Chapter 20: It Takes Shape

Yes, the bathroom mirror is MUCH too small to fully capture Mildred's beauty.

She requires a full-length mirror, and Donoph had better deliver.

Cliff sneaks out of the shadows to scare his wife.

This painting again. She's always doing this painting.

Meh.

Aw, crap.

Getting too old for this.

"Why don't..." Cliff pants, "you go play tag... with... your fiance."

Stella & Piroj and Mildred & Donoph decide to hold their weddings on the same day.

Mildred worries that the simple setup in the backyard is not classy enough.

Sean Soto is the first guest to arrive.

"This garden..." he begins, nose scrunched in disapproval.

"I'm working on an automatic watering system," Don snaps. "My soon-to-be brother-in-law has been working really hard to revive this mess of weeds... you should have seen it a few weeks ago."

 Stella and Piroj go first.

Stella gets nervous, and wishes a dragon would swoop down and devour the guests.

So she'd have the moment just to herself and Piroj, you know?

This is the happiest day of Piroj's life. He takes Stella's surname.

Now it's Mildred and Donoph's turn.

Vinca cries with happiness. She's almost certain she'll get grandchildren out of this deal.

Zooming out.

Zooming out.

Zooming back in for cake!

Scott's feeling kind of anti-social about this whole mess.

He and Sylvia Inkbeard are mortal enemies, since Scott pulled Sylvia's son DeAngelo (one of Scott's younger band members) out of a future life of crime. Being a good influence in someone's life brings one nothing but trouble.

Scott figures he should lighten up and enjoy the party, though.

(Clockwise from Scott: Donoph, Sylvia, Sean Soto, Cliff, Cynthia Soto, Mildred, Noam, Vinca, Piroj, and Stella. Missing is Millie's father, since he's dead, and also her step-father and half-sister, who couldn't be bothered to show up. Kisha's sister Leah Bloom shows up in one pic above as a party crasher, and of course blue guy is Nero. Piroj's parents already passed away, and he has so many sisters, they probably have a sensible pact about not caring about weddings/birthdays.)

Amazingly, all the guests manage to leave before the ghosts come out.

Stella stays up to play chess with her father.

 Mildred and Donoph stay up to celebrate their wedding night more traditionally.

Another angle.

Oh right. The sprinkler upgrade.

"Someone really said something about the garden?" Piroj frets.

"Stop being neurotic."

"Was it the gnomes they didn't like? They're tacky. We should get rid of them."

"Don't touch the gnomes." Donoph looks up sharply. "I'm not even kidding with you, man."

Stella has not grown out of enjoying hopscotch.

 My in-laws are weird, Mildred concludes, watching from inside the house.

After playing hopscotch, the young couple close in for some romantic time.

Only for Piroj's phone to start ringing.

"Well..." Stella leans back. "Better answer it. The mayor may need your vegetables to ward off a killer rabbit attack."

Piroj laughs. "I mean... it's so true. Nobody in politics knows what time it is outside. My dad would get calls in the middle of the night about letterhead decisions."

"People call my mother in the middle of the night for paintings," Stella says. "They'd be like, I JUST HAD THIS DREAM, and I MUST TELL YOU ABOUT IT SO YOU CAN PAINT IT WHILE IT'S STILL FRESH IN MY MIND."

Pic of Mildred being a housewife.

But she's usually not this useful.

Cliff usually has the house sparkling clean before Mildred can even think about it.

Stella's hobbies are diverse. She wants to impose order on her universe via many different mediums.

It takes shape.

It is shape. One of the building blocks of perception.

Drums drums drums

Being teased, for choosing the same career path.

Night and day, on that garden.

Has yet to see a gnome move.

Maybe tomorrow.





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Etc.: Oh em gee. My bad. I really meant to give Mildred an all-out wedding dress, because she is the type who would insist upon having one. But with two weddings going on at once, I forgot about it.

I'm as absent-minded as she is.

I WILL obtain the sculpture gnome! *crying* 

Chapter 19: Mixed Reviews

Stella's party winds down. Vinca is pleased that she managed to get both of her siblings into the same house again; she MUST paint this.

Callisto is unapologetic about her time spent traveling the world.

Vinca suggests Callisto should write down her experiences; their nephew Scott has been a huge fan of Wane McMottder.

"You think I go stealing from mummy-infested tombs like a criminal?" Callisto laughs. "What's wrong with you? I'm a professional athlete. I'm a tourist when I'm abroad, not a tomb raider!" She pauses. "But between you and me, those mummies had it coming."

This cake is AWESOME.

"So!" Donoph begins. "You and my sister..."

"Me and your sister what?"

"Come on, man..."

Piroj licks icing off of his fork. "Hmmm?"

"Are you going to propose?"

"I'm not telling you before I tell her!" Piroj laughs.

By midnight, all non-family guests have left, and Cliff sneaks out of hiding so he can forage for food.

