Friday, November 25, 2011

Chapter 1.6: Three Times The Trouble


As Elijah steps out of the dimly lit police station, the bright morning sun blinds him. He blinks a few times, trying to clear his sight, when he sees her standing by the corner of the building attempting to look inconspicuous. With her low cut shirt and bright red hair, Nadira Sabo never failed so miserably.

"Hello Nadira," Elijah says as he walks over to her. "Or is it Mrs. Parrott now?"

Nadira glares at him. "Kanoa and I decided to postpone the wedding for a few more weeks, so I can have a chance to settle into Appaloosa Plains. The vibe here is... different than back in my hometown of Neverglade."

"Well, what are his orders? I assume you're here on business?" Elijah asks, fidgeting nervously. Even though he's only known Nadira for less than a week, something about her makes him uneasy.

"Yes. I'm guessing you realize Kanoa had a hand in busting you out of jail?"

Elijah nods. "How'd he do it? I heard the evidence against me was pretty solid."

Nadira smiles, her eyes glittering with mischief. "Oh, you know. The usual. An eye witness placed someone else at the scene of the crime. Kanoa has many enemies, as I'm sure you are aware, and he is always looking for an excuse to rid himself of one of them."

Elijah frowns and tries to ignore the guilty churning in his stomach. "Fine. I'll just be going then..."

"Not so fast," Nadi smirks. "Kanoa wants to see you. Tonight, at the saloon."

Eli moans inwardly. He should have known that he wouldn't get off that easily.


Back at home, Elijah has a surprise waiting for him. He hears soft cries coming from the nursery, and as he walks through the door he feels his heart stop.

"Is that our son?" he asks quietly.

Scarlett gently lays the baby in his crib and slowly turns around. "Elijah?" she whispers. "Is it really you?"

He can tell that she's been crying, her pale cheeks wet with tears. "Scarlett, I-I'm so sorry."


He walks over to her and wraps his arms around her waist. She smiles at him, a look of shocked happiness on her face, and let's out a small sob.

"What happened?" she wants to know.

"I... I didn't do it sweetheart," he lies. "I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. An eye witness saw another man at the crime scene, and they arrested him instead. I was released this morning."

"I knew you had to be innocent," she tells him softly. "I knew you weren't capable of such a thing. Oh, Elijah. I'm so glad you're back!"

The familiar feeling of guilt returns, so strong it makes his whole body ache. Elijah fakes a smile, trying to look as innocent as possible. "What did you name him?" he asks.

"Nathaniel," Scarlett replies. "Just like we talked about."


As promised, Elijah heads to the saloon that evening to meet with Kanoa. He finds him upstairs by the bar.

"You wanted to see me?"

"Yes, we need to talk," Kano responds. "Why don't we play some shuffleboard while we discuss last night's... incident."


"I expected better from you," Kanoa tells him as they stand around the game table. "I've trained you well, given you all the tools you need to succeed, and so far you've been my star pupil. I had high hopes for you Elijah, but you cannot go beating up every man that hits on your wife. If you want to stay in my gang, you will need to exercise much more control than that."

Elijah nods, his face solemn. Kanoa continues, jumping into the heart of the matter. "I did you a favor, getting you out of jail, and for every favor I give I expect three favors in return."

"How can I help you?" Elijah asks, confused.

"I will figure something out," Kanoa replies gruffly. "I plan to keep you around for a while yet. You are my best thief, and the other guys in the gang seem to like and respect you. I will save the last two favors for some other time, but I do need your help with a particularly sensitive matter today."

Elijah watches him warily. "Okay..."


"I'm sure you've heard about Nadira and me?" Kanoa asks. Elijah nods. "Excellent. I need you to break up with her on my behalf."

"You... what?!" Eli doesn't know whether he should laugh or cry.

Kanoa chuckles. "Nadira, my fiancée. I don't want to be tied down right now, but honestly I've never been more afraid of a woman in my life. If I tell her it's over, she'll probably murder me with a toothpick and make it look like an accident. She did that to one of her boyfriends, you know. Not only is she a gifted criminal, she's got the temper of a hungry lion. She eats men like me for breakfast."

"What makes you think she won't take her anger out on me?" Elijah sounds slightly panicked. "I'm not immune to the deadly stab of a toothpick aimed at my jugular."

Kanoa grins knowingly. "That's why it's called a favor Elijah. Now get to it, or else you'll end up back in that jail cell for the next five years."

Elijah decides to get it over with and visit Nadi tomorrow morning. He figures his chances of survival are better earlier in the day when she might be slightly tired and off her game. He hopes so anyway.


Apparently, he guessed wrong. He finds her in quite a state. Not only is she pregnant, she's nauseated and her back aches. Nadira seems pretty pissed off about the whole situation.


"So, uh, Nadira," Elijah begins nervously. "I need to, uh, talk to you about something."

