Chapter 8 | Chapter 10

Author’s Note: This chapter takes a dark turn, and is not recommended family friendly reading. Be aware – and enjoy!

In terror, the first and only thing I could think of to do was to run to Sonia. Which I did. She immediately embraced me and asked for the whole story. What I remembered of it, that is. Her eyes grew bigger with each sentence I spoke, and by the end she was nearly in tears.

“I should have known something like this would happen.” Sonia said when I finally finished the story and waited for her response.

“What do you mean?” I said. I was afraid I knew the answer, but part of me wanted to hear it out loud.

“Dušan… you are no longer human. I’m afraid Vlad did not just feed on you as you had originally feared, but he also must have forced you to feed on him.” Her eyes were serious, and she spoke haltingly, as if she was afraid to actually say the words.

I felt my knees try to buckle underneath me, and the world started spinning.

“What??” It came out in a harsh whisper. “What do you mean?” I asked, even though the answer was clear.

“I’m sorry, Dušan. There is nothing that can be done.” She dropped her hands to her side, and sighed deeply.

The silence stretched between us seemingly interminably.

Finally, she spoke again. “I don’t know what else to tell you, Dušan.”

“The only thing I can say – is that this should not change who you are. You are a good person at heart. And you are still my friend.” She held her arms out to me, and I could see no censure or fear in her eyes.

I folded her frail form into my arms. “Thank you, Sonia.” I whispered, and then, without another word, I left. I had business with the vampire on the top of the hill.

I burst through Vlad’s door without even bothering to knock, full of righteous anger.

“How DARE you!” I intoned.

“How DARE you say there are no hard feelings against my family – and then do THIS to me!”

“You welcomed me into your house with what I thought were good intentions! I should have known that was impossible for you.”

He even had the depravity to act like my anger made him afraid.

“WHAT were you thinking?!” I demanded, trying to force an answer from him.

“I… It was for your own good, my son.” He began, haltingly.

“How could … THIS… ” I motioned to myself and continued, “Be for my own good. I’m now DEAD!”

“No, you’re undead.” Vlad corrected. “And now you’ll live forever. You’ll have time to build your mansion and your legacy to rival even mine. After all that has been done to your family, I felt I owed you this honor.”

I was completely dumbfounded.

Before I could come up with anything to say, he reached behind himself to a package on the pipe organ.

“Here, childe.” he said and handed it to me.

I slowly ripped open the paper – only to find some plasma packs inside. Nearly shaking with anger, now, I looked up at him and began to speak, only to have him cut me off.

“You will not have to feed on humans, as many of us do. I can teach you to make these for yourself.. but you will have to eat. I can tell you haven’t fed yet – and not feeding can lead to dire consequences. Both for you and for those around you.”

“This. Is. Not. An. Honor.” I bit out, barely coherent enough to even talk.

“How could you even think something like this would be for my own good. You have taken EVERYTHING from me!”

In a white-hot rage, I flew at him, and, to my surprise, he fled from me.

I chased him out the door, feeling myself slide into … what I can only describe as… another form of myself. An angrier, more terrible form. One I hoped I never had to experience again.

Before he could leave his yard, he suddenly turned around, his eyes clearly showing his inhumanity.

Howling in rage, we met in the middle – a mess of arms, legs, and fangs.

I couldn’t tell you how long the fight lasted, or even what exactly transpired during it.

All I really know – is that I lost. And when I came back to myself, I was alone on the ground outside Vlad’s mansion. Shakily, I got to all fours and tried to push myself upright.

Well, that had gone well I thought to myself sarcastically. I dropped my head into my hands, at a loss of what to do now. Fighting with Vlad solved nothing, but I knew I would never forgive him for what he had done. Nothing could ever be the same again, obviously.

After long moments crying and feeling sorry for myself, I pushed myself to my feet and dusted myself off as best I could.

With nothing else to do, I headed home dejectedly. Things could not get any worse at this point, right?

I was standing at my campsite, feeling very sorry for myself when I heard someone stomping up behind me. To my utter horror, I turned around to find Alex there. How had she found my home? What was she doing here?! I glanced around, suddenly seeing my.. hovel.. for what she must see.

“I can explain…” I began.

“You’d BETTER explain!” She yelled. “You LIED to me! You’re not a successful artist – you’re a CON artist!”

“I am not!” I yelled back. “I already applied for the permits to build a home, and I have plenty of money to do just that! I never lied to you – I just didn’t tell you I was living in a tent!” Weak at the knees from hunger and everything that had happened, I sat down on my pitiful little cooler to continue.

“Alex, I adore you. I couldn’t risk losing you by telling you the truth. I AM successful as an artist, and I can afford to care for you. It just doesn’t look like it right now. Things will change – I promise you!”

“You LIE! I can’t believe a word you say! Imagine my embarrassment when I had to hear all about you from FRIENDS of mine who knew you better than I knew you! You’ve made me the laughingstock of everyone in Windenburg. Everyone knew about you except for ME!”

I started to reply.. I stood up, looking at her beseechingly.. and then I felt something slide in me. The world went a bit dim, and everything was spinning.

Or maybe that was just me spinning. Before I knew it, I was in that.. other.. form of me. And not out of anger this time. I couldn’t excuse it on that.

I saw myself begin to attack Alex as if through a fog. And I couldn’t stop myself.

The sweet, metallic taste of blood slid down my throat as I fed, but, still, I couldn’t stop. This had been what Vlad meant when he said not feeding was dangerous.

My own body had taken the choice from me. Sadly, I set myself back down on my cooler, and looked down at Alex’s crumpled form. She was never going to forgive me now. Whether or not I lied by omission was no longer an issue. I had attacked her.

I was completely “myself” again by the time Alex stood groggily up – so I was totally aware when she threw my ring into my garden and stumbled away. She didn’t even say a word.

I’d been wrong. Things could definitely get worse. Desolate, I fell to the ground by my tent and gave into the rush of tears. What would I do NOW?!

Chapter 8 | Chapter 10

Chapter 2.2 | Chapter 2.4

An abbreviated version of our goals for this generation:

Okay.. so where were we?… Working on Herbalism.

Oops. Marl looks so bored, but she’s the one who saved Skyor’s life.

As a thank-you, Skyor practices his massages on Marl. Which, thankfully, gives her a whole bunch of positive moodlets.

Why Thankfully? … Because we’re expecting.

Baby time! Will it be a boy? (I want a boy for heir.)

Well hi there! Guess our timer has started, because this little guy will be our heir.

I really want to move these guys to the bigger house, but we can’t afford it yet, so I put all of Skyor’s skilling on hold and have him work basically day and night on bathtubs to sell. I think my main reason for wanting to move is that I want to move a servant in to take care of things like laundry and cleaning so Marl doesn’t have to.

…See? He barely even gets time to sleep!

I swear, he rolled Angelic..

Oh, he’s adorable! Let’s hope he doesn’t grow up with skinny upper arms like the last generation did.. Although, I’ll be honest, I’m really coming to like Skyor, despite his faults.

MM… Baked Potatoes. .. Or maybe I’m just hungry.

However, Now that Marl has cooking maxed, that’s one of our skill goals done, and when we move, the servant can now do all the cooking. Hooray!

