Steel Base Game Decadynasty

[Trident]

It is t a dynasty without Chris! I'm sure ve already said this, but I'm enjoying seeing the townie genetics play out. (Why did EA have to get rid of Story Progrsssion?!)

It feels like an odd ethics question when you're waiting for someone to die. Obviously they have to die for you to continue the game, but it feels so strange to cheer for it.

Dylan turned out quite handsome! I wonder if the next bath of kids will get the famous Steel lips? (Or Chris's nose? His nose is always very prominent in my games).

[hazelnut]

It is t a dynasty without Chris!

He does tend to barge his way in rather a lot  .  Although, come to think of it, my legacy founder married Chris but this may be the first one of my dynasties where he's joined the family.  Gen 6 definitely has brown hair but it's too early to be sure about the lips and nose.

Yeah, the waiting for the Sims to die is weird, especially when I'm really attached to them, as I was with David.  Wth Dashiell, not so much 

[hazelnut]

Insects and Other Pollinators



House no. 6 is Pondcentric, not far from the Steels' previous home.  I don't think I've played there before.

The newlyweds had been too busy being romantic and chatting to their guests to grab any food while they were in the park, so Evie tried her hand at cooking.  It didn't go well.





The firefighter probably won't even count as an NPC friend for the next move .  (And I've just realised that there are no fire engines in this game, just those little trucks.  The proper fire engines must have come with Ambitions.)

Evie went to the mirror and dresser for a minor makeover.  Pretty sure those are the Steel lips and nose, in female form.



Her traits are loves the outdoors, excitable, easily impressed, light sleeper and ambitious.

The inevitable happened…





…and Douglas joined the family.

Time for the next round of pollination!  Jeremy Goth and Latarsha McGraw paired up…



…as did Matthew Alvi and Darcey.  (I decided I wanted to keep that mysterious pyromaniac trait in the family.)



Once they'd aged up to young adult, Derrell Landgraab and Kathleen Sekemoto also became a couple – but I seem to have forgotten to take any screenshots.

Douglas became a toddler and showed an early fondness for uniforms.



And the house was visited by two more NPCs who probably won't make it into the final friends list.



Oddly, these two are a matched set: the burglar is called Devon and the policeman is Davin  .

Doug had another birthday.



Evie tutored him in front of the family's beetles.



The collection for this house is probably going to be insects of some kind.  Dylan did some collecting in the previous house and it had become his main weekday activity now that he no longer had to go to work (weekends were largely spent playing for tips).  He'd now completed both the butterfly- and beetle-collecting challenges and the value of both collections was climbing steadily.  He was also collecting gems for extra cash and metals as a back-up, although I've yet to see any plutonium in this game, so the final value's likely to be lower than either of the insect collections.

Douglas made an early start on his supermax…



…and started to follow in his father's footsteps as a collector (although this one got away).



At the weekend, he was looking for insects and gems near the stadium when he was invited to take part in the Amateur Olympics.  He'd not had any school opportunities, so he had a go.



Predictably, as a couch potato, he did badly.  Still. it's the taking part that matters, especially when it comes to Black Ops .

While listening to his dad playing, he met a townie of his generation, the faintly ridiculously-named Beth Goth.  I suppose it's too much to expect the game to consider how a first name and surname work together  .



They were soon good friends.

[Trident]

Oh, Black Ops. You cursed creatures. I wish there was an easier way to get them to occur.

Douglas's eyes are gorgeous! A couch potato, huh? I would guess his supermax to be writing, or maybe logic, but those have already been taken. Hmmm...

I have a Steel daughter in one of my games; those are definitly the nose and lips. (And I think the face shape, as well).

[hazelnut]

His eyes are a beautiful colour.  Not sure where that came from.

Don't read too much into the couch potato thing.  He's the third heir with that trait. It's a good way to keep them occupied when I don't want them to start skilling yet.

