Last time, Jared became Mr. Seahorse and Catherine hit puberty. This time, sisterly bonding, a familiar face, and El ages up.
Jared: You’re one cute little space gremlin, you know that?
Brienne called in some favors amongst SimNation politicians to cover up the appearance of a mysterious green baby in their household. Officially, Bedivere is a survivor of a horrible nuclear meltdown in Twinbrook; the radiation mutated him into a green skinned, black eyed, but perfectly healthy and otherwise normal baby, who the Gallants happily decided to adopt.
She pulls a few more strings to make sure no men in black suits or lab coats ever come knocking at the Gallants’ door. It wasn’t easy, but when the woman who saved a nation from being taken over by Magnus Landgraab asks you to do something, you do it.
Catherine: Gibson my precious baby, I love you!
Connie and Cheri recently graduated and got adult jobs, which means that neither of them have much time for their still-teenaged friend. Instead, El switches to spending all her time with Catherine.
Who really needs it, because the idea of high school terrifies her. El is her only real friend besides their parents, and Catherine is convinced she’s going to be the freak of the school.
El: See? Not the worst thing to ever happen.
Catherine: It still wasn’t great. The other kids all laughed and called me ‘Princess’ because I said I want to ride horses when I grow up. It’s not like I said I wanted to live in fairyland, you know? Equestrianism is a perfectly viable future.
El: Eh, fuck ’em. Teenagers are all dipshits anyway.
Catherine: I’m not like you, El. I can’t just…turn off caring about what people think about me.
Video games are a surefire way to cheer up your little sister.
BFFs.
They’re better than you.
Since Catherine’s room is right next to Bedivere’s, she tends to be the one who takes care of him in the middle of the night.
But that doesn’t stop other family members from coming up anyway.
El: Aww, I wanted to snuggle the little dude.
Catherine: I got here first, you can wait your turn.
Catherine finally brings someone home from school! Does he look familiar?
How about now?
Yup, that’s none other than Ismael VanWatson-Bunch, the boy born within seconds of Catherine. Luckily for him, he managed to avoid his dad’s family’s genetics; if I didn’t know better, I’d think Madison had cloned herself.
Ismael: You’re overthinking it; the only reason this is giving you so much trouble is because you’ve convinced yourself you’ll be bad at it.
Catherine: Because I am! Not all of us are geniuses like you, Ismael. I’m good at music, okay, not biology.
Ismael: I don’t believe that. How many books have you read about horse physiology?
Catherine: …What does that have to do with cell structure?
Ismael: Well alright, it’s not exactly the same, but it is the same principle. If you can memorize the skeletal and muscular structures of a horse, you can memorize that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell. Okay, let’s go over this again.
Catherine: You work at the cemetery, right?
Ismael: Oh. Haha, you heard about that? Yeah, it’s not as creepy as it sounds, I swear. 100% safe, guaranteed!
Catherine: You’re telling me you never get even a little spooked at being surrounded by dead people.
Ismael: Well actually, according to a theory I’m developing, we’re all surrounded by dead people at all times!
Ismael: There’s a recorded phenomenon of spirits seen throughout the world, from clearly humanoid specters to shapeless beings with no clear identity or purpose. My hypothesis is that these are all souls of the departed, but some are simply more connected to their identity in life than others! When you think about it like that, there doesn’t seem much point in being afraid of one location simply because that’s where we house the deads’ remains.
Catherine: Wow, you’re really passionate about this, huh?
Ismael: Yeah! Life after death is one of the great mysteries, you know? I’m planning on becoming a professional occult researcher after we graduate.
It sounds like a load of crap to Catherine, but she remembers how her classmates made fun of her for her horse obsession, and how Ismael never treated her like it was dumb, or funny. He even seemed to respect her dedication.
Catherine: Well, it’s not exactly a scientific study, but I know some pretty cool ghost stories if you’re interested?
Catherine: And then, she saw it. Shining out of the shadows were two red, glowing eyes.