Daddy needed fun, so he plays with Matteo for a little bit.

Then he’s back to the grind. We’re getting close, though!

Matteo: “Oopsie. Sowwy Mommy…”

This is what I get when I’m too busy with other things than watching the toddlers.

Uh-oh. That last social/fun Try for Baby seems to have worked. Well, that’s our second kid. Soon as it’s born, we can cross that off, too.

I don’t have any idea whether they had flash cards back then, but they should have. Matteo loves these things.

With barely enough – off we go!! I even managed it before the second baby was born.

.. Barely. Marl looks about ready to pop in this picture. I ended up making two servants, because this is such a big house, it made sense to me to have a second servant. The girl is Thalia the Neat, and the guy is Amir the Handy.

I quickly figure out that the second servant was a mistake. It’s just too many adults to be keeping track of. I start trying to figure out what to do with him, because I worked hard on making him and I don’t want to just kick him out.

I told you we barely got in before the second kid. Marl easily births a little girl who we name Samara the Meek. The descriptor wasn’t my idea, it was my hubby’s, because, quite frankly, I’m running out of ideas. LOL.

Thalia doing what she’s supposed to. Cleaning. Saving Marl so much time and energy.

Wellness turns out to be an annoying skill to work on. He doesn’t get much in the way of fun from doing yoga, and he loses hygiene like crazy. I give him a break to eat with his wife.

I finally figure out what to do with Amir. Marl invites her sister, Zarra, over, and we start getting the two together.

While I’m busy with that, Marl works on her gardening…

.. And, since I wasn’t watching her, I’m completely surprised by this popping up. Yay! Another skill marked off. Which means that Marl is done with her skills.

Having them Try for Baby a couple times, hoping to have little cousins.

Then – just because I have a feeling it’ll be a “yes” and I didn’t want Zarra to leave without Amir, I hurry up and pop the question. She agrees, and we get the move in box.

One less servant to worry about. Thank goodness.

Samara grows up and gets her makeover. She is so cute!

Matteo gets a bath, while Marl complains a little bit about the laundry. I mean, I would too, when someone is supposed to be doing that for you.

Guess what, honey?? There’s another one on the way!! Skyor seems happy with it, which is a good thing, because it’s happening whether he likes it or not!

I’ve had him working on his skills a little bit each day, trying to get closer to “done”.

I contemplate making that Fertility Elixir, but we really don’t need twins. I’m having enough trouble with the toddlers I have!

The only thing Skyor has left for his aspiration is sleeping in a tent for 5 nights. He’s at 4/5 and I’ve tried three different times to get it with no luck. Something keeps interrupting him or it just doesn’t count… I dunno, but it’s exceedingly annoying. We’ll try again after he wears himself out on yoga.

Baby #3 incoming! I feel so bad for Marl, she keeps ending up giving birth all by herself.

We got another little girl, named Maliyah the Misfit. And somehow, the birth didn’t wake up Skyor.

So… finally….

We can delete that darn tent in the cow pasture. Not that we have cows.. but, you know. The point stands. It’s supposed to be for the animals!

What does that leave us? ….Lots of time for Matteo to grow up, and Wellness for Skyor to max. (He’s at level 7 now I think, and we have plenty of time.)

Chapter 2.2 | Chapter 2.4

Chapter 2.9 | Rules for this challenge | Chapter 2 Interlude 1

Generation Two: Brown

Appearance: Brown hair, unkempt clothing style
Traits: Loves Outdoors, Loner, Child of the Island
Aspiration: Beach Life
Occupation: Conservationist
House Goal: 20,000 worth

Days Gone By

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It’s another beautiful day in Sulani, and with Kali big enough to watch her brother and sister, Aleki and I are once again able to have a leisurely morning swim out by our dock. Kali has her breakfast, and is all ready to go to school when we get back. We give her a hug goodbye and head inside to get back to being parents of two little ones.

After Kali gets home from school, she does her homework and then plops down at her beloved activity table. Since I’m working on my last point of Logic for work, I’m close enough to her that we can sit and chat.

While I’m studying, though, my phone rings. It’s Austen, and he has more bad news. Meilani miscarried again, and this time the doctors said they should simply stop trying. Austen agrees, I mean, they’re not getting any younger – but it doesn’t lessen the blow of losing yet another baby. I decide Kali has enough to worry about, so I don’t tell her the news, but I save it to tell Alexi later.

After what must be one of the fastest aspiration finishes ever, Kali decides she now wants to be a Whiz kid, so I spend what’s left of the evening reading to her and teaching her to play chess.

Unbeknownst to either Aleki or I, Maricela ages up all by herself upstairs and wanders around, checking out her new territory. Not finding anyone to play with up there, though, she quickly gets bored of it, and ends up alerting us to her presence with a temper tantrum that would wake the Kraken.

The week goes on, with Aleki taking his “Zen” moments at his water garden as often as he can, and both of us playing tag-team on the parenting. I tell you what, things can get pretty crazy with three kids around a house.

With Aleki’s aspiration being Mansion Baron, he’s up to the part where he’s supposed to own more Art. So he spends a few days working on actual paintings instead of commissions for other people. He turns out some pretty good stuff, but nothing worth even close to what he can make with commissions. They do add a nice “feel” to the house, though, as we hang them up here and there.

Maricela is quite a troublemaker, and got into the flour while I was making Jayce’s birthday cake. We planned to invite the family over for his party, but it ended up that a good portion of the family couldn’t make it.

…. Which made Jayce very sad.

Dinner at the party was a little subdued, and I quickly shuffled everyone off home and told Jayce he should check upstairs… It didn’t take him long to discover that we’d made some purchases.

One of the rooms was now decked out just for him – and it even had room for some pets. Kali grudgingly agreed to share her art bench with her brother, because apparently he grew up with the Art Lover trait as well, and seemed to want to be just like his big sister.

The other nice thing is that we’d finally been able to afford fixtures in the upstairs bathroom – so there was no racing down the stairs in the early morning hours for anyone in the family. (Which, in my opinion, is a good thing – we don’t need anyone falling down the stairs!)

However, those furniture upgrades weren’t cheap, and Aleki has been working day and night on commissions to pay for them. Pair that with trying to keep up with a constantly naughty toddler, and neither Aleki or the toddler seemed to be getting enough rest.

I quickly stepped in and put Mari to bed, and sent Aleki to bed, too. The paintings could wait for tomorrow.

I still visit with Squirt as much as I possibly can, and she’s always glad to hear little tidbits about my family life. As she says, the life of the “two legs” (us) is particularly interesting, because she couldn’t imagine not being in the ocean all the time. She was also happy to hear of my major promotion to the top of my career… now I’m the boss around work, and I can dictate even more conservation efforts around the islands.

Mom stopped over to see the kids the day after the birthday party, and our little Charmer Mari was more than happy to try to monopolize all of her visiting time.

We didn’t much mind, though, because it’s so cute watching them play together.

Mom helped me tuck in our littlest monster, and then we were able to have a real talk about Dad. We both missed him terribly, but life goes on – and I expressed just how glad I was that she was still around. At least my kids would get to know one grandparent!

“Hammy” – as Jayce has named his new pet – has turned out to be a really cute family addition, and we practically fight over who’s going to take care of him next. He certainly isn’t lacking for attention, and his cage is always pristine.

