The Return of Uncle Satoshi

With Fiona getting up there in age - she is finding that her energy level isn't the same as it was before. She sleeps a full night, yet wakes up with only half the energy level that she usually had. Her days are lonely without Simis there and she is longing for the day that she can rejoin her husband; though they had only met late in life. Simis was her one true love and losing him broke Fiona's heart. The only thing that is currently keeping her going is River and her grandchildren, but they are off at boarding school and it's not the same as having them home. She knows that River has her children and her husband and she knows that she can finally rest. One of her deepest fears was River not marrying a husband that would remain faithful to her, but Haruo had proven himself, that he was the type to stick around, no matter what.

The move to Riverview was hectic and it was hard on Fiona, but it helped to be back in her old hometown. She didn't know where River's father had run off to, but it was so long ago, she couldn't trust her own memory as to the circumstances of their marriage falling apart...and frankly with the family that River had married into, his absence mattered not a whit.

The kids came home temporarily from boarding school to know where they were living now. And Bella and Aidann made a graveside visit to Simis's new resting spot after bringing Mayumi and Simis with them (though they no longer show up in the family tree...as ghosts or anything - THANKS EA! :P ) Bella was heartbroken, but at least she still had Michael around and her surrogate family: the Chikamoris. The LIttle-Flemings had also moved to Riverview to allow Michael and NIcolle to carry on their romance.

Hiroko kept up her martial arts training as well as her friendship with River and Fiona... After all, they were all family; and family stuck together, no matter how tough the road of life got. And it was going to get harder as the generations would go.

The new house didn't have enough space to put all the portraits together, so the big wedding picture of Haruo and River took center stage in the Living Room, while a room on the second floor of the basement ended up becoming a makeshift portrait mausoleum.

Of course, River and Haruo kept their marriage strong with intimate moments including spending time watching the stars.

Fiona because of her declining health, spent a lot of time reading, but occasionally managed to get enough energy to ride her bike. But she knew these moments of strength would be fewer as her time grew short.

One morning, a long-haired Asian Sim opened the gate of the new home in Riverview and walked through. He stood a long moment at the fountain, with an air of "I have returned...finally..." Sporting a "circle beard" he grinned widely as he saw the person he'd wanted to see, Yasunobu, giving him a big brotherly hug. Yasunobu was happy to see his younger brother who had returned home from spending his life travelling the world. "Satoshi..." Yasunobu exclaimed slapping his brother on the back. "We hadn't heard from you for years..." "It's a long story, brother." Satoshi replied as he looked over at River playing the electric piano in the entranceway, intrigued at the beauty of the woman. Satoshi had always been a bit of a party animal and playboy. It wasn't long before he was engulfed in yet another hug, this time from his nephew, Haruo. "Uncle...welcome home..." Haruo had been a little toddler when Satoshi had left for his adventures. And Satoshi was shocked to see a full-grown young adult nearly mature adulthood. He gazed over his nephew's shoulder, while being hugged, to see the wedding portrait of his nephew with the familiar beauty beside him - the same one that was playing the piano in the entranceway. No...he would not tread on a sanctified relationship. "I have been gone too long..." Satoshi whispered just loud enough for his nephew to hear. "I missed your wedding, Haruo-chan, to this beautiful lady of yours. Forgive me, nephew". "Uncle, you've been forgiven long ago." Haruo replied. "Let's just the two of us go out and have some lunch and perhaps we may run into other members of our family, that you haven't met."

Before they ate, Satoshi had to stop in at the bookstore to gather a book to start working on his LTW which was to have golden voice, golden fingers. He had to master charisma and the guitar skill.

They ate at the Little Corsican Bistro and met up with Michael McIrish-Bachelor who was happy to meet yet another family member. They talked for several hours. Satoshi, tired from his travels, begged off and headed home while Haruo and Michael had a conversation in front of the bistro.

River worked out at the training dummy and finally mastered her Sim Fu; a joyous occasion for her.

The same afternoon that River mastered her martial arts, Satoshi decided to take a drive along the riverfront, with Haruo's Vaguester - after asking to borrow it, mind you. He parked it and went fishing.

Satoshi did find that he would definitely need to find himself a car.

Fiona was still hearbroken about Simis - the love of her life - their time together so short.

"Sors immanis et inanis, rota tu volubilis, status malus, vana salus semper dissolubilis,"

Fate – monstrous and empty, you whirling wheel, you are malevolent, well-being is vain and always fades to nothing,

The lyrics of Carmina Burana spoke volumes as to how Fiona was feeling about the endless rotation of life. Fate ever present in the back of her mind...that her life was at its final chapter and soon...would fade to blackness...nothing.

Grim Comes For A Soul

Yasunobu stared out the window feeling his age creeping up on him. He had 31 days before he turned elder. Having switched his LTW mid-life, he had managed to complete his "physical perfection". And he had dropped his gardening career to become a Chef who had worked his way up to five-star Chef earning a Minus One Kelvin fridge career reward. Finally fatigue overtook him and he went upstairs to bed.

