Yaaay!

Welcome to the Vetinari Dualegacy, Chapter 24: White Wedding!

I had to switch to PSP to do the cover, and I'm soooo not used to it yet, but hopefully, I'll have figured out how to get the layers working properly so I can do the little shadow effect with the text on my covers for next time. Until then... LOOK IT'S A CHAPTER! SHINY!

Yes, I am back!

Basically, I was in the process of backing up my hard drive when it decided to go explodey instead. This made me very sad. I did have a backup of Riverblossom Hills, but it was pre-college. I was in the process of making a new backup of my 'hood too.

Survey says the data on my hard drive is OK, but it won't boot up, so to get the data off the hard drive requires a clean room and a thousand bucks.

I do not have a thousand bucks.

Everybody's more or less back to normal, though. I cheated everyone through college, because I had enough Knowledge and Fortune Sims in the mix that they'd whine about having to skip it if I just aged them up.

Anyway, the appropriate Dormie spouses were successfully located and reintegrated into their intended habitats.

It also means I got to go through the horror of the transition outfits all over again. Some were better, some... less so. As you may have noticed with Sawchuk the Pirate and Howie the Scotsman.

Also fallen victim to the Great Hard Drive Crash of '10 was the spreadsheet I was keeping score on. Therefore, I am no longer keeping score, because I'll be damned if I can recreate the whole thing from memory. I was pretty proud of the Uglacy's 67 Family Friends, though. Marco was a busy little bee.

That's where I'm at now. I cheated a whole bunch to get things back the way they were/ought to have been.

And someone needs to tell Six that he cannot have Uncle Archie's tats, even if Uncle Archie is dead now.

As for the family Greek House, Brett and Joyce are still placeholding for me. I graduated Niobe and Scott, and they are both Permaplat and happy.

Also, it turns out that Niobe's Uncle Jordan had a fling with Xander's wife Brittany the Cheerleader at some point, which I have absolutely no recollection of, and they got back together for some fun. Brittany is not lonely, and Jordan got to WooHoo a chick dressed like a llama, so all is well.

I had to move Delvecchio and Abel into a house together, because they would have been miserable if I'd split them up. Kaylee and Emmy “Hairbuns Hippie” Wood are amenable to the agreement.

Makeovers were given. Kaylee did not need an evening gown.

I threw the weddings first thing, a big double-wedding bash. Surprisingly, shy little Vex was the only one who really Wanted a Wedding Party.

Then I remembered why I seldom invite Bucky places where he needs to behave. He is very mean, and everyone else is very gullible.

The rest of the guests were well-behaved. Marco and Kitty didn't Pollen Cloud Prank anyone, and Aurie didn't keep Vex at the swings for too long.

Faraday kept to himself, as he usually does, which probably helped keep the drama to a minimum.

“Oh, you must be Vex's parents! I'm his fiancee, Emmy Wood!”

“My son's marrying a Wood? Aw man, welcome to the family! This is the best day ever!”

“Don't mind him, Emmy, he's just happy for you both.”

Kaylee and Abel and Delvecchio and Emmy got married, although not at the same time, because I am bad at things like that.

Also, I had to throw the wedding twice, because the first time, Emmy glitched and wouldn't get married at all. And she didn't have normal interactions with anyone. So I had to exit without saving and do the whole thing all over again.

Things went better the second time through. As in, Vex and Emmy were actually able to get married.

There was actually a decent turnout. You can see Kaylee and Abel there, watching Vex and Emmy get married. Everyone agrees that Kaylee and Stevie are Pop Sims, and Aurie is a Romance Sim.

If you trust me on this, Kaylee's mom Stacielee is standing on the other side of Marco. Dad Connor was bogarting the Dance Sphere, and refused to get off of it.

Stacielee writes Whedonberry.

“Vex, wrong limo.”

“There is only one limo.”

“Then this is going to be a very awkward honeymoon.”

“Agreed.”

Things did eventually get sorted out to everyone's satisfaction.

These two decided to tidy up a bit before enjoying their post-honeymoon mood boost.

Somewhere along the way, two little lullabies were heard.

Otherwise, it was business as usual. Kaylee bonded with her sister-in-law and got her groove on with Abel.

