Chapter 2. Part 10.In this exhilarating episode: Janelle wears a towel, Herbert wears a towel, and the twins watch TV.
Gold chain, gold jacket, and a hair with a similar vibe. It might not work for another man, but for Herbert it just feels normal. I thought I'd put this first. Start strong.
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After the frigid Stargazer Lounge on Friday night, the Landgraabs went to the diner in StrangerVille because it happens that this
is the save where I replaced 8 Bells.
It's "Candy's Diner & Bowling" by MadameMage on the gallery (though at the time of writing the gallery is down), and a restaurant not a bar. It all comes back to me now. I wanted that diner lot, but then I was short of a bar which is necessary for the StrangerVille mystery, and that's why The Solar Flair is where it is. It's the only bar in the world as it happens. One forgets these things.
"Hi, I'm Ros Landgraab"
"And I'm Phoebe Landgraab"
"And today we're going to climb a mountain!"
"Ros, are we dressed for this? I haven't changed since the lounge last night."
"Me neither, but I ordered us these climbing boots and gloves and it'll have to do."
"And we're too cute to wear safe hats!"
"Yes! safe hats are ugly!"
"I've never seen anyone wear a safe hat at the mall."
"OMG just imagine if mom and dad only had only child like they intended. How dull for them."
"That would be bad. I'd probably have maxed my climbing skill if I didn't have you to talk to."
"I know right? Climbing class was boring. Who needs skill anyway? That's what Kyle says. He's lazy like I am."
There's no telling them not to call them safe hats. It can't be done. Ridiculous.
I did
not invite Kyle, by the by. That's just coincidence. A whole menagerie of sims apparently wanted to join the fearless twins on this coming-of-age adventure (with no safe hats).
The twins made sure to take selfies together at every stage of the climb. You are not Overwhelmed by photos of Phoebe and Ros, because you're you, and I'm me. (You're welcome to think of Danny Ocean and Terry Benedict, but it might throw you off the current story somewhat.) I am surrounded by such selfies.
We started perhaps too late. It's already gone 2pm, and they've only climbed one wall. Phoebe is also feeling peckish. And their age bars have now started to bubble.
By the time the girls reached the base camp above, one was starving. I hadn't prepared, they didn't even have harvestables in the inventory, but there is a small kitchen here. That was the longest stop on the climb. I know sims can make energy bars from apple and cherry, but unless I specifically plan for it, I almost never have cherries.
A snowpal made many moons ago, unmelted.
It was nice to have clearer weather further up the mountain.
This is Saturday, New Years Eve, and there was a bit of a rush to get to the top before it was too late to do the countdown.
Janelle and Herbert were now invited over, and so 4 sims can be seen making the final dash inside.
The sim near the bottom of the hill is Herbert. For the sake of adding corroborative detail to an otherwise bald an unconvincing narrative, let's say mum and dad took the helicopter? I suppose they couldn't possibly be dropped off closer to the house.
The whole family was inside the warm cottage by 11pm to watch the Countdown to Midnight! The fireworks seem to unsettle Herbert.
Next morning, Ros bakes the birthday cake.
Phoebe blew out candles first. This time they didn't roll the dice for a trait, it seemed like she had earned "Over Achiever". She got all 5 positive character values, and... with apologies to former high scorer Maxine... 56 traits.
Phoebe is shown here with 56 traits, but actually has another 1800 unspent satisfaction points. I thought I had run out of traits to buy, but there were some 500-point traits like hot and cold acclimation and Always Welcome, that I had overlooked. So, with all her points actually spent, Phoebe has 59 traits. Fifty-nine. On normal lifespan.
Ros was next, and for the sake of variety she's become a genius.
Her traits list is verry similar to Phoebe's. Ros aged up with 55 traits, with another 1100 satisfaction points unspent. It's worth saying that for the climbing expedition, Phoebe picked up a trait for that (and she got the gold one!) which Ros simply hasn't had the opportunity to get. Neither Phoebe nor Ros are valedictorian, they both got "graduated with honours". Who is the kid that was valedictorian?!?! Aging up now means that graduation is probably only next weekend.
One doesn't climb to the top of the mountain and not use the geothermal pool. Maybe this is a dormant volcano?
This triggered the Polar Bear Plunge achievement, which I must have got many times before in this save but somehow those achievements get reset.
I'm sure a former Father Winter feels somewhat at home up here, in his gold jacket, with his massively talented daughters with over 110 traits between them eating French toast.
Challenge complete.
I've raised the twins as well as I can. It's something I've really wanted to do with GroTo, and I wanted to do it with the most special sims I could conjure up. The 4 new aspirations are quite easy, but the reward traits are interesting. Ros and Phoebe do not "Live Fast", but they did everything else as teens. Parenthood character traits are still one of the more interesting game systems for children. I'm annoyed about not having the Mixology Certificate, which would be the extra sprinkling of specialness to already super teens.
I do not yet know who should be the heir! I'll always keep coming back to this save -- for the house -- so the heir is an open, unsolved question.
