Welcome back to the Vetinari Dualegacy! This is Chapter 13.5: Threads.

Last time, Spider Jerusalem pushed Cypress too far, and the ensuing slap from his father caused the angry Reaper Child to turn traitor. A prophecy by Raven indicated that youngest Gen 5 Dora would be the Prettacy heir, but also implied tragedy should Tom become Permaplat before aging to Elder.

And now, on to the Uglacy!

"OK, lady, my brother's got a girlfriend, so hook me up too! Only with a boyfriend. And not Indy or Chad. A non-Indy or Chad Knowledge Townie!"

That looks painful.

The impaled paperboy is River Pons. He is indeed a Knowledge Sim, and he and Coco have two bolts.

This took practically no time at all. Gotta love that Knowledge Sim insta-chemistry.

Coco's clothes mesh is officially driving me nuts. Look at where the butt on those pants SHOULD be!

I hate that I am so addicted to the argyle.

"So, Coco, getting some dating in, eh?""Dad would be so proud.""Especially since it's lasted longer than thirty seconds, unlike most of his.""Alpha 'hood, Rocky.""Oh, right."

And it's First Kiss time for Coco and River the Paperboy.

River was just as eager for some smoochies as Coco. I might consider aging him up and sending him to college, but I think I can do worse than the Komei-face.

It's a good thing he didn't reject her for the kiss. Naughty paper carriers end up in Melody Tinker's Tombstone Garden.

They both started rolling all sorts of fun gropey Wants. I'm so used to this by now that it's not even funny.

"Hi, Grandma!""Making friends, huh? Now that's what I like to see!"

"You saw a ghost! That's almost as awesome as having a ghost spring through your chest to scare someone else!""Knowledge Sims rock!"

Coco chooses to dole out her very first noogie to River the paperboy.

He was unamused, to say the least.

I'm kinda proud. I knew she had it in her.

Noogies aside, River falls hard for Coco. And she thinks he's hot.

Once again, Rhea ruins what would otherwise be a touching moment.

Coco falls in love with River the paperboy while Rhea looks on, because he is creepy and wrong.

Remind me why I haven't killed you yet, Rhea?"You need me to placehold Havelock House."*fingers Smite option on Lot Debugger*"You wouldn't."GO AWAY AND STOP BEING CREEPY.

Words. I have none.

I think we can all agree that this is one of those shots that is better off without a caption, no?

"So, Helen, you wanna... you know... one more time before I'm old and crusty?""Yes. Yes I do."

Yup, Cory's birthday is less than a day away. I'm almost afraid of what will happen to that face once The Sag sets in.

"Hey! Isn't there usually some sort of family gathering for these birthdays?"Coco and Rocky are at work, and Helen's playing with Jesse. The next time the whole extended family gets together is when you all start to die."Cool it with the death-talk, I'm not old yet!"

Oddly, I feel like The Sag almost makes Cory look less unattractive. The Sag smooths out some of the cragginess. Granted, no one will ever mistake him for a Prettacy heir, but considering what COULD have happened, I think he aged pretty gracefully.

Speaking of Prettacy heirs, time to head next door!

"Nobody's made my bed. Why hasn't anyone made my bed?"I don't know."With all the neat people in this house, someone should have made my bed!"I'll make someone do it."You do that."

Jonny's not the only one out having fun. Calista's also haunting.

I have no idea what Raven is doing outside here. She had a specific Want to see Jonny's ghost, and he was haunting inside, so I sent her upstairs to try and see him. She went outside instead, and didn't get any Aspiration Points for seeing Calista's ghost.

Chad maxes all of his skills and goes Permaplat. This also maxes his fitness. So he's nice enough to really try avoiding a fight, but if you pick one, he's liable to kick your ass.

"It's my birthday today! I'll be able to cheat Chad at chess without having to sit on a stack of phone books!""...That really shouldn't be the thing you look forward to the most, Dora."

"Hahaha, I can hug Dad too!""Stop hogging the spotlight, Indy! This is my birthday!"