Ismael is enraptured.
El and Bedivere’s birthday happens to be on Spooky Day, so the family decides to throw a costume party to celebrate. It has…mixed results.
For one, Brienne gets called into work right before the party, so she misses it completely.
For another, everyone’s costumes leave something to be desired. Young adult Leo in the background goes as a magician, and Connor is just offscreen dressed as a serial killer. Jared, however, decides to go as a chef, because, “I have the getup, might as well use it.” El and Brienne accidentally wore the same costume.
Catherine: Go change!
El: No you change!
Catherine: Goddammit.
Cheri: Booo, copycat!
El: I’m not taking disses from someone who isn’t even wearing a costume!
Cheri: What’re you talking about? This is my costume; I’ll have it for about 48 more hours!
El: What does that even mean?
Cheri: Pregnant. I’m pregnant, asshole. You’d think you’d know, the dad is your cousin.
Actually, both Cheri and Connie are preggo. El is a little weirded out by how her friends are all becoming parents.
Jared: I’m surrounded by blonde fish women.
Eyy Beddie Bo’ Bedivere!
Eyy El!
She rolls Never Nude as her final trait, which is hilarious to me.
I mean, what part of this image isn’t comedy gold?
Her full personality is friendly, artistic, inappropriate, light sleeper, and never nude, one hell of a combination. Her LTW is to be an Illustrious Author, and her spouse, should everything turn out well, will be Leopoldo Kimura, a good-natured and kind of snarky guy with a dorky ponytail.
The next morning, the whole family piles into Brienne’s midlife crisis sedan to attend El’s graduation.
El: HAUL ASS OLD MAN WE’RE GONNA BE LATE!
Jared: I’M EIGHTY-FOUR YEARS OLD I’LL BE GODDAMNED SLOW IF I WANT TO!
The Gallants all(finally) arrive at city hall.
Jared: AHHHH I CAN’T HANDLE THE REALITY OF MY CHILD BECOMING AN ADULT
El: Hell yes! Now could someone please shut up the gremlin?
SO CLOSE YOU GUYS. ALMOST THERE.
The heir poll should be up with the next chapter, I just want to flesh a few more things out and get caught up to where I’ve played.
Thanks for reading! -Mo ❤
The Gallant Legacy 
Ah! So close to the end!
Catherine and El bonding was really sweet – I also love all the strings darling Brienne pulled for her ancient hubby. 😉
Also, the two girls in the same costume had me dying. Jared was surrounded by blond fish women.
It’s amazing how close they resemble their mom.
ALSO I did a little dance because I knew Madison’s boy had the chance to be passable if he only inherited his mama’s genes. I feel like the game heard my discussion and made it so.
Unlikely, but I can dream.
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It was so funny – everyone was switching into their costumes, and Catherine was lagging a bit, so I was sat there staring at her – and then she changed into the exact same costume as her sister. It’s wild.
Here’s hoping Leo’s/Ismael’s kids give us some genetic diversity!
There really is next to none of the Frio genetics in them, isn’t there? The most prominent similarity is El’s eyes, but that’s not much
I didn’t plan the introduction with Ismael *at all* – I got the notification he was coming home with Catherine after school and did a little dance in my chair, and then I saw his cute, non-Bunched face and did a *BIG* dance in my chair.
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El: HAUL ASS OLD MAN WE’RE GONNA BE LATE!
Jared: I’M EIGHTY-FOUR YEARS OLD I’LL BE GODDAMNED SLOW IF I WANT TO!
XD Oh that’s so amazing… Jared still being Jared… god I love him more than I thought I would.
I was quite excited to see Ismael didn’t turn out all that bad… with the thoughts to who is parents are… Oh well, let’s hope if he produce kids, they don’t get the “bad” genes… *crosses fingers*
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Jared the cool dad, who is surprisingly not a complete asshole…Gotta love him!
Yeah, Ismael’s genes are a bit of a gamble…Wish me luck!
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