Trees started on fire, and Abel's shirt proved prophetic, because when he arrived to moth the flames, the tree was, in fact, already on fire when he got there.

Abel's shirt says “It was on fire when I got here.” It cracked me up, because he's one of the least likely Sims I have to cause trouble of any sort.

Abel got Permaplat, and Kaylee got Permaplat again. She made it in college with 20 Best Friends, and I cheated here there this time through. She did it anyway, without a lot of help from me, and then rolled a career LTW, which I decided to do. And then I sent her to work pregnant, because why not.

Before too long, Kaylee goes into labor in the kitchen, and we have Katarina. She's got Kaylee's brown hair and Abel's green eyes. Or possibly Connor's green eyes. Someone's green eyes, anyway.

The skintone comes from Abel and Kaylee's recessives. Her father is not the mailman, as will soon be apparent.

Not to be outdone, Emmy goes into labor a few hours later, and we have Gretzky, with blonde hair and Emmy's brown eyes and skintone.

I mean, look at Katarina's face. There is no way she belongs to anyone BUT Abel. Gretzky seems to have fared better. He still doesn't have a chin, but at least he didn't get the wonky eyes.

Kati's managed to get Abel and Kaylee's 10 Outgoing, but didn't inherit any of Abel's nice points. I have a feeling he'll Want her to be Nicer at some point.

Gretzky's pretty laid back. And it doesn't hurt my eyes to look at him.

I've seen both of these kids as adults in BodyShop, and Kati's face doesn't even out any. The normal feature-softening that the girls get? Didn't so much happen here.

As soon as they're able, Kati and Gretzky grow up.

See those dark lines under Kati's eyes, where they meet her cheekbones? Those don't go away. Ever. Poor kid looks just like her daddy.

Aurie looks like her daddy too, but this is much less of a bad thing.

Right after she moved in, Jake stole her newspaper, because that is how he rolls.

I'm fairly sure he won't be back, though. She doesn't look like someone you want to mess with.

I cheated her Permaplat too, since she did it in college the first time around. Paranormal just seemed like a good career for her.

Alexandra O'Mackey showed up in the Welcome Wagon, and it seemed like fate. Aurie likes girls, Alexandra is a girl and she's not married anymore, Aurie's not looking for commitment, Alexandra's not looking for commitment either...

All's well that ends well, as they say.

Sawchuk and Howie agree with that as well.

Doubly so now that they're not dressed like Blackbeard and the Highlander.

Wedding time! Kitty showed up and made her presence known, and Abel was only too happy to make some new friends.

They both got boatloads of Aspiration for the wedding. They're very sweet together, and they're no less stalky now than they were before.

See? Everyone agrees with me.

And they also agree I should have put the second floor up on the house. I'm still getting used to taking pictures with the widescreen monitor.

Yes, that is a Buy Me Expensive Crap fountain for Sawchuk.

Sawchuk didn't make it to the limo. He was too busy cleaning up. Howie being Howie, I'm sure he had a good time anyway.

They both went Permaplat in fairly short order. Sawchuk was thrilled about it. Howie didn't really care, because he can't play with Permaplat or set it on fire.

Life continues for them mainly the way it always did, except that Sawchuk now takes more naps in his underpants. Howie's always been a pretty dedicated Tub Pirate.

Things are pretty normal at the next house, too. This is two pairs of siblings: Wydah and Edmund Fitzgerald, and Channon and Mitch.

Edmund Fitzgerald and Channon are engaged, and Wydah and Mitch are two Romance Sims who love each other, but would rather not get married, thank you very much.

Edmund Fitzgerald and Channon did want to get married, so I went and did that.

Much party-score-raising was had by all.

Blah blah blah Roof Raiser et cetera.

They do make a cute couple.

I wasn't sure if I wanted them to have a kid, so I figured I'd hit Try For Baby once, and see what happened, and a lullaby is what happened.

They're not married, though, so they won't be Fearing it, at least.

Edmund Fitzgerald and Channon's lullaby sounded not too long after Wydah and Mitch's.

In pretty rapid succession, everyone but Wydah went Permaplat. She and Edmund Fitzgerald had the same career LTW, and so did Channon and Mitch. Wydah was missing a couple of skill points, and couldn't seem to get the last one she needed before pregnancy started kicking her ass.

