Stars, Rocks and BooksThe newlyweds moved into the Tanner family home, which Alexis had been sharing with his cousin Marianne.
![1.House.jpg](https://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=4hbagnp85k0vhrafef46d5f8p5&action=dlattach;topic=30718.0;attach=81970;image)
Alexis has a weird combination of traits: good, mean-spirited (why don't those traits clash?) brave, couch potato and green thumb.
![2.Alexis.jpg](https://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=4hbagnp85k0vhrafef46d5f8p5&action=dlattach;topic=30718.0;attach=81972;image)
Donna asked her cousin Owen Claremont and her colleague Lionel Shaw to move in. Lionel only stayed long enough to produce a couple of offspring with his cloney girlfriend, before marrying her and moving out. Owen, a genius and natural cook, became a permanent addition to the household. Marianne Tanner stayed around long enough to become romantically involved with Owen and then moved out, since I wanted any kids she might produce to be available as future housemates.
Donna became pregnant on her wedding night and in due course Dashiell put in an appearance.
![3.Dash_birth.jpg](https://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=4hbagnp85k0vhrafef46d5f8p5&action=dlattach;topic=30718.0;attach=81974;image)
![4.Toddler.jpg](https://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=4hbagnp85k0vhrafef46d5f8p5&action=dlattach;topic=30718.0;attach=81976;image)
If anything, he was even more solemn-looking than his mother. Donna took this as a good sign – maybe he was going to grow up to share her love of learning. She took him to the library and read him most of the toddler books to give him the best possible start.
![5.Reading.jpg](https://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=4hbagnp85k0vhrafef46d5f8p5&action=dlattach;topic=30718.0;attach=81978;image)
As a child, he looked more worried than studious. (I ended up giving him neurotic as his final trait, just because he looked as though he should have had it already.) He did well in school, thanks to his mother's tutoring, but preferred to play video games with Alexis, curl up with a good book or try writing his own.
![6.Child.jpg](https://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=4hbagnp85k0vhrafef46d5f8p5&action=dlattach;topic=30718.0;attach=81980;image)
Donna was pregnant again. She made a point of seeking out the other pregnant women in town and giving them amazing medical advice.
![7.Pregnant_ladies.jpg](https://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=4hbagnp85k0vhrafef46d5f8p5&action=dlattach;topic=30718.0;attach=81982;image)
"No, it's nothing to worry about. We call it Glitchy Top Syndrome. Your baby's fine in there. Oh, and you're having a girl this time."
Appropriately, Dawn Steel was born right next to a telescope, but it was too dark for a good screenshot. She had her first birthday on the same day that Dashiell became a teen.
![8.Teen_toddler.jpg](https://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=4hbagnp85k0vhrafef46d5f8p5&action=dlattach;topic=30718.0;attach=81984;image)
Unlike her big brother, she very much took after her mother. She was delighted when she had another birthday and was (just about) big enough to use a telescope.
![9.Dawn_child.jpg](https://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=4hbagnp85k0vhrafef46d5f8p5&action=dlattach;topic=30718.0;attach=81986;image)
Another shared birthday…
![10.Birthdays.jpg](https://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=4hbagnp85k0vhrafef46d5f8p5&action=dlattach;topic=30718.0;attach=81988;image)
…and Dawn was suddenly nearly as grown-up as Dash.
![11.YA_teen.jpg](https://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=4hbagnp85k0vhrafef46d5f8p5&action=dlattach;topic=30718.0;attach=81990;image)
Dashiell joined the journalism career. He wasn't very good at it and kept just missing promotions, despite having high writing skill and all of the useful rewards. He far preferred sitting at his desk at home, working on his latest book.
![12.Writer.jpg](https://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=4hbagnp85k0vhrafef46d5f8p5&action=dlattach;topic=30718.0;attach=81992;image)
Life in the Steel household became more than a little boring. Dawn went to school, Dashiell went to work and the three senior members of the family stayed at home (Donna had rolled a wish to retire as soon as she aged up to elder). Owen cooked and Alexis gardened but mostly they were glued to their telescopes night and day.
![13.Stargazing.jpg](https://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=4hbagnp85k0vhrafef46d5f8p5&action=dlattach;topic=30718.0;attach=81994;image)
Owen turned out to be an amazing astronomer. He discovered more than a hundred stars, together with an assortment of other celestial objects, including a black hole. He was awarded §12000 by the Astronomical Society for that one. He also had a remarkable knack for spotting meteorites falling to earth and was largely responsible for this house's collection.
To break the monotony, they had the game's first burglary.
![14.Burglar.jpg](https://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=4hbagnp85k0vhrafef46d5f8p5&action=dlattach;topic=30718.0;attach=81996;image)
I was delighted – a chance to acquire two NPC friends without trying! Surprisingly for an old man with zero athletic skill, Alexis beat the burglar to a pulp before the policewoman arrived – but they all ended up as friends anyway.
Donna ran out of time. She died as she would have wished, looking for a new book to read.
![15.Donna_death.jpg](https://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=4hbagnp85k0vhrafef46d5f8p5&action=dlattach;topic=30718.0;attach=81998;image)
![16.Donna_death.jpg](https://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=4hbagnp85k0vhrafef46d5f8p5&action=dlattach;topic=30718.0;attach=82000;image)
Grim was as tactful as usual. "What are you begging for? You know the rules: someone needs to provide a tombstone so that your son can move on. You're it."
