Household Skills Project Mk 3

[hazelnut]

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Rico had been steadily upgrading Plummy as his bot-building skill increased and she returned the favour by cooking him a special birthday dinner when he aged up to elder.

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Speaking of birthdays, Ross became a toddler.

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Did he somehow manage to inherit that black hair from his Haskill grandparents, even though Aurelia was a wishing well child?

Plummy, who had recently been fitted with a RoboNanny chip, became his primary carer and best friend.

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Aurelia was happy to leave her to it.  She had her own concerns.  I'd been moodlet-managing her episodes of instability while she was concentrating on her career but was now leaving her to decide whether she wanted to treat them. She did wish to be admitted to hospital once but mostly seemed rather fond of her frequent personality changes and kept rolling wishes to become delusional.  On top of that, she was pregnant again.

Her second son, Jack Russell, was born at home.  No prizes for guessing his destiny  .

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The boys had a shared birthday party just before the family returned home to Lucky Palms so that Ross could go to school.  (Incidentally, neither has the Future Sim trait, which rather wrecks my growing-up-in-the-future hypothesis.  Maybe it's just random.)

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I'd been vaguely intending Aurelia to go for the Trendsetter legacy statue but she'd always been too busy.  Maybe now she could try – although there didn't seem to be anywhere in Lucky Palms where people reliably gathered.  Instead, she threw a series of parties (which she kept wishing to do anyway) and hoped that the guests would show an interest in the fashion display in the hall.

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It worked.  A few days later, she had a visit from Emit.

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Aurelia and Rico had been rolling repeated wishes to have another child, so I changed my plans and let them.  This time, they both wanted a girl – and at least watermelons were easy to obtain in the present day.  Virginia was born on Jack's child birthday – in the bathroom, in accordance with Sim tradition.

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Being pregnant had delayed Aurelia's final birthday but now she joined her husband in old age.  She took a quick trip to the future to fulfil a wish to travel – and stopped off in Legacy Park to admire her new statue.

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There were more birthdays.

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(Hooray!  Like Jack, Ginny's inherited her father's unusual hair colour – and she's got his green skin as well.  Sorry, Jack: you've just been supplanted as probable heir.)

Having been a quiet and studious child, Ross became a notably rebellious teenager, despite his new family-oriented trait.  The house was suddenly full of booby traps.  Aurelia, who temporarily had a good sense of humour, was delighted to trigger them.  Rico, on the other hand, took to gambling – and discovered he was rather good at it.

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In an attempt to keep him out of trouble, I bought Ross a Reventlov's Bot Workshop and he started creating nanites.  His parents had mostly learnt bot building from books but, as this generation's designated supermaxer, he might as well take the practical approach.

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It turns out that making a lot of nanites gives you the DTs.  Or maybe they'd just escaped from his inventory.  Whatever the reason, poor Ross was subject to attacks of uncontrollable itching at least once a day.

Like her big brothers, Ginny was largely cared for by Plummy.  She didn't seem impressed.  If it wasn't such a handicap in this household, I'd be tempted to make her a technophobe.

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Jack had another birthday and so, a few days later, did Ginny.

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She gained the animal lover trait and a thing about rainbows.  Oh, all right, the rainbows were my doing.  Her favourite colour, Irish green, doesn't go at all well with her skin, so I gave Ginny (and her bedroom) a rainbow-themed makeover.  Her room now clashes horribly with the rest of the house – but I was getting fed up with the monochrome anyway.

At the age of 97, Rico ran out of time.  He was content to go with Grim.  After all, he had been there, done that already – and he'd achieved a lot in his second lifetime.

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After a quiet spell (if you ignore pranks), Ross became a young adult…

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…and left for the future – with Plummy to look after him, naturally.

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Finally, he could make a start on his chosen career.  (Why isn't the bot builder career available in the present day?  I know plumbots can only be sold through the bot consignment store but he could have sold nanites from inventory and got a promotion or two as a teen.)  He called in at the town hall to register (apparently as a 'self-employed self-employed bot builder' – I think someone got a little careless with the wording there) and then used the workshop at the bot shop to make his very first plumbot.  He had an inventory full of trait chips, thanks to Aurelia's LTR and his own efforts back home, and had almost maxed the skill, so he was able to produce a high-value bot at the first attempt.

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Oh dear, selling bots is sad.  I hate the way they wave and then get squished by the display stand .

Ross came close to level 5 of the career with that first sale.  Selling a few nanites got him the promotion he wished for.

Ross M's Universal Plumbots went into full production.  He spent the next few days assembling bots at home, tuning them up as necessary and fitting them with his stockpiled chips.  He maxed the skill along the way – and unexpectedly achieved his LTW.  My fault.  I'd gone on to autopilot and had forgotten Rico had built a sentience chip.  I didn't even notice which ones Ross was installing.  Then the music played and I missed the screenshot

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[hazelnut]

After a few days in Oasis Landing, Ross had reached level 8 of his career but had run out of trait chips, so he and Plummy went home.

He spent a while working through the family's nanite collection, reverse engineering them for processors or incorporating them into chips, together with the produce from Aurelia's crystal flower garden, until his inventory was sufficiently restocked to make another trip to the future worthwhile.  First, though, he made a long-held dream a reality – to create his masterpiece, a plumbot who could become a full member of the household.

Unfortunately, N04H emerged from his workshop as one of his lower-quality creations.  So much for the Meisterwerk.  Oh well, a series of tune-ups could take care of that problem.

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With his quality finally at Future Tech, N04H was fitted with his trait chips – and Emit appeared to tell Ross that he'd been recognised as the Pioneer of Plumbotics.  (I love Ross' gormless expression in that screenshot .)

Ross maxed his career on the day after his return to Oasis Landing and celebrated by viewing his Legacy Statue.

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Jack, meanwhile, had embraced his destiny and chosen to become a Canine Companion.  His first dog was Bongo, whose defining trait was laziness.

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                                   Bongo watching TV while waiting for a quick brown fox to jump over the sofa

I don't think any of my previous Sim dogs have been lazy but I'm likely to pick it for future games – Bongo was great fun to have around.

Ginny became a teenager…

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…and, a few hours later, Aurelia had her appointment with Grim.

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"No!  I know I said I was tired but I'm not really that tired."
"Tough.  Into the urn, woman!"

She was only a few hours into her ninetieth day.  Maybe it was the unlucky trait she'd had until an hour before.

RIP, Aurelia Haskill – possibly the nicest evil gold-digger ever.  (Despite her volatile personality, she'd never lost her evilness.  Everything else apart from unstable was subject to frequent changes – she ended up with angler, friendly and dramatic as her remaining traits.)

