Realm of Dusk - Piercing of the Barriers

It's finally finished!  This is my final version of the "Piercing of the Barriers" video.  I'm going to get back to the Darkdusk legacy come the new year.

Realm of Dusk - The Darkdusk Legacy - Status Update

Hello everyone.  PSDuckie here.

I'm holding off on posting chapter 8 of the Darkdusk legacy until after I finish the Piercing of the Barriers video.  This is because the video reveals some Realm of Dusk history that I'm going to be referring to in chapter 8.

Thank you for reading!

Realm of Dusk - The Darkdusk Legacy - Chapter 7: Two Daughters and a Sun

Later that night, Cyrus and Maria have a bit of fun playing together.

The next night, Kelly isn’t feeling all that well as she cleans up the dirty dishes from Maria’s birthday party.  Maybe she ate a bad plasma fruit?  On top of that, the sink is broken!  Kelly fixes the sink and finishes cleaning up the dishes, only to find the toilet broken.  She is not having a good night!

As Cyrus goes to the park to perform, Kelly tries unsuccessfully to fix the toilet.  She is still feeling sick, and reminds herself to check for bad plasma fruit next time she robs the grocery store.  Finally, a sound from upstairs takes Kelly’s attention away from the toilet.  It’s Maria, who had been sleeping and is not awake.

Kelly can’t understand what Maria is saying, and so teaches the young Vampire how to talk.

Later that night, Kelly learns why she was feeling sick earlier.  She’s pregnant again; Maria is going to have a younger sibling.  Both Kelly and Cyrus hope for another daughter.  Maria is too young to know the consequences of either gender; if she were old enough to know, she would probably have hoped for a son.

The next day, Kelly sits down at the TV, and she is amazed by what she sees.

Host: “And we’re back at the 48^th Annual Realm of Dusk Entertainment Awards!”
Co-Host: “That’s right.  And now, the award for Best Acrobat goes to…”
Host: “The Great Darkness!!!”

Kelly, unsure about what she just saw, turns off the TV.  She knew Cyrus was good, but the best in the Realm?

Meanwhile, at the park, an elderly woman is enjoying Cyrus’ performance.  It is the last performance she will ever enjoy; she dies happily of old age.

As Cyrus mourns the old woman’s death, Maria plays with a new toy, a doll named Cosmo.  Kelly wonders where the doll came from; she didn’t buy it.  Maybe Cyrus did?

The next morning, Kelly feels the familiar pains that signal the coming of the baby.  Unwilling to give birth in the house this time, she and Cyrus rush to the hospital, hiring a babysitter to take care of Maria.

Kelly and Cyrus come home several hours later with baby Maya.  However, Maya isn’t the only Darkdusk child having a birthday that day; it’s also Maria’s birthday!  Maya’s birth leaves no time for a party; the Darkdusks simply perform the ritual and Maria grows into a child Vampire.

Meanwhile, at the border with the Realm of Night…

???: “Once I place this stone, the Vampires will be no more.”

The agent digs a small hole in the ground, and places the stone into the hole.  As the stone settles in, the sun’s rays grow stronger…

Will the Darkdusks survive this new assault?  Will they finally find out the identity of the agent?  And how will Maria and baby Maya grow up in this changed world?  Find out next time on Realm of Dusk!

Realm of Dusk - Piercing of the Barriers Preview

Hello everyone.  PSDuckie here.

I'm making this post in response to one of the comments on chapter 3 of the Darkdusk legacy.

Since I read that comment, I've been wanting to go into more detail about the Four Realms, but I had to come up with more lore before I could post anything.  Now, with the Time theme on ModTheSims, I am finally ready to reveal the preview for my first Realm of Dusk video!

Piercing of the Barriers

Millennia before Kelly and Cyrus Darkdusk launched their campaign to conquer the Realm of Dusk...

Realm travel was impossible, as the Barriers between the Realms were still intact.  However, a leak in the Barrier between the Realm of Dusk and the Realm of Dawn allowed a small amount of power to leak from Dawn into Dusk.  The inhabitants of the Realm of Dusk called this mysterious power "magic" and formed the Order of Magi to regulate its use.

One Magus wanted more power than the Order could ever provide.  He set out on a journey to find the source of all magic, and in the process, formed his own legacy...

