Introduction

Welcome to the Intermission! I'm playing this in the form of a Servo-Nanny Challenge, in order to grow up the R-generation children from my Soup Legacy while I build the new set of neighborhoods that the R-Z generations of the Legacy will take place in. It's not necessary for you to be familiar with the previous storyline to read and, hopefully, enjoy this story - I aim to have this story able to stand on its own. Though naturally I'm hoping new readers enjoy it enough to either go back and read the previous two episodes of the Soup Legacy, or continue on with the rest of us into Episode Three after this challenge concludes.

I'm not playing this Challenge for points, and since I need all six children to survive into the Legacy, I will if necessary control them directly to make sure they neither die nor are removed by that dratted Social Worker. And when they age transition I will be taking control of each long enough to redress them and change their appearance. Apart from that, once they're in the house until they're all teens they'll be on free will, and I'll just be taking screenshots of what they do throughout the day and letting them decide on what the course on the story is.

While the servo is my controllable sim, the story will be told from an assortment of viewpoints. And now it's time to meet our players:

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Dramatis Personae

The Children

Raspberry Soup - Our heroine, and the current heir of the Soup line. She's the freckled redhead in the green dress.

Raphael Yonge - A distant cousin of hers with an interesting ability, he's the young boy with the angelic blue eyes in a purple-and-blue hawaiian outfit.

The Toddlers

Robert Anthony Corsillo - One of Raspberry's many cousins. This is the blond toddler with the cherub curls in the green overalls. His mother was Raspberry's aunt on her father's side.

Raven Dewaali - Another of Raspberry's cousins, the dark-skinned boy in the red shirt with denim overalls. His father was Raspberry's uncle on her mother's side.

Rose Watson - A real little charmer, cousin of Raphael, the female toddler in a bright green sundress. Her mother was Raphael's father's half-sister.

Romano Bean Soup - The heir of a cadet line of the Soup family, he's the little blond tyke in the Hudson Bay striped outfit. A distant cousin to both Raspberry and Raphael (and to everyone else too, of course).

Other Beings

Rock Soup - A Servo, and now the caretaker of the children.

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Our story opens as the children regain consciousness after a traumatic few days that ended in a blinding flash of light... lost and alone, with no idea of where they are or where home is. Sounds slightly familiar, doesn't it...

Yippee! You've started! *Control Sue, control!* As you might of guessed looking forward to the intermission storyline.

Sue

Raspberry woke up shivering. For a moment she couldn't understand why she felt so cold, why her bed felt so uneven and lumpy... and then she remembered that she wasn't at home anymore. She opened her eyes to find herself sprawled inelegantly on the ground, rocks and twigs digging into her side, Raphael curled up beside her, with the toddlers cuddled up against the two of them. The motionless lump of the servo sat nearby.

She climbed to her feet, disturbing a couple of the toddlers, whose minor fuss upon waking to find their parents not present woke Raphael in turn. He rose to his feet as well, and the two of them looked around.

They were on a slight rise of ground on one side of a large clearing, surrounded by trees. It was cold, the ground dusted with snow and more flakes slowly drifting down out of the overcast sky.

"Where are we?" Raphael wondered aloud.

"I don't know, but it's certainly not home - or anywhere near home. Not if it gets snow at this time of year!"

Raphael nodded and then looked down at the toddlers clustered around their feet. Their sniffles had ended, and the four of them were looking around curiously at their surroundings. Rapheal felt certain their present quietness would only last until the novelty of the situation wore off. Once they realised they were cold and hungry, with no shelter or food in sight... well, he and Raspberry just better figure out what to do before that!

He turned and looked at the servo, reaching out and touching its gleaming metal surface. "Know anything about servos?" he asked Raspberry.

"A little. There should be an on switch, somewhere near the part that looks like a head..."

The two children peered at the thing, and eventually found the recessed button where its left shoulder joined its neck. With a crackle of energy, the servo rose to its feet. Its single big eye blinked.

"Initialise name?" it said.

"Huh?" Raphael grunted.

"We have to name it," Raspberry told him, and then stood there trying to think of one.

"We could just call it Robot...?" Raphael suggested.

Raspberry shook her head. "No, that won't do. That be like if your parents had named you 'Hey You' or 'Kiddo' or something like that," she told him.

"Well, decide on something fast... my legs are freezing!" he exclaimed.

Given that she herself was wearing a fairly lightweight dress, Raspberry had to admit that she was noticing a certain chilliness in the nether regions as well. She look around, trying to think of anything that might suggest a name.. snow, clouds, trees, twigs, more snow, pebbles, stones...

"Rock!" she exclaimed. "Your name is Rock."

"Initialised. How may I help you, young master and mistress?"

Raspberry giggled, surprised by the Servo's servile attitude. None of the servo's she knew ever acted like that! On the other hand, they were all very advanced android-style servos, while this was clearly a plain vanilla model.

"We need shelter from the cold, and the toddlers will be getting real hungry soon," Raphael told Rock. "Is there anything you can do to help with that?"

Rock looked quizically at the six children, then slowly turned in a circle. "I see no shelter or source of food," he told them.

"Can you help us to make or find some then? Or figure out where we are?"

The servo looked up at the sky. The antenna protruding from it's head lengthened for a moment, then bloomed like a flower into a small directional dish. It turned in a full circle again, then turned back to the kids. Something about it's attitude suggested it would have been frowning if it had been capable of it.

"Geosynchronous satellites unavailable," it said. "Unable to determine location."

"What does that mean?" Raspberry asked Raphael.

Raphael scratched his head. "I think it was trying to do a GPS thing... that uses satellite signals."

"Affirmative, master" Rock said.

Raspberry giggled again. "You can just say 'yes' instead of affirmative," she told it. "And none of this 'master' or 'mistress' stuff either. I'm Raspberry, and this is my cousin Raphael, and these are our cousins Rose, Romano, Raven, and Robert Anthony," she told it, pointing to each child in turn.

"Ah," Rock said, and blinked, then cautiously asked. "You want me to act like a real person?"

"Of course we do," Raspberry exclaimed. "You are a real person, aren't you?"

Rock seemed surprised. "Not all humans would agree," he told them.

Raspberry shrugged. "Well, where we come from servos are quite highly thought of," she assured Rock. "So yes, please, act as person-like as you are."

Rock was silent a moment, then bowed. "Thank you, Raspberry," he said. "It is a pleasure to be working for... or rather, I should say, with - you and Raphael."

The two kids grinned, then Raspberry sighed. "Unfortunately this isn't doing anything about finding us any shelter or food, is it?" she said, then looked all around them. "And the snow is getting worse. I wish we had an idea of what way to go, at least," she said.

"Well," Rock said, "I can see a tall cliff to the west of us, and a drop off to the south and east, so that only leaves north. I think if each of you carries a toddler, and I carry two, we can manage."

They were still discussing this possibility when they heard the toddlers suddenly all start babbling at once, and turned to see a fox staring at them. The toddlers were eagerly crawling towards this interesting new creature. To their surprise the fox didn't seem at all frightened of the youngsters, just sniffed at them curiously then nimbly leapt away from their reaching hands and stood looking at all of them. Then it trotted right up to them and sniffed at Raspberry and Raphael's ankles.

Raphael laughed and crouched down, cautiously holding out his hand towards the fox. "You are a bold little creature, aren't you!" he exclaimed as it sniffed his fingers delicately. "Too bad I don't have anything to eat, or I'd give you a treat. You're such a beautiful little vixen!"

The fox sat down, wrapping its tail around its paws, and then yawned, showing an impressive set of sharp little teeth. Raphael smiled down at it for a moment longer, then turned back to Rock. "Are you sure walking off in search of help is a good idea? It's getting cold fast, and by the look of that sky, it'll be dark soon. Maybe we'd be better off trying to make some kind of shelter, a lean to or something?"

Raspberry found herself watching the fox, having to shade her eyes from the increasingly heavy snowfall and chilly breeze. It was odd how unfrightened of them all it was, and how the toddlers hadn't persisted in their initial attempts to touch it after it had first evaded them. It was watching intently as Raphael and Rock talked, its ears tilted attentively forward.

Suddenly it rose to its feet and paced a few stops to the south, sniffing the air, then yapped.

If she hadn't been facing that direction, she'd never have believe what happened next. The large empty clearing suddenly wasn't empty at all - there was a big building there, with rough stone wall and a shingle roof, and cheery lights shining in its many windows. She gasped in amazement.

Rock and Rapheal turned to look, and froze, falling silent. "That wasn't there before!" Raphael exclaimed after a moment.

"No, it wasn't," Rock agreed. "But it's very definately there now."

"Do you think we should go there?" Raspberry asked, sounding worried.

"Well, seeing as it's that or a choice of staying in the woods overnight without real shelter or food for you children, I would say that yes, we should go there," Rock pointed out.

As they gathered up the toddler and set off towards the house, the fox trotted along in front of them, as if leading the way. Perhaps she was.

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So looking forward to this portion my you have your work cut out

I'm still with you and still loving the story! where did you get the fox?

Plain vanilla model servos! All of the gorgeous looking R generation!

Fun with the Soups fo sure!

Originally Posted by MsBarrows

Raphael Yonge - A distant cousin of hers with an interesting ability, he's the young boy with the angelic blue eyes in a purple-and-blue hawaiian outfit.

Just for the record, he's actually sortof one of mine as well, since his grandmother is Grace de la Sangre, who ran away from home in my legacy to turn up in MsBarrows'.

That being said, I love the outfit. I'm sure Aaron and Dathan would approve....as would Raphael's great-great-grandfather Thomas.

And Yay you started it! :hunkers down with a tub of popcorn:

Hooray! So it begins! ^^

This looks very interesting and I can't wait to see how it turns out!

-Taco

WONDERFUL Beginning

That update strongly reminded me of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe...very Narnia-like

P.Dilly

Originally Posted by neovente

I'm still with you and still loving the story! where did you get the fox?

I made it out of a cat - I'd seen some foxes that other people have made, out of both dogs and cats, and the ones that looked the closest to what I had in mind were invariably the cat-based ones. I wasn't really happy with any of the ones I saw available for download here and on MTS2, most of them still looked too much like just a roughly fox-coloured cat in proportions, so I made my own version. Really liked how she turned out, and I've posted the file for her to TSR - it should be available for download on Sunday. You should see her in motion in game, looks really good, until she plays with the cat toy or meows, anyway!

Just a tiny update for now, most of my playtime today went to figuring out several bugs that were causing problems - had to restore from backup and play through the first day several times because of them, grrr. So now I need to recover from the annoyance of that and then try and remember what actually happened in the final play-through as opposed to the earlier bugged versions.

By the way, beware the new fountain that's a tier of bowls with water cascading from one to the next - that turned out to be the culprit in my main bug, which had Raspberry and Raphael just standing around doing diddly-squat in free will mode, and frequntly jumping out of interactions when I tried to queue some up. Deleted it from the lot and now they're fine again, whew!

And gosh, but is it ever a lot harder to play that many toddlers when you're not just doing the smart milk & bunny head routine! Especailly when they want to follow Rock everywhere rather then playing with all their nice toys... I'll be so happy when they grow up and the kids are all in school most of the day. Rock might actually get to recharge fully for once after that happens.

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It was getting dark when they reached the house. They knocked on the door, but no one answered - the house, for all it was brightly lit, appeared deserted.

Rose started crying. Unlike the boys, she was wearing a short little dress, and she was getting cold. Rock picked her up and cuddled her, and then looked at the house. "I hate the idea of just breaking into the place - but we must get the little ones indoors," he said. "It's getting far too cold to remain outdoors much longer."

The fox was sitting by the door, watching them attentively. She snorted and rose to her feet, nosed the door opened, and walked in, then turned and stood in the open doorway, looking enquiringly back at them.

