The Lylith Apocalypse Challenge (g2)

[dovey]

Love, Dorothy: The Lylith Apocalypse Challenge

Hello! I'm in love w this challenge so I decided to try it out for myself. Heavily inspired by BallerinaHippo and oshizu.

Notes about my gameplay:

Concious rule changes
- For the Bodybuilder career, one Fitness lvl = one add. space in personal inventory (Children/tods not included). I don't know why I do this but it adds more general goals for simming. Also anything that can be moved in live mode is allowed to be moved freely.
- I will not be using clubs at all (honestly because they're just so laggy)
- Since it was published 7 years ago, I'll take some personal liberties to decide whether certain new objects are allowed or not. Mostly I am just following the original Apocalypse Challenge rules (which were published even before toddlers, wow).

Accidental rule changes
I've tried this challenge 4 times, but I still keep missing parts of the rules. There are some times in my gameplay where I realize it and change it before it has any effect, and I won't mention them here, but generally there are some rules that I completely ignored.
- Business: Management's "retirement" restriction (aka: everyone must always have a job- unless I interpreted that wrong?)
- Writer: Journalist's medicine restriction

______

Chapter Index

Gen1
1. Astrid & Dorothy
2. Light & Dark
3. Vienna & Mackenzie
4. Growing & Completing
5. Love & Snow
6. The End of the Beginning

Gen2
7. The Error of Our Ways
8. Clem is Everyone's Mother

Restrictions Cleared

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Day 15 | Dorothy Lylith (Founder) clears Criminal: Oracle. May use MOO cheat. May import sims from Gallery /My Library and place them in the neighborhood. May legally use "kaching" cheat once per sim-day.

Day 42 | Asher Lylith (Gen2 Heir) clears Teen: Retail. Sims can enter Buy/Build mode on any day of the week. Planning outfits is permitted.

Day 43 | Mateo Lylith (Gen2) clears Teen: Babysitter. Traits can now be chosen freely. May influence the gender of unborn children using (wild) produce.

Day 45 | Astrid Maricella (Gen1 Spouse) clears Writer: Journalist. May buy/use showers/tubs. May use "Woohoo" option. May take pregnancy tests/mediciine. May go to hospital for delivery.

Day 59 | Clementine Reilley (Gen2 Spouse) clears Secret Agent: Diamond Agent. May visit community lots and sim homes (but not Granite Falls or libraries). May move sims out of household.

Current
Mackenzie Lylith - Culinary Lvl 8
Vienna Lylith - Tech Lvl 8

My settings
seasons: 14 days
snow
rain and thunderstorms
wants and fears:  off

[/list]

[dovey]

Update: Due to a series of technical difficulties I have scrapped my Prolouge chapter. If you're interested, you can find an abridged version of it here. It's not really that important. Basically, the story starts off with a young adult woman named Dorothy Lylith who has found herself in a depressing wasteland. She misses her best friend, Astrid, and vows to help save the world. Near the end of the chapter, she is at level 8 of the Criminal: Oracle career and she finds that she is pregnant with a hook-up's baby.


1. Astrid & Dorothy



____

1. Pilot

Hey. Dorothy here. Still working hard at it.



Right now, I'm sick, but I'm not entirely sure if I can cure it. I don't think I can, because I usually get medicine off of Amazim, and that doesn't work here. However, with my unmatched Charisma I may be able to convince dovey.

dovey: it wasn't in the original rules so she says we're leaving it up for interpretation. For now we'll just not do anything until Esports Gamer is cleared.

Dorothy: I can stomach the 2 hour uncomfortableness buff, but if it starts killing me... that's another story.

dovey: thanks, Dorothy.

( LATER UPDATE : I did start ordering medicine for my sims. I just really don't care about that restriction because illnesses don't really affect gameplay that much )

______

Dorothy: On the third Sunday since I moved here (Day 15), I give birth to two wonderful baby boys.