Realm of Dusk - The Darkdusk Legacy - Chapter 6: Growth and Development

While Kelly takes care of Maria and replants one of her plants, Cyrus performs as The Great Darkness.  After all, there is now one more Darkdusk, and the house needs the money more than ever.  After the performance is done and Cyrus returns home, Kelly returns to the grocery store, which is still closed while the police are investigating the burglary and theft of the aspirin and laundry detergent.  Kelly decides to do some investigation of her own, just to make sure the police aren’t investigating her or Cyrus’ robberies.

What she finds, though, is much worse.

The aspirin and laundry detergent are indeed gone, and the police are focusing on that section of the store.  What the police don’t realize is that the real clue to discovering who did it is under the plasma fruit display – which Kelly is naturally drawn to.  She notices a card hidden under the display.  Upon picking up the card, she notices a distinctive symbol that makes her non-beating heart sink.

It’s the Sorenson house insignia.  Donna or Desirae had created that card, and then given it to an agent to place in the grocery store.

Kelly immediately realizes why the store was burglarized in the first place.  The aspirin and laundry detergent were never part of the reason; the Sorenson agent merely picked those items because they were far away from the produce section (and would probably sell well in the Realm of Night!).  The real reason was to draw police attention, and to get the police to close the store for investigation!  What the Sorensons didn’t count on was that Kelly’s and Cyrus’ Vampiric speed gets them past the police and into the store, making it even easier than normal to steal plasma fruit!

While Kelly is stealing plasma fruit from the grocery store – right under the police’s nose – it’s Cyrus’ turn to take care of Maria.  Once Kelly comes home, the two work on a new addition to the house: a room for Maria and any other children the Darkdusks may have.  After all, a Vampire house with only one daughter doesn’t live long.  The addition is finished just as Maria grows to be a toddler.

Kelly invites Daydream and Bailey, along with their friend Alice Fitzgerald, to Maria’s birthday party.  Daydream brings food (which, of course, is of no nutritional value whatsoever to Kelly and Cyrus), which Kelly graciously accepts, to the party.

Meanwhile, in the Realm of Night…

Donna: “The report on my wayward daughter?”
???: “Despite the mixture’s effects, the upstarts still live.”
Donna: “This will not stand!”
Desirae: “Why don’t we just kill her now?”
Donna: “She still may be useful.  Place this stone in the Realm of Dusk.”
???: “Yes, my lady.”

As Kelly and Maria sleep, Cyrus steals plasma fruit from the grocery store.  The police presence at the door is gone, but the store is still closed.

After stealing from the grocery store, Cyrus goes to a party at Faith MacDuff’s mansion.  He has no intention of actually attending the party; he instead intends to steal from the mansion!  With the aid of his Vampiric strength, he steals a mirror, a water fountain, and a loveseat(!), putting the items into a “stolen” car (which is actually not stolen, but Cyrus’ own car that he bought without Kelly’s knowledge) before speeding off.

Kelly teaches Maria how to walk…

…and Maria plays with her toys.

Who is the mysterious Sorenson agent?  What is Donna’s latest plan?  And how will it affect Kelly and Cyrus – and the rest of the Realm of Dusk?  Find out next time!

Realm of Dusk - The Darkdusk Legacy - Generation 2 Rolls and Traits

Even though generation 2 is still several chapters away, I'm sharing the rolls and some traits now.  I'll update this post as I'm able to share more without giving anything away.  Note that I am not sharing who the heir is.  This is because I have not decided yet.

The rolls:
Family Structure: Couple + Friend
Number of Children: Two
Primary Income (1): Medical
Primary Income (2): Private Investigator
Secondary Income: None
Generation Goal: AWESOME!
Miscellaneous Fun: Homemade

Maria Darkdusk's first three traits:
Perceptive
Heavy Sleeper
Athletic

Maya Darkdusk's first two traits:
Grumpy
Genius

Realm of Dusk - The Darkdusk Legacy - Chapter 5: A Change and a Child

As Kelly and Cyrus sleep later that night, Donna’s mixture permeates the air of the Realm of Dusk, altering the memories and desires of the inhabitants.  Luckily for the Darkdusks, they seem to be mostly unaffected, as do people’s memories of them.

After she wakes up, Kelly works on upgrading the toilet.  She doesn’t finish before Cyrus wakes up, grabs a bite to eat, and gets the mail.  In the mail, he finds membership certificates from the local gym.  He goes to hang them, along with his diploma and school award, up on the wall, but the Lord of Dusk intervenes.

