I Hart Space! - Chapter 6: Dark Nebula, Part IV

 It's that time again! We're back from another long unintentional break, but this time with a new chapter of the main family, including MORE TODDLERS! Read on for that Hart goodness we all know and love...

Last chapter was just a spare interlude in which we met the children of Rook (Zond and Gaia) and Bradley's daughter (Rosetta) and saw how the boys were situated in their new house with their new wives. When we left the main family, we had a silly toddler named Cassini and another girl baby in the form of a little one called Suisei, both named after unmanned spacecraft. Io's still kicking around and Jordon's probably doing...stuff. I don't really know. He basically just plays guitar and sleeps. Anyway, I've been busy with school so I only pick these guys up every once in a while unfortunately, so we'll see the introduction of several new packs in the course of this one chapter, including Pets and Seasons!

We start off with Hadley watching over Cassini and enjoying a nice frog plasma juice box. She keeps two frogs in her inventory and once a day, I breed them then turn the offspring into a plasma pack for her to supplement the ones she buys. Morbid, but then she is a vampire, after all. And she's trying to be a Master Vampire, no less! She just needs to survive for 20 days as a master vampire. She's got all the skill and sparring and levels she needs. She just has to...not die. I mean, that's the goal anyway, so that works, even if 20 days is FOREVER in Sims 4. That leaves her without much to achieve, which is Hadley's purpose in life, so she will just have to pour all her leftover overachiever energy into her children.

That starts with Cassini, who somehow manages to eat an entire meal in the highchair back before I knew these were bad news. Cassini is a perfect angel baby, though, so I'm not entirely surprised.

Hadley strikes me as a bit of a perfectionist, though that's not one of her traits, and definitely an overachiever. That kind of person can be a little high-strung (hi, ask me about my neuroses!) but Hadley is just joyful 99% of the time. She's adapted to the different achievements of motherhood rather well. She's just a natural at everything she tries.

So might as well ramp up the difficulty with a third kid, right? Plus I have a plan for three toddlers that you'll see later in this chapter, so we need to keep them tightly-spaced. Jordon crawled out of the woodwork for once to participate in this activity.

And Hadley keeps up her streak of instant conceptions, meaning our third and final baby of the generation is on the way!

After Jordon, the first to hear the news is Hadley's late father, Louis. Although he doesn't look it in this picture, he is ultimately very pleased to hear that he'll have a sixth grandchild, though he's never met any of them. It's really a shame he had to go so early, but I appreciate that he haunts fairly frequently.

Cassini (perfect angel baby) is also happy to be a big sister again. Speaking of her little sisters, it's time for the middle one to grow up!

Suisei is immediately adorable, and although I kinda love that hair on her, I ultimately changed it to suit her personality a little better. She learns to walk immediately and then it's in to CAS.

Here's the result! What a cutie! Let's take a look at her personality...

Suisei's overriding personality trait is that she is just an enthusiastic lover of...well, everything, pretty much. As a toddler she loves doing things on her own. As a child, she'll delve into the world of loving music and knowledge. By her teen years, her interests will broaden to include a love of food and fishing, and when she's an adult, she'll finally realize her love of the outdoors. That is a lot of loving. This personality kind of cracks me up, and it really is a pretty perfect one. She'll be a great angler with loves the outdoors, and she should be pretty easy to keep happy with those other preferences. Hi, independent, varied-interest, enthusiastic Suisei! Welcome to the family. Also good news: Suisei is a vampire, though that won't make a difference until she's older. But it's pretty special that she inherited that from her mother!

Also a note: I forgot to take a picture in CAS of Suisei immediately, so this is her in my new CC skