Chapter 2.7 | Rules for this challenge | Chapter 2.9

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

A Crazy Holiday

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Winterfest dawned with some huge changes. First of all.. we had STAIRS! The house upgrade that I mentioned planning for was complete – or, mostly so. The building was done, at least, but there were some glaring things missing – like furniture. All our funds had gone into the building, though, so we were going to need to spend some time saving to finish out the furnishings. But, first, I’ll give you a little tour of the changes:

Alexi’s office was expanded, so it wasn’t just a glorified closet anymore, and he had room to store some of his artwork, too.

The deck overlooking the ocean was official – you can see we moved the Master Bedroom upstairs, as well. And yes, it’s pouring – the weather for Winterfest isn’t exactly ideal – but this is Sulani, and winter means storms.

The front of the house also got a major upgrade with another deck – this time, overlooking Alexi’s beloved water garden.

And, finally, we had a major surprise for Kali. Today was her birthday, and we’d set up a room of her very own upstairs. She even had her first journal, sitting on her desk, waiting for her first words.

Apparently, Kali had forgotten it was Winterfest, too, and squealed in joy to find the tree had been moved into the living room before she got up.

Before long, Jaye was up, too, and Alexi watched both the kids, who were thoroughly excited for the day – while I worked on yet another surprise in the kitchen.

When the surprise cake was ready, I called Kali, and she came running.

We all gathered around Kali’s Strawberry cake and sang the birthday song as Kali blew out the candles. She got them on the first try, too!

Then, because it was her birthday, Kali and I cut a couple thick slices of cake and sat down while she chatted excitedly about school starting tomorrow. I have to say, her new wardrobe looked great on her, and I was glad to see her growing up. She had gained the Art Lover trait, and I couldn’t wait for her to find her Winterfest gift!

Kali offered to clean up the dishes, since she could actually reach the sink now – and I tried not to watch for broken dishes while she worked. I swear, the sponge is as big as she is!

Then, I brought out the decorations for the tree, and we all started working on setting it up. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Jayce eyeing the vase on the shelves, and quickly found something else for him to do.

Finally, he settled down and sat quietly while we finished the tree and I scattered the presents around the base of it.

Because it was her birthday, we let Kali go first. Jayce was impatient, but was more than happy to “help” with the ribbons and discarded wrapping paper.

Then, it was Jayce’s turn, and he was immediately captivated with the action figure in his present… which gave us time to set up Kali’s present in the new activity room.

Of course, she had to try out the art table immediately, and Alexi shuffled Jacye off to his room so he wouldn’t interfere.

This gave me a chance to take a much-needed nap in the middle of the day.

By nightfall, the kids were still busy with their gifts – and I woke up to give Alexi some time to go feed his fish. We had installed lights in the garden, luckily, and it looked amazing at night, now.

I made my last grilled meal for my aspiration – a special Fruit Cobbler for Winterfest, and everyone rushed to be the first to get a slice.

The merry sounds of laughter drew everyone outside to meet Father Winter – who had showed up in his swimwear, much to everyone’s surprise!

He quickly added some presents to the pile under the tree, and went back outside to hand out the rest of the gifts.

Kali’s gift was a new virtuoso violin, and I quickly made notes to sign her up for lessons.

Alexi hadn’t expected a gift of his own, but Father Winter insisted.. and I think he was really excited by the gift….

… because he immediately went to set it up in his office. Now that his painting skill was getting so good, I should have thought to get him a real easel myself! After we tucked Jayce in, I sent Alexi to the kitchen for yet another surprise.

I’d made him a decadent coconut cake – his favorite – for his birthday, and we had a quiet celebration downstairs. Wow, it still feels weird to call this the “downstairs” – it’s just been “home” for so long, and it’s not like the house I grew up in ever had stairs. We were really moving up in the world!

Alexi was exhausted, since he hadn’t had a nap, so I offered to tuck in Kali in her brand new room, and she was asleep practically before I could pull the covers up. It had been a long, busy day… and I stumbled off to the downstairs bathroom – since the upstairs one didn’t have any fixtures yet – then practically crawled back up the stairs to my nice soft, familiar bed. Even with the nap, the new life in me sapped most of my energy, and bedtime was always the best time of the day. Any day now, however, our new baby would arrive… and I was so excited to meet them!

Chapter 2.7 | Rules for this challenge | Chapter 2.9

Chapter 1.4 | Chapter 1.6

A brief recap of the rules for this generation:

First off: yep, we’ve pretty much finished with the goals. Second: That’s our heir above, trying to talk to the monster under his bed. And the skirt to the left is his mom going to spray a monster in the other room. LOL.

Proof that Skyor managed to “tame” the monster. While his sister continues to wail about the monster that Mom is there to spray.

And the race from last time is decided. The twins get to leave before the baby arrives.

Great. Yusu’s upper arms look like a skeleton, too. And those hands are huge. Same as Ryorg. I don’t think the future looks too bright for our heir’s looks, here.

I swear, I rolled those traits, not picked them… I’m sorta glad she’s moving out!

And – somehow, despite the looks of her brothers – she’s gorgeous. Maybe I should have picked a female heir…

The now-traditional meeting with the parents before moving out. Poor Yusu looks miserable about it, while Arjuna is clearly celebrating her freedom. (Despite having missed her birthday cake… evil sims are strange.)

Then, we move the two of them out to the Key Point lot that I put my stone age beach hut on… and take the parents over to wish them well. Arjuna still seems to be thrilled.

I kinda feel bad for poor Yusu – he’s going to have to put up with Arjuna when it’s just the two of them.

Skyor decides to try his hand at inventing something…

… But he appears to be hung up on the fact that he’s a star. LOL, Ok, sorry, I couldn’t resist.

Skyor and Daphne are completely oblivious to their Mom’s pain…

.. Because it’s that time again.

I’m really running out of descriptor ideas, here, guys.

