The EndSomehow, everyone survived – including Descen, who’d been standing almost underneath when it hit.
The bunker was wrecked, though, even four floors down. Fortunately, the irreplaceable things, like the paintings and the chef’s fridge, survived unscathed. Almost everything else was reduced to scrap.
It was just as well they’d become obscenely rich recently. The top floor was reinstated, with a few upgrades. The next floor down was completely rebuilt, with comfortable beds for the three who needed to sleep. Descen had his own locked room, so that he could carry on writing even if someone else wanted to play computer games.
After school the following day, Descen toured the science facility with the largest meteorite in his inventory – and Alien Tech was unlocked. All of the reward objects apart from the moodlet manager were now available, if they had the points. Axxi bought a collection helper to make it easier to find rocks, even though it seemed pretty pointless now. There were more than enough already on the lot to keep her brain energy motive filled for the rest of her life. She could have left at this point – but most of the appliances and plumbing were new and breakable. Having someone around who could recombobulate them was very useful.
Stride became a rock star minutes before celebrating his adult birthday.
With Entertainment unlocked, he could buy sheet music and play for tips. He spent a day learning all of the guitar pieces, then bought Apocalypse Park and installed a subway. It took just over two hours to complete the Money Maker challenge.
He maxed athletic, then looked around for something else to do. Why not analyse some space rocks? Having become an Amateur Rock Collector with the stuff that was stockpiled around the house, he borrowed Axxi’s collection helper and spent a few days chasing around Lucky Palms in search of the missing specimens.
Sue reached the top of the forensic career.
That was the last of the required lifts: the Dents had restored civilisation to Lucky Palms. The challenge was technically finished.
Not that I was stopping yet – Sue was still a couple of points short of maxing athletic and Descen needed another best-selling novel, half a point of writing skill and a masterpiece painting to complete his lift. It might be optional and now completely pointless but I wasn’t going to leave it unfinished.
And then there was Stride. A few hours after Sue achieved her lifetime wish, the space rock collection had the once-desired effect.
The game was clearly trying to tell me something. Even though Alien Tech had already been unlocked, I decided to have a second go. Calling down a meteor had felt a bit like cheating – and anyway I’d never been in control of a flying saucer before
. The following day, Stride invited his abductor to visit and Axxi lost no time in befriending her and asking her to move in.
Amki Ne’Xafughos was old. Staggeringly old, given that life expectancy on this setting was 90 days.
Fortunately, the family had a generous supply of death flowers. Amki was given one at once.
She upgraded her Galaxa for space travel and then spent the rest of her time in the active household enjoying all the odd things Earthlings filled their houses with. And flirting. Despite the considerable age gap, Amki and Axxi were madly attracted to one another and were soon a couple.
Axxi took several trips to the moon, Sixam and the asteroid belt in her girlfriend’s ship and, only four days into the permitted week, had accumulated over §2500-worth of treasures, completing the requirements for unlocking Alien Tech for the second time.
Meanwhile, Descen had written his fifth bestseller. About two pages into his next book, he maxed the skill and finished off his lifetime wish. He turned back to art and, shortly after Axxi’s last spaceflight, painted his first masterpiece.
And that really was the end.
Generation 5Stride Dent
Traits: virtuoso, loves the outdoors, ambitious, athletic, workaholic
Career: Music (rock)
Unlock: Entertainment
Maxed skills: guitar, athletic
New skill challenges: Master Guitarist, Money Maker, Amateur Rock Finder, Awesomest Rock Collector in the Universe
LTW: Rock Music
Sue Perrin Tenn Dent
Traits: artistic, couch potato, brave, genius, ambitious
Career: Law Enforcement (Forensic)
Unlock: Forensic
Maxed skills: painting, athletic
New skill challenges: Proficient Painter, Brushmaster
LTW: Dynamic DNA Profiler
Axxi Dent
Traits: good, friendly, over-emotional, ambitious, charismatic
Career: Alien Test Subject
Maxed skills: athletic, gardening
LTW: Swimming in Cash
Descen Dent
Traits: artistic, couch potato, bookworm, born salesman, hates the outdoors
Unlocks: Alien Tech, Comforting Children
Maxed skills: Painting, writing
New skill challenges: Consignment Store Reputation, Consignment Profit, Speed Writer
LTW: Illustrious Author
Bonus scoring categoriesBooks collected: 100 (= 10 points)
These were from school and career opportunities, spouses’ inventories, buying bookcases and (mostly) stealing from base camps and university dormitories – although it wasn’t mentioned in the story, Stride went briefly to uni after completing his LTW. Axxi went twice. I really regret not joining the Book Club as soon as it was allowed and getting books the easy way.
Gnomes: 10
The score’s capped at 10 and the vampire gnome doesn’t count anyway – despite Axxi’s sizeable garden of plasma fruit bushes, she only appeared on the very last day of play, after I’d finished the challenge.
Collectables: 60
Again, that's the capped score. I have no idea how many different ones they found. Given that space rocks, gems, metals, insects, plants and fish all count, the number must be in the hundreds. Sixty assorted collectables were kept in a chest in the lowest basement and, fortunately, survived the meteor strike even though the chest was scorched.
Lifetime wishes completed: 18 (score capped at 15)
Skill challenges completed: 43 (score capped at 40)
Sims with maxed athletic skill: 19 (probably)
I think Axxi counts but Sue finished after the official end of the challenge, so I just missed the maximum score.
Sims from outside the household trained in athletics: 0
I decided I couldn’t be bothered with that one.
Household funds: >§2,000,000 (=10 points)
Large tombstones: 5 (=15 points)
Unused ageing-off days: 10
Total bonus score: 189 (or 170? I’m not sure whether the athletic score counts without the training.)
Family tree