"I don't know how you live with all these ghosts," Scott whines.

Donoph doesn't look away from the game. "Psh... they ain't nothin'."
 

Dancin' Paprika.

A ring at the door the next morning.

"Piro?" Stella smiles nervously. "I'm not even dressed for the day yet."

"It was hard enough waiting past last night," he says.

He left at a respectable hour. He didn't ask to stay the night. By the book, this one.

"There's something I want to as-"

Stella pulls him onto a kiss before he can ask.

And then, Mildred strolls out onto the porch.

"Ahem! Don't you two losers realize it's graduation day? We need to get to the ceremony and YOU'RE driving, Stella... I don't know how to work that monstrosity of a car."

How dare she call the fire truck a monstrosity? But naturally they won't be caught dead driving the police car to their graduation, so fire truck it is!

 Even though they're adults now, high school is always finding ways to completely ruin the moment.

After receiving their diplomas, Stella and Piroj congratulate themselves with a hug. To no-one's surprise, Stella made valedictorian. 

Piroj was voted most likely to take over the world.

Stella has a problem with the starchy smell of these robes by the way. It takes all of her powerful mental prowess to keep from freaking out right here on the steps to city hall.

At least the hug is comforting.

Piroj hadn't planned to have an audience. But he wasn't waiting another second.

Stella's expression is not of surprise, but of delight.

Her "yes!" is followed by some dancing up and down.

And so, like his adopted brother Nero, Piroj leaves the crowded Abe-Radan household.

Unlike Nero, Piroj moves in with Archers.

His first concern is the sad state of the garden. Stella shares this concern, because she never eats food from the grocery store. It could be riddled with pesticides or salmonella or something.

It's hard work to restore the garden to a healthy and productive state. 

Piroj has a bunch of hydrangeas planted too.

Stella follows her brother into architectural design, either for sibling rivalry purposes, or just because she thinks the world needs more feng shui. She sets up her own drawing table in the garden, so she can be near Piroj as they work.

Piroj was able to revive Wren's steak plants, but can't figure out how to grow new ones.

This requires further study.

Stella takes over her grandparents' old room, and redecorates to suit her tastes.

Also redecorated: the en suite bathroom.

There's Piroj, taking a shower in his swim trunks.

After living in the crowded Abe-Radan household, he's too paranoid to be completely naked, even for 15 minutes.

Random argument.

"The bed isn't haunted, Millie..."

"It is!" She stamps her foot. She'd throw a vase if there was one handy. "There's an evil politician in it!"

Donny is hired to redecorate a mansion.

Kisha Bloom-Rao wanted to reward her teenage daughter's good grades with a new bedroom. One she doesn't have to share with her sisters.

Kisha understands the punk attire and garage band accessories; anyone who looks at her daughter would assume she had a bedroom like this. But the little painting of the house is perplexing.

"I put an original design with all of my work," Donoph says. "It's my trademark."

"Well that's adorable," Kisha says dryly, wondering if he's trolling her. Then she gives him a good review.

Meanwhile, Stella's very first assignment is a new laundry room for the Annan mansion.

Re-upholstered living room.

Kitchen, now in spiceberry.

"I want carpeting in here," Mildred requests. "And mirrors. The one in the bathroom is too small."

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Etc.: Donny goes to work every day in his graduation robes (which makes sense because they are labeled "career 1" or whatever). I use MC to change him to other outfits before snapping pictures. For some reason I have not had this problem with Stella.

The architectural design career is pretty good for getting rid of extra paintings and sculptures, since it doesn't subtract from the client's (something horribly small) budget, and still boosts room scores.

Stella's favorite color is blue and her traits are: neurotic, childish, perceptive, eccentric (a pointless trait passed down through the Archer line since forever) and friendly. Her LTW is to be a chess legend. I've never done chess legend, so I thought hey, why not torture myself, to distinguish her further from her brother.

Piroj's favorite color is ALSO blue and his traits are: neurotic, genius, excitable, never nude, and friendly. His LTW is illustrious author... so I've got to save up the points and change that. He's enrolled in the farmer career, which I used a joker to obtain.

Donoph's favorite color is lilac and Millie's favorite color is spiceberry, as I think I've said before.

I haven't redecorated Cliff and Vinca's room to the IT'S SO YOU guidelines, because I figure it's already "them". They've been living in it all this time. I threw tons of plants around the house to make it feel like Piroj has an influence, made the kitchen "spiceberry" for Mildred, and made the couples' bedrooms in their favorite colors. 

The living room has a purple/blue theme, to appease both heirs. ;) It's been difficult changing even a single thing about the house, because Calisims did such an awesome job with the original. I'll probably re-do the nursery in blue & purple when generation 4 appears. I'm waiting for at least one couple to roll wishes to have children.

Generation 2's property mogul is still incomplete. It just has to get done before they die.