4.5--I Can't Hold All These Feels

Dasia goes through a renovation kick after finishing Ellis' exercise room.  She may have gone a bit overboard.


Here's the outside.

The upstairs nook area - that is never used.

Ellis' new bathroom.

The kitchen.

Aaaand the living room.

While Dasia spends her time making the house mildly headache inducing, Ellis works on her fitness.  Just look at those muscles!

It's been over a week since Logan left and he's only called this once to let Ellis know that he can't make it for his son's birthday.  Ellis feels like she should be surprised by this development, but she isn't.  She's not sure how she's going to explain it to Harlan though - all he does is ask for his father.

The next day, Harlan celebrates his birthday.  

And so does Lachlan.  

Lachlan decides to try using his new teenage manipulation techniques to ask his parents to buy him a car...

...Dasia and Duncan just look at each other and laugh.  His parents are smarter than he originally hoped.  On to Plan B - the guilt trip.


"But moooooom! Daaaaaaad!"  He says, pouting his lips.  "I want to be more self-sufficient and independent. Don't you both want me to be a successful adult?  And what better way than to give me something to be responsible for?"


Duncan sighs.  "All right.  All right.  You can stop with the pathetic frown.  I'm okay with it if your mother is."


"Great."  Dasia laughs.  "Put all the pressure on me! Tell you what, kiddo - you prove to me that you can be responsible and I promise that your father and I will discuss getting you a car.  In the meantime..." She adds, interrupting Lachlan's premature celebration, "... focus on getting your driver's license first."

Lachlan's not entirely sure his attempt was a success, but he'll take what he can get.

"He's going to be a tough one."  Duncan laments, smiling sarcastically.


"Nah. Our Lachlan is a good kid.  I mean, he's nowhere near as troublesome as my siblings and I were; so at least there's that."


Duncan laughs. "And I thank my lucky stars everyday, trust me."


"Me too." Dasia smirks.

"So, uh - how is everything with you, 'Sia?  We haven't spoken in..."


"...a few weeks." Dasia frowns. "I'm fine.  Everything is the same.  I'm getting commission after commission for biographies and my latest novel did well."


"Yeah I know.  I read it. It was really good."


Dasia smirks.  "Even the part about the oblivious woman who fucked up a good friendship by getting involved, but doesn't have the balls to say so?"


"That was my favorite part." He laughs.  "Although I think the male counterpart should have the balls, as you say, to acknowledge that he shouldn't have pushed for something more if he knew she wasn't ready or shared his feelings."


Dasia shakes her head.  "I'm in the wrong here, Duncan - and I'm willing to admit that.  You were just being honest and I was just being willfully oblivious.  I'm sorry. Can we just, I don't know, start over or something?"

Duncan extends his hand with a snide smile. "Hello, Dasia.  My name is Duncan and I'm the father of your child."


Dasia laughs as she shakes his hand.  "Very nice to meet you, Duncan."

Harper rocking out - because she's one badass grandma. 

Gideon joins Pacey outside, who has recently taken to the guitar as well - although he knows he'll never be as proficient in music as his mother or brother.


"Judging by the sad-sack tune you're playing and that frown on your face, I take it things with you and Anne aren't going well?"  Gideon quirks his brow.  His brother never really displayed his emotions, other than through his art.  It was always difficult to tell when he was depressed due to his overly dramatic tortured artist persona and formal manners.  

Pacey peers down at his guitar sadly.  "Anne and myself have decided that being in a relationship would ruin our art.  Happiness doesn't breed true creativity; misery does.  So we broke things off."

Gideon smirks.  "Wait - you both broke up... for your art?"  Pacey nods.  "Well, I always thought your role was to be the weird one in the family; now I think it may be the insane one."


Pacey scoffs. "Insanity and genius are often one and the same.  I don't take that as an insult, brother."


"Hey, whatever helps you sleep at night." Gideon shrugs.

Harlan's retirement to his room didn't escape Lachlan's notice.  He feels bad for his cousin, knowing that Harlan is most likely disappointed with his father's lack of presence.  


"Hey - I got you a present."  Lachlan says, barging into his cousin's room dramatically.  "It's not much.  I got it on a field trip to the Science Facility when I was your age and when Aunt Ellis told me she was getting you that chem lab for your birthday, I thought maybe you'd appreciate it."


Harlan opens the box excitedly.  "A model of a DNA strand?!  It's awesome.  Thanks, Lachlan."


Lachlan shrugs.  "It's no big deal."


"It is to me." Harlan smiles.

As soon as the guests leave, Dasia feels herself engulfed by the familiar sparkles.  Somehow, planning for her son's and nephew's birthdays made her forget that she was celebrating her own that very day as well.

Getting older doesn't feel so bad - not yet anyway.


