Household Skills Project Mk 3

[hazelnut]

Kelvin aged up to elder and retired on the same day that Casey became a toddler.



She was a remarkably self-sufficient little thing, happy to occupy herself in or around the toybox when she wasn’t learning her toddler skills...





…which was just as well, really.  Kelvin and Jessie were far too involved with one another to waste valuable couple time on any children they might have produced.



At first I thought this was Kelvin collapsing and ill, or possibly dying, and Jessie mourning over him.  Then I remembered that it doesn’t work like that for Sims.  When I moused over, it appeared it was just Jessie demonstrating correct mouth-to-mouth technique.



Apparently, Kelvin liked it.

With those two in that sort of a mood, it would clearly be a good thing for the kids to be as independent as possible, as soon as possible.  So Casey had an early cake as soon as she’d learned to walk, talk and use the potty.



(Yes, I popped her into CAS and gave her freckles.  One of my pet peeves about Sims 3 is the non-heritability of freckles and moles. Since Jessie is freckled, I wanted at least at least one of the kids to get them.  I tried them on Rod as well but they didn’t suit his face shape.)

Rod was keen to show Casey how things should be done.  He insisted on demonstrating the use of the fireman’s pole for quick departures when you’d got up a bit late for school.



He demonstrated it several times, in fact.  Then he showed off his scout badges.  Interminably.



Casey wasn’t impressed.  At least they were only children together for a few hours: a day after his little sister, Rod had an early cake.

Once he’d learned to drive, Rod persuaded his parents that that meant he was equally safe to be left in charge of a boat.



Whenever he wasn’t at school or asleep, he was afloat, blissfully fishing.

A few days later, Jessie celebrated her elder birthday and, like her husband, wished to retire at once.



She immediately started throwing wishes to learn skills: she seemed to have decided that Jack of All Trades wasn’t enough.  What she really wanted was to be a Renaissance Sim.  On the other hand, everyday stuff was just too boring to keep track of.  Either that, or dementia was starting to set in.  Kelvin was already spending most of his non-flirting-with-Jessie life in the rocking chair and she seemed to feel he had the right idea.  Her newly revealed absent-minded trait became a real pain: she couldn’t be trusted to finish any task.  The worst was when she wandered off in the middle of a baking session.  Fortunately Casey, now a teenager, was brave.  And it wasn’t a school day.



Rod reached young adulthood and graduated as valedictorian and Most Likely to Burn Down His Own House, the first swap in the ribbon collection.  (No, that's his mum  .)  I assume it was the pyro trait again.  Rod had inherited both that and the saluting ability.  Casey, the prospective heir, had neither.

A demonstration was in progress outside the town hall during the ceremony – apparently, there had been frequent llama invasions recently and the local residents were far from happy about it.




Casey spent her teens proving she was her mother’s daughter by working on a variety of skills.



Rod continued to fish and, a few days into young adulthood, achieved his lifetime wish.



In fact, he could probably have got it as a teenager if I’d been quicker off the mark.  By the time I wondered whether he had enough perfect fish yet, he had seventeen different species.  Now all ( !) that was left was to supermax the skill and reach the top of the career.

Soon after this, Kelvin, aged 93, got out of bed in the middle of the night – and not just because of an ageing bladder.



Jessie mourned but seemed far less distraught than I’d expected.  It took me a while to notice that I’d not picked up his urn.



So that explained the creepy sound effects.


Casey graduated as valedictorian and Most Popular.  The protesters were still there, although they were now complaining about burglars.  Jessie, wisely, didn’t comment.



Both kids turned out well as grown-ups, I think.  Neither looks particularly unusual, although most sliders are a long way from zero.  Jessie’s narrow head, which they both inherited, is the only feature needing careful management – some hairstyles look awful on them.




While Rod continued to fish, as usual, Casey registered for her new career and got to work.



