Wow, Ally does look like she was going to take a bite out of Oleander. Awkward 
"You're so cute, I could just eat you up!" I had a great-aunt who said things like that to children. It used to really scare me.
She better not take a bite; Oleanders are poisonous 
.
True
And I somehow missed just how pretty Iris is until that last photo of her. Wow!
I think it's partly the flattering hairstyle but, yes, she grew up into a beautiful young woman. I was assuming that having a zero-slider EA clone for a father, she'd either be pretty in a bland way or another Ally (whose facial sliders are mostly set a long way from the centre). Instead, the blend of features turned out amazingly well. I'm planning to revive/rejuvenate some of the kids after the end of the challenge and let Ally have grandchildren. Iris will definitely be in that group.
Hi hazelnut, just read through this. The challenge itself is quite interesting (definitely tempted to try it out, but I had to uninstall the game to make room for TS4 
) , and your writing makes the story really enjoyable to read. I'll be looking forward to more! 
Hi, and thank you
. It's a fun challenge to play - well, apart from the constant celebrity disgraces for cheating/woohoo with an occult/having a baby out of wedlock, which are really annoying. If you do have a go, I'd certainly recommend avoiding fame for as long as possible.
As for the IF, it does seem a bit awkward, but I guess it's the only way to go!
Eew! I guess that's the only way to snag that lifestate though.
Yes, I agree. The whole thing is completely eww. Of all the morally dubious things Ally has done in the course of the challenge, this is by far the worst. (But, as with the Chinese books, I don’t quite disapprove enough not to do it
.)
When I started this, I was going to turn an IF real at the last minute, just before young adulthood, and then have them father the next child. I was also planning to ignore the social group cluster because it seemed like the hardest to complete and didn’t seem worth it compared with the bigger groups. Then Al the genie became a nerd/video game programmer and I began to wonder whether I could fit it in after all. The obvious people to do the other social group jobs were the two I had control over: Billy and the imaginary friend. But if the IF was going to have enough happiness points to buy his way into the group, he’d need to spend longer in the active household: Al did it in three days but I was lucky with his traits and LTW – and kids don’t acquire points as quickly as adults. So here Oleander is, almost a part of the family and innocently unaware of what Ally and her watcher have planned. Ulp.
Here’s to You, Mrs FlowerOleander’s traits are unlucky, eccentric and never nude.
I love this screenshot because of the lack of pixellation: it’s nice to be able to see the bath in use for once. Although there are two children’s bathrooms upstairs, the kids seem to prefer Ally’s bath. I just hope they don’t know what’s gone on in this room apart from bathing
.
The imaginary friends who are still imaginary appear to be ageing at different rates. Vetch is keeping pace with Valerian but Eryngo became a young adult before Edelweiss was halfway through her teens.
They stopped being friends at about this point. I think she was nasty to him when she was having a mood swing.
Fluellen was still vainly trying to get Flax to come to life…
…but then ran out of time.
As a teen, Flu showed an unexpected new talent.
This baffled me completely until I thought to read Alan Stanley’s Sims Wiki entry and discovered that he’s a pyromaniac, for no terribly obvious reason. Maybe one of his parents was a firefighter.
The current group of kids are a remarkably well-behaved lot. They almost always do their homework as soon as they get in from school, with no prompting from me.
(Although that’s the only time I’ve seen them all sit down together to do it.)
Their smooth progress through school was briefly interrupted by Leisure Day. Good heavens, had they been in Bridgeport for four weeks already?!
I think of Leisure Day as the Sim equivalent of August Bank Holiday (even though it’s far more likely to be the 4th of July), so it’s good to see that Bridgeport has the traditional weather. I’m sure it’d be tipping down if I hadn’t disabled rain
.
Since imaginary friends aren’t subject to the same rules as the other children, Oleander had a birthday on the Saturday morning, three days before he was due to age up naturally, so that he’d have plenty of time for driving lessons and tutoring before school on Monday.
I think he’s getting suspicious of Ally’s motives…
And not without cause. If you can ignore the green clouds drifting across the table from Valerian’s armpits (not at all a good look for a red-skinned Sim), you’ll notice the teeniest, tiniest, half-suppressed thought of babies over Ally’s head.
To do her justice, she was probably thinking of a certain townie. Or even Billy – she’s rolled several wishes to have a child with him. Or maybe she was just thinking wistfully about babies in general. After all, she is family-oriented and she hadn’t been pregnant for a whole week at this point
.
Oleander went off to the mirror and dresser to ditch the cardie and bunny slippers…
…but then I caught him staring thoughtfully at his reflection – and Ally’s bedroom.
Oly, are you deliberately trying to make me feel guiltier than I already do?
They’re only pixels. They’re only pixels.Even little Queen Lotus seemed to suspect that something odd was going on.
“Dad, why is Mum spending so much time with Oly? And why is she wearing her swimsuit?”
On Sunday afternoon, Oleander, now with a driving licence and an A in his pocket, was able to give his new Avant Garde trait free rein.
(He reached level ten after school the following day. Really, the way the street art skill builds is ridiculous.)
Meanwhile, there was another birthday.
Zinnia became a child and, for the first time since the early days of Alison and Billy’s marriage, the nursery was empty.
And, also for the first time, there were too many people for the available bedrooms. Edelweiss spent her last night in the house napping in the rocking chair. Early the following morning, she blew out her candles.
Eryngo might no longer be her friend but he still wouldn’t miss such an important event in his human’s life.
Edelweiss aged up with unfortunate hair…
…and hurried off to the mirror immediately to fix it.
She and Eryngo moved out at once, leaving behind her school souvenirs.
And I realised that I’d missed Iris’s from the last update, so here they are:
