Author Topic: The Immortals at Eldersymm Hall!  (Read 14426 times)

Offline Heart Foam

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The Immortals at Eldersymm Hall!
« on: November 17, 2014, 06:39:49 AM »
Eldersymm Hall


I'm starting to document this now because the founder has eaten ambrosia, and until I was sure of that I wasn't going to post anything. And it's only now as I come to write this that I've begun to properly plan aspirations and traits for later generations. In fact, it's caused me to switch gen 2's second aspiration, which we hope works out.

I'm sure the house will go through many changes and coats of paint and different roofs, but be that as it may, I'll keep this picture on post 1 as a reference for all the (inevitable) later changes if nothing else.

On the subject of the house, it's actually a downsized version of something I built for my very first family. (My first Sims 4 sim romanced Nancy Landgraab...) But that was too big. It's quite a walk from one end of the house to the other, and for that reason as well as simply liking that wall-of-glass in the center, you'll see it has two entrances.

If you include a test I did before the challenge went live, this is my 3rd attempt at a Dynasty. The previous attempt was on the Affluista Mansion lot, which is very pretty, but not being able to fish without travelling is a big handicap, and I had picked an aspiration that my founder couldn't guarantee completing. So I'm back in Willow Creek.

1. Miss Waugh
2. Twins
3. The Death of the YumCooker and Other Stories
4. In which Important Stuff doesn't happen
5. Hello darkness, my old friend
6. Things to do in a dynasty: Get a Don Lothario
7. In which Tommy stares, the cheap fridge breaks, and Don bakes a cake
8. Music and Lyric
9. The Portrait of a Lady

Generation 1: The Lady Lyric Waugh, 4th Countess of Twinbrook-Upon-Marsh
Traits: Childish, Genius, Materialistic

Career: Painter, Master of the Real
Aspirations: Painter Extraordinaire, Fabulously Wealthy
Maxed Skills: Painting, Handiness, Violin
Rewards: Creative Visionary, Marketable, Frugal, Sleep Replacement Potion
Parties/Gold Medals: Date (with Mr. Eugi Hartley), Wedding (to Mr Eugi Hartley), Adult Birthday, Dinner Party, House Party.
Friends: Zachery Costa, Brendan Morrow, Lillian Cardenas, Grim Reaper (you read that right), Kerri Mesa, Ericka Morrow (BFF)
Whims: Happy: Chat with someone; Sad: play the violin; Flirty: flirt with someone; Focused: play a card game; Inspired: view a piece of art; Energized: enthuse about interests; Confident: admire yourself 
Museum Items: 8 Paintings (some are masterpieces, but I tended to sell those to make it to the aspiration, and kept some lesser value excellent ones instead)
It is a little thing of my own. I call it "Heart Foam". I shall not publish it. Farewell! Patience, Patience, farewell!

Exit Bunthorne.

Offline Heart Foam

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Miss Waugh
« Reply #1 on: November 17, 2014, 07:21:34 AM »
1. Miss Waugh

My first short and tentative go at documenting my sims is a one-generation sort-of-legacy thing in the misc stories thread called Pemberlittle. I only recommend you read that if the TV guide is unusually dull, or the paint has finished drying. But it did include one Lyric Waugh, and she has returned to have her own house. And live forever. Of course it's not the exact same sim, but a twin that I renamed.



You'll notice that her traits are less than Ideal, but then if you're gonna bring a sim back, you can't change who they are. So, childish, materialistic, but genius Lyric (with a bizarre name) sets out to build a dynasty. Really, those are not ideal traits. At all. I figured I'd give her a new wardrobe when I could afford a mirror.



Having tried and failed before, the goal was to move in the father of gen 2 as soon as possible. I wanted Fabulously Wealthy as soon as possible, and that meant Lyric had to be an artist with no artistic traits. It's the only way I can think of to realistically achieve that with generation 1. Still, she could hug Blarfy and admire possessions to get a few extra moodlets to boost inspired, so not entirely awful.

The father of gen 2, who ever he would be, was going to be a chef and a gardener. You have to have a high-level gardener to get death flowers, and I didn't want to distract Lyric from her painting goals. So the gerdening had to fall to her significant other. And, because Lyric was not going to be the dynasty's gourmet chef, she needed to have a child right away who would become that chef. This was also a safety net in case the man Lyric married turned out to be an adult.

So with the 10k starting money, Lyric got a house. With no paint. Or a bed. Or a window.



And then it was off to the library. Lyric was commanded to fall in love with a sim who would bring in 20k. Mortimer Goth was there, but that wouldn't do. Not even Don Lothario would do. It had to be one of these two guys.



And just because day 1 was on such a tight schedule, Lyric decided to go for the one closest to the door so she didn't have to walk as far. (I fear that in real life, this would not be good advice.)



So there was much chess. Which lead to a date. (Again, unlikely.) But Eugi was romantic, which was lucky. That must have helped things along.



Well, Eugi thought it was cute. But Lyric kept her head on straight, and focused on what needed to be done. Eugi was duly asked to move in, and with the money he brought the house was improved.



Eugi and Lyric became better acquainted...



... and Lyric was eating for two.



And that concluded day 1. And Eugi was an adult. So he would not be around to cook Lyric's ambrosia.
It is a little thing of my own. I call it "Heart Foam". I shall not publish it. Farewell! Patience, Patience, farewell!

Exit Bunthorne.



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Offline KTK10

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Re: The Immortals at Eldersymm Hall!
« Reply #2 on: November 17, 2014, 08:24:56 AM »
I love Eugi and Lyric, by your first photo I can see that you have already come far - so I'm enjoying the story quite a bit.  :D

Offline Heart Foam

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Re: The Immortals at Eldersymm Hall!
« Reply #3 on: November 17, 2014, 10:39:13 AM »
I love Eugi and Lyric, by your first photo I can see that you have already come far - so I'm enjoying the story quite a bit.  :D

:) It's a lovely house. You'll see it grow into that first picture as I go. But I held back because I just didn't know if Lyric would get through her requirements. The 3rd maxed skill and making friends hadn't got far by the time she was an elder. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Eugi has style. His pink shades are great.
It is a little thing of my own. I call it "Heart Foam". I shall not publish it. Farewell! Patience, Patience, farewell!

Exit Bunthorne.

Offline Heart Foam

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2. Twins
« Reply #4 on: November 17, 2014, 12:02:56 PM »
2. Twins

I've seen others delay having a family, and that's probably a better way to go. Anyway. I didn't want to move in any spare sims, so having children as soon as possible seemed like a good idea. But we were not expecting twins. The constant crying and sad moodlets while trying to get the garden weeded or the next painting finished was just something to be endured.

Anyway, look at Lyric here, who grew her hair (it doesn't take long) in blissful ignorance of what lay ahead.


That was a passing acquaintance she made on her day 1 date. Lyric spent so much time shut up by herself, that having some people drop by was nice break from the daily grind. But it does slow painting down. That room later became a dining room. How the spaces get used are pretty fluid at the start. Beds go where they can.



Eugi and Lyric are ships passing in the night at this point. The hours of the chef career and tending the garden, and Lyric's painting, mean that they don't interact as much as Eugi would want. He's a romantic after all. There he is in the garden, with everyone else asleep.

Development of the house goes according to the Grand Plan, not so much according to what looks sensible right now. The few simoleans saved up during the first week go into a new room, which for now has beds for the twins, Jessica the heir, and Tommy.

Why Jessica? Just because I like the name. I like the fact it was basically invented by Shakespeare, I like all the 's'es. It's a beautiful name. Names with an open vowel sound at the end are often better. I always let the game suggest a few, because it'll always suggest something I wouldn't have thought of. But I didn't like the suggestions. So Jess is the heir, and destined to be a chef. So she chose the artistic child aspiration.