Jack aged up to young adult…

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…and graduated as valedictorian, like his older brother.  Unlike Ross, he didn't get a unique ribbon – he was yet another Most Popular, which was all very nice but didn't help with my aim to collect the lot.

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N04H finally acquired enough happiness points to change his lifetime wish from nothing to something.  He'd rolled Super Popular (which I cancelled) when he started learning charisma but otherwise seemed remarkably aimless.  In keeping with his name, he chose Ark Builder – and started running around Lucky Palms with the family's collection helper, acquiring minor pets and a number of bites.  (Wouldn't his casing hurt their teeth?)

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Ross was still plugging away at his supermax, churning out nanites and itching a lot.  After nearly two weeks of solid effort, he made his 200th.

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That challenge is seriously out of proportion.  I quite like the ITF skills and careers but supermaxing bot building was a real pain.

Ross moved out, taking Plummy and the five dogs with him, and N04H completed his menagerie.

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That should have been the moment when he completed his lifetime wish.  Nothing happened.  I tried replacing the foal and an elderly cat with adult animals, following online advice, but it didn't make any difference – unsurprisingly.  I can't believe the game mechanics would actually insist on breeding pairs.  Catching more small pets and insects didn't help either.  Eventually, I gave up, replaced the cats and horses with more dogs and moved N04H out with them.  I may try that wish again later in this game.  I'll certainly have a go with a human Sim some time, in case N04H's life state was the problem.  He certainly had a number of animal interactions missing and was unable to befriend birds – Jack had to catch them for him.  I suspect it's just a buggy wish, though .

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Ginny had her young adult birthday – and became yet another Most Popular valedictorian.  She chose Fairy Tale Finder as her LTW and, like Jack before her, concentrated heavily on developing her charisma skill.

Jack adopted his fifteenth dog – appropriately enough, a Jack Russell, whom he named Patch.

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He'd long ago reached the point where he could become friends with a dog merely by being within a few feet of it…

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…and  his lifetime wish triggered as soon as Patch set paw on the lot.


After at least a week of nightly map-watching, a unicorn appeared.  I'd almost decided that Ginny's LTW could wait for the next town – she'd almost finished her moving requirements.  I sent her off to make friends.

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The unicorn (named Balin – clearly a Tolkien fan) blessed her.  She responded by feeding him the apple from her inventory, even though she was very hungry herself.

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Balin wasn't sufficiently impressed by her generosity to  be willing to move in, though .

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Not too surprising – she was BFFs with Patch but was only friends with Mittens, her cat, and N04H's horses had now ceased to exist.

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Ginny divided her time over the next day or two between reading bot-building books at the library and bonding with her pets, including her newly-adopted horse, Brownie, and when Balin reappeared, she was ready to try again.

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This time, he agreed to join the household.  Now Ginny and her pets were free to move to a more animal-friendly town (I'd been feeling really guilty about trying to keep horses on a fully-paved lot  ).


House 20 summary
Skills: bot building and gambling

Aurelia
Career: Bot Arena (Promoter)
LTW: Gold Digger
Level 10 advanced technology, charisma and bot building

Rico Lancaster
Life state: ghost
(Traits: flirty, couch potato, childish, party animal, easily impressed) - and workaholic from rebel influence.
Career: Bot Arena (Mechanic)
LTW: Living in the Lap of Luxury
Level 10 bot building and gambling

Ross M
Career: Self-Employed Bot Builder
LTW: More Than a Machine
Supermaxed bot building

Jack Russell
LTW: The Canine Companion
Level 10 charisma and bot building

Virginia
LTW: The Fairy Tale Finder
Level 10 charisma and bot building
Building/property: Petite Pony Equestrian Centre
Unique rewards: Raised By Wolves, Animal Expert

N04H
Life state: plumbot
LTW: The Ark Builder (unofficially achieved)
Level 10 advanced technology and bot building


The Haskills left behind several additions to the Lucky Palms graveyard:

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Gene, Claudia and Halley; Aurelia and Rico, with Fido and Bongo in front.

Frank's large tombstone disappeared from inventory at some point, which is appropriate for an unlucky loser, I suppose .


The Sprite Collection

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                                                     Astrid                                 Roboid

                   Esper                         Gamma                                Dixon                                   Simulus
                                Chromec                             Phobus                             Futech
                  Jenum                         Metaso                                 Zigrid                                    Feronix

The Nanite Collection

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                  Scalar                       Tribble                          Quantum                     Neutron                    Lepton
              Tunnelling                 Heisenberg                         Thermo                       Caustic                       Lite
               Damping                   Induction                        Condensor                     Torque                      Polar
                  Uber                         Optic                             Entropic                     Dispersion                Prismatic

And, far later than I'd have expected, the school field trip collection is also complete:

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[hazelnut]

House 21

Ginny and her pets moved to Appaloosa Plains, which, rather to my surprise, is the penultimate town.  The end is finally in sight!

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After several unsuccessful attempts, there's still not been a Haskill spouse who started out as a maid.  I want to play with the 'makes no messes' trait: what happens if a kid is also a slob?  So Ginny phoned up the maid service – and Bea Bright turned up.  Rats!  On the other hand, this is going to be a busy, animal-filled household.  Some extra domestic help is probably a good thing anyway.

Ginny set off on a tour of the town looking for alternatives.  The consignment specialist in the elixir store was Gurpal Einstein.  He'd done the same job for most of the Christmas Domination Dynasty, so I was pleased to see him there again.  He and Ginny hit it off immediately, possibly helped by his swimming trunks and muscles .

There was a brief moment of awkwardness when they started talking about animals…

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…but they were soon good friends despite their differences.  (That trait clash really annoys me: I can see that Cat and Dog People might have their disagreements but Animal Lover and any of the other pet-loving traits?!)

Ginny dashed home, bought herself the Legendary Host reward and threw a party just for Gurpal.  Halfway through, he agreed to move in…

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…and they ended up in bed together.   No wonder it was deemed a killer party

The following day, Ginny told Gurpal that they were expectant parents.

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(I love that that screenshot caught Mittens in the middle of leaping on to the chest of drawers – it was her favourite sleeping place in the new house .)

Ginny and Gurpal spent most of her pregnancy in the library, reading Baby Incoming and assorted skill books.

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It appears that Johnny Johnson is psychic – he started panicking outside the spa several minutes before Ginny went into labour .

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Philppa was born in hospital.  Gurpal was present for the birth but left the hospital a long time after his girlfriend and daughter.  Did he need resuscitation or something?

