Welcome back to I Hart Space! It's Kristina, once again, bringing you more of chapter 3. This is part 3 of my chapter. If you haven't read the beginning yet, you can find part 1 here and part 2 here!
In our last installment, we saw our generation 3 heiress, Eris Hart, go to space, find an alien husband, get married, and birth the first child of generation 4 - a boy named Sirius. When we last saw her, she had just gone into labor with her second child. Let's see how it turned out...
It's another boy! In keeping with my current theme of naming children after giant stars, I name this baby Rigel.
Rigel immediately makes his presence known in the house by crying loudly and often.
Luckily for him, he's got a doting grandmother in the house with literally nothing else to do all day besides cater to his needs.
The Hart legacy is a matriarchy, so we still need a female heir. After two unsuccessful tries in the bedroom, I send Eris and Denzel to the observatory to try and make one.
And they are successful...with the making a baby part anyway. We will have to wait and see if we get the girl we need. If not, we're going to have to go into extra innings here.
Thrilled with the news, Eris tells Denzel another baby is on the way. He reacts poorly, which makes no sense as he loves his kids. Other things he loves include food, working out, being outside, working out, giving autonomous hugs and working out. He loves most things, actually. I wish this interaction lined up more with a sim's personality.
Eris tells Andromeda the news as well, and she either doesn't relish the idea of having another grandchild, or disapproves of the amount of cackling Eris does in the telling. Probably the second one.
Sirius, meanwhile, alternates drawing and playing the violin for his artistic aspiration. He's a sweet boy that doesn't have any trouble entertaining himself - much like Andromeda at this age. He makes it up to creativity level 5 and moves onto the next step in his aspiration.
He also powers through the homework that magically appeared in his inventory the moment he grew up. That's an awfully cruel twist of fate EA programmed in here. At least give him a day to be a kid before making him write an essay!
Denzel, who has been very busy in the gym since Rigel's birth, makes it up to fitness level 9. He's only got one level to go until he achieves his aspiration.
Eris also achieves some success in her job. She makes it to the branch level in her career and chooses the Boss branch. Her new job is "The Muscle." This is level 6 of the criminal career track. She needs to get to level 8. Here's the problem - she only works 3 days a week at this level. This is going to take forever.
As more time passes, Sirius develops his relationships with the adults in the house. Since Andromeda is usually the only one up as early as him, he gets lots of chances to bond with her over breakfast. Sometimes, Denzel joins in as well. He has no qualms about walking around mostly naked. I'm pretty sure Sirius has been scarred for life.
He finds solace in his music though. Over his first weekend, he makes it up to level 7 in creativity.
Rigel continues to be difficult. He needs more attention than any other sim baby I've ever played. All of the adults pitch in with diaper changes and feedings.
Eris is now at the point where she has to be mean for her career instead of being mischievous. It's a good thing too, because she's driving her family crazy with her constant invitations to fake parties.
When Eric, a neighbor, drops by for an unexpected visit, Eris seizes the chance to start her work-related harassment.
He leaves angry, a familiar sight at the Hart Observatory. Eris declares him her third enemy, which means that all she has left to do to achieve her public enemy aspiration is get to level 8 at her job.
Real mature, Eric.
Eris is the master of not giving a flying flip about anything. She is awful to non-family members on a daily basis, then goes inside her house and does stuff like this. She does what she wants. I like that. She's fun sim to play.
Oh no.
Right after she comes home from work, Andromeda passes away. Eris and Sirius see it, and both are crushed.
I place her urn near Collin's in the backyard. She was one of the sweetest, most accomplished sims I've ever played, and she put up with a lot of mischief and cackling from Eris. She will be missed.
Right after Andromeda's death, Eris headed out to work and Sirius played sad songs on the violin. Denzel, who didn't witness the death and was spared the sad moodlet, finished his aspiration by reaching level 10 in the fitness skill. I hope you really like this guy, Roxy, because he is now the proud owner of the long-lived trait.
After a day at work in which Eris is far too sad to raise her job performance meter up very much, the ghost of Collin arrives to help her drown her sorrows. He has a knack of showing up when we need him.
As time moves on, Eris' pregnancy progresses. I'm not sure she should be sawing that much while pregnant, but as we know, Hart women don't let such matters slow them down. Eris makes it up to level 5 handiness.
Denzel, having achieved his aspiration, moves onto the culinary world. His new aspiration is Master Chef, which matches well with his foodie trait. He needs to make 2 meals while inspired and make 5 excellent meals to make it to the next level.
Apparently he went to the Collin Hart school of cooking,because he immediately sets the stove on fire.
Both he and the meal recover.