Her twin brother is Tommy. He's not a sim I had planned for, but because I wanted to get a rocket early on to try for those collections, I figured he could be an astronaut. So he chose whiz kid as a child. (In the game now, he's an adult who went against his parent's wishes of joining the Apollo program, and became A Baddy Who Smuggles Stuff. Yeah. And he dyed his hair.)

Here, mom reads to him. Was he thinking of being bad all along? I don't know. Probably.



And here is mom having breakfast with Jess.


As an aside, the kitchen you'll notice is not full of high end stuff. It still isn't. I intend to get through the whole thing with my original YumCooker. This is partly because rubbish stuff breaks down, and you need that to build handiness and for the Nerd Brain aspiration. I might upgrade the fridge to the hilariously named Crisponix Adequate, just because it has a whiter white. This one just looks sickly.



Like I said, when Eugi is home, everyone else is out, or asleep. Not a single seed packet was used on the garden, only harvesting wild stuff. And taking care as to what can be grafted on later. The gardening guide here must be the page I've referred to most frequently.

The focus painting is in the bathroom for when plumbing breaks and must be repaired, or for when something is upgraded. Because Eugi didn't have any spare time, all the repairing was taken on by Lyric. She is a genius after all, and handiness became a good second skill to max.

The young adult Lyric Waugh painting, and enjoying it.



The adult Eugi Hartley gardening, and... not looking as happy. Also, starting to get a bit chubby, as most Sims 4 chefs do.



Lyric's childish trait was often a great way to fill the fun meter - splashing in puddles and so on. Here, our founder relaxes from a tough day at work:



Finally, Eugi and Lyric are in the same room and Eugi proposes. He doesn't want to feel like he was just being used. Which is true, of course.



The house began to take shape, though I don't think I had the funds to move the bedrooms upstairs and put in a second bathroom until the kids were teenagers. When you know you have to have 100k in reserve, there's a tricky balancing act between building the house and completing the aspiration. 

It is a little thing of my own. I call it "Heart Foam". I shall not publish it. Farewell! Patience, Patience, farewell!

Exit Bunthorne.

Offline MarianT

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Re: The Immortals at Eldersymm Hall!
« Reply #5 on: November 17, 2014, 03:38:11 PM »
I love your advice that picking the guy closest to the door is probably not a good thing to do in real life. I think getting the founder to the point where she can take ambrosia is one of the hardest parts of an Immortal Dynasty, so congratulations! Good luck with the rest.
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Offline ratchie

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Re: The Immortals at Eldersymm Hall!
« Reply #6 on: November 17, 2014, 04:09:57 PM »
I love the way you write I can't wait to read more.

Rachel
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Offline Heart Foam

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Re: The Immortals at Eldersymm Hall!
« Reply #7 on: November 18, 2014, 01:30:55 AM »
I love the way you write I can't wait to read more.

Rachel

I'm sort of deliberately including 10 pictures in each post to force myself to not write as much, or at least have something to distract from the writing should anyone want that. Otherwise, you'll have Lyric exclaiming with the most profound sadness at the Death of the YumCooker.

Actually, you'll have that anyway.

There's a good deal of updating to catch this up to Don's wedding...
It is a little thing of my own. I call it "Heart Foam". I shall not publish it. Farewell! Patience, Patience, farewell!

Exit Bunthorne.

Offline KTK10

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Re: The Immortals at Eldersymm Hall!
« Reply #8 on: November 18, 2014, 02:58:42 AM »
I really like the idea of having the focus painting in the bathroom - I had never thought of that before now.  I can't help but feel sorry for Eugi, but then again.. all of our founder spouses tend to get ignored until ambrosia time!  ;)

Offline Heart Foam

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3. The Death of the YumCooker and Other Stories
« Reply #9 on: November 18, 2014, 01:35:28 PM »
3. The Death of the YumCooker and Other Stories

Contrary to popular belief, Tommy is not mean or evil or interested in political philosophy. But he did set fire to the newly built... room. If I could find an actual word to describe the room which has so many different uses, I'd use it. Let's call it the Fire Room.





