Life Goes On (Except For Some People)

The dying days of summer brought a peace to the Chikamori family that was unmistakeable. The demise of Mayumi Chikamori was no great loss and she wasn't mourned very much at all.

In fact, her death was so much of an afterthought that no-one other than Yasunobu mourned for two days afterwards and that was more for appearances-sake than for anything else. In fact there was an overwhelming sense of relief that she would no longer be able to make life miserable for anyone else.

However, that meant that Haruo, River and Yasunobu were able to make free use of the martial arts training room that they were able to keep a secret from Mayumi. Haruo and Yasunobu started out training with the training dummy as River joined them soon afterward.

The training dummy was a staple of Eastern martial arts, such as Sim Fu, and as such it was used in order to provide training on kicks, punches, blocks and open hand techniques - enforcing good martial arts technique and since that little bugger could spin around, it would deliver a stinging correction to the side of the head if one got a little too cocky or became sloppy in one's technique. The 木人樁, or Mu Ren Zhuang(in Mandarin)/Muk yan jong (in Cantonese) was a wooden contraption with sticks pointing out to represent arms and a bent leg to represent a kicking leg and one practiced strikes, punches, kicks and blocks on the dummy and eventually, as one progressed: more complicated moves with increased speed. And River and Haruo both got whacked in the side of the head more than once.

The house they had moved into was an enormous home with five floors of living space. And it was more than enough for the now seven (so long, Mayumi) family members. The McIrish/French/Chikamoris had blended into one big happy expanded family now that Mayumi was out of the picture. The house offered them lots of privacy and it was a much happier family now.

Haruo wrote his books, and played the piano.

...and River, his beloved fiancee, came and watched him play (since he is my Idealized Simself, I'm giving him Level 8 in Piano because he studied from childhood - most Asians get stuck playing piano. It seems to be a thing with Asian parents; I just don't feel that I want to force my kids to do what they don't want. At least I can teach my RL second son, if he wants to learn, but at 13, unless he's a musical genius, he isn't going to be a concert pianist.)

Evidently, she found the sounds of JS Bach soothing...and romantic...and rather arousing...ahem...

And...we all know where they ended up. (innocent look)

No wonder how come Haruo is always having to repair the shower constantly.

Well, all the exertions in the shower got them rather hungry. You know, exercise requires food to recharge. ~smirk~ And Haruo decided that he'd better cut the tiberium rocks before they gave him visceroidal nausea which wasn't a good thing because then he'd end up having a reunion with the food that he ate.

And things were dead at the family graveyard next door (Oh, c'mon...that's funny; y'know I wanted to drag THAT one out back since I rebooted this selfacy.)

With the advent of fall, Satoshi decided to brave the chilling temperatures and went for a night-swim in the backyard pool. He wanted to make himself into a popsicle, evidently.

So...life at the Chikamori family's house went on as per usual although with a lot less-Mayumi drama.

HotTub 1 - Dishwasher 0; RIP Mayumi

Well, it appeared that the hot-tub had broken at some point in the week and nobody had noticed except for Mayumi who decided that night-time would be the best time to fix the thing as well as being fatigued. Needless to say, in her narcissism and her desire to do everything herself because she was the best and everybody else were idiots, she decided that she would fix it herself. That proved to be a big mistake.

As she settled into start messing around with the electricals it just so happened that stagnant hot-tub water slopped into the internals...and sent a massive dose of electricity coursing through her body which stood her up in mid-air jerking spasmodically. Mayumi in her mind saw splashes of light and dark that obscured her vision while she jerked uncontrollably. (this, kids, is why you don't play with water near electrical outlets - your friendly neighbourhood public service announcement).

When the electrical pulses quit coursing through her, she ended up in a heap on the ground still twitching while little bits of electrical charge played havoc with her internal organs. And because she had so narcissistically thought she was a electrical handyman who didn't need to worry about things like this, there was no one to call emergency; everyone was asleep.

Mayumi lay there, her brain synapses fried and with no other response; a limp meat-bag on the ground. No one would know how she met her end, other than the Creator who smiled most sadistically. Such evil deserved to be extinguished.

In fact the course of energy that flowed through her was so great and the spastic reflexes of being jolted by several thousand volts of electricity was so violent that she ended up cracking her head through the base of the hot-tub.

Grim sighed as he appeared, "Sims..." he intoned sonorously, "They never learn to not play with electricity. Another one..." He looked up at the sky for a long moment. "I hope you're satisfied. Keeping me in work, are you?"

The Creator just nodded.

"Very well, then I'll reap her soul..."

Grim looked down at the prone and unmoving body of Mayumi Chikamori and thought grimly (haha...a pun) at the prospect of having such an evil presence in the Underworld. She was going to make Purgatory miserable for everyone there, even if they were evil or mean-spirited themselves...but unfortunately there was only two places in the afterlife. Paradise or H*ll and well, she was to evil to go to Paradise so the latter was the only place that would even think of accepting her. So H*ll it was. Hey, no-one could blame him, he was just taking orders.