I had this town all worked out: Casey would stay in her childhood home until she’d maxed the career at least and possibly achieved her LTW, neither of which would take long.  I hadn’t been too bothered about her maxing fishing as a child and teen, knowing that several hours’ angling would turn up in a case sooner or later.  Unfortunately, things have changed since I last did the Pervasive Private Eye wish.  It used to be easy – I did it alongside Paranormal Profiteer in one family, with the siblings working alternating shifts.  It’s not so simple now.  Even though the stakeout bug has been partially fixed, it can take several (or many) attempts to succeed.  Casey was stuck hiding behind bushes in the graveyard for twenty-odd hours at one point.  In fact, I cancelled opportunities a few times, only for them to fire again shortly afterwards.

Obviously, my plans were in tatters.  Casey was now unlikely to become a Pervasive Private Eye before full adulthood and the intended ‘Surrounded by Family’ in the next generation was looking very dodgy indeed.  Besides, the only babysitter in her high school class had been a girl.  Not that that stopped Casey fancying her – another slight problem.  She’d had a male best friend from school but they’d not become prom dates and, of the people she bumped into around town, she was attracted to most of the women and none of the men.  Not ideal for an heir.

Also, I’d noticed a blue ‘I’m learning a skill’ bar over her head sometimes while she was working and I was worried that it might be logic.  (It turned out that it was, in fact – she unlocked the skill shortly after moving, just from snooping for clues.  Because my PIs have always learned logic early on and often gone most of the way through the career just by skilling, I’d never realised that the job itself builds logic.)  So Casey took a brief career break to max fishing – and pick up a few more points in other skills.  Rod had already supermaxed fishing and reached level 10 of his career, slightly aided by his parents’ omniplants.



With her fishing level 10 achieved, Casey said goodbye to her mother and brother…





…and moved into her new home.  It wasn’t far away.




And at last I know why Tansy in the 4x4 left Hidden Springs in her formals but arrived in Monte Vista in her everyday clothes.  Moving into a new house seems to trigger a change back into the default outfit – Casey paused briefly to spin out of her career clothes before running across the road.


House 7 summary
Skill: fishing

Kelvin
Career: Science
LTW: Become a Creature-Robot Cross-Breeder
Supermaxed gardening, level 10 handiness and fishing

Jessie
(Traits: excitable, lucky, clumsy, good sense of humour)
LTW: Jack of All Trades (self-employed angler and gardener, acrobat, lifeguard)
Supermaxed gardening, level 10 fishing, athletic, charisma and cooking
Although Jessie only supermaxed one skill, she completed ten other skill challenges: at least one from each of her skills, plus all three for consignment.

Rod
Traits: loves the outdoors, heavy sleeper, angler, flirty, sailor
Career: Self-employed angler
LTW: Presenting the Perfect Private Aquarium
Supermaxed fishing

Casey
Traits: perceptive, brave, loves the outdoors, charismatic, family oriented
(Career and LTW to be finished in next house)
Level 10 fishing
Building/property: Pleasant Pages Bookstore
Unique rewards: Opportunistic, Clone Voucher

[Malley]

Apparently, Kelvin liked it.

That shot reminded me of the pool scene with the lifeguard in The Sandlot 

Congrats on completing another household too!

[hazelnut]

Thanks


House 8

Casey’s new home stayed as an undeveloped plot of land for quite a long time.  In keeping with private eye tradition, she lived out of her car, moving from interview to stakeout to investigation.



(I can’t help feeling that a sauna may not be the best place to dust for prints.)

At last, a few days before her adult birthday, Casey reached the top of her profession.



She was still only at level 3 of logic, so she spent most of the time leading up to her birthday in the library, reading skill books.



With a midlife crisis in full swing, maybe it was time to make some changes to her lifestyle.  First, a house.



The next step was to invite over that one male best friend from school, Solomon Luther.



He’d never been over to visit before, because I was worried about newspaper deliverers’ glitchy ageing.  In fact, it seemed to have worked in reverse in his case – he should have been about the same age as Casey but, once she’d asked him to move in, he turned out to be a week younger.

On the day that Solomon joined the family, Jessie died.   By my reckoning, she was 120 – my oldest Sim for quite some time.