Wydah's ass was not kicked for long, though. This is Tahiti, with Mitch's hair and Wydah's eyes.

Channon adds to the mix with Maui, who has identical coloring to Tahiti.

Tahiti looks more like Wydah—she's got a lot of her grandpa Bell's features. Maui favors Channon a bit more, although those may be Edmund Fitzgerald's chubby cheeks.

Don't worry if you can't tell the difference between them or remember which kid goes with which parents. Half the time, I can't remember either.

They're double-cousins, so I suppose a little confusion is to be expected. Maui's got the short hair, and that's how I remember it. Sometimes I forget whose kid she is, but I always know which one she is!

Mitch and Channon took the initiative when it came to teaching their kids how to walk.

Yeah, I know, they grew up into matching jammies, which does not help the confusion in any way.

Mitch was the real surprise here. He actually rolled the Wants to teach Tahiti her toddler skills, plus Wants to interact with both girls.

I mean, you gotta love the guy. He rolls a Want to teach his own daughter to Talk...

...and then has no problems taking his niece to the potty.

He did the lion's share of the work, with nary a complaint in sight.

Which is not to say that no one else did anything ever, of course. There were plenty of snuggles to be had, whenever they were wanted.

That's Tahiti on the left and Maui on the right. Maui is still the one with the shorter hair.

I downloaded the evil bear, and now all bears are the evil bear. Sounds like someone didn't have their own GUID. Tsk tsk.

Over in Bluewater Village, Ellie Landgraab and her fiance, Michael Turner, are moved in and almost have a house.

Once there is a house, there is a wedding. Gil showed up in the Welcome Wagon and stuck around. Six and Inara mostly stuck to each other.

Since it's not nearly as much fun without glitches, the arch wouldn't work, but Michael and Ellie could still get married. I figured that not using the arch would tank the party score, but that didn't happen.

But then, if Jeeves Landgraab wearing the flayed skin of Oz Warner like a mask didn't ruin the evening, I guess nothing would.

Oz Warner courtesy of Ladylarkrune's Yakko's World OWBC.

See? Still a Roof-Raiser, despite the glitchy wedding arch and the robotic psychopath.

When they finally chased Gilbert away, they took a few minutes of alone time to get a lullaby.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that Ellie's dress has a pregnancy morph, eliminating the need to find something else for her to wear.

I did send her to work while she was pregnant, but she got Permaplat from it, which is good, because it's nice to have a Permaplat adult in the house when there's a toddler underfoot.

Michael's LTW career refused to show up in the job listings, even though I was checking the paper and the computer. Ellie's came up the very first day. And then THREE MORE TIMES before Michael's did.

Before too much longer, we got Tyler!

And then Tyler was passed off to Michael and we got Duncan!

You know this was all natural, because no way would I have let her have twins otherwise.

Tyler's on the left. Brown hair, skin 3, looks like a miniature Landgraab. Duncan's the blonde, and looks way more like Michael. He's got Michael's nose, at least.

I freely admit that the weirder features have grown on me over the last few years, but nevertheless, I think Tyler is adorable. And Duncan is a sweet little cutie too.

I even managed to time the age transition perfectly. Yes, boys, you have fingers!

And more pirate costumes. Arrrrr!

Behold the cuteness! Behold it!

Ellie is almost forgiven for Unapproved Twins.

At the last of the spare houses, Six and Inara decide to amuse themselves until I build them a house.

Then Nummy Theo Harrison wanders by to remind me that there's still a few pieces of CC that I need to re-download. His suit, for instance. Chest-baring shirts are Not Particularly Victorian.

Theodore Harrison courtesy of Dicreasy's Victorian Legacy.

Big wedding party! I even took the chance on inviting Inara's grandfather, Naked Victor, hoping that he would manage to keep his clothes on throughout the ceremony.

He did. I was very proud of him. Normally, it doesn't take much for him to strip down to nothing.

“Eddie? What are you doing up here? The party's downstairs.”

“Hi, Meadow. I needed some quiet.”

“Mind if I sit?”

“If you want to.”

“It just doesn't seem like you to be hiding up here while your nephew's getting married downstairs.”