Chad: "Hi, Mom!"Raven: "Hi, Chad!"Indy: "You are such a dork, Chad. Like, seriously."Tom: "Wooooo! Dora grew up! Yeah! Go Dora! It's your birthday! Woooooo!"Dora: "Yeah, I'm really feeling the love around here. I didn't even get a cake."Tom: "Neither did Indy or Chad. But you're free to help yourself to my leftover poptart."Dora: "Whee. ...Can I go cheat Chad at chess now?"Chad: "NO."

She looks a lot like Raven, doesn't she? That's Raven's chin under there, and of course the Stabby Death Nose.

Andorra is a Gemini 4/10/10/3/1--the meanest of the Gen 5s, and also the sloppiest. Dora rolled Grilled Cheese.

OK, she didn't actually ROLL Grilled Cheese, but she rolled Pleasure, and I wasn't kidding about never having a serious Pleasure Sim again.

Yes indeedy, our little Dora is now a Grilled Cheese Sim.

This has been described as "hollowing out a Sim's head like a Halloween pumpkin," which sort of made me feel guilty, but the first thing that popped up in her queue was "Cook...Grilled Cheese" so at least she's happy, and also it means that not all Grilled Cheese Sims are comprised entirely of fail.

Just Gaius Caesar. If this makes no sense to you, go to the forums at boolprop.com, and read my Asylum Challenge, DrSupremeNerd's Home for Unrepentant Sociopaths.

Dora's happy with Grilled Cheese, Chad's happy with MichelleFobbs. At the end of the last chapter, she begged to be aged down so she could date him, which I did because I'm all nice like that and stuff. With a little turnon-tweaking, they have a three-bolt chemistry.

Chad might be super-shy, but it didn't take him long to roll Make Out, I can tell you that.

MichelleFobbs writes the Planetary Apocalypse.

Chad's not the only one dating. I figured Indy needed to get himself a kiss before college, so I had him Wish for Friends, and ask one of the Townies who popped up on a date.

Fortunately, Melody Tinker was nowhere to be found.

THAT'S RIGHT, MELODY TINKER. You'd BETTER stay away. You know what happens to EAxis Premades who make my Legacy Sims cry...

And, well, Indy and this girl, whose name in this incarnation escapes me but whom I will call Rose Goss, because that's what it is in my custom neighborhood, kept heart-barfing each other, but with the Wishing Well Insta-Friends, their complete and utter lack of chemistry didn't matter, and Indy managed to score his first kiss on a Dream Date.

"Are you ready for this, Raven?""We don't really have a choice, do we?""I don't think there's time for a rousing game of Cowplant the Townie, so, no.""I wish you didn't have to do it this way.""So do I, but I'm willing to do whatever it takes to keep our family safe.""I love you, Tom.""I love you too."

"Hey, Mom and Dad are kissing! All right!""...Yeah...""You're too shy for your own good, little bro!""...Yeah..."

Still with the blue clothes. Blue clothes that are being changed ASAP, but blue clothes nonetheless. It's as if they're growing up in clothes that match the surroundings lately, like they're trying to be chameleons or something.

"You know, some things just never change...""OW DORA GET OFF!"

I just couldn't see my little Living Dead Girl going gray; could you? For some reason the purple-streaked recolor of the hair doesn't show up for Elder. Bummer.

Tom makes a pretty good Elder too. And now he's got his last Charisma point, so the next time he goes to work, he should get the promotion he needs to be Permaplat.

And he does. Permaplat for Tom, shortly after becoming Elder.

Raven: "Well, your dad and I are old, and you're almost ready for college, so it's heirship-bestowing time. Dora's the fifth-generation Prettacy heir. Indy, Chad, I'm sorry. I had a prophecy moment, and that part was clear."Chad: "So I can keep my girlfriend?"Tom: "Yup."Dora: "And I'll be producing the platinum Grilled Cheese grave, will I?"Raven: "Uh-huh."Indy: "Shoulda rolled Fortune like me! Then you wouldn't have to worry about lactose intolerance."Dora: "That is so not funny, Indy."Chad: "But true."