Solomon arrived, obligingly enough, with the Super Spy wish.  Since he already had some handiness skill points, a technology degree seemed like a good idea.   Casey tutored him in logic until he achieved a Distinguished Award.



He was far harder work to get through a degree than any of my previous Sim students, possibly because of his childish trait.  Keeping him happy between lectures while not letting his performance drop too much took quite a lot of attention.

During the vac, Casey proposed.



Then Solomon went back to uni for a second week year and finished his course, plagued by minor glitches.  At last, Saturday arrived.  He seemed amazed to have passed at all, never mind finishing on an A.  He tried to invite Casey to the ceremony but it seemed that fiancées didn’t count as ‘friends and family’ (in fact, all of his Sunlit Tides friends had disappeared from his relationship panel).  He also managed to lose his robe and mortarboard at some point and ended up graduating in his everyday outfit.




Solomon and Casey spent his first day back home at the gym.  They were both holding wishes to max the athletic skill by this point.



A few hours into their training session, a fight broke out between two old ladies (possibly under the influence of juice, judging by the thought bubbles).  Then the victim jumped into her assailant’s arms and they left the gym hand-in-hand.  I think they need relationship counselling.



Undisturbed by the violence (well, she was a tough private eye, after all), Casey carried on running and reached level 10.



Solomon didn’t.  About five minutes short of his goal, he was rudely interrupted by a birthday.





Yep, one of the old ladies came back just in time to join the celebration.  No idea why.

Unusually for this family, he didn’t have a midlife crisis – but he acted as though he had anyway.  He went straight from the gym to the spa, to get the tattoo he’d been wanting ever since moving in, and then visited the hospital for plastic surgery.  Nothing major, just knocking most of his facial sliders away from the central position.  As a side effect, his age set back to where it should have been all along.  Oh well  .


The following weekend, they threw a wedding party, attended by colleagues, friends and the bride’s sole surviving family member.









The following day, Solomon, who was behind on his reports metric, went over to question visit his brother-in-law and found that Rod had become old overnight, with unfortunate results.  Not only had he lost all of his hair but he’d stopped wearing his sunhat just when he really needed it.



Meanwhile, Casey was visiting the science lab…

[Malley]

Those two old ladies in the gym were pretty awesome. The happy couple got some entertainment while they were working out at least 

[hazelnut]

Sometimes I'd really like to know the townies' back-stories  .

[hazelnut]

Family-oriented Casey was delighted to have a little girl to look after, particularly one who was so much like herself.  (Well, she would be, wouldn’t she?)



She taught Apple to play chess and how to use the telescope safely.





Solomon, surprisingly unfazed by suddenly acquiring a family so soon after his wedding, tutored his stepdaughter (sister-in-law?) to an A.



Apple played chess.  A lot.  I think she may have heard rumours about the horrors of the logic supermax, judging by the hard looks she kept giving me.



Once she was satisfied that Apple was doing well in school, Casey went back to her career.  She only needed a few more cases for her lifetime wish.  One of them took her to the criminal HQ, hidden in a dormant volcano.



She had to beat up the witness to get the truth out of her, which was a little worrying since she was in the early stages of pregnancy at the time – she and Solomon had now decided that they wanted to have a child together.



The odd lighting in the entrance to the volcano turned the fight into something from a Bond movie title sequence – quite appropriate, given the setting .

And, about halfway through her pregnancy, Casey officially became a Pervasive Private Eye.



She spent the next day or so having a well-earned rest, with lots of pampering at the spa.

You’d think two brave Sims would be able to cope with something as ordinary as labour.



Wrong.  They both went into a screaming panic and rushed off to the hospital, leaving Apple alone in the house.



Fortunately, the burglars must have been having a night off.  They got home to find Apple still asleep and their belongings undisturbed.



Time passed.  Apple had her teen birthday…



…and celebrated by playing her first ranked chess match, against the violent old lady from the gym.  (Actually, I don’t think Apple would consider it a celebration.  She definitely preferred dominoes to chess and flatly refused to roll the Chess Legend LTW.)



Solomon’s bosses, impressed by his smashing of a crime ring based at the bistro, promoted him to International Super Spy.



