napoleonherself | Merrick Legacy, 2.2

I just finished playing 3.2, so I should probably post 2.2. It's just that making a post takes like an hour and a half -- cropping/resizing/jpging the screenshots, and then uploading them and sticking them in the right bits of the post and blaaah. So boring. UNLIKE THIS UPDATE AMIRITE

Last time: the lot broke, twice! There was a burglar and a ghostly-but-not-actually-a-ghost grocery delivery woman. Somewhere in there Titania gave birth to three children, Edda, Mark and Eula. Then she threw up.

For the first time ever in this household, I call the grocery lady and she actually shows! This makes me happy.

I decide to let Edda spend $1000 they really should probably hang onto, and hire the matchmaker...

...and she gives me an elder. Well, that's fantastic.

Still, it's not like Edda's gotten to have a lot of fun so far for a Pleasure sim, so I let her have a date. She rolls up the want to smustle for the over-nine-thousandth time, which is why there winds up being a living room smustle party consisting of the teenager, her date, and her mom.

Yes, Edda, I think this is a good time to be making that face.

The last of gen 2 is on its way!

Edda's date never makes it out of the okay range, and Repairman Lee refuses a goodbye hug. Yeah, don't worry, Edda. It wasn't meant to be.

Then that night Lee came over and did this. Yeah, real sneaky, Lee. You're a regular ninja.

Edda's idea of big-sistering is to throw the toddler through a light fixture.

Apparently nothing exciting happens for a couple days! Then Eula hits child in the corner, presumably because she's been a bad girl. (Or because she aged up immediately upon waking. Whatever.)

Meanwhile Titania and Mark dance together, which is adorable.

So post-makeover Eula is... pretty much a clone of her dad aside from skin color and eyeshape. I'm not sure why I thought she had Titania's nose.

Edda gloms onto local teen Victor for a date. He's apparently got the same taste in women as her dad.

He's not a great match for her, either chemistry-wise or these-two-will-have-wacky-babies-wise, but he's a pleasant conversationalist, and she manages both a first kiss and a not-quite-dream date from him.

Dammit, mom, do you have any idea how not-fun babies are?!

I hit random, but get yet one more singleton... a girl, Ruthie, with dark skin, her mom's purple eyes, and an evil stare. And brunette, of course. The kids can't be anything else, since Hayden's a game-generated brun, Titania's CAS blonde, and I don't have any hair-dominance-altering hacks in place.

YAY BABY

I love how, frequently, new babies are immediately greeted by big people yelling and waving their arms. It must make being born so much more pleasant.

Edda brings Brian Ebadi home from school, so I start them off on a date together. It's a real shame... according to the crystal ball, he's her best match, but he's so... normal-looking.

That night I let her sneak out with Brian, since I've never let a sim do that before.

That little worm Mark better not tell mom and dad about this!

She gets busted, though. ...I can't tell if she's supposed to be pouting, or if that's just how her mouth is.

For some reason, every time I tell Titania to take out the trash, her response is: remove trash from compactor...

...set trash on kitchen floor.

And then if I tell her to clean it up she puts it back in the compactor.

Then I am an idiot and order $400 worth of groceries with only $200 in cash... so the grocery chick takes a $1000 bed. Which is great, since we were already short one bed as it was. Goddammit, woman, take the $200 I have and then a kitchen counter or something!

Then she just stands there looking smug. I almost liked it better when she wouldn't show up.

Mark ages up into a shirt that I'm totally letting him keep.

He rolls Romance, and a set of turn-ons that are going to be very inconvenient if he doesn't roll gay or bi.

Dammit.

(Ignore Hayden getting green-juiced; I gave each of the parents a hit, since Titania was going to hit elder while Ruthie was still a toddler.)

Titania rolls a want for a job, and we need the money to replace beds anyway, so I hire a nanny. Who comes in and makes a beeline for the television.

Then she tries to harrass the kid whose turn it currently is to stay awake while someone else takes up a bed.

Mark brings Kaylynn Bui home from school, and the combination of their two bolts and her creepy tiny Maxis face makes a date a good option. Yes, that is Mark grinding his date in his family's living room while his undone homework sits on the floor. Mom is right around the corner making lunch, and Edda is on the couch behind Mark.