You Shall Not Hang Those On The Wall!

Cyrus: “Okay…maybe that wasn’t such a good idea.”

Kelly and Cyrus then decide to try for an heir.

At work, Daydream Ivy is now Kelly’s boss at the Duskwood Fortune-Telling Agency, thanks to Donna’s mixture.  Kelly does get some new clients, though: Ronnie Gates and Bailey Swain.  For his part, Cyrus looks at his schedule and notices that he has one more performance than he remembers having.  Of course, he does marvelously.

When Kelly gets home from work, she sits down and reads.  However, she doesn’t feel well, and soon leaves the book to get sick.  Could it be?

Kelly waters the garden, awaiting the bump that she hopes will come.

And…

It comes!

Kelly invites Daydream and Bailey over for a party to celebrate.  (She invites Ronnie, also, but he can’t make it.)  Bailey even brings lobster!

Daydream starts playing guitar and everyone but Cyrus (who’s smart enough to stay out of the Realm of Dusk sun) comes outside and listens.  Now that she knows why Kelly wasn’t at work that day, Daydream gives Kelly her pay and puts her on a week paid leave, which Kelly happily accepts.

During the pregnancy, Cyrus tries to make Kelly feel comfortable.  He does all the heavy work, leaving Kelly to relax.  They both hope for a healthy daughter to carry on the Darkdusk legacy.

Despite the risk, Cyrus does make a grocery run; he knows that Kelly prefers plasma fruit to juice.  A policeman is standing in front of the store.

Policeman: “Sorry, we can’t let you in.  This store is closed right now.”

Cyrus ignores the policeman and runs in anyway.  The store has already been burglarized – but by someone other than Kelly!  Kelly only steals plasma fruit; this burglar stole aspirin and laundry detergent while leaving the plasma fruit alone.  Cyrus runs to the produce section, steals some plasma fruits, and runs out of the store in less than thirty seconds.  In five minutes, he loses the police, and in ten, he is back to Kelly.

Meanwhile, Kelly goes out (in the sun again!  Won’t she ever learn?) and harvests her garden.  Cyrus doesn’t have the skill to do this.  It turns out to be the first and only harvest that she will ever get from these plants, as the full moon returns, and with it, the Zombies.  This time, they eat her plants, leaving nothing but dead husks.

The Zombies don’t make it inside the Darkdusk house, and baby Maria is born the next day.

Meanwhile, in the Realm of Night…

Desirae: “It didn’t work!  I don’t understand why it didn’t work!  I mixed everything perfectly and it still didn’t work!  Unless…”

Will baby Maria grow up well?  Will Kelly replant her lost garden?  And who stole the aspirin and laundry detergent from the grocery store?  Find out next time on Realm of Dusk!

Realm of Dusk - The Darkdusk Legacy - Chapter 4: Return of the Night

Kelly realizes that she has no clue what a plasma fruit plant needs to grow – and that the grocery store has more plasma fruit, ripe for the taking.  With those realizations, she doesn’t plant the plasma fruit – she eats one of them.

Kelly: “Delicious!”

Cyrus resolves to rob the grocery store himself, but since The Great Darkness has a performance that night, the robbery will have to wait.  He satisfies himself with a pack of plasma juice.

While The Great Darkness is performing, Kelly goes to the local potion shop.  There, she finds a book full of potion recipes.  She starts reading…

…and keeps reading until the night is almost over.  Meanwhile, The Great Darkness gets the opportunity he had been hoping for – a weekly performance gig!

Kelly also has some good news at work.  The Duskwood Fortune-Telling Agency, having not discovered that she had been making actual readings the whole time instead of reading fortunes from the newspaper like she was supposed to, promotes her!  Now she’s allowed to make actual readings, so if she gets caught doing that, she can just claim she’s doing her job – because she is doing her job!

After coming home from work, Kelly and Cyrus celebrate.  After the celebration, Cyrus decides to go get some food.  As Cyrus leaves to rob the grocery store, Kelly finishes up her night and gets some sleep.

Cashier: “Oh no, another vamp…oh, it’s you, The Great Darkness!  Please, go right through!”
Cyrus: “That was easy!”

After using his celebrity status to get free food, The Great Darkness decides to do an impromptu performance at the park.  It’s a hit!