“You're up here.”

“I came looking for you.”

“Why?”

“I wanted to see how you were. Not good, as it turns out. So what's up?”

“Why do you ask? After what I did, and the fight we had, I don't expect you to care about me.”

“I still have feelings for you, Eddie. They're very complicated and occasionally they're angry, but they're still feelings.”

“Would you believe me if I said I still have feelings for you too? And they're also very complicated?”

“I didn't come up here to talk about the past. I came up here because something's really wrong, if you're up here alone instead of down there where all the people are.”

“It's not... I don't... It's another thing that is very complicated.”

“This is very like you, you know. Trying to save the world all by yourself.”

“I'm not trying to save the world. I'm not even sure the world needs saving, and if it does, I'm sure as hell not the guy to do it.”

“This is about your mother, isn't it? You didn't do anything wrong, Eddie. You know that. You couldn't have saved her.”

“That is so true.”

“What is it?”

“Will you meet me tomorrow at the park, by the lake? I don't want to talk about it here. I probably shouldn't talk about it at all.”

“Of course I will.”

“It makes me happy that you didn't think too hard about that. There was a time when you would have.”

“Maybe so. There was a time when you wouldn't have just asked.”

“Thank you, Meadow. You really are a beautiful person.”

A crowd turned out for the actual wedding. So many Pop Sims to have thought bubbles about, so little time.

The wedding itself was happily glitch-free.

They both rolled the Want to have a baby. It seems like all of Malcolm IV's descendants share his love of family, because every last one of them has Wanted a kid, despite most of them being Fortune Sims.

Absolutely no one went Permaplat, but Inara went into labor. They were both pretty happy about the prospect of a baby.

This is Kinsey. I thought about naming her Malcolm Landgraab VII, but I've already done the Malcolm-is-a-girl thing, and she really didn't seem like a Malcolm.

Toddler skilling was a team effort, and they both rolled loads of Wants for little Kinsey.

I have so many pictures of the two of them being adorable with Kinsey that it's not even funny.

But come on! Could you say no to that face?

Still cute! Adorable Kinsey is adorable.

Since I had to reacquire all my CC, I took the time to make sure it was all properly binned, and the Adult CC was enabled for YA, and everything had correct footstep noises, and everything got Townified that I wanted Townified, and yet, tragedies like this still occur.

Out of the literally thousands of combinations that would have been acceptable, Stevie grew up into that.

I do miss his old hair, though. Rissa's red isn't quite so red, if you get me. It's still my favorite hair on him, regardless.

Now that we have Stevie back, it was time to reintroduce him to Francesca Worthington, his onetime college girlfriend. Can't have questionably attractive babies without a questionably featured gene donor, now, can we?

“Man, I've only known you for, like, ten minutes, but it feels like I've known you for weeks, at least!”

“I feel the same way!”

“Let's get married!”

“Sounds good to me!”

For the penultimate wedding of the generation, I invited pretty much everyone. Uncles, cousins, shirttail relatives, friends, random people wandering by...

Bucky and Fair were on their best behavior. I imagine Tess had something to do with that.

Stevie is such a dork, I love him.

Vows were said, promises were made, kisses were had. You know, the usual bit.

Also like usual, almost no one showed up to watch the actual ceremony. Seriously, with a house full of people, only Tess, Howie, and Kitty managed to make it out to the lawn for the wedding.

Francie's got the idea of the thing, at least. Give Tess grandbabies? Well, if you insist!

I was watching Fair be antisocial when I noticed that something was wrong. Missing, in fact. And not just one something, but about TWELVE somethings.

My graves.

I have no graves.

Instead of a bunch of Platstones neatly lined up against the wall, I have only empty space.

This did not make me happy.

There were other things I had to do first, though.

Stevie and Francie dashed off to their honeymoon, and I silently prayed that the graves were just missing, not borked beyond repair.

Facially speaking, I do not see this ending well.

And yes, there was a lullaby, so the Official beginning of Gen 9 is here!

Brad the Hippie never fails to crack me up. He played in the Water Wiggler for a good portion of the day, making butt geysers and leaping over the little octopus.

Francie wasn't so lucky when it came to her career. Her LTW is Education Minister, and she found the job, lost it, and got back into it all in the same day.