I picked Mateo's name and dovey picked Asher's! She told me that Asher was the name of one of the Gen 2 spares of her previous apocalypse challenge.

dovey: He was a teen when I dropped the challenge, and he was going to do Comedian but I never got around to it. Since I reference that challenge quite a bit, I will mention that it lasted until Gen 3 was toddlers. I cleared four careers but I was extremely close to clearing a fifth.

Dorothy: back to my story, excuse me.
The boys have a little room; pretty much everything in there is from the new Werewolves pack. It's technically expensive/HQ (Startup restriction) but it doesn't add any gameplay effects so we let it slide. dovey put a random wall, which I *glares* quite disagree with. Don't you love an open floor plan?





She says I'll thank her in the future, when Culinary is cleared. Also, when I actually buy a dining table.

Moving on... It's summer! We have seasons set to 2 weeks, not sure if that is breaking the rules but definitely changing it would be breaking the rules so we're just gonna keep the same settings.



Soon, they age up, and I do what I do best: training.





The top is little Mateo and bottom is Asher! (dovey: very happy with how they randomized :p)

After hacking my work performance and going to work super focused, I go from lvl 9 to 10 in 2 days!



I put in a message with HQ and they told me that Astrid has moved in somewhere. I can't reach her due to Agency Policy, but they can't stop me if she walks by my house. Now all we have to do is wait....







dovey: It literally took me so long to find this girl. Then the game glitched when we finally spotted her

...





"Astrid!"



"Your hair!"

"Yeah, do you like what I did with it?"

"You chopped it all off! And it's blue now!"

"It's been too long, Dora."




Dorothy: I should probably explain a little more. Astrid and I grew up together; we were next door neighbors and in the same friend group. We were closer than most of our other friends due to our shared experience in the Wonder Child program. I was deemed a success and sent to Newcrest on a mission, and Astrid stayed behind in our hometown. After talking with her for a bit, she's definitely got some up on me now. I've been gone for nearly five years, and she's been training all this time.



"Dora, can you close your eyes for a sec?"







______

Notes:

- really glad that Asher and Mateo were born on a Sunday! I don't think ahead that much but this does mean that they'll age up to kids on a Sunday too? I believed this would be helpful when buying items for childhood aspirations but I think I'll just buy everything, no harm in that.

- The toddlers live on the bottom floor and the only pathway to the second floor is through a ladder.

- a shorter chapter because i wanted it to be all, yk, poetic haha
[/font]

[dovey]

@MarianT Sorry for the bother, but could you move this to the Creative Stories board? I accidentally posted it on the wrong one.

[oshizu]

Wow, Dorothy is so beautiful as are her twins. 
Congrats on reuniting with Astrid, Dora!

And, Watcher, wishing you good luck and much enjoyment with your challenge! 

[dovey]

Wow, Dorothy is so beautiful as are her twins. 
Congrats on reuniting with Astrid, Dora!

And, Watcher, wishing you good luck and much enjoyment with your challenge! 

@oshizu thank you!! I thoroughly read yours and @BallerinaHippo's playthrough of this challenge before and have taken many notes, haha. I aspire to be like you! <3

[dovey]

2. Light & Dark



Astrid: Hi. Dorothy told me I should try the narration thing, just to give it a shot. I'm actually more qualified to do this, since I'm a writer... but I don't know, it's kinda her thing.

Anyways, I should introduce myself. I'm Astrid Maricella. I'm a cat person and my favorite color is yellow. And the woman I love is creepily standing over my shoulder as I type this.

After Dorothy and I made things official, she had to go to work. The first thing I did, obviously, was almost starve her son Mateo. Dorothy had all the fish so I had to fish as fast as I could, grill it, and bring it back to Mateo. All before Social Services show up at our door.




I don't get it. We can't get out, we can't even call out, I can't even ask my mom to send me pictures of my cat Fizzle, but Social Services can show up at my door in seconds? Life is ridiculous.

Mateo was happy, though. And Dorothy quit her job.




I will not be missing that outfit.



Astrid: Mateo is ridiculous.



______

Dorothy: We got married and she almost died.





Astrid: I'm sorry?

Dorothy: I don't think I've seen you wear anything else except for those overalls.

A/N: She's right. But Dorothy, you have no place to speak. We didn't SS your face because your makeup was still randomized.

Dorothy: Hey! Well, Astrid's flowers weren't even from the right hair!

Astrid: How about we just all calm down.

______

Dorothy: Astrid's work is getting busy and my main job is to take care of the boys right now. Though since Astrid and I both have the Never Weary trait, it makes our lifestyle quite interesting. Coupled with the fact that we basically can't even do anything. I'm a big fan of chess. We play it all the time, and sometimes we fish.



Astrid and I played some water balloons with Akira Kibo. The boys are asleep right now.





Dorothy: Mainly I'm just in a good mood.

Astrid: You're such a child!

Dorothy: Yeah, but you love me.

Dorothy: It was also neighborhood brawl...



...and I found out I'm pregnant again!






Bonus: Astrid decided to cut her hair for the summer.


A/N - This is not a wardrobe fix so I'm not breaking Babysitter rules. I just didn't have the mesh in my game because I was playing a different save for a while.

______

Watcher here.

BREAKING NEWS???

Apparently you can wash toddlers in the sink? It's the same amount as washing hands basically.




I didn't know that... i went half of the boys toddlerhood not doing that because the floors were connected by a ladder.
Astrid is working to clear this restriction and she's gonna keep doing it. The wash hands interaction is still annoying.

______

Dorothy: This pregnancy is wayyy harder on me.





Both of the boys are Happy Toddlers, but between Astrid and me we're focusing our efforts on Mateo because we're planning on Asher helping out with one of the high school careers.

Here's Asher and I playing ->



I'm working in Culinary since being in the house all the time is sometimes suffocating!
It's very relaxed though, I don't bother with the Daily Task as I already have the skills required. I also have the Professional Slacker trait so I don't need to worry anyways.

I'm a Workaholic so I love having a job but Watcher told me she wants something in the Mixology branch? Something about a Fluster... Whatever, I'll figure it out.

Regardless, my makeup is still horrendous.



______

Astrid: It's Mateo and Asher's birthday!



Dorothy: Astrid thought I named my son after her when she first met him.

Astrid: I knew you loved me, but I didn't think you were that obsessed with me.

Dorothy: I am. But Asher is A/N's name.

A/N: It's the name I picked out, yes. My real name is [REDACTED].



Dorothy: Anyways, the boys can't age up because they don't have a birthday cake. We just have to wait for them to age up on their own.


---
On Day 24 (Wed, Summer-2/2), my second pair of twins were born.



Girls! I'm done with kids for now, and plus we need extra space in our household for future move-ins. We named them Vienna and Mackenzie. Astrid's thinking we're gonna call Mackenzie "Kenzie" but we'll see if it fits her.


Author Notes
- Vienna's name is an inside joke with myself because Astrid looks very similar to a sim I once had named Vienna, and I call her that ALL the time.
- The two twins were actually born pretty far apart... they are 9 days apart in age; 6 days passing between Mateo/Asher's birth and Vienna/Mackenzie's conception.
- The chapter title is a reference to how there are lots of good and bad things in this challenge, miserable and happy but also really dysfunctional. Especially because my game is in Summer right now while Dorothy decorated her house all black xD
- Astrid is on Lvl 6 of Journalist. We'll talk more in the next chapter about that, but she is the only one in the house in a career.

[oshizu]

Astrid is so pretty!  I love your sims! 🧡
About your seasonal length, if I simply forgot to set my Season setting at the start of a challenge but preferred a different length, I'd probably allow myself to change it once. *winks

I'm not asking you to reveal the baby daddy's identity but I'm so curious: Do all four kids share the same father?
Also, that burning to death during a heatwave while not in Hot Weather clothes is SUCH a bother!
It happens not only during weddings like with Astrid, but also while wearing a party outfit to a party, wearing a costume during a holiday, and so forth.  Grrrrr!

[dovey]

Astrid is so pretty!  I love your sims! 🧡
About your seasonal length, if I simply forgot to set my Season setting at the start of a challenge but preferred a different length, I'd probably allow myself to change it once. *winks

I'm not asking you to reveal the baby daddy's identity but I'm so curious: Do all four kids share the same father?
Also, that burning to death during a heatwave while not in Hot Weather clothes is SUCH a bother!
It happens not only during weddings like with Astrid, but also while wearing a party outfit to a party, wearing a costume during a holiday, and so forth.  Grrrrr!

Hi! Thank you!! I always use 14 days anyways so I think I keep it, I'm sure I'll be regretting it when winter comes around but oh well...

The first twins are mysterious guy's kids, and the second ones are biologically Astrid and Dorothy's! We treat them all the same though <3

[dovey]

3. Vienna & Mackenzie


Dorothy: It makes me so happy, being able to look over my beautiful little family with my lovely wife. Well, little as in young. There are 6 of us now - me, Astrid, Mateo, Asher, Vienna, and Mackenzie.



I have taken Astrid's last name, so I'm Dorothy Maricella now. My kids, however, are all carrying on the Lylith name. Along with that, I hope they carry on our mission to save the world.

In other news, my wife is a legitimate journalist now. Isn't she adorable?



And the boys aged up! Mateo on the left, Asher on the right.




That's all for today, I'll see you next time!

______

Dorothy: Astrid and I have gotten into somewhat of a routine. It'll be different as the kids grow, but for now we always play chess the hour before she goes to work. I always remember to offer her mental relaxation tips and then somehow we end up making out.




It's been a while since I last spoke to you all. My twin girls are now nearing the end of their toddlerhood!




It has been much easier to have them learn skills since I don't work. Both girls have easily maxed all of their toddler skills!

For the older boys, Mateo, who we sometimes call MJ, has been working on his mental skill. Asher focuses more on his creativity but he's very intelligent as well.



(Asher is being mentored by Astrid, while I am mentoring MJ)

In other news, the winter is coming, so Astrid has been stocking up on fish.




Can we just appreciate Watcher's building skills?



_____

Vienna: Hey it's me! Mom's keeping this log of all the things that happen, so our "future descendants" can see the work we've done to make our town great again.

I don't know how I feel about having descendants (she says that means kids?) since kids are always whining and screaming. Trust me, I have a sister. My big brother MJ laughed when I asked him about having kids, and I'm pretty sure him and Asher are hiding something from me. My brothers are really annoying, like you don't even understand annoying. But no one else lives in our neighborhood, so I have to spend time with them.

(I'm the one with the braids)



Asher's always upset about something. MJ says that he's just weird, because they're big kids now and Asher wants to always talk to our moms. I don't really get it. I love Dorothy, she's a sort of tough love but she did a very good job of raising my sister and I. She always takes time out of her day to play with us and help up become the best people we can.





Right now, our neighborhood is empty and deserted. But Mom wants to make everything good again. She wants to make it so we don't have to live inside practically 24/7 and have to use these gross pipes to clean ourselves. She told me that Mama (Astrid) is working hard to fight misinformation about the sewage system, and that before I was born she organized a communications branch so we were able to send messages out (though we still can't receive them). She told me that this project is called NewNewCrest, and is supported by the Wonder Child facilities.

A couple days later, something great happened. While I was playing at the park, I saw this beautiful girl walk by- and she was walking straight to my house. People NEVER do that, so I wasn't surprised when I came home and saw her sitting with my moms.




She introduced herself as Clem, and Dorothy said that she'd be moving in to help with the project. For some reason, Dorothy wouldn't tell us what department Clem was working in. But I'm glad! Asher's not a fan, he hates that there are so many girls in this household. I told him he could suck it.

In other news, MJ was acting really suspicious and I found him talking to Clem alone! He so has a crush on her.



MJ and I do our logic training together, so I pestered him about it. He said he'd tell me if I won. And I did. And then he said best of three. And I won that too. So he told me that Clem told him to ask her again in 6 years.