Nadi frowns. "What do you want Elijah?" she snarls.

Elijah glances around the kitchen, scanning the counter tops for knives, forks, toothpicks, or any other sharp instrument within grabbing distance. "Kanoa sent me here," he answers at last. "He, uh, wants me to tell you something."

Nadira rolls her eyes. "Okay..."

"Maybe we should sit down," Elijah says abruptly. "Or maybe you should sit down. Over here. In the corner."

"Elijah!" Nadi snaps. "Spit it out already!"

"Kanoa wants to break up with you." He speaks quickly and closes his eyes, bracing himself for a fight.


Instead he hears giggles which quickly turn into outright laughter. He opens his eyes and sees Nadira doubled over laughing.

"Oh my God!" she says wiping tears from her cheek. "You should have seen your face!"

"You're not mad?" Elijah watches her cautiously, still worried that she might hit him.

She chuckles. "Mad? Hell no. I was going to break up with that loser soon anyway. The kid is not even his."

Eli's eyes widen. "Oh..."

"Wipe that dumbass look off your face," she tells him, returning to her normal, temperamental self. "I may be pregnant, but I can still whip you in a fight if I wanted."

"Yes, okay. Sorry," Elijah says, showing himself to the door.


With that over and done with, life returns to normal around the McKinley household. Nathaniel becomes a toddler and inherits his father's eye and hair color.


And Scarlett's pregnant again.


This time they have a baby girl. They decide to name her Faye.


Right after Faye is born, Scarlett finds herself pregnant for the third time. She always wanted a big family, but she never realized how hard it was to be a mother.


Faye grows up and joins her brother in the toddler stage. Unlike Nathaniel, she inherits her mother's black hair and blue eyes.

The next day, Scarlett gives birth to another girl, named Anastasia.


Elijah and Scarlett hold a big party for Nathan's childhood birthday. Eli invites all his friends from work under the presumption that their just buddies from around town. On the far left, Ryder is now walking with a cane. Elijah and Nadira (who's pregnant again) cheer Nathaniel on while Kanoa and one of his thugs Patricia Bedlington sit on the sofa and watch television. They can't be bothered to come see the birthday boy blow out his candles.


Nathaniel becomes a child.


Also, Anastasia become a toddler. She has her father's grey eyes and her own bright red hair.


Nathaniel loves playing with his baby sisters.


You can't see me!


Soon, it's time for Faye's birthday. Scarlett is off at a horse show, so Elijah is all alone tonight.


...And this is what happens when Mom leaves Dad in charge.


But it's okay cause Elijah likes fire.


Oh yeah. Scarlett.

...She's probably not going to be happy that you almost burnt down the house.


But the show must go on!


 Faye is not pleased. Not pleased at all. She really wanted some of that birthday cake.


Scarlett is going through a midlife crisis right now and really wants to spend some money. She makes it up to Faye by buying her a tree house.


Nathaniel would rather stay in the house and paint. Faye thinks he's such a L-O-S-E-R.


"I will be a famous musician one day, and I will perform on big stages in front of lots of people!" Nathan proclaims.

"Will not!" Faye retorts.

"Yes I will!" Nathaniel replies angrily.

"Nu-uh!"

"SHUT UP FAYE!"


Elijah intervenes. "You need to apologize to your sister right now young man," he says. "We do not say 'shut up' in this household."

"But Dad..." Nathan whines.

"Say you're sorry or you are grounded for a week."


A close-up of Faye's face. Nothing makes her happier than the sweet joy of getting her brother in trouble.


Nathaniel has yet another birthday. He seems shocked at how fast he's growing up.


"MOM!" Faye calls. "Ana's picking her nose again!"


The next morning is Nathan's first day in high school.

"I don't want to join band!" he moans. "Band is for geeks!"

"Elijah McKinley, band is not for geeks," Scarlett reprimands. "And if you don't join music club then I'm not going to buy you that guitar you've been asking for."


"Mom! That's so not fair!" he complains.

"Well, life is not fair. Deal with it."

(Side note: Faye got CAAAAKE!)


Anastasia celebrates her birthday. She is rather pleased.


She immediately takes a liking to all things furry. She dreams of following in her mother's footsteps and becoming a famous horsewoman.


Now that her kids are out of diapers and in school all day, Scarlett decides to adopt another horse, a mare named Sarah. She plans to breed Sarah and her old stallion Spirit.

Scarlett tries to convince herself that adopting another horse made sense for the ranch, that it's not just because she feels empty and alone without the kids at home. Deep down though, she know it's not true.


Challenge Notes:

Nathaniel is the heir. *pouts* I have a particular plot in mind for generation 2 that requires a male heir, and I didn't get any other boys. Honestly, I'm kind of getting sick of blonde hair, grey eyes. That was Ryder's combination, and Elijah's combination, and now it's Nathaniel's combination. I swear I kept writing "Elijah" where I should have written "Nathaniel" throughout this entire chapter. Really, I'd be surprised if there isn't one of those mistakes somewhere in this update.

My favorite of the kids is Faye, by far. She's got spunk, and I think she turned out really well (as you'll see in future chapters). Also, all three of the kids inherited the "Pyromaniac" trait, which is funny because I believe there's only like a 1 in 3 chance that a child will inherit that trait instead of the "Immune To Fire" one. They get it from Elijah, who does in fact have the "Immune To Fire" hidden trait. Also, Faye and Anastasia got the "Burglar" trait, but Nathaniel did not. I guess Elijah wasn't high enough up in his career yet or something. =(

I thought about changing Ana's red hair to Scarlett or Elijah's color, but I decided I really liked having 3 kids with 3 very different hair colors so I kept it. I did tweak it a bit though to make it more vivid.

Also, Nadira Sabo is making a cameo appearance from the Sabo Random Legacy.


Outtakes:
 

Nadira plays with Nathaniel at his birthday party. Honestly, I think she's just a softie at heart. =)


See what I mean? This was totally autonomous. <3


This made me laugh. Apparently the horse really wanted to come to Nathaniel's birthday party. The second picture actually kind of creeped me out though. I don't know, horses heads always remind of that scene from the Godfather. o_O


My collection of gnomes. I don't remember how I got the bunny one. It just kind of appeared one day.

After I got three of the horse gnomes, I renamed them Chico, Harpo, and Groucho... The Marx Brothers. =D

11 comments:

  1. NADI!!!! <3 Aaaah she made me laugh so hard in this chapter. Geeze, Kanoa, man up. Although I did find Eli's fear entertaining.

    I really really love Nathaniel (Also i actually just named Yuki's first child that so I'll just go and change it now... >_>). He's such a cute teen and I can't wait for his generation. That said, Faye is totally my favourite. She's got such spunk!

    (Also: Anastasia's toddler hair. WHERE IS IT FROM? If you say the store I will cry.)

    I'm honestly surprised Scarlett still hasn't figured out what Elijah actually does for a living.

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  2. I'm glad you liked Nadira! I was really, really nervous about that, cause I wanted to get her personality just right. I'm so happy right now!

    Also, you can keep Yuki's child's name as Nathaniel. I don't mind. It's a great name, and I have no claim on it. :)

    Ana's hair is from the store, the new set that came out last week. Sorry, Cece.

    As for Scarlett, I get what you're saying, but you will just have to wait and see how that plays out. ;)

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  3. Glad to see Nadira! Fun cameo, I say.

    Gah! The horse head in the bed... I get ya'. *shudder*

    All the chillun's turned out so cute! I want Ana's hair too; I saw it in the store, but I wasn't sure if it would be cute in-game. I'm sold.

    I can't wait to see this plot line you have planned out for Scarlett and Eli regarding his *ahem* choice of career. : )

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  4. Too late! Already changed it. And I think you'll approve.

    *sigh* maybe I'll just go invest in a pre-paid credit card before Monday.

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  5. Really great chapter!
    Faye is really adorable. I'm also looking forward to seeing how long Elijah can keep up the lie to Scarlett about his career.

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  6. AWWW cute kids! All of the Archers have Pyro, but not immune to fire. Pyro never fails to pass down for some reason.

    And yeah... wtf Kanoa, man up. xD I'd be even more pissed if a guy sent a lackey to break up with me.

    I need to look up how to get the new gnomes. I know how to get the horse one because I saw people complaining about getting billions of them. xD

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  7. Yeah, I'm figuring out some way to get more SimPoints after Christmas, there is so many things I want in the store! That new tot hair is definitely one of them!
    Is Faye's child hair from the store too? It's super cute! I think Nathanial is super cute too, especially as a tot :)

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  8. Kanoa is such a wimp! Sending his underling to break up with his girlfriend

    Loved Nadira's reaction though

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  9. Thanks guys! =) Haha, yeah Kanoa really needs to gets some balls, but I thought the "coward" trait suited his personality.

    I'm glad y'all like the kids! Becky, I didn't realize that about the pyro trait. I thought it just switched out with the immune to fire trait. Guess I'm stuck with it now, huh? Oh well, it's a fun one to have. Also, yeah, I like the freezer bunny gnome. There's this cute pose with him riding a llama. I'll post a picture if you want to see it. :)

    Emma, Faye's childhood hair is from the store. I don't remember which set though.

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  10. I'll wait til I get the gnome myself. 0=)

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  11. Love the cameo! Especially since I just got caught up on Nadira's story yesterday! Haha

    Nathaniel will be a good heir, I'm sure, but I hear ya on the lookalike thing. I went from Dixie to Faith to Flora, all blondes! So confusing!! =)

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