all over again. As much as the two are in love they totally cheat on each other at chess.
I swear. Vampires make the best pop sims. Yeah, they're active during the night, but they can talk to folk walking by forever. Fuck! No! Game crash again! It's like this game knows I won't be playing it after this legacy.
Austrina accompanies Crux home after work and he and Phoenix hit it off very well. They don't register as family and share three bolts for each other. Weeeeiiiiirrrrrd. I really need to save after every promotion. Crashes are back with a vengeance. The game senses it's time is nigh. Shit! Blargh! Fuck! Crux has four days before she goes back to work. This game needs to die! The guys can do whatever they want for four days. Zombies Crius and Crux are such children. They're sloppy and can't take care of themselves at all. The're so blasted in love, they don't eat or sleep. And Volans is just as bad, trying to stay p during the pay. Phoenix would die next to her effing piano. They're all just asking to die!
Crux and Crius used the extended weekend to get married. Crux is now a Cygnus, further solidifying the end of the legacy. She reached the top of her career path and returns to writing her novel. DONE! I'm done! Second Legacy Over! Yeaaaaaa- oh shit. I have to write the novel.

The End

The cost of our salvation was high. Ten generations ago Caelum and his children were cursed. His love for Metis was so great he risked his destiny for her. He risked all of us for her. Generations like mine can never know her. We hear the tales and legends passed down through our parents and grandparents. There are people still in Ebonwood who knew her when she was alive, but she's been gone so long that all they remember is her beauty and kindness. She must have been truly amazing.

Caelum is not a hero in these stories. Nor is he a villian. A love sick fool, of course, and an arrogant manchild, too, but even now our family isn't void of those types. Visions of these two lovers echo in the halls of our great house. Their likeness in old photographs, their ghosts lurk in the rooms most memorable to them, their tale of love and heartache etched into the very fabric of our beings.

My own tale isn't as legendary. Mother's woes depressed the whole household. She was certain that if darkness was what fell on the family, that light could lift it. The boys and I understood the gravity of forever very clearly after her failure. Her publishing her book and our dirty laundry might have upset us if we didn't know everyone already knew our business. They knew because it was their dirty laundry, too. We knew our burden was a heavy one. Mother pitied us and herself, so she was no great source of strength. Grandpa Volans was the one to teach us to hold our heads high. He understood more than anyone that despite our shame, we must walk on. And we did. Canes and Corvus took wives and left the main house, starting families of their own. I stayed. I knew what that meant. I'd have to find a husband. I'd have to bear his children. I'd have to do my duty for the house and the family. I was young. I thought my life had ended. In a sense, I guess it did. Or it began to. I was so wretchedly depressed. I didn't eat, didn't get out of bed, wouldn't see anyone. I fell ill, and yeah, as it happens, I died. It wasn't what I thought at all. It wasn't nothing, it wasn't ascension, it wasn't pain, it wasn't horror. Horror was when I was brought back. I can't blame my mother. I certainly don't hate her for it. She's never brought anyone back before. But I wasn't the same. I'd accepted my role to carry on everything, before and after my death. I understood that she had to bring me back. She had no choice. No more than I did. My sorrow and depression manifested itself and I had arisen an abomination  I looked, on the outside, as dead as I felt on the inside. I 'lived' up to my curse by becoming this monster. However, the horror was not in my figure. It was in my failure. In this form I'm unable to bear children. I could no longer carry on the family curse. I let my family down in the worst way.

I feared for my brothers and their children. I couldn't bear thinking of them becoming grotesque monsters such as I had become. I might as well have stayed dead for all the good it did my family. Poor Mother blamed herself for everything. That we still carried the curse and for my deformities. I could hardly comfort her and we were both in such agony over our failings.

Disgusted by our behavior, Volans brought over Crius. He was... he was like me. Dead on the outside and inside. He intrigued me. I wanted to know about him, but I didn't want to show it, and I didn't want to like him. He was a monster, not suave or charming. And, oh my gosh, I was being set up by my grandpa! He knew me better than that, though, and though Crius didn't hold much hope that I'd accept him, it didn't take Volans much encouragement to get Crius to visit often.

Crius was kind and patient with me. We were both artists, had an affinity for grilled cheese and both undead in a way Volans couldn't understand. I was still so new to being dead, the topic would remain taboo throughout our friendship, but Crius was so understanding. It wasn't long before I overcame our monstrous-ness. His eye twitches and moans and groans began to fill me with excitement and fondness. We fell in love and I took his name.

This didn't fix my problem of being infertile, though, and my festering beloved knew how seriously I took my duties as heir to this accursed house. My situation pained him sorely and he asked me, curse aside, if I really wanted children. The question was moot because I couldn't. Though, even when my wares were in working order, the idea of children rearing was just a duty and never something I looked forward to. He smiled at me and kissed my forehead. He cooed to me that the curse was lifted. I furrowed my brow in confusion, but all he offered was a loving smile. I trusted him.