Okay, okay, I know. I'm really pushing it, even by hiatus standards. Sorry! But the Harts are back and as crazy as ever, and I, Roxanne, am here to document it all (at least for my turn!). I promised a Hart toddler this chapter and that will actually happen! So you know what to do . . .
When we left off, Louis had been cheated with an extra "day" of life that amounted to less than twelve hours, meaning he will miss the birth of his first grandchild. Hadley is quite pregnant and doing what she can to work on her vampire aspiration while pregnant, but things are a little tough with the loss of her dad. Io is likewise stricken with grief, and Jordon, who remained oblivious to both of Louis's deaths, just tries to work on his aspiration and prepare for his baby. And that's where we'll pick up today.
Louis's urn found a spot in the back garden, and I really liked him, so I memorialized him with a citronella candle. What? It looks cuter than the basic candle. Hadley found her way out to mourn after waking for a bathroom break, immediately reminding me that this sim is much more aware of her world than some of those around her, while simultaneously tugging at my heartstrings. Louis will be missed, for sure.
Hadley attempts to soothe her grief and pregnancy woes with a spa bath, but it's hard to get over the death of your father . . .
. . . when Death, who caused the death of your father, will not leave the basement. Grim glitched and just stood there. Sometimes he gets laggy in my game, though usually it's around his arrival, so I decided to just give him some time to sort himself out.
Io: "Grim, you separated me from my love. Why? Why will you not take me too? Is it because you're too lazy to take the stairs?"
Hadley: "Seriously, Grim, you can take off any time. Or if you're not ready to leave yet, can you help me fulfill this whim I have to cloudgaze with you*?"
*Real Hadley whim.
Grim don't care. Not about your cloudgazing, or your grief, or whose house this technically is. He only obeys his own laws.
We're going to ignore Grim so we can get back on track, albeit still with some weighty moodlets. Speaking of weighty . . .
(Hadley, I am so sorry.)
Io had her youth potion as she was due to go soon too. Remember that Louis came in as an adult, so he and Io were not on the same schedule at all.
Unfortunately, this leaves Io with many years to go to miss her husband. These days are so heart-wrenching.
And Io is determined to make the depressing most of them, even heading off to "cry it out" in Hadley's coffin.
Since she has Angler's Tranquility from completing Angling Ace, I sent her to the stream to fish. Unfortunately, it has been so very long since I took this that I have no memory of whether I took this picture because I was going to comment that it did work, or bemoan that it didn't work. I'm one step up from useless, I know.
While Io is fishing, Hadley starts to feel some strange sensations.
Hadley: "Jordon, Mom's not around to help, so don't freak out, but . . ."
Jordon: "I am totally freaking out right now!"
Hadley: "Fine. I'll do it myself."
And so Hadley gave birth to the first baby of the generation, who is a wonderful little girl, meaning we once again have a potential heiress right off the bat, and that the sim baby gender gods still like my sacrifices better than Kristina's. Baby Hart #1 is named Cassini, after the probe sent to orbit Saturn and release Huygens, a lander that transmitted from Titan, one of Saturn's moons. Cassini the probe is in turn named after Giovanni Cassini, an Italian astronomer. An interesting fact about Cassini is that, on its way to burn up in Saturn's atmosphere as the dramatic "clean-up" conclusion of its 13-year mission, it passed several times between Saturn and its inner rings in some risky maneuvers, meaning NASA/ESA/ASI have some boss space-probe-driving skills. It's not like it's rocket science or anything, though. :P
ANYWAY! The naming theme for this generation will be unmanned spacecraft, which is an inelegant name for the category, but I wanted to include satellites, probes, orbiters, landers, etc. Anything that we shoot off into space for science that doesn't have people in it is fair game, basically.
When Io finishes her (successful? unsuccessful?) fishing break, she meets her granddaughter, who is appropriately terrified.
Bradley, who you might remember Hadley had bitten prior to him moving out primarily so that she could beat him in sparring when she wasn't pregnant, had gone several days without changing as far as I could tell, so we invited him over and he went through his change as soon as he stepped foot on the lot. Perfect.
His dark form is actually so good I didn't even change it when I went to play his lot. Good job for once, Bradley.
Hadley: "Bradley - oof! - give me just a - grr! - sec and I'll be right - argh! - with you."
