21

Welcome back! This has taken for ever because I’ve had to do about 4 slides at a time over weeks and weeks due to school. Grrrrrr..... Consequently it’s more than a little patchy. I’m really selling this aren’t I?!

Ingwë was a little down in the dumps. Today was the day that his sister Lalaith grew up and he was decidedly nervous about it.

What worried him was that all his cousins were rather... dynamic.What if she grew up to be as boisterous as Maggie and Jeanie?

Since their little brother Daft Wullie was born they’d taken advantage of their parents’ diverted attention* and were causing even more havoc than usual.

*Although Nac Mac Feegle have limited parenting skills in the very best cases.

Then there was Morag. She was half pixie and half -well, half Frodo! She was more mischievous than either of her parents and had a nasty habit of sneaking up on people and surprising them, usually by leaping down from the boughs of a tree as they passed by.

Lalaith however turned out to be a shy and sweet tempered girl with a giggle like raindrops running off flower petals into an enchanted pool. Her parents had been highly appropriate when they named her ‘laughter’ in elvish. She made a pleasant contrast to her somewhat brooding and melancholic brother.

Ginevra, the first born generation G child, continued to flourish in the same adorable fashion.

“I’m not sure. Usually the voice chooses doesn’t she.” Farnsworth watched as her son began to pull threads from her cardi. “But she’s a little quiet lately.”“Oh she has phases.” Elendil reassured his daughter. “She likes to try new directions. It’s almost as if it’s all a game to her. I think one of the simselves has a copy of the name list she’s been making since forever. I’ll make a call.”

“Oh isn’t he precious!” Daphne cooed as she gazed at her grandson. “Oh look Elendil he’s dribbling!”“Yes dear, and like a pro too.” he replied. “What are you going to name him Farnsworth?”It was a good question.

Elendil had to make three calls to get the information. First he called the original simself who got into a huff and said : “Oh! You want to speak to me now eh? Soon as that imposter of a second simself turns up you abandon me but when you NEED something it’s a different story!”

Next he rang the aforementioned simself number 2. He explained that her predecessor had not been cooperative and asked her if she had a copy of the list. “You called HER first? When I was created because she couldn’t do the job properly?! I don’t care if she is the mother of your daughter in-law!”

Finally he called simself the third, a recluse who generally preferred to stay out of legacy affairs and concentrate on her fabulous husband instead. But she had what Elendil needed and revealed that the name of the child was to be Godric after Godric Gryffindor, one of the founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Gotham was currently experiencing an immigration boom. But the new arrivals weren’t escaping the violent gang warfare in Veronaville or trying to get as far away from The Spiderpig Family and that creepy Marvelmax fellow as possible. No, they were the fair folk, more commonly known as faeries and they were fleeing the cruel oppression of The Queen of Fae. The boundaries between the worlds were not merely open, someone (possibly under the influence of Granny Aching’s special sheep linament) had taken a sledge hammer to them.

The Shadowhunters* were now busier than they’d been since Vlad the Mad and Bad had lead a vampire uprising and hypnotised all of Gotham’s racoons. Each one now had to do at least 2 days a week at the immigration centre, welcoming and registering the faery folk. Ysabell sighed and began what she knew would be a traumatic interview.“So how are you two settling in?”

*Members of a mysterious organisation rumoured to be associated with the Nephilim, charged with maintaining the balance between the supernatural and ordinary world.

“Wicked!” the young pixie grinned devilishly, her eyes alight. “I’ve already learnt loads from the...” she struggled for a moment, “TV! It’s incredible!”Her Father however did not seem so sure. “I don’t think I like the influence it’s having on Thistle. Yesterday I caught her watching this terrible channel called MTV. She doesn’t even talk the same way anymore.”

“Hey man, why you got all this beef?”“You see?!” he pleaded. “This has to stop Thistle. I won’t stand for it.”The young faery’s wings flutttered defiantly as she replied “Hey, hate the game dude, don’t hate the player”

At the next desk, Mort was having an equally bumpy morning. Another faery father had daughter related problems. In this case they were caused by good old teenage apathy and dissatisfaction .(which we all know are some of the most powerful forces in all worlds)

“You have no idea how lucky you are to be in this world young lady.” the elf’s eyes were burning. “If we had stayed-”

“I would still have friends and we’d have a decent life!” she interrupted.“We would probably be dead!” he snarled. “You can make new friends here.”“Sure, because it’s that simple.” she sneered.

As the argument powered on, Mort noticed the arrival of a Shadowhunter colleague. He had brought two more families: two nervous dryads and yet another boisterous pixie. At least there had been no more Feegle yet.

Ysabell’s next appointment was with a dryad couple who watched her with kind but cautious eyes. Dryads were tree spirits and generally only left their trees when they absolutely had to. Closely related to elves, they too were restrained creatures on the whole and they jumped, their wide eyes startled, each time a group of pixies whooped approvingly at the waiting room television.

Ysabell arranged for Garaid and Goewin to make their home in the Tulgy wood. As she observed the powerful bond between the couple, Ysabell couldn’t help dreaming of what the future held for her and Mort.

Mort was now interviewing 2 Fairshee who had been living in Gotham for 3 months. “Well things were going fine but then someone,” the faery pointed angrily at her brother. “started luring-”

“I did NOT lure those women.” he interrupted. “It’s not my fault that they followed me!”“You knew exactly what would happen” His sister was furious.

The Fairshee stopped and sighed. “Look, I know you can’t stop mortals falling in love with you because of what you are but could you please stop leaving them in the middle of forests, or in bogs, or on eerie moors...”

“Oh sure! Let’s abandon all the traditions shall we?!”“URGH! Everyone always said your father must have been a Skogsra but I think he must have been a will o’the wisp or a hinkypunk!”“You had to bring blood into this didn’t you? We can’t all have your perfect pedigree you know!”“That’s not what this is about!”“Oh really, because...”Mort concentrated on the 20 minutes between him and his lunch.

Daphne and Elendil may not have been wrinklies for very long but you could never tell; they had forgotten everything they had ever known about technology.(Although, Farnsworth’s robots were far from user friendly.)

Farnsworth was aware of this but wasn’t remotely bothered. However, she did think that there were many other improvements that could be made to her robots and wanted to get to work. Archie kept badgering her about having more children and Farnsworth was all for this but being a pregnant and a mad scientist is not a sensible combination. Whilst she had been pregnant with Godric she had- well, the zoo still hadn’t forgiven her for the fiasco with the flying monkeys.So she had another plan...“Good news Archie! It’s finished!”

“And you’re sure that this will work?” Archie asked nervously as he watched the contents of the test tube bubble slowly.“Yes of course I am!” “it’s just that the last time I drank a mysterious substance because you told me to-”“Yes, yes, you nearly died. Bring up that old chestnut why don’t you!”

Archie sighed and gulped down the thick ‘liquid’, feeling it power gloop through his throat. He couldn’t see how this would work and felt a little woozy.

Despite his doubts, the very next day Archie felt his stomach suddenly expand with a cute cartoonish wobble. “it really is incredible” he mused later on as he watched his wife work away at her next project.“what is?” Farnsworth asked distractedly.“That all it took was one vial of mysterious goop to make me pregnant.”“Oh no Archie!” she chuckled. “That just knocked you out. It took hours and hours of untested, life threatening surgery! ”Shocked, Archie began to retort but then a loud bang shook the house and Elendil ran past the window, his pyjamas on fire. Farnsworth looked up briefly and continued to work. Archie sighed and went to the aid of his father in-law.

“Which brings us neatly on to the dark matter engines I invented,” Farnsworth continued. Now that Ginny was a child, it was time to kick start her education. After all, someone would have to continue her research after she died. “They allow starships to travel between galaxies in mere hours. Revolutionary! Of course I haven’t been selling them to our government, just a few...private buyers.”

Ginny frowned. “But that’s impossible, you can’t go faster than the speed of light.”“Very good Ginny! That’s why scientists increased the speed of light 40 years ago.”“Isn’t that also impossible?”“Well obviously not. Now what makes my engines truly remarkable is the afterburner, which delivers 200% fuel efficiency.”“That’s impossible too!...isn’t it?”

“Not at all Ginny, it’s very simple.” “Then explain it.”“Now that’s impossible! It came to me in a dream, and then I forgot it in another dream.” her mother replied, looking for all the world like a woman who saw nothing wrong with what she had just said.Ginny gave up and went back to nodding and occasionally saying “Uh huh”.

Truthfully, Ginny had no interest in science. Her mother’s lectures made her head throb with confusion. She only hoped that the new baby would grow up to get the good grades Ginny didn’t so that she would be left to paint in peace.

After an uncomfortable pregnancy, Archie was finally ready to give birth. In all his days as Farnsworth’s lab rat, he had never felt pain like this.“AAAARRRGHHHH! EEEE!” he wailed.“Keep breathing honey” Farnsworth said without looking up.“You have no-OOOW!- idea how pain-UUGH!-ful this is!” he screamed.“Actually, I do. I’ve done this twice before. Now do you believe how much it hurts?”Archie nodded mutely as he clutched his stomach and then...

A baby boy was born.Further consultation of this list revealed that he was to be named Gok after Gok Wan the author, fashion advisor, TV presenter and all round lovely man.*

*Only people who have watched the British TV programs featuring Gok will have any idea why this kid is named after him. But he’s a pretty cool guy; I mean, I’m not exactly fashion conscious and I think he’s great! ;)

“We’re so lucky to have the kids aren’t we?” said Archie as he cuddled his wife that night.“Yes we are.”Farnsworth agreed. “Maybe we should have a couple more.”“Are you sure?” he asked excitedly.“Yeah, why not.”“Oh I love you so much Farnsie!”“I love you too.”Both sims went to sleep that night with different understandings of that conversation.

WARNING. THE FOLLOWING SLIDE CONTAINS AN IMAGE THAT MAY BE DISTRESSING TO SOME READERS.

YOU WERE WARNED.TAKE A DEEP BREATH.OK?THEN TAKE ANOTHER DEEP BREATH.NOW CARRY ON.

Despite having maxed out his mechanical skill, Elendil was tragically electrocuted whilst attempting to mend the dishwasher.

ANOTHER VICTIM OF SHODDY DISHWASHER WORKMANSHIP. Death sighed with a noise like a million hourglasses emptying their last grains of sand.

THIS OF COURSE DOES NOT SURPRISE ME, BUT IT’S UNUSUAL FOR THIS LEGACY. I WAS WONDERING WHEN EVERYHTING WOULD DESCEND INTO CHAOS.

Death sighed again, louder this time and the room seemed to shake slightly. Beetlejuice mewed and Death (who was fond of cats) reached into one of the kitchen draws and miraculously produced a live, rather confused looking mouse *. He placed it at the cat’s paws and got on with business.

*The mouse had been quite sure that he was a spoon and didn’t know how to go about being a rodent. He knew how to stir tea and measure out sugar but could he squeak? No.

For the next few days there was Elendil mania as the family relived their memories of him.

Heartbroken, Ginny had to deal with not only her grief but also Farnsworth’s sharpened awareness of the fragility of life. She went into overdrive on her daughter’s education, aiming to cram it all in ASAP in case she fell victim to an angry mob of pitchfork brandishing villagers demanding the bodies of their loved ones back- or the flu...

Godric’s aunts, uncles and cousins (as well as lots of other relatives who, by all logic, should have died generations ago) came to celebrate his birthday.

The little ‘darling’, whilst truly cute, was already proving himself to be quite the hell raiser. Splashing in puddles, eating cat food, playing in the toilet, sleeping in cat beds... Godric was a dangerous diaper dude- and then some.

Archie noticed that he was feeling a little queasy in the morning. He put it down to the slightly green pizza he had eaten. It had to be that because surely he couldn’t be pregnant again. No definitely not.

He was.

“But we agreed that we wanted more kids.” Farnsworth answered when her husband questioned her about it later on. “yes but you could have asked me before you- how did you even do this?”“Same way as before.” she replied calmly. “It was easier this time though. Come on, another child will be great!”“Easy for you to say.” he sniffed. “You don’t have to get all fat and need to use the toilet every 3 minutes and give up work and...” But his wife wasn’t listening. She was getting close now. Soon it would be finished.

In magical twin aging unison, Maggie and Jeanie became rowdy, disruptive teenagers the likes of which most parents would hate to have. They are regarded, in their clan, to be two shining examples of young Nac Mac Feegle and superb Keldas in the making.

Fion an Rob Anybody have also had another child, a cheeky son named Daft Wullie.*

*This is not an insult, but a highly respected ancient Feegle name.

Before his parents knew it, Gok was ready to grow up.

Lol, you may have noticed that Archie appears to be no longer preggers. I used the wardrobe adjuster to do ‘group everyday’ because half of them were in swimwear (and bad swimwear at that) so it took Archie out of his maternity without me realising. Sorry!

He was a quiet toddler in cute headwear.

Ginny’s grades were far from good and she was worried about her mother’s reaction. She didn’t usually notice and pushed on with the lectures anyway but Ginny couldn’t help but worry. If only she could stop. If only she could have the same happy go lucky attitude as...

Godric. He had recently grown up into a rather dashing young sim with messy dark hair inherited from Archie’s mother and a habit of getting into scrapes.

Godric glanced at his report card. “Hmmmm.” he said “F, F, F, F , F and ooh, and A* in art.” he crumpled the report before tossing it idly into the road.“How did you get an A* in art?” Ginny asked.“Oh, I forgot to do my project so I got an empty jar out the cupboard and wrote ‘Political promises’ on the label. They think I’m an artisitic genius or something!”Ginny looked up to glare at her brother but was met by the crooked grin that madeit impossible for anyone to stay angry with him.“Wanna play tag?” he asked. Ginny paused then shoved her work back into her bag and nodded eagerly.

Yes, most people found it pretty hard not to love this little scoundrel.

But he wasn’t the only beautiful boy in the house. Gok was a very well behaved toddler who was especially fond of drawing.

Archie was delighted to hear about his son’s musical ambitions and assured him that his uncle Fiyero and Great Uncle Elijah would help him to get started on his quest to become a rock god.

Farnsworth’s inventions were rapidly improving and Elendil’s ghost seemed to approve. She had downsized the Bolshevik matrix in her sentry bots and it had been over 50 days since one decided to liberate itself, kill its masters and create a paradoxical Marxian utopia.

“...and then you all go off to University, there’s a vote and then a simself announces the next heir.” Daphne finished. “You’re generation 7 so there’s 19 more to go and that’s how a legacy works.” “Ok,” said Ginny. “And what does the chef do?”“Which chef dear?”“The one in the garden.”“Oh, that chef. He’s Paul and he’s our gardener. He’s a chef really but he moonlights as a gardener and comes here straight from the restaurant; troubled economic times and all. He’s very good. He always knows exactly what to feed the plants.”

The results of the cat poll came in and Glitterglue was chosen to continue the bloodline of Batfink the Great.

The voice’s sister’s simself took Jimjams off their hands.

And the third simself took Beetlejuice.“Square! Square! Get the key! GET THE KEY!!!!”

“Ten!” squealed Daphne as Archie went into labour. “Ten grandchildren! Count ‘em, ten!”

Archie gave birth to a girl.She was named Galinda. Galinda is a character from Wicked which is both a book and a musical about the untold story of the witches in the wizard of Oz. This is the third name I have stolen from Wicked (if you don’t count ‘Shiz’ University)

In Wicked, she’s a spoilt, girly diva but she changes as she becomes friends with Elphaba. She later goes on to change her name to Glinda and becomes the good witch of the north who aids Dorothy, and her little dog too.

Gok, who insisted on being taken out of “that ridiculous hat” as soon as he could talk, was soon ready to become a child.

He spent the first week of his childhood sorting out his new look -although he wasn’t allowed to do anything radical with his hair yet- and then became very bored.

Until that is, he had an idea.

“Hmm, Well I suppose I have looked the same ever since I became an elder... Ok Gok, let’s change my look then.”“Great!” he grinned. “So why don’t you start by showing me what you have in mind and then I’ll go from there.”