If they’d looked into the bistro’s ownership a little more carefully, Solomon might have found himself answering some very awkward questions indeed .

Damien grew up from baby to toddler and Casey fell madly in love.  She didn’t seem to notice the sinister expression that dear little face wore at times.



(I didn’t manage to get a screenshot of it but Damien did that same creepy eye-rolling thing that Lionel/Leo in the 4x4 did as a toddler.  I assume it’s the evil trait.)

He was the first child in the family who was allowed to play with the pegbox.



He wasn’t always happy about it.

Apple, a singularly unrebellious teenager, still managed to take enough time away from the chess table to acquire a boyfriend with unfortunate hair…



…and to discover one of the dusty old lamps that the family had been carting around for a generation or two.



The genie, improbably named Rob Mullins, had a high opinion of himself but still agreed to grant her wish for world peace.

There were some more birthdays.  Damien grew up into a misleadingly angelic-looking child and Solomon joined his wife in old age.



He retired after his next shift.  His bosses must have been relieved – his tendency to forget his shoes can’t have helped with undercover ops.

The weekend arrived and Apple played some more chess matches.  After winning all of her early games, she hit a losing streak.  Maybe it was the shock of finding herself playing against her stepfather.  If she’d known he was going to get that good, she’d have thought twice about tutoring him in logic.



And Casey, despite being in her eighties, wanted another child.  So she went over to the science lab and cashed in another clone voucher.




I've seen clones with different hair and eye colours before but they've always been one of the defaults or the standard EA-clone hair colours.  Marie has the family's non-standard red hair, inherited from Faylene.

[hazelnut]

Marie may have been a less-than-perfect copy but she was an adorable child.



She and Damien quickly became inseparable.







They both joined the Scouts and, unlike the previous generation, reached level 3 of the hidden skill.  Damien also became my first Sim child ever to get the ‘helping old ladies’ opportunity.

Apple had her young adult birthday and was forced to wish to become a Chess Legend  .  She graduated as valedictorian, to no-one’s surprise, but was also voted Most Likely to Take Over The World.  Damien, miffed that his big sister had won the award he had his eye on, refused to go into City Hall for the ceremony.



Apple went straight home afterwards and called her next opponent.
 


After three attempts, she succeeded in beating him.  The next one was more of a challenge – Ellen Maher was one of the proprietors and permanently unavailable.  Casey, with her Legendary Host reward, threw parties with Ellen as the only guest but she’d turn around and walk off the lot as soon as she arrived.  After a few days, they simply bought the coffeehouse and installed a chess table there – which was fine, except that a SimFest was taking place and Ellen kept abandoning the game so that she could go on stage and introduce the next act.  Eventually, Apple gave up and watched the show instead.  The following day, she tried again and won at the first attempt.  When Ellen turned up again as her next-but-one opponent, I said a number of rude words, but that game was uneventful, fortunately.



Her final opponent was Solomon, again.  Apple beat him in a few moves and achieved her lifetime wish, before rushing off to the school she’d left a few days before, to sign up as a playground monitor.



Casey had carried on working sporadically through the kids’ childhoods.  Although she’d solved a lot more than five cases since reaching the top of her profession, she still hadn’t been awarded the Investigator’s Keepsake.  I was also pretty sure she’d done three missing Sim cases.  Now I turned my attention back to her and she spent several days driving around town in the motive mobile, solving case after case.



After a while, it became clear that she wasn’t going to get either of the remaining service awards and I let her retire.



Something odd must have happened to Casey at some point.  She’d reset or disappeared several times, usually on stakeout, and the game seemed to think she was no longer the same person.  All of her kids had wishes to be friends/best friends with her, which were never granted even though her relationships with all three were maxed out.

Damien and Marie, meanwhile, had aged up to teens and were making everyone’s lives eventful, to say the least.



Casey had been an über-prankster in her day and her two youngest children took after her.  Evil, rebellious Damien seemed to have far more than his share of mood swings – but they were both given to booby-trapping the house on every possible occasion, regardless of mood.  The clients’ chairs in Casey’s office and the neighbours’ front doors also suffered.