Mari is slowly learning to talk, even if she’d much rather be making messes. I don’t remember either of my other kids being quite as rowdy as she is.

Every time we turn around, there’s another mess in the making. I swear, I might as well just leave the mop and bucket out – but then, they’d probably turn into her playthings, too. I even caught her playing in the toilet, of all things, the other day. What a mess that was!

Now that work is so much less stressful, I’ve taken up a new hobby. I bought myself a Diving Camera, and have started taking pictures of the deep ecosystems in our islands. It takes time to get good photos, but I’ve found my photography has definitely been improving with the practice.

The pictures that I don’t sell to the local galleries have gone up in our bedroom, giving us a daily (well, nightly) reminder of just how precious the life around us is.

Chapter 2.9 | Rules for this challenge | Chapter 2 Interlude 1

Chapter 2.1 | Chapter 2.3

Here’s what yesterday looked like on my SimNaNo goals:

Today’s posts put me at over halfway done on my targeted word count, although I will need to keep working to get the post count.

So, last post, we aced the first part of Generation 2 – now for the fun stuff. The “real” beginning of the Gen. First, though, let’s copy over the rules:

That done, let’s acknowledge the cute pic of the happy couple in front of their new home – the “Lower Class Egyptian Home” linked above.. and move on.

First thing I do: have Marl (why do I keep trying to call her Myra. Wrong sim) take some of the Taro root from her new husband and plant it. I also buy some starter veggies and fruit and plant those, too. Okay, let’s be honest. I had her plant way too much – and later I end up selling some of the plants because they don’t “look right” in the garden. (HAHA!)

I don’t know if the awning here will keep them dry in the rain, but never-the-less, I really like the open-air concept for the dining “room”. Although why they had to sit at opposite ends of the table, I don’t know.

Marl gets down to business as quickly as possible… and starts some laundry. Of note: we are all prepared for babies in this house, as you can see… but these two have yet to woohoo. Since they’ll have to “Try for Baby”, I’m not quite ready for it yet. (Especially since it’s almost Summer, and we need to hit up Granite Falls for Herbalism stuff.. but again, I’m getting ahead of the story.)

Marl dodges the bees as she’s getting to know them. This is the garden before I add too many plants and have to rearrange.

Dad stops over to check on his “little girl”. She informs him that they won’t be home for the next week – they’re spending the Summer in Granite Falls. (Which isn’t quite like an Oasis, but we’ll deal with it.)

After I spend the time to add in the “Early Civilization” Campground and Forest that I built, they go on vacation and immediately head for the closest fishing hole. That’ll give the plants a chance to finish spawning, and Skyor time to get the fish for the first part of his Outdoor Enthusiast Aspiration.

I run myself crazy picking up flowers and plants and digsites and bugs.. and entirely forget to take very many pictures.. but if you’ve tried this aspiration before, you’ll understand why. Finally, we get to the part where he needs 4 Herbalism skill, and we “chain” him to a grill to get that done.

Eating his roasted Beetles. Or, at least cooking them to eat them. He doesn’t seem to be that worried about it. Being that he was born in the “Stone Age”, I would guess not – and after all that collecting, he was pretty darn hungry.

Marl has been doing some collecting, too… but I think she spent most the time complaining about her fishing skill being too low to catch anything. This, by the way, is Skyor eating that all important second plate of beetles. We finish out that part of the aspiration, and get to the part where you have to befriend the hermit.

Little story before we get there, though – they had two whole days where they had thunder and lightning pretty much ALL day. I kinda rolled the dice and still had them in the forest and Deep Woods collecting everything possible, figuring I could run them into the hermit’s house if one got struck the first time. I had to keep cancelling Skyor’s friendly overtures to the hermit, because I didn’t want to glitch the save out by getting to know her too early, which was thoroughly annoying. Somehow, however, neither one got struck by lightning even a single time. I saw some other sims get hit.. but not our couple. For which I will eternally be grateful… LOL. I apparently forgot to take even a single picture of this, but I guess that’s okay – they would have been dark photos, anyway.

We finally get to know the hermit, and we take the time to get to “Good Friends” so we can learn the extra Herbalism recipe. Meanwhile, I’m still hunting down bugs and plants and anything else I can collect with both sims until their needs get too low, then refilling the needs and continuing on. Very exciting – let me tell you.

However, the most exciting part of the whole trip was right at the very end. We had only a couple of hours left on the trip, and I had literally one insect left to find. That darn Walking Stick that’s only in the Deep Woods. I’ve never finished the Insect collection, so I was trying my hardest to spot the little guys.

When I finally spotted them – I was literally yelling at the screen for Skyor to hurry up and get over to where they were so they wouldn’t disappear (And hubby probably thought I was crazy!!) But – I finally completed the Bug collection. (Wouldn’t you know it, I also completely forgot to have the “curator” aspiration up to catch the moment – but maybe it’ll count later, if I get that far? It’s not like I don’t have other things I have to get done this generation.)

We send them home a scant hour early because everything was collected anyway, and I start divvying up the bounty. Herbalism plants go to Skyor, veggies go to Marl, Bugs to Skyor, etc. All the rocks, crystals, maps, fossils, and Herbalism concoctions Skyor had made all went on the sales table. I didn’t put any mysims trophies out – that would have looked weird, so I just sold those outright.

People are buying stuff left and right. Marl is busy somewhere in the background, planting the new veggies. I set up an inside planter for each of the Herbalism plants, but Skyor will have to plant those – after he learns what they all are. Because that’s the part of the aspiration we’re on. After a while, Marl runs out of stuff to do, and I have them switch off. She runs the yard sale, and Skyor works on his skills. I’m going to have him do Wellness and Herbalism, and Marl will do Cooking and Gardening. Hopefully we’ll have time to get all of that done.

Lunch time. Marl grills up some veggie something or other that gave both of them a huge moodlet buff, which I’d never seen before. Something I’ll definitely have to do again, that’s for sure. At least they’re sitting together this time. Oh yeah, and I just remembered to mention – you won’t be seeing Paku and Utali here, because they were left behind in the Bronze Age, as per the rules.

She’s back doing laundry again. Somehow I missed all the Granite Falls pictures, but I managed to get two of her doing laundry. Go figure.

A shot of the roof “garden” where Skyor is starting on his Wellness skill. Too bad it doesn’t give more “Fun” – he’s still really hurting for it, and I’m still unwilling to let them Try for Baby – so I’m trying to come up with other things to do.

Zarra stops by to say hello, so we invite her in and chat a while. At least one of our couple will have some Social need filled…

I finally relent. It occurs to me that I don’t absolutely have to have the first kid be the heir, so they can have one or two before-hand if I’m struggling with the skills. Or that darn tent sleeping requirement that I’m dreading. However – this post is long enough, and I figured this was as good a place to stop as any – so we’ll have to wait to find out if this Try for Baby bears “fruit”.

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I am going to leave you with a bonus: I went in and took pictures of all of Skyor’s younger siblings – in order (which took some remembering who came first) in their current age state and clothes that they grew up in. I think – looks wise – Myra is my fave, but we’ll have to wait to see how she looks as a teen. Skyor certainly has grown on me, though, and I’m having a blast with this challenge!

See you next time!

Chapter 2.1 | Chapter 2.3

House 012 Chapter 1 < | > House 012 Chapter 3

First, we check on our house goals:

House 012 Building Goals:
3 Bedroom, 2 Bathroom home worth at least $50k Simoleons
House 012 Generational Goals:
Complete the Friend of the World aspiration
Have The Drifter Declare another Sim an Enemy
-Then raise the relationship between The Drifter and their Enemy to BFF
Have The Drifter Engage in and WIN 5 fights
-Each win must be with a different Sim opponent
Produce and raise The Heir to the Young Adult life stage

I’m not doing very well, am I? Well, unless you count on my Simnano Goals, which yesterday looked like this:

Here is what our little home looks like after I loaded in and realized that 1, the bed was still outside, and 2.. the strawberries were out of season. It felt wrong to just give her a greenhouse and make her still sleep on the lawn – so we built a secondary roof. The house still counts as a “micro” house for the purpose of skill gaining – which I plan to keep until she graduates. Or as close to it as possible.

She is still studying in the dark, however. Lights cost too much. =P

Only existing on naps isn’t turning out quite the way I’d hoped, though. And the bathroom breaking woes have clearly begun.

Social and Fun are perpetually low, so we invite Sione over. We try to start a romance, but with his Unflirty trait (He’s also Childish and Dog Lover) – he refuses because .. well I don’t know. But he didn’t want any part of it, so we just socialized and played with sand castles.

The final task of the week (that and final exams) .. can I be the first to say presentations are annoying in how you have to schedule them only at certain times!

The first week’s grades come in.. and I realize this past week went by so fast and so boring that I don’t have enough photos for an actual update. However, we did get to a 4.0 GPA, which I am thrilled about.

Since we don’t have enough photos, I continue play for an extra week.

We still have no lights, but things continue to break. I can’t imagine that fixing a sink in the dark is very easy….

At about this time, I realize two things. One, I’m bored stiff with grinding out grades as a solo sim.. and Two, I’m going to have to start thinking about the heir pretty soon. A friend calculates out exactly when I have to have the heir to have them grow up at the beginning of spring – and we have to get pregnant at the very beginning of Winter. Which is only a week away, and will mean that we have to spend the last week of school pregnant for part of it, and with a new baby for the rest.

So – expecting it to take a while to romance Mr. Reluctant.. I invite him over and get him to be “BFFs”. After a couple of flubbed attempts at romance, we finally get him to accept some flirts.

Finally.. full success.. we got the First Kiss. Should be smooth sailing from now on.

We hurry up and ask him to be a boyfriend, just to make sure he says yes while being really flirty…. (although he doesn’t really look hugely happy about it – he looks more shell-shocked than anything.

And then I send them to have some fun, because, as usual, Lyric is extremely low on fun. Apparently college and studying all the time isn’t fun. Who knew… (LOL)

Since he’s being so pliant, I decide to go ahead and ask him to marry us. This would be the successful proposal. They elope right away, and I quickly expand the house as far as I can without losing the Micro bonuses. Which means that I can’t fit in a double bed – so they’re just going to have to sleep in the same room.

The next morning, I notice that the garden is a disaster area, so Lyric works on that and her studies basically all day.

I get the presentation and the term paper out of the way as fast as possible this week, and try to keep up with the homework. Again, we have no time to work on House goals, but having Sione around means that we can keep Lyric’s fun in manageable ranges.

… Lyric.. what are you doing. I don’t think you get bonuses to skills if you’re not actively on your own lot…

I also figure out that we have to meet another Sim in another location for her aspiration – and that we can afford to travel with all the scholarship money – so we head to the park after Friday’s classes are done. We take advantage of the basketball court for a while, then have Lyric go find someone to say “hi” to.

In the interest of getting into House goals, I try to pick a a fight with this girl, but I keep getting routing errors and get frustrated, so I just send them home instead.

And Saturday arrives with our new report card. I don’t know what happened to that one class, but at least it didn’t hurt our average. Sometime during this week, I realized that Lyric’s fitness skill is actually quite a bit higher than I had thought it was from all her studying – in fact, she’s at 8 fitness, even though I don’t send her out running anymore due to lack of time to do so.

Spooky Day.. well evening.. and I decide it’s way past time to get into trouble. So I pick a fight with a costumed passer-by.

.. I keep my fingers crossed that her higher fitness skill will net her a win…

.. and it does!

So, since we’re thoroughly angry at them, we have them become enemies.

After that, I *TRY* to have Lyric apologize, but no dice. Sierra is WAY too ticked off at us, so we let her leave. We spend the rest of the day texting her trying to make up to her, and it seems to be working. We’re almost out of the “red” relationship bar.

Somehow, I end up playing Sunday, too, instead of stopping as usual.. and Lyric finishes all her homework for the week, her presentation work, and the term paper. Plus, she hits level 9 fitness. I think we’re all ready for babies next play session!

.. But before I go to save, Sione randomly decides to take care of the garden – which was a mess again. I had to wait until he was done to save. For obvious reasons. See you next time for the last week of college, and the heir!

House 012 Chapter 1 < | > House 012 Chapter 3

Chapter 1.6 | Chapter 2.2

Last time, we finished Generation One. Which means – we need to figure out what we’re doing with Generation Two – and that brings us to “story time”. In the original rules, erica180 had Generation Two doing handiness stuff and selling the profits with a table. I put Herbalism and selling the profits on a table as “Gen Three” .. and after putting a night’s thought into it – that was just going to be too repetitive and boring. And I’d already put hours into building Bronze Age and Egyptian lots, so I didn’t really want to just cut out the second or third generations completely. Then there was the question of what to do with a teen who couldn’t make babies for the next generation for almost two weeks. So, I compromised. I took generation “Two” (The Bronze Age), compressed it, rewrote the flavor text and the rules.. and I made it a mini-generation at the beginning of the Gen. Now the “REAL” Generation Two is in Ancient Egypt and starts when Skyor is a young adult. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Here’s “Part One” of Gen 2’s rules:

Now, since I built those Bronze Age lots, I was darn well going to use them. But Skyor wasn’t going to need room for a family. So I made him a smaller hut and put it across the street. But that left this great big family home empty… and Skyor was going to need friends. So I searched the gallery, and found a couple of possible “Early Civilization” prospects for his spouse. One of the families was a brother and sister, the other was an adult female. But I really liked her… So.. I made her a teen, made the two girls sisters, and made the brother the Dad. … It’s really not as creepy as it sounds, ok? I also re-named all three. So, for the sake of complete-ness, here’s the three sims in question:

I gave Skyor two options, just in case he has trouble clicking with one or the other. In theory. For reference, Marl is my favorite.

And, just because I didn’t feel bad enough for leaving her behind already:

That’s what poor Arjuna is stuck with. Lastly, before we get started, we’ll re-introduce our heir.. and let him glory in his weirdness:

Finally. Story time is over.. and we can start. Let’s go meet the neighbors, shall we?

Dad Zabala keeps a close watch on the proceedings. At least at the beginning.

Marl seems to be preoccupied with wanting to swim, to we get to know Zarra first. The friendship meter shoots into Good Friend range.. and I decide we should give Marl a chance, too. Because she’s my favorite, and all.