[hazelnut]

Not the Happiest of Birthdays

Dylan and Evie had a second child, Diana, whose main purpose in life would be to break appliances for her big brother to fix, once she was old enough.  She started out clumsy and friendly.



Douglas had another birthday…



…and put his brave trait to good use a few hours later when Dylan decided to try cooking.  I have no idea why: Evie was a good gardener and cook by this time and there were plenty of high-quality meals in the fridge.



I love the look on Doug's face in that screenshot.  'What's all the fuss about, Dad?'  Of course, he likes fire: he's turned out to be another pyromaniac.

The collecting continued and Doug caught his first rainbow butterfly .



Diana had another birthday and gained a love of the outdoors, since she was still too young to break stuff.



Meanwhile, the electrical appliances were doing a good job of breaking all by themselves.



In fact, the tenth one broke on the day before Di's teen birthday, so she didn't become a technophobe after all.  On the same day, Dylan found some plutonium and became a Metal Collector.  If only I'd noted exactly where he was at the time...

Diana's birthday wasn't quite the happy occasion it should have been:





Dylan was content to go.  94 wasn't a bad age and he'd done a lot: that tricky guitar supermax, earning huge amounts of money in tips and completing four collecting challenges on top of his musical achievements.  And G. Reaper was an old friend, after all.



Grim hung around for a while afterwards, playing video games and chatting to Evie...



…while Diana went sadly off to her bedroom to pick out her new outfit and hairstyle.



A few days later, Douglas became a young adult.





Just out of curiosity, I tried giving him Christopher Steel's hair and eyebrows:



Not the same hair colour, as I'd thought when he was younger, and his eyes are different, but it's still a pretty startling resemblance.

Doug went straight off to Fort Gnome and enlisted.



Then he did his best to overcome his couch potato tendencies and reach a suitably military level of fitness, at least for a new recruit.

[hazelnut]

Military Manoeuvres

Diana had another birthday and decided she wanted to be Super Popular.



And to set her brother up with someone.  After all, he was long past the stage of cleaning latrines or serving in the mess.  Keeping up with the physical demands of his job was a constant struggle but he'd made steady progress through his career nonetheless.  Now that he was an officer with a smart uniform and an impressive collection of medal ribbons he ought to make the most of it.



So Diana threw a series of parties in the evenings, when Douglas would really have preferred to sprawl in front of the telly, and invited all of the eligible young women in town – which essentially meant the Landgraab sisters and Doug's old schoolfriend Beth Goth.

I rather liked Charlotte Landgraab but Doug discovered she was a slob and that was that.



Her younger sister Fatima didn't have any obviously clashing traits but there was no spark there either.



Which left Beth.  She and Douglas had drifted apart as teens when he'd discovered that they had two sets of clashing traits (couch potato/athletic and brave/coward) but he seemed willing to put that behind him now and return to their childhood friendship.



Shortly before his adult birthday, Doug spent most of a day off upgrading the family's teleporter and completed his supermax.



He maxed his career and achieved his lifetime wish on the day before his adult birthday.



All that he needed now was another NPC friend (who would be easy to get by the usual expedient of someone adopting a kid) and his tenth opportunity, which might be trickier.  Now that he was only working one day a week, he was probably going to have to rely on skill opps.

A couple of days later, his phone rang – but it was a repeat of a handiness opportunity that he'd already counted.  The next time, it was an athletic one that David had done.  In the meantime, he carried on with his collecting – and located the plutonium spawner.  And he moved his relationship with Beth on by a couple of levels.





There was another burglary.  Doug, who'd arrived home from his first space mission only an hour or so before, was not happy to have his sleep disturbed.





Evie and Diana had both reached the stage where they could become friends with someone just by being on the same lot, so the burglar was immediately added to the list of NPC friends.

The policewoman who turned up to announce that the burglar had got away (He's standing right there, you idiot!) was already a friend.  If I'd known this was going to happen, Evie could have saved the lecture and fine for a false call-out.