The girl standing behind Grim in that screenshot is Owen's daughter and Dawn's best friend, Lucy Tanner. last seen as a misshapen bump in the art gallery. Along with Emily Shaw, she was a leading candidate for Dashiell's future wife. Emily had inherited the Lancaster red hair, which was a big point in her favour, but otherwise looked to be taking after her clone-faced mother. Lucy looked almost exactly like her mother and grandmother – Yuna Tanner has some impressively dominant genes – but was too closely related to Dash for me to feel entirely comfortable with her as a spouse, even though that doesn't really matter for Sims. Ultimately, the decision was going to come down to who had the most suitable house and the Tanners looked to be winning there. They were living in Darren Dreamer's old house, which I know and like, while the Shaws were squashed into a tiny house by the dried-up lake. That one would need an extensive basement or a complete rebuild to be playable with a family.
The day after Donna's death, Dawn became a young adult and took over her mother's telescope and rock-identifying duties.
![17.Dawn_YA.jpg](https://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=4hbagnp85k0vhrafef46d5f8p5&action=dlattach;topic=30718.0;attach=82002;image)
Dashiell was still plodding through his career
![Roll Eyes ::)](https://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/Smileys/default/rolleyes.gif)
.
![18.Journalist.jpg](https://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=4hbagnp85k0vhrafef46d5f8p5&action=dlattach;topic=30718.0;attach=82004;image)
Soon after his adult birthday, he achieved his lifetime wish of becoming a professional author but was nowhere near finishing his dynasty requirements.
![19.LTW.jpg](https://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=4hbagnp85k0vhrafef46d5f8p5&action=dlattach;topic=30718.0;attach=82006;image)
He eventually made it to star news anchor, helped by being asked to work late on the day when he would otherwise have missed his last promotion.
![20.Star_News_Anchor.jpg](https://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=4hbagnp85k0vhrafef46d5f8p5&action=dlattach;topic=30718.0;attach=82008;image)
He phoned in his resignation as soon as he got home and turned to writing full-time. The speed writer challenge still seemed impossibly distant.
At long, long last, with less than a week left before his elder birthday, Dashiell supermaxed.
![21.Supermax.jpg](https://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=4hbagnp85k0vhrafef46d5f8p5&action=dlattach;topic=30718.0;attach=82010;image)
I'd been keeping an eye on the Shaws and Tanners and was very disconcerted when both families disappeared from the map. After a few days, that strange resorty place by the military base acquired a label saying 'Tanner'. OK, I could live with that. Except it appeared that Lucy wasn't living there – even in the middle of the night, the only Sims that showed up were her two older brothers and a couple of random clones. The Shaws were still missing. Maybe Dash was going to end up marrying one of his ex-colleagues instead.
With Dashiell's requirements finally completed, I checked the map once more and found that Lucy was now living alone in one of the big houses by the golf course. Dash invited her over at once and, despite the embarrassing presence of his elderly father and housemate, proposed.
![22.Awkward_proposal.jpg](https://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=4hbagnp85k0vhrafef46d5f8p5&action=dlattach;topic=30718.0;attach=82012;image)
(I didn't get a screenshot of the actual proposal – Owen, Alexis and the furniture managed to block every possible angle.)
I'd downloaded the wedding arch from the Bohemian Garden set, hoping that it would work without Generations, but time was much too short for a party. Early the following morning, Dashiell and Lucy had a private wedding in the front garden.
![23.Wedding.jpg](https://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=4hbagnp85k0vhrafef46d5f8p5&action=dlattach;topic=30718.0;attach=82014;image)
Generation 3 Home: La Casa, 96 Sonora Street, Lucky Palms
Heir: Dashiell
Traits: couch potato, friendly, bookworm, perfectionist, neurotic
Lifetime wish: Professional Author
Parents: Donna and Alexis (né Gilbert) Steel
Heir on honour roll at both elementary and high school.
Household NPC friends:- Bettina Phan (burglar)
- Felicia Faulkner (policewoman)
- Grim Reaper
- Lucinda Harp (postwoman)
- Lauren Blanchard (papergirl)
- Terrance Huntley (pizza delivery)
- Guadalupe Gerber (repairman)
- Kevin McDaniel (maid)
- Rebecca Patrick (firefighter)
- Desirae Neumann (adoption worker)
Household best friends:- Lucy Tanner
- James Tanner
- Robert Tanner
- Andrew Shaw
- Emily Shaw
- Rufus Littlefield
- Nicklaus Simmons
- Dominique Matthews
- Marta Haley
- Felicia Faulkner
Unique maxed career: journalism
Unique supermaxed skill: writing. (He also had level 5 charisma.)
Unique opportunities (Black Ops) completed by heir: - Pile of Permission Slips
- The Research Project
- Correcting Past Mistakes
- Late Night Crunch
- To Boldly Go
- A History of One
- Digitizing Your Notes
- Sit, Listen and Learn
- It Was All Yellow
- Getting to Know You*
*Not the charisma opp, which has an extra … This is from the journalism career and is another one I can't remember seeing before. I probably wouldn't have spotted the slight difference in the names if 'Getting to Know… You' hadn't popped up for Dawn almost simultaneously.
Building: Area-52 Test Labs
Fully-upgraded property: Paint a Desert Art Gallery
Heir adult? Yes
Tombstone (large): Donna Steel
Set of items of unique type: space rocks
Total value: §57079
![24.Collection.jpg](https://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=4hbagnp85k0vhrafef46d5f8p5&action=dlattach;topic=30718.0;attach=82016;image)
I didn't get as lucky with the space rocks as in the 4x4. I still remember that gigantic mesosiderite fondly. (Over §31K for a single rock!) The one large rock in this collection is mesosiderite (and worth §1560) but the gigantic ones are all of medium value.