"You boys will be set up with motherlodes after college. Immortality and Permaplat all around. Dora, it's not like you'll have to concern yourself with money issues, but being the heir does carry with it a certain death sentence for you and whomever you chose to marry."

"Way to cushion that blow, sweetie. Really, that's something you could have eased into just a bit."

"So it's to be the girl, is it?"

Raven: "Cypress!"Tom: "Seriously, stop letting yourself into our house!"Raven: "Not really the point now, Tom."Cypress: "I seem to have stumbled into a gold mine here, haven't I? I just wanted to remind you that I hadn't forgotten about you, but this... Now I can really start to plot some amusingly painful demise for you all, can't I? It's so much easier to plan how I'm going to destroy the Dualegacy if I have specifics."

"Dora, get back!"

"How touching. The expendable little spare willing to die for the precious heir. Not that it matters; I can just as easily kill two of you as I can kill one of you.""You are not hurting my family, Cypress."

"Listen up you freak, you don't scare me, not even a little bit, and if you wanna hurt my sister, you're gonna have to come through me!"

Chad: "And me."Indy: "What are you gonna do, Chad? Pretend to be slightly annoyed with him?"Chad: "I may not be nasty like the rest of you, Indy, but I'm not a coward!"

Raven: "Get out of my house. I can't make you stop plotting against my family, but I can kick you out of my home."Cypress: "No worries. I've gotten more than I came for. I need time to plan, regardless. You're safe... for now."Tom: "Safe for longer than that, whether you know it or not."Cypress: "Saying nonsense more than once doesn't make it true."Raven: "Get out."Cypress: "Oh, I'm leaving. But I'll be back. Count on it."

"Wait, wait, wait--being heir means I gotta deal with that? Mom, is it too late to make another prophecy and change your mind? That guy is seriously scary! And not like, 'horror movie EEK' scary, but like, 'Sleep with one eye open' scary. I don't want to spend every second of my life looking over my shoulder for him! Take it back! Let Indy or Chad be heir! Indy said he wasn't scared of Cypress--Indy can do it!"

"Are you kidding me? It was all I could do not to crap my pants! That guy's stone cold! You'd have to be nuts not to be scared of him!""Then why'd you say you weren't?""It's a testosterone thing. You wouldn't understand."

Dora: "OK, fine. Chad, why don't you be heir?"Chad: "Because my girlfriend thinks I'm adorably shy, and I like that my girlfriend thinks I'm adorably shy, and if I'm heir, I'd have to find a Legacy-legal girlfriend, and I'm nice, but I'm not that nice."Dora: "Come on, won't anyone get me out of this?"Tom: "Relax. Raven and I wouldn't have let anything happen to any of you. And I think the point of your mother making a prophecy declaring you the heir is because for some reason, you won't be in danger from him, and Chad and Indy would. I don't know how it works, but I know that you're safe now."

"How's that supposed to help me after you're dead? I can't do this! Don't make me. Please? I just want to eat cheese sandwiches and maybe meet a guy who doesn't mind that I want to eat cheese sandwiches and maybe have some kids who will eat cheese sandwiches. 'Deal with crazy Eeevil distant relative' is so not on the list!"

"Chill out, Dora. It's not like it'd be any less dangerous for Chad or me to be heir. And if Mom made a prophecy about you being heir, that means there's something special about you--something that makes you safe that wouldn't extend to us. Sure, Cypress comes around here and acts all scary and talks a big game, but he's never actually hurt any of us, right? I won't say you shouldn't be afraid of him, but maybe you should just trust in Mom's visions.""Indy's right. Cypress has never been able to hurt us. I know this is a lot of responsibility. Believe me, I know what it's like to be scared by it. But whatever it is about you, you're the one that has the best chance of getting this family into its next generation and beyond. There are a lot of good things that go along with being the heir. You get a family and the knowledge that you were an important part of this Legacy. It's not all just scary Cypress and death. You can be as fulfilled as you want to be."

Indy: "As long as there's not a tragic dairy shortage, Dora will be fulfilled."Dora: "I'd rather be a cheese freak than a miserable serious Pleasure Sim. At least I can keep a Platinum plumbbob for longer than ten minutes, Indy."Chad: "Well, I think you're both crazy for not being Permaplat!"Indy: "Geek."Chad: "Capitalist."Indy: "Guilty as charged."Chad: "Hug?"

Indy: "Fine, fine."Dora: "Ugh, I have to go to college with the pair of you."Indy: "And don't forget the Knowledge Twins!"Chad: "Study buddies! Hooray! Rocky and Coco and Michelle and Cam and I can get together and study!"Indy: "Oh, this is going to be fun, I can already tell."Dora: "As long as I can cram most of a grilled cheese sandwich down your gullets and eat the rest later, I won't care."Indy: "Dora, that's nasty."Dora: "We all have to make sacrifices, right?"

Time for a pitstop!

"Eddie, will you come swimming with me? Daddy won't let me swim by myself.""Can't, Mal."

"Aww, why not? I wanna go swimming! Don't you want to come swim with me?""It's not that; the heater in the pool is busted and the water's ice-cold. Dad called the repair guy, but he's not coming until tomorrow. We can go play catch if you still want to have a little fun.""Okay!"

"Heads up, Eddie! Here it comes!"

"That was a pretty good throw! Can you catch, too?"

"Eddiiieeeee! Ow!""Whoops."

Eddie and Mal inherited Malcolm and Sycamore's nice point deficiency. Among other things.

Pitstop over!

"Well, Indy, off to college already?""Looks like, Dad! Don't worry; I'll invite you to my graduation party.""I like parties."

"I want to go too.""You still have plenty of time left before you age up, Chad.""I'm Permaplat, I've got plenty of scholarship money, I've got a girlfriend—what's the use in sticking around here? I may as well head out with Indy. The more the merrier, right?""We're not forcing you to leave.""I don't think you could. I want to. I'm a Knowledge Sim; this is pretty much what I live for.""If this is what you want, then that's fine. Try not to drive your uncle Rhea too crazy."

Indy: "It's cool. I don't mind him tagging along."Chad: "That's hardly accurate!"Tom: "You boys play nice now."Raven: "We'll miss you. Stay out of trouble, all right?"Indy: "As much as possible. And we'll keep an eye out for Dora."Chad: "Which will probably involve eating more grilled cheese sandwiches than is good for us."Indy: "That goes without saying."

And now we kick it over to the Uglacy...

Flavius Marius: "I just Met Someone New!"Cory: "For this, I got dragged outside in my pajamas?"

Flavius is imported from Blite27's Ten Caesars; he's married to the SimSelf of professorbutters (Squeaky Clean Legacy). He likes Meeting Someone New. Cory likes someone to Play Kicky Bag with, so it all works out in the end.

"Thanks, Mom. Thanks, Dad. This isn't going to scar me for life or anything!""You should be so lucky to have someone who loves you enough to stalk you relentlessly for Make Out!""I do, but apparently he's not getting sent to college."

Cory: "Right, kids! You're almost off to college, so that means it's time to name an heir!"Coco: "If I'm not heir, can I have the paperboy?"Rocky: "If I'm not heir, can I have the blonde Romance Sim?"Cory: "...Why do you want Grandpa's old Minion Girlfriend?"Rocky: "Well, if you put it that way... I don't."Coco: "Great-grandpa didn't date the paperboy, did he?"Cory: "Why would he have dated the paperboy? Aunt Zee might have dated the paperboy, but not Grandpa."Coco: "DID she date the paperboy?"Cory: "Not to my knowledge."Coco: "Can I have him, then?"Cory: "Wait... what were we talking about?"Rocky: "Who's the heir. But then we all got sidetracked."Cory: "Right. Coco, you can't have the paperboy because you're the heir."

"What? Me? Come on, Dad, Rocky's way uglier than I am!""HEY!""Well, it's true! Have you looked in a mirror lately?""It's sort of hard to, what with the brows and all.""See? That's my point!"

"Whoa, whoa, I'm just the messenger here. I've been told--and I quote-- 'Plans. I has them. Muahahahaha. Monaco's the heir'."

...He could have left out the laugh, really.

"Hey! I'm getting old over here! Is there some plotty reason why I'm not in platinum Aspiration?"No. I, uh, thought you were growing up tomorrow, and, uh... Whoops. At least you're not in the red, though, right? I mean, uh, serves you right for having a stupid LTW!

OK, aside from the sartorial tragedy, the face is...

Cory aged up OK. Helen, not so much. Doesn't help that their skin gets ashier when they hit Elder, but I've never seen Loki Beaker as an Elder to start with, and, uh... it's bad.

Skeletor called. He wants his face back.

If she didn't have a mouth, her whole lower face would be concave.

I thought the brows were the worst part of the Beaker-face. I was so wrong.

Rocky: "Well, Mom, we're heading out to college."Helen: "I'm surprised you've waited this long."Cory: "Go forth and party! And date! And beat the tar out of the Cow Mascot!"Coco: "We're Knowledge Sims, Dad. We're pretty much going to Want to study and do term papers and go to class and do homework..."Cory: "No toga parties?"Rocky: "I'm sure we'll throw some toga parties too."Coco: "And, let's face it, we're mean, so there could well be some Cow Mascot-pummeling."Cory: "Hooray!"

"Bye, Mom.""Can you find a girlfriend? I'm bound to roll the Want to have a relative get engaged.""I'll see what I can do."

"Have fun, Coco. I enjoyed college. Lots of dating. Some of them were even good! I had the Matchmaker on speed dial.""I don't think I'll need to do that. Especially if there are plans followed by sinister laughter.""Eh, Supreme Nerd's not so bad.""I'll see you when I graduate, Daddy."

One last goodbye left...

"D'you think Indy will keep that silly hat when he gets to college? I mean, he thinks it's soooo cool, but he can't even wear it in the hot tub! 'Course, he won't be wearing anything else in the hot tub either, which I'm sure Chad will be freaking out about! Hey, does Havelock House even have a hot tub, Mom? ...Mom?"

"It is time for the chick to spread her wings and fly on her own."

"Dad, was that...?""A prophecy? Yes.""So I guess I'm going to college now, huh? Bummer--I didn't even get to score a First Kiss."

Raven: "I did it again, huh? Please tell me I didn't predict something awful like last time."Dora: "Nope. I'm off to college with Indy and Chad and Rocky and Coco."Tom: "They're not all dire predictions of catastrophe, Raven. I'm sure Dora will fit right in at the Academie."Raven: "That was it? Seems a bit less...big...than most of my prophecies have been. Where's the warning? Where's the vague metaphors regarding the future?"Tom: "Are you complaining about a relatively straightforward, non-doomy prophecy?"Raven: "I guess I shouldn't be, huh?"

"Tell your brothers we said hello. Also, the Cow Mascot is fair game. Don't worry, Dora, everything will be fine. I promise.""I believe you, Mom."

"It really will be all right.""Is it okay if I'm still scared, Dad?""Of course it is. I don't blame you one bit. Cypress is scary, responsibility is scary, not knowing what the future holds is scary. But you'll find someone you love whom you want to spend your life with, and then you'll have someone to stand with you against all the scary stuff. Then it won't seem so scary.""I'll be back soon.""We'll be here."

And the last of the Gen 5s heads off to college...

"How could they know? Why would they send the girl off to college so soon? Surely the greater benefit would have been to let her remain at home! How did this happen? My plot was foolproof, and now it's ruined!""Dad, would you just calm down? I know you're a big fan of ranting and all, but it's not really a useful thing to do.""How did they know what we were planning? How?"

"...It's Raven..."

"What?"

