Ramaswami/McDermott Random Legacy ch. 12: Taking Charge

"I can't believe they left me alone with Kamala and Sundari," Saranya complains to her boyfriend Harlan. As soon as she graduated high school, her parents married and took off for a long honeymoon on Twikkii Island, leaving Saranya in charge of her two younger sisters.

"You can handle it," Harlan assures her.

"I know," she sighs wearily, "But I don't want to do this all on my own."

"You aren't on your own," Harlan says, "You have me, you know."

Saranya smiles, "I didn't want to take you for granted." Her mother took her father for granted, and Saranya often resented her for it. It's a mistake she intends not to repeat. "Will you marry me, Harlan?"

"Absolutely."

Saranya and Harlan marry; she starts her career as a firefighter and he sets to work making her childhood home into their own place, starting by redecorating her mother's old master suite to suit their own tastes.

Harlan prefers solitude, and living with his wife's two younger sisters is not his idea of marital bliss. But having grown up in a house with two parents, his older sister and younger brother, plus two of his father's siblings, Lisa and Arlo, who never married or moved out of the Bunch house, Harlan is definitely in a better position here than he was before. The galley style, open plan kitchen wasn't exactly what he wanted either, but for Saranya, he'll make do. But he's not going to live with these pink tile counters much longer: no matter how much he scrubs it, he's sure the grout is harboring secret germs and bacteria. The kitchen is next on his list of remodeling projects.

Kamala and Sundari have a hard time taking their older sister and her husband seriously as parental figures. They all went to high school together, after all, and to them this time is like a parent-free vacation where they can do as they please.

While Sundari has been dating the age appropriate Darius Hatch, Kamala has been spending a lot of time with Vernon Goth, an adult with a long trail of ex-girlfriends in his past. Every time Saranya tries to warn her sister about getting involved, or tries to forbid her from seeing him, Kamala always responds with "You're not my mother, you can't tell me what to do!"

Saranya is too preoccupied with her rather demanding career to put the effort into raising her teenage sisters. Athletic and mechanically skilled, Saranya excels at firefighting, and finds her self being quickly promoted through the ranks.

The firefighter thing is a huge turn on for Harlan.

On the night of her graduation, Kamala elopes with Vernon Goth. That will show Saranya who's boss!


Harlan's new stainless steel countertops are much more sanitary than the old tile and grout. And while Kamala's manner of leaving the house distressed Saranya, making feel as though she failed her younger sister in some way, they are both relieved to have one less teenager in their marital nest.

Odd noises at night, TVs and stereos being turned on when everyone is asleep, cold spots in the house, all tell tale signs of a haunting. Saranya uses a large chunk of the family wealth that was left to her to buy the land behind the house and set up a cemetery for her grandparents' graves, and to serve for future generations of her family. Her grandmother, Lakshmi, had amassed quite a fortune, and Saranya hopes this memorial it bought pleases her.

For the first time, Saranya must use her skills to rescue her own family. A large fire has broken out at her Uncle Liam's house.

Happily, she gets everyone out of harm's way and extinguishes the flames before they do much damage.

Sundari graduates high school. The good news is she's to be the heir to the Wolff fortune and family estate, changing her name to Wolff as her father did. The downside is she has to move into Wolff Manor and live with her aging parents before she can inherit it.

Finally on their own, Saranya and Harlan take a romantic trip to China.

Harlan is interested in studying Chinese recipes, learning the secrets of making Stir Fry and Egg Rolls. He also acquires some cherries and pomelos, rare fruits in his part of the world, to add to his garden at home.

Saranya enjoys some martial arts training, and purchases a training dummy to practice with at home.

For some reason, locals keep calling them both, asking them to go look for some relic they've lost. Why do they think tourists want to go digging around in tombs? Do they not understand what a honeymoon is?

Harlan can barely watch as Saranya stacks up five boards to break. "Don't hurt yourself!"

"It's just foam board. Piece of cake," Saranya laughs.

"See? I told you, piece of cake."

(Challenge Notes: Saranya was promoted to level 5 of the firefighter career as soon as she took the job, because she'd work on her handiness and athletic skills as a teen. On her first two days on the job, there were no emergencies, and I even thought it might be a bug, but she got a fire on the third day. Still, even just upgrading the fire truck and alarms on the first days got her even more promotions, and she's already reached level 10. Her generation goal is Perfect Careers, so she just needs to max athletic and handiness. Though it's not required, I'm going to have her max martial arts, too. Harlan's career will be a part time job. I haven't started him on that yet, since it's only 3 levels to raise, and I'd kind of like to keep the money down if I can. Firefighters pull in a huge bit of money, so he'd only be working to fulfill the requirement.

Buying the cemetery cost just over 50k, which brought the family wealth down to under 20k, still enough to upgrade all the furnishings (Harlan loves to redecorate, lol).

Harlan is like the ideal spouse, I set him to do the gardening when I go to work with Saranya, and he has the Neat trait, so he'll autonomously clean the whole house even if I don't assign in it in his queue. I love coming home and seeing the beds made and the laundry done! And he cooks, too, lol. I don't have to fulfill his LTW, Culinary Librarian, but I'm going to try, so that will mean traveling to buy the world specific recipes. He's also an amateur photographer and has been shooting some travel photos.

They will only have one child, so I'm letting them live a little while before they have their baby.)