First kiss tiemz! Meanwhile, Eula is checking her stocks.

Yeah, it was a dream date. Notice Mark in the kitchen window, cold chowin' down on grilled cheese and ignoring his conquest. I know you can't interact with dates when they come to drop stuff off anyway, but I still choose to believe that it's the Romance aspiration at work.

And then this happens, and does Mark say yes? Why, of course he does! Even if he does kind of have to pee.

The group is all Maxis-y women :D :D :D

Oh, and this guy. Who apparently doesn't notice that Kaylynn is so hot, she's currently combusting.

Mark has no chemistry with ANY of the women except Kaylynn, but that doesn't seem to faze him. (As an aside, I ADORE the sexy walk. It's so ridiculously silly that I don't know how sims don't just fall over laughing every time they're approached that way.)

Mark: Oh yeahhh I am gonna flirttt.
Me: PFAHAHAHA

Mark and Kaylynn take pictures together, because why not. Also, I don't think I specifically pointed out his teen makeover. He got new hair and some stubble! That's about it.

The outing hits rockin', which is good, but then when Mark goes home, I realize the load screen looks like this. Why does everyone hate Edda all of a sudden?

Mark gets to be the lucky guy queuestomped into helping Ruthie grow up. Flying toddler!

Ruthie is toilet-trained and taught to walk her very first night. Hayden insists on smart babies.

Then, the next morning, the nanny INSISTS on waking her when her energy bar looks like THIS. Seriously, I kept cancelling out "Be Held" actions and they kept coming back. Finally I gave up. Fine, feed the full toddler, or bathe the clean toddler, or WHATEVER is so damn important.

...she woke the sleeping toddler to put it in the crib. ;_;

For the record, this is the first thing Mark does when he gets up in the morning.

It's a bit hard to fit in one screenshot, but this is Edda following the nanny around trying to fire her while said nanny ignores Edda to get a second bottle for the toddler who she just got done giving a bottle.

...the original "why" for firing her was "Edda has graduated according to InTeen and can sit around babysitting all day", but now I have the additional reason of "because I either fire her or kill her with my mind".

Edda has at least some chemistry with the infamous Goopy GilsCarbo, who would obviously be a great boon to this Maxigacy. This is what leads in short order to A) a date, and B) grinding in front of mom after mom's just cooked a delicious meal for her beloved children. Edda is classy.

Goopy's kind of... been around, though, and already wants to engage in polygamy with two of the Romance sims in the neighborhood, who have each used him in his capacity as one of the neighborhood bicycles. But Edda doesn't mind eking out a great date anyway. (Guess they didn't have enough chemistry to boost her towards dream.)

ENOUGH BEDS FOR EVERYONE~~~~

At least until Ruthie hits child. Mark has been moved to the nursery, because for a teenage boy, sharing a room with your toddler sister is less creepy than sharing a room with your older teenage sister.

Edda is on another first date with a random YA.

You know, my family has a magic crystal ball stashed in the attic that reveals to us our best dating options!

...that's cool, I guess. +

Hayden, meanwhile, is painting a portrait of Titania. Next up is one of himself, which wasn't the least bit posed with a bit of move_objects on trickery, no sir.

Edda becomes my first sim ever to tuck in a kid. Granted, I'm playing more hands-off with this family than I usually do, but it's still weird that it's the Pleasure sim doting on a young'un. Family-sim Titania? Just dances when I leave her alone.

See? Totally not posed! He totally went out in the backyard and did that all by himself. Dragged the telescope back with him, too; it's usually in the front yard. Those wacky sims!

Ruthie gets to grow up a day early with a birthday cake, so she doesn't lag behind the others too much. Just like the load screen a while back, everyone else is keeping their distance from Edda. Why? Does she smell?

I have hands!

Pan to Hayden.

Nooo! My child is an IDIOT!

So here's the thing about Ruthie. Most of the kids are near-clones of Hayden, with maybe Titania's chin or eyes coming through. Ruthie, though? Ruthie is a near-clone of Titania. She just has Hayden's nose and hair color.