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The following day, the new parents threw a wedding party in the field behind the house, attended by close friends, including the bride's unicorn  .

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(Actually, there were far more guests than that but most stayed indoors.  Given the frost on the ground, I don't blame them.)

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With rings exchanged and confetti thrown, the bride and groom adjourned to the terrace to cut the cake.  Rather more of the guests joined them this time – it must have been warmer there.

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Sadly, a few hours later, Grim came for Patch.

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Not exactly the wedding day that hopeless romantic Ginny had dreamed of .

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Pippa's first birthday rolled around.

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Under the bobble hat, she has the green-and-brown hair inherited from her mother and Grandpa Rico.

The rest of the day and part of the next were spent learning toddler skills…

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…and Pippa was ready for another cake (and a bigger bobble hat) as soon as she woke up from her afternoon nap.

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And what do you do once your child is all grown up and at school?  Well, obviously, you convert the garage into a day nursery and fill the place with other people's toddlers  .

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Life went on relatively quietly for a while – barring the constantly plummeting motives of the day-care kids and the odd domestic crisis:

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Ginny adopted a shire horse, called Dobbin (I'd probably have chosen a different name if I'd noticed she was a mare).  Dobbin and Balin the unicorn quickly became an item…

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…resulting in the birth of Flicka.

Sadly, once again a happy event in the Haskill household was rapidly followed by a tragic one.

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I'm not even sure exactly when Brownie died .  I'm sure the camera used to pan across for pet deaths but it's not been happening recently – it was only by chance that I saw Grim taking Patch.


As soon as Gurpal had joined the household, I'd popped him into Edit in CAS to inspect his outfits (not bad) and lifetime wish.  Oh!   Another Living in the Lap of Luxury.  Somehow, it hadn't triggered the second he became a member of the active household, so I changed it to The Jockey, which was one of the default options and well suited to his traits but not really on quite yet.  He'd been learning charisma alongside riding and now finally had enough happiness points to change his LTW to Super Popular.  In the time I could spare from Ginny's day care (I'd forgotten quite how much of a pain that career is), Gurpal went around making friends…

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…and he finally achieved his wish.  He celebrated by visiting the gym to fulfil a long-held wish to improve his athletic skill…

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…at least, until he was forcibly hit by sparkles, a bad hairstyle and backache.

[hazelnut]

Philippa aged up to teen and Flicka quickly became her horse.

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Not that that stopped her bonding with both of the foal's parents as well.   Unicorn teleportation was particular fun.

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Sadly, that's the last screenshot of Balin – Grim came for him the following day.

Pippa was an unusually even-tempered teenager, possibly because she was always out riding when she wasn't at school or asleep.  By the time she reached her young adult birthday, she'd completed the Equestrian Champion challenge (and was moving steadily through the horsewoman career).  Flicka had also grown up and was already close to supermaxing the jumping skill.

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Philippa graduated at home, to give her more horsey time.  (Not sure what jellyfish have got to do with it  )  She was Valedictorian and Most Likely to Achieve her Lifetime Wish – and proved her classmates right a couple of days later, when it unexpectedly triggered on her way out of the Equestrian Centre.

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Having fulfilled early, it then compensated by sticking – even long after she'd reached the top of her career, the counter still said §11,150.

Talking of maxing careers, Ginny finally got to level five of the day care profession – and completed the family's collection of career vehicles.

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That was a struggle: on her last two days, no toddlers turned up but there was a sudden influx of children in the afternoon and, even with Gurpal helping,  there wasn't time to meet all of their needs before their parents came to collect them.

Ginny's elder birthday was rapidly approaching but there might just be time to add to their own family.  For the next day or two, beds, showers and haystacks were all prone to showers of hearts.  There were no chimes, but…

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Ironically, Ginny had her first call from a parent asking for help over a weekend while she was off on maternity leave.  Apparently, being hours from going into labour isn't an adequate excuse.  He seemed quite offended when she turned him down.  Well, she didn't need the maternity pay anyway.  She phoned the town hall at once and handed in her notice.

Baby Don had his first birthday – but the sparkles hit someone else first .

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Ginny was heartbroken – and I got a distinct feeling that she blamed Don for his father's death.

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The poor little thing was hurried through his toddler skills as quickly as possible, had an early birthday cake…

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…and was sent off to boarding school.

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I did need someone to go to the School of Peace and Love – it was the only boarding school that was still free of Haskill alumni – but really, it did seem better for all concerned to get Don out of the way .


Philippa and Flicka had long ago reached the point where they could win advanced riding competitions without trying but were failing totally to place higher than third in international contests.  So Pippa invested some of her happiness points in rebel influence and became over-emotional as a result, dug a genie lamp out of one of the chests and wished for happiness and then spent a small fortune on spa treatments.  Within a week, she'd become a Rider of Legends.

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She spent the following week adopting horses from the rescue centre, training them and then selling them on.  That got her to the top of the horsewoman career and made her an official Horse Friend.  Now for her final challenge: befriending wild horses.  She filled her pockets with apples and carrots and set off for Cinnamon Crest Falls.

She really couldn't have had a worse start:

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Perhaps because they were mourning their friend, the horses refused almost every one of her interactions.  They looked pretty scary at times.

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I did notice that even their refusals increased the relationship a little but she mostly stuck to watching.  Finally, after four solid days and nights of tracking the herd around the town (thanks to her motive mobile), one horse agreed to be adopted.  They'd been BFFs for a while but it still took multiple attempts.

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I'd had my eye on that particular horse as a mate for Flicka but it turned out to be female.  The following day, the piebald horse, also an established BFF, agreed to join the household.  The third adoption took longer, partly because the herd took to splitting up and galloping all over town.  Finally, the horse with the improbably plaited tail said yes…

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…and Philippa's supermax was complete.

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Phew!  I've supermaxed riding two or three times before but that was way harder than I remembered.  Philippa was in the second half of adulthood by the time she finished, even though she'd mostly had my undivided attention .


And an a random screenshot to finish with:

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I hadn't realised the gravel on the drive was so deep .

[hazelnut]

With her requirements complete, Philippa (and I) settled down to have a go at horse-breeding.  She'd kept Caramel, her final adoptee, as well as Flicka, but still needed a stallion.  Since she'd developed a weird glitch where entering the Equestrian Centre crashed the game (thank goodness it didn't set in earlier), Pippa sent her mum off to look for a suitable stud horse.

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Moonlight and Flicka became friends – and then rather more – very quickly.

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It often seemed that adding to this household caused someone to leave it, and it happened again .

