The Ryman LegacyChapter 9B

By Mzyra

Cel-e-brate good times, come on!Mia

CalvinDJ

GINA

Over at university it was finally time for Calvin, Cindy and Haley to graduate. None of them got 4.0 GPAs, but none of them really cared – for them university was all about fun and love. Speaking of which…

Calvin took out his girlfriend of several years DJ Verse to a restaurant so that he could propose.

“DJ, please will you love me and marry me and be with me forever until we’re both really old and decrepit and have more grandchildren than we can remember the names of?!”

“Yes, yes, yes! I totally want all of that! And to finally get away from those annoying sorority girls, but, you know, mostly to be with you forever!”

They were very happy times. For once. But they weren’t the only ones…

Haley too decided to propose to her boyfriend Michael Cormier, though the decision wasn’t quite as obvious as Calvin’s had been – she’d been (not quite) secretly been having a bit of a thing with one of their fellow dormies, but she felt that Michael was the more sensible, grown-up choice. And he was far less likely to cheat on her, though maybe that was a little hypocritical.

Cindy had no marriage plans, despite how long she’d been almost in a relationship with Sandy Bruty, but she had other plans…

Ci: “Caaalvin…?”

Ca: “Yeeeess? What do you want now, Cindy?”

Ci: “You know how we’ve been best friends since practically forever?”

Ca: “Yeah…”

Ci: “And you’re going to have a family with kids to look after and everything… Can I come and live with you after uni? I can earn money and help with the kids or whatever!”

Ca: “Well if you don’t want to move back with your parents then I don’t see why not, though I’ll have to check with DJ first…”

Of course DJ didn’t mind and an extra pair of hands around the house would be useful, so everyone’s living arrangements were sorted for now and they could party as students for the last time before having to get real jobs and lives!

Back at the main Ryman house it was Winter. Very Winter. Luckily their barely-furnished wooden hut was good for heat, but it was still a massive step-down from their old home.

There was also a massive step-down in fashion as Calvin, DJ and Cindy moved back in with their graduation outfits.

Ci: “Oh god, I look like a freaking housewife!”

Ca: “I don’t know, my outfit’s not too bad… Maybe a bit more formal than I’d like…”

DJ: “I like the green still, but I have to say that it’s bloody freezing out here like this.”

Ci: “Agreed. To the shopping centre!”

A short shopping trip later everyone was a lot happier with their outfits, even if they still weren’t best suited for Winter.

Ci: “So we’re just going to go back, you guys get married and then we leave again?”

Ca: “Well yeah, that’s the plan.”

DJ: “But your little brothers and sisters are really struggling, aren’t they?”

Ca: “From what I can tell it is quite difficult, yes.”

DJ: “I don’t mind us giving up some of the business money if you want, Cal. I’d hate to think of them struggling while we live well somewhere else.”

Ca: “Aw, that’s so sweet of you D, and it’s a great idea. I’ll tell Mia later.”

Another little while later…

Allen: “So… Are we related to all these people? I don’t recognise hardly any of them…”

Mia: “Me neither. I guess they were at uni with Cal. Those two over there look like they’re about to start a fight though…”

A: “Yeah. I don’t get why the person in front of me is glowing and sparkling either. Aren’t you cold, by the way?”

M: “Well, now that you mention it…”

But they were cut off by the start of the ceremony.

It was a very nice day for a wedding, even if the snow on the ground was still substantial enough to cover the path of petals that had been laid for it. A couple of the guests had also refused to change out of their own wedding garbs and looked like they may be up next, but they were keen to get more use out of an outfit they only got to wear once (hopefully).

Quite impressive too that just by inviting half the family they managed to have the Mayor, a major sports star and a rock star all in attendance, though it meant that none of the other guests were particularly impressed by this.

SARA

TIANA

BRENDAN HALEY

CINDY MAYALLENMIA

But the couple would have been happy with no guests if they’d had to go without, they could only think of their near future together as man and wife. Calvin was certain that both of his parents and grandparents would have approved of his choice, had they been able to be there.

