1.5 They Need a Hero

Can one be incredibly, hatefully pissed off at someone else, and still mourn them?

Apparently so.

When the time comes, Mab calls a cab to get to the hospital instead of biking.

She knew for some time now she'd be having twins.

Her first born is a daughter, named Finley.

Finley is pale, like her father was.

Mab's son, Junpei, shares her slightly darker skin tone.

Mab didn't want to give the twins names that were anything alike; she wants to treat them as individuals. A parenting book said she should do that.

Mab had a big nursery to play in, when she was a toddler. She hopes to be able to afford something like that for her own children, soon, but finances aren't looking great. Masterson may have intended for Mab to break into his house and steal all his stuff when he died, but Mab couldn't make herself go back there.

The life of a single parent with twin infants isn't easy. Mab's babies need constant attention, and it will only get worse when they become mobile toddlers.

Junpei receives a diaper change from a ghost.

Mab is no stranger to dealing with the dead, but right now, this one time, she's really freaked out. "P-put Junpei down... please..."

Masterson was only trying to help. Seeing he's upset her, though, he turns and gently places their child back in his crib, without protesting or speaking at all.

There are a bunch of things Mab would like to say to Masterson, but now she's got the chance, all she finds herself doing is holding Finley close while his ghost decides to possess her horrible cheap stove. 

He's trying so hard to draw attention to how much of a fire hazard it is.

Finley and Junpei grow out of their infant stage.

Finley looks a lot like her mother...

...while Junpei takes after his father.

Though like his sister, he has his mother's freckles and green eyes.

Mab loathes the thought of leaving her kids with a sitter, but the town needs her, and she needs money. So she puts on her new "professional" suit, ties her hair back, and gets back to work.

The disruption-box is no more, but the many spirits it brought to Hidden Springs are still here. Mab realizes it could take a long time to find them all and convince them to move on. She will be in business for most of her life.

"My mother just caught fish and sold them," Mab explains to her children, who are too young to understand. "Seemed like an easy enough thing to do for money, but when I tried it in Isla Paradiso, I was arrested for not having a permit. So now I hunt ghosts."

Being a parent isn't always very glamorous, but Mab's determined to be the best mom she can be. Finley and Junpei don't have anyone else.

Pierce and Cassidy Shawkti were trying to have a house party. Poltergeists had other plans. The Shawktis are on their fourth haunting, so they've come a long way from screaming and panicking about their floating toilet. Now it's not scary to them, it's just an inconvenience.

"How long will this take?" Cassidy moans. "My guests are hungry."

The babysitter absolutely hates the Archer place.

75 simoleons a night totally isn't worth it if the TV is broken.

City Hall starts giving Mab trophies and medals for her service to Hidden Springs. Every town needs a hero.

Charles Facq from the Daily Springs is always pestering her about an interview, but she never has the time. Nor does she have much to say to the papers about her life.

Eventually Mab is able to afford to move to a larger home.

Finley is eager to check out her new surroundings.

Junpei sticks with Victor, the bear.

The toddlers panic when separated, so Mab is forced to awkwardly place both of their cribs in the living room. The rooms that will eventually be their separate bedrooms are too small for both cribs.

Mab has no shortage of stories to tell her kids. Her own father is an author. She keeps up with his work as best she can.
 

Now this house has a problem!

Eating ice cream on the couch because there's no kitchen table...

Dealing with Andrew Song and his poltergeists...

Teaching stuff to the kids...

More unreasonable spirits.

Salad on the couch.

Feeding the kids because the useless babysitter didn't do it...

Passing out from exhaustion...

Mab's weirdly-shaped bedroom.





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Etc.: Knowing I'd need two kids, I had Mab watching a lot of Kidz TV and listening to the annoying kids radio station when she was pregnant. And I crossed my fingers and hoped not to get triplets. My plan worked.

Buuuut I slipped last chapter, having Mab say "children" instead of "child". I had already played to the point where she'd had the kids. I didn't mean to let the cat out of the bag like that. I only caught my mistake later, after, a lot of people had read the chapter, so I'd feel weird going back and correcting it. I figured fine, she'd have known she was going to have twins at that point. She was pretty far along in the pregnancy. /ramble.

I built the new house myself. I was looking at house plans when I suddenly thought "I want them to live in a hexagon". I set about building this hexagon, only to discover the best you can do is an octagon. Then I discovered why nobody ever builds houses like this: they are a bitch to decorate. Since most walls in my house basically count as one and a half wall space, instead of one wall space, things can get difficult.

Anyway it's not very furnished yet. For the first few nights there they didn't even have a washing machine or dryer, just the obligatory laundry basket. I'll post more pics of the house when it looks better.