Raphael gave a startled laugh. "I guess breaking in isn't necessary - looks like we can just walk in," he observed, and picked up Raven. Raspberry picked up Robert Anthony, and Rock added Romano to his burden, then the three of them followed the fox indoors.

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Ooh, I really like that fox, and I hope that everyone makes it alright!

-Taco

Wonderful start.

While Rock got the toddlers warmed up and fed, Raspberry and Raphael set out to explore the house, wandering around peering into each of its rooms. The first room to the left of the entryway proved to be a large split-level room, with a fireplace in the lower half and a TV with plenty of seating, rather like a home theatre, in the upper half, as well as bookshelves and several magazines.

At the back was an equally large room, filled with a scattering of toys and games; some kind of play room, obviously enough. Through closed double doors they could make out a swimming pool outside, steam wisping off its unfrozen surface into the cold winter air. They went back to the hallway and found Rock coming out of the kitchen with bottles of milk for the toddlers.

"The fridge is rather oddly stocked," he told them. "Lots and lots of prepared formula, all ready to use."

"There's a lot of toys around too - and look, four potties!" they gestured towards the row of them lined up down the hallway, from the grandfather clock at the foot of the stairs right up to the bathroom door.

They peered through the opening into the kitchen, and seeing a second archway leading off of it, explored that way as well, finding themselves in a large greenhouse attached to the house. In the middle of the greenhouse was a big table circled by eight chairs. There were two trees, giving off a faint citrusy odour, and several prepared beds of soil, but nothing planted.

They went back inside, and up to the second floor. Here they found two more bathrooms, and six doors leading into six identically furnished bedrooms. The fox was curled up asleep on one of the beds.

"She's certainly making herself at home," Raspberry whispered.

Raphael was frowning. "Let's go up to the next floor," he said, and led the way up a steeply pitched ladder to the attic. A row of windows at the end with the ladder looked out over the greenhouse roof. Raphael stood at the windows for a while, just staring out, while Raspberry explored the room. There was a toy making bench, a set of drums, a couple of video game machines, and a tiny bathroom.

"Let's go back downstairs," Raphael abruptly said. "This view is giving me the creeps!"

Raspberry looked out the windows for a moment, while Raphael negotiated the ladder down, wondering what he'd thought was creepy. She had a good view, through the falling snow, of the greenhouse, the trees beyond it, and the hillside pitching steeply down into a blue-grey haze of distance. On a night like this, it was easy to believe the world didn't extend any further then you could see... she shivered, and hurried down after Raphael.

The toddlers were happily playing with the toys scattered about the hallway and playroom now, while Rock took each of them in turn to a potty. Raphael was looking troubled. He suddenly announced. "I'm going to go read for a while," and vanished into the TV room. Raspberry wandered into the playroom, watched the toddlers playing for a bit, then started playing darts by herself.

It wasn't too long before she found herself yawning. It was late, and they'd had a tiring day... a tiring several days, she reminded herself. For a moment she stood frozen, lips trembling, struggling not to cry. She wanted to be back home! She wanted her Mommy and Daddy, and Grandma Portobella and Grandpa Pony, and for Uncle Octavian to come in and say it was time for him to read her a story before bed!

They'd be scared about all the kids, she knew. They wouldn't know what had happened to them. They'd all be out looking for them, she was sure... Octavian searching for signs of them as a bat, Grandma in her Captain Hero suit, mother in her own police uniform, dad in his soldier's outfit... and Pony would be making sure they all rested enough, and ate. She held the picture of them in her mind, fiercely wishing for them to find her.

Raphael walked into the room. He must have seen how distressed she was - he walked over and hugged her. "We're somewhere safe, at least," he told her. "Come on, let's get to bed... I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted. And Rock seems to have the toddlers well in hand."

She nodded numbly and followed him up the stairs. They picked the two bedrooms closest to the stairs for themselves. There was a pair of pajamas and a nightcap hanging from the bedpost, and a pair of huge fluffy slippers peeking out from underneath the bed. She giggled as she tried them on. She went across the hallway, and she and Raphael grinned at each other. "You look silly," she told him.

