History: The Fifth Anniversary

The company has grown large enough now to have a 'board of directors' - Barnaby, Lucille, Rosa and Dunya are board members. They also have a new legal advisor, Laurel Grisby-Roman, a retired governor who lives in Riverview at the moment.



When they hear that one of their biggest rivals in the Simbot-market appears to be in financial trouble, they propose a take-over, and their rivals have no choice.
This means they suddenly have a lot more personnel, including a few top-notch researchers. The Riverview company lab is headed by Lawanda Crosby-Ryan, who happens to be married to the company president. They decide to keep the research facilities in Riverview going for now, until their own new and improved factory is finished. They keep Dereck Ryan on, as vice president in charge of the Riverview facilities.



If all goes as planned, there will be a place on the management team for Dereck as soon as the Riverview facilities and personnel have been moved over.

In the meantime, the board is planning a big party for their fifth anniversary.

Cottoneye: The 3rd generation...

Gideon is very well taken care of, with his grandparents and great-grandfather to spoil him...



Shara really wants to have another baby, and after a while, Wilder agrees. I think he figures that if they get them close together, he'll get it over with that much faster... By the time Shara is ready to go back to work, she is pregnant again. She has another boy, and they name him Donovan.

Unfortunately at this point several things went wrong - so there are no screenshots. Also somehow one of the ghosts became corrupted, so I annihilated her. It was Aiden's mother, who is a ghost I created myself, so I'm sort of sad about losing her - and besides that, she and Hannah's mother looked cute together:



Anyway, life goes on, even if the afterlife apparently doesn't. Meadow still performs her science experiments on hapless furniture:



The entire family can be seen all over town, playing for tips:



Gideon learns to walk:



And one day, the Grim Reaper finally comes for Buzz. He was over 270 days old on a 190-day life span, which probably earns him a mention in the Simmish Book of Records.



All the ghosts in the home come over to say hello to Grim and welcome Buzz in their midst:





Both Meadow and Hunter are hoping to have at least five grandchildren. And after three grandsons, they're really happy to find out that Blossom had a girl. They (or rather the game) named her Jaimey, and she's a brave little girl who loves the outdoors.





There are now five ghosts in the house, but most of them only show up once a week or so. Only Garush, who (as a starvation victim) seems to have an obsession with food and cooking, is around almost every day. She's started to watch the Cooking Channel, and regularly cooks breakfast. Sometimes she goes a bit overboard, though.



One day, they get the message that Shara's father Aiden has died. Of course Shara is very sad about this, but she's also worried about her mother. Meadow thinks it's a great idea to ask her to move in with them. They have plenty of space... Hannah loves the idea of being closer to her grandchildren.



Hunter, the loner, isn't too thrilled about having her, but the only person willing to listen to his complaints is Wilder, who can't do much about it either.



Donovan ages up with Meadows blond hair.



That same day Heather has a baby. She has a boy, Gilberto, who is friendly and, like so many of his relatives, virtuoso.

Gideon develops some kind of strange growth defect - on the day before his birthday, his head starts growing and he changes into child pj's, but his body is still that of a toddler.



They decide to see whether they can fix it with some birthday cake the next day. If not, he'll probably need an operation...
Hannah thinks that a nourishing meal might solve the problem, but just as she starts to tell Meadow she's going upstairs to fix him a bottle, she suddenly collapses:





Instead of leaving right away, Grim decides to stay around and play the bass...



Hunter doesn't want to stay around to watch him. He moves Hannah's urn to their little private mausoleum. These are the urns of Vernon and Garush, Hope and Buzz, Lydia, Hannah and Aiden. They now have seven ghosts.



Later they hear that Heather Crosby also died this day. Hunter wanted more friends to develop his charisma skills better, but instead they're all dying...

But at least Gideon's birthday goes well. He grows up just fine, and gets the 'disciplined' trait.





When he goes to school that Monday, there are very few other kids his age. Just Jed Roman (son of Laurel Grisby and immigrant Kristian Roman), and his cousin Isaiah Cottoneye (son of Archer and Sheena). And two newspaper deliverers.
The three boys soon become best friends.

In the meantime Hunter, Wilder and Shara go to China together. Mostly to look around - they all have a wish to go there.
Shara excavates a little, and works on her guitar skill while raking in the tips.





Wilder plays the piano in front of the Academy.



When they get home, the family ghosts insist on trying out the new objects... It drives Shara crazy to see them make her Chinese vases dance and the gemstones tumble.




