Firstly, look what Quartz got for his Young Adult birthday...
I was hoping to get Quartz off to China to not only SuperMax Martial Arts but also get started on my planned spouse for him, Sun Young Kim (because she's so pretty!). With the entire family set we could head off for fifteen days – and a very successful 15 days they were! Topaz grabbed Pangu's Axe and a holiday home for them, Quartz SuperMaxed Martial Arts – including the tournament! - and got up to a full relationship bar with Sun Young. Davy and Galaxy sculpted and painted and fished... and then...
Oh God, the travelling bug of DOOOOOOOOM! They couldn't go home. Ugh! All that effort wasted! I had to return to a previous save. This time I tried sending Quartz to China alone. No luck there either! Ugh! That's both Egypt AND China that are broken! Highly frustrating.
Very well. Looks like Quartz will have to SuperMax Athletic instead. This sucks because he's going into the Professional Sports career so it will eat away at the time he has to work out, but that can't be helped. Hopefully Topaz won't gain any more Athletic skill because I'm not using her for Adventures any more.
Now Quartz was a Young Adult, I felt it was time to expand the house and add a second floor. The first time I did it, my computer crashed as soon as I was done and ready to save after three hours of work and I lost the entire rebuild. This, after all the other stuff that had happened recently, made me want to throw my computer right out the window and never come back. Fortunately, being a well-adjusted and mature individual, I restrained myself (via a straightjacket) and looked upon it as an opportunity. So, an even better rebuild later, welcome to the second floor...
Quartz and Galaxy's old bedroom has now become a semi-sculpting studio and the spiral staircase to the second floor is here. Emerald, Davy and Topaz don't have much reason to go up there because their bedrooms and skill apparatus are all on the ground floor so hopefully we won't get too many traffic jams yet.
Quartz has a locked gym leading directly off his bedroom to make sure no one else can use his equipment. The gym also has a private shower room which only Quartz can access.
Galaxy's bedroom is just across the corridor. Here I put his guitar, easel and Azure's cage.
There's a shared bathroom for all of them and then at the end of the corridor, over Emerald's bedroom and bathroom, is the children's room. This is the room I hope will suffice for all the children growing up in the house. The nursery leads straight into the child's bedroom which has all the toys I could possibly think of in there. A lot of the kids won't be able to build their SuperMax skills until they're teens, so they've gotta pass the time somehow.
Galaxy aged up to Young Adult the next day, gaining the Good Sense of Humour trait.
He's still a handsome goofball, and it looks like he's not going to be vital for the paintings as Davy's living a little longer than I expected, but I'm not bothered because I love him so. Galaxy joined the Music career after his and Quartz's graduation ceremony. It'll make him easier to handle if he's at work every day.
Quartz was pipped to the Valedictorian post by Galaxy, believe it or not, but he still graduated with highest honour. His classmates voted him Most Likely to Save the World or something like that. Eh? Nevermind.
There wasn't a lot to do after the graduation. Quartz and Galaxy both had jobs and for Topaz it was just a case of waiting for the dreaded Elder birthday. So I decided that since my plans for Sun Young had fallen through, Quartz had better go spouse-hunting. A nooboo will make things more interesting.
I thought for a long time about Quartz and Galaxy's mutual best friend, Candi Wesley. I love her name and her eyes, but she's a babysitter. Botheration.
Eventually we picked this beauty, Ashley Glover. She's a repairwoman and had come to the house multiple times. She came round for Topaz's birthday party and Quartz took her aside to put some moves on her.
Meanwhile inside, my darling Topaz was having her final birthday.
Topaz didn't age as well as her mother. I tried putting some makeup on her, but my Sims tend to look like clowns when I do that, so I mostly leave it off.
The next day Topaz got her portrait and sculpture done. I didn't like the first sculpture Davy did so he had to do a second one. And not a moment too soon. As Topaz sat down for her Ambrosia that afternoon...
I knew this day was coming. Davy Merryweather finally left us aged 90 days. I do hope some of the other spouses live longer. But he did his job well. The family is richer, has beautiful paintings on the wall and ice sculptures all around because of his work.
Another good thing was that Davy's death somehow caused Nicholas' grave to reappear. I popped both in the family inventory, ready for creating the family cemetary later.
Rest in peace, Davy (Cho) Merryweather. And thank you so much.