Finally, a week after Doug's adult birthday, a unique opportunity popped up.  He'd need to get another athletic point, which I'd been hoping to avoid, but I wasn't prepared to wait any longer.



At least he could watch the TV while he was working out.

He reported in to the stadium and, as he was leaving, I checked the collection helper for one last time before selling it – and found two swarms of rainbow butterflies.  It was getting late, though, and they were at opposite ends of town: could he reach them before the spawners switched off for the night?

Thanks to some frantic teleporting, he made it.  That decided the question of this house's collection: even though beetles tend to have higher values, a full set of rainbow butterflies was worth considerably more than a mixture of rainbow and trilobite beetles.  The metal collection was even more valuable but that ought to be easier to replace now that I know exactly where the plutonium spawner is.  I hope I don't regret that decision…




Like his parents, Douglas and Beth married under the arch in the park, watched by their friends.  The groom's family were in the park but both found more interesting things to do: Diana settled down at a chess table while Evie ran over to the pond and started fishing.  Considering that she'd been living in a house built around and over a pond since babyhood, I don't know why she was so excited by the much smaller pond in the park  .

A look at the guests:



On the back row, Darcey's eldest (adopted) son, Dexter Alvi, and Charlotte Landgraab.  Sitting in front of Charlotte is Darcey's middle son, Damon, with Kathleen Sekemoto next to him.  It's obvious where Charlotte's profile comes from  .



Seated at the far end of the front row is the youngest Alvi boy, William, with Fatima Landgraab standing next to him and Errol Keaton hurrying over at the last minute.

In retrospect, I'm glad Doug wasn't attracted to either of the Landgraab girls, since their parents were both still alive.  So far, the Pollination Strategy hasn't slowed down any moves but it could have done this time.  Derrell lived for another week, while Kathleen survived well into Doug's elderhood - although that wouldn't have mattered since she hadn't been in the active household.



(Derrell is sitting in the back row, next to someone in an identical shirt.  Thank goodness men don't tend to find that sort of thing awkward.)

Evie abandoned her fishing just in time to catch the end of the ceremony and throw rice.  Di carried on playing chess .


Generation 6

Home: Pondcentric, 98 Landgraab Avenue, Sunset Valley
Heir: Douglas
Traits: brave, couch potato, neat, handy, schmoozer
Lifetime wish: Become an Astronaut
Parents: Dylan and Evie (née Kennedy-Steel) Steel
Heir on honour roll at both elementary and high school.

Household NPC friends:

• Grim Reaper
• Richard Akers (babysitter)
• Chance Beauchamp (pizza delivery)
• Lakeshia Koenig (maid)
• Harmony Wiseman (postwoman)
• Latricia Quintana (papergirl)
• Titus Alexander (repairman)
• Nina Casper (policewoman)
• Sabrina Lynn (firefighter)
• Jean Neil (burglar)

Household best friends:

• Beth Goth
• Charlotte Landgraab
• Damon Alvi
• Dexter Alvi
• Richard Akers
• Rachelle Reyes
• Victoria Burdick
• Kareem Estep
• Wallace Heere
• Mary Moore

Unique maxed career: military
Unique supermaxed skill: handiness. (He also reached level 8 of the athletic skill.)
Unique opportunities (Black Ops) completed by heir:   

• Amateur Olympics
• A Fishy Science Project
• Shower Upgrade
• Militaristic Athletics
• Evening Patrol
• Fix the Election… Machines
• Bring Back the Jams
• You Can Be My Wingman
• Substitute Instructor
• Add It Up

Building: Sacred Spleen Memorial Hospital
Fully-upgraded property: Papyrus Memorial Library
Heir adult?  Yes
Tombstone (large): Dylan Steel



Set of items of unique type: rainbow butterflies
Total value: §10260

[Trident]

Wow, the only difference between Dougie and Chris is the jawline! Good luck with the collections. They must be a hassle with a limited number of things to collect, considering the lack of expansions.