Couldn’t tell you what Zarra’s doing. But Dad is definitely no longer concerned. And making a sandcastle? Read: poor Skyor needs fun desperately. In fact, spoiler alert: he is low on fun nearly this whole chapter and I’m always struggling to get it back up. So much so, that I make him drink some 100 point fun potions. But I’m getting ahead of myself again.

Skyor: “See that cloud over there? It looks like a Cowplant. Wait, you’ve never heard of a Cowplant… well let me TELL you!”

After a getting to know everyone session, we send Skyor home to work on Handiness. Of which he has 0 skill. And we need to max it in like 12 days. AND make 20k simoleons while doing it. Ohh boy.

Our first haunting. Hey, Dad.. good to see you again!

Paku.. what did I tell you about Marshmallows. They didn’t exist, silly. Stop roasting them!

The next day (or was it the one after?) – I’ve worked poor Skyor’s fingers to the bone, and he has an inventory full of little wooden statues – and a Fun bar that’s completely tanked. It occurs to me that teens can’t get pregnant. Maybe it’s time to do some messing around, huh? Also: if you’re watching closely, you’ll see I cut this shot in a wide angle so you can see Arjuna walking by. Hello, you’re not supposed to be able to leave Sulani!! Stop stalking us in the middle of the night!

First kisses. Marl looks completely shocked. Apparently, she hadn’t gotten the memo that she was in the lead in the race for Gen 2 spouse.

Ahh.. no babies on the way. We still have time!

Skyor’s first Yard Sale. Technically, my first, too, since it’s something I’ve never tried in Sims 4. I don’t know why. That 300% markup is pretty darn nice… We sell everything to the not-appropriately-dressed-sims and go back to making statues.

Lots. Of. Statues.

Zarra invites herself over with a gift for us. I don’t remember what it was, but it wasn’t spectacular. Someone apparently didn’t tell her that we were already “taken”. Gotta give a girl credit for trying, though. Skyor looks a little creeped out by her late night visit, though.

Hi, Mom! (Skyor was too busy to say hi.. )

Ghosts do not need food. But since I can’t keep it, I suppose I won’t begrudge you a snack.

Yes, these were all different nights. And nothing else of interest happened except for statue making and yard sales. Over. And. Over. And. Over. Meanwhile.. Mom comes out and decides since we never have time for laundry – she’ll do it for us. Um.. thanks?

Skyor finally gets to being able to make Dining Tables and Bathtubs – which, I’ll tell you what, do the bathtubs when you get the chance… (and yard sales become a thing of the past…)

Woot! Part 1 of the goal done. The other part of the goal is being nickel-and-dimed by me on my phone calculator.

When we absolutely can’t get past the fact that we need “social”.. we invite Marl out to the local Hot Springs (Pool venue built by me). Not a great photo.. but watching all the sims walking around nude for the “Clothing Optional” lot trait was hilarious. I’m not sure how I didn’t get a single nude sim in the frame of this photo. Oh, well.

Marl ages up a couple days before we do. I think it was three? .. So we just stick to friendly stuff and count the fact that she’s already our girlfriend so nobody can “steal” her. At least, not since I don’t have MCCC.

That’s the first time Skyor had to do his own laundry. And, no, it’s not raining. Just very wet clothes. Ignore the dinosaur statue in the background. LOL.

By this time, we’ve gotten our 20k and are just wasting time until Skyor sees fit to spin himself to Young Adulthood. He’s taking forever.

Skyor gets his final trait.. and Irresponsible to add to it. Not really surprised, I mean – he didn’t go to a single day of school his whole life. Nor did he ever do his homework, because I sold it. $1! Woohoo.

We invite Marl to the Bronze Age Temple lot I built – because why not. (Oh and I added a wedding arch to it. It’s a generic lot, I figured we could have an actual wedding there.)

I carefully set them up in front of the arch to pop the question.. and then cross my fingers.

Whew!! She said yes! (I mean, I would have been a little surprised if she hadn’t, but whatever.) We then try to set up a Wedding goaled event, but all the other “Generic” lots in the world showed up except for this one. No matter what I tried. Finally, I gave up and just invited Dad and Sis-in-Law over, hoping they would watch the ceremony.

Spoiler: They didn’t.

Oh, well. At least we’re married now.

… Oops. I guess I never got rid of their “last” name. *chuckles* Too late now. I save and quickly hit “Move Household” – because it’s time to move to my Egyptian House(s)! I Hope they’ll be able to afford the “Elite” one – but they can’t. I guess we’ll have to save up. Oh, and yeah, the houses weren’t completely done by this point, either… so saving was necessary to hop over to my “building” save so I could finish the Egypt lots before actually moving. What do they look like? … Well, you’ll just have to wait until tomorrow, I guess! *Grin*

Chapter 1.6 | Chapter 2.2

Chapter 2.8 | Rules for this challenge | Chapter 2.10

Generation Two: Brown

Appearance: Brown hair, unkempt clothing style
Traits: Loves Outdoors, Loner, Child of the Island
Aspiration: Beach Life
Occupation: Conservationist
House Goal: 20,000 worth

Highs and Lows

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Have I mentioned lately how much I love Sulani? Every day I notice something else that I hadn’t noticed before, and the sheer beauty of nature around me takes my breath away. I mean, I’m glad I no longer live right under the volcano – like I did growing up – but I’m still close enough to my parents that it’s a short swim across the water.

Today was Kali’s first day of school, and she ran off past the new windows with as much glee as I’ve ever seen for someone who was going to school for the day.

Oh, did I mention the new windows? Yeah, I found some windows on sale at the local hardware store that really open up the house, and with Alexi’s newest big commission, we decided to splurge. Again. I know, it’s hard to save when I’m constantly spending more money, but lately it seems so easy to make that money back that upgrading the house for our growing family was an easy option.

Alexi is still such a big help around the house – even in the face of the fact that he manages to find the time to do at least one commission every other day or so. And those commissions aren’t just asking for a simple logo anymore. They want the “real” stuff. Luckily, Alexi is talented enough to do just that.

Kali arrived home from school humming to herself, and immediately sat down to do her homework. After I picked my jaw up off the floor, I went over to help her on her math, but she insisted the rest she could do on her own. Which left me some down time to recover after working all day. With the baby due soon, I knew we were going to need my paycheck, and my boss was nice enough to give me easy tasks, so it was okay.

After her homework was done, Kali spent the rest of the evening playing with her toys for her aspiration – which reminded me that I needed to get back to work on mine. Maybe I could find time this weekend. If the baby came first, that is.

Speaking of commissions, Alexi got another big one today, and he’s had his head in that Sketchpad of his whether he’s actually working on it or not. By bedtime he’d still only gotten one of the Environmental Sketches done, and the client had furiously sent it back. I had a feeling it was going to be a long couple of days for him.

I went to bed early – but I wasn’t asleep long. I knew what was wrong immediately, and Alexi dropped everything to come support me. Granted, his version of support was dancing around in the corner panicking, but at least he tried.

Before long, our third baby, Maricela arrived. Kali seemed determined to be the best big sister she possibly could be, and continued to do her homework without complaint, and even helped out around the house. Alexi said she even begged to have him show her how to start the washer to do her laundry so I wouldn’t have to!

I do have to wonder what Kali’s been writing about in her journal, though, because she always looks so serious when she’s doing it. I’m careful to give her her “space”, though, and despite the temptation, I haven’t pulled the journal out from under the mattress I know she stashes it under.

Poor Alexi has been trying to do everything lately. He’s up late with our newest daughter, and still one of the first ones up in the morning to work on his commissions. He did finally get that last big one completed, although I could have sworn I heard him cursing about difficult clients under his breath.

Mom.. I love you dearly, but you sure can pick a doozey of a time to stop by. The kitchen sink had broken, as well as the toilet, so I was far too busy to do anything more than say hello.

Kali stepped in, however, and spent some time with an adoring grandmother while eating her dinner. I’d made veggie chili that night, and Mom swore that’s why she had swum all the way across the water to come visit. I laughed and made sure she had a bowl of her own before she left for the evening.

Before bed, Kali did some more to hang on the fridge – I swear, we’ve nearly run out of room! She’s turning out to have her father’s talent, it seems. We’ll see what she does with it as she grows up.

Since Maricela came right on time, and I said I’d work on my aspiration over the weekend – I did just that. I had to explore the cave that I’ve heard so many stories about from my mother. Apparently my grandmother found the gift of our tails there, and I have to admit, I’d been curious to really have a look around. I was also supposed to find some buried treasure, so I had plans to go buy some dive equipment to look for it later.

Kali had her first violin lesson this weekend, too… and it may not sound great now, but she sure is determined. She’s also smart enough to only practice when the babies aren’t sleeping, which I heartily approve of.

The house had another major upgrade, too. The balcony over the fish pond got turned into a media room. I have plenty of space now to store any shells or treasure I find. Granted, I found that one treasure in the cave, not by diving, but I was sure I could find more. Now that we were comfortable financially, I would definitely be able to keep the shells and stuff I found instead of selling it instantly.

Everyone had to admit, though, that the new “media room” and the windows really helped put the house together. Plus, I had another reason for actually buying a TV.

Sunday dawned with huge rainclouds in the sky, and there was trouble in the breeze. Jayce was getting into mischief while Alexi was trying to work, and I was so busy with Maricela I couldn’t really step in and help.

Then Dad called, right when I was finally free to doze off on the deck for the final step of my aspiration. I smiled and had to take some time to chat, despite the fact that it would eat into my naptime. He gabbed about all sorts of things, and I tried to keep up with him – but as usual, I was thoroughly left behind by the time the conversation was over. I laughed, then sat down for my nap – no matter how short it would be.

My nap was just long enough to count for finishing my aspiration, and then I was back to work, being a super mom. Alexi had been working all morning on another tough commission, so he had passed out on the couch, and someone had to watch the babies.

Kali and I had a quiet dinner while he rested.. and then cleaned up the dishes. .. Then we all ran upstairs, because it was time for the countdown.

We had all made our resolutions, and to my surprise, the babies slept through the entire countdown.. but it was not to be as happy an end to the year as we all expected. Just as the ball dropped in San Myshuno, all of our phones started ringing at the same time. We all shared a sober look, because that was never a good thing.

To my horror, despite the fact I had just talked to him and he had been his typical high energy self, my father had passed away. My brother had had to make the phone call, because Mom was beside herself with grief.

I threw myself into Alexi’s arms with the confetti from the holiday still raining down on our heads. He caught me, and held me tight for a long moment before something occurred to me.

Poor Kali was standing there all alone, as devastated as the rest of us. I quickly scooped her up in my arms and held her tight. It was going to be a long week – but at least Jayce was too young to feel much of the pain. Granted, he was going to pick up on the emotion from the rest of us, but he wasn’t going to understand or remember it. I couldn’t say the same for Kali. This was a day none of us would soon forget.

It was terribly late by the time I’d gotten Kali calmed down enough to go to bed, and she was mostly asleep by the time I even got the blankets pulled up. I gave her a kiss, then checked in on Jayce downstairs before curling up next to Alexi and listened to the crickets outside. I’m not sure I ever actually fell asleep that night – but I do know I watched the sun rise over Mari’s crib and remembered my Dad.

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(A/N: This is the second time this legacy I’ve been moved close to tears by my little pixel mermaids. You will be missed, Rangi.. you will be missed. I had taken this screenshot of Corina swimming earlier in the evening’s play session, but I felt it was more appropriate to use it to close the post. Enjoy, and see you next time!)

Chapter 2.8 | Rules for this challenge | Chapter 2.10

Chapter 7 | Chapter 9

By the time I woke up, the sun had gone down, but the pain in my abdomen certainly had not. It still felt like hunger, though, so I reached into my cooler to try something else.

Nope. The yogurt was definitely bad, too. I wondered what might have happened. I’d never had stuff in my cooler go bad before – and it made me wonder how long I’d been trapped in that coffin at the vampire’s mansion. Maybe I’d been “out” for quite a while. It was the only explanation I could come up with.

Meanwhile, I most definitely was going to have to find something to eat. And going all the way to Windenburg in the state of pain I was in now was definitely out of the question. I tried to think of options, but my brain was as muzzy as the rest of me.

Finally, I grabbed my fishing rod and tackle and headed to catch a nice fresh fish. Halfway there, I doubled over in pain, and looked in horrified wonder at the purple glow that was emanating from my stomach. Moments later, the pain passed slightly, and I convinced myself I had been imagining things, and continued on to the pond.

Fishing while hurting is not something I recommend, I have to say. It felt like forever before I had a bite on the line, and the disappointment when I didn’t catch anything was palpable.

What seemed like hours passed, and finally I managed to catch something big enough to eat. All the little goldfish I threw back. I still didn’t know what goldfish were doing in the pond – but they could also stay there for all I cared. I grabbed up the fish and my stuff and started the painful journey back home.

By the time I got home, I needed to go to the bathroom – so I used my friendly bush. By the time I got done, the weird glow was back, and the pain had nearly doubled. Tears ran down my face, and I angrily wiped them away and set out to make some dinner. I couldn’t remember ever being this hungry before. How long had I been trapped?? Days?!?

The fish took literally forever to cook. It smelled amazing, too. I wondered why I had been too busy to get fresh fish lately, and why I had just been eating out of my cooler. I guess I’d forgotten how good a fried fish could be!

Once my fish was done, I sprinkled it with some spices and sat back down to enjoy it.

The moment it hit my mouth, I knew something was terribly wrong. I couldn’t imagine what it was – but there was no way the fish had gone bad in the short walk back from the pond. What was going on?? I dropped my head in my hands, and then decided I’d try one last thing.

Again, the hot dog took forever to cook.. but finally, it was done, and I braced myself for yet another attempt to eat something.

Nope. This was not going to work. Food was out of the question. Maybe I just had some sort of a stomach bug?

Miserably, I say there and looked at my weed-strewn garden and my sad little campsite. What was I going to do now? There was no way I could garden in the amount of pain I was in. … Perhaps I should call the local landscaping company and see if they would send someone over just for the day. One quick phone call later, I steeled myself for the bill that would certainly be placed in my hand when the gardeners were done for the day.

I contemplated painting while I waited for them to arrive, but I couldn’t think of anything to paint. I wondered if I even had enough red paint to depict the amount of pain I was in… and quickly determined painting was not in my near future.

The gardener arrived, looking a bit confused at the fact that he’d been called for such an extensive garden at what was, essentially, just a camp site. He clearly wanted his paycheck, however, and said nothing. He went about his business, and I asked him to pin the bill to the easel when he was done – I needed to rest. I crawled miserably into my tent, and fell, blessedly, into a deep sleep.

When I woke again, I stumbled groggily out of my tent and glared at the sun behind the clouds. After getting violently ill in the bushes, I headed back to my tent.. but I didn’t quite make it there.

A force I couldn’t deny pulled me into the air and spun me around. The glow was back, too, only this time it was all over my body. What, exactly, had happened to me while I was at Vlad’s house? What had he done to me?!

Still airborne, I felt like I was being ripped apart from the inside out. I screamed out in agony, confusion and anger.

Then, finally, I was set back down on the ground. I nearly fell over in relief. Most of the pain was gone, and the only thing left was a dull pang of hunger. Which did make sense since I’d been sleeping for nearly an entire day. I made up my mind to go to Windenburg and do some more research on vampires. On the way home, I could stop and get something to fill my cooler with. I quickly cleaned all the bad food out of the cooler, trashed it, and headed for town.

I ignored the strange looks I was getting and went immediately to the section on vampires. I pulled out a volume I hadn’t noticed before and began reading. I couldn’t imagine why people were looking at me like I was cursed or something. I quickly lost myself in my research, though, and it was nearly dark again before I pulled myself back out of the books. I had learned quite a lot about Vampire feeding habits. They would hypnotize their prey and then drink their blood, and the victim would be left with no memory of the incident and exhausted. There was nothing mentioned about being ravenously hungry after such an attack, though, so I wondered why that had been the case with me. I was filled with anger that Vlad had apparently attacked me, though. Had that been his entire reason for inviting me to his house? Or had he had other motives?

I had skimmed over the section on “vegetarian” vampires who drank plasma fruit or the juice instead of feeding on humans, not seeing any reason why I would need to know how to make either. It did ring a bell, however, with the weirdly pulsing fruit that grew on my trees. No wonder it sold so well in my town….

Before leaving the library, my thoughts ran to Alex and my home. I headed to a nearby computer terminal, found the proper website, and started filling out the paperwork to apply for building permits. I was going to need a home to bring Alex to, after all, and I still hadn’t told her about the fact that I was camping on my own land. I wondered what her reaction would be. Maybe if I got the building underway before I let her know, then she wouldn’t be as upset. It wasn’t like I hadn’t saved enough to start building, after all – I just hadn’t taken this final step.

I finished putting in the applications, and checked my email. There were a couple notes from Mariko, checking up on me, wondering where I’d been the last couple days, and the usual spam. I didn’t know what to tell her, so I didn’t reply. I would figure out what to say, and call her tomorrow. After I got some food in my stomach and had another nap. The nap sounded like the best part, however, and I packed up and started to leave the library.

Thinking about the trip home, I decided to make a pit stop at the bathroom. While washing my hands like normal, I looked up at the mirror.

The only thing in the mirror was the toilet behind me. I cast no reflection.

Chapter 7 | Chapter 9

House 011 Chapter 7 < | > House 012 Chapter 2

First, we check on our brand new goals:

House 012 Building Goals:
3 Bedroom, 2 Bathroom home worth at least $50k Simoleons
House 012 Generational Goals:
Complete the Friend of the World aspiration
Have The Drifter Declare another Sim an Enemy
-Then raise the relationship between The Drifter and their Enemy to BFF
Have The Drifter Engage in and WIN 5 fights
-Each win must be with a different Sim opponent
Produce and raise The Heir to the Young Adult life stage

Then, we send Lyric through CAS – because it’s tradition!

She then moves out to her new lot, Nookstone,

… and we roll for lot traits:

Her inventory is cleared out, and here’s how she starts:

After all that.. we’re ready to play. Oh! Except for one more thing:

It’s rebate day! … Wouldn’t it be nice if we had enough money to spend on getting a rebate? Nice wish! =P

Anyway, we have poor Lyric standing around with 0 money, and zero ideas as to what she wants to do in life. I’ve been thinking on just this conundrum for days now. I’ve come to the conclusion that we’re going to University. To be a Villain. Because – why not? I’ve never tried it before!

So… the first thing we need to do is raise skills so we can get accepted to a distinguished degree. I’m going to need Vampire Lore, Mischief, Logic, and Fitness all to level three to pretty much guarantee it. Already have Mischief and Logic there, and Fitness will probably be a struggle because she’s Lazy. So, Vampire Lore. Which means we will need at the very least, a computer and a bookcase. For which, we need money. Sounds pretty straightforward. It’s not like we haven’t done this before. LOL.

So.. we start with a collection round. We get some plants, one frog – which is insanely un-useful….

… And, even more un-useful.. some common upgrade parts. Sigh.

At least we were able to afford this. Come on, girl, you can make it!! I believe in you! (She made it.)

We plant the strawberries we found, because they were the highest value plant we picked up… and by nightfall, we notice that some poor fool left an unspoiled hamburger laying on the ground by the (closed) food vendor. I send Lyric to go get it.. because, literally, beggars cannot be choosers.

The (albeit pretty) young adult vendor is the wrong gender.. and, apparently, it’s Springfest. We pretty much ignore the bunny, and spend all day gardening and gathering and forcing her to go jogging every once in a while when she’s not extremely fatigued. (Which only takes one run. Sigh. I guess that means, of the three careers possible for a Villain degree, Astronaut, the one I was leaning towards – is probably impossible. No way am I dragging her rear end to level 8 + Fitness skill.)

Today was far more profitable – we even found a second frog for breeding purposes.. and we were able to expand our.. er.. house? None too soon, by the look of her. That shower is going to come in handy! You have to wonder if Lyric is looking at all the silly decorations up in the middle of Spring on the past Rambler house and thinking how nice it would be to actually be living inside already.

Lyric: “Well, hi, Dad! Suuuure. Everything’s just FINE! Trust me! Things are going great!”

Honey, I think he remembers what starting a Drifter House is like, don’t lie to your dad like that.

Needing fun, we have her play in the sand for a while. Then it occurs to me, we could work on Mischief skill. I mean, it IS Prank Day.. so let’s take advantage of it.

That, and I’ve spotted the first Young Adult male to walk by our lot. A mail carrier. Turns out he’s alien. Sigh. Moving on.

Sure, let’s argue with him. He doesn’t seem to get upset about it, so we give up and go for a Lazy nap.

That house sure does look nice, doesn’t it, Lyric? =P As opposed to this stone bench. Ouch. At least she’s Lazy so she doesn’t really care.

Aww.. Darn. Now he’ll never see that we actually managed to get a roof over our heads.

Sort of. I mean, the bathroom is enclosed, right? And I *think* the computer will work when it’s raining?

She really does hate jogging. I feel your pain, girl. I’m not a jogger, either.

Lyric’s first fight. What can I say, I didn’t like this girl’s haircut?

Unfortunately, weird haircut girl wins. So we can’t count this as a real fight. And I don’t particularly want to be friends with her, so we let her leave.