The lights didn't remain dark for long as River woke up and headed over to the easels to work on some more paintings. With the influx of Simis' and Fiona's fortune the family fortune sat at near §99M. After discussing it with Simis and Fiona, Haruo invested in amenities around the town and started to improve the community lots. Geoffrey Landgraab had been calling up River to ask her for a date and frankly Haruo was quite satisfied to put one over on Geoffrey by executing a hostile takeover of Landgraab Research Science Facility. Evidently the one thing that Geoffrey Landgraab had not learned in business school was "don't anger someone with deeper pockets than you." So Geoffrey found himself with the uneviable position of working as an employee at the company which out of spite, Haruo kept its name as "Landgraab Research Science Facility". Evidently Geoffrey got the lesson in humiliation. "Don't hassle my wife again...or touch my father's wife."

Simis and Fiona, having found each other later in life had settled into a nice comfortable relationship, just enjoying each other's company and making the most of each day as it came. After all, when one reached elder-status every day was a gift...if one woke up in the morning.

Haruo, on the agreement of Simis and Fiona invested their combined savings to real estate ventures. Of course in the course of looking through the portfolio, he found that he had a partnership in Good Citizen's Warehouse Corporation. He smiled evilly as he looked over at Simis. "Thank you, Simis." he said to River's step-father. "I now have a way of taking them down from the inside." Simis having heard of the doppelganger ploys that the Emperor of Evil had used on the Chikamoris nodded in response, "Don't mention it..." Simis replied, maintaining eye contact with Haruo. Family was family and protecting each other was paramount. And considering the situation. If Yasunobu hadn't killed the doppelgangers, who knew what the doppelgangers would have done.

Of course...Haruo upon his return from buying up the community lots and putting in his bid for ownership at City Hall which as an upstanding citizen of Susnset Valley, the city council easily voted his way, he came home and paid his bills which including property taxes and income taxes was in the neighbourhood of §43,000+ . Well, it was what was defined as chump change for the Chikamoris.

Simis had not been feeling well...this afternoon...but he ignored the discomfort and the numbness down his left side. He'd been feeling chest pains for a few days now and this was nothing new for him. He took several deep breaths and decided to go swimming. Maybe the exercise would help relieve the pain in his chest. As he dove off the diving board he felt an intense pain shooting up and down his left side and all of a sudden he couldn't breathe because it felt as though knives were punching into him, and with alarm, he realized that he was in the worst possible position of his life. He'd ignored the signs of a myocardial infarction (bluntly put, a heart attack) and there was no way to get out of the pool. Clutching his chest, he gasped, inhaling a great deal of pool-water which compounded the pain in his chest as he couldn't breathe again and the water and chlorine didn't do any favours for his body. He writhed and tried to breach the surface of the pool but couldn't and the waters stilled. And it was not long before Grim appeared.

The tragic circumstances of Simis's passing was a shock to Fiona. They weren't married for very long and it was hard to believe that Sims was gone. Sunset Valley was starting to hold too many unpleasant memories for Fiona. Perhaps it was time for her to make a move wtih the rest of the family. There was a choice to make...their only choices were Bridgeport and she already knew that her son-in-law would veto that. since he did not like cities. And he wouldn't like Twinbrook either. She shuddered to herself. Perhaps she could convince Haruo and River to move to Riverview. It was more of a country vibe and there were nice lots. It had been a long time since she had been back home to Riverview which was where Fiona was born. Perhaps Michael and his girlfriend would like to come along too - they could always find a home there...as the prices were much more reasonable than Sunset Valley. But then again, Sunset Valley was all that Michael and River knew...but she knew that River would move in an instant, as long as Haruo and his family would come too.

Kids Come Home (for a while) and True Love

Sorry, but this isn't much of an update:

When Simis and Fiona moved back in because it was either that or the retirement home living (which isn't possible in the Sims), the kids came home from school for a break to see Grandma Fiona and Step-Grandpa Simis. Both Alanna and Brayden aged up to teen while at military school and came home looking like completely different Sims. Brayden, welll, he turned into a handsome hunk...and Alanna looked like a clone of her mother.

Bella McIrish-Bachelor while at military school honed up on HER martial arts and came home a green belt, spending some time working out on the martial arts dummy.

Bella and Aidann got really close...while the both of them were at military school and despite the ever-present eyes of their drill instructors, they did manage to keep up a covert relationship, but now that they were all home for the short term, it was enough for Bella to be near Aidann..

Simis didn't even react to the overt kisses of his daughter and Haruo's son directly in front of him.

Aidann had told his father when Bella came home that he was going to go back with Bella to military school. He wanted to be close to her. And when he told Bella the next day before they had to leave for Fort Starch, her reaction was better than he could have expected.

And she certainly wasn't ready for what happened next...