Kelly, having heard that the local science lab is paying for insects, decides to catch a few.  After she finishes selling them, she notices she’s low on food…time to go grocery “shopping!”

Cashier: “Not you again!”
Kelly: “Yes, it’s me.  Now give me the plasma fruit and no one gets bitten.” *shows teeth*
Cashier: “Fine, fine!  Take the fruit!”

Kelly and Cyrus embrace before they go to sleep.

Meanwhile, in the Realm of Night…

Donna: “I trust our plan to deal with the upstart is going along smoothly?”
Desirae: “Yes.  When we send this alchemical mixture through the Barrier, Kelly Sorenson will be dead within a week.”
Donna: “Excellent…”

Back in the Realm of Dusk, Kelly braves the sun to plant some alchemical ingredients, fertilizing them with some of her plasma fruits.

The next night, Cyrus goes to the grocery store before the park performance he has taken to doing every night.

Cashier: “Hello, The Great Darkness.  I love your performances; this load of groceries is on me.”
Cyrus: “Thanks!”
Cashier: “By the way, if you see that other vampire that keeps robbing us, please tell her to stop.”
Cyrus: “I’ll keep an eye out for her.”

Cyrus says nothing about telling Kelly to stop robbing the store.   He also says nothing about Kelly being his wife.

From the beginning, cleaning was something Kelly hated to do.  Now, she knows a way to make parts of the house clean themselves!  She starts with the shower, because that’s the most annoying thing to clean; her plan is to then move on to the toilet, sinks and stove, in that order.  Luckily for Cyrus, she finishes the shower upgrade just as he comes home needing to use the shower!  Because she doesn’t want to upgrade the toilet while Cyrus is in the shower (she needs to keep up some Realm of Dusk standards of decency), she goes for the kitchen sink.

As Kelly sleeps that morning, Cyrus tries to do the laundry and breaks the washer.  He’s too tired to fix it, however, and the broken thing leaks dirty water all over the floor.  When he gets up, he sees the flood and fixes the machine.

At work, Kelly meets a new client at the Duskwood Fortune-Telling Agency.  Daydream Ivy asks to have her fortune told; Kelly, of course, gives one that benefits herself and Cyrus.  Daydream is satisfied and tells Kelly that they should talk again.  Kelly, thinking that the Darkdusks should know some of the natives, agrees.

Kelly comes home to Cyrus still dealing with the mess on the floor.  She uses the opportunity to rob the grocery store.

911: “911, what’s your emergency?”
Manager: “Hello, this is Mike’s grocery store.  We’re being robbed!”
911: “All right, we’ll send police over.”

By the time the police make it to the grocery store, Kelly is long gone.

Later that night, Kelly and Cyrus attend a party that one of Cyrus’ fans is throwing.  The two Darkdusks mingle with the locals and then begin to dance.

As Kelly and Cyrus dance in the Realm of Dusk, Desirae walks up to the Barrier separating her Realm of Night from the Realm of Dusk.  She has the alchemical mixture in hand.

Desirae: “This should destroy my pesky younger sister once and for all!”

Desirae throws the mixture at the Barrier, and the vial that contains it shatters as it passes through to the Realm of Dusk.  The older Sorenson sister laughs evilly.

What exactly will the mixture do?  Will Kelly and Cyrus be able to survive?  And who’s the greater threat: Donna or Desirae?  Find out next time on Realm of Dusk!

Realm of Dusk - The Darkdusk Legacy - Chapter 3: Start of the Plan

The first thing the two now-fully-developed Vampires do is marry in a private ceremony in their kitchen.  Their house isn’t known yet, so there is no need for a party.

They also start working on Kelly’s plan to influence the people of the Realm of Dusk.  Kelly becomes a fortune teller, giving readings that always benefit the Darkdusk house.  For his part, Cyrus uses his Vampiric athletic skills to become “The Great Darkness,” an acrobat that will take the stage by storm, bringing in much-needed Simoleons while also making the Darkdusk name more known.  The plan is in motion.  However, Cyrus has his first (well, his first as a fully-developed Vampire) encounter with the Realm of Dusk’s sun, which he finds to be quite painful to Vampiric skin.  He makes a note that future Darkdusks will need to do something about that once they take over the Realm.

As soon as he gets home, he starts practicing.

That night, something interrupts Kelly’s rest.  It’s a phone call, but not any ordinary phone call: one from the Realm of Night!  It’s Donna Sorenson!

