Welcome back to I Hart Space, a joint space-themed legacy by Roxanne and Kristina! In our last chapter, Roxy finished her turn with our family. Her generation provided us with three lovely heiress candidates to choose from, and as you can probably tell already from the banner, Roxy chose the first-born daughter Io to carry our legacy forward! This is the start of chapter 5 (already!). If you missed any chapters, you can catch up here.
Now, onward!
To recap a bit from the last chapter, we had three daughters in generation five - Io, Callisto, and Sao. Io is working on becoming a freelance botanist, Callisto is working on becoming a bodybuilder and Sao wants to have a successful lineage Their mother, Mira, successfully became a Renaissance sim and is now working on becoming a bestselling author. Their other mother, Brandy, is still working on her original aspiration of becoming a Renaissance sim (and she's really close to completing it).
Speaking of our accomplished generation five children, here they are now...and don't they all look really pleased to see me? It looks like the teenager attitude is already in full effect. Sao has a whim to kiss a sim, Io wants to lock a door, and Callisto is giving me some impressive side eye. *Sigh* Here we go.
As it's currently a Sunday in the Hart home, no one has anyplace to be today. I settle everyone down to start working on their aspirations. Brandy, our future Renaissance sim, needs to get three more skills to level 8 to finish up. She's already almost to level 8 in painting, so I start there. She obliges me by immediately painting a masterpiece and reaching level 8 in just a few hours. Nice.
Sao, who has a bit of a nerdy streak, as it turns out, autonomously decides to sit and do some extra credit. I'm glad she can keep herself occupied productively, because her aspiration (successful lineage) is at a dead-end until she becomes an adult. Rotten luck on that.
Mira, who will need to max out the fitness skill to become an astronaut, and Callisto, who dreams of being a bodybuilder (like several Harts before her), both head to the gym for a workout. Mira ends up getting to level 9 by the end of the day. Not too shabby.
And Io, our esteemed heiress, heads outside to the garden to talk to the plants. She achieves level 6 of the gardening skill, which unlocks the final step of her Freelance Botanist aspiration. The game instantly gave me credit for growing a cowplant and evolving several plants (which frankly, I wasn't expecting since Roxy did all that over on her computer). The only thing left to do is max her gardening skill. It's a good thing she's set to pick up the insane trait as an adult, because all the plant whispering she's going to engage in would have driven her crazy anyway.
Yup. The Harts are back.
As our first night winds down, Mira has "pushed the limits" as far as she can. I have her work on her writing skill with a children's book. The writing aspiration is one that I've finished before, and while it is relatively easy to complete, it's also pretty boring to watch. Get ready for a lot of pictures that look exactly like this taken from slightly different angles with one or two different outfits.
This picture is here solely to note that Mira sprang out of bed at midnight after a woohoo session with her wife to try and put away a book that was out of place somewhere. Oh, neat/perfectionist sims. You've really got your eye on what's important in life.
The next few days move forward in much the same fashion. The girls stay busy working on their respective aspirations and careers. Well, except Sao, who really doesn't have much to do. She ends up becoming my right-hand-woman, so to speak, cooking meals and being the target of her family's whims.
She dances a lot too. So there's that.
Mira continues to work on her writing in between workouts. She raises her skill level high enough to reach the next step of her aspiration, in which she must write 5 good books. Not-so-fun-fact: all sim books take 4 hours to write regardless of what type of book it is and what the sim's skill level with writing is. Sometimes, the progress a sim makes on their book randomly resets for no reason. It's best to try and have them work in four hour chunks.
Speaking of her workouts, she maxes out her fitness skill in a few days' time. She's still slowly making her way up the astronaut career ladder, but by finishing this skill, she's all set to make it to the top. Mira skills faster than any sim I've ever played. Is that an alien thing? She's seriously abnormally fast.
Meanwhile, Brandy continues to plug away at becoming a Renaissance sim. She needs to get two more skills to level 8. Also, she's currently in the music career track, and in order to reach the top of that one, she needs to reach level 10 in piano. Since these two things go together pretty well, I have her head down to the oft-neglected basement to practice. So basically, you're also going to be seeing a lot of this picture from different angles throughout the rest of the chapter. She had a bit of a head start in piano skill from Roxy, so at the end of a few days, she makes it to level 6.
While Mira seems to be super fast at everything, poor Brandy seems to be very slow. She's a slow skiller and slow to get promoted at work. Don't take that the wrong way now, I like her a lot, she just lacks the get-up-and-go attitude that most sims seem to have. She's just happy to be here. This picture sums up her personality pretty well, actually.
The girls juggle homework and skilling with ease and Callisto and Io eventually setting into pretty good routines for working on their aspirations. The only hiccup is how much Io talks! Roxy mentioned this in the last chapter, when she slowed down everyone at a restaurant by talking instead of eating. Well, that trend continued on into my game. She. never. stops. talking.
A quality which is annoying when sims are trying to get things done, but is very useful in the garden. Io directs most of her stream of non-stop chatter towards the plants in an effort to max the gardening skill. She has, unfortunately, not inherited any of her mother's quick learning ability. We have a MASSIVE garden that takes hours every day to tend, and her skill bar moved at a snail's pace. At the end of day five with me, she's only up to level 8. 8!
Callisto fills her free hours with workouts, and makes it up to fitness level 5. She's starting to look pretty toned too. She's currently working towards making it to level 6 fitness, jogging for two hours and spending a total of 10 hours exercising. Despite having a relatively unexciting aspiration and personality, this girl really grew on me for some reason. Probably because she tended to do things that made logical sense autonomously. She chose to eat leftovers when hungry, kept up her relationships with her sisters and barely got tired or stinky from all of the working out she did.
She also has the best facial expressions ever. The look of casual disgust she rocks is second only to Eris' evil cackle face.
So, one of these ladies got promoted, and one got a bad chance card at work. Care to guess which is which?
Just kidding, Mira became a low-orbit specialist.
And no worries, Brandy got a promotion a few days later. She reached the branch level in the entertainer career and chose to pursue music, of course. She's now a Jingle Jammer. That doesn't sounds soul-crushingly corporate at all.
Before too long, another weekend creeps up on us. It's a good thing it's a Friday too, because ALL three girl got a bad chance card at school and came home either angry or tense. Lucky me and my excellent selections. It was an evening full of video games, bubble baths and movies, let me tell you.
After everyone was sufficiently recovered, I set out to make this weekend productive. Callisto kept rolling whims to work out at a public gym, and Sao sent me a subliminal message through her artwork letting me know that she needed to get out of the house. I sent the two girls down to the gym while everyone else stayed home to skill.
They had a pretty good time too. Callisto started off by getting PUMPED UP with an energy drink and then hopped on the treadmill.
Well, she tried to get on the treadmill, anyway. She ended up getting in a good workout, despite the mishap. She also chatted up Nancy Landgraab, who proceeded to text her every day until the end of time after this workout. It must have been a heck of an hour they spent together.
Meanwhile, Sao hung out outside and distracted people who were intending on exercising today. She hit it off with Paolo here and refreshed her social bar. Sao, true to her gentle personality, is fast at making friends.
While the girls were out, Mira got a lot of good writing time in. Over the next two days, she makes it to writing level 10 and completes the second step of her aspiration. Next, she must publish ten books and write five excellent books. Good lord.
Brandy continued to work on her piano skill. She makes it up to level 8 in the skill, meaning that we need only one more skill at level 8 to complete her Renaissance sim aspiration.
...and a couple of hours on the motion gaming rig does it. With her gaming skill at level 8, Brandy is officially a Renaissance sim! Aspiration complete! Next up, I switch her over to the musical genius aspiration, to capitalize on what she's already doing for her career. Based on music work that she has already done, she clears the first few levels instantly. Now she has to work on writing some songs to progress further.
Smokey's still here too, in case you were wondering. His life is honestly more interesting that Io's right now.
Because she's still doing this. We're still on level 8. Level 8!
As the end of the weekend approaches, Io spends her non-gardening moments hanging out with her siblings. Since none of the girls inherited their mother's green skin, it's easy to forget that they are part alien sometimes (and Callisto's regular outrage at discovering that her cousins are aliens shows that she forgets too). Here, they do the secret alien handshake to get in touch with their roots as another member of the Spencer-Kim-Lewis household is ignored in the background. As in Roxy's game, I generally ignore this family in mine too - except when Eris used Eric as a punching bag a few chapters ago. They already don't like us because I ignored the welcome wagon when the I moved in the family. It doesn't stop them from constantly coming over though.
And later, in what I can only describe as beautiful timing, Io pulls out a plate of food from her inventory that I didn't even know she had and begins stuffing her face as Callisto heads out for another workout. She's a sim after my own heart.
All of Callisto's obsessive working out definitely paid off though, and the end of the weekend saw her achieve the third step of her aspiration. All that's left to do now is reach level 10 in fitness and reach maximum body potential.
Meanwhile, I pulled Sao, the queen of free will, out of the pool to help out with a cake. Finally, it's time for Io to become an adult.
As the family gathers to watch the big moment, Io takes the opportunity to take a last-day-as-a-teenager selfie. Note that Callisto is choosing to be helpful right now instead of trying to leave the group for the motion gaming rig. That's more than I can say for some sims. I'm looking at you, Mira.
Eventually, everyone finally makes it into the kitchen to watch Io blow out her candles. I didn't throw an official party because Io's only friends are plants at this point and if the Spencer-Kim-Lewis family thinks they're getting into this house, then they've got another thing coming.
And with an impressive twirl...
Io emerges looking the exact same, but her butt is bigger. Gee, thanks, adulthood. She also adds the insane trait to her personality. Now the fun begins.
The next day brings with it the start of another busy work week. Mira, Callisto and Sao leave the house first thing in the morning, but Brandy's job doesn't start until the afternoon. She continues plugging away at the piano while she waits to head in. She's working on writing her first of four required songs for her aspiration, and it turns out that writing a song takes about as long as writing a whole novel does. That's the kind of logic that you only find in The Sims. She does make it up to level 9 in the piano skill, but doesn't finish her song before heading off to work.
The newly-adult Io, who is NOT DOING ANYTHING ELSE UNTIL SHE FINISHES THIS ASPIRATION, spends the day in the garden, talking to her plant friends. She finally hits level 9 in gardening. Just one more painfully long level to go now.
After talking herself hoarse with the plants, I have her hop on the treadmill to try and get rid of all the pudge she's accumulated from carrying around pockets full of blackened sea bass. Her insanity adds a whole new dimension to working out. She rants and raves at nothing while she runs, effectively running her mouth and her legs at the same time.
After a long afternoon of spraying for bugs and yelling angrily at the wall with Io, the rest of the family starts filtering back in. Mira returns home with a promotion to space cadet, which she's actually quite happy about. This face is because she can sense that there's spoiled food in the fridge and a puddle in the bathroom and she is NOT HAVING IT.
Callisto, who I think is trying to be Io's tether to reality, joins her sister outside after school to chat. It takes a long time for Io to break her gardening focus and talk to her, but Callisto waits around patiently. This is why I grew quite attached to this girl.
Meanwhile, our baker-by-default Sao whips up another cake. There's another birthday about to take place in the Hart household.
This girl's! Before heading inside to blow out her candles, Brandy stops by the mailbox to pay her bills. How much do you think this family, with their luxurious mansion, pays each bill cycle?
$14,000.
Holy plumbob. Good thing we're independently wealthy now.
Much like with Io, the whole family gathers round to cheer Brandy on as she becomes an elder.
You know, sometimes I get the feeling that Io can see me.
Underneath a rain of lots of confetti, Brandy takes the plunge and becomes...
...basically the cutest elder ever.
Nothing's changed here. These two are still like teenagers. Moving on.
After a restful night of sleep, the next morning brings with it the revelation the Sao graduated from the Colin Hart school of cooking.
His legend lives on.
Io starts off the day with a few light conspiracy theories, which Sao pointedly pretends not to hear, and then most of the house heads off to work or school.
Mira is now reporting to work in a full on space suit, so that's pretty cool. Why has it taken so long for this space-themed legacy to produce a full-fledged astronaut?
Don't worry though, even with the house pretty much empty, Io always has someone to talk to. This went on for some time.
She apparently had several points to cover.
After breakfast, more gardening awaits her. After several hours weeding, watering, spraying, harvesting and talking...she reaches level 10 in the skill! FINALLY, she has completed her aspiration and is a freelance botanist! She's now fireproof as a result - which might come in handy as long as Sao's manning the stove.
In considering which aspiration she should tackle next, I asked myself what an insane sim with a love of the outdoors would like to do...collecting it is! Her next goal is to become "The Curator," which involves digging up lots of rocks all over town. Perfect.
Okay, she can definitely see me.
With her gardening aspiration behind her, I have Io continue to exercise while she waits for everyone else to come home. Here's the thing with insane sims - they cycle through emotions randomly and quickly. It's pretty entertaining to watch, but does make it difficult to match up emotions and skills. Here's her flirty treadmill face.
The birthdays keep on coming around the Hart residence. Later that night, it's Callisto's turn to become an adult.
While most sims throw confetti and cheer, Io takes the opportunity to sing her heart out. Of course.
She doesn't look too thrilled to be growing up, does she?
Despite her initial reluctance to becoming an adult, Callisto turns out lovely. She also picks up her last trait of materialistic. I could technically move her out right now, but I'm going to have her hang out until Sao's ready to leave the nest. Besides, I'm pretty sure that my computer will explode if I don't complete the bodybuilder aspiration at least once each time it's my turn.
Wasting no time, I have Io and Callisto hit the gym right after the party. They're both looking pretty good if you ask me. Callisto is currently at level 8 fitness.
Okay, this is just unnerving now.
The night winds down pretty normally for the Hart household. Io sprays under the bed for monsters,
and has a fairly long conversation with the lamp on her night table before turning in. I really have to put her in an adult bedroom soon.
Later that night, Brandy pops out of bed after a woohoo session with Mira with a "dangerously tired" moodlet from engaging in too much strenuous activity. Mira must be some sort of sexual tyrannosaurus.
A new day dawns. *sigh* Good morning, Io.
Freed from her bondage of endless gardening, Io decides to take a day off from weeding and watering and calls in a professional gardener. My plan was to send her around town looking for collectables for her new aspiration, and hopefully spot an eligible sim bachelor. I don't want to rush into kids too quickly, but it would be nice to get a spouse in the house ASAP so that I can start working on his aspiration, whatever it may be.
Meanwhile, Sao, the only teen left in the house, heads off to school. She has a birthday coming up very soon, and then it will be time for her and Callisto to move out.
Callisto, newly liberated from high school, stays home to feel the burn. We're close to finishing her aspiration.
Meanwhile, this dopey gardener just waltzes in our side door like he owns the place.
Wait, hang on...
He's kind of hot! Man, sometimes you have to bust your butt to find a spouse, and other times they just come right on in your door.
Dopey Gardener, or Louis as he probably likes to be called, hits it off with Io right away. They become friends extremely quickly. Too quickly...which leads me to believe that he must have a popularity aspiration, or another trait that allows him to make friends easily. However, Io learns that one of his traits is loner during this conversation, which doesn't match that supposition at all. In any case, they build up a great relationship before he charges us for the time he spent standing around and gabbing and leaves.
Eventually, Io does get around to collecting things. She scouts the area around her house and turns up some minerals, MySims trophies and frogs. She finishes the first level of her aspiration. Next up, she has to find 5 crystals, 3 frogs and 3 fossils.
Brandy also has a productive day before heading out to work. She has been busy on the piano lately, and has licensed a song that earned her some money, and written two more. She only needs to write one more song to reach the next level of her aspiration.
She also nabs a promotion to "serious musician," because I guess she wasn't serious before.
Before heading off to bed, Callisto and Sao catch up and become best friends. Io would have joined in on this love-fest, but she was too busy glowering at the ceiling. Frankly, I'm just glad she isn't looking at me anymore.
The next morning brings with it Callisto's new body. She's officially reached maximum body potential and she looks like she could crack walnuts using only her biceps. The only thing left to do is finish maxing her fitness level, and then she will be the bodybuilder that she dreams of being.
Io's fascination with the ceiling continues into the next morning. Okay, seriously - what is up there?
Sensing that I needed to get our heiress out of the house for a bit, I sent her out to collect things after breakfast. She has a nice day enjoying the great outdoors and finds a whole bunch of collectibles. She finds all of the required frogs for the next step of her aspiration, but is still a bit short on crystals and fossils.
She also ambushes Louis in the garden as soon as he arrives and continues building her relationship with him. After a series of successful flirtations, he agrees to become Io's boyfriend. I also discover during the course of Io's conversation with Louis that his two remaining traits are genius and kleptomaniac. That's right. He's a loner, genius, kleptomaniac. That sounds like the premise of an HBO crime drama.
Obviously, his personality is perfect for this family. However, it was when he posed like this for a picture with Io that I knew he was the one.
Before heading out for the day, he takes some leftovers from the fridge without asking. The man lives to steal.
Later on that night, Sao bakes another birthday cake. This time, however, it's for herself. Sao is growing up!
The family all gathers around to see the transformation.
And...she looks pretty much the same. She was a beautiful teen and now she's a beautiful young adult.
Late that night, Louis calls Io and asks her out on a date to Villa Bovine. Despite having plans to converse with a box of tissues and stare at the ceiling for 45 minutes, Io accepts. This date reveals the true horror of Louis' hairline, which I'm itching to change already.
Luckily, walking through the front door of the restaurant caused Louis to inexplicably pop into a different outfit, which feels perfect for him. The new couple had a nice night.
Well, you know, nice for Io, I mean. She only needed a few breaks from the meal to get some ranting out of her system.
Exquisite, sir. Exquisite.
The next morning is a Saturday, and I decide that Callisto and Sao will stick around until Monday and then move out.
After a quick breakfast with Brandy, Callisto hits the gym and reaches level 9 in the fitness skill.
Sao occupies herself by chatting up Paolo, her old friend from when she left the house that one time.
Mira and Brandy both have the weekend off, so they get to work on their aspirations. Mira writes books three and four of the required five for her aspiration, while Brandy wraps up writing her last song. This takes Brandy to the next level of her aspiration, which is already almost complete (she's already gotten a level 10 in an instrument and practiced for 75 hours). The only thing left for her to do is mentor someone in music for three hours.
Meanwhile, our heiress, after a terrible day of collecting almost nothing but MySims trophies outside, calls Louis over and declares her undying love for him.
One thing leads to another, and pretty soon the happy couple is sharing their first kiss.
By the way, I'm pretty sure I should get some bonus points for getting that butterfly in the shot.
This went on for some time.
After everyone completes a successful day of skilling, writing, and kissing, Sao bakes the obligatory birthday cake for Mira. It's time for her to become an elder. I was just getting ready to have her blow out the candles when I noticed that some sneaky sim beat me to the cake.
