The Murray Apocalypse Challenge: That's a Wrap (Completed Oct 15, 2018)

[commasplice]

I love the names you're choosing for your sims. Love that Grim was nice and respectful.

[BallerinaHippo]

Oh, so many deaths lately, it seems! I'm such a wuss about family members dying.
(I might have prioritized the Diamond Agent unlock so family members could move out and live forever...)
All four toddlers are so beautiful and their names, of course, are great.
I'm glad, after all, that Courage inherited the red hair.
Not that red hair must necessarily be passed on from the founder, but it's still a nice touch and the visual variety is nice.
Four toddlers at once, huh? I see you are getting mighty serious about tackling all the career unlocks!
YES! I'm very much looking forward to reading about Joy and Cosmos raising their four toddlers as well as celebrating the first twins' birthdays!

Yeah, the second generation had 4 siblings plus a spouse so we had 5 deaths to get through.  Fortunately, we get a little bit of a break from that for a while.  The upside, I guess, is that there is space for Joy and Cosmo to have lots of kids.  Now that I've got a few key career unlocks done, I'm motivated to keep up the momentum!

I love the names you're choosing for your sims. Love that Grim was nice and respectful.

Thanks!  I'm glad you like the names.  Virtue names seemed to fit the theme of this challenge, and I've got quite the list!

[BallerinaHippo]

A shortish update today, but hopefully I can get several updates done this week. 

The Good Life

Where I left off last time, Cosmo and I were facing an entire day with four toddlers.  Luckily, we both had the day off.  It turned out to be a really good day.
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Look at Patience in the back there, pretending that she’s not interested in the story, but she’s listening!

We had to get a little creative at nap time since we only have two toddler beds. 
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The next day was Patience and Courage’s birthday.  Somehow, I was able to get all four kids to stay still long enough for a picture.
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My angelic Patience is now an Active child who wants to be a Rambunctious Scamp. 
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Courage is Self-Assured and desires to be a Social Butterfly.
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He and his twin sister are best friends already.
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Our darling Honor is Inquisitive.
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And Miracle is such a little Charmer.
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Lib has been really busy at work.  She was recently promoted to Celebrity Trainer.
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When she’s not mentoring clients, Lib de-stresses by practicing her guitar or meditating.  She’s getting quite good at both.
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Cosmo was promoted to The Brains.  He might be a tough guy at work, but at home he’s a big softie. 
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When I see Cosmo with our kids, I can’t believe I ever even considered marrying a sweater boy.
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Which reminds me; I saw not one, but two new sweater boys the other day.  I’m sure they are nice boys with lovely traits.  I should not judge. 
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As for yours truly, I’ve reached level 9 of my career. 
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Life is good.

[oshizu]

Everyone's doing so well!
I laughed at your game and all its sweater boys. Does that happen in all your saves or just your Apocalypse Challenge?
But I'm also glad that Joy listened to her mother and met Cosmo. They're perfect together!
Ooooo, Lib, Cosmo, and Joy are so close to maxing their careers! Yay!!!

[BallerinaHippo]

Everyone's doing so well!
I laughed at your game and all its sweater boys. Does that happen in all your saves or just your Apocalypse Challenge?
But I'm also glad that Joy listened to her mother and met Cosmo. They're perfect together!
Ooooo, Lib, Cosmo, and Joy are so close to maxing their careers! Yay!!!

The sweater boys are only in my AC save which is weirdly fascinating.  Sure, I might get the occasional sweater in another save, but I've averaged four per generation in my AC file and they are all boys.   
Lib, Joy, and Cosmo are indeed very close to maxing their careers...

[BallerinaHippo]

Teamwork

I wish my kids would listen to me when I tell them to stop growing.  They just roll their eyes at me and blow out the candles on their birthday cakes anyway. My two youngest are now in grade school.
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Honor and Miracle are now both Geniuses, and they both want to be Whiz Kids.
 
We’ve played all the required games of chess.
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And done all the required hours of reading together.
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Honor had already completed the reading requirement as a toddler so she had a little extra time to play at the park.
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See that cute little redhead manning the cannon?  His name is Nobuya.  He’s a sweet kid, and he doesn’t wear “the sweater.”

Cosmo and I had some time off together so we took the kids fishing.  Lib joined us when she got off work.
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All I caught was an upgrade part, but I was proud of myself anyway.  Patience and Courage, on the other hand, were naturals.  They each caught a fish right away.
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The next day, I spun into adulthood.  I can no longer add the “young” modifier to my age. 
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Then, Patience and Courage became teenagers.  All my kids are growing up!
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One nice thing about having two teenagers in the house is that Lib can now mentor them in fitness.  Cosmo maxed his fitness skill a long time ago, so for a while I was the only household member that Lib could mentor for her job requirement.  Not anymore!
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I swear she’s easier on them than she ever was on me.
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Don’t worry, Patience eventually got the hang of it.

In other news, I’ve officially reached the top of my career.  Do I look like a Start-up Genius?
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We no longer have to buy the cheapest/lowest-quality items.