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Very bad timing by Grim – if he'd waited another couple of hours, Ginny could have seen her son grow up.  She seemed content to go anyway - she'd had a full and happy life.  Grim seemed a little distracted by Pippa's extraordinary mourning face - and who can blame him?

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Don somehow escaped the mourning moodlet, apparently protected by being on his way home from boarding school at the time of his mother's death.

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Judging by that screenshot of Don's arrival, I'm a bit dubious about the location of the School of Peace and Love

Don inherited Gurpal's very wide jaw, so I disguised it in the same way as EA had done for his father, with a full hairstyle and stubble.

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The next morning, he took the university aptitude test.  He'd picked up quite a variety of skills while he was away at school and did pretty well.

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He decided to start with a degree in science and medicine, which he could do in a single two-week stint, with a full timetable.  He settled right into student life.

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He spent the middle weekend fishing.  Yeah, just what I used to do in my free time back in my student days  .

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He passed with an A…

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…and collected his first diploma.

He arrived back home in Appaloosa Plains just in time to witness the arrival of Balin and Dobbin's grandfoal, Champion.

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After a day or two to catch his breath, Don took the SUAT again and discovered that the extra credit from his first degree meant that he could get away with a lighter classload this time.

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It was good to be back.

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This time, he studied technology.  He particularly enjoyed the practicals.

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He graduated with full marks again – although, weirdly, he didn't change his hood to match his new subject.

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Again, he arrived home just before a foal joined the family – this time, Moonlight and Caramel's daughter, Cappuccino.

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Two foals in the family!  Pippa and Don spent an awful lot of time going "Aaawwww!!!!" and queuing up to bottle-feed the babies.  Their poor mothers must have felt quite left out.

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(Cappuccino grew up to sell for just over six thousand Simoleons, while Champion, largely thanks to his famous mother, sold for an impressive §21,3342.)

[hazelnut]

Farming life didn't really suit Don.  He absolutely refused to ride the horses – he'd climb into the saddle if ordered to but would immediately dismount again.  It's just as well that Sims can learn riding from books  .

After a day in the library, honing his increasingly impressive skills, he thankfully packed his bags and set off back to uni.

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He seemed to be doing his best to live up to his name.  At the Meet and Greet, he spontaneously started lecturing his fellow-students.  I let him talk about handiness and cooking but decided it was time to stop him when he got on to the importance of potty training  .

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This time, he studied Fine Arts.  Despite being very different from his previous subjects, he was able to carry over a lot of credit and get through the course in a single week…

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…becoming my first Major Master.

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(Those 'get another degree' wishes are ridiculously overpowered – an ordinary wish that's worth more than achieving a LTW?)

Again, he graduated in the same old gown and hood – although he was by no means the oddest-dressed graduand.

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Don seemed to find this version of academic dress more to his taste

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If you can get three degrees, why stop there?  (I had my eye on the badge for getting all six with a single Sim.)

Don was less keen on Sports Science than his previous subjects.

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Maybe it was those two smelly and, frankly, scary-looking students in the row behind.  He spent most of his time at the gym.

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(To me, it looked a little cold for swimming in an outdoor pool but Don's clearly made of tough pixels.)

He followed that up with a business degree, learning the fine art of selling your presentation when the person behind you is working from exactly the same source material  .

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He celebrated his fifth graduation by buying one of his unique lifetime rewards, an honorary degree in communications – and the badge was achieved.

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                                                                                 Six degrees of Don Haskill



House 21 summary
Skill: riding

Virginia
Career: Day Care
Level 10 charisma, bot building, riding and cooking

Gurpal Einstein
(Traits: excitable, easily impressed, equestrian, athletic)
 LTW: Super Popular
Level 10 riding and charisma

Philippa
Traits: excitable, loves the outdoors, ambitious, equestrian, night owl (plus over-emotional from rebel group influence)
Career: Horsewoman
LTW: The Jockey
Supermaxed riding; level 10 charisma

Don
Traits: genius, loves the outdoors, bookworm, (green thumb, artistic) (plus ambitious from degree)
LTW: Major Master
Level 10 fishing, handiness, gardening, cooking, painting, athletic, riding and charisma (!)
Building/property: Swole on Fitness
Unique rewards: Climatron Control Unit, Honorary Degree
Attended School of Peace and Love

The Horses
Balin (unicorn): level 10 racing and jumping
Dobbin: level 5 racing and jumping
Flicka: supermaxed racing and jumping
Moonlight: level 10 racing, level 6 jumping
Champion: level 8 racing, level 10 jumping
Cappuccino: level 6 racing, level 3 jumping

[hazelnut]

House 22

Don left Appaloosa Plains just after his big sister's elder birthday.  I don't think any of the kids from previous generations have reached old age before the move .  Probably inevitable, given the large age gap and how long their lifetime wishes took to complete but still mildly depressing.

He moved to Isla Paradiso and bought a houseboat (which took his watcher entirely too long to build).

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And finally a maid of the opposite sex turned up!

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She disappeared before Don could make his way down from the bridge, where he'd started upgrading the helm – probably because there was nothing that needed cleaning yet.  Don immediately invited her back over for a chat.  He'd lost all of his charisma challenges with the move but was still at level ten, so it wasn't long before they were best friends and he was inviting her to move in.

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Gloria is the second Goth NPC to join the family.  As far as I can tell, she's not actually related to Jessie (or to the Sunset Valley Goths) – and Jessie's probably far enough back in the family tree that it wouldn't matter anyway.

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The standard Sims courtship followed…

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…and before long Don was asking Gloria to go steady.

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While his girlfriend was running around town fulfilling random wishes, Don started on his new skill.  Gloria already had a couple of points in scuba diving and it would be nice to get to the point where they could go diving together.

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He celebrated reaching level two by driving his new speedboat over to Rocky Reef…

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…where he had his first encounter with a shark .

Despite this setback, he was keen to dive again, so they moved the houseboat closer to the diving area.  On the way, they passed close to Beryl Shoals and the mists around the island magically cleared.  Don and Gloria went ashore to have a better look…

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…and Don was inspired by the beauty of the place to get down on one knee.

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Gloria looked as though she wished he'd stop making an idiot of himself in public (not that there was anyone else around)…

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…but she said yes.  Well, of course.  Don was rich and she was a gold digger.  I hope he didn't realise.

They celebrated with their first underwater date…

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…and met another shark.

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Warm wetsuits weren't Gloria's style.  She was far too feisty for that.

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She got mauled instead  .