By Friday, we have our scholarship applications in, and late that night, I put in our application for college, since we got to a whopping Two in Fitness, and the Three I needed in Vampire Lore.

We got accepted for a Distinguished Degree, which will mean at least a 7 in Criminal Boss, or a level 8 in the Secret Agent Villain one. If I can pull off a 3.9 total GPA, I’d be able to get a level 8 in the Boss career, too. Villains make more money.. but Bosses get better cash bonuses for promotions. I have no idea which one I’ll choose.

A huge positive, however, is that our scholarships came through, and we don’t have to pay a thing to enroll. Which is nice, because we only have so much in funds.

After signing up, We pull out the checkbook and finally get her a bed. I get a single, because that’s the best one I can afford right now stats-wise.. and I’m not planning on a baby anytime really soon. We’re sorta missing a spouse first.

Oh, look who I found. He must have the sun immunity trait or something, because he’s definitely not smoking. And in this sun, he should be.

Since we’re enrolled in University, and have more than 1k in the bank.. we take a trip to the Library (ostensibly to study …) to mostly scope out any Young Adult males we can find. This fella is named Miguel, and he’s studying Villain like us. However, he’s noncommittal , and I don’t think his looks “gel” with Lyric’s. I keep him on the list just in case, though.

I forgot to note this fella’s name down… I remember thinking it was a cool name – and his traits weren’t horrible.. but after this reaction to us saying hello, we decide to take a hard pass on this guy.

I didn’t take a photo the first time we ran across this guy, because he has the “Unflirty” trait… which makes wooing difficult. However, by the second time we find him, I’m rethinking that. I really like his looks… and he seems to like Lyric. They’re already “good friends” even though they’ve only met twice. His name, by the way, is Sione.

We get all but one of Lyric’s homeworks done for Monday by bedtime Saturday night, and I plan to come back the next day to start work on her one Term Paper. And maybe scope out some more guys. Meanwhile, Sunday AM is my cut-off for Ramblers.. so I save, and let Lyric nap her way to full Energy. We’ll see her again in a couple of days.

House 011 Chapter 7 < | > House 012 Chapter 2

Chapter 1.5 | Chapter 2.1

A brief recap of the rules for this generation:

This is the last chapter of our first generation, as we’re just waiting for Skyor to grow up to teen so we can become murderers. Erm. I mean, so we can kill off his parents and have him move out. Poor Utali has no idea that she’s feeding her nemesis.

I guess it never gets easier, having babies, does it, Utali? .. Wonder if the twins moving out could have changed how many babies we get??

… Welcome to the madhouse, Tiago. You truly are brave to have arrived here!

And on that note – he was a single. Thank goodness!

Ryorg stops by to say hi. Although, it looks like he’s yelling at his Mom. (He’s not, though, I assure you.)

Thunderstorm! Run! Everyone inside as fast as possible!!

Paku takes a bath.. and … what on EARTH are you wearing, Paku?!?! This is actually the second time I’ve seen him in this get-up after taking a bath. I just didn’t take a picture the first time. I thought it was a fluke. LOL. Guess not.

Aww.. Ok, Aden. You’re excused from fishing duty if you look like that. LOL.

Yup. We’re expecting another one. Skyor is filthy, but soldiering on in the fishing marathon… and completely unconcerned that Dad is celebrating their eighth pregnancy. (Yikes!) .. There was room in the house, so I had to try again – the rules state to repopulate the planet. So that’s what we’re doing! LOL.

I figured “Brave” sounded like Inquisitive would be a good bet for a trait. So I picked his trait.

Welcome to the world of walking around, buddy! It’s a big world.. start exploring!

Proof that he did get his goal done before he’s gone. (Morbid, but hey, it’s why I took the picture.)

… And while I was thinking about it…

… Here’s the other one.

Since it told us last night that it was Skyor’s birthday.. I figure forcing Paku to stay out in a thunderstorm would just be poetic. Unfortunately, while he does get struck with lightning… he also never gets hit the second time. Which is just tough luck. I wanted to see what that would look like…

Sorry, Paku. Rules say I gotta kill you. And, well, the Cowplants were ready – so your time is up.

The wake begins. Everyone is miserable, and I love how Grim is completely unaware that he’s brought a handheld computer to the Stone Age. Way to go, break the immersion, Grimmy.

Grim congratulating the fat and happy Cowplant that did it’s duty.

Ok, so this interaction popped up and I couldn’t resist. Definitely one of the creepiest Sim-Photos I’ve ever taken. LOL! (Also.. Grim was flirty… what’s up with that?!)

Um… Utali, no, I don’t think spraying Grim will get rid of him. (Yeah, I know it’s for the monster, but it looks like it’s for Grim!!!)

Skyor gets his appointed trait and aspiration…

And… welcome to teenage-hood. With your weird arms. And big feet and hands. At least he doesn’t look like he has a fat lip like Ryorg did. I put him in a shirt because – let’s be completely honest – no way was I looking at that skinny pair of ribs for the next entire generation.

Unfortunately, if you were paying attention, this is NOT the end of Gen 1. We still have a nooboo on the way, and need to kill off Utali. .. So….

Here we go again, girlie.

Okay, so it seemed appropriate.

That’s One…

Awww… they have no idea what’s coming. I feel horrible. Sorta. But I really want to get to the next generation!!

Bye, Utali!! Down the hatch you go! Grim arrives, takes care of business, and the sun starts to come up.

At this point, Generation’s over. But we have some unfinished business. The kids can’t go with Skyor, and they can’t stay alone. Oh, and our heir is absolutely exhausted. We let him tuck everyone into bed and take a good long nap.

Then we invite Arjuna over – one, to tell her the bad news.. and two.. well to tell her the bad news. She’s now a mom to five kids. On her own. I have to wonder if she’s crying for her Mom here, or herself…

Okay, so I have to admit, Skyor’s face isn’t horrible. It’s kinda growing on me. Plus, he almost looks like he’s giving me a sidelines wink.

We move Arjuna in and take care of the last bit of business….

“Here, sis, you can have the life essences. I have a feeling you may need them. And I only have to take the ashes with me. The potions feel … cheaty.” Er, wait. did I have Skyor say that? .. Hrm. Yep. Okay then. (So yes, Skyor has both his parents’ urns in his pocket, some Taro root from his mom’s garden for his trip – because that seemed the most portable and useful of the foodstuffs we have in the garden – and one last thing. A Cowplant Berry that Aden, his brother caught during these last few days fishing. Because you just never know. LOL!)

Then, I take stock. Skyor is STILL in the red energy wise. So I give up and let him go to bed.

Here’s when I REALLY start feeling bad for Arjuna. Myra is a screamer – and she’s got two toddlers plus two kids to look after, as well. I am so glad I’m not her!! *Guilty look*

Okay, so I wasn’t paying attention. And she tried to kill herself. I quickly put a stop to it, have Skyor make breakfast for everyone, and feed the other Cowplant before disaster can strike.

Okay, buddy.. time to go. I almost take all the funds, then feel bad. And give Arjuna back 5k so she can feed the kiddos. LOL!

… And I’ll leave you with this.

Yep, that’s all of them. 0.o .. What was I thinking?!

Chapter 1.5 | Chapter 2.1