I take pity on Mark, because no romance Sim should keep rolling up wants to date the same chick again, who is the only chick he's ever dated. So I send him downtown. And he hops between about half-a-dozen lots before finally finding ONE SINGLE Maxis-y woman with whom he has ANY chemistry actions. That woman? A vampire. MARK, STOP TAKING AFTER YOUR FATHER. YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE THE DAMN TURN-ON.

And, of course, she rejects him for a date. So I give up and send him home.

Everyone still hates Edda.

That, combined with her attraction to dudes in glasses and her love of ~~~the dance~~~ (which, granted, most or all of the kids have) makes me think that I named her well.

Eula hits teen...

...and while I do the best I can with her makeover, she still comes out kind of looking like a drag queen. Also, she's the first gay Sim of the family.

Hey, someone finally likes Edda again!

This is Mark's reaction to Edda making out with someone. What the hell, dude? You're a Romance sim with full outgoing. Shouldn't you be all "HELLS YEAH SUCKING FACE IS HOTTTT"?

The second he's done being embarrassed, he switches to this. I don't even.

The gen 1 paintings are done! And, once again, I will point out how Hayden's is totally not posed AT ALL. He did that on his own. In time for he, himself, to capture it as a still life, even. He's just that good.

(I like using the screenshot + replace Snapshot.bmp method. It means I've got backups for when the originals inevitably get eaten!)

There aren't a lot of options for gay sims in my neighborhood -- I need to rejigger my randomizer odds, I think -- so I use the crystal ball to find Eula a nice lady who will maybe help with her Family-sim first-kiss want. Here's Elle! She likes Eula's hair.

And she has no particular sense of boundaries.

She's kind of sweet, though. I don't really see Eula being heir -- she's got Hayden's face and Titania's LTW, so there's nothing new she can really offer me -- but that doesn't mean she can't enjoy her sparedom.

They're both Family sims, so you just KNOW they would collectively roll up the want to have over nine thousand babies. Nine thousand Hayden-faced babies. Yeah, I don't think Eula's going to be heir.

We're still short a bed and I'm tired of juggling people, so Edda's moving to college amidst a rain of feathers! She wound up with scholarships for grades and dance. I fully expect that all the kids will get scholarships for dance. They love that stereo.

So long, Edda! Have fun in the sim bin till the other kids join you.

Awkward first kiss is awkward. I mean, they all are, but usually the two participants manage to get their faces within a foot of each other.

Aww, now nobody likes Mark.

Titania and Hayden have one last kissytime before she gets old...

...and I decide to give her cake, even though A) there's like four uneaten grilled cheese left sitting around, and B) it's like 5:45 so reasonably she's about to age up anyway. But it's nice to see her family gather around her for the celebration of her last milestone.

This is Mark's date, Sierra. She doesn't seem to approve.

This is apparently Mark's reaction to cake.

Eula: Yayayay birthday!!!

Sierra: Durr.

I wish for a billion grandchildren!

Only if they're not Haydenfaces.

Last pre-transition shot of youthful Titania.

Huhwhat?

Oh man, this will be AWESOME!

...wait, I think I changed my mind...

Oooh, sparkly.

Hee.

Hey, no fair staying blonde!

I really like the hair she ages up in, but either it doesn't come in elder or the grays are just binned somewhere crazy I can't get at. So I swap her to a classy but relaxed... loose... bun-ish thing. I don't know.

I do wish sims actually looked old when they got old. I've got some wrinkle makeup, but it wasn't made with these kinds of melanin levels in mind.

Um... Titania. Sweetie. Hayden's two days from elder, and you're congratulating him on his college career NOW? Plus, you just hit a huge milestone! He should be congratulating YOU!

Then she beans him with a pillow.

YEAH, YOU BETTER STILL FIND HER HOT. ...well, I'd've forgiven some momentary annoyance over the pillow thing.

Eula keeps bringing Mark's girlfriend Sierra home from school with her. I'm not really complaining, since he constantly wants to ask someone on a date and she's guaranteed to say yes.

Also, Eula does not want to get engaged to her brother. DEFINITELY not complaining about that.