Meanwhile, Sirius continues to mourn Andromeda's passing. In other news, I've now found the most depressing instance of crying in The Sims 4.
I've also found the most annoying instance of crying. Rigel stayed fussy all the way up to the end of his infancy. I was relieved when it was time for him to grow up. Alas, the peace didn't last for long. It turns out that Rigel was destined to be...different.
Once every Hart generation, a special child is born. These children defy expectations and forever change the landscape of their families. First, we had Aries. Then, we had Pluto. Now, we have Rigel.
These children do things like, pick fights with their mothers over lunch...
...destroy their own toys,
...and refuse to sleep anywhere other than their grandparents' old bed in the basement.
This kid is most definitely Eris' son. That smug look never leaves his face.
Much like this look never leaves Eris' face.
Since Rigel has the Whiz Kid aspiration, I have him start playing chess as soon as he finishes his first homework assignment to start building mental skill. He plays alone, because a sim who is not only evil, but mean too, can't be trusted to play with their sibling.
The next day brings us the birth of the third Hart baby. Good thing Rigel just vacated the nursery.
And it's a GIRL! As we have a three-kids-per-generation (or until we get a female) rule, this will be our heiress.
Her name is Mira, and she's a happy little thing.
Eris is suitably excited.
Now there's the face of a sim who knows she's birthed her last baby.
Right away, Mira proves to be a much easier baby than Rigel. She hardly cries at all. Her parents dote on her.
Sirius, meanwhile, who is still prone to crying jags after the death of Andromeda, finally manages to get to level 10 creativity and complete his childhood aspiration.
Speaking of aspirations, Denzel needs a dinner party to help complete his. To reduce the risk of fire, he prepares ceviche.
And we invite Pluto, because, why not? It's not like the house could get any stranger.
It's pretty uneventful actually, but we couldn't make it to gold status because no matter what I did, Pluto wouldn't drink. Typical Pluto, being difficult.
Being so busy with their aspirations, Sirius and Rigel haven't gotten much of a chance to bond yet, but they do chat over their homework each afternoon. It's hard to form relationships with Rigel, because he keeps trying to sneak mean interactions into his conversations. This conversation actually slipped into "offensive" when I wasn't paying attention.
Rigel also has the charming habit of smashing the chess board and knocking all of the pieces over whenever he loses. This is the only time I've ever seen Eris look intimidated. Rigel has quite the mean gene.
Since it turns out that chess is an activity he's going to have to enjoy alone as much as possible, I have Eris bond with him through reading him a story instead. He needed it for his aspiration anyway.
I switched Sirius over to the motor aspiration when he finished his first one. Finally, this carefree boy gets a chance to get out and play! He achieves the first step of it quickly, leaving him with some typing and motor skill building to do.
Mira, meanwhile, continues to display excellent heiress behavior.
On the workbench, Eris reaches level 6 handiness. That's all she needs for the criminal career track, so we can stop making a million benches we don't need now.
Speaking of her criminal career, she finally gets to head back to work after a long stretch of days off.
Denzel is left at home to watch the kids. He is very responsible.
Later on, he gets to head into work too. He has a culinary job now. It's his first job ever on earth. He's only a dishwasher at this point, but I suspect he may manage to start a fire there anyway.
Eris returns home later cackling in glee. I really don't know why as she, yet again, didn't get promoted. Perhaps this is how she mischiefs me.
So, Rigel does have to play a few real games of chess (like, against other people) for his mental aspiration. That means that someone has to sacrifice themselves to his antics. Denzel drew the short straw.
The next day, Eris spies Dina Caliente, her sworn enemy, walking around way behind her house. Immediately she rushes out to fight her. She loses spectacularly. Again. It's a good thing she had all this time to brawl in the streets. It's not like anything important was happening back in the house.
Oh.
Mira aged up into some...interesting clothing choices. The first thing I wanted to do was give her a makeover, but she immediately ran downstairs to chat with Sirius as he did his homework. How nice it is to have a child that wants to socialize without offending people!
After her makeover, she looks adorable. Her neat and perfectionist traits mean that she's going to be a type-A kind of girl with high standards. Not a bad combination for a legacy heiress. However, she is also prone to gloominess, like her mother and grandfather before her.
All in all, I'd say this is a pretty good looking generation. Sirius and Rigel look very similar to each other. Mira got less of her father's features and has a softer look.
It doesn't take long for Mira's neat trait to come out. She joins Sirius to complete her automatically-appearing-upon-aging-up homework, and something is wrong. Her face goes all pouty and she gets a negative moodlet.
It turns out that a small puddle of water in the corner was preventing her from concentrating. Sirius, always a people pleaser, helps her out by mopping it up.