He grinned back. "So do you," he pointed out, then yawned. "Good-night, Raspberry."

"Night, Raphael," she said, and went back to her own room, asleep as soon as her head touched the pillow.

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Originally Posted by MsBarrows

For a moment she stood frozen, lips trembling, struggling not to cry. She wanted to be back home! She wanted her Mommy and Daddy, and Grandma Portobella and Grandpa Pony, and for Uncle Octavian to come in and say it was time for him to read her a story before bed!

They'd be scared about all the kids, she knew. They wouldn't know what had happened to them. They'd all be out looking for them, she was sure... Octavian searching for signs of them as a bat, Grandma in her Captain Hero suit, mother in her own police uniform, dad in his soldier's outfit... and Pony would be making sure they all rested enough, and ate. She held the picture of them in her mind, fiercely wishing for them to find her.

Aww, poor Raspberry. I miss them too, baby girl!

Brilliant start! Can't wait to find out where they've ended up. It sure ain't Kansas Dorothy

Rock stood at the stove, happily cooking breakfast for the two older children. He could hear them splashing away in the upstairs bathrooms, getting ready for school. The bus should be here for them soon, to take them off to... to... to wherever the school was. He heard the first bathtub starting to drain as he flipped the pancakes; by the time he was putting the plates of them on the table, footsteps were pounding down the stairs. The children came into the greenhouse and sat down at the table, hungrily digging into the pancakes. They inhaled the first servings and dug into seconds as if they hadn't eaten in days, though of course they'd had... they'd had... something! - for dinner last night... He frowned, trying to remember a passing thought, then put the leftover pancakes away in the fridge and cleared the dishes as the two of them raced outside to catch their bus.

He doled out bottles of formula to the toddlers, and then took them all to the potty. Cleaned up the empty bottles, took the organic trash to the composter, and had time to plant a couple of tomato bushes in the greenhouse. He wished he'd started planting earlier, silly of him to have this nice big greenhouse and not a thing plants... He went back to check on the toddlers, and started work on trying to teach them to walk and talk. He didn't make much headway before it was time to take them all to the potty again. The day just flew by, it seemed no time at all before the two older children came home.

"How was school?" he asked them.

Raphael shrugged. "It was okay."

"What did you do in class today?" he asked.

"Just... stuff. Same as always," Raspberry said vaguely.

Raphael frowned for a moment, then nodded "Yeah, just stuff. Hey Rose, having fun with that toy?" he asked, and sat down crosslegged on the floor, watching his cousin playing.

Raspberry wandered around for a while watching the toddlers playing, then started a pillow fight with Raphael, the two of them chasing each other around and shouting happily, the toddlers watching them and crawling around after them.

Rock made supper for them, then helped each of them in turn with their homework, first Raphael, then Raspberry, while the toddlers were napping. Afterwards the two of them played together for a while, then went to bed.

Raspberry frowned as she burrowed under the covers, struck with a sudden feeling of... homesickness? But she was home! Why on earth would she feel homesick, she wondered as she drifted off to sleep.

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Oh, the final portion of the tree has begun!

It's a bit odd to see how closely related they all are.

Great updates so far, MsB!

-Taco

Originally Posted by MsBarrows

They inhaled the first servings and dug into seconds as if they hadn't eaten in days, though of course they'd had... they'd had... something! - for dinner last night... He frowned, trying to remember a passing thought

Raspberry frowned as she burrowed under the covers, struck with a sudden feeling of... homesickness? But she was home! Why on earth would she feel homesick, she wondered as she drifted off to sleep.

Hmmm...what's goin' on with the memories here?

This is getting more like the twilight zone with each update. Great updates MsBarrows!

Sue

Original, as always, and interesting. Can't wait for the next update!

Raspberry woke feeling unaccountably tired. She'd been having the strangest dream! Something about a pony with a shaggy brown mane... Though in the way that dreams did, its details had already fled, just leaving her feeling confused and a little sad.