Tess is already Permaplat, of course, from eating all those grilled cheese sandwiches, but I put her in Show Biz just for the heck of it, and she finally came home an Icon.

I've decided to get Stevie two more level-10 businesses and then cheat him Permaplat. I got him three level-10 businesses, you all saw me get him three level-10 businesses, they totally count. I've cheated him all the relevant badges, as well, including his silver Cosmetology badge, which just leaves him the gold in that, and his Robotics badge. Yeah, since I'm not keeping score any more, I don't really need to shoot for Master Points or anything, but I might as well.

With Francie getting to know Billy Fordham, I decided it was time to see what was what when it came to the graves.

“Yes! I live! I should have known Archie wouldn't have stayed dead forever! Xander, you loser, cheer up! We're alive! Now point me at those SimSelves! I need to get laid!”

“You... suck... so... hard....”

“You're just going to kill me again right away, aren't you?”

Yeah, kinda.

“I see. And yet Cypress is still alive?”

Look, it was a glitch, OK? Nothing personal. I still miss your dead ass, but you don't get to come back to life just because your grave accidentally disappeared.

“Fine, but I am not happy about this.”

You are not the only one.

In other news, Tess and Brad are still adorable together. It occurred to me that since I'd cheated them to Elder, I hadn't changed their turnons, so once I did that, they went back to being stalky again.

The juicer's getting a bit of a workout. Francie's drinking skill points whenever she's hungry, and I'm trying to get some badges for Stevie out of it, too.

I have ghosts again, which makes me happy. Character files were not shredded! Things are back to normal! Archie is cheering his childhood bed, and not scaring the pregnant lady!

“Hey, I may be the Little Bastard, but there's some things that even I won't do!”

Things really are back to normal. Tess is always happy do interact with her family, the pregnant lady is rocking out on the fancy-shmancy guitar, and Stevie is working on his novel because I started that handicap, and I'm gonna finish it.

Houston, we have baby!

Francie goes into labor, and Stevie's right there to offer moral support and a fair amount of panic.

Meet Giacomo, the first member of Gen 9 who actually counts for something! He's got Francie's black hair and whatever recessive eyes I gave her.

Stevie's great with Jack. Since he's the only one without a job, he's always home when Jack needs something, and he's only too happy to feed him bottles and change his diapers.

“Sleep tight, little dude. If you get scared that there's a monster under the crib, rest assured that I will give it a very stern talking-to, and convince it to relocate to a more appropriate venue.”

But the moment of truth is here! What will Jack's adorable baby face mutate into when Stevie does the toss-and-catch routine?

There were some people who were concerned that Francie's face wasn't deformed enough to produce wonky-looking kids with Stevie.

I submit to you Exhibit A.

Jack looks pretty wonky to me.

I still think I can do worse, though.

“I think you can do worse, too.”

Thanks for the vote of confidence.

“I mean, you can get way more of his dad into him. More childrinions, I say!”

Well, since you asked so nicely...

Pop Sim Brad really wanted Jack to learn how to potty.

I'm not sure why Billy Fordham was so interested in Jack's potty habits, but he seemed happy to watch the kid pee.

Stevie was the go-to guy for walking and talking. As the only one who's always home, he gets called on to do a lot of stuff.

He does finally finish his novel, and now he gets some shiny new Want Panel Spam to go with it.

Francie finds herself very pregnant again, which makes me happy, because I can't wait to see what the facial damage is on the new kid. It's like an adventure!

Tess doesn't care about facial damage. There's someone new in the house to love and cuddle, and she is all over that.

“Hi, Uncle Archie! Try not to scare anyone tonight! Especially the pregnant lady!”

Xander wasn't as considerate as Archie, but surprisingly, Francie didn't wake up, despite Xander standing through her and cheering for his old bed.

Francie does take time out of her schedule of skilling to play with Jack.

Brad demonstrates that robots are cold, unfeeling playmates, and that Grandpas are way better to have fun with.

It's safe to say that Jack is not hurting for attention one bit.

Then again, maybe they're all just trying to reassure him that he won't be forgotten once he's not the only child any longer.

With a spin and a catch, Francie gives birth to the next little Vetinari.