Um… Paku, dude.. you’re a bit late. Your wife has already given birth, fed and changed the baby and is outside. But I appreciate the thought. I’m sure she does, too?

Daphne seems to spend a lot of time with Aden – more so than the rest of the kids, that’s for sure.

Skyor chatting it up with Cthulhu again.

… Here we go again … (at least the baby isn’t screaming this time!)

Skyor, again proving that he’s correctly named as “the Ruthless” – this time he’s yelling at the cowplant. For what, I don’t know. Perhaps it’s just foreshadowing.

Hey, Aden, buddy.. where exactly are you going? (He spent a good two hours of sim-time literally just running up and down the beach. I have no idea why.)

Hooray. Another toddler! And.. Clingy. … joy?

What a cutie-pie, though. For a moment, I almost rethink my choice of heir.

Aden! .. Music Lover, huh? I hope you like drums?

I’m not sure what that goofy look on his face is for, though. Perhaps it’s because he knows he’ll probably look silly as a teen/adult.

Yusu stops over, and Skyor immediately monopolizes his time. Clearly he misses having his big brother around.

Dad, teaching the kids a little bit of fishing. Skyor seems to be picking it up pretty well.

Mom’s got little Shalna in the pool autonomously. And, yes, it’s summer again – so it’s at least appropriate timing.

Have I mentioned lately how much I love the Sulani atmosphere? I’m going to miss it when we move on!

A whole flock (wait, is it flock?… nope. it’s a “colony”) of bats descend on Utali. I have to think that they came through the window. I love that Shalna is completely unconcerned about it.

Er… Skyor. You’re supposed to be fishing. What are you doing out in the water instead? You can’t catch fish that way!!

I played this all in one session, and planned on finishing the chapter in one post, but as you can see… I have far too many pictures for one update. In other words, you’ll just have to wait until tomorrow’s update.

Chapter 1.4 | Chapter 1.6

House 011 Chapter 6 < | > House 012 Chapter 1

Our last check of our house goals:

House 011 Building Goals:
2 Bedroom, 2 Bathroom home worth at least $50k Simoleons (k)
*Include a designated party space
House 011 Generational Goals:
Complete the Master Mixologist Aspiration
Achieve Level 10 of the Mixologist branch of the Culinary Career
Craft Each one of the following potions:
Confident, Energized, Flirty, Focused, Happy, and Inspired
Raise the heir to Young Adult age and give them the Mean trait (teenage)

.. And we’re back for the second part of the last two weeks. And the generation wrap-up, of course.

We start with Ariana finding the Karaoke Machine. And she’s BAD. My hubby, who sits at his desk next to mine, begs me to fast forward through it, but I’m laughing too hard.

The other thing we’re starting with – the twins’ birthday.

Again – no job for her, she’s a Drifter spare.. but interesting rolls all the same.

I have to say, in looks, she’s probably my favorite from this family.

Go Derek! Your turn! (And who left their Fruit Loops on the counter!!??)

Congrats on teen, there, Derek!

He looks quite proud of himself. Deservedly so.

Hey. Excuse me… girl, there’s food in the fridge. PUT. THE. KNIVES. DOWN.

Sigh. What did I just say? I mean… really. Guys… There’s no reason to cook!!

Trevor Rambler stops by with a gift, and Blaze is actually home, so we invite him in this time. He gives us a Carved Guitar. Umm… thanks? Nobody’s ever used the regular guitar we have.. LOL. Not going to be putting the carved one out. But we’ll keep it. For a memento.

It’s New Years Day, and I find these two toasting to themselves in the office. How cute. *grin* They sure have a lot to be proud of. They made a great family!

I have Blaze and Lyric spend some last bonding time together, because she’s getting really close to age-up now. I try to figure out how to set this as a positive memory.. but I give up because I have too many screenshots in the folder to figure out where this one is. LOL. Perhaps I ought to archive some….

This … whatever that is… is what they seem so proud at having made. LOL. Silly Sims.

New Year’s Eve dinner. At least some of them found the table. And – since it was so cold outside, I made them all a nice warm bowl of Clam Chowder. Apparently the popcorn was better, though.

… !!  The entire family autonomously ends up celebrating together. Don’t think I’ve had another family do that. There’s always one who gets “lost” on the way to the party. Nice, guys!

Since it’s New Year’s… I figure they can have one last woohoo.. even if Blaze runs the risk of possibly dying from exertion. We’re close enough to the “end” now, anyway. I also have just gotten a message about Blaze’s time coming to an end, anyway. So Lyric better hurry up and age already.

… WHY is Blaze sparkling??  Little whitish then green stars. I’ve NEVER seen that happen before?? I watch in consternation for a while, but luckily it goes away. I have no idea what it was, and he had no moodlets that would have explained it. Anyone else ever seen this??

Uh-oh. Lyla’s down. And that position seems really painful for the neck… oww.

The next day, everyone rotates in and around the hot tub for some reason while Blaze is at work. I watch for a while, and then decide I ought to take a screenshot, because it’s kinda funny. Also amusing: the fact that Lyric has the same swimsuit as her mama in a different color. I don’t like the melon color on her, so I’ll change that, but It’ll let her keep that suit.

Blaze… really. A Strawberry. On his last day of work. Too funny! (At least it wasn’t a dirty dish!)

Guys.. You do realize you’re completely ignoring your mother’s birthday in the other corner of the screenshot??

… See?

Ariana complains about her back, the twins continue to ignore the world.. and Lyric stomps by on her way to her cake.

Did I say cake?? Yep. Yes, I did. Blaze is making Lyric her last meal at home, too.

Congrats, Lyric!!! And congrats me, of course! Because this was the last goal I had left – getting Lyric to Young Adult.

… What a mess of traits she has. I have no idea what is in store for her, because I’m playing spoiler-free. I haven’t even peeked at the next house’s rules. That being said… time to wrap up this house.