Mayumi let out an unearthly cackle as she realized just what had happened and the opportunity that presented itself to her. The afterlife just opened up. Here she could really only make seven lives miserable while in the afterlife there were MILLIONS. She let out a evil burst of laughter that made even Grim cringe. And when she shook his hand, Grim had a really bad feeling about this.

The only person who grieved when they woke up to find a headstone in the place of Mayumi was Yasunobu and that was only for appearances. Pretty much everyone rejoiced at Mayumi's demise. Haruo was so relieved, he didn't even bother to attend the laying-to-rest of his hated mother who had always demeaned, ridiculed and persecuted him. His view was that she should be put to her final rest alone...and uncared for just as she had created the animosity that pervailed throughout her life alienating those around her. The rest were only there for Yasunobu.

And Fiona stepped in to say her condolences as well as to let Yasunobu know that she was always there to take care of his "broken heart" Yay, Fiona, what a gal, but man is that ever gonna mess with Haruo and River's heads.

The Move and River and Haruo's Graduation

The New House was expansive and expensive...but nowhere near the cost of some of the houses on the market in the area. The old Landgraab mansion cost at least §100K more than their own, but their home had 10BRs and sprawled across 50% of the property and when one counted the four floors above the main, it was HUGE.

River and Haruo took the top floor and had mini-kitchen installed. And Haruo and River would paint (Illustrious Author LTW also has painting as one of the skills needed) and Haruo utilized the computer to write his books. River also played the guitar and at least upstairs on the top floor, they had a modicum of privacy not given to anyeone else. The fourth floor had an area that no-one was quite sure what to use it for and a martial arts gym which Haruo conveniently locked off before Mayumi could avail herself of it. Mayumi with the evil/mean-spirited traits would have been unstoppable if she had ever laid her hands on martial arts training.

The third floor had the regular training gym with treadmills and universal weight machines and a two bedroom one bathroom suite for Satoshi and Molly; the second bedroom being for Molly's daughter, Sandi.

The second floor had 10 bedrooms of which Fiona, Yasunobu and Mayumi took up three of them. Three because Yasunobu and Mayumi's relationship had degraded to the point where Yasunobu couldn't bother even sleeping with Mayumi anymore.

The mainfloor comprised of the main common area; the living room, the foyer and the kitchen/dining area and the wide open-ness of this layout was not lost on the rest of the family who thoroughly enjoyed the space, even though in real-life such an open layout would be impossible with the load distributed on the main floor ceiling with the four floors above it.

River was absolutely enthralled with the bathroom and enjoyed looking at the mirror. She was still getting a major kick out of the makeover that had turned her into a stunning beauty. She couldn't believe it, even though Haruo told her day after day that she'd always had that beauty both inside and out.

Molly came home from work and immediately gravitated towards the kitchen, cooking up a delicious meal of veggie burgers for dinner that night, which everyone partook of despite the lateness of the evening. As it turned out the school FINALLY called to give Haruo and River notice that they were to appear for graduation on Friday.

...and Satoshi got into a bit of a disagreement with his sister-in-law.

Mayumi went upstairs in a huff to take a shower and ended up the target of a well-placed booby-trap by Sandi, who most definitely didn't like Mayumi at all after being upbraided for her homework situation and being called a little, lazy good-for-nothing by Mayumi.

The Creator, knowing what an evil creature Mayumi was, was hoping more for orange dye himself, but well the dye would wash out. Pity...

On the following day (Thursday) River took advantage of the pool that the Chikamori/McIrish family house had now and she had a fun time increasing her diving skill. And then still in her bathing suit, went up and painted...which certainly thrilled Haruo seeing her with her wet hair slicked back and her bathing suit contoured to the curves of her body. Yep, males...all they think about...

Thursday evening Mayumi got to fix the dishwasher that broke. Even with the puddles lying around the periphery of the dishwasher, she still managed to get away unscathed fixing the dishwasher. The Creator is going "drats...next time it has to be something more powerful."

Molly made her "To Die For" Key Lime Pie. It was absolutely delicious.

And River and Haruo, not officially having graduated yet, still took advantage of the fact that they were a) betrothed, b) young adults and c) in love and went for a bit of a fun shower. Woohoo... :D

Friday morning dawned nice, with a few clouds racing across the sky and Haruo did his morning circuit of the property looking for gemstones. Of course they'd been lucky and the Creator did his bit of providing the Chikamoris with monetary sustenance...after all.

Just as one figured, graduation was a success and everyone turned around and stared at River as she was called up. "Who was that stunning redhead with the shining green eyes?" the students asked each other in confusion. "That's River?" Jaws dropped, The student body believed that she was just this mousy, plain-Jane girl who was always into painting and other nerdy subjects. They hadn't reckoned on a woman in love with the man that she was going to marry who wanted to look good "for her man" River came to the graduation dressed to the nines and pretty much left the rest of the female students at the graduation "in the dust". Haruo on the other hand pretty much taunted Parker Langerak with a side-turned gangsta-ballin' cap the way Parker always used to walk around. Parker wanted to start a fight with Haruo for "dissing" him, but couldn't with all the adult parents around. Oh well, there would be plenty of time later on in life for the two of them to be at each other's throats.