-----------------------------------------------
Aaaand I'm cutting this one short since all of my pictures after this point don't really make sense in this chapter.  I should have planned this one out better. *shrug*


As discussed briefly last chapter, I had this grand story planned with Logan - maybe grand isn't the right word, but whatever.  Anyway, he glitched and is no longer on any of the Harris' relationship panel and resetting the town, him, and Ellis did absolutely nothing and no one can interact with him - for some reason.  Since I can't be arsed to do anything beyond what I've already tried - I just scrapped my old story and rewrote him as the standard absentee father and then changed a future generation to have his story.  Poor, poor future Harris'.

4.3--Adamaris & Uther

 

"May we sit?" Adamaris asks, gesturing to the couch behind them. "What we have to say might take a while."

Harper nods mutely and ushers them all to the living room, a little embarrassed at their lack of decor, but otherwise wholly surprised to see her sister - still virtually unchanged from when she last saw her as a teenager.  "So I take it this isn't simply a family visit?" She's hesitant for the answer, but it's too late to take the question back.  The look on Adamaris' face tells her she's going to break whatever news they came to tell anyway, so she braces herself for the worst.

"No." Adamaris sighs. "I wish it were so, but things - are a bit difficult right now and Lord Vincent wishes to make sure that everything is still relatively normal with you and your children."


Harper scoffs. "I'm not uprooting my family.  I'm not putting them through what we went through."


"Thankfully, that is not in order."  Uther replies softly.  "Not yet anyway."

"Then why are you both here?"  Cedric's worry is evident on his face.  Sure, Uther said he was going to keep in touch when he left all those years ago and Adamaris promised to visit - but he never believed it.  Not for one second.  If they're here, then it must be for something serious.

The two vampires look to each other for reassurance before continuing. "For one -" Adamaris begins, looking sadly at her sister. "- to let Harper know of our parents passing.  Mother outlived father by a few years, but died a few days before your most recent birthday."


Harper sucks in a surprised breath.  Surely, she knew her parents had died before now - but hearing it confirmed was much tougher than surmising it in her own head. "I figured as much." She states lamely. "Where are they buried?"


"In Shang Simla.  It was noted as such in their wills to have plots next to each other at the local cemetery.  Lord Vincent and myself took care of the arrangements."


"Wait -" Harper interrupts. "- you two got to see them, but I couldn't?"


"It was for your and their protection.  And I did not get to visit them while they were living.  They needed to think we were both dead - and they did.  It was for the best."

Cedric places his hand on Harper's to calm her before she says something she is going to regret and then turns back to their patient companions when it's clear that her anger is under control once again.  "And what's the second reason for the visit?"  He asks skeptically.

Uther brushes his hand through his hair, waiting for the words to come to him.  "Things are a bit tense back home."  He says slowly. "It seems some outside of our coven have figured out about Lord Vincent's past after the situation in Anne Arbor.  It's fueled hatred among our own kind - even more hatred, I might say.  We don't have the time to get into the details, but people are going missing and we were sent to make sure that whoever is doing this isn't targeting any one person specifically."

"Me, you mean."  Harper offers. 

Uther shakes his head and smiles sadly.  "You, yes - but there are others like you here.  Your children, some of their neighbors... it seems there is quite a few partial-breeds living among you."


"And these 'enemies' are only taking those like my wife?"  Cedric places his hand on Harper's knee - as if making sure that she's still there.  He may not have been awake for the brunt of the attack in Anne Arbor, but he saw enough of the aftermath to know that he certainly doesn't want anything like that happening again near him or his family.


"Not necessarily.  They have taken quite a few - but there seems to be no method to their kidnapping.  And it isn't widespread enough for us to warrant moving you somewhere else.  Our investigation here in Meadow Glen has come up empty, so we aren't worried yet."


"But Lord Vincent was worried enough to send you here."  Harper protests.

Adamaris leans forward and stretches her hand toward her sister, patting her gently on the arm.  The coldness of it doesn't escape Harper's notice and she frowns knowing the reason behind it.  "We won't let anything happen to you or your family if we can possibly avoid it."  Adamaris promises.  She locks eyes with her sister, smiling peaceably before leaning back. "Lord Vincent will be sending a dispatch here as often as he can.  The issues are mostly between our kind for the time being, and hopefully it will remain that way once our investigation turns fruitful."


"In the meantime -" Uther interrupts. "- go on as normal, but keep a watchful eye.  If anything strange turns up, write to this address."  He hands Harper a piece of paper.  "Keep your correspondences short and infrequent.  We'll notify you if anything comes up on our end."


Harper takes the sheet of paper and folds it in two, and then places it in the end table next to her side of the couch.  She takes the key from under the pot and locks it safely.  "Okay."  She nods.


Adamaris and Uther get up from the couch, heading toward the front door.  "I really wish we could stay longer, but it's almost daylight and we must make our way back to Bridgeport to help out."  Adamaris frowns. "I'm not sure I'll see you again before -"


Harper grimaces. "- I die?"  Admaris looks at her hands, the frown still etched across her features.  "Well, I guess this is goodbye then."


"I guess so."  She says looking up at her sister, taking in all of her wrinkles and laugh lines - Adamaris lets her jealousy take over her emotions momentarily.  Her sister got to have everything that she wished to live for - a husband, children, a long life; but most importantly, she gets to die and have her eternal peace.  And Adamaris will live long beyond her, stuck the way she is now; never to change.  When her thoughts become too much, she smiles blankly, pats Harper on the arm one last time, and finally makes her way outside.  She tells herself now what she told herself long ago - it's better that she leaves.

Harper and Cedric stand by the door and watch as the two vampires make their way into the night.  When they can no longer see them, Cedric releases a sigh of relief.  "Vampires - all they do is make me nervous."


Harper smiles, grabbing his hand. "We're going to be okay, right?  Our kids won't come to any harm?"


"I believe your sister when it comes to that, at least.  We're going to be fine - and they'll make sure of it."  He raises his hand to brush his wife's cheek, relishing in the years that her wrinkles show; knowing that he's been the main culprit behind the ones etched around her eyes and mouth.  "Let's go to bed."  

Back at home, Lachlan and Dasia are doing homework in front the dishwasher.  0_0


"What?" Lachlan smirks when his mother gives him a confused look.  "The noise helps me focus."


"Riiiggghhhttt."

Like mother -

Like son.


While his mother is preoccupied writing her next biography of a local Meadow Glen'onian; he spends time on the computer surfing the web and talking to "friends."  Both of his parents aren't aware of his recent connection to the "simonymous" group that's been hacking the major corporations around Simnation. "What they don't know won't hurt them."  He mutters.

Ellis and Logan are still going strong and even though he only has a couple more days in Meadow Glen, she feels herself getting attached.  Logan is still a bit of a mystery to her however, and she isn't sure she's ready to trust him; not emotionally anyway.

The night before he leaves, her inhibitions give way.  "Do you - want to stay over?"  She asks, shyly.


Logan smiles, pulling her closer.  "That's one question you never need to ask."

When things get hot and heavy, Logan pulls back.  "You don't need to do this, you know?  I can just sleep here with you and be satisfied."


"But I won't be."  Ellis smiles.  She slowly moves her hand from his shoulder up to the back of his head and gasps when his body inches closer with every gentle touch she applies to his neck.  "Kiss me."

-------------------------------------------

The next morning, they both get up bright and early.  Logan has to catch the train at eleven and he still has to stop by the hotel to get all his stuff gathered for the trip home.  "It's been fun."  He smiles, placing his hands on either side of Ellis' face.  "I don't know when I'll be back in town, but I would like to see you again when I do."


Ellis nods, frowning.  "Of course."


He kisses her gently in an attempt to wipe the frown from her face, but it doesn't work.  "I'll keep in touch and try to come back as soon as I can."


"Right."  She enfolds her arms around him, pulling him into an embrace and he willingly obliges. "Goodbye." She whispers.

Just a couple days after he leaves, Ellis goes to bed feeling... odd.  She supposes it's just the fact that she misses him -

- but when she wakes the next morning, she's sure it's something else entirely.

Welp... here we go again.


-----------------------------------------

Okay, so I thought I should clear some things up since a friend of mine was a bit confused when editing this chapter for me.


Uther is part mortal (a "half-breed"), therefore he still ages.
Adamaris was changed, so she does not.  


Uther stated more than a few chapters back that vampire/mortal children are a possible solution to the vampire population problem in that human conception is usually much more successful than vampire/vampire conception (which is extremely rare and extremely dangerous for both baby and mother); as well as an alternative to transforming others (as that is also dangerous and doesn't always work).  However, the rate in which vampire/mortal children actually take to the blood and become as Uther is, is also exceptionally rare.  In most cases, a mortal child is born with dormant vampire blood (like Mya - Ellis' great-great grandmother) who pass that on to their children etc. etc. The blood becomes stronger with each generation it passes on to, much like a normal aging vampire, which makes them a threat in more ways than one - if they survive being turned, they could possibly tip the scales against those that have been running the covens for centuries; so on and so forth.  


It will be elaborated more as the legacy goes (as may be obvious by Ada and Uther's -erm- hints that something else is going on).


TL;DR: Vampires in my legacy hate each other, for one reason or another.  Add that with a touch of crazy (i.e. Vittoria'esque radicalism) and the majority dislike of humans and half-breeds alike; and an all out brawl is bound to happen eventually.  Thasss all I'm sayin'.