The house value. I think I managed to get there… LOL

The points Blaze has left. I didn’t do any other aspirations on him, he just didn’t really need to. So we didn’t.

His status at work. He managed to get another promotion after getting to the top of his career, even though I had him call off with vacation days a couple times since his level 10 promotion.

Blaze’s skill-set.

And the Traits Panel. As you can see, we cut his age bar very close!

The final household and the funds we have. Also, the effect of that darn “Sunny Aspect” lot trait. I hate it. I really do. I am SO tired of energized sims!!

I did remember to upload the final house (I cleaned it up a little bit first) under the #drifterchallenge tag. So it’s there if anyone is interested.

Hooray! House 11 is FINALLY done. One more house and I’m at the halfway point of Drifter. I’m so excited to get started on the next house, but I’ll hold off until it’s time to play this family again. (Which is in a day or two. Have two other saves to play first.) You, however, will only have to wait through tomorrow, since these guys are getting posted every other day during July! See you next time!

House 011 Chapter 6 < | > House 012 Chapter 1

Chapter 1.3 | Chapter 1.5

A brief recap of the rules for this generation:

Welcome back to the Stone Age! We are still inundated with kids, and: as a reminder, we still have one on the way. I say one – because that’s all the space we have in the house, so I know this baby will be a single!

We start with Arjuna beating up on other people’s sand castles. Typical Evil sim. Then… almost before I get the game off pause..

Aden joins the house. And, being worried about getting that last point and a half in Parenting, I have Utali spam interactions with the baby when she’s not gardening. It’s *incredibly* boring, so I don’t bother taking pictures.

Here is, however.. proof that it works. By the time Aden is ready for his birthday, Utali has maxed out the parenting skill. One more goal complete!

Yes, I gave him the Charmer trait to go with his name. No, I am not sorry.

He’s also incredibly cute. Here he is playing with his sister.

Toddler hugs! I swear, this wasn’t directed by me!

About this time, I realize I must start thinking about how the founder-sims will die when the heir gets to teen, since that’s one of the rule requirements. After some consideration, it occurs to me that probably the easiest way will be to take them “out” by Cowplant. I already have the one, so if I can fish up another berry – I should be able to complete this horrible task easily and fairly quickly.

So, I send Paku out to fish up his doom.

Less than five minutes later – and probably 1000 simoleons worth of fish later.. he comes up with a berry. We immediately plant it.. and begin the dicey-ness that is having two Cowplants.

… At least the kids can’t be eaten. Because Arjuna spends most her time out here, I swear.

BEES! Poor Paku ends up stung and sore. I feel really bad for him. (Also: make note of his arms. Or come back and look at them later. When posting this – I noted where his son’s skinny arms come from. You’ll see..)

Yusu doesn’t make it to bed on time. Oops. Bad Watcher.

Poor Utali is forced to garden pretty much constantly, trying to get her skill to max.

But, finally, we succeed.. which means that the only thing I have left to do is age up our heir. In other words, I could potentially had Ryorg, the first born, be the heir and I would have “made it” in time. But with as weird as the save was being about counting the plants getting evolved (to get most of them to count, I had to go into build mode, put them in the family inventory then take them back out and go into live mode again. very annoying.) … I wasn’t going to bet on getting things done in time.

And… the gauntlet has been thrown. Now I just have to keep the sims – and the cowplants – alive until the right time. Something I’m not great at doing (the cowplants part, at least, they always die on me.)

Awww.. brotherly love!

Skyor is making a sand castle, on his own. He seems like he’s pretty good at it for just being a toddler! LOL.

More creepy Crawlies. Sorry, Arjuna!

Our first Cowplant incident. Eeks. Now I really am going to have to keep Paku away from them.

This was the moment I realized I had watched Skyor age himself up, given him his trait and his makeover.. and then forgotten to take any screenshots of said events. Well, at least you can now see what our heir looks like. He got his Outgoing trait, and is complaining to his Dad in this photo.

Somehow the pony toy has changed hands, but I guess that’s okay. The twins’ birthday is coming up, anyway. And Arjuna has been too busy with the cowplant to worry about her old pony. Also of note: Aden proves that sims can pout in their sleep. Look at that bottom lip.. lol!

Playtime with daddy.

Yes, I know gardening is annoying.. but you still must take care of your pets, there, Utali!

Family dinner time. Only this time..

They’re all being stalked! LOL It looked like Aden was trying to be a shark and sneak up on them to attack or something. I couldn’t resist.

Our eldest spins himself up upon waking up. Also, sometime during the night, I was informed that Social Services could take him away soon if he didn’t get his grades up. I was not aware that was an issue. I’m not sure why I didn’t think of it – but after some research, there are a few ways around it. 1. Download MCCC and have the kids “quit” school. 2. Cheat them up a grade level so it’s not a problem. (Use the careers.promote gradeschool cheat) 3. have them take their vacation days they get (3 of them) towards the end of their school days while you wait for them to age up. 4. Wait and hope they age up before they get taken. I went with a combination of 3 and 4.. and Ryorg is now a teen and ready to be kicked out on his own. However…

… This was the result of aging up. HAHAHAHAHA!! I found the missing link between apes and humans! *dies laughing* Ok ok.. I’m alright. Really. Thank goodness I didn’t pick him as heir. And this is me – hoping Skyor doesn’t get the same genetic arms!!

Ryorg, chatting with Mom before he leaves. In my head, I have this whole story playing out about him saying he’s old enough and wants to be on his own, blah blah.

Dad joins in on the conversation, then I have him move out.

I use the Caldera Lot I have listed on the rules page for his home, and then have his parents come visit him to “get him settled in.”

Mom gives him a big hug. As Moms are wont to do, of course. Ryorg is still upset about his forgotten birthday.. but somehow the story in my head is that he’s already regretting his decision.

