Chapter Seventy - John Burb Is A Secret Pyromaniac

Winter arrived and with it, the harshest snowfall in Dragon Valley history.
Austin made one of many appearances.

Hello there, did you miss me?

Hi Austin, how's the afterlife?
I see the swimming pool hasn't frozen over. Besides, the afterlife is pretty .... meh

Really? How so?
Boring  ... miss my family too much, thought I'd pop in and check on them.
Ah I see.
Are you looking after them properly?

 *blinks* who me?
Sooo, what you doing now?
My favourite spot.

And that's what he did, parked his butt in his favourite spot ... namely the rocking chair in the basement. Nobody had the heart to get rid of it and rightly so. He looks so peaceful there.

Because of the heavy snow, school was cancelled. So Hannah made her way to the park to strum her guitar.
You won't get much money if the snow is covering your jar.
She ignored me and kept on playing.

 She then tried her hand at making a snowman.

Whilst Vanessa sat waist deep in the snow, playing with her IF doll. I forget their names, since they only bring them out occasionally. 

You are going to get a seriously frost bitten butt there young lady!
Annnd like her sister, she completely ignores me!!

Shannon has an admirer. None other than that merman that appeared a few updates back. Cortney Hendren.
She acknowledged his existence.

But that was it.
He in the meantime thought she was one hot looking fairy.

Shannon rolled a wish to make a Snow Angel, so I let her get on with it.

But for some reason it reminded her too much of Austin, and she burst into tears shortly afterwards.

She needed a break. A vacation. Somewhere .... different. Besides, she'd had a wish to travel to Egypt locked for a while now. So .... dialling the travel agents, she made resevations to go to Al SimHara.

Even after she'd arrived at Base Camp, she realised that she and Austin had planned to go here together in the future, and it made her sad.
She's having a really bad time of it....

To cheer herself up, she decided to donate 100 Simoleans to one of many charities.
What a nice fairy!

Another wish she rolled  was to visit the Sphinx.

It's sheer size took her breath away.
But she decided that just looking at it, wasn't enough. She wanted to tour the tombs inside.

And was faced with a wall of fire!!!

It didn't stop her as she wandered in further and found the trapdoor/latch thingy that shut off the flames.

Adrenaline was coursing through her veins as she went further and further, deeper and deeper into the belly of the beast.

The room of mysterious pools intrigued her as one by one she dived into them to explore the depths.

The full moon descended, and with it, came the arrival of mummies.

Not one.
Not even two.

But THREE of them!!!
They were harmless enough, wandering around aimlesssly, so she managed to brazenly walk past them and into the other tombs and rooms.

After spending the night there (she desperately wanted to explore even further) Shannon had to make her way back to Base Camp because the signal on her phone was pretty weak. She called home to see how everyone was, whilst behind her, a tourist and a local got into a fist fight.
I'm guessing it had something to do with haggling the prices there.

Although it looks as though she was being nasty to this local vendor, in fact it's the opposite. I decided to try out the Shaka Bra gesture. It looks weird ....

 Shannon finally got home, just in time for a double celebration.
Yep.
It was birthday time for the twins. No parties, no cake they just wanted to celebrate quietly together as a family unit.

And boy did they grow up into a pair of stunning teenagers. (although I did give the two of them a makeover a little later on)

Because of both of their indifferent studies at school, the game chose their traits this time and I waited with bated breath, just to see what it threw at me.

I was actually pleasantly surprised as Sophie got the Great Kisser trait.

Whereas Vanessa got the Daredevil trait!!
The minute they grew up, the llama mascot arrived on cue.
So Vanessa grabbed the opportunity to chat to him.

Wanna go to the movies with me?
Uh, don't you think you are a little young?
Hey don't patronize me, I can't help it if that's what's in my speech bubble.
I'll give it a miss. Maybe later, when you are old enough to stay out after 10pm.

In the meantime, right across town, Blaine was busy putting out a large house fire.
Methinks that John Burb is a secret pyromaniac, since it's always his house that is on fire all the time.
Seriously John, you've got to either get the electrics checked out, or stop playing with matches!!

The task was, Blaine needed to put out the flames AND rescue TWO people. Note: TWO people. 

Sadly, in this case, it only ended up as one person, since John decided to expire there and then - NOT from the flames, but from old age.

That gave this rescue/emergency mission a category F.

Chapter Fifty Two - Explosions, Invisible Jugglers And Two Surprises

Just to warn you, this is a long update with loads of pics. Simply because it wouldn't be feasible to break it up into several little ones at this point.

Hannah continued to make her presence felt as William, Austin and Blaine gather in the basement to fulfil their consecutive wishes. Blaine wanted to invent a toy, Austin just wanted to snooze in the rocking chair and William wished to discover a potion.

Whilst Blaine succeeded in his wish, and Austin, used to the screaming and yelling coming from upstairs, switched on his 'selective deafness'. William however, failed miserably in his quest and blew himself up.