They did somehow squeeze in other interests.  Marie started learning science.  (This was another two-skill house, even though everyone had been concentrating on logic up to this point.)



Damien, who’d decided about ten seconds after his teen birthday that he wanted to grow up to be Emperor of Evil, took up the athletic skill.



He was also hotly pursued by a girl from school, Tanisha Hitchcock.  He seemed disconcerted by her, if anything, although he did accept her invitation to go to Prom together.  That was all the excuse she needed – by the end of the evening they were boyfriend and girlfriend.



At last, Damien’s young adult birthday arrived.  Marie, strictly speaking two days younger, felt so much like his twin that she had a cake alongside his.  (Besides, it cut down on the number of graduations .)



Everyone piled into Casey’s Evasion the following day and drove over to City Hall.  Well, everyone except Damien.  He roared off on his new motorbike…



…and then ran from the car park to the hall, followed, as usual, by Tanisha.



Damien, like Apple, was voted Most Likely to Take Over The World.  Marie was voted most likely to save it.  She was valedictorian – while they’d both been on the honour roll for some time, Damien had bunked off school a couple of times during mood swings.  Apple’s tutoring had repaired his grades but the staff had clearly not forgotten.



After the ceremony, Tanisha caught up with Damien…



…and someone else caught up with Casey  .

[Malley]

RIP Casey 

Damian better keep an eye on Tanisha 

[Lisa46]

After reading through this story again, I looked at Joanne from the third house again. Is it just me, or does she look like Selma Aurora from Saltpasyillen's dynasty?

[hazelnut]

Damian better keep an eye on Tanisha 

That girl was a liability.  I'm not sure why: I don't think she had any traits to explain her behaviour (although the only one I can remember is coward).  Poor Damien seemed quite bewildered.  He did roll a wish to propose to her at one point but I didn't promise it - he hadn't even seen her for a week at that point.

After reading through this story again, I looked at Joanne from the third house again. Is it just me, or does she look like Selma Aurora from Saltpasyillen's dynasty?

I hadn't thought of it but, yes, I suppose they are a bit alike.

[hazelnut]

As he sometimes does, Grim hung around afterwards.



Well, his job must get depressing.  He probably needs some fun now and then.

A few days later, he was back.




I’d intended Marie to go to Uni and become my first Sim to get a science & medicine degree.  Unfortunately, Sunlit Tides was notable for Not Going According to Plan.  She took the test and qualified for a Distinguished Award in either technology or science and was awarded a partial scholarship.  So far, so good.  Then she went off to university and disappeared while moving in.  Then the game crashed.  The second time, she made it all the way to her second day of lectures before the screen went blank.  The third time, she was at the ‘meet and greet’.  At this point, I decided that this generation would have to miss out on higher education and do things the hard way.  So Marie was sent off to the hospital to get a job as a bedpan cleaner.  Damien had, of course, joined the criminal career right after finishing his slice of birthday cake.

Shortly after her parents’ deaths, Apple became the district superintendent and, later that afternoon, completed her supermax with the discovery of the star Dabinett.  (All of her celestial discoveries were named after varieties of apple.)



Despite the way I always moan about the logic supermax, it was relatively painless this time.  Apart from the brief problem with the chess-playing proprietor, the challenges just came naturally in the pursuit of wishes and opportunities.

Now she was free to do what she wanted.  Her younger siblings were grown up and were progressing through their own careers.



Inseparable as ever, they’d taken up waterskiing and spent most of their free time towing each other around the lagoon at high speed.



They could look after themselves.  It was time to think about her own life.  She’d stayed in touch with Carson, her high-school boyfriend, who had also become a teacher.  So now she invited him over and proposed.



All of their female friends came to her hen party.  Tanisha, of course, invited herself (she’s the one in white and pale blue on the right of the screenshot).



It wouldn’t be a proper Sim party without a visit from Grim.  When one of the guests started clutching her throat, I thought she must be inappropriate or insane and making fun of the girly romantic stuff.



Then she keeled over.