Dad cheers him up, telling him he’s got a great home and that he will do fine. He gives him a few last fishing pointers, and Utali and Paku head home to their house full of kids. Of note: this is only the second time they’ve left their lot the entire game. The first was to try to get the plants to make a cowplant in their very first spring in Willow Creek, but the plants didn’t grow in time, and I don’t think I took any pictures. I actually do have the Beach and the Pool lots I built in the world, I just haven’t used them.. mostly because I didn’t make any other Stone Age sims, and the improperly-dressed townies would be too jarring. So I just avoided them and stayed home. It’s not like they haven’t had enough to do…

Utali wakes up and instead of feeding the plant like I told her to, she goes and takes a cake. Sigh. Bad Utali.

Ryorg stops by the next day, and his brothers rush out to greet him, probably peppering him with questions about being the “man” of his own household.

Yeah, I know – it looks like she’s drowning. She’s not. She’s laughing Maniacally. Silly Evil Sim.

Skyor looks on in horror as his mom finds out she’s pregnant.. again.. while she’s in the middle of a conversation with him.

Awww. Paku really is a great Dad.

ACK! Utali got poisoned by a spider bite again!! While she’s pregnant. This can’t be good.

…. I have no idea where they came from, but there’s suddenly a ton of butterflies flying around the lot. They’re only there for a split second.. and then they’re gone. But at least I got a screenshot of one of them.

Dinner time again – and proof that Utali survived her poisoning.

Our sweet little Daphne ages up into the Neat trait. Looks like I know who will be cleaning up from now on!

That’s her – on the right. I let her keep her braids.

If I didn’t know any better, I would think Utali was carrying at least twins. But there’s only one spot in the house… for now. The twins’ age bar is sparkling.. so I don’t know which will happen first. Them aging up and leaving.. or Utali giving birth. We’ll just have to wait and see!!

Chapter 1.3 | Chapter 1.5

Chapter 2.6 | Rules for this challenge | Chapter 2.8

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

The Big News

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Waking up to a dirty toddler is never fun, but waking up to someone else taking care of it .. well, let’s just say, it’s much better. This pregnancy was harder on me than I remember the last two being – at least, it sure was in these first few weeks. I’ve had trouble sleeping, and I’ve been pretty sick, too, so Alexi has been (thankfully) taking up the slack. Having two toddlers and a baby on the way made for a crazy house.

We had really lucked out on Jayce – he was so Independent, he tended to almost take care of himself. He was often content just to play by himself in the kid’s room.

Kali, however, was still our little troublemaker. She took constant care and attention – but she was getting better behaved as she grew up, luckily. Don’t tell Alexi I said this – but she’s still my favorite. I love her spirit – she reminds me a bit of me.

After Alexi pointing out that the sink was filthy after he’d given Jayce his bath, I decided something needed to be done about it. And I really wasn’t feeling up to cleaning it. So I spent the extra time needed to install some auto cleaning hardware on most of the bathroom appliances. Apparently, I needed to fix the toilet while I was at it! The kids were curious about all the noise I was making – and they both came toddling in to see if they could “help”.

Noticing that I was foot-deep in a pile of laundry, Alexi went and cleaned up the whole house of it and started the Washer. Which left me trying to upgrade a sink and watching two kids at the same time.

Later, though, Alexi gave me some time to go “hydrate my scales”, and I happened upon a dolphin. I remembered hearing stories of my grandmother and a dolphin she had befriended – so I spent some time to get to know this blue dolphin.

After a little while, we were great friends, and she had told me her name was Squirt. She let me rub her belly, and we splashed playfully until her pod showed up and she swam off to be with them.

On the way home, I found some turtles, and stopped to watch them. I wondered if any of them were the baby turtles I had observed earlier in the year. They were gorgeous, though, and seemed to all be healthy, which made my heart glad.

Alexi and the kids were playing happily when I got home, although my “mommy sense” told me the little tummies were going to be hungry soon – so I let them play and headed for the back deck.

I still needed a couple of grilled meals for my aspiration, after all.. and for some reason, I was craving baked potatoes. I covered them with cheese and bacon and the entire family enjoyed the treat.

Days passed, and, to my excitement, I started feeling the little mermaid or merman inside really starting to “swim around”. I showed Kali and Jayce – who, predictably, had completely different reactions. Jayce could have cared less for the most part, whereas Kali had to ask a million questions – with the most prominent one being “Does this one have to be a little brother, too??” I stifled a laugh and told her we’d just have to wait and see!

Kali had finally succeeded at her potty training lessons, although being the one who usually cleaned out the potty made me slightly ambivalent about the whole process. At least I wasn’t still changing a million diapers, I guess. Those got to be expensive.

Alexi still spent time working on commissions for clients, and his painting skills were really getting quite impressive. I tried to give him some kid-free time to work in his office each day, but sometimes they escaped and toddled off to try to find where he’d gone to.

My parents, and brother and sister in law made an excuse of bringing us some good island food to come over, and it was great to see them.

I kept the kids occupied while he and the rest of the adults had dinner. Kali and Jayce had already eaten, so keeping them out from underfoot was the best thing to do.

Everyone sounded like they had a great time, however, from what I could hear from the kid’s room.

When my Dad came back to check on us, it gave me a chance to tell him the news about the new family addition. Apparently Mom overheard, and soon they were both in the kid’s room with me, chatting excitedly about another new grandkid. Before long, I had to shoo them out to put the other two grand-kids to bed, though.

Alexi was multi-tasking and trying to finish up a commission that was due in the morning, but he did tell me later that after my announcement, that the conversation hadn’t strayed very far from talk of the new arrival.

I tucked Jayce into bed and read Kali her nightly story, watching her little eyes try to stay open until the end of the book. She didn’t quite make it, as usual, and I smiled and gave her a soft kiss before sneaking out of the room to get some sleep myself.

Chapter 2.6 | Rules for this challenge | Chapter 2.8

Chapter 6 | Chapter 8

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

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I walked up to Vlad’s door with a sense of foreboding in my heart and a chill running down my spine. Somehow, I knew this was a bad idea… but I digress. First I should explain.