“What?” asked Daphne as Gok’s eyes widened in horror. “It’s edgy. I saw it in Kerrang magazine on that Ville Vallo girl.”

“Ville Vallo is a man Grandma and this is just scary on a woman your age! No offence,” he added hastily.

“How about that?” Gok asked when he had finished.“That’s lovely Gok!” Daphne smiled as she admired herself. “Thank you!”

“And this,” said Farnsworth “Is my smelloscope.”“But I thought that space was a vacuum so-”“Now you’ll find that each heavenly body has its own unique aroma. Come and try it! Jupiter smells like strawberries! Saturn smells like pine needles and Uranus smells like-”“Uh, I have homework for tomorrow.” Ginny said quickly. “I have to go”

Farnsworth had a nearly met the same sparky end as her father but, as she pointed out to Daphne who nearly had a heart attack, it was the garbage compacter this time and therefore an entirely different matter.

Archie would have been a lot more concerned about his wife but he had been feeling rather odd lately and suspected her to be the culprit. But he was sure that she wouldn’t violate him like that again.

It turned out that she would and had. The toilet doesn’t lie.

-STINKY-

Daphne was randomly assigned popularity aspiration by the mysterious force that governs the sim world.

She felt awkward in her new body and thought it was a good idea to accept Gok’s offer to help her find her teenage look.

But she didn’t feel like herself in any of Gok’s outfits.

“Gok, you do know that great aunt Brook used to wear a jumpsuit like this?”“Really? Well that’s not such a bad thing. She’s a bit of an style icon... In a very out there way.” “This is hopeless! I can’t wear any of this stuff!”“Well what will you wear?!”

“This feels nice.”Gok sighed. “Well it’s not Paris fashion week but it’ll have to do.”

Daphne really enjoyed having such a big family.“Ahoy there grandchild!”

Farnsworth continued to ‘teach’ Ginny. “Mum I really don’t feel up to a lesson today. I’m about to be-”“Nonsense! This is a perfect opportunity to thicken out your medical training.”

“Is this right?” Ginny asked.“Eh wha? Sure, something like that...”“So now I add this one?”“mmmm”

“Well that wasn’t so hard!”

“No

Ginny managed to escape her lessons every so often by taking care of Galinda.

Farnsworth used this time to educate Godric and Gok- unsurprisingly, neither were showing much scientific promise.

Ginny was on hand for Galinda’s birthday which soon came around. With the traditional and dangerous toss in the air...

Galinda grew up to be a sweet little toddler. However, she did get rather stroppy when everyone wasn’t fussing over her.

Gok was perfectly happy to fuss over his little sister. She was his own gurgling, dribbling living doll.

“I am going to make you a star.”

And she loved it.

Making sure that there were no disapproving adults around, Gok used the kitchen island counter as a catwalk for his little fashionista.

Although none of the kids got great grades, it only bothered 2 out of 3 of them.

Godric just loved to have a good time.

And Gok only cared about his art and textiles grades.

“Morag, you look fabulous today. I love the contrasting colours.”

“Thanks Gok, I simply adore your scarf.”

Archie gave birth to a girl who both he and Farnsworth agreed would be the last child of this generation. She was named Giselle.

Her name came from a character in Enchanted, a film that the creator adored NO MATTER WHAT ANYONE SAYS.It’s a film about characters from the fairy tale world of classic Disney films coming into this one and is very funny. Even the creator (who is thoroughly miserable) sings along in this film.

Ginny was in to her distant and independent teenage years and Archie couldn’t dote on his boys. So, he fussed constantly over his youngest daughters.

This worked out just fine.

I thought we’d end with a little nerdy humour. It’s soooo true don’t you think? So that’s it for the exceedingly tedious 21st chapter of The Marmite Alphabetacy. I offer you my deepest apologies.BUT I have made a decision!Next generation there will be fewer children as this makes everything way easier!!! I’m back at school and therefore rarely get to sim. *sniff* Thanks for reading, it really does mean a great deal to me.

A million thanks to the makers of all the CC featured, everyone at boolprop.com and to Futurama for providing easy to steal gags.