Kelly: “Mother?”
Donna: “I know you call yourself Kelly Darkdusk now, but you’re still Kelly Sorenson to me.  As long as you know your place, you’ll be fine.”
Kelly: “I’m the leader of my own house now.  We can be friends or not; it’s your choice.”
Donna: “As long as you stay in your own Realm, we can be friends, Kelly Sorenson.” *click*

The next day, Kelly and Cyrus go to the school one last time, this time for their graduation ceremony.  Both of them graduate with honors, as they expected.  Kelly is voted Most Likely to Take Over the Realm, and Cyrus is voted Most Likely to Save the Realm.

This worries Kelly.  Her own husband, who is just as evil as she is, could save the Realm from her?  To what end?

The Great Darkness’ first performance is a success, and Cyrus Darkdusk becomes a minor celebrity.  Still, he thinks the performance could have gone better.  Cyrus continues to put on performances and bring in Simoleons for the Darkdusk house.  Kelly, on the other hand, isn’t doing as well with her fortune-telling.

One night, Kelly discovers a Fairy that had been run over by a car in a parking lot.  Being the heartless and evil Vampire that she is, she turns and walks away.

Knowing that plasma fruit would be a better plasma substitute than plasma juice until the Darkdusks got some minions to drink from, Kelly purchases a gardening book from Cyrus’ old bookstore after walking away from the distressed Fairy.  This book takes longer to read than the alchemy book did, and it has nothing about plasma fruit in it!  What a waste!

After finishing the book, Kelly decides to try her luck anyway.  The only question is, where to find plasma fruit seeds?  She goes to the grocery store to look for the seeds and finds actual plasma fruit!

Cashier: “You have to pay for those!”
Kelly: “No, I don’t.” *shows teeth*
Cashier: “Okay, okay!  I get your point!”

Luckily for Kelly, the grocery store doesn’t call the police.  After the robbery, Kelly tells Cyrus about the crime.

What will Cyrus do about the robbery?  Will Kelly be able to plant the plasma fruit?  And what is Donna up to?  Find out next time on Realm of Dusk!

Realm of Dusk - The Darkdusk Legacy - Chapter 2: Completed Development

Kelly and Cyrus get away from the Zombies, and make it home safely.  However, with all the chaos of the Zombie attack, they forget to do their homework!  Luckily, they have established themselves as such good “students” that that didn’t matter for Cyrus.  Kelly, on the other hand, is the victim of an accusation of academic dishonesty.  The accusation is false, of course; it is simply a racist student trying to attack the new Vampire in class.  That said, Kelly does have to sit through an after-school lecture on why cheating is wrong while the school staff sort through the mess.  This lecture makes her late for work, and her boss is not pleased.

Boss: “You’re late!  I hope you have a good excuse.”
Kelly: “As a matter of fact, I do.  It’s called, ‘I quit.’”
Boss: “Fine.  Just please finish this shift.”

Meanwhile, Cyrus is up to something at his job as well.  Kelly has always complained about how they can’t afford an alchemy table, and Cyrus knows that the bookstore has just gotten some books on alchemy in stock.  Using the money he earns that day – money the house desperately needs – he buys the book.  Since he is an employee, they even throw in free gift wrapping.

Cyrus: “I can’t wait to see the look on Kelly’s face!”

Kelly: “I love it!”

The next day is the last day of school.  Kelly and Cyrus go and say goodbye to their classmates; their development as Vampires is almost complete.  All that is required now is to ritually complete the development.  As Kelly and Cyrus walk to the refrigerator, Kelly explains the ritual to Cyrus.

Kelly: “This cake is made from the Plasma fruit.  When you eat it, you become a full-fledged Vampire!”
Cyrus: “Aren’t I a Vampire now?”
Kelly: “You are, but your Vampiric powers are still developing.  The Plasma fruit is needed to finish the development.”

Cyrus eats the cake and…

However, the cake doesn’t have any effect on Kelly, as its ritual power is expended after completing the development of one Vampire, and Cyrus’ Vampirism had developed faster than Kelly had anticipated.  Cyrus quits his job at the bookstore, thinking that, as a fully developed Vampire, he can get a better-paying adult job.

The next day, Kelly tries the ritual again with another cake.  This time, it works.

Now that Kelly and Cyrus are fully developed, how will they lead their lives?  Or un-lives, as the case may be.  Find out next time on Realm of Dusk!