My day had started out pretty normally. Taking care of my bees and the garden was a daily chore that I have quickly come to love doing.

Then, I have breakfast and spend some time painting. I’m getting pretty good, but there’s always room for improvement. The gallery says my paintings sell like hotcakes, and to keep them coming.. but there’s only so much time in a day.

Today, however, thoughts of doom were interrupting my idyllic retreat. That old vampire was still waiting for me to come meet him at his house. I wasn’t sure of his intentions, but the friend he sent to threaten me definitely had me worried. I wondered if I should meet him before anything else could happen. I couldn’t figure out another way to keep myself and my family-to-be safe other than to confront the him and ask him to leave me and mine alone from now on. We were practically neighbors and I certainly didn’t plan on making friends, but perhaps listening to whatever he had to say about my family’s history would satisfy whatever he wanted, and we could learn to co-exist in peace.

So here I was, terrified. I took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

“Come in, my son. The door is open.”

With a gulp, I drew myself up to my full height and turned the handle of the massive door.

At once, pipe organ music completely assailed my senses, and I tried not to blink in consternation. I don’t know what I had expected, but this nearly pristine Victorian Mansion had definitely not been on the list. Surreptitiously, I looked around for cobwebs, but didn’t see any.

Suddenly, the music stopped and the old vampire began laughing, almost as if he could read my mind. Wait a minute… could vampires read minds?? Damnit, I should have read more in those books from the library.

“Welcome to my home, Dusan.” He said, rising from the pipe organ and holding out his weathered hand to me in greeting, “whether you feel it or not – you are truly welcome here, although I understand your reluctance. I have so few human acquaintances, these days – sometimes I forget how to treat them. But please – be my guest. Have a seat.” He motioned to a nearby love seat that was – of course – right next to a skull on display. Fabulous.

We both sat down, me almost as far away as I could get from him, and again – he smiled at me as if he knew.

“I suppose you wish to know about your family?” He asked.

“Actually – I want you to have your friends stop stalking me at night and threatening me. I came here to live on my mother’s beloved homeland, and, god willing – raise a family here. I know the history and I certainly don’t need lecturing from you.” I was mostly bluffing, and I dearly hoped he didn’t know it.

He chuckled slightly, and raised an aquiline eyebrow before he began speaking again, “Dear child – had you truly known your history, you would not have come back. Your family had made itself unwelcome here, but we vampires had no part to play in the final accident. We even tried to step in during the tragedy to help rescue, but our services were denied. Your lovely mother was the only survivor – and the house was gone. There was nothing left for the child here, so she left to find a new life. For our part, we were very moved by her loss – even a vampire understands family – and we certainly also understand loss. Since then, the grudge held against your family has been erased and you are as welcome here as you would be anywhere.”

I looked away, mulling over his words. Was he hinting that I wasn’t welcome anywhere? I shook my head slightly, trying to get rid of that idea. “It was arson, the police said. If my family weren’t wanted here, how am I supposed to know that it wasn’t you and yours that began it to get rid of us?”

”Because, childe, that’s not how we operate.” He had moved closer so that he was sitting right next to me, and I found myself compelled to watch his eyes. In fact… I couldn’t look away. What was happening here??

Things started fading around me, until I could see nothing but Vlad.

Then my vision went completely black.

I remember nothing else until I woke up in a box. A dark softly-lined box. And it smelled like old mothballs. Wrinkling my nose, I tried opening and closing my eyes several times, but to no avail. I had no idea whether I was just in the dark or whether I was utterly blind. In a panick, I pushed at the fabric lined wood above me, and, much to my surprise, it swung open easily.

Not in any mind to stay where I was, I quickly got out of the box – only to turn around and see that it was a cobweb-covered coffin. What the hell!?

Shivers of fear ran down my spine, and I would have completely bolted had I not been nearly struck down by a pain in my midsection.

I cursed in both of the languages I knew, and tried to gather my thoughts through the pain. The only thing I could settle on was that I needed to get out of here – quickly and without being seen. After a glance around this … dungeon – for I could see nothing else to call it – I quickly found the stairs leading up.

I tried to be as stealthy as possible, but with the pain I was in – I really don’t know if I had managed any stealth at all.

Somehow, however, my luck held and I finally reached the front door, unnoticed.

Once through it as quietly as possible, I broke into a painful, shambling run. All I wanted was to get home.

Finally, I got back to my little campsite, nearly exhausted. I sat down on my cooler to catch my breath. Or – at least, try to.

Thinking that perhaps my stomach pain was due to hunger – that was what it felt like, after all – I pulled out some breakfast and started eating. Within the first bite I knew something was wrong. The milk for my cereal must have gone bad – because this was awful. Looked like I was going to head into town soon for new supplies… but perhaps I’d just take a nap first. The sun seemed especially bright today, after all, and I could always go later, right?

Chapter 6 | Chapter 8

House 011 Chapter 5 < | > House 011 Chapter 7

First, we check on our goals so we don’t forget:

House 011 Building Goals:
2 Bedroom, 2 Bathroom home worth at least $50k Simoleons (k)
*Include a designated party space
House 011 Generational Goals:
Complete the Master Mixologist Aspiration
Achieve Level 10 of the Mixologist branch of the Culinary Career
Craft Each one of the following potions:
Confident, Energized, Flirty, Focused, Happy, and Inspired
Raise the heir to Young Adult age and give them the Mean trait

.. Which means that, yes.. we’re basically done. We just have two miserable weeks with nothing to do except watch the sims. So, with that in mind.. I’m going to fast forward through it, and hope I don’t get too many pictures for one post.

We start off with Blaze being completely lost on what to do now that I’m not micromanaging his every second. He finally decides dinner standing up in the kitchen works best. Er. My bad. It was breakfast. Then he ran off to work.

Everyone else has a dance party. Except for Lyla, who was, I think, sleeping in still.