And just like that, the skies clear and Mira can function again. I sure hope you keep a neat house, Roxy.
Meanwhile, Rigel, who does his homework alone for obvious reasons, finishes the first level of his mental aspiration. Next, he must get up to mental level 5.
In an effort to get a relationship started between Mira and her brother, I let her try out a game of chess with him. It didn't go well.
The next morning brought with it Mira's first day of school and a complete family breakfast. They're all eating different, non-breakfast foods because Denzel's cooking practice keeps the fridge stuffed full of leftovers.
After the kids headed off to school, Eris decides to train up using the punching bag. She must have been tired of losing all those fights to the Caliente family. She makes it to fitness level three.
Meanwhile, Denzel dances alone in the basement...for a long time. There are no words for this.
After school and homework, Mira heads down to the park to work on her social aspiration. I've never completed the Social Butterfly aspiration before. Hopefully it won't be too painful. She starts off by building a relationship with Bernardo.
When he takes off, she starts talking to the other sims in the park. This includes her mother's sworn enemy, Nina Caliente. Everyone is drawn to her like a magnet and she lays a good foundation for some future friendships.
Back at home, Eris surprises me with an abrupt age up to adult. Good thing she's not the type of sim to care about getting a cake or not. I lost track of her age somewhere along the way. I think it was because she had that issue where she didn't age while pregnant, so she's a lot younger than Denzel now.
The next day brings with it autonomous hugs. Mira's been building a good relationship with Sirius and racking up the social skill like crazy. She's currently at level 8. They become best friends.
They play a lot together outside, so while Mira's been working on social, he's been steadily building his motor skill. He reaches the next milestone of his aspiration, meaning that now he has to max out his motor skill and do some typing.
Rigel has been continuing to work on his mental skill too. No worries though, he isn't completely isolated in here. He talks with Sirius when he comes in to work on his typing game, which is quite often. He just doesn't play chess with his family very often because he gets too mean.
Mira's at the point where she needs to make friends outside of her family for her aspiration. She invites over Bernardo to push their relationship to the friend level. Eris, meanwhile, picks a fight with Eric in preparation for her job.
A good time was had by all.
All of that working out must have helped, because Eris won this fight.
Then Mira, who is quite smart, manages to befriend Eric afterwards. She is now at social level 9, and Eric has helped us with two diametrically opposed aspirations today!
Rigel's gotten up to level 9 mental skill and is now making potions. He's almost done with his Whiz Kid aspiration. There's something unsettling about increasing the intelligence of a sim who is both mean and evil.
Over the next few days, Mira continues her quest to make friends. To become a social butterfly, a sim child must make adult and children friends outside of their family. I think it's weird for a little kid to make random adult friends, but whatever. Mira befriends Bridget Walden and makes it to social level 9.
She also spots Lukas wandering around the neighborhood and befriends him too. This brings her to social level 10.
Eris also experiences some success with a promotion to Getaway Driver. She only has to get one more promotion to complete her aspiration and become Public Enemy, but at this career level, she has more days off in a week than she works. It's FOUR MORE DAYS until she goes back in, so she can't even start filling up the performance bar until then. It's ridiculous.
Thinking that I'd might as well use all that time off to stir up trouble and take care of her mean interactions job requirement, I send Eris downtown for a fight the next morning after the kids head off to school.
She finds a victim easily, bit things get a bit awkward when ghost Collin inexplicably shows up. He is the world's most active ghost.
What is happening in this bar? Why are ghosts dancing?
After finishing her fight (which she won), Eris braves entering what is apparently a very haunted bar to give her father a ghost hug. It was quite cute.
Yeah, this is the look that most people give Rigel. I'm not sure why Mira's annoyed, but Rigel has that smug look on his fact because his new "A" report card means that he just completed the mental aspiration. I switch him over to the artistic prodigy aspiration next, as that lines up with his future adult aspiration of Painter Extraordinaire.
Later on that day, it's time for a Hart family birthday. Denzel is becoming an elder! Despite gathering all of his family members in the room, Mira was the only one who participated properly in the celebration. Typical of this perfectionist.
He still looks pretty cute, even with his new aches and pains.
Eris doesn't seem to mind his advanced age at all. Remember, he's got that long-lived trait, so he's not going anywhere for a while.
After the party, Sirius continues to work on his motor skill. He's up to level 8 now. He won't have time to finish this second aspiration, as he's about to become a teen, but at least he got to spend a good part of his childhood having fun.
Rigel also works on his new artistic aspiration, which requires him to play with toys, for some reason. I honestly can't think of a kid less interested in playing with toys (unless you count destroying the doll house as playing), but he goes along with it.