*cough* Hate that sister of mine ... putting me off my 'vibe' (plots to create a potion that'll put an end to this misery)

After a quick wash and brush up, he sauntered outside to play around with his fairy magic.

Ohhh pretty!
Feeling hungry, William went back inside to grab some bread and jam. By now, Shannon had placated Hannah until her annoyance level dropped down a few decibels.

Whatcha doing dad?
Watching TV
Much quieter now, isn't it?
 Yup.

That was about the extent of their conversation as William  declared he was tired and went to bed.
Downstairs, Blaine had an outstanding opportunity he had to complete. Fixing John Burb's broken stereo, since it was the hot topic of the moment from anybody who happened to find themselves in the basement.
Firstly, he zapped himself. He blamed a loose wire, although oddly enough, it wasn't even plugged in at the time. (sorry, no pics, happened so fast)

He managed to fix it the second time around and set about trying to catch John - at 5:30am. I just hope John's in a good mood, that early in the morning!!

En route, he spotted a deer bounding along, but paid it no heed. You've seen one, you've seen them all!!

He found John, not at home as I'd anticipated, but outside the theatre, along with a captive crowd, watching .... an invisible juggler.

Um, riiiight. Seriously, all you could see were the juggling batons twirling around!!

Oh and wow, has he grown OLD (he's the one in the middle).

I suspect he's also going deaf and losing his marbles, since it took a while for Blaine to get his attention.

Plus (once again, sorry no pics here) a few Dragon Valley residents were not happy about Blaine being there. They were showing negative thought bubbles. Either it's because he interrupted a good show.... or they just didn't like a mechanical man encroaching on their territory. I'll let you decide which one.

It's the following day, and William was so tired that he overslept and missed the school bus - all this on his first day of school too!! Hope this doesn't turn out to be a habit. At the same time, Hannah was throwing one of her usual screaming fits. So Shannon was stressed out, tired out and not in a very good mood.

She caught him at the top of the stairs, trying to sneak out.

And where do you think you are going young man?
Hannah's crying.
Don't change the subject. I asked you a question.
Um, school.
Really?
Um yes?
Care to explain why you missed the bus?
I slept in mum.
That's no excuse. On your first day there too! I hope this isn't going to be a problem for you. Now get out of my sight before I think of a worse punishment. I want you to think long and hard as to what the consequences of your actions will be if you continue. You realise that?
Yes mum.

She really tore shreds off the poor kid, so he went to school for the remainder of the day, wisely keeping out of her way.

Blaine, in the meantime, managed to deliver the fixed stereo AND get to work on time.

Shannon rolled a wish to visit the Spa. However, an emergency popped up that told Blaine there was a problem there. The air conditioning system had gone awry and it was freezing everyone. Then it switched over to quickly defrost, causing flooding!

Good job Shannon didn't go there, isn't it?

Hannah can turn her temper on and off like a lightbulb. Just look at her now, happily playing in her toy box.
I'd originally split up the tasks of training between Austin and Shannon. Shannon would teach Hannah to walk, Austin would teach her to talk and they'd share potty training between them.

However, with Austin still working odd hours, he couldn't complete the talking part, so Shannon took over.

Can you say celebrity?
A little bit tricky for her don't you think?
Shut up, I'm the one teaching her o-kay?
Um, okay.... oohh tetchy.

Hannah studied her mother carefully, before picking her nose and giggling.
Finally Hannah grasped the whole concept of talking, and just in time. For at that moment, Shannon went into labour.

Look mummy, I can hover.
Not now darling, I'm having pains.

But mummy.
Not NOW. AUSTIN????
WHAT???? Can't you see I'm hungry?

Baby is on its way.
Yeah? What do you want me to do, you've done it before, just breathe and push. Getting something to eat.
Yep, we've got a crabby old man here LOL.

Poor Shannon had to endure severe labour pains because every time I tried to send her to the hospital, it kept cancelling out. So now, she's having the baby right here at home.

William, determined to get back in his mommy's good books, came home from school, had a bite to eat and started on his homework, studiously ignoring the screams coming from the next room.

It worked, because Blaine caught up with him a little later on.

Your mother says you've been let off the hook.
Um, thanks?

William is a little bewildered at the fact that his mother couldn't face him herself, but cast it aside anyways.

After much screaming, puffing and panting, Shannon FINALLY had the baby?

Yes, there's a question mark there.
Why?
Well, just look.

She had, TWINS!!!!
Vanessa and Sophie.

Both have their mother's skintone and by the looks of it, her eyes too. But whilst one is half fairy, the other is fully human.

Vanessa's traits are - Loves the Outdoors and Disciplined
Sophie's traits are - Loves the Outdoors and Easily Impressed

And all this effort, thoroughly exhausted Shannon to the point that she never made it to bed. Instead she collapsed on the floor!!!