His name is Paul Jones and he has the eyeeeees!

Paul Jones is my favorite. He has the eyes!

Then, of course, Francie hands Paul Jones off to Stevie so that she can have another baby.

I did not cheesecake her. I guess I just have a knack for natural twins this generation.

This is George Smith, who does not have the eyes, although he does have blonde hair.

Paul Jones is still my favorite.

Break time!

“Meadow! I'm glad you came. I mean, I know you'll do what you say you're going to do, but I still wasn't sure if you would, all things considered.”

“Feelings. Complicated.”

“I get that.”

“So what couldn't you tell me at the wedding?”

“You have to promise not to breathe a word of this to anyone. Maybe it still matters, maybe it doesn't, maybe I have no reason to keep this a secret... No. I do have a reason. If this got back to my father... Well. Do you promise not to tell this to anyone? Even my sister?”

“Yeah, but if it's this huge, are you sure you want to tell me?”

“I sort of feel like I have to tell someone or I'll explode. And the list of people I can talk to about it is painfully short.”

“Okay. So what's the big secret?”

“My mother's alive.”

“I thought the Bone Phone didn't work.”

“Mine didn't. Because someone else had already brought her back with their own. Ages and ages ago. Practically right after she died.”

“Were they holding her prisoner or something?”

“No. She wanted to die and be resurrected. She wanted to protect her sister's family. Me and Mal and Dad... we were less important to her than the rest of her family. She killed herself for some crazy ideal, and kept it a secret from us. I was never meant to find out, but I did, and now...”

“Eddie, that's horrible. That's a terrible thing. She put you all through so much pain.”

“And I hurt people too. People who didn't deserve it either. I hurt you. Knowing what she did, I see how alike we are, and I don't want to be, but I am, and I wish I wasn't.”

“You made a mistake. You've suffered for it. And I know you wouldn't do it again.”

“You think so? You think there's still hope for me? Maybe even for us?”

“I do.”

Last on the docket, we have the Prettacy, where Lindsay didn't come out too badly in the transition outfit roulette.

She's still the same old Lindsay: a pretty, pretty Pop Sim.

Remember Nikolai? He's still hanging around too. I couldn't remember his stats or his Aspiration, so I re-rolled and he's a Pop Sim too now.

And Lindsay gets to have her First Kiss all over again with Nikolai. This almost immediately segued into a wedding, because I've waited long enough to get this under way.

For a nice change of pace, there was a decent turnout for the vows. Even the maid showed up—she's in the back between Howie and Joyce's heads.

That's Artie's Aspiration up there. I think he's sad now, because Aurie's not getting married or engaged, and he still really wants another big family wedding.

Lindsay and Nikolai didn't really care who showed up. They've got enough bolts so that they're way more interested in each other.

While Nikolai was appreciating the fish on the wall, it occurred to him that he'd had a Roof Raiser party, and that he should probably get to the limo before it left without him.

The mood boost was put to good use, and after three or four tries, they got a lullaby.

I don't think they minded that it didn't take on the first go-round.

You know what they say: if you have to ask, the answer is “Yes.”

Whitney and Artie are still hanging around. I'm having them use up their vacation days so they can retire in peace. Whitney spends her free time tub pirating, and Artie's just waiting until he has some grandbabies to dote on.

And, of course, there are always the relatives who just let themselves in and hog the Dance Sphere.

“Ohmygawd you're having a baby!”

“I know I'm having a baby!”

“That looks like it hurts! I'm so glad I'm never going to do that!”

“Help or go away!”

Lindsay and Nikolai did get some Aspiration for it, though. Nikolai got to Meet Someone New!

Lindsay gives birth to Joe Cotton, a little boy with her coloring.

She then passes Joe Cotton off to Nikolai, because of course there need to be more twins this generation.

This is Lawrin, who got Nikolai's coloring.

Unlike the Uglacy, at least I have a girl here now.

After that, it was just the usual chaos of having two babies in the house at once. Endless feedings, diaper changes, and snugglings.

Connor popped by next. It's not like he doesn't have a Dance Sphere of his own at his very own house.

He was peeved about something. I have no idea what. It's Connor. It could be almost anything.