Mira works on her aspiration too, when she befriends a kid named Leon who happens to wander by the house. This friendship completes the Social Butterfly aspiration for her and she is officially "socially gifted." This aspiration is annoying, but probably the easiest to complete out of the three.
Finally, it's time for Sirius to become a teen. Denzel bakes him a cake, which serves the dual purpose of aging Sirius up and getting Denzel to cooking level 10. I have no idea why he looks so sad. I also have no idea why his hair turned black again.
He perks right up when Sirius comes in though.
Not too bad! Except for the earrings...
...and the shoes.
As he's picking up the Computer Whiz aspiration, I gave him a casual nerdy ensemble during his makeover. He also adds the "glutton" trait to his personality. As his requirement to program on the computer is going to involve long, fun-draining hours of work, he fortifies his fun bar first with a little gaming.
Then he gets straight to work.
Mira and Rigel, in the meantime, enjoy some cake. They don't have too many more days as kids left either. Remember, I will pass the lot on to Roxy once the last child born becomes a teen. It stinks that our heiress is the last born of the generation. That means that I can't try to get her started on her aspiration before I stop playing.
So as we enter my final week with this family, the kids work on their skills while Eris and Denzel try to find ways to fill the time. With his cooking skill maxed, Denzel returns to yoga as he waits to go back into work.
Eris has a visit with her sister Ceres, who drops by pretty frequently. She tries to mourn Andromeda and Collin when she comes over, but I try to interrupt it because I'd rather see he do happy activities.
Like spend time with her sister.
Rigel, who is next to age up, works on his art. This is, thankfully, a solitary activity. He gets up to level 5.
When the kids are in school, Eris works on her meanness. I sent her to the art museum once, for a change of pace. It's a lovely, sophisticated venue, full of sims enjoying quiet contemplation and intellectual conversation.
Until Eris got there, anyway.
She entertained the crowd with some performance art. She won this fight, by the way.
Mira has been continuing to work on her mental aspiration, after homework, of course. Eris helped her get her required chess games.
Like most things involving Eris, it did not end well.
After a lot of time spent programming, Sirius made it to the next level of his aspiration. He is currently at level 3 programming and now must complete the oh-so-taxing task of spending two hours gaming while focused. Thanks to the genius way Roxy designed this house with mood rooms, achieving that is incredibly easy.
Denzel needs a bit of the mixology skill for his career, so he gets started on that. I'm just glad to have a project for him to work on again.
Rigel's birthday comes next, and the family gathers round to celebrate.
He makes predictably odd hair choices.
And clothing choices.
After his makeover, he looks much better. He picks up the "bro" personality trait with his transition to teen. That comes from his grandfather, Collin. It should be pretty obvious who his picked up his cackling tendency from.
He also picks up the "Painter Extraordinaire" aspiration. I have him get started in the art room right away.
With only a few days before Mira ages up herself, we officially enter countdown mode. All of the kids work on their various projects. While they work, a string of really odd, supernatural events take place in the house.
First, Collin, who was never mad at anyone while alive, shows up in ghost form and harasses Denzel, whose hair inexplicably turned back to gray.
Then Andromeda finally makes an appearance, in the middle of the day, to give one last autonomous hug to Eris.
Then aliens appeared and Eris was abducted. This was the first time I'd ever seen this in my game.
She came back a few hours later, more or less okay.
All of the weirdness calmed down just in time for Mira to max out her mental skill and complete her second childhood aspiration. She will go to Roxy both socially and mentally gifted.
Denzel was also successful. He was promoted to mixologist at his job, and reached the next level of his aspiration.
Eris got very close to a promotion as well, but wasn't able to get to level 8 of her career before Mira grew up. She just had too many days off for the time frame I had to work with. Roxy, she should only need to go into work one more time before she completes her aspiration and becomes Public Enemy. This is the one thing I regret that I wasn't able to do during my turn.
Mira's birthday finally arrives, and everyone in the family is suitably excited. As heiress, she gets a special cake. Hey, look - Denzel is back to black hair again.
Mira is beautiful, because of course she is. We will get back to her in a second, because first I must say, Eris makes the BEST faces of any sim I have ever played. Look at her here! It's like she knows she's awesome.
Okay guys, gross.
.
After a quick makeover, Mira is stunning. She adds gloomy to her personality and picks up the Renaissance Sim aspiration. She is going to be an awesome heiress and I can't wait to see what adventures Roxy has in store for her.
Because this family is, well, pretty out of this world.
Thanks for reading this super-long chapter and I hope you enjoyed the Hart family! Stay tuned to see what Roxy does with this group on her turn. For more discussion and other great legacy stories, please come join us at SiMania.
No comments:
Post a Comment