I hadn’t seen a mermaid die of dehydration before.  (In fact, since she was wearing trousers, I hadn’t even realised she was one.)

Grim didn’t exactly join in with the party but he did drift into the gym and dance to the stereo there, all by himself.



Marie, tired after a long shift at the hospital, went upstairs to relax in the sauna and found it already occupied by a rather more sensible mermaid.



A very attractive sensible mermaid.



Soon, all three young Haskills were in steady relationships (Damien still hadn’t got round to dumping Tanisha).

Apple and Carson were married at Serenity Retreat.  It was a large, successful and Grim-free party but the screenshots were rubbish, largely because it was getting dark when the ceremony started.



This was partly because of pathing issues and cancelled cues, but mostly because the bride and groom had spent several hours in the shower together before the party.  I’d been hoping that Apple could have kids of her own, because she’d been so good at looking after her little brother and sister.  Her genie friend had given her fertility as his last wish and she was family-oriented anyway but there were no chimes, despite several attempts to try for baby.  (Incidentally, I count birth rather than conception as the point when a Sim joins the family, for the purposes of this project.)

However, a few days later, Damien suddenly popped a wish to steal candy from a baby.  As far as I was aware, he didn’t know any but then I thought to check the family tree.  Yes, Apple and Carson now had a son, Jack.

They also seemed to have acquired a family of dogs.



Damien made friends with his small nephew…



…and then stole his lollipop.

[hazelnut]

Marie quickly reached the top of the medical career, largely because I chose to treat it as a rabbithole career and ignore the vaccination clinics and calls to help the criminals.  There will, after all, be another doctor in the family later, doing the World-Renowned Surgeon wish.  That one can do the interesting stuff.  Marie had other priorities.  She maxed the logic skill on her adult birthday (hence the bad hair), then concentrated on science.  It helped that she rolled a midlife crisis wish to change jobs: as a self-employed angler, she had much more time to carry out experiments, which she certainly needed – at least a third of them failed to register.  I could have kept track and counted the challenge as done when she’d finished 100 experiments, regardless of what the journal said, but I really wanted that plaque for the family collection.



Damien’s career was progressing rather more slowly, not helped by three arrests on consecutive days.  Still, he was now reaching the higher levels of The Organisation.



It’s been a while since I played through the evil branch of the criminal career and I’d forgotten how silly the Evil Sidekick’s uniform is  .

Having maxed both of the skills for this house, Damien could relax.  He went back to his old love of watersports but had to settle for something he could do on his own.



Marie was busy.  Finally, she finished her supermax.



(That was supposed to be the moment when she achieved it.  In fact, it was another experiment that failed to register.  She actually supermaxed carrying out a routine analysis at the research station, a few minutes later.)

The next morning, both siblings invited their girlfriends over.



Marie proposed to Candy, now apparently human again, and Damien broke up with Tanisha.





Then Damien signed over the house to his sister and almost-sister-in-law, hugged everyone goodbye (for an evil Sim, he’s rather a sweetie)…



…and rode out of town.




Casey’s (incomplete  ) collection of PI rewards was left behind…



…along with the family graves.



                                                                    Kelvin and Jessie; Rod; Casey and Solomon


House 8 summary
Skills: logic and science

Casey
Career: Investigator
LTW: Pervasive Private Eye
Level 10 fishing, gardening, logic, athletic, cooking and charisma (and homework)

Solomon
(Traits: eccentric, lucky, childish, brave, natural born performer – plus heavy sleeper (technology degree))
Career: Law Enforcement (Agent)
LTW: International Super Spy
Level 10 athletic, handiness, logic and charisma (and trampoline)

Apple
Traits: (perceptive, charismatic, family oriented), genius, nurturing
Career: Education
LTW: Chess Legend
Supermaxed logic, level 10 charisma (and chess)

Damien
Traits: evil, athletic, daredevil, rebellious,  vehicle enthusiast
(Career and LTW to be finished in next house)
Level 10 athletic, logic and science (also Gnubb and trampoline)
Building/property: Coconut Palms Medical Facility
Unique rewards:  Moodlet Manager, ExtraordinAIRe-Inator

To my surprise, Damien got the metal collector challenge – I’d assumed I’d have to wait for World Adventures for that one.  He even acquired some woohooium from somewhere but I can’t remember how.  I think it was from a criminal job opportunity.

He doesn’t have the ability to apprehend burglars, despite having a policeman as a father.  Come to that, Solomon didn’t have it either.  I assume it must be triggered by reaching level 3 of the career and skipping past by having a degree means they never get the hidden trait.

Marie
Traits: (perceptive, brave, family oriented), socially awkward, genius, ambitious (nerd influence)
Career: Medicine
LTW: Scientific Specialist
Supermaxed science, level 10 logic (and homework)

[Malley]

Grim didn’t exactly join in with the party but he did drift into the gym and dance to the stereo there, all by himself.

You always catch Grim doing the most interesting things 

[hazelnut]

You always catch Grim doing the most interesting things 

He often does something interesting if he doesn't disappear immediately.  You just have to keep an eye on him .  That was the first time I've seen him dancing but he's had two or three pillow fights, usually with kids, and I once caught him playing with toys in the nursery (in my legacy, so some time before I started taking screenshots of games).

[hazelnut]

House 9

Damien moved to Riverview and I added World Adventures to the mix.  His new house may be familiar to one or two of you, although I added a double garage, since Damien is a vehicle enthusiast…



…and a garden shed to disguise the access to a substantial hidden basement.



He was a wannabe evil overlord, after all – although the Mwah Ha Ha Command Centre consisted of a single computer and the rest of the space was devoted to fun and skilling.  Any plots for world domination were aimed at players with higher gaming scores.



Once he’d settled in, Damien took advantage of his new abilities and took a quick shopping trip to China.  As soon as he was back home, he started playing with his new toys.



Already an adult, he needed to start thinking about the future of his line.  Fortunately, his watcher was ready with a heavy hint.



(In fact, the first prank call to the firefighters resulted in a visit from Ned Lu, who is nice enough but not quite what’s needed for dynastic purposes.  He became one of the replacements for Damien’s lost Sunlit Tides friends, so it wasn’t a complete loss.  Then, while Ned was still watching TV, Damien made another call.  This time, Laura Kemp turned up.)



Instant mutual attraction resulted… and soon Damien was asking her to move in.



(So, if this account had chapter titles, this one would have to be Recycled House, Recycled Spouse.  Not that things had progressed quite that far… yet.)

Damien introduced Laura to the joys of Sim Fu and was disconcerted when she caught him up almost at once.



The next few days consisted almost entirely of work, sleep and sparring. Eventually, Damien found the time to ask Laura to go steady…



…and that night he achieved his lifetime wish.  (Sorry for the pathetic screenshot – those fences are really hard to work around.)



In what was starting to become a tradition for spouses in this family, Laura went to Uni…



…and became my first Sim to get a degree in physical education.  (She probably also holds the title of Smelliest Graduate.)



The gnomes welcomed her two new additions to the family (although, sadly, they were both to die of old age in a surprisingly short time).



Damien, impressed by having a girlfriend with a degree, decided to put things on a more official footing.



The wedding followed a few days later.  Since the bride’s friends were mostly still at university and the groom’s friends tended to be nocturnal, they had a private ceremony at Lost Willow Park.



Their honeymoon was largely spent energetically on the rug in front of the living-room fire… which may not quite mean what some of you were visualising  .



They also made time for more traditional pursuits…



…with inevitable consequences.



Damien wasn’t impressed.  Especially when the screaming started.



Chi grew up into a carefree toddler.  Apart from those pesky essential skills, her days were filled with nothing more stressful than how best to dismember her toy panda.



And then her parents rudely interrupted her peaceful existence to take her to a birthday cake.





Homework was horrible – and her supposedly clever father didn’t seem to have much more idea about how to solve it than she did…



…which didn’t stop him interrupting important basketball practice with some new inspiration he’d just had.



And Chi’s mother started getting fat again…



…and produced twin boys.  Had she no consideration?