Chapter 27: The Banshee Banisher

Most of the time, Darryl doesn't know what his own paintings mean, and often questions his sanity when he's finished with them. But he's the darling of the art world, and his work is hailed as masterpieces, so he must be doing something right.

Rex joins the family for Tamsin's birthday cake.

"I wish MorcuCrop sill had a department for paranormal research," Tamsin comments to her mother, 'I'm just not interested in the work they do there."

Corinne agrees, she left MorcuCrop herself because she was dissatisfied with their limited scope of endeavors. 

"Do you think we go go somewhere....private?" Rex asks quietly when the cake is finished.

"I was thinking the same thing," Tamsin smiles and takes his hand.

"Is this your room?" Rex asks, "It's very...pink."

"This was my grandparents' room, but I'm taking it over now. My grandfather loved pink. I'll be redecorating it."

"That's a rainbow butterfly, they're extraordinarily unusual," he remarks, looking around the room nervously.

"So was my grandmother. She collected insects."

"But you didn't get me alone so we could talk about interior decor and bug collecting, I hope," Tamsin continues.

"No, I had an ulterior motive," Rex admits.

He drops to his knee and pulls out a ring, presenting her with  a ring set with a diamond he found himself.

"Will you marry me, Tam?"

Tamsin never actually verbally agrees, but she gasps, jumps around and lets him place the ring on finger, and then leaps into his arms. "I'll take that as a yes," Rex laughs.

They'll have a wedding shortly after graduation, and in the meantime, Rex moves in to the Enmity house.

Tamsin and Rex graduate together. She was voted most likely to save the world.

And he was voted most likely to write a bestselling novel.

Tamsin and Rex decided to graduate wearing the stupidest hats they could find.

Darryl's little girl has grown up and is getting married soon.

Surely, that's good cause to freak out.

After graduation, Tamsin received a strange call. The voice was obviously manipulated to disguise the speaker, who would only identify herself as 'someone interested in your research'.

"Come to the MorcuCrop building at dawn tomorrow, before normal work hours. I have something which might be of interest to you," the voice said, and then quickly disconnected.

Was she going to get access to the research that made Rory into a 'living' ghost? Tamsin could only find out if she did as the voice asked, so at dawn the next day she drove herself out to the MorcuCrop building. The door opened for her at her approach, and the voice guided her through the building through the PA system. It eventually led her to a dark office where a shadowed figure waited for her behind a desk. On top of the desk rested a strange device, vaguely reminiscent of one her mother's harvesters.

"The unfortunate incident with Mr. McGreggor put MorcuCrop in a difficult position," the shadowy figure said, "We had to scrap all work in the paranormal field to save face. But we've never lost interest in paranormal research. We are not in a position to offer you regular employment, Ms. Enmity, but Morucrop would like to offer you this," the figure gestured at the odd device on the desk, "Our Banshee Banisher. Use it to capture the spirits of the restless dead. Conduct whatever research you like with it. We will pay you for any spirits you bring to us, and a weekly stipend to fund your research. You will not be an official employee of MorcuCrop, and we will not be liable for any...mishaps...that should occur."

"Spirits?" Tamsin asks. Except for Rory, she's never seen any restless dead. "Where would I find spirits to research?"

"Once you you have the Banshee Banisher, they'll come," the shadow says.

It all seems a little suspicious, but Tamsin can't refuse. Anything she can use to help Rory is a good thing. And MorcuCrop pretty much washed their hands of her, so it's not like she'd be beholden to them.

"I'll do it," Tamsin agrees.

"Excellent," the shadow says.

 Tamsin leaves the building just as the 'real' scientists start filing in to work.

When she gets home she shows off her new toy to Rex. "I don't really know how it works yet," she says, "I guess I'll have to find some of these spirits to try it out on."

Rex is thrilled for his fiancee. At least she's found something to do with herself. He'd always planned on being a writer, but he's been spending hours staring at a blank monitor with nothing to write.

Taken by one of her daredevil urges, Tamsin insisted they celebrate their graduation, engagement and her new freelance employment by getting tattoos. Rex is game, so they drive down to Just Dye to get inked. The tattooing device is far more high tech than Tamsin had anticipated.

She gets a butterfly, a symbol of the soul and rebirth, in purple and turquoise, her and REx's favorite colors.

Rex gets a spade, reversed and inked in red, like a heart. It doesn't really mean anything, he just thought it looked cool.

As soon as the sun started to set that evening, Tamsin got a call asking for her services. How did anyone know she was now in business as a 'ghost hunter'? She didn't put an ad in the paper or anything.

However word got around, Tamsin is now in business, and quickly figures out how to work the banshee banisher.

Amazingly, she has two haunted houses to deal with on her first night, though she'd never heard of such a haunting growing up in this town. The shadowy figure was right, just having the device in her possession seems to attract these spirits.

Late at night she crawls into bed with Rex, and dreams of catching spirits with a magical net.

Rex's writer's block manifests in his nightmare as a frightening monster that immobilizes him.

The next day is their wedding.

Tamsin invited Rory. The old ghost stops before the newly erected shrine to Darius and Autumn. The teens in the prom photo, the remains in the urns, his friend Carey's grandson and his wife, they were both born long after Rory died, they lived full, long lives and now are gone, but he remains.

Tamsin infprms her ghostly friend that she hasn't made any progress yet, but she has high hopes of finding a 'cure' for him very soon. She doesn't want to tell him about the banshee banisher and the experiments she plans to conduct with the spirits she's harvested, not sure how a ghost would feel about that sort of thing.

Rory hasn't pinned any real hope to her research, believing it to be futile, but he enjoys the girl's enthusiasm, so he lets her carry on. And he wonders if he could commission Darryl to paint one of those cool electric zebra paintings for him.

Before the ceremony, Tamsin spends some time with her father-in-law to be, Evan Greenman.

The couple head out to the arch and wait for their guests to gather.

Tomas shows up a little late.

Though chairs have been set up, the geusts on the whole prefer to stand. From left to right: Tomas the simbot, Rex's cousin Erika, Julian and Julia, Evan Greenman and mother of the bride Corinne, now and elder.

A goldfish jumps out of the water to se what all the commotion is about.

The ceremony ends with a kiss.

And then everyone gathers for cake.

Corinne catches up with her eldest daughter Caroline, who recently gave birth to a son, Lucius Moriarty.

The guests disperse around the house, entertaining themselves with video games and books.

The bride and groom slip away to their newly redecorated bedroom to celebrate in private.

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Challenge Notes.

Generation 5 is officially begun. Recap of the roll: Couple, 2 kids. Primary career Ghost Hunter, secondary Collector. My goal is Awesome and my misc. fun is Tattoo Addict.

So, Tamsin has started her ghost hunting career. SP progression put Rex in the writing career before he moved (he had the LTW to be a professional author). I still haven't made him quit. He hasn't made any money from it, so it's not like it matters what he's registered as. I saved up his happiness points and just changed his LTW to Perfect Mind, Perfect Body (max Logic and Athletic) so he has a chance of fulfilling it. Then I'll get around to having him quit his career. If he gets any Opportunities to write books, I'll let him, I think. 

I've already got the Awesome done, but it's not yet revealed in this update. Next update. :D

As for Tattoo Addict, I haven't decided yet who it's going to be. They both got one, so I have a sim week to decide who will get more. Tamsin is Brave and a Daredevil, so it fits her personality. But Rex is going to be an obsessive collector, so I could totally see him obsessively collecting body art along with gems, metals and insects, lol.

Corinne has reached level 9 of the Inventor career, and I still hope to reach level 10.