[hazelnut]

In fact, their eye shapes and brow lines are also different, although it's not obvious in those screenshots.  Which doesn't detract from the startling likeness.


Sunset Valley: the Next Generation



House 7 is the Roomies' old place, which worries me slightly – particularly since almost the first thing Doug did after moving was to nip next door and have a swim.  I really don't want him improving on his level 8 in athletics.

And the customary look at the new spouse:



Beth is an excitable, childish coward, who is also good and athletic.  She arrived with the Jack of All Trades wish, which wasn't really on in the circumstances.  Since she already had level 6 logic, her first priority became to save up the points to change to Perfect Mind, Perfect Body.  And, of course, a great way to get lots of happiness points quickly is to have a kid:



Welcome, Deborah Steel.

The Pollination Strategy continued, focussed on the Landgraab sisters.  Errol Keaton and Doug's cousin Damon (another would-be Five-Star Chef) were drafted in to do the honours.



Except there was a snag.  Fatima wasn't That Kind of Girl.  Even when engaged to Errol and with a maxed-out relationship, she repeatedly refused to WooHoo.

Charlotte had no such inhibitions:



Little Debbie became a toddler.  Beth taught her her basic skills but Debbie far preferred playing with her toys or watching TV.  She seemed to have inherited a hidden couch potato trait from her dad.



Her next birthday rolled around.  Beth scooped her up from in front of the telly and took her to her cake.





Errol was still trying to persuade Fatima to start a family.



Eventually they got married (note to self: kids will not be available as spouses until Fatima's gone), WooHooed a few times and then Fatima moved out again.  Soon the first little Keaton was on the way.

Damon and Charlotte were working on their second.



As a child, Debbie started on her supermax skill.  It was all going so well…



…until she got pulled off her feet by a particularly lively fish, executed a perfect three-quarter somersault and ended up on her bottom.  Ouch!



All too soon, it was time for another birthday (in front of the TV, of course).



Beth was too busy playing with her daughter's discarded toys to join in with the cheering.



And Debbie Debs (sorry!) became a teenager.

[hazelnut]

The One That Got Away

Beth may not have been there to cheer but as soon as Deborah aged up she rolled a series of wishes to see her doing well at school.  Tutoring and helping with homework were also a way for mother and daughter to spend time together – their interests were very different.



Soon after, Debs was offered her first unique school opportunity – to try working at the business office.  Since this was her intended career, it seemed like a very good idea.



It didn't go well.  She came out exhausted and badly stressed.  She was turning out to be a long way from the busy bee I'd envisaged when I was naming her: pretty much the definition of laid back.  The only thing she really got excited about was fishing.  I should have called her Delphine instead  .



Debs had met Damon and Charlotte's son, Gerard, at school but he wasn't exactly looking like ideal spouse material (a loner, loser and unlucky, poor kid).  His younger sibling had lovely traits but was a girl, unfortunately.  Errol and Fatima's first child was also a girl, so they'd tried again before Errol moved out.  I knew that their second child was a boy but he was so much younger than Debs that they'd not run into each other.  As her next birthday approached, I sent her round to the Sekemotos' old house to meet the Keatons, and especially the youngest member of the family.



Jack had decent traits and they became friends.  Maybe this could work out, despite the age gap.

Doug and Beth threw a party for Debs' YA birthday.



That's Doug's sister Diana in the yellow stripy top, making her last appearance in the story .  The two Landgraab offspring, Sarah and Gerard, are half-hidden in the background.

Debs grew up into an attractive, decidedly non-cloney young woman (and another pyromaniac, incidentally).  Her last trait was planned to be workaholic but it just didn't suit her character.  She became lucky instead.



Nevertheless, she ran over to Doo Peas to join the business career (there wasn't really any choice).



She progressed slowly through the levels, regularly just missing promotions (reminding me very much of Great-Great-Grandpa Dashiell).  At least the fishing was going well:



She completed her perfect aquarium and maxed the skill on consecutive days, less than halfway through young adulthood.



And she stayed in touch with the Keatons.



At the age of 100, Beth was working out to the stereo as usual when she started to float and sparkle.



Doug had started out a day older than his wife but had had his life extended a little to help with the collecting.  Grim came for him a few days later – but didn't take him.



I'd forgotten I'd given him a deathflower .  Oh well.  Beth had already provided a medium tombstone; they didn't really need Doug's large one.  And it would avoid a second lot of mourning moodlets.

Unexpectedly, Jack asked Deborah out on a date.  Wasn't he still a teenager?



Yes, he was.  It was a bit of an odd date, since they were limited to friendly interactions (in which case, how could he ask her out in the first place?)  Still, it kept their friendship topped up.

Debs finally seemed to get the hang of business, helped by being able to hold meetings in what should have been fishing time.  And Jack became a young adult.  Things were coming together nicely.





There was even a perfectly timed break-in.  I thought lucky Sims didn't get burgled.  On the other hand, nothing was actually stolen and getting two NPC friends without trying is pretty lucky.



Shortly before her birthday, Deborah Steel became a power broker and all-round successful businesswoman.



She wasn't exactly thrilled (notice the lack of big numbers over her head?  That wasn't me missing the moment.)

At least it meant she could return to what really mattered: spending every spare moment by a pond or on the beach.  On the morning of her adult birthday, she caught her 350th fish and supermaxed.



Debs and Jack were out on a date to celebrate finishing every requirement but one when that last one hit her in a cloud of sparkles.



They got married under the arch in the park the following morning.



The final set of Sunset Valley wedding guests: assorted cloney friends, plus Gerard Landgraab (the bald bloke in the fancy grey suit and girly shoes), his sister Sarah (in the pink top and white trousers) and, next to her (and in an identical top), the groom's sister Julia.  Damon Alvi, attending his second Steel wedding, is the one in the tux standing at the end of the row, and Doug, in his smartest uniform and with his hair grown out for the occasion (or, you know, because that military cap comes with that hairstyle), is sitting in the second row.



For the first (and almost certainly only) time, a former heir was able to hug his successor goodbye as she set out on the next stage of their journey.



A literal journey, in this case.  After a brief stop at the Keatons' house, Deborah, Jack and Julia piled into a taxi and set off for a new town.




Generation 7

Home: Cosmopolitan Lofts, 260 Sunnyside Boulevard, Sunset Valley
Heir: Deborah
Traits: loves the outdoors, friendly, ambitious, angler, lucky
Lifetime wish: Presenting the Perfect Private Aquarium
Parents: Douglas and Beth (née Goth) Steel
Heir on honour roll at both elementary and high school.

Household NPC friends:

• Grim Reaper
• Melonie Samuels (burglar)
• Lindsey Nair (policeman)
• Dana Murphy (postwoman)
• Suzette Deppiesse (papergirl)
• Stephen Solis (pizza delivery)
• Eric Estrada (repairman)
• Paula Phelan (firefighter)
• Kisha Berg (maid)
• Olivia Lehman (adoption worker)

Household best friends:

• Jack Keaton
• Sarah Landgraab
• Casie Parrish
• Staci Hannon
• Alana Hartley
• Tamra Suarez
• Jamie Francis
• Lucas Davidson
• Leah Trimble
• Junior Slater

Doug's old colleague Rachelle Reyes nearly lived long enough to qualify as a household best friend for the second time – she died only two days before the move.

Unique maxed career: business
Unique supermaxed skill: fishing
Unique opportunities (Black Ops) completed by heir:   

• Work/School Learning Project
• Say Hello to My Little Fish
• Merging Towards Overtime
• Making Coffee the Executive Way
• Inflate Away
• Fishing for Suits
• Making Nice with the Newsies
• Funny Looking Fish
• Lobsters in Demand!
• Political Influence

Building: Doo Peas Corporate Towers
Fully-upgraded property: Old Pier Beach
Heir adult? Yes
Tombstone (medium): Ruth Steel



Set of items of unique type: metals (nine plutonium and one palladium – very similar to the collection I didn't use last time).
Total value: §22501

[hazelnut]

Sunset Valley Family Trees

Beth's family tree:



Jack's family tree:



French-Alvi family tree:

[hazelnut]

The Pursuit of Happiness (Points)

The Steels arrived in Riverview and moved into Great Room Great Dane, the largest empty house they could find.



They were going to need the space: the collection for this house is lifetime happiness reward objects.  Despite her lack of enthusiasm for business, Debs had done pretty well out of her constant fishy wishes but she and Jack would need help to collect the required ten objects.  One thing Debs was good at (apart from fishing) was making friends, even without any charisma skill.  She spent her first day chasing around Riverview recruiting housemates.



By evening, Jebidiah Wilson, Jon Lessen, Odin Crosby and Lorraine Cantina had moved in (and Julia had moved out).  Jack, meanwhile, grew his hair and picked out a new wardrobe, before heading off to the library to fulfil his first few wishes.



His traits are brave, slob, couch potato, handy and frugal.  He arrived with the Professional Author wish, so his first ten thousand points would be spent on changing it rather than contributing to the collection.  I'd had enough of writing with Dashiell  .

I'd been planning to delay the birth of their first child as much as possible, to give the household time to settle down and for Debs to get established with her new firm.  Unfortunately, her meeting count must have been reset by the move and her colleagues kept retiring.  By the Thursday of the first week, she appeared to be running the place on her own and her performance had dropped into the red  .  Time for a change of plan:



Of course, if the next heir was on the way, there had better be a supply of potential spouses.  Odin invited his wife Heather over and Jeb got friendly with his co-worker Shirley Lin.



Surprisingly, Jon the hopeless romantic, who usually seems to have a string of girlfriends, was only interested in improving his skills and playing for tips.  Still, the extra money was welcome.



Debs and Jack both rolled wishes to have their first child a few hours before she arrived.  They were already holding wishes to have a girl, so Jack was able to change his lifetime wish as soon as the baby was born.



(And why were all those people hanging around outside the hospital?  It's not exactly a noted social venue.)

With six adults in the house, little Dana was never short of bottles or cuddles.  Surprisingly, child-hating Odin often reached the crying baby first.  Maybe he just wanted to stop the noise  .



Somehow though, it was Jon who took her to her first cake.  I hadn't noticed them interacting all that much.



Dana looks to have inherited most of her appearance from her daddy.  I hadn't noticed before how wide Jack's nose is: it looks so much worse on a toddler's face  .



All of the adults contributed to teaching Dana her basic skills – although she seemed to end up sitting on her own at the top of the stairs scarily often.  Pathing issues, presumably.

Jon and Jeb became elders, completed their lifetime wishes and earned a teleporter apiece.  Jeb and Shirley already had a son, who was looking likely to be Dana's husband when they both grew up, since the Crosbys had produced a daughter.  No harm in adding to the next generation before moving out, though.



That looks a lot like Jon stealing his best friend's girlfriend, but it's actually MaryKay Shallow that he's hugging.  A bit of an age gap but hey, he is a rich and famous rock star – and the Shallows aren't the most ethical of families, after all.

Dana became a child…



…and a big sister.



Thanks to the magic of life fruit, Debs, who should have been an old lady by now, was pregnant again shortly after Dominic was born.



The baby was named Dorothea.



Debs had her delayed final birthday and retired, to everyone's relief.



(Lorraine, seen in the background of that shot, moved out shortly afterwards.  She always seemed to be in the background, despite becoming Leader of the Free World.  I hadn't played her before but don't really feel I know her much better now.)

Dana had another birthday.



The other little girl in that picture is Nicola Crosby.  Dana was now best friends with Nicola and with Henry Wilson – one or the other seemed to come over after school every day.

Dana cut her hair and picked a suitably rebellious teenage look.
 


Although I don't seem to have taken any screenshots, she had started painting as a child.  Now she abandoned the stick figures and her paintings took a more angsty turn.



The two youngest Steels were growing up.  Remarkably, Odin bonded strongly with Dorothea, ignoring his negative moodlet to spend as much time as possible with her.



And then the toddlers were (very similar-looking) children…



…and joined their big sister at school.



It's ridiculous that the bus still comes to collect them, even though they live just across the road from the school.  (It was even madder when there were car pools arriving as well – Dana often had to run some way down the road to get the bus.)  All it does is turn around in the road before everyone gets off again.  Whenever I remember, I just send them to school on foot – it's far quicker  .

[hazelnut]

The Unexpected



Dana became young adult and joined the police force, like her many-greats-grandfather, Donnovan, although she was headed for the forensic branch rather than espionage.  During her first shift, her phone rang: the owner of the diner would like to buy some of her paintings.  She hurried over straight after work to deliver them.  On her way out, she met Dimitri Ivanov and there was sudden, overwhelming chemistry.  She rolled a whole series of Dimitri-centric wishes, almost faster than I could grant them, and they were going steady in a matter of hours.  (Sorry, Henry – it looks as though you're destined to stay just a best friend.)



The two youngest Steels became teenagers and Dorothea's snob trait really kicked in (she definitely thought she was God's gift to the Simverse  ).



Shortly afterwards, Dana painted her first masterpiece…



…and immediately rolled a wish to propose to Dimitri.  Um, Dana, dear, one masterpiece does not a supermax make.  You're still a long way from finishing your requirements.

On the other hand, why not?



It was going to be a long engagement.

At 94 days, Debs was on her way into the kitchen to chat to Odin when she started to sparkle.  Strangely, Odin just carried on walking.  Well, maybe he wanted space to grieve properly.



Or not.  He just turned round in the hall and stood staring at her.



The teens had come home from school just in time to witness their mother's death – but seemed completely oblivious.  Odder still, Jack walked right past Debs' urn without reacting.  What was going on?

Grim arrived.  Jack, Dominic and Dorothea walked out, while Odin continued to look blank.



A very puzzled watcher gawped at the screen, then looked to see where everyone had gone.  The kids were doing their homework in the garden, just like any other school day, and Jack was in the living room.  Playing video games.  Jack!  Your wife just died!  Can't the console wait? 



Debs shrugged.  "Well, I suppose I did always insist on the children doing their homework as soon as they got in."

"That's no excuse for your husband, though.  Appalling manners.  What are mortals coming to?  Still, I'm glad you're taking it so well."  And the Reaper shook her hand.



It wasn't until Grim had dissolved into a cloud of black smoke that things returned to normal.  Suddenly, everyone started crying.



I still have a sneaking feeling that Jack was more upset by the TV breaking as he stopped playing  .



Dana at least had the excuse of being at the Wilsons'.  She carried on questioning young John, like the dedicated policewoman she was, but she too suddenly had a sad moodlet.

Rest in peace, Deborah Steel: skilled angler, devoted wife and mother, appallingly bad businesswoman and happiness point collector extraordinaire.  So sorry it had to end like that  .


That has to rank as one of the weirdest Sim deaths I've seen.  I assume it was a glitch: the mourning animations just failed to trigger for some reason.  Very disturbing to watch, though  .

[Trip]

Aha I've stopped mourning IRL just to try and set up a date for after a funeral. She did not message me back. Those bugs can circle right back around to being too real.

I'm in awe of the pollination and the nerve to try yet another decadynasty.

[Trident]

Goodness! Congratulations on another two heirs At least Painting is an easy supermax?

Ugh. Bugs. Good luck. I hope that no more come around