A few days later, Gloria had enough happiness points to change her lifetime wish to Resort Empire and took over the management of Hobart's Hideaway, rather optimistically changing its name to Glorious Resort.

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By this time, she and Don had both rolled wishes to get married and so took advantage of a wedding-and-honeymoon package at Sparkling Sands.  The desk clerk seemed decidedly reluctant to let them register.  Maybe he'd heard that they'd just set up in business as rivals.  Either that or he was objecting to Gloria turning up in her skimpy bikini.

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They still had very few friends in Isla Paradiso but an assortment of holidaymakers and resort staff acted as substitute wedding guests…

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…although most of them wandered off again before the bride and groom had finished exchanging their vows.

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I don't think Don and Gloria noticed.  They only had eyes for each other.

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They stayed on for another three days, making the most of the facilities (and picking up tips for improving their own run-down resort).

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They'd both have liked more privacy in the hot tub (ahem!) but settled for spending a lot of time in their VIP suite.

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The only slight blot on their happiness was Gloria's recurring nausea.  Was the food at Sparkling Sands less excellent than it appeared?

[hazelnut]

It wasn't food poisoning, of course.

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Appropriately, Marina was born at sea.

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She was terribly seasick as a baby.  I didn't know that was possible.  She didn't actually throw up but spent almost all of her babyhood with a negative moodlet.  Fortunately, aging up to toddler seemed to fix it.  Maybe being upright helped  .

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Gurpal's, um, distinctive jawline survives for anther generation . As does Rico's hair, which I'm happier about.

Her parents alternated childcare duties while continuing to work on the diving skill, which was building disappointingly slowly.  Don also ran around town taking DNA samples.

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I would like to have a science clone in the household at some point and the samples Damien took back in Riverview are long gone, of course.  I didn't know at the time that they wouldn't transfer to a different town.


Glorious Resort started living up to its new name and eventually reached five stars…

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…although it was still plagued by cockroaches .

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And the mists cleared from No Trouble Atoll.

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Some time, I'd like to play a more relaxed game in Isla Paradiso and build on at least some of the unlocked islands.  It's such a beautiful world.  It's a pity it's so buggy.

Speaking of which, Gloria should have been close to achieving her lifetime wish by now but, like Philippa, she was suffering from a stuck counter and it was looking very much as though she'd never get there.  The resort profits had stuck briefly at §2000-odd early on but then started moving again – until they reached §12,612, where they stayed even though the daily income was now over §5000.   Oddly, when I switched to Gloria as the active Sim her LTW looked to be complete but then the panel background changed to blue almost immediately.  Maybe the game realised it had got the tally wrong.


Marina had a cake early in the morning of her child birthday.

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Don seemed alarmed by the prospect of a school-age daughter – or maybe he was just worried that her need for the potty might become critical before the candles were out 

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Once her needs were taken care of and her new wardrobe sorted out, Marina changed into her new swimsuit and started snorkelling.

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I knew diving was a teens-and-over skill, so was rather surprised to see a learning bar over her head.  Checking online showed that kids can pick up three levels, although the skill doesn't show up in their journals until their teens.  In fact, Marina did better than that: she spent most of her birthday, Leisure Day and the weekend snorkelling and the bar kept filling.  By her next birthday…

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…she was at level 5 and well on her way to completing the snorkelling challenge.

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While she was off at Rocky Reef diving for the first time, her parents celebrated her birthday by trying for another baby.  They'd both been holding wishes to have another child for some time.  There were no chimes and Gloria, who now had Simmunity and a Strong Stomach, wasn't sick at all – but three days later she was to be found on the bridge puffing and panting.

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About halfway through her pregnancy, Gloria's LTW counter had started moving again as mysteriously as it had stuck in the first place.  Since she'd carried on improving the resort even after getting her fifth star, it was now making over §9000 a day.  With the counter now registering the income properly, it only took three days to get to this point:

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After which it stuck again but I didn't care.  I wish I knew what did the trick: I suspect resetting the treasure chests and temporarily sorting out the problems I was having logging into my account may have done something but I tried both again later with no effect.


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Marina went to prom with Harley Scott and they became a couple – but he aged up a couple of days later, while she was still less than halfway through her teens, so I don't know whether that will last.

Meanwhile, little Salvatore grew up to toddler and then child, mostly ignored by me.  He may be the designated heir but that doesn't count for much in this game.

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He looks a lot like Gloria, apart from the random pale blond hair.  He also started snorkelling as a child but didn't progress as far as his big sister had, largely because I was concentrating on his parents, who still hadn't maxed diving.  Marina, helped by her Loves to Swim trait, was doing far better.  She aged up to young adult with level 9.5 diving, was already at a high level 6 in the self-employed diver career and was over a quarter of the way to her Deep Sea Diver LTW, which she'd chosen on her second day of childhood.  Fingers crossed that her counter doesn't stick...

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As a reward for her efforts, I saddled her with Mean Spirited as her final trait  .  It wasn't really anything personal: it was just that the Haskills and their assorted pets and housemates had used every single trait apart from that one.  It's always been the one I liked least.

Oh well, maybe it will help her to fight off sharks.

[hazelnut]

Don and Marina reached level 10 of diving on the same day but I thought Marina deserved the honour of swimming through the cave system and discovering Diver's Den.

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Don went to the library instead, picked up his last fraction of a logic point and then tutored Gloria to diving level 10 as well.

Salvatore aged up to teen and took to guyliner.  Expressing his Goth heritage, no doubt.  (Or, you know, because his eyes looked really tiny without it  )

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Marina had been collecting map fragments since her own teen birthday but hadn't been able to piece them together.  I'd wondered whether you had to have a particular four to make the map but finally realised that she spent so much time in the water that I'd not tried seeing whether the available interactions were different on land .  Suddenly, the Haskills had two maps …

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…and the title deeds to Plunder Cove.

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A few days into young adulthood, Marina finished the shell-collecting challenge and became my first Sim to supermax diving.

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She swam to shore, sold the shells from her inventory and achieved her lifetime wish (another first).  The counter behaved itself perfectly this time, by the way.

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The top of her career was still looking horribly distant – but then I remembered that there were still some elixirs in one of the chests.  Sure enough, there were three flasks of Liquid Job Booster, and a stash of perfect basil as well.  She'd already completed all three consigning challenges and the combined effect was ridiculously powerful.  It only took another two days to max her career, when I'd been expecting it to drag on well into her adulthood.

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There'd also been a Potent Jar of Friendship in that chest.  Marina invited over her dad's old pal Salty Seaworth and threw it at him, then invited him out on a diving trip.  (I think Salty's got a bit eccentric in his old age, judging by his diving outfit.)