Good to see Hadley is making the most of her non-pregnant time. She's been wanting these sparring matches for three days now, after all, and you
do not get in between Hadley and achievement. She's sparring with yellow turban lady, a neighborhood vampire named Elisa who hides purple dreads under her turban and with whom Hadley's become friends.
Hadley: "Okay, bro, bring it in!"
Bradley: "Aieeee!!!" *slap slap slap*
Hadley: "Ow. What the hell, Bradley? This is a sparring match for vampires, not frail old ladies."
Hadley: "I mopped the floor with your newly-vampired ass, but you put up a good fight, my young disciple, my child of the night."
Bradley: "That's weird. We're twins. Don't call me your child, and I'll spar you again."
Hadley: "Deal."
With her three sparring matches won and that level of her aspiration behind her, Hadley is free to try for baby again. I want to keep the kids close in age so they can maximize toddler time together.
Like she is in so many ways, Hadley is successful in getting pregnant again. She looks so smug, doesn't she? She has a right, but still.
Their faces, ha ha ha! Baby #2 on the way.
Oh, look who's still here. Sigh. Time to do something about this.
Io: *sleeping soundly, because she's so metal she can sleep with literal Death himself in her bedroom*
Hadley: "YIPEE!"
Well, that was uncharacteristic!
Hadley: "Grim finally took off! All it took was a house reload. Go figure."
Io: "Hadley, dear, last night I felt like someone was watching me, but when I woke up . . . no one was there!"
Hadley: "Mom, I'm more concerned about what's going on with your left cheek."
Io: "Oh, that. You know, you lose collagen as you age, your face caves in when you emote. That kind of thing."
Hadley: "So glad I'm immortal now."
Because I'm having way too much fun with vampires, Hadley formed a club of them. Here's all the members (Vlad is hiding behind Caleb's hair). It's called Hadley's Vamp Buds, and she is the leader, of course. Their activities are using vampire powers and being nice to each other.
So of course I take these hungry vamps to the park to prey on any late-night park-goers, and these dinguses instead elect to stand around in a circle and trade compliments ("Oh! Your fangs are so white in the moonlight!") while Hadley feeds (with permission, but it's still better than the rest of those dorks).
Hugh: "Sigh. I wish Hadley would feed on me."
Oh my God, Hugh! I think that torch you've been carrying is a full-blown conflagration now.
Io: "Hey Cassini. What's up?"
Hadley: "Shh, Mom! We don't want to scare the dear."
Io: "But you're literally . . ."
Hadley: "Shhhhhhh."
Louis! Good to see you, man. And of course he makes a beeline for the bar.
Meanwhile, Io got some quality time changing Cassini's diaper. Hey, she's still screaming, but at least presumably it's in discomfort, not terror, this time.
While Hadley works on fixing the things that everyone else breaks, Io came down and surprised Louis with some sweet flirts. It's good to see these two together again, even if it's just for tonight.
Io: "And then . . . *whisper whisper whisper*"
Louis: "Ooh! Tee hee."
Hadley: "Gross, Mom and Dad. I can still hear you."
Louis may not have gotten to meet Cassini while living, and he didn't make it into the house that night, but he got to greet his second grandchild from this side of Hadley's belly. It was a really good visit from him and went a long way towards soothing my feelings about his early death.
After a full night of childcare, gestation, and repairs, Hadley recharges with some dark meditation.
She's interrupted by the game's call for her to grow Cassini up, though. She had to teach her to walk out here because the nursery is too small. Look at Cassini! How cute! I couldn't wait to get my hands on her for a makeover!
Hmm, so far, I'm not sure who she takes after more. After a silly toddlerhood, she's going to become increasingly art-oriented and broody, culminating in an art-loving, creative, gloomy . . . bodybuilder? Hang on. Where does that fit in? I have no idea, but I crack up every time I think that it might be the case that Kristina will have to play yet
another bodybuilder in this legacy. I have no idea why that aspiration comes up so often. Anyway, Cassini is completely adorable. Sadly, now that she's a toddler, we can see that she did not inherit vampirism from her mother. Still perfect anyway. Let's take a look at her full outfit.
Her hair and outfit are CC (converted from Maxis stuff) because they didn't give us enough toddler options for my liking, and this was long before Toddler Stuff or anything like that. I wanted to play up her silliness since that's her defining trait right now, and I thought the bright colors looked good with her skintone.
Jordon: "Hey, sweetie. Eating clam chowder like a big girl, huh? Ooh, that reminds me! Did you hear why the man limpet-ed out of the seafood buffet?"