Poor Ariana. You think she has any idea that mopping is NOT going to help in this situation?

Happy Birthday, Lyric!!

Have your “mean” trait that you need for the challenge…. Yuck. At least she got one of the knowledge aspirations, she’ll learn whatever skills she needs in the next generation faster.  (I still haven’t looked ahead – so I’m flying completely blind, here.)

She’s not bad looking. If a little tubby. But that’s pretty irrelevant to prettiness. That hair looks good on her! (Not sure about that top, though…)

Lyric, learning her skills for an “A” … and handily tricking her dad into letting her swap the pieces around. She still loses the game, though. Poor Lyric. She tried.

Told you the hot tub works. And Ariana’s weird outfit? Is apparently a swimsuit. *cringe*

The kids, doing homework, while the parents make a run for it. Nobody wants to help them with the homework, eh?

The next day’s homework party works out much better. And Blaze even decides to help out.

Lyric really tries to put her mind into the game this time, although she still loses. They’re fairly evenly matched, so it’s not because Blaze is better at Logic. Maybe Lyric is just really bad at Chess. LOL. She finally gets her last skill point, though. So we don’t have to torture her anymore.

Oh, Derek. *frown* Poor lil’ guy! This is what happens in a “Sunny Aspect” home when you don’t force the kids to go to bed on time.

AHHHH!!! They’re back!! My least favorite holiday. LOL. We feed one a pie and sell them ASAP. Then we decorate the house for Fall, and I think it looks awesome:

Can’t tell I really like this house, can you?

Italian meatballs for dinner. Doesn’t sound like a bad idea.

Lyric apparently likes stand-up comedy, too. To go with her horror film appreciation.. If I see her watching youtube videos, I’ll have to wonder if she’s my son’s Sim-counterpart. They’d have the same taste in TV…

The kids come home from school the next day – although Derek doesn’t look like he had a good day. Deirdre completely ignores her twin cursing… and Lyric.. is checking her phone. Typical teen.

However, on the good news – we got some more A students in the house!

Yup, it’s Spooky Day – and we all know that fairy one is my favorite outfit. We give her a “treat”.

With that face, you’d think this teen would have gotten a “trick” – but she didn’t. I swear, it was a “treat”!

We discover Lyric likes piercings. Good to know. I can comply there! We’ll see which one she has the most of on her auto outfits, and let her keep that one when she grows up.

Boba Fett. We give him a “trick” just because. Both Blaze and he crack up laughing about it afterwards.

Dinner! With everyone except Lyric. I think she was sleeping.

Happy Birthday, buddy!

I’m definitely going to miss you when we switch houses, old man. *frown* .. He’s been a good heir.

And – another birthday… (once she got home from school, of course).

Lyla totally got the better traits. And obviously, since I can’t control her, no career – I just thought it was funny that her rolled career fit her traits so well.

… Interesting. She looks nothing like her sister. And I’m not a fan of the haircut. I’m tempted to go into CAS and give her back her braids, but I refrain.

Another dinner with missing sims.. but the food actually looks tasty, somehow. I forget what it was called… Cioppino, maybe?

The house gets all dolled up for Winter-time, and looks amazing.

Time to decorate the tree… although Lyric looks like she’s going to “tap out” early.

I know, I know, it’s Winterfest. But homework wasn’t done the night before, so you might as well do it now!

Yup, you two, too. No slackers in this house!

A grand Meal of Ham dinner for everyone – and look, everyone actually made it!!

Presents! … Nothing particularly interesting, other than the fact that everyone got something she or he actually liked. Which was unusual.

Um… thanks for the teapot?

Left to his own devices most of the time, Blaze is the first to find the Karaoke Machine. He’s not half bad. More or less.

Um… Ariana, why do you look so confused. You’re playing with a KID’s toy.

The next morning, the service people show up in the middle of a blizzard and can barely find the house.

Ariana, in her great wisdom.. decides to take a nap outside in the hot tub in the middle of said blizzard. *rolls eyes* Way to go, silly.

Oh – And – Spoiler: I did get too many pictures. So you’ll have to wait until the next post to see the wrap-up of this generation. Sorry. *smile*

House 011 Chapter 5 < | > House 011 Chapter 7

Chapter 1.2 | Chapter 1.4

A brief recap of the rules for this generation:

And here we are, back in the torture chamber that is the Stone Age. I go to load up the game.. and again cringe at the masses of kids. Then I cheer myself on. I got this. You’ll see. *wink*

Also, as soon as I load in – Paku is out taking a shower in the thunderstorm.. and the lady right next to him gets hit by lightning. Yet another close call! Time to get back inside!

The storm ends – so we send Paku and Utali out to make more babies. We hope. Maybe they’ll even be twins so I can get a full house and not have to worry about pregnant sims for a while.

.. And the storm starts right back up, while poor Ryorg was trying to get a waterfall shower. He runs for home.

.. And then proceeds to invent a teapot. What a good boy! LOL.

Oops. I forgot to watch Paku’s stats. Man down!

Apparently that Try for Baby was successful, by the way.

I pronounce this like Skjor, by the way. mostly silent j. He’s apparently not that ruthless, because he rolled “silly”. He’s also currently my choice for heir – unless I can’t get the goals done on time, but I *think* I have time.

And here’s our potential heir. What a sweetie.

Turns out that creepy crawlies does, in fact, hit the kids too. Darn. I was hoping they were immune.

It’s finally time. That jumble of wood there is going to be a bathtub. Eventually. I think.

There’s one twin.. Loves art? What? paintings on cave walls? Hm. *thinking*

And that’s two. Just what I needed. An evil kid in the house. Sigh. However, of note: both twins somehow got Happy Toddler, even though I *didn’t* get happy toddler on one of the twins in my modern-day Drifter yesterday. How does that work?

And here’s the twins after their Stone Age makeovers. They’re pretty cute!