He also did not appreciate Whitney's attempts to cheer him up.

With his unerring sense of timing, Connor showed up on Lawrin and Joe Cotton's birthday. Free cake!

Lawrin is adorable! She looks like a mini-Whitney.

Joe Cotton looks like he's gotten some of Nikolai's features.

Even grouchy kitty Mr. Trick cannot escape the cuteness of Lawrin's clutches. No matter how much he would like to try.

It occurred to me that I needed to find a new mate for Mr. Trick, so I sent Nikolai off to the pet store.

“Hey, uh, Theo? I know it's nice that you got your skintone back and everything, but that shirt is sort of...”

“I am aware. I refuse to show my face again, until I get my proper clothes back!”

“It's just... I can see your dragon.”

Nikolai gets a new kitty for Mr. Trick to hate and fight with, and Theo continues to not show his face.

I never realized the back of that shirt was see-through.

A quick check showed me that the graves at the Prettacy were gone too, so it was time for another round of Rez-and-Kill. At least here, no one freaked out like Xander did.

Amidst the endless death parade, Nikolai and Lindsay try for more babies, and succeed.

Nikolai taught Lawrin to walk and talk, and Lindsay did the same for Joe Cotton.

Potty training was done mainly by Artie, because he really, really Wanted to.

And we still have more babies on the way!

And here, I will leave you with one more shot of Lawrin cuddling Mr. Trick. There can never be too much toddler cuteness.

“So how are things going with Gil?”

“I don't know. Is that weird? He's a nice guy, and I like him, and I think he likes me, and he's not pushing me to do anything.”

“There's a 'but' in there somewhere.”

“But this is the longest I've dated someone without sleeping with them. Except for You-Know-Who.”

“You're afraid Gilbert is Voldemort?”

“How am I supposed to know how the relationship is if I can't use sex as a measure?”

“There's more to relationships than that.”

“But there never has been for me. It's always been about sex. Even at the beginning of us, You-Know-Who not sleeping with me made it about sex. I wanted him because he wouldn't just sleep with me. It made it feel like it wasn't just some throwaway fling. And Gil's not like that. He's not stringing me along. At least, I don't think he is. But I just can't trust myself anymore. I haven't even kissed Gil because I'm afraid that if I do, I'll go back to my old habits and I don't want to be that person any more. I want to be better. I'm also afraid that if I don't move things along with him, he'll get tired of waiting. I know that if he gets tired of waiting, he's not the right one, but I want him to be the right one. And that scares me too.”

“I won't tell you that you shouldn't be careful. Anyone who tells you not to be careful needs to be locked up in a padded room somewhere. 'Careful' should be your middle name. Cassidy Careful Vetinari. But you're savvier than you're giving yourself credit for. Even if you hate admitting it, you knew when things were wrong with You-Know-Who. You just couldn't leave. Your instincts are good when they tell you whether something's right or wrong. You ignored them for a long time, and now you have to start paying attention again. And from what I can see, your gut's telling you that Gil's a good guy.”

“What if it's wrong? What if he's not? I don't know if I have it in me to deal with another relationship Titanic.”

“Cass, I really think you're doing the right thing.”

“I'm so afraid that I'm not. What if I never get over it?”

“You will.”

“But what if I don't? What if I'm just... broken... forever?”

“All right, everyone budge over! We're having Girls' Night In! Pajamas and cheesy movies and absolutely no moping!”

“Oh. Well, if it's Girls' Night In, I'll just be going.”

“Nuh-uh! You totally have to stay! You can comment on all the cute boys with the rest of us!”

“She has a point, big bro.”

“I so have a point. Giant sharp pointy point. I am Nuala, The One With The Point.”

“Well, I certainly can't argue with The One With The Point.”

“Oh, can we watch Pride and Prejudice first? Colin Firth is so totally dreamy!”

“Chantal, if you sit that close, you're going to ruin your eyes.”

“I think that's just a myth. Hey, maybe we could find Dusk on the movie channel! The girl who plays Stella is sooo pretty! What do you think Uncle Cass? ...Uncle Cass?”

“Huh? Oh, sorry. I was just thinking.”

“'Bout what?”

“I was thinking that, you know...”

“...It's kinda great to have a family.”