And then suddenly Meadow dies. (I missed her dying, but I did catch a glimpse of Grim):



They're all heartbroken. Not even Heather's new baby can cheer them up.



The game calls her Kelly, and she's friendly and excitable.

Donovan ages up to child the next day. They are all still so upset by Meadow's death that the forget to buy him a cake and throw a party. They do all come over to make a lot of noise, though.
His grandparents also visit, but Donovan is not happy with them, because they are making his new dollhouse dance so he can't play with it!



So he decides to go out and play with his brother instead. They have a huge garden, so they can spend hours just running around.



Then the family suddenly discover something else they hadn't thought about. Now that Meadow is dead, there's nobody with the 'fireproof homestead' reward any longer! They soon find out this is NOT a good thing:



Fortunately they're all unharmed. In fact,that same hearth catches fire twice, and still nobody got hurt.

A few days later Wilder turns into a full adult, and so does his twin sister Blossom. Wilder decides to get a new haircut.



In the meantime Hunter still misses Meadow a lot. He's started to learn to play guitar - somehow holding Meadow's instrument makes him feel closer to her.



Then suddenly he feels very strange... He drops the guitar and looks down at his hands. They seem to be sparkling and fading!!





And there's Grim.



With that, the Cottoneye Legacy is officially over. Now that neither Meadow nor Hunter are alive, Shara and Wilder don't see the need to stay in the bunker forever. Shara has always said that a bunker isn't a great place for kids to grow up - even i it is better than a rambling, haunted, clammy mansion.

Travis and Jonathon McDermott come over one night to tell them that they have been offerend a job setting up a hospital for a mining and trading company far away, and Blossom feels they should take the job - but she is reluctant to leave her brothers and sisters...
Since Wilder and Shara are both musicians, and can work anywhere, they look into their own possibilities.
When they discover that Wilder's favourite Composer, Roland Bradshaw, lives in the small 'colony' near the factory, the choice is easy.

All in all, about eight Riverview families are going to be moving to Simsville. Most of them will be working at the hospital.

Cottoneye: Leaving the nest

Buzz has finally made a picture of Hope that he is happy with. So Meadow is next on his list. He paints six portraits of her before he's satisfied. By that time Meadow is ready to strangle him... Or herself!





Wilder seems to have settled down somewhat - he doesn't really appear insane, like Archer sometimes does. You'd never know he was insane if it weren't for the fact that he likes to wear a tux to school:



Blossom, on the other hand, is starting to talk to herself, just like her oldest brother:



Meanwhile Meadow has made another promotion. She's now officially recognised as a "mad scientist", and she loves to experiment on the furniture.





Soon it is time for the twins to age up again. Wilder gets the 'angler' trait from his father.



Blossom, however, does not inherit any trait from either parent. After the maximum number of rolls, the dice give her the 'perfectionist' trait.



One person who immediately notices the change in his best friend's little sister is Noel McDermott. He's very impressed with Blossom's new looks.







And Wilder's classmate Shara Jones soon follows him to highschool - and Wilder is very impressed with HER looks, too.



They share a first kiss in the museum - where for some strange reason they find a portrait of Meadow painted by Buzz??? I never knew sold paintings could end up in the museum?



Anyhow, all the teenagers now have steady relationships. Archer still wants to become a one sim band, and he loves jamming with his mother:



Heather is learning to bake:



And Buzz samples her goods. Garush prefers something more substantial. (I guess if you starved to death, muffins and chocolate cookies aren't filling enough?)



Soon it is Heather's birthday, too. They have a party, and they invite Sheena, Shara and of course Noel. And Noel brings his younger brother, Jonathon. Heather likes Jonathon, and he thinks she's a cute kid.





After Heather blows out the candles, she starts feeling really strange...



Now let's see if Jonathon still thinks her a cute 'kid'???



However, while Noel is evil, and loves the fact that Blossom is insane (and for some reason insane Sims always seem to love evil ones, too...), Jonathon is not evil, nor insane, and he isn't sure about Heather - considering the rest of her relatives...



Heather, however, also totally escaped heredity this time around. The dice made her a bookworm. There's a small chance she'll develop the hereditary insanity when she ages up next, but Jonathon decides it's worth the risk.



Archer and Noel age up on the same day. Archer develops the eccentric trait. (As if he wasn't eccentric enough already?) Sheena ages up a few days later and seems to be ready to pursue their relationship. Unfortunately they have a really hard time finding some privacy in the crowded bunker!



Sheena thinks she would like to have a baby, and she tells Archer so (probably hoping that will make him propose?)