_____
 

Gameplay notes:
- I am very frequently forgetting to buy stuff and then having to deal with the consequences. For example, MJ and Asher didn't have a monster light for a while and were barely able to sleep for like 3 days.
- Astrid and Clem both have to use the computer and Astrid's journalism task is SO time consuming that it was challenging to juggle with only one computer. I did like the challenge though, so I decided that until Tech Guru is lifted I will only be allowed to have one computer for all daily tasks.
- Sorry I've been away for a while! I went on vacation, got covid, and then just wasn't feeling sims. I got back into it when High School Years came out, so I played a lot of this with a glitchy game. Luckily my game is on normal (so I don't have the aging glitch) and the only serious glitch I had was Astrid being stuck and missing a day of work (I did NOT count this because it was 100% not my fault)
- Astrid is just generally taking a lot longer time to complete her career (compared to Dora) because the articles are just so freaking hard to write! It seems that no one walks by my lot and the number of articles she is required to write is inconsistent as well (sometimes 5, sometimes 4). I'm not sure if this is a glitch or a feature but I find it very annoying.
- If I were to do this challenge again I would prioritize Culinary (you'll see why in the next chapter) and also try it out in Sulani because I don't see why not? Plus, the winter is coming and I'm terrified. I've been preparing fish.

Story TW:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

underage / age gap relationship. I put it in here because it's supposed to be an apocalypse, and while I didn't put much blood or destruction in my story I wanted to put dark/taboo relationship elements. I do not condone these types of relationships IRL but in a post-apocalyptic sims story, where there is LITERALLY no one else you can date, things are different.

I like to think: The boys and Clem are 7 yrs apart. Vienna/Kenzie are 5 years younger than them.

[Sonshine]

For the monsters under the bed, do you know that you can have an adult spray the monster under the bed? Did you try to reset Astrid?

My challenge is officially a bust, but I'm continuing anyway. : /

[dovey]

For the monsters under the bed, do you know that you can have an adult spray the monster under the bed? Did you try to reset Astrid?

My challenge is officially a bust, but I'm continuing anyway. : /

Haha yeah that's what I did! Mainly it was that the parents pretty much had their hands full with the journalism career and raising two toddlers to childhood. Plus that interaction would always glitch out for me, I have no idea why but my sims would just be standing there doing nothing.

Oh, what happened in your challenge? Mine's been pretty glitchy but not game changing, though it is geniunely hard to keep my 4 kids alive xD

[Sonshine]

I moved in the guy that was going to be Fleur's intended, but the romance part was going nowhere! Every time I tried a romantic action, it ended in double negatives. So I cheated the romance, : /  either that or move  him out and try another one both of which break the rules. : /  I've never had that much trouble before though so I think it's the latest update. At this point in time, I highly doubt that I'll buy sims 5. As I said, I'm continuing anyway and will learn as I go.

[dovey]

4. Growing & Completing


dovey: A longer chapter today! :3

______

Dorothy: I'm really glad to see that Clementine is settling in well. She's the mentee of one of Astrid and I's coworkers from the WC project. I wonder how Sven is doing.



We play a lot of cards in this house, especially since working hard takes a lot out of everyone's fun.





Apparently Clem wasn't informed of the fitness/Bodybuilder requirement, so she's working hard to improve her fitness skill. It's tiring work, but she's got a lot of free time as she's already completed the skill requirements for Secret Agent.



Astrid, on the other hand, is approaching the top levels of her career. She even has time to help the children with their homework and help cook our array of fishy meals!





She told me about this strange silver haired guy she interviewed the other day...



Something I neglected to mention about our littlest one Mackenzie is that she has the Child of the Ocean trait, meaning she gets a 4 hours uncomfortable buff when she eats fish. I explained to her that this was due to the gas lines being cut in NewNewCrest. She was very upset about this.

Anyways - I don't work anymore, and I am constantly cleaning and helping around the house, as well as mentoring my kids in logic when I can. It's tedious with our many restrictions but I manage.