This is only funny, because poor Utali is so very far away from her next birthday. And it’s not going to get much closer if we don’t start chilling out with the pregnancies!

Ta-da!! We have a bathtub. And he even managed to make the “poor” version that looks more ancient than the regular one. Nicely done, Paku.

Skyor is adorable. How can anything that cute be “the Ruthless”?

“AHHH! Pixelated Bats!!” At least, it said they were supposed to be bats. Looks like smudges to me.

Skyor playing with Dad. Wonder what they’re making?

Um… a tribal gnome? Dunno.. but Skyor immediately starts Monster Stomping it.

I have Paku join in, and he does so with a huge roar. It was hilarious.

When I took this, I thought for some reason it was Ryorg out there fishing.. but nope, it’s not. It’s Yusu.

Working on that Parenting skill. It’s getting there – slowly.

A hug for Yusu, because he got scared of the monster under the bed.

Yet another thunderstorm. With two lightning strikes in view. Scary stuff!

Boy, when it’s storming, that bush looks awfully far away, doesn’t it, Utali?! Spoiler: She makes it there and back.

Utali rejoices that she doesn’t have to forego baths just because she’s too pregnant to make it to the waterfall.

While the kids are holding a pow-wow about the state of the stinky bushes. At least, I think that’s what they’re complaining about. Baby Cowplant looks on passively.

I happily think everyone is safe inside when we get yet another storm.. only to find out our heir has wandered off and is in danger!! Hurry home, little man!

The older kids are all playing in their room – safe.

The storm ends again, and the cowplant is grown up and needs food. So Utali goes to feed it, while Paku completely ignores her.

Later that night… (At least he bothered to parental panic more or less correctly this time.)

Lol.. I’m running out of descriptor ideas….

Skyor gets his first bath. Paku keeps working towards maxing handiness and that toilet they really need. I mean, two bushes just isn’t cutting it anymore with this many sims in the house. Er. Hut.

Daphne is screaming – but we must make more babies, since she wasn’t a twin…. sorry kiddo.

When baby pops sometime the next day, we watch to see what Paku’s reaction is. I expect him to be upset. I mean – I would be…

But – he’s not. He’s thrilled. Okay then.

Oops. She didn’t make it to the bush. Poor Utali. But I laughed so hard at this face.

Some evil sim – here she is, happily playing with her little brother. (I mean, she does get joy in people being miserable, but still.. she is playing with her toddler bro..)

Umm… Utali is poisoned. From a spider bite. It’s at this moment I realize that the Creepy Crawlies Lot Trait is actually physically dangerous – because there’s no antidotes in the Stone Age. We’ll just have to see if she makes it.

I am really not sure why Arjuna is freaking out at the monster – she already made friends with it….

Just because of her name, we fudge the roll (it’s not exactly in the rules, anyway) and give her Angelic.

And she is angelic – at least in looks! What a darling.

I wait to stop the play session until I know Utali will be okay. Because I was actually worried we were going to have to start over the generation from losing her. See you next time!

Chapter 1.2 | Chapter 1.4

Chapter 2.5 | Rules for this challenge | Chapter 2.7

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

New Babies

---

I woke up the next morning to a disaster area. How could one little party make such a mess? Sighing, I got down to work. Humming softly to myself, I gathered up the dishes and cups and carefully carried them all to the sink. Perhaps we needed to invest some money in a dishwasher if we were going to continue with the family parties! I couldn’t regret the mess, however, because seeing all my family was such a precious thing. I was glad we had managed to remain a close family. Even Tevin and his son had managed to make the party – all the way from San Myshuno!

In the other room, I could hear Kali playing quietly, and Aleki soothing baby Jayce, who was up yet again. Oh – and speaking of Jayce – it’s his birthday today – which is exciting news!

Finally, everything was all cleaned up and we all gathered around to wish baby Jayce a happy birthday. He grew up very Independent, and insisted on taking his first steps all by himself.

Having a little brother that was big enough to actually have a conversation with and play with thrilled little Kali. She spent the rest of the morning completely monopolizing poor Jayce’s time.

Finally, Aleki managed to distract her long enough for me to spend some time with my little boy.

Potty training was the first order of business – it’s never too early to start with a toddler. I’m not sure Jayce quite understands the concept, however, but at least we tried. Then, we played some shape games with his toddler blocks, hoping to raise his thinking skill enough to forestall nightmares. We’ll see if it worked!

Once my babies were down for their afternoon nap, I took some time on my day off to go see the baby turtles being born. It was good to get back into the ocean again and let my scales hydrate a bit.

I was not the only person here to see the turtles, and before I knew it, there was a crowd hanging around the roped-off turtle lanes. I heard people ooo-ing and aahh-ing over the little ones, but my conservationist self decided I ought to Survey the scene thoroughly to make sure the baby turtles were happy, healthy, and headed right for the ocean as they should be.

I was apparently, not the only one studying them, either. I didn’t recognize the woman, but she was clearly doing some research, as well.

While I was gone, Aleki did some work on his newest commission.

Kali had woken up, upset about a broken dollhouse – and she took comfort from ol’ Blarffy while Aleki fixed it. After the dollhouse was back in good condition again, he was able to get her back asleep, and spend some time actually painting for the commission.

He watched over our babies while working, and apparently that was really inspiring, because the first two paintings were accepted right away. The third, however,  took several tries to get “just right” for the client. Once it was done, however, he managed to get a nearly 5,000 simoleon paycheck! Definitely good money – but we would need it – because having kids is not cheap, let me tell you.

Speaking of money, it was definitely Monday, because the bills arrived right on time. By the time we got around to paying them, I was home and taking a short nap until the toddlers woke up.

Later that night, Aleki and I took some time for ourselves after putting the kids to bed. Dinner had been a feast of grilled fish I’d prepared – fresh caught from our fish traps – and it had been excellent.

Don’t worry – we locked the bedroom door, just in case!