Cassini: "Daddy."
Jordon: "It's because he . . ."
Cassini: "Dad, no."
Jordon: "Pulled a mussel."
Jordon: "Was it something I said?"
Cassini's inner monologue: "If I hear one more dad joke I'm going to cry. What did I do to deserve this? I wonder if I should just fake being asleep."
So Jordon's bonding well with Cassini. Hadley has mostly taken care of her up til now because Jordon's been working on his music aspiration and he's also pretty useless so I'm trying to give them more time together, but Cassini just pulls all of these hilarious sad faces around her father.
An increasingly-pregnant Hadley needs to feed more often, so thankfully Io gave in for once. She can only take so much plasma from Jordon, and she doesn't really have non-vampire friends except for Rook. So thanks for taking one for the team, Io.
Unfortunately, it was apparently such a good drink Io couldn't even make it one more step closer to bed afterward. Hadley is just appreciating the new earbuds she got in the mail.
Hadley: "THEY'RE BLUETOOTH! NO CORDS!"
Hadley, turn 'em down. You're screaming.
Hadley: "WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU OVER THE MUSIC."
Thankfully, that racket gave Io a chance to make it to bed and sleep for the rest of the night to recover her strength.
Are these not two of the cutest darn sims you have ever seen? Damn, Hadley makes cute kids. She and Cassini are absolutely adorable together.
And even though Hadley still won't take her earbuds out, Cassini loves getting attention from her mommy. She has no idea her world's about to change in a day or so when her sibling joins the family!
For now, though, she much more enthusiastically listens to a story from her mom. Poor Jordon.
Hadley: "Why is this hot dog music video so loud? I can't hear my music over it."
A better question is: why are you watching a hot dog music video?
Hadley: "Eh, I don't spend much time in my coffin and I don't sleep. You gotta pass the wee hours of the morning somehow."
Io gifted us a very nice painting while on free will. I really like it and I haven't seen this one before.
It also happens to match the walls of the toddler nursery perfectly, so up it goes.
Jordon got invited to Ladies Night, so that's a thing that happened.
His record of parenting continues to be unimpeachable, even if he does use unconventional methods to potty train Cassini.
He did give her a bath during which I got this adorable shot, so that is one point in Jordon's favor. Isn't Cassini just a doll? I love her so much.
While playing blocks with her daughter, Hadley starts to feel those familiar pains.
Jordon: "Oh God, it's happening again. I'm going to fre--"
Hadley: "Don't say it. I really need your support on this one. Come be with me."
Jordon: "I can't do it! Imma go tearing around the upstairs instead."
Hadley: "Ow ow ow! Jordon, please!"
Jordon: "Okay, honey, if it's really that important to you, I'll stay."
Jordon from down the hall: "Jk lol nope."
Hadley: "Hopefully you take after me in the brains department, little Suisei."
As you can see, Suisei is another little girl! Yay! Suisei is a Japanese word meaning 'comet,' and also a Japanese unmanned spacecraft designed to investigate Halley's Comet in 1985 and later the inner solar system after that mission. It remained operational until 1991. I have been completely unable to find reliable intel on how to pronounce this name, so if you know, please do share. Wikipedia indicates that it may be along the lines of
"sùíséé," but that's still kind of confusing. Suisei studied the hydrogen corona of Halley's Comet and later the solar wind.
Cassini: "Yay, Daddy! We running! Silly Daddy!"
Finally something they can bond over.
His panic over, Jordon checks in on Suisei because Hadley has been up all night watching Cassini and she's exhausted. He still has time to become a good father. Now would be an excellent time to start.
Speaking of timings, that brings us to the time where I tell you it's the end of the chapter. It is! So you'll have to check back next time to see Cassini and Suisei grow, Hadley become an even more powerful vampire, a third baby join the family, Jordon doing something - anything - useful other than look after his own aspiration (he also has no job, which, you know, Hadley doesn't either because they're rich, but she still gets like a million things done each day), and Io be the crazy grandma the girls will have stories about for years to come. First though, we'll have a quick little Spare Interlude (just one part) to show what Rook and Bradley have been up to out of the house. It'll be important once we get back to the main house, promise! Thanks so much for reading, and check back soon for more of
I Hart Space! I went back to school this spring, hence the long hiatus, but I'm on summer break and I'm looking to get caught up. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment