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!

Realm of Dusk - The Darkdusk Legacy - Chapter 1: Reality Check

Kelly finds a suitable building to start their house…that is, suitable once Cyrus finishes some remodeling work.  All of the windows are removed and destroyed, and a second floor is added above the bedroom.  The final result:

Unfortunately, the remodeling takes up most of the stolen money, and both Darkdusks have to get part-time jobs.  Kelly despises this fact, thinking herself above working as a receptionist, but recognizes that the Darkdusk house will fall before it gets a chance to rise if she does not do this.  Cyrus, on the other hand, had always been treated as a second-class citizen in the Realm of Night, and as such is used to working low-paying jobs.

After getting their jobs, Kelly and Cyrus go to the gym.  Kelly works out, and Cyrus practices his speech in the mirror.  Although Kelly’s Vampire nature has not developed fully, it has developed to the point where she and Cyrus can tone their bodies and practice their speech faster than Humans.

The two aspiring nobles also have to go to school with the Humans.  Again, Kelly is upset.

Kelly: “Why do I, a noble heiress, have to go to the same school as these…”
Cyrus: “It’s the perfect cover while we develop our house.”
Kelly: “I suppose you have a point there.”

After coming home from work, Kelly and Cyrus know they should work on their homework to build said cover, but they are just too tired.  Even a Vampire has to sleep, after all.

When they wake up, however…

After finishing his homework, Cyrus decides to test out his Vampiric body.  After all, if the house comes under attack, it is his job to protect Kelly and any daughters they might have.

After all that, the two Darkdusks are able to watch some TV before school.

Cyrus: “The TV in this Realm is terrible; it’s actually funny how bad it is!”
Kelly: “Yeah.  Doesn’t anyone own any good entertainers?”

As Cyrus is about to respond, the bus comes.

Kelly and Cyrus: “Remember, look normal.”

Kelly and Cyrus are actually amazed by what they learned in school: slavery, an accepted institution in the Realm of Night, is illegal in the Realm of Dusk and had been for decades.  Even the people they had seen on TV earlier that day are free and working for money!

On the way home, Kelly decides to try her mind-controlling powers on the Human bus driver.  She figures that she needs to hone those skills, but he just drops the busload of students off at a random spot.

Kelly does get some amusement, however, as a Werewolf runaway from her home Realm chases a young Human woman with skin pale enough that she could be mistaken for a Vampire down the sidewalk.

That amusement is lost when Kelly gets home and does something she’s never done before: taking out the trash.  She finds this extremely aggravating.  Why does she have to do it?

Because she doesn’t have anyone to do it for her, that’s why!  Cyrus is off at work, and the house is starting to smell.  This is a serious reality check for Kelly; building a house is a lot harder than it seemed back in the Realm of Night.

A few days later, Kelly experiences another first: a Realm of Dusk full moon.  She knew from her history class back in the Realm of Night that the Realm of Dusk had been the site of a battle between the Vampires and the Fairies, and that weapons from that battle are still rumored to exist.  Well, they exist.  Kelly just saw them, and though the Zombies were created to attack Fairies, these Zombies seem content to feast on Vampire brains!

Kelly: “Got to get to the car…”
Zombie: “Brains…”

Will Kelly live through this Zombie attack?  And what about Cyrus?  Is he safe?  Find out next time on Realm of Dusk!

Realm of Dusk - The Darkdusk Legacy - Generation 1 Rolls and Traits

I'm starting generation 1 midway through the teen stage; however, subsequent generations will start at YA as normal.  Anyway, the rolls for the first generation are:

Family Structure: Couple
Number of Children: Four
Primary Income: Fortune Teller (Mystic)
Secondary Income: Acrobat
Generation Goal: AWESOME!
Miscellaneous Fun: Hands Off

The couple, of course, is Kelly and Cyrus.  Kelly is going to get the Fortune Teller job, and Cyrus is going to get the Acrobat job.

The AWESOME for this generation is founding a new Vampire house earlier than is traditional.  That is mostly complete; however, Kelly and Cyrus still need to have a daughter without using watermelons (they don't work on Vampires) in order to complete the AWESOME.

Kelly's and Cyrus' traits are as follows:

Kelly:
Rebellious
Snob
Evil
Ambitious
Grumpy

Cyrus:
Kleptomaniac
Frugal
Evil
Daredevil
Natural Cook

Realm of Dusk - The Darkdusk Legacy - Prologue

NOTE: This takes place before the challenge begins, and in a different town.

The Realm of Night is a dark place, ruled by Vampire noble houses.  One of the strongest of those houses is the Sorenson house.

From left to right in the picture, the Sorenson nobles are: Donna Sorenson, the leader of the house; Desirae Sorenson, Donna’s elder daughter and second-in-command; Kelly Sorenson, Donna’s younger daughter; and Roberto Sorenson, Desirae’s and Kelly’s father.  Roberto holds only a tenuous claim to nobility, as he is related to Donna not by blood, but by marriage.

Traditionally, the eldest daughter takes over leadership of the house upon the death of the old leader.  This tradition has created an enmity between Desirae and Kelly over the years.  When Donna tells Kelly that she will have to fully develop as a Vampire before she can have a position in the Sorenson organization, it pushes Kelly to the breaking point.

Kelly, though, is not the type to simply lash out at her superiors, which is what the other Sorenson nobles (with the possible exception of Roberto, but Kelly did not want to risk angering her mother by attacking him) are at this point.  Instead, she takes a notebook and pencil identical to the ones she uses to aid in her development and writes something else – the foundations for a master plan of her own.  As far as Kelly is concerned, she doesn’t need the Sorensons.  The Barriers between the Realms are broken; the Realm of Dusk is ripe for conquest.  All she needs now is the appropriate mate and the appropriate opportunity.

Kelly finds that mate in Cyrus Best, a Human immigrant from the Realm of Dusk that has as much of a capability for evil as she does.  Ideally, he would be a Vampire like her, but a quick bite fixes that problem.  The opportunity comes at daybreak, as the underage Vampires have not yet developed an aversion to sunlight.  They steal §18,500 from the Sorensons, make a break for the Barrier separating the Realm of Night from the Realm of Dusk and soon, they are on their way.  No longer Kelly Sorenson and Cyrus Best, they are now Kelly and Cyrus Darkdusk, founding a new house to conquer the Realm of Dusk!

The challenge starts now.