Family Jewel (4)

Juniper confessed she had thought about marrying the Duke at one time in her life - it would secure her status with the dynasty and would have had their family set for life. But over the years after seeing her sister, build a beautiful family and live out her own dreams, it made her see how different her life could be.

Once she began traveling the worlds and started working in finance, she learned even more about independence. Still, she feels a debt to the Duchess and the royal family; but she’s not sure it needs to be paid in errors and marriage.

Joel told her of course it doesn’t - he is a Duke; he can marry anyone in Dembele and beyond. She doesn’t have to sacrifice herself for loyalty to the Dynasty. 

Tuesday listen to her parents and her aunt go on and on – none of it makes sense. She could see how royals wanted to produce heirs to ensure the kingdoms went on and on, but the thought of a woman being raised just for that purpose kind of grossed her out.

And it seemed kind of weird to offer that to a girl right after her parents died like it was a prize.

And why would an old man wanna marry a young girl just to make her have babies?

( Tuesday decided to keep the thoughts to herself. )

As it happens, she and her father have always been able to communicate without a word. One look at his face told her he heard her and agreed. 

It was at that moment she disengaged from the conversation – these candies weren’t gonna crush themselves.

Jewel and Juniper decided to communicate more often; Juniper has not asked, but her older sister knows she could use the support.

Jewel told her their parents would be very proud of her and reminded her the thing they wanted for their daughter’s most was happiness.

So… is she happy?

It was a question Juniper would grapple with for weeks.

Duty (2)

Juniper took a slow sip and thought about her long game. All about the years she moved from world to world to avoid the Duke. Her schemes. Her misdirection.

She looked at the only man she loved, the only man she’d ever given all of herself to and asked:

“ What if your trap doesn’t work? “

“ Then I will draw my sword, hold it up to that old man and demand to fight for your honor. I will declare my love for you to all of Dambale - if we must leave, we must leave. But you will be my wife. “

Alim did not break eye contact with her. She knew he spoke to truth.

Then, a small smile broke across his face.

“ What if I told you he was joining her for dinner tonight? “

“ What?? “ Juniper shrieked in disbelief. It’s not that she hadn’t believed him before, she just didn’t realize things had moved along this far.

She is here?

They’re having dinner? Tonight??

They’re probably getting started as they speak.

Juniper looked at him with wonder. Looked at the man who waited for her; sustained himself on small visits and stolen moments. It was no small task for her either, but surely a warrior like him had needs far beyond what she could provide under the circumstances. 

He felt the heat from her stare.

“ what is it? “

“ Nothing. “ She replied, nervously; snapping her head forward.

“Juniper. “ he said, sternly. “ I wasn’t aware we had secrets between us. “

“ I have no place to ask about the parts of your love life that don’t include me, but – “

“ No others after the first time we made love. “ He said, plainly and absolute.

“ I wouldn’t have blamed you. “ She said softly, quietly embarrassed. “ I’m sure you had needs. “

“ You are my need. “

Family Jewel (1)

Juniper has been spending a lot of time thinking about family and legacy lately. The grand Duchess has been more than generous with her family; with both her parents gone, and her sister not being interested in Royal life, she could have just been forgotten. But the Duchess would never leave her out in the cold.

As a result, she’s been determined to take the little scraps of her family history and put the pieces together so she can write her family’s legacy in the history of Dembele - not just for her, but for her future relatives as well. Not to mention her niece, who she wants to have a steak in this rich tapestry one day.

She’s decided to take a small trip to visit them tomorrow – she’d very much love to see how her niece is doing at LAIS and encouraged the Lady Amarachi to reach out to her so she can have another friend.

Although they are sisters, they are very different. Even their looks, with Jewel looking more like their mother, and Juniper looking more like their father.

Jewel is bigger than life - round, curvy and vibrant, just like the textile art she creates. She laughs too loud, always wore the brightest clothes, I never hesitated to speak her mind.

Juniper always admired that, even if she never admitted it.

She had a dream of creating her own business and wasted no time packing up and traveling the worlds to build a client base. And she did just that.

She met her husband, Samir at a conference for entrepreneurs - one look at those curves, he followed her around the rest of the night.

She was just as smitten, but she made him work for it. They spoke premise over the phone and online; he gave her technical advice about her website, then convinced her to scrap it so he could build her one himself.

When he got the contract in Tomarang, he proposed and asked her to go with him. She told him she had some business to wrap up, but she said she would meet him there. They’ve been there ever since - they married by the water, and in a year, she was pregnant with their daughter.

She was born… On a Tuesday.

Tuesday always admired her mother‘s creativity and has been her loyal apprentice as her business grew. She loves Tomarang; the food, the people, the waters. But she loves to travel too. Her family goes on vacation every year to a different world; Tuesday loves, trying out the local cuisine, as well as taking lots of pictures and sketches for inspiration of new textiles.

There’s a quiet understanding that she will take over for her mother one day, and she’s perfectly okay with that. She likes the cozy life her parents built.

She does think about her auntie sometimes and wonders what life is like with the Royal Court, but it’s more like a fairytale than it is real life for her. Now that I’m just coming to visit, she’s excited to learn more.

And yes, there’s Bertha. Jewel has had her since she was a puppy, and brought her along to Tomarang when she came. She’s the queen of the house and knows exactly who to manipulate to get what she wants. but she always cuddles up under Samir for cuddles.

Now that they’re older, perhaps Juniper and Jewel can now find space for each other in their lives. With Tuesday getting older, Juniper is realizing she missed too much and would like to participate more and watch her grow into the young woman she’s becoming.

Sure, she’s faithfully sent birthday gifts and money along to help with tuition at LAIS, but she’s always wanted to be more active with her sister and her family.

She’s not certain if or when she’ll have children of her own, so it’s more important now than ever.

Claiming (1)

The Viscount Alim and the Marquess are heading back to Tortosa briefly, so he decided to pay the Baroness Juniper another visit while he had the chance. 

It wasn’t a formal visit, but that was intentional. What he wanted to say was private.

He wanted her to know that he and the Marquess will return to Dembele soon, but they have some business they need to attend to.

Speaking of which, has she sought an audience with the Duke yet?

Short answer? Not as of yet.

Since they’re on the subject, Juniper told Alim she has a plan. It’s just missing a few pieces.

Alim told her he has a plan as well; that’s partly why he’s going back temporarily. He and the Marquess need to call in reinforcements. If she needs anything in the meantime, she can feel free to call on Count Otieno - he’ll be staying behind for now and can get her anything she needs.

That being said, he thinks it’s only fair to put her on notice: he will absolutely be coming back for her officially; it would be best if she concluded her obligations to the Duke beforehand. But he intends to make his intentions known either way.

Is he going to fight for her hand?

Given the Duke‘s advanced stage, the Viscount would hate to do something that extreme. But he would if he had to.

They’ve given the Duke enough time – Alim is beyond ready to claim his woman.

Juniper has spent years trying to keep the Duke at bay; every time she traveled the worlds she went to see Alim, but she had to keep him at arms length too as to not cause a scandal.

But she’s beginning to think her sister is right – time is moving on; she deserves to marry the man she truly loves.

Now that he’s come back for her? That’s exactly what she plans to do.

Departures and Arrivals (10)

The Baes are ticking each and every task off of their list, with time to spare. They’ve already received endless invitations - dinners, classes, as well as an open invitation to come back for the engagement festivities.

Will they have time? They still have the Tartosa trip, and a few other deals they have to close. With Ifeoma and Marisol having dinner with Ife’s family tonight, Kendra and Yaritza decided to order some room service and crunch some numbers ( don’t worry, they love that kind of thing ).

Chisholm‘s stream exploded – some of her highest numbers to date . All types of invitations to parties for tonight. She’s decided to go to the Backroom and launched an impromptu contest to select three guest guests to accompany her. 

Just when they were about to leave, Yaritza saw the Baroness - strange, they weren’t supposed to meet until tomorrow. But she wasn’t going to waste the opportunity.

This stream is going crazy – real live royalty sighting!

Juniper welcomed her and the Travel Baes to the heart of Dambele with the Dynasty’s blessing and invited them to the palace to meet the royal family and the Marquess.

Will they be here for the next few days?

Yaritza told her they had not planned to stay quite that long, but perhaps they can rearrange things.

The Baroness told her the royal family would be honored and promised it would be worth it.

Then how could they say no? They’d be delighted.

Hierarchy (2)

The other challengers were formidable, but Fia could tell they were holding back on the Baroness; probably because they didn’t want to fall out of favor with the Grand Duchess.

Fia won’t be doing any of that.

There were a few gasps during their match, but Fia had no worries about her pupil. Juniper can fend for herself. 

She poked at her weak spots and showed no mercy.

Juniper welcome the challenge; the pressure only makes her better.

It shows her how to get out of tight spots.

It makes her stronger.

And - it got her tie today.

Fia is proud – Juniper clearly has been practicing.

She’s brought another challenger for her today - Juniper’s learning to anticipate things, so this will be a good exercise.

Hierarchy (1)

Morgan told Fia there’s another route to the crown - Simcalibur. Sure, it’s a Legend and seems a little unreachable, but if Fia can manage to do it, she can write her own ticket.

Fia doesn’t want anything to do with a crown; she just wants to own the seas with Cordelia at her side. 

Morgan told her she and Cordelia could be queens of the sea together; untouchable by the other Royals.

To successfully draw the sword from the stone, your Sim needs to:

✏️ Reach Swordsmanship Level 8: Train with practice dummies or participate in tournaments to build your blade skills.

✏️ Become a "Champion of the People": Your Sim must be in the Noble career and have high Commoner Favor. If you side too heavily with the Royals, the sword will refuse to budge.

Once both conditions are met, click on the sword, examine the prophecy, and select "Attempt to Draw" to claim your legendary weapon. Once pulled, you can use it to instantly promote your Sim to rank 10 of the Noble career and become the kingdom leader.

Fia refuses to join the Noble Career, so she’s ineligible.

But Cordelia is.

If she gets the sword, she can make her own rules.

She’ll need more training. And more allies. Fia knows just the place they can get both. 

Baroness Juniper has been working hard to level up in her swordsmanship skills - the grand Duchess created a swordsmanship event uninvited challengers.

As soon as Fia heard, she sent a message to Cordelia and told her to meet her there.

A crowd started to gather and several challengers signed up – Juniper cut her way through several of them, leaving only the best.

Fia didn’t tell Cordelia her whole plan, but Cordelia’s always down for some practice.

Since Fia taught Juniper most of what she knows, she figured she grabbed her sword and test her pupil herself.

Spoken for (2)

Not to count their chickens, but Alim asked Juniper if she has any opinions about their future living situations.

Like?

He knows him much Juniper loves her home, but he does too – perhaps they can keep both residences so they’ll have a comfortable place to stay in both worlds?

A little premature, seeing as he hasn’t even proposed properly, Juniper reminded.

Excellent point.

Juniper tells him due to circumstance she’s never been courted properly; never in her entire life. Is he to expect she should take on an entire marriage without that privilege?

Right again.

Alim told Juniper she deserves to be courted and won, not just acquired.

And - he is prepared to spend his time doing just that.

Personally, Juniper is looking forward to the day they can love out loud, rather than settling for stolen moments.

Not much longer, love. Can she hang in there a bit longer?

For him? Of course.