In fact, nobody could disapprove of the match, no matter what they knew or felt about the individuals involved. It was a great start to the marrying off of the main generation 3 that the remaining members would hope to replicate – though some weren’t thinking that far ahead yet.

Mia was now though. Her birthday wasn’t so far away and she hadn’t quite cemented that aspect of her life yet. She had a half-official thing going on with Juan Harris and neither of them were seeing anybody else, but they’d never really started going out and had definitely not talked about marriage yet. She’d have to get him to come over from Three Lakes soon so they could sort things out… But for now she could relax and party. And get some warmth back in her body after sitting in the cold!

Of course weddings were always the centre of any kind of drama and perhaps inviting Cindy and May to the same party hadn’t been such a good idea, but nobody else paid them much mind, just letting them ‘settle their differences’.

Which was a shame given how they were some of the only family members who looked like they might be related…

Inside the hut the financial state of the family was far more apparent, but everyone was too busy celebrating to notice too much. Especially when your new wife was shoving a load of cake in your face, not that Calvin minded that.

And any fights were broken up by the adorableness of children as Gina was finally allowed outside once bundled up in enough Winter wear to keep her warm at the South pole.

G: “It’s my birthday today too, Cindy! Tell everyone to stay!”

C: “Well I would, but some of them have kids to look after-”

G: “”I’m a kid and it’s my only teenage birthday ever!”

C: “Don’t worry, me and your brothers and sister will all still be here and that’s quite a crowd on its own.”

G: “Fine…”

Though if Gina wanted her eldest brother and new sister-in-law to be watching she’d have to wait a little while as they partook of a mini-honeymoon in a tent in the front yard (there not being enough space in the actual house).

Eventually it did get to be Gina’s turn though as she stepped up to her birthday cake.

Now what would she want from life? Family? Nah, she had enough of that already. Knowledge? No, school was boring. Pleasure? No, everybody seemed to be like that around there. Same for friends, it just wasn’t enough. Money? Money couldn’t buy you love…

And, thinking about it, that was what she wanted. Love. Lots of love. More love than one person could ever manage to give her. She needed a lot of people, and a lot of love from each. And it wouldn’t be too hard, would it? Everybody loved her, she was loveable. Awesome.

R: “Please change that outfit, you’re dressed like Jane from school and that is not what I need to be thinking about!”

G: “Hmm, there are worse things than the gypsy look, but I need something else…”

Everyone was going to love Gina when she looked like this. Though she didn’t really want to love everyone back. In fact, she was kind of picky…

Like who could ever love a guy? Boys were weird and ugly and stupid. Girls, on the other hand, were beautiful and intelligent and feminine and… so much better. In fact, Gina had one girl in mind already – Jenna Lum had been around their family for years since she was best friends with Mia and Rick, but Mia wasn’t interested in her and she wasn’t interested in Rick, but now there was a combination that could work.

G: “Hey, Jenna. I know I’ve only just grown up and stuff, but… I always thought you were really, really pretty and now that I’m older… I just thought I’d let you know how I felt. And have a flower.”

J: “Well, obviously I never thought about you that way before when you were a kid, but… you’ve turned out well. Really well, actually. I don’t think I’ve seen any girl that could compare to you in my life.”

G: “Oh, you don’t mean that…”

J: “I do! Seriously, I reckon you could have model potential if you wanted. But anyway, if you want, I’d quite like to go out with you sometime…”

Gina went bright red and giggly at all of this – despite her confident and even slightly aggressive attitude she could be surprisingly shy and sweet when taken the right way.

Back inside Rick and Allen were having a wasted conversation.

R: “Right, so how are we going to keep the boys away from our little sister?”

A: “Do we really need to? She might be more than able to handle herself…”

R: “Yeah, but some guys never get the picture and what kinds of brothers would we be if we left her to it? So I propose that at least one of us is with her at all spare times, even if we’re just glaring over her shoulders.”

A: “… She’s going to hate us if we do that, you do know that, right?”

R: “It’s a sacrifice we’ll just have to make!”

Even if Gina did need such protection, she was well aware of herself – she was very attractive and she knew it. Maybe Jenna’s modelling suggestion wasn’t a bad one. She definitely had a model’s attitude and she wasn’t about to ruin her figure by getting pregnant – good plan!

After what was a pretty lucky dry spell in terms of hauntings (being spooked when living in tents with a small shared bathroom would not have been good), Birch’s ghost started to appear again, but could not get to his descendents in their new hut – ungrateful children!

B: *What happened to our old house? Did that Alvin blow it up with his science-y experiments? I knew we shouldn’t trust him! This wouldn’t have happened if he’d loved grilled cheese instead of knowledge!*

Back in the land of the living, Allen took the opportunity on an unusually sunny day to go out with a group of teens from school* (and a random adult and a child), finally getting his popularity mojo working. Of course, that wasn’t the only reason he wanted to go…

*Last chapter we called the girl with the black plaits (who Rick’s kind of interested in) Callista – she’s actually called Celeste. Meh, we were close.

While Allen welcomed the chance to make more friends, he really wanted to see Audrey again, for once outside of school (rules against flirting and everything – mostly ignored, but obstructive anyway). And soon they were nauseating all of Allen’s new friends with their sickeningly sweet actions over their nectarine tartlets.

And by the end of the increasingly romantic outing Allen was officially in a relationship with Audrey McCarthy and both were very happy about that fact.

It was good to have some proper happiness and achievement in the life of a Ryman for once.

Which was now what Mia was going for – even skipping school in order to be able to get her not-quite-a-boyfriend Juan over from Three Lakes. He was very enthusiastic about seeing her again.

M: “Mmph!”

It looked like things were going well.

But apparently they weren’t.

J: “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Who ever said anything about us being boyfriend and girlfriend? Nah, I like you and all Mia, but I’m just not looking for that right now - if I’m ever going to be.”

So the day before she became an adult and could start a family Mia was well and truly single.

But how could this be? If she’d known Juan felt that way she would have found somebody else a long time ago… He was always happy to kiss her, probably wanted to do even more, but he didn’t actually want to be with her? It wasn’t fair. Even Allen had a girlfriend – and he was terrible with most girls! Who was going to love Mia now?

Deflated, Mia went inside to brood.

Where she was promptly jumped on by Juan again.

M: “MMMmph!”

Ugh, enough was enough. Nobody was just going to do this to her.

M: “Juan you’ve got to stop doing this! If you don’t want to be with me then fine, but you can’t just come along and kiss me whenever you want!”

J: “Why not? You like kissing and stuff, don’t you? It doesn’t have to be serious!”

M: “Yes it does! I’m leading a family and I want a family of my own! I need commitment and I’m only going to be intimate with a potential future husband and nobody else!”

J: “… This relationship stuff really means that much to you?”

M: “Yes!”

J: “Well then… I guess… I guess we could be together then.”

M: “You mean it?!”

J: “Well, yeah. I’m not- I’m not sure that I’m really ready for a relationship yet, but… If it’s a choice of being allowed to be with you and in a relationship or not being in a relationship and not being allowed to be with you… I’d rather be with you than not at all.”

M: “Aw, don’t worry. We can still do fun stuff together and have other friends and everything, but the relationship stuff is just exclusive.”

J: “It’s not like I want to be with anyone else anyway, so I guess it doesn’t matter, right?”

M: “Right.”

So Juan was now Mia’s Juan. He was still a bit of a… rough diamond maybe, but he was bound to be better when he became an adult. And if he loved Mia she might be able to improve him and his behaviour a bit. For his own good, naturally.

And adulthood was very imminent in both of their cases. Juan grew into the Three Lakes traditional style of clothing – which was functional and warm at least.

Mia threw more of a party for her own birthday, inviting over her best friends and Calvin (who moved out straight after Gina’s birthday). And Juan was reminded that he was far from the only person who would have happily been with Mia had he not wanted to.

Chandler: *Wooow, I wish she was my girlfriend…*

J: “Oi, are you checking out my girlfriend, Platz? She’s taken. Go for Vyn over here instead. Or Orlando, we all know how close you two are.”

C: “Hey, shut up! He’s just my best friend!”

J: “Oh, yeah sure-”

M: “Juan, I’m trying to have a happy birthday here-!”

At this Juan did quieten down a bit, but only reluctantly. Mia just had to remember that she had the rest of her family and she’d be able to make him better after they were married and everything. He’d settle down when they had kids.

So with a sigh she blew out her candles and got ready for the sparkly spin, closed her eyes in preparation for the growth-

And a new sight flashed before her eyes: she was crying, Gina was stressing out-

And just as quickly it was gone again and dissolving quickly from the grasp of her memory – all she could remember was that it was something bad, but that was nothing new when she saw things. Pessimism seemed to be the way to go when it came to her future, but it was probably only something small. And how could she be down when she opened her eyes to so many happy, smiling faces cheering for her?

It wasn’t the best outfit – not enough orange, even if it did show her legs that had grown even longer – but that could quickly be remedied later.

And who could be sad when the future looked this good? Okay, sure, she was living in a barely-furnished hut with two brothers and a sister and she had no job and her boyfriend was a bit too thuggish and aggressive sometimes, but soon she’d be married and her children of her own, Juan could get a job and then the money would make the house better and everyone else would get homes of their own. Marital bliss was so close she could practically touch it.

~~~End of chapter 9B and Generation 2~~~

Spare updates!

Over in Calvin and DJ’s new home pregnancy has come, been and gone, resulting in a little boy with skin tone 3, black hair and brown eyes called Wally Verse. And no, I don’t pick first names, Alvin & Calvin was pure coincidence and Wally is not a name I would personally pick for anyone who doesn’t make a habit of wearing red and white stripes and standing in large crowds. Poor child.

Haley also got married a little time before Calvin and DJ and now her and Michael are living with her parents Marina and Nery as well as her brother Brendan and his girlfriend Diane…

Which was quite fun for when both women got pregnant at about the same time. While Brendan achieved his dream of being a Hall of Famer, Diane gave birth to a little boy called Norman Tang and Haley gave birth to a little girl called Lola Cormier. Both have red hair and brown eyes and look more like twins than cousins, but Norman has slightly darker skin than Lola.

Marina and Michael are naturally ecstatic, even if Diane in particular is rather hesitant.

Oh, and an update on Tom, you say? What misery am I putting him through now? Well firstly I resent the implication that I’m always cruel, but he has been busy…

But it’s all been good (for a given value of good) – he got abducted by aliens, completed his lifetime want of becoming a City Planner while pregnant (take that, companies that assume pregnant people aren’t worth the hassle!) and has since given birth to a little girl called Tessa who has become a sweet and very alien-esque toddler.

Her name’s also sweet for more than one reason; besides it being quite close to Terry, it’s the same name as Tessa Ramirez, who was Tom’s one and only girlfriend when he was a teenager and looks to be the only girl he was ever in any way intimate with.

See? I can be nice sometimes.

Having said that…

Angry Nicola is angry. And yes, that floating floor tile is very much her floating floor tile. I can’t delete it even if I wanted to. Which I kind of do. Sometimes. But you don’t want to make Nicola any more angry than she already is.

While Calvin was trying to propose to DJ downtown some of the distant family members started showing up (as per usual). Sara demonstrates once again her lack of political savvy when it comes to picking guys – in uni she dated a shirtless guy with tattoos and a ponytail and now the town slob! It’s called standards, Sara – the Mayor can’t date just anyone!

Though it could be worse…

Bad Sean!

And finally I end a happy chapter with a goodbye message:

Don’t sleep tonight!