… And it was a good thing we did, because Jayce was apparently up and wandering around the house. I suspect he was admiring the angelfish in our new saltwater aquarium.

A few mornings later, I had a sneaking suspicion our late night romp had borne fruit, so I took a pregnancy test. Sure enough… we were expecting .. AGAIN!

I went to wake Aleki to tell him the news, and I think he could tell right away by the silly grin on my face.

He laughed almost until he cried, then fretted a bit about the fact that it was so soon – but I convinced him this was a good thing as Aleki and I checked on the kids and headed to bed ourselves.

We were definitely going to have to start drafting plans for a bigger house, though, because we barely had enough room for the two toddlers as it was! The higher commissions from Aleki’s Freelancing job were definitely going to come in handy, after all! I drifted off to sleep thinking about possible designs and maybe even a balcony overlooking the water….

Chapter 2.5 | Rules for this challenge | Chapter 2.7

Chapter 1.1 | Chapter 1.3

A brief recap of the rules for this generation:

And off we go again. I immediately cringe upon loading the save.. because .. yeah. Three kids. All stuffed into one tiny one room hut. Yikes. Well, here goes nothing.

Run far away, Paku! Get your fishing skill up! Actually, this picture was taken because he maxed fishing.. and got the Angling Ace aspiration all in one fell swoop. That was easy…

Gardening.. is definitely not doing so well. It’s hard to skill up when there’s so many kids always crying!

Omg. I love this kid. He is SOOO cute! Look at that grin!!

Okay. I absolutely had enough of toddlers and their hygiene need. A pool is NOT cutting it – we need that woodworking bathtub. So, I give in and buy a handiness bench. I mean, he’s finished his goals, and his only purpose now is to be around to make babies, right? LOL. That sounds horrible .. don’t judge me too harshly!

He’s outside having fun.. while Utali .. is not having so much fun. Gotta get that Parenting skill up. She’s miserable, though.

Ack! Adorable Ryorg alert! Why do I not use these pools more often?

The twins age up. Arjuna gets Charmer, Yusu gets Angelic. And they’re both way too cute.

See? Yusu loves his triceratops toy.

And Arjuna decides to play inside so we can’t see her very well.. but she’s got a pony toy. (Just for reference, Ryorg’s toy is a butterfly.)

Toddler conference. They both agree the state of the hygiene around here is miserable.

Yikes. That’s a busy hut. And it’s more than a little bit of a disaster, too. Juggling everything in the Stone Age is really quite a challenge!

… Ooops. Paku got hit by lightning while trying to take a shower. We race him inside.. and for lack of anything else to DO inside, I send everyone to bed.

The storm goes away before Utali gets to take her outdoor shower, so she has to run all the way to the waterfall. Poor girl. Although, it’s probably a relief to get away from the hut for a change.

Teaching Ryorg to talk. He’s kinda slacking on his Communication skill, but seems to still be on track to get Happy Toddler.

Dunno how Paku can sleep through all that noise behind him, though. Must be an acquired talent.

When he wakes up, everyone else is asleep, so he takes advantage of the quiet and works on his handiness. I wish gardening was this easy to level…

No wonder she looks overwhelmed. Oh, and did I mention? We’re expecting again. So there’s that, too.

Haha. She looks so loopy in this picture. It’s a good thing sims can’t change traits, or one of hers would be “erratic” by now! That’s the back of a stinky Arjuna, by the way.

Finally! He’s sad about no cake, but he gets Happy Toddler and a decent trait. I’ve already decided he will NOT be the heir.. we have too much still to do.

Ryorg’s first task.. run for a shower. He *really really* needed one. Notice I prioritized shower over Stone Age clothing makeover. LoL. He’s wearing swim trunks.

After a short break – this family can be so stressful sometimes – I decide that there’s no way I’m going to fit a kid’s bed in this tiny hut.. so I expand. This is the new hut.. and they actually have things to do when there’s a lightning storm outside, now. So that’s a huge bonus!

Oooops. Man down! Poor Paku has been burning the candle at both ends .. getting up early and staying up late. But handiness is improving. Not there yet, but definitely improving.

Oh, man. I forgot about the monsters that not having lights will cause. … This is going to be a long challenge. *Laughs wryly*

Hey! You! No roasting marshmallows! They didn’t exist then!

NOW look what you did. (That’s talent, throwing fire from the campfire 20 feet away to the “end table”..) But of course, the firemen are autocalled, and they can’t reach the fire.. so I have to watch the whole family panick for ten minutes straight while the fire burns itself out. Fun.

Fortunately, a heavy rain shower comes by so Utali doesn’t have to waddle all the way to the waterfall. When she’s pregnant, it doesn’t do any good, because she pees herself by the time she gets there and/or home again, so it’s a waste of time. She just stays stinky – like the toddlers.

Gotta say – single most annoying part of this save – the Creepy Crawlies lot trait. At least it doesn’t affect the toddlers (don’t know about the kids yet..)

“Sorry, hun.. I’ll have to panick later. I gotta pee.” (I laughed way too hard at this screenshot.)

Shhh!! The baby’s sleeping! (Trying for Baby yet again… this time more because we need more kids than needing fun.. but hey, whatever works, right?)

Hedging our bets that we can complete a shower before she gets hit by lightning. Spoiler: she makes it.

.. But see that gem in front of the torches?? It was darn close to not making it…

And on this note… time to break off this post. The new baby was a single boy, by the way. He’s named Skyor the Ruthless, and – in my mind – is in the running to be heir. Provided I can get goals done. We’re at level 8 gardening, Paku JUST finally caught a Cowplant seed, and we still need evolved plants. I don’t know why I have so many problems with getting plant quality up since seasons – but I should get it in the springtime. (It just turned winter). Only other thing we need is Parenting at level 10, but that’s also coming along. Halfway through level 7 now. So – not bad. Just need more kids to practice on?? LOL.

Chapter 1.1 | Chapter 1.3