Recently, I have become an adult and lost my 'Never Weary' trait. It was strange feeling the drowsiness and discomfort again, but it is all the more satisfying when that need is fufilled. I have had lots of free time lately, as everyone in my family works or goes to school except for me. I spend my free time reading books or fishing.





Speaking of school, it takes such a toll on my kids health. When they get home, they spend all their time trying to fill their needs! There's barely any time for independent skilling.



It has nothing on Astrid's job, though. She is always running around our neighborhood trying to find people to interview. It's only due to her charisma and charm that she's able to complete her daily task every day.



______

Day 39: Wednesday

Mateo: I hate it here.

Hello world, I'm Mateo, also known as MJ, and I have the Vegetarian trait.

It's actually not as bad as you think. I just feel uncomfortable for half an hour after every time I eat.

But it still sucks.



I've decided that I can't handle this anymore. I'm going to work as a Babysitter so that we can pick our traits freely and not end up with horrible situations like my own.

Peace out (not really).

______

Day 40: Harvestfest!

Dorothy: Our first holiday of the year! Asher and MJ aged up in the morning, so they don't have to go to school, but the girls, Clem and Astrid still do. We can't have a grand meal (Chef restriction) or decorate our house (I forgot ) but MJ, Clem and I helped our family receive the gnomes' blessing.



Everyone's just in a generally better mood today. Asher is studying Charisma for his career, and I think both boys will be able to lift their careers before Astrid does.







I am just so proud and thankful for my kids. MJ and I talked a lot today, and he expressed how much he respected the work I had done to cultivate this family in such an apocalyptic environment. I felt so warm inside when I heard that. He's the absolute sweetest!





Oh, and Astrid is painting a portrait of me! I can't wait for you guys to see it. She's got a lot of free time as both her and Clem have a 4 day weekend.







Clem's also rising up in her career, now at Level 6!



For Night on the Town, Watcher let everyone have a treat from the food stand across the street. Hey, lobster is still fish, right?



______

On Day 42, Asher becomes the second person to lift a restriction in our house by reaching the top of the Retail career. We can now use CAS and Build Mode freely. Everyone in our family gets a subsequent makeover (except for Clem).


+ clem!


(Astrid has black hair again and Mateo's hair is darker now. Also- I dressed them in warm and cozy clothes for winter! It's August right now IRL lol)

Mateo lifts his career restriction the day after. We can now choose traits and aspirations. Not as life-changing as Asher's, but your hard work has not gone unappreciated, Mateo!

The long winter approaches, but we are more than prepared.  Life is good for everyone right now.







(except for Vienna)





______

Day 44: Monday

Dorothy: As usual, Mackenzie is sad about eating fish. She also has the picky eater phase so that makes it even worse.

Mackenzie: why do those poor fish have to die?



Dorothy: The kids make sure to get their fun up before they go to school... though I'm sure it will all be depleted by the time they return, especially for the older two.





It is officially winter, and Astrid makes her speciality, fried fish, for us on a sunny morning. She eats quickly and then goes to work, and I spend the morning talking with Clem. She tells me that this is her last day having four working days, and soon she will have three working days a week. It's upsetting, but I offer her Mental Relaxation tips and she goes on her way to work.





My kids return home completely in shambles.



______

Day 45: Tuesday (Good day for Dorastrid nation)

Finally, on Day 45, Astrid lifts her Journalist restriction. She told me later that it was much more difficult that she expected due to hidden mutinies within the company. They had a hard time believing that a woman could do her job as well as she did, and made her life extra difficult. But she still made it to the top, and I am so proud! We all very much enjoyed our first baths/showers.





Clem painted a portrait of us for our anniversary gift, and it goes nicely with the other painting of Astrid I made for her birthday.




(hd)

Clem is now the only one in our household with a working career, and she is at level 7 of Secret Agent. However Vienna and Mackenzie will be aging up very soon, and Astrid and I will need to prepare them with the skills they require to live in this brutal world.