She went and had a bath, then went downstairs for breakfast. It was eggs and sausages this morning, Rock hurriedly serving hr and Raphael before rushing off to check on the toddlers. He was such a good parent to the little ones.

"Raphael..." she started to ask something, then fell silent.

"Yes?" he said, looking up from chopping his eggs into his rice with the side of his fork.

She frowned as she took a bite out of one of her sausages. "There's something I don't understand," she said.

"what's that?" he asked, in between shovelling scoops of his eggy rice into his mouth.

"Rock is our parent, right? Only... how could he be? And how come none of us are siblings, then? 'Cause we're not, are we? Something is... weird."

Raphael frowned. "You're right, that is a bit weird..."

The schoolbus pulled up outside and the bus driver honked his hown impatiently. The two of them scrambled down from their seats and raced out of the house, their conversation of a moment before already forgotten.

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Rock was doing his best to try and teach the children to walk and talk, but with four of them to look after and so many things he kept having to do - taking them to the potty, feeding them, bathing them - there was very little time left for training. He did succeed by mid-afternoon in teaching little Raven to talk, which delighted both of them. And Romano almost had the knock of walking. But poor Rose and Robert hadn't learned anything yet, beyond a few skills they'd picked up from playing with their toys.

He had hopes of them at least learning to use the potty properly before they grew up. That they all did often enough that they should have it figured out in time!

While most of them were napping he got a little cleaning done, including adding some more things to the composter - yesterday's newspaper, some kitchen scraps... and planted a couple more tomato plants. He tended the plants he'd put in the day before - they seemed to be growing well - and then refilled the fox's food dish.

Raspberry and Raphael got home from school shortly after that, and the toddlers, full of energy from their naps, crawled around after them. It was nice to see all of the kids playing together so happily. While they were all occupied, he made dinner and did a bit more cleaning. After dinner he helped the kids with their homework, then hurried off to look after the toddlers again.

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Sounds like a terribly busy existence!

-Taco

Oh my goodness!

Been a bit of a slow start to this story, the sim-children in my head have been cagey about their plot, and will only tell me it can't really kick off until they're all children. Thankfully that doesn't take very long in the game! Though I am spreading out the birthdays slightly to give myself one more day of story time, since I have a suspicion I'll need it.

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Rock was pleased with the toddlers' progress. Today he'd succeeded in potty-training both Raven and Robert Anthony, and taught little Rose how to talk. He'd hoped to finish teaching Romano how to walk, as well, but the poor boy was in a fussy mood today, and spent most of the time crying. He must be missing his... missing something, Rock thought.

Rock frowned, having a weird feeling as if he'd just forgotten something important - especially weird given that he was a servo - he couldn't forget things! Not unless he was physically damaged, anyway. And yet... and yet... nevermind. He must be imagining things.

He picked up Raven and carried him over to the first cake. Raspberry and Raphael watched and cheered excitedly as their little cousin grew up. Then it was Robert Anthony's turn. The four children talked together excitedly and played a bit before the four of them said good-night and headed off to bed.

It was so much easier looking after the remaining two toddlers now, especially once Romano figured out how to use the potty, which got the youngster in a cheerful enough mood that Rock was finally able to finish teaching him how to walk. He got a lot more chores done then usual that night, since looking after just two was so much easier then four... he wondered if the amount of work involved in raising higher numbers of children was a geometric progression rather then linear... so that 1, 2, 3, 4 children weren't 1, 2, 3, 4 times the work, but rather 1, 2, 4, 16 times... well, perhaps not as steep a curve as that. But certainly harder then he'd expected!

He even took a break while the toddlers were napping, shortly before dawn, and went outside and made a snowman. He'd never done that before. Mind you, his previous owners wouldn't have allowed... previous owners? What previous owners... hadn't he always been with the children!?

It really was amazing how quickly he could forget even completely illogical chains of thought. Including this one.

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And a few more screenshots...