Amanda Kyoti woke with a feeling that this would be her lucky day. After a long and difficult career, she knew she was going to edge that promotion level 9 of her career today, bringing her that bit closer to her dream of being a Creature-Robot Cross-Breeder. She could feel it ‘in her water’.
Elias Kyoti was feeling pretty good, too. Here he was, at 119 years old, and he had the privilege of helping to raise a third generation of children. With his help, SatelliteJuno was soon chattering away.
Christopher Kyoti was also feeling pretty good. He’d finally gotten to the top of his career, achieving his lifetime wish to be a hit movie composer. He decided now was the time to retire, and to move on. His cousins Amanda and Carmel tried to persuade him to stay at home, but he pointed out that with Carmel and Daniela both approaching their elder birthdays, the house would soon be overrun by pensioners. He’d always known the Kyoti home as a place for children to grow. He didn’t think it should be full of so many old-timers. Besides, he wasn’t going to be far away…
…his movie earnings had allowed him to buy the big house across the road.
Things might have been going well for the second and third generation of the Kyoti family, but the fourth generation were struggling. Daniela had become tired of Joseph sneaking around and coming in late at night. She accused him of having an affair. After all, he seemed to only have female friends. Joseph had to come clean. He told her of his job in the criminal career track. He explained he hadn’t wanted to do it, hadn’t meant to, but it had flexible hours that allowed him to build up his skills and spend time with his daughters. It paid well, and what’s more, he was beginning to get good at it. OK, so he’d had a few nights in the cells. He wasn’t proud of that fact. But he was using his logic and athletic skills to the max. He wasn’t a bad person, he just wanted to do the best for his family. Daniela wasn’t impressed. She told him he was insane. She knew that would cut him to the core: he was so afraid of showing his weakness, and he hated it being pointed out. He begged her not to tell the rest of the family – they’d be so ashamed.
Daniela reluctantly agreed, but when she was teaching SkyBlueGinger to talk, she advised her daughter to make sure she knew absolutely everything about the person she wanted to marry before making a commitment.
Joseph was angry and hurt by his wife refusing to support his career. Didn’t she understand how hard it was for someone with his ‘weakness’ to make a living? Didn’t she want her daughters to grow up well? Didn’t she want him to achieve his lifetime ambition? And anyway, hadn’t she been a bit dishonest with him by not admitting how old she really was? He loved Daniela, he loved her more than he could imagine. He didn’t want to be like his late grandparents: Amanda told him about how they divorced when she and her sisters were still young. Joseph had no intention of divorcing Daniela and he hoped she had no intention of divorcing him, but why did things have to be so hard?
Carmella Kyoti aged into an elder and immediately dyed her hair back. She wasn’t having any of this growing old gracefully lark. She talked to her sister Amanda about whether it was time for her to move out – after all, she had no job and she’d fulfilled her lifetime ambition some time ago. Maybe she should do what Christopher, Liam and Rhiannon had all done and strike out on her own? Amanda begged her to stay – her income from gigs in the park, paintings and novel writing was good for the family, and besides, Carmel was the official family portrait painter – nobody else could even paint a stroke. Amanda was also worried that someone as ‘special’ (i.e. insane) as her sister couldn’t cope on their own. They agreed it was in everyone’s best interests for Carmel to stay in the house.
Meanwhile, the last surviving member of generation two, Elias, was brushing up on his charisma skill when death came for him.
At 119, the eldest Kyoti yet departed to make room for the younger generations and to be reunited with his soul-mate, Lola.
Elias’s passing left the rest of the family with some big challenges. Here was a man who’d helped raise three generations, who’d had a long and happy marriage, who’d reached the top of his career, who’d developed many skills and who’d never once complained about it. He wasn’t even a Kyoti by birth, but by marriage, and yet he was one of the biggest inspirations any of them had ever had. Joseph looked at his wife.
Daniela was still angry with him, but she knew he was trying to do his best for the family. And she loved him. They agreed to stop fighting and instead do their best for each other and the girls. For now Joseph would stay in his job, but he’d do his best not to harm anyone they cared for in the process.
Lucas Kyoti started to become obsessed with finding himself a wife. He tried to chat up every woman that came over to play chess with him. He was particularly keen on Joseph’s criminal cohort Clara Bunch, despite everyone warning him that the Bunches had ‘bad genes’ and he shouldn’t get involved. Clara didn’t sem to be interested in Lucas, though.
Amanda, overcome by emotion after her uncle’s death, ran straight back into the arms of old flame (and Lucas’s dad), Dominic. She didn’t want anything from him really, she just wanted to feel something, to touch someone, to know that in this frightening last stage of life, she could still find passion.
It was soon birthday time again for the Kyotis, and they braced themselves for Grimmy’s reappearance. Daniela went first, grimacing as she reluctantly ventured into the world of elderhood.
SkyBlueGinger was next…
SatelliteJuno took her turn. She wasn’t so keen on the whole birthday thing, being neurotic. It felt like everyone was staring at her.
However, it wasn’t SatelliteJuno that her uncle Lucas was staring at…
…Kiley Layton, the teenager he’d spotted at the last family gathering, had grown into a very attractive young lady.
Grimmy didn’t attend this party. But he did send a telegram. Rhiannon and Christopher had been taking a holiday in the Carribean and there’d been an accident. Neither they or their gravestones would be returning to the Kyoti residence.
The loss of her twin and her cousin sent Amanda Kyoti into a frenzy of working and skill-building. She was the third generation heir, she had a responsibility to get to the top of her career – and in a matter of days, she finally did.
The first thing she did when she got home was perform an experiment on the toilet. Nothing seemed to happen, but it started to crackle with a yellow electric glow, and the rest of the family soon started referring to that room as ‘the guest bathroom’, preferring to argue over the other five facilities in the house than take their chances with it.
The family held a special dinner to celebrate Amanda’s promotion, and Lucas took the opportunity to ask Kiley to stay over… and to become his wife. Kiley didn’t have a family of her own and she was a loner, so they held a private ceremony in the bathroom.
Whilst this was going on, Amanda went out to tend the garden. Buoyed from her promotion, she was determined to max out her gardening skill, and she was only a couple of hours away from doing so.
As she weeded the bell peppers, she looked up. She hadn’t been expecting this visitor yet, but it was her 98th birthday, so she must have known he was coming soon…
The Kyoti legacy had officially passed into its fourth generation.
The Kyoti Sims3 Legacy Blog 