Somehow or other Archer just never proposes - the option just doesn't come up, no matter how 'extremely irresistible' they find one another. What does come up, is this:



And of course Sheena gets pregnant after a few tries... (Why play it safe, right?)
Still Archer is not proposing. Hunter gets really angry with him, and kicks him out...
I think Hunter's anger is partially caused by the fact that he's aged up to elder that same day, and it's not agreeing with him:



And within a few Sim-hours, a messages pops up that Sheena and Archer have tied the knot... (And that one of their relatives remarked that 'it was about frickin' time' that they did... LOL!!)
Sheena and Angel sell their home, which gives them a nice sum of money to buy a new house. And of course Archer moves in with them:



Buzz visits, to make sure his first great-grandchild has a crib, and of course he also buys a bed for Angel (who sleeps on the loft of the garage). Archer pays him back through the Bank of Twallan...



A short time later Archer and Sheena have a son that the game calls Isaiah. He's artistic and friendly.



Grandmother Meadow has aged up to elder, too.



The twins are next to have a birthday. Blossom gains the 'green thumb' trait (inherited from Meadow, of course.)





Wilder ages up with a great dislike of children. (Terrific trait for a Legacy heir who is already a neurotic, insane angler! *sigh*)





Blossom moves out first. She and Noel have a small private wedding, and she moves in with him and Jonathon. Noel has recently been promoted to intern, and Blossom decides she also wants to become a doctor, so she joins the hospital staff as an organ donor.







Wilder proposes to Shara, and she accepts, but somehow the rest of the day she refuses to have a 'private wedding'.



Hope is once again about to die - she'd already died before, at 195 days, but at that time she had a death flower. She doesn't have one now.



Buzz has meanwhile already gotten rid of his death flower a long time ago. He's never died, and is now 258 days old (on a 190-day lifespan). He never expected Hope to die first, and he's heartbroken.

Wilder tells Grim exactly what he thinks of weird guys in black hoods who carry off his sweet grandmother! Grim ignores him and wonders out loud what's for dinner. (Now who is more insane here?)



Wilder spends the next day at Shara's house. And once again he does not succeed in arranging a private marriage, but they do have a good time...



However, the next day when he sees Shara come out of the theatre and change into a pregnancy outfit right before his eyes, Wilder suddenly seems to see the light!



Their only regret now is that Hope didn't live long enough to see their baby...



They decide to go live at the bunker for now - Shara doesn't really want their baby to be born in the big, rambling Remmington house. She hated it when she was a child, and although a bunker isn't ideal either, at least here the ghosts are nicer than the Remmingtons. (Apparently she hates 'cousin Jasper'.)
In fact, both of Shara's dead grandmothers, Jolene Jones and Lydia Remmington, move in with her - only too glad to be rid of Jasper Remmington and his family. Jolene appears first - dripping all over the cement floor:



So they now have four resident ghosts, and all of them secretly hope that Hope will show as well!

They play a bit of 'musical beds' to accommodate the newlyweds - Buzz moves to Heather's old room, because lately Heather's been sleeping in Archer's old bed anyway - probably because Meadow did some kind of experiment with her own bed which made it *very* uncomfortable - Meadow just never got around to undoing it...

Shara and Wilder redecorate Buzz and Hope's former bedroom for themselves. They add a crib, too, because Shara doesn't want their baby to sleep too far away from them (although Wilder secretly does wish the baby as far away as possible!)



Shara says that after the baby is born she wants to make a career in pop music. Meadow gives her a new guitar and Wilder arranges some guitar lessons for her with his brother Archer at the theatre.



And then Heather ages up, too. She had already decided her Lifetime Wish was to achieve "a golden tongue and golden fingers". She now grows up to be an angler, which means she has officially escaped the family 'curse' of insanity.



Heather decides that with both her brothers and her sister-in-law in the music business, she needs to find something else. So she travels to city hall to become a podium polisher.
After another private wedding, Heather and Jonathon move in with Noel and Blossom.



And then it's time for Shara to have her baby. In spite of Meadow's protests about switched babies and other horrors, Shara wants to have her baby at the hospital.
And so they are off to the other end of town, where little Gideon Cottoneye is born.
He gets the 'good' trait from the game, but unfortunately the dice are against him, and his inherited trait is... insane!



Nevertheless, Shara is very happy with her little boy, and dreams of having a whole lot more...



Of course Hunter and Meadow are also absolutely extatic about their new grandchild. They both immediately roll a wish to have at least three more.
And while Wilder has gone to sleep already, exhausted by the ordeal of having to carry an infant home, his wife and his father have a little party in the living room...




.