______

Notes:

• This is my first story so sorry for the changes in formatting, I'm trying to make it work.
• Astrid is also an adult now. The next chapter will start with Vi and Kenzie being teens.
• Asher's arms are so toned lmfao he works out™
• stream cypress grove
• No but an actual gameplay note: I am allowing the baths with soaks from Spa Day, I know some people would consider locking that with Manual Labourer but honestly this game is getting highkey boring so I just want to spice things up a little bit.

Also - my paintings randomly disappeared


Bonus: nicknames
Dorothy/Dora
Astrid
Asher/Ash
Mateo/MJ
Vienna/Via/Vi
Mackenzie/Kenzie
Clementine/Clem

[dovey]

5. Love & Snow



Asher: Okay so, I'm telling this story, because it's private and there's NO way I'm letting my mom hear this.

Clem and I are really good friends, and I definitely know the most about her. When she was just getting into her job, she had to infiltrate a high school and so she interviewed me, but then I got suspicious, and she ended up spilling the details about her occupation. It's really dangerous stuff, and she doesn't tell anyone, especially my mom, because then Dorothy would probably get worried and Clem just wants to help our family out. It's gotten better as she's went up in the ranks, but when she was in the lower levels they were really treating her horribly.

Anyways, it's not like I like her or anything. My brother had a serious crush on her when she moved into our house, but I was really struggling with school so I really didn't care about much else. I mean, like, she's a girl. And all the other girls in my house I am related to. So it's really not that I like her, it's just I don't completely disagree with the fact that she might be attractive- but like I'm not saying that I like her or anything.



She's really annoying, always stealing my night glasses and stuff like that. Mackenzie told her I was tickilish and she hasn't let me live that down.



Clem's not ticklish (trust me, I've tried). It's got something to do with the intense training she had growing up.



Yeah whatever



______

Dorothy: Vienna keeps swearing and I don't know what to do about it. She's an A student though, and has maxed her Mental skill. (Mackenzie on the other hand has maxed her creativity skill.)



Mackenzie has come out as gender fluid, using all pronouns.







Clem's hair has started to curl in the colder weather. Maybe it's the lack of humidity?



Also, I don't know if you guys have noticed, but where is Watcher?

dovey: I'm here. Y'all are just doing really good right now. Everything's working out really well and I'm proud. I just feel really bad for Kenzie and MJ.

Dorothy: yeah, the fish is really hard on them. I tried roasting the fish on the campfire you gave us but it wasn't any better for either of them. Also, don't you think it's stupid how we can't warm ourselves with the campfire? I don't know why we can't just hook up a thermostat. I think we've all gotten sick at least once. Even Astrid, with her enhanced immune system, was sprouting a fever this morning.



dovey: I'm sorry, but on the bright side at least you can drink medicine? The thermostat is locked with the Esports Gamer restriction. We're prioritizing that one, right?

Dorothy: As the plan goes. I just hope that their kids will be able to live in better conditions as we do.

______

Dorothy: The winter's freezing, and I can't wait for it to be over, but at least we have the fire.







Astrid goes to work at 9, and Clem works at 10, so me and Clem talk out a lot in the morning. She revealed to me that she was pregnant. I knew something was going on between Clem and Asher, but it was a lovely surprise when she told me.





She told me she would've waited, but she had to cut off the baby fat before she went back to work or else it would interfere with her missions. Sometimes I forget that even though she's so much younger than me, Clem is just as wise as Astrid and I.

Clem: Thanks for hanging out with me in the mornings, Dora. Didn't you love that snowpal we made the other day?



Dorothy: He's cute. And then we talked about baby names- do you wanna tell the readers what you chose?

Clem: hmm... no, I'll keep it a secret. But I have two names, one for a boy and one for a girl. It'd be great to have twins, but there's only one space left in our household. To be honest, I'm glad we don't have to deal with the chaos of twins.

Dorothy: I mean, Astrid and I both have tons of free time. We could totally raise them if you had twins.

dovey: please no there's way too much going on in this household

Clem: I agree with dovey. Sorry Dora.