Mom and dad put out the fire, but Tommy just stands there staring intently at the fire. Is he bad? I don't know. It's so awfully hard to say.



And having put out he fire, and when there's no danger at all, they all run outside. Except Tommy. I can't explain Jessica's outfit. I don't know what she was thinking. But she's a creative type... and I hadn't edited her clothes since she aged up. Incidentally, I hadn't yet moved upstairs. I can see Jess' red bed through the window. So for all practical purposes, the house was almost as it was after day 1.

It's hard to tell if Lyric is scared, or trying to scare. But she's creative too. So it's all good. Creative types can do what they like. If Jess burned the house down, I'd ask, "Why'd ya burn the house down?"
"I'm creative!"
"Awwww." *big hug*

But not Tommy. He's smart. He has no excuse.

Moving on. To the final day of a standard childhood. Jess easily completed her creative aspiration (she's an AweSim), but Tommy suffered some neglect and was down to the last few hours / moments before completing whiz kid. I'm still not sure the fastest way for a child to level their mental skill. But he got there. I was scared the twins would age up to teen as soon as they got home from school.



I didn't throw a birthday party, but I did have a cake for them to both use. As soon as Jess became a teen, she started on her cooking skill. Badly.



"The YumCooker is on fire!"
"Seriously, mom? Can you see me? I'm standing right next to the fire."
"The YumCooker is on FIRE!"
"Come on, I'm the next Immortal. And I'm supposed to be a chef. Burned the first thing I tried."
"Noooooo. Not the YumCooker! The YumCooker has died!"
"That's seriously not a problem, mom. I might be your daughter, but I'm a snob. I'm not cooking your ambrosia on that. I want a better stove."
(silence)
"The YumCooker must be REPLACED!"

(Jess didn't get her way. The dead YumCooker was replaced with another one.)

Life in Eldersymm Hall crept on steadily with little variation. Lyric painted, and Eugi gardened. He was still a chef. Why did I bother to make him a chef if Jess was going to be one? Because I wanted one or two kitchen items with the inspired mood. I never expected Eugi to complete the career, but it didn't matter. He did enough to make the kitchen inspired for his daughter. When he became an elder, he retired to his gardening and began fishing.

This is life in the teen years of the twins. Tommy has dyed his hair and is trying to be that guy.



Lyric and Eugi got married after a lengthy engagement. Eugi still attempting to be stylish in his pink shades, but now an elder. That's basically what prompted the wedding. Having maxed the painter career, Lyric started looking at other requirements. And on the plus side, you get a nice flower decoration for the table. (Don't worry, for the next family wedding I do actually let bride and groom dress up for it.)





:)
It is a little thing of my own. I call it "Heart Foam". I shall not publish it. Farewell! Patience, Patience, farewell!

Exit Bunthorne.

Offline KTK10

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Re: The Immortals at Eldersymm Hall!
« Reply #10 on: November 18, 2014, 09:30:13 PM »
Awwww. nice wedding  :D Some of your lines in this story were so funny!  "I'm Creative" "Awwww" *big hug* - really good!

Offline Heart Foam

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Re: The Immortals at Eldersymm Hall!
« Reply #11 on: November 19, 2014, 02:53:31 PM »
Awwww. nice wedding  :D Some of your lines in this story were so funny!  "I'm Creative" "Awwww" *big hug* - really good!

:) It was a low-key event, and Jessica was the caterer, but those pictures were a bit tedious so I didn't include them. Things go easier when you control the caterer. I felt bad afterwards and changed Lyric into her formal outfit. Poor girl.

I think I was smiling from ear to ear as I wrote it, so I'm glad someone out there enjoyed it too. Sometimes these bits of creativity come.
It is a little thing of my own. I call it "Heart Foam". I shall not publish it. Farewell! Patience, Patience, farewell!