"Huh?"

"What's Raven?""What's Raven what? Did I miss a 'Knock knock' somewhere? Orange you glad I didn't say 'banana'?""Don't play dumb with me! You just said 'It's Raven'.""Did I?""This would be 'playing dumb with me.' I said 'How did they know?' and you said 'It's Raven'.""I don't remember that. I don't even know what it means."

"Have you been talking to her? Are you betraying me to that Prettacy brat?""No, no! I've never even met her, I swear! I remember you asked how it happened and then things just went sort of... gray. It felt weird. Foggy. And then you were jumping down my throat about Raven. Whatever happened in between, it wasn't me."

"So you're not completely powerless after all. Now we're getting somewhere! How did she know we were ready to strike?""I don't know.""How can we overcome whatever she's done?""I don't know.""How long will it last?""I don't know.""What do we need to do to destroy the Prettacy?""I don't know, Dad!""You were perfectly able to answer my question a minute ago!"

"Yeah, well, maybe you need to ask the right one! I'm not a fucking Magic 8-Ball; if I could perform on command, don't you think I'd have done it before now? I don't know what happened. I don't know how I knew the answer. That's the first time anything like that's happened to me, and to be quite honest, it's freaking me out a little! I was kind of used to the idea that I was normal, and it turns out that maybe I'm not, which I'm sure you're happy about, but I'm the one having gray-outs and saying things I don't remember, so you're just gonna have to forgive me if I don't jump on the 'Spider Jerusalem's a freak' bandwagon behind you, okay?"

"But why Raven? Why would that trigger something in you?""I. Don't. Know.""That was rhetorical.""I still don't have an answer. I don't know why I'd be connected to someone I've never met.""But what you said? She's the one stopping me from harming the Prettacy. How? She's obviously not a Reaper Child like you, so she shouldn't have any power."

"I don't have any power either, remember? Except for this amusing new ability to say things I shouldn't know about.""Yes, but you should have power and don't. She shouldn't have power and does. Perhaps I backed the wrong horse.""I think it's a little late in the game to try and change Raven's mind about anything. You didn't just burn the bridges with the Legacy, Dad, you napalmed them, hacked down the flaming wreckage, and buried land mines at the far end. I seriously doubt Raven's going to join you... us.""You almost sound as though you wouldn't like an extra set of hands here."

"Hey, just trying to inject a little sliver of reality into whatever fantasy world you find yourself living in today. Besides, it's a moot point—Raven's got her family and you've done your best to ensure that she won't be making nice with you any time soon.""You're probably right about that. Pity. I could do a lot with someone with real power on my side.""Anyway, how could we have known that she's got some sort of mojo?""Jonquil did. And Tom. They both said something to me that didn't make sense at the time, but it does now. Raven has a way to protect her family. Some way that we can't beat. When she dies, I imagine all bets will be off, but we can't hasten that process, now, can we?""I'm guessing not.""We'll just have to see how far that protection extends...""You're plotting again, aren't you?""Oh yes. We'll see what we can do. Raven might think her family is safe, but I'll find a way. Perhaps you'll manifest more abilities--ones more useful to me than this."

"Yup. I'd love to add to my list of superpowers: angst, anger management issues, total social ineptitude, and gray-outs. Superman's got nothing on me! All I need is a Spandex unitard with the underwear on the outside and a white Persian cat, and it's world domination time, baby!"

"Your sarcasm is tiresome."

"Try to imagine how much I don't care. If you don't mind, I'm going to go upstairs and quietly freak out now. When you're done plotting, tell me what I need to do. Perhaps I'll have calmed down by then.""This is hardly the conduct of someone Eeevil.""Again—don't care."

What is happening to me? Why now? Is this it, or just the tip of the iceberg? If there's more to come, how can I hide it from Dad? If he knows I can do more, he'll plan on it. I'll have to use my powers to his benefit or I'll end up dead. Much as I'd like to have the ability to help Cassidy, I won't get the chance if Dad knows I've got real power. I won't be able to stifle his attempts to destroy the Legacy if I have the power to hurt the people in it with a thought. I'd never be able to sabotage that. I'd have to kill them, or he'd kill me.