And then, I made our last ever payment to the mob…
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…because Cosmo was promoted to The Boss.
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We no longer have to reduce our household funds to zero after paying the bills.

And last, but not least, Lib reached the top of the Bodybuilder career.  Why do we even take these silly pictures?
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Anyway, now we can move objects that are bigger than 1x1.  We can take things out of family inventory.  And we can carry more than one stack of items in our personal inventory.

All three of these promotions combined meant that we could move many low-quality items into household inventory and replace them with higher-quality items.  And we have the funds to afford it.
That is what we call teamwork!  Go Gen 3!
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[oshizu]

Excellent work!
Those three unlocks really make a different in the household's quality of life!!!
So many birthdays!

[Tynynounours]

Great teamwork, indeed!
Now, the house may stay small, but how much comfortable it'll be.

And I barely imagine how you handle the twins toddlers each time, and suddenly, there are four of them!

[commasplice]

Fantastic teamwork! You're doing so well with this!

[BallerinaHippo]

Excellent work!
Those three unlocks really make a different in the household's quality of life!!!
So many birthdays!

Yes, and more birthdays to come!  At least we are done with deaths for a little while.

Great teamwork, indeed!
Now, the house may stay small, but how much comfortable it'll be.
And I barely imagine how you handle the twins toddlers each time, and suddenly, there are four of them!

Yep, the house is still small, but being able to move things around makes it not so bad.  And the uncomfortable beds are banished to family inventory until we can sell them.

Fantastic teamwork! You're doing so well with this!

Thanks!  These three career unlocks seemed to go together so I'm glad I was able to do them in one generation.

[BallerinaHippo]

We are Fam-i-ly!

We had a family day at the park so that Patience and Courage could chat up the neighbors and work on their Charisma.
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And I spotted a few new sweater boys.
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It was such a nice day, even Grim was out fishing.
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Cosmo took the opportunity to discuss grilled cheese with Grim.
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Have I mentioned that Cosmo’s aspiration is Grilled Cheese?  People always assume it must be Public Enemy or at least Chief of Mischief, but nope.  Grilled Cheese.
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Soon, it was Honor and Miracle’s birthday. 
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Our little girls are teens now.
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That’s two more teens for Lib to mentor.
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Actually, it soon became three more teens.  You see, we’ve added a member to our household.  Remember cute, little Nobuya?  The red-headed boy who did not wear the sweater?  He’s a teen now, too, and I found out that his traits are Bookworm and Art-Lover.   I know we can only move in one Sim per generation, but I’ve got three daughters, and those traits!
 
I talked it over with Cosmo, and he agreed that we should ask Nobuya to move in.
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Nobuya needed a shower and some help with his wardrobe when he first came to us, but he cleaned up nicely. 
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He actually kept the white sweater as one of his everyday outfits, but got rid of those shoes and shorts for good.

Of course, Lib had to size up the new kid in her own way.  She said “he’ll do” which is high praise from my sister.
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We were pleasantly surprised to learn Nobuya’s aspiration is Painter Extraordinaire.  That only confirms we made the right choice to move him in.
 
Cosmo has been mentoring him.  He says the kid has real potential.  I thought maybe Nobuya wasn’t paying enough attention to his painting because I saw him looking at his phone, but Cosmo says Nobuya was just checking his color wheel chart. 
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Cosmo was impressed that Nobuya finished the painting even though he was clearly coming down with some kind of illness.

Meanwhile, the rocket on our roof is finally being built.  It’s been there ever since my Grandpa Liam’s time just waiting for an aspiring astronaut to put it together.  I’ve got two aspiring astronauts in the family—Patience and Miracle—and they asked if they could work on it.  We checked and double-checked the rules and couldn’t find anything that would prevent them. 
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Don’t tell the girls, but Cosmo and I took the rocket for its maiden voyage.
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We just wanted to make sure it was safe.  *Ahem*
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[oshizu]

We are family. I got all my sisters with me! ♫

I still can't get over the weirdness that is your sweater-boy phenomenon, lol.
On the upside, your game is sure spawning a lot of children.
Oh! How lucky that Cosmo could talk with Grim about grilled cheese without having to erase anyone. *coughs
He must be very close to finishing his aspiration now.

Hope and Miracle aged up into such lovely girls. And Nobuya with his Art Lover/Painter Extraordinaire combo--what a catch!

Whoa, Joy and Cosmo take one for the team while putting their own personal safety at extreme risk!
Way to protect the family's safety, you two!

[BallerinaHippo]

We are family. I got all my sisters with me! ♫
I still can't get over the weirdness that is your sweater-boy phenomenon, lol.
On the upside, your game is sure spawning a lot of children.
Oh! How lucky that Cosmo could talk with Grim about grilled cheese without having to erase anyone. *coughs
He must be very close to finishing his aspiration now.
Hope and Miracle aged up into such lovely girls. And Nobuya with his Art Lover/Painter Extraordinaire combo--what a catch!
Whoa, Joy and Cosmo take one for the team while putting their own personal safety at extreme risk!
Way to protect the family's safety, you two!