Dorothy: *laughs* Don't worry, we're talking hypothetically anyways. I'll love this grandchild with all of my heart!

Clem: Yeah, you'll probably be doing most of the early training (or maybe Asher can?) since I'll be somewhat busy with my job. Though... Wow, this child will have no shortage of guardians! There's so many loving people in this household.



Asher: Hey Clem, where'd you get those glasses?



Clem: C'mon, they're cute on me! Don't you think?

Asher: *sigh* Just give them back when we go to bed. I need them at night.



dovey: guys, the paintings are back!



______


Dorothy: Yesterday (Day 47) was Vienna and Mackenzie's birthday, but due to us not being able to get ahold of birthday cakes, they aged up today. And right after, Clem went into labor!







She named him Cooper, and he has the Lylith last name. I told Clem she could hyphenate it, but she didn't want to.



She and Asher are very private with their relationship and they spend a lot of time talking in Clem's room on the third floor. To me, they both just seem extremely smitten with one another and their little son.





We played some games in the snow for the weekend, and Clem drew a heart. There's really not much one can do when the world's basically under lockdown.







Dorothy: The main thing that's been going on in our house pertains to two little ones. They're working hard on their skills.

Mackenzie: Okay- not only are Vienna and I teenagers, we're far from the youngest in this household. There's an actual baby!

Dorothy: You'll always be my little ones.

Mackenzie: *sighs* Alright well, I've been working hard on my cooking skill. It's mainly reading, but I get to do a lil bit of hands on action here and there.
I made fish for the first time this weekend, and honestly it tasted pretty terrible. Everyone said it was good, but I have a feeling that they were just lying to make me feel better. It still hurts me to cook my fishy friends, but I know there's no way around it and it feels better that it's on my terms now.





Here are me and my sister, by the way. Via's upset because she realized that she can't play video games until she joins her career.

Vienna: You're so lucky. At least you get to work on your main skill.

Mackenzie: How am I lucky? How am I supposed to learn how to cook gourmet food?

Vienna: dovey says she has a plan. Though dovey, why'd you give me the geek trait if I can't even play games? Care to explain that?

dovey: ... it's for the future.
(please see notes for this chapter 😭)



Asher: It's a team effort taking care of Cooper. Clem has to work, so she feeds Cooper right before she leaves and Astrid and I manage the baby's needs. She works a long shift so he still ends up hungry, but at least he won't starve.





Later that night, Clem was all up in my business, gushing about how good I was with Cooper. She's been super romantic with me recently and I'm not sure why. It shocked me a lot when she proposed. We've talked about it a lot, but I didn't expect it when she got down on one knee in her black dress from work.



Asher: I of course, said yes.

Clem: 

______

Watcher/dovey
so the lore goes that all of the sims can talk to Watcher (dovey), but Dorothy as the head of the household does it the most for strategy and planning purposes.

Things I realized

first off - i have realized that maxing skills as a child does not do anything and the aspirations are the ones you have to complete. oops

however when Vienna and Kenzie aged up to teens I realized, to my horror, that I had read the rules wrong. I did not realize that you could only use restricted objects for daily tasks. Though I do have skill books for certain skills (written by Astrid in the early levels of the Writer career), I do not have them for all skills. The outcome of this is the twins will not be able to prepare for their careers until they are young adults or until Clem finishes her career and can write the skill books for them (by joining Writing).

You may have noticed that Mateo is not in this chapter. This is because he is irrelevant. Right now, Astrid, Dorothy and Mateo genuinely are not doing anything at all, so nearly everyone is waiting on Clem. There will be lots happening when she completes her career. But for now, there's a wedding to be had! [/list]

[Granny Lawlor]

Your family is doing so well with the arrival of Gen 3! Asher & Clem are sweet together and Cooper should thrive with so many carers available.
I'd wondered how you'd got the Charisma book in the last update, I should have realised that Astrid wrote it. Is there someone that can write a gourmet book?
I'm watching and learning here - still working on my Wonder Child.