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!