Grim seems to really like that fishing spot in Newcrest.  That's how Ernest met Grim, and luckily Cosmo was able to meet him, too.  Now that the rocket is built (and tested  ), Cosmo just needs to eat grilled cheese in space and he'll be done.

[BallerinaHippo]

So Many Birthdays

After Cosmo and I tested the rocket together, he took a solo flight so that he could eat a grilled cheese in space.  This was the final step he needed to complete his aspiration.  Way to go, babe!
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Of course, he had to summon a grilled cheese immediately to test his new powers.

Along with being able to summon grilled cheese, he can also paint pictures of grilled cheese.  Since he’s already a level 10 painter, we now have numerous grilled cheese masterpieces.
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Before long, it was time for Patience and Courage to become young adults.  I can’t believe that two of my babies are all grown up!

They blew out the candles on their birthday cake in the morning so they wouldn’t have to go to school.  Patience is technically the oldest so she went first.
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Patience is now an Active Genius who Loves the Outdoors.  She aspires to be a Bodybuilder and has joined the Astronaut career.
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Then it was Courage’s turn.  He is now a Self-Assured and Romantic Genius.  Watch out ladies! 
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Courage joined the Secret Agent Career.  He would have chosen Serial Romantic as his aspiration but decided against it because he would never be able to get past the first tier requiring two dates.  Instead, he chose Master Mixologist.  Of course, he won’t complete that one either because he’s not joining the Culinary career, but he’ll get farther along.  And he seems to think that the ability to mix an excellent Salty Llama will be an asset to a Diamond Agent. 
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I have to admit; he’s got a point.

That afternoon, we had another family day at the park.  At the picnic table on the left is Lib, Miracle, Honor, and Nobuya.  On the right, we have me (Joy), Cosmo, Miracle, and Courage. 
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A few days later, we celebrated even more birthdays.  This time, it was Cosmo and Liberty becoming elders.  (I’ve had two pregnancies so it’s not my turn yet.)

Lib’s birthday came first.  I didn’t get a picture of her with the cake, but she took this selfie with her friend Izumi.
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Speaking of Lib’s friend, I’m not entirely sure, but I think there might be something going on there.  The other day, I could swear I saw them go up to the roof together.
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Anyway, Cosmo aged up later.  I made him a fancy cake.
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He’s got a little gray in his hair, and he combs it back now, but I personally think he’s more handsome than ever.


An entry from Honor’s diary, used with her permission.

Dear Diary,

How do you know if a guy likes you?  I mean, if he really, really likes you?  I’ve known Nobuya since we were kids, and I have to admit it was a little weird at first when Mom and Dad moved him in.  Did they expect me to think of him like a brother?
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We are best friends, and I love hanging out with him, but I have NEVER thought of him as my brother.  What I feel for him is…something else.
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Sometimes he looks at me a certain way, and I think he feels it, too.  But neither of us says it, and we just look at each other with goofy smiles on our faces.
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Other times, I could swear he’s trying to impress me.  He’ll come down to use the weight machine while Aunt Lib is mentoring me, and he tries to lift more than he should. 
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And then there’s this stupid game that we play.  We each try to come up with the dumbest, cheesiest pick-up lines, and the other one pretends to swoon.
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We’re just joking around, though. 
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Personally, I think I’m better at delivering the pick-up lines, and Nobuya is better at swooning, but that’s beside the point.
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After my birthday, I decided to change my hair just a little bit and Nobuya actually noticed.  My friends say that’s a sure sign that a guy likes you.  But is it? 
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I’m not the only one in this house with romance on the brain.  My Aunt Lib doesn’t like to talk about it, but I know she has a girlfriend.  Mom isn’t sure if they are together, but I KNOW.
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I see you back there, Aunt Lib.  You can tell everyone that Izumi is just a friend, but she is only wearing a towel and we don’t own a pool or a sauna. 
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I’m really glad for my Aunt Lib, but I don’t want to wait until I’m an elder to find happiness.

And then there’s my parents.  They are so openly romantic with each other; it’s kind of an impossible standard they’ve set. 
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The more I think about it, the more determined I am to find out once and for all if Nobuya likes me.  The next chance I get, I’m just going to go for it before I lose my nerve.
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Watcher's note:  Honor doesn't know it yet, but she just elected herself the Gen 4 heir.  She'll be taking over the narration next time.

[oshizu]

Joy and Cosmo have raised such a good-lucking, talented bunch of kids!
How awkward for Honor to be on the computer while Aunt Lib's "friend" sits behind her in a towel, LOL!

I agree with Joy that her Cosmo aged up into a handsome elder!
You know his original hairstyle? He's the only sim I've ever seen that could pull that hairstyle off.
It looked so good on Cosmo when you first introduced him in your story that, I confess, I tried his hair on some of my sims. But nope, not every sim can pull it off.

Nab Nobuya's heart, Honor, and make him yours! It's the changing of the guards!!!