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It wasn't long before this happened:

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They both returned to the surface and got into Marina's speedboat, with Salty at the wheel, then set off towards a fogbank with an intriguingly different reflection.

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As they headed into the fog, it started to clear…

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…revealing the Mermaids' Secret.

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That is a seriously beautiful island, even by Isla Paradiso standards.

Marina could have given up diving once she'd maxed her career, since the family had far more money than they could ever need.  I was still hoping for the Who Keeps Sending These? badge, though.  It was refusing to trigger, even though she must have collected far more than ten messages in bottles.  I sent her on a daily round of the spawners, collecting yet more of them.  I knew the Haskills' latest acquisition had the most interesting spawner, but it was determinedly producing only shells, and mostly boring ones at that.

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So I was astonished when what appeared to be a perfectly ordinary spawner in Mermaid's Deep produced a pop-up message about a bottle with a riddle inside and Plumbob Island appeared.

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(I was also disappointed, because I was hoping it would be a riddle that you actually had to solve.)

Sal, meanwhile, had been quietly getting on with his life, doing well in school and making a start on several skills.  Thanks to Don's tutoring, he maxed diving while still a teenager and picked up enough happiness points for his first unique lifetime reward, which he gave to Marina.

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(Actually, being mean-spirited, she refused the gift and I had to transfer it across from his inventory to hers instead .)

And the following morning, she took the kelp out of her inventory…

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…and became more than an honorary mermaid.

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After a quick trip home to change her scale colour to match her hair, she tried out her new improved swimming abilities.

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This was fun!

[hazelnut]

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Don and Gloria both had full age bars by now.  Don was still skill-tutoring Sal in the evenings but most of their time was free.  Don did some cooking and Gloria played her guitar, but mostly they flirted.  They constantly rolled wishes to chat, kiss or woohoo and I was happy to help out in the time I could spare from their children.

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Salvatore's young adult birthday rolled around and he had a cake as soon as he was up.

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Since his career and lifetime wish were likely to need a degree of micro-management, I reluctantly moved Marina out into a house of her own.  She and Harley Scott were still technically a couple but their relationship was somewhere around a high acquaintance level.  I'd been trying to get them to repair it, hoping for another Haskill wedding, but it just wasn't happening, probably because of their traits.  The combination of her mean-spiritedness and his hot head made it really difficult to sustain a calm conversation, never mind anything more romantic  .

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Sal graduated as valedictorian and Most Likely to Become a Sports Star.  Rather to my surprise, both of his parents were still around to attend the ceremony.

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Sadly, that was their last outing as a couple.  That evening, Gloria climbed back out of bed almost as soon as she'd got in and turned translucent.

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She was 96 and just failed to achieve her ambition to max the guitar skill.  Rest in peace, Gloria Goth-Haskill.  You were a loving wife, an OK mother and a whizz at housework.  I'll miss you.

The following morning, a grieving Sal started his new career as a lifeguard.  It was uneventful, to say the least.  On his third day on duty at the beach, he finally got to rescue someone.

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Then things went quiet again .  By the time he'd reached the middle of young adulthood, he'd rescued a grand total of two Sims from the water, although he had performed CPR on a few more.  He'd easily maxed his career from the athletic and charisma skills but that wasn't much help when it came to his Seaside Saviour wish.

Then Grim came for Don.

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He was at least 112 (I'm not entirely sure, since his age bar stuck twice to my knowledge) and had mastered an impressive array of skills.  Apart from his aversion to horses, Don was a dream of a Sim to look after and I'll miss him even more than Gloria.


The time was approaching for Sal to move out into the Haskills' final house.  First, though, I wanted to see whether I could do anything about the dying town and distinct lack of swimmers in distress.  I'd moved most of the houseboat families ashore before I started playing in Isla Paradiso.  Now I deleted the remaining houseboats (apart from the Haskills') and placed houses from my bin on to most of the empty lots.  Then I switched on NRaas story progression, which I'd been meaning to do for ages but had never quite got around to.

Following an online tip, I got Sal to throw a party at the next beach he was asked to survey.  The effect was dramatic: five rescues in a single shift.

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That evening, Sal walked up the gangplank for the last time and moved ashore.

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House 22 summary
Skill: scuba diving

Don
Level 10 fishing, handiness, gardening, cooking, painting, athletic, riding, charisma, science, logic and scuba diving (and ten assorted skill challenges).

Gloria Goth
(Traits: light sleeper, friendly, flirty, ambitious, schmoozer)
LTW: Resort Empire
Level 10 scuba diving

Marina
Traits: athletic, loves the outdoors, loves to swim, born saleswoman, mean-spirited
Career: scuba diver
LTW: Deep Sea Diver
Supermaxed scuba diving.  She also completed all three consigning challenges.

Salvatore
Traits: athletic, loves the outdoors, loves to swim, charismatic, brave
Career: lifeguard
LTW to be finished (hopefully!) in final house
Level 10 scuba diving and athletic
Building/property: Bella Vista Beach
Unique rewards: Mermadic Kelp, Jock Influence

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                                                     The collection of seashells and other marine oddments

[hazelnut]

House 23

I'd wanted Salvatore to marry one of the resort NPCs, although preferably not one of his own employees, because that would be a bit creepy.  Unfortunately, Sparkling Sands and Costa Verde were now deserted.  So Sal went off to Glorious Resort after all and introduced himself to Haeju, the desk clerk.

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I liked her as a potential spouse, not least because I've never seen a Sim carry off that particular hairstyle so well.  Sal preferred Susan, who looked after one of the food stands.

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As it turned out, he couldn't interact romantically with either of them and they couldn't be invited over, even for parties.  So much for that plan.  Haeju did start him on an adventure chain, though, and soon he had the title deeds to Refuge Island.

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But there was still no sign of a wife.  I was running out of NPC types.  There wouldn't be a pianist unless I converted somewhere into a lounge – and I didn't want to risk adding to the lag.  Party dancers and social workers were out, unless he happened to bump into one in town.  I haven't seen a science geek in years.  He'd have to go to uni to meet a barista and risk resetting his lifetime wish counter.  That left DJs and pet adoption workers – so Sal rang up the shelter and temporarily adopted a cat.

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And the Sim who delivered him was female!  Clearly a full adult, which was going to scupper my plans for a small and well-spaced family, but I couldn't afford to be fussy.  An hour or two later, Sal invited her over…

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…and Jodie Burgess joined the household.

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What's the point in owning a string of desert islands if you don't use them for romantic purposes?