It was this one, who apparently was feeling a bit contrary today. To be fair, I might binge on unauthorized cake too if I had spent all day writing my fifth version of "Tigers Don't Take Naps."
Luckily, the girls are around to save the day. Sao bakes another cake, while Callisto distracts her mother with some alien handshaking.
This time, the birthday is successful. As it turns out, Mira makes a pretty cute elder.
The ladies wrap up their night by enjoying some cake together. If you look closely, you might notice that Brandy has discovered whatever Io was looking at on the ceiling earlier.
The next morning starts off with Io doing some collecting. If we measure success by how few MySims trophies she unearths on any given day, then she was successful because she only found two. We're still missing a fossil and a few crystals before she can clear the next level of her aspiration.
Okay...I think that's enough collecting for today.
Mentoring sims in skills gives me flashbacks to my first turn with this legacy where our founder, Galaxy, had to mentor sims in fitness daily for her job. That was awful and took forever. In comparison, mentoring piano is a breeze. Brandy starts in on her required three hours with the ever-useful Sao.
Meanwhile, upstairs in the gym, things have all come together for Callisto. She finally maxes her fitness skill and completes her bodybuilder aspiration! Like her great great grandmother Galaxy and her grandfather Denzel before her, she is now the proud owner of the long-lived trait.
That's right...I completed the aspiration of a spare. Hold your applause.
Meanwhile, Io invites Louis over and after a little flirting, she pops the question. We need to lock this guy down before he realizes how crazy Io is.
He accepts, and I immediately ask him to move in so that I can get to work on his aspiration and fix his hair. Mostly the hair thing.
Moving Louis in reveals some interesting information. He DOES have a popularity aspiration that gave him an advantage in building relationships. He has the new aspiration from Get Together, which has the end goal of leading a popular club. Doesn't that match up with his loner trait perfectly?
Louis' first stop after becoming a member of the household is the mirror. I chose an outfit for him that says, "Don't worry, I won't steal from you." I also fixed his hair and added some glasses. Much better.
He came into the house unemployed (because being a gardener doesn't mean anything once a sim becomes playable). I'm going to hold off on getting him a real job while he works on his club aspiration. He still needs to earn his keep though, so I have him start working on his painting skill.
While all of this excitement is going on upstairs, Brandy finally finishes mentoring Sao and completes her second aspiration! It's a good thing too, because it looks like she's had just about enough of nurturing Sao's musical "talent." I switch her over to the Painter Extraordinaire aspiration, since she's already a level 8 in the painting skill from her Renaissance sim days.
So with the family happy and successful, it's about time to move on to the next phase of this generation. Callisto and Sao need to move out so that I can concentrate on getting Louis and Io married, through their aspirations, and into parenthood.
But wait...you didn't think I'd end this chapter without giving Sao her happy ending, did you?
You see, reconnecting with Paolo went better than expected yesterday. The sparks were flying and Sao's going to need a good partner if she ever wants to have that successful lineage she's always dreamed of. She's done her time cooking all of our meals, mopping up our puddles and filling our social bars.
So I made sure that she got something nice.
I think she's going to be just fine.
Callisto and Sao move out and into a place with Paolo by the end of the night, leaving just Mira, Brandy, Louis, and Io in the house. Io and Louis move into the official legacy couple bedroom, while Mira and Brandy move down to the basement. To celebrate their first night in their new room, Io bursts out into song.
Which Louis must have found some way to appreciate, because it led to this. Yes, he wears sunglasses as part of his pajamas. No, I won't change it. One type of crazy deserves another. I just hope he didn't steal them from the Spencer-Kim-Lewis family. They have enough reasons to be upset with us.
And with that, I'm going to end chapter 5, part 1 here. Come back next time to see Io collect as much junk as she can find and watch Louis attempt to run the world's greatest club. Maybe they will get married somewhere in there too.
In the meantime, you can always come hang out at SiMania for more sims stories and great conversation. Until next time, happy simming!
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