Exit Bunthorne.

Offline Heart Foam

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In which Important Stuff doesn't happen
« Reply #12 on: November 19, 2014, 04:14:23 PM »
Well, Lyric becomes an adult, Jess works out, the house finally gets some paint and a few alterations. But before all that, Eugi fishes. And fishes some more.



Not a remarkable picture, but that's him fishing behind Granada Place in Oasis Springs. That's because he's passing the time (productively - catching the odd angelfish) while a nearby cherry tree grows. Eugi planted an apple early on, and now waited to graft on a cherry to produce pomegranates. And that would take a while. And then the pomegranate would have to grow, to be grafted on to the orchid. But Eugi was an elder already, and I really didn't know if he'd live long enough to grow and graft the pomegranate. And that would possibly cause the dynasty to fail. At this point Lyric is still slaving away at painting to finish her Fabulously Wealthy aspiration. When she was 10 days from elder, she still needed to earn about 130k. Do the math. And then she still needed to max another two skills and make friends. Handiness was on level 9, but no other skill was above level 3. So she had no time to quickly reach level 7 in gardening. If Eugi failed, then by the time another sim was able to graft to create death flowers, Lyric would be quite old. These were desperate days. Eugi spent as much time as he could waiting for the cherry tree to grow while Lyric was at work and the twins were at school.

With the doubt about pomegranates and death flowers starting to haunt everything, Lyric aged up to adult. This was actually a house party, but she used a birthday cake to age up. Lyric already had gold in all parties (plus her gold date on day 1) except for this one, which was silver. So just for the sake of completeness, and polka dots, she threw the party.





I'm including this next one mostly for sentimental reasons. It's one of the few, and perhaps last, picture I have of just the family. 



Eugi, you're not going to get thinner. That's like a million calories. You'll be an intimidating ghost...

With some calculations as to how much of Lyric's earnings could be safely spent so as to reach the "have 100k in reserve" and "earn 200k" at the same time, the house finally got some improvements.





The first of those shows the upstairs as well as the grand piano in the Fire Room, which had been necessary for all the parties. But the bathroom colours were awful, and as you see it was remodeled almost immediately. The painting moved upstairs too, into a dedicated Inspiration Room. The east wing of the house is still unfurnished in the current game state, but ultimately I'll have two bedrooms in each wing.

So Eugi carried on fishing, because the cherry tree had not yet grown fully. And we desperately needed a cutting.



Downstairs, the proper dining room was born. This is same space you see Lyric dancing in earlier.



And there's a family dinner there, with Lyric finding time to make friends having burned out from painting all day, no doubt.

Jessica has most of her mom's looks, but her dad's metabolism, to put it kindly. So working out became part of her routine. The pool hadn't been put in yet, which is a good way to fill the fun meter. There was no room for the treadmill except on the balcony. It turns out fitness will be a skill she needs because having maxed 3 skills so easily, I've switched her 2nd aspiration to Renaissance Sim. Which will be easy for her... hopefully.



The other simply amazing thing is that the house finally has some paint. It makes a difference I think.

And the front view:



If you go back to the very first post in this thread you'll see the Cypress trees have grown...

On the left of the picture is Eugi's garden, and that's still just an apple tree. No cherry cutting yet.
It is a little thing of my own. I call it "Heart Foam". I shall not publish it. Farewell! Patience, Patience, farewell!

Exit Bunthorne.

Offline KTK10

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Re: The Immortals at Eldersymm Hall!
« Reply #13 on: November 19, 2014, 10:15:22 PM »
Thank goodness I know that you make it to the ambrosia!  It seems like an impossible goal at the moment! Must say, really love how you build your house and landscape.

Offline Tipi

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Re: The Immortals at Eldersymm Hall!
« Reply #14 on: November 20, 2014, 12:38:23 AM »
Wow, that mansion is gorgeous. And I like it's name, too. Hopefully the Eldersymm Hall will eventually be filled with elders!