If I get more power and it does come from a dark place, I might not even care that I've become a killer. If that happens, no one's safe. If that happens, I won't care that Cass...

Why did I ever wish I had power? No matter what, it's more trouble than it's worth.

This game just got a whole lot more dangerous.

Checking in with some other Cypress-spawn...

"Well, Didi... Want to get started on that family?""Like you have to ask!"

*blaaarrrrf* "Yaaaaaay!"

"Oooh! Bump!"

"Are you happy now that you're pregnant, Didi?""Well, I was happy before, but I'm excited to be a mom! I wonder if my mom felt like this when she was pregnant. My real mom, I mean.""I'm sure she was.""Do you think they loved me?""Who wouldn't? Why are you so concerned with your birth parents all of a sudden?""I know we're going to love this baby, Nolan. It's not even born yet, and I can't imagine leaving it on someone's doorstep. What could have happened that made them do that to me?""I don't know. Whatever it was, it wasn't anything you did. Maybe they thought it was the right thing to do. And the right thing to do for this baby is to be here with us.""You promise?""Promise."

"You know what we need, Nolan? Names!""We could call it Drake if it's a boy, after your dad. Or Isaac, after your grandfather.""I dunno. Wouldn't it be weird if I met my real dad and his grandson was named after somebody else? What about Matthew? I don't know anyone named Matthew. Or Carla for a girl.""I sort of like Hazel.""Hazel? Yeah, like that won't get her teased! I can see the 'Witch Hazel' jokes now!""Hey, I like it! And Daniel for a boy.""Now that's a nice name."

"I don't really think it matters what we call the baby, Didi. We could call it something horrible, misspelled with unnecessary apostrophes, and we'd still love it.""I know. I love you, Nolan.""I love you too.""But I'm putting my foot down about apostrophes.""Understood."

"Should I call you later, Delirium?""Whatever, uh...""Zeeshan.""I knew that."

"Well, hey there, Professor. Do I get an A?""The Final Exam is worth fifty percent of your grade.""Good thing I've been studying, then."

"MOMMYYYYY!"

"All right, you little poop machine. Happy now?""Potty.""The sooner you learn this, the happier we'll both be."

"Who's my good girl? Why don't you play with your rabbit head for a while, huh?"

"Hey, uh, your kid's not gonna wander in here, is she?""Nah.""Because that would be sorta weird.""Look, you wanna do this or not?""Well, if you put it that way... Yes."

"Oh, crap. Not again."

"Didi, you're huge!""Are you calling me fat?""Just pointing out that there's more of you to love! Also, not fat. You're growing another person inside you, and may I just point out how unbelievably cool that is?""There is a telescope upstairs if you're so inclined.""Oh, I am so not inclined."

"You're content to let me have the babies, then?""I am thrilled to let my beautiful wife have some beautiful babies."

"Well, at least it's almost over. Ugh, who does this on purpose? I feel like my bladder's the size of a pea."

"Mommy, can I talk to your tummy?""Sure, Nu, go ahead.""When does the baby come?""Not soon enough, I can tell you that."

"NOOOOLAAAAAN!"

"Hey, Didi. That's a baby you've got there.""Yup. Little boy."

"You wanna hold this one for a second?""Sure. ...Wait, 'this one?' "

"Bonus baby!""This is kinda crazy right here."

"Well, I guess you get to be Matthew."

"And this one's Daniel."

"I HATE THIS PART!""Mommy?""It's okay, Nuala. It'll be over soon. And then--ugh, more potty-training. Gah, I don't know what's worse!"

"Hey there, baby girl. Welcome to the neighborhood. I guess you need a name, huh? How 'bout Chantal? ...Please don't barf on me."

We'll leave Didi and Del with their babies for now. And next time, we'll head off to Academie Le Tour to start Gen 5's college years!