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Jodie was delighted when Sal popped the question just a few hours after meeting her.  Wasting no time, they spun into formal clothing…

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…and had a private wedding as part of the same date.  (Which was, unsurprisingly, a great success.)

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I think these two have to be strong contenders for the title of Goofiest Haskill Couple  .

Three days later, Jodie was to be found, pulling faces and sparkling, in the darkened study (she's frugal and just loves switching lights off).

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Welcome, Lucy.

She's not the oldest Haskill of the final generation, by the way.  Despite their stormy on-off relationship, Marina and Harley managed to produce a son, Aric, just after Sal moved house.

Lucy became a toddler…

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…and, surprisingly, has the random reddish-brown hair rather than her parents' pale blond.  She's the intended final supermaxer, although I have my doubts as to whether she'll complete the 'Star' challenge, given that Isla Paradiso has so many combined rabbitholes.  So far, Jodie is the only member of the family to have taken up the laser rhythm-a-con.

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Thanks to her family-oriented trait and her enthusiasm for her new instrument, Jodie soon had enough happiness points to change her lifetime wish from Surrounded by Family to Grand Explorer.  Just as well – after only nineteen rescues, Sal received the Cay to the City and completed the collection of hidden islands.  Maybe it's started counting CPR as well as saving swimmers.

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Sal had been learning science on his days off and finally reached the point where he could clone from one of Don's DNA samples.

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Romeo, aka Specimen 9885, is a clone of Sean Vidal.  He was born flirty and artistic.  This is definitely a stroke of luck – he's going to be a Heartbreaker when he grows up and artistic is a useful trait to have in a musical household.

Lucy aged up to child…

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…and Romeo became a toddler.  Jodie, meanwhile, was pregnant again.

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And along came Polly, the Last Haskill.

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Definitely the last.

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(And probably just as well, given Jodie's expression when she met her new daughter.  Whatever happened to her family orientation?)

[hazelnut]

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Polly had her first birthday and the game became considerably more micro-managey.  Sal still needed my undivided attention when he was working…

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…but, for the rest of the time, I concentrated on Polly and Jodie, while Polly learned to walk, talk and use the potty, maxed the pegbox and xylophone skills and was read all of the toddler books.

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Poor Lucy and Romeo were largely left to grow up on their own.

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On her next birthday, Polly had a cake very early in the morning (and everyone else got out of bed to cheer – sorry, kids  ).

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That gave her most of her birthday to work on a new set of skills.

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It's just as well that most of them are fun.

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Romeo aged up again…

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…just in time to go to prom with Lucy and somehow get himself elected Prom King, even though he barely knew anyone.  Lucy being voted Queen was more understandable – she spent all of her time at school chatting with friends, while Romeo was usually finishing off the previous day's homework.  They went off in the limo as housemates but returned as romantic interests, which wasn't exactly what I'd planned.  I wanted Lucy to be Romeo's final girlfriend, not his first.  So he asked her to just be friends before their relationship developed any further.

After what seemed like forever, Salvatore went to the beach only needing one more rescue to complete his lifetime wish.  For the first few hours, there were only the usual sunbathers inexplicably needing CPR but then a swimmer got into trouble. (Yay!)

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And Sal became my first, and quite possibly last, Seaside Saviour.   In fact, he ended the shift with 52 rescues, after a mass near-drowning event. (There were also a couple of very cross people who had to save themselves.)  That evening, he had his final birthday…

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…and he retired as soon as the kids had gone to school the following morning.

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Jodie was now in her late eighties and I decided she and Sal deserved some time alone together.  Almost their whole married life had been focussed on the children, everyone's skills and Sal's career.  So they dug the family's Certificate of Partnership out of a storage chest and set off for China.

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Apart from picking up the martial arts skill book and buying multiple incense burners for Polly, I let them do what they wanted, which was a mixture of sightseeing…

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…and proving that age is no barrier to romance.

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Polly became a teenager and chose Renaissance Sim as her lifetime wish almost immediately.

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She carried on with some of her childhood skills and started on a whole load of new ones.

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Her favourite place was definitely the library.  Romeo, who was learning charisma, often joined her there.

Lucy's young adult birthday fell on Leisure Day, so everyone had a lie-in before gathering around the cake table.

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Romeo had an early cake immediately afterwards.  He was only a week into his teens but had had enough of school (although he had somehow made it on to the honour roll, in spite of all of the late homework).

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Lucy graduated with the odd combination of valedictorian and Most Likely to Motive Fail, thereby completing the ribbon collection.  Romeo was Most Artistic.

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The whole family went to the ceremony and followed it up with a meal at the bistro.
 
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It may well turn out to be the Haskills' last family outing  .


The Graduation Ribbon Collection

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Most Likely to Burn Down Their Own House/Be Mediocre/Never Leave the House/Motive Fail/Fulfil Their Lifetime Wish; Most Artistic; Most Likely to Be a Millionaire
Most Likely to Have a Big Family; Valedictorian; Most Likely to Become a Sports Star/Save the World; Most Popular; Most Likely to Offend Others/Get Married
Most Likely to Be a Rock Star/Get Electrocuted; Class Clown; Most Likely to Take Over the World/Write a Best-Selling Novel/Get Arrested/Hack the Military Facility

[hazelnut]

Romeo continued working on his skills during his first few days of young adulthood.

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Sal tutored him in laser rhythm-a-con and he carried on learning charisma through a combination of study at the library and chatting to people around town.

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With both skills maxed, he left for France to try out his charm on the inhabitants of Champs les Sims.

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The dip kiss in the bathroom was particularly classy  .

Trying to seduce Aimée Lefebvre was a mistake, though.  Possibly because she was working as the nectar merchant, Romeo couldn't progress beyond romantic interests but was also unable to ask her to 'just be friends'.  Asking Claudine Girard to go steady while still at the Nectary was an even bigger mistake.

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The following day, he relocated to the Gallerie d'Art and I made another error.  He'd rolled a wish to woohoo with Colette Bonnet while standing right next to a bed.  Why not act on his wish?

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Of course, the bed was pushed up against the wall and Colette disappeared while trying to get into it.

Oh well, why not try his luck with another Lefebvre?

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And Colette reappeared.  She wasn't at all happy.

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Undeterred by his worsening reputation, Romeo took to visiting houses in search of new conquests.

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Breaking up with his tenth partner triggered his lifetime wish.

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On the other hand, he still had four active relationships out of seventeen and had been caught cheating several times.  The whole point of going to France had been to keep Lucy blissfully unaware of his romantic adventures, while he built up a Don Juan or Casanova reputation, so that Lucy could benefit from the 'incredible time' moodlet.  Now he was just a dirtbag.  He returned home while he and I worked out what to do next  .


Meanwhile, I switched my attention to Lucy.  I'd already discovered with other family members that playing the laser rhythm-a-con for tips in the present day was almost useless and that the bookshop didn't stock the music.  So Lucy took a trip to Oasis Landing.

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She hung around the Community Centre while she built up her skill enough to start performing and then playing for tips.

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She did a lot better than the others had back in Isla Paradiso but there was competition here.  There was usually at least one other laser rhythm-a-con player in the park and often a guitarist as well.

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Eventually, a couple of days short of her adult birthday, Lucy completed the Money Maker challenge.  She'd been at level ten for a while and knew most of the compositions.  The remaining sheet  music was in her backpack.  It was time to return to the present day.

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She arrived home at the turn of the season, from summer to, er, more summer.  While the Festival Grounds were temporarily back in their neutral Big Park state, I sent Lucy over to play for tips and the rest of the household to watch her.  The only other person to join in was a former classmate, still in his graduation clothes.  He threw a smallish tip and then walked off.  So much for my hopes of getting the Lustrous Entertainer statue  .

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The following day she tried again, at the Beso de Sol Garden, which had been converted to a Big Park and fully upgraded when the Haskills moved to Isla Paradiso.  There wasn't much room for an audience but it was worth a try.

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Two or three people turned up but weren't exactly enthusiastic.  Romeo and Sal lost interest and started chatting.  Polly sat on the ground and did her homework.  I was just about to give up completely when a blue shimmer appeared behind Lucy.  It was Emit.

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He appeared to be about to start a conversation about plumbing but then announced that Lucy had been honoured with a Legacy Statue.

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Yes, Lucy, that was my reaction as well.  I'm sure there were never ten people watching.  Maybe it's the total number that counts?

Before Emit could change his mind, Lucy made a quick return trip to Oasis Landing.

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And there it was in Legacy Park.  A statue of Lucy Haskill, Lustrous Entertainer.

[farbe]

Cheering you on!  You can finish this!    After some disastrous computer issues that have led to obtaining a new laptop I'm going to start attempting some older TS3 challenges, including the Household Skills one.  Sometimes I feel like the only one still playing TS3 but I'm glad I'm not   It's hard to pick a favorite Sim of yours from this challenge but I am loving Lucy's adventures.

[hazelnut]

Thank you, @farbe .  I sometimes feel like that as well – this side of the forum's certainly very quiet these days.  Good luck if you do have a go at this project – it's been a very long haul but I've certainly enjoyed it.


Soon after Lucy earned her statue, Grim came for Jodie  .

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She was 98 – not bad for a non-athletic Sim – and seemed content to go, even though she wouldn't now get her wishes to see Lucy marry and Polly grow up.

In happier news, there was a rapid series of pop-ups about Cousin Aric.  He and Ebony Sorensen were going steady.  They'd moved in together.  Ebony was unexpectedly pregnant and they'd decided to marry.  And then the baby arrived – and it was twins, rather wonderfully named Nikita and Bob  .

Romeo took a trip to the dystopic future, looking for a honeypot ant, which was missing from the family's collection…

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…and visiting the crashed ship, in the hope of collecting a llama or two.

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(I was kicking myself for selling the spare llamas and key fragments after Halley successfully assembled a mech gnome.  He was now long gone and a replacement would be useful when Polly got around to learning the advanced technology skill.  Incidentally, I wonder why graduation and mech gnomes die of old age, like Mysterious Mr Gnomes, when they don't show any signs of aging and all of the others last for ever?)

On his return home, Romeo invited Charlotte Dubois, one of his French romantic interests, to visit and successfully became 'just friends'.  One down, three to go.

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He and I couldn't face dealing with the others right now, so back he went to the future – utopia this time.

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No-one had caught a rainbow snail yet, so he took up fishing and stayed for a few days until he'd succeeded in catching one.

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Next he invited the Lefebvres over and broke up with both of them.  His remaining romantic interest, an Egyptian tourist whose name escapes me, very helpfully dumped him by long-distance phone call.  He bought a Clean Slate* and happily returned to his first love, Lucy.  In fact, he started autonomously flirting almost at once.

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Was that "I've always carried a torch for you" or "I think we're a good match"?  Whatever it was, she liked it.

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Thanks to her long stay in the future working on her laser rhythm-a-con skill, Lucy was now two weeks older than Romeo.  So he took another, much longer trip to (normal-timeline) Oasis Landing to equalise their ages.  Again, he mostly roamed the wasteland in search of collectables, but also found time to max the fishing skill.

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He celebrated his birthday at Loel's Lounge, in the company of some of his descendants.

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Manfully ignoring the unfortunate effect on his hair, he stayed there until it closed for the night.

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Soon afterwards, he returned to the present day for good.

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I think he'll be pleased about that – he really doesn't seem to like the actual travelling-through-time part of time travel.

Romeo had been holding a wish to be in a steady relationship for most of his most recent trip to Oasis Landing and Lucy was only too willing to help him fulfil it.

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They'd have to move out soon – the message had popped up about Polly only having a few days left to impress her teachers and I was going to have to concentrate on her once she grew up.  But first I wanted to have another try at the Ark Builder wish.  Lucy ran around Isla Paradiso collecting minor pets and then put in repeated calls to the animal shelter.

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This should have been the moment when her wish triggered…

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…but, as with N04H, nothing happened.  It looks as though that LTW is terminally bugged .  I kept the animals around for a couple of days, just in case it fulfilled after a delay…

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…but it didn't.

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Lucy is officially an animal lover but acts a lot more like a dog person.  Romeo bonded with the cats and both he and Sal did a lot of wandering around the house, cleaning cages and topping up food bowls.  The poor horses were pretty much ignored by everyone.  Maybe that's why one of them photobombed my proposal screenshot  .

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Lucy said yes, of course.


* Some time later, it occurred to me to wonder whether Romeo had really needed to break up with all of his romantic interests, so I went back to an old save and tried just buying the Clean Slate.  It worked – he kept his exes but the romantic interests were now friends or acquaintances.  I'll have to remember that if another Sim's in the same situation.


The ITF collectables

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                                                                       Llama ARC-021, mech gnome, llama VUL-009
                                                                             Llamas GRX-965, MCH-043 and TRN-115

(Romeo ended up collecting three complete sets of llamas, so I'm going to keep one set around the house as decorations.)

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                                                              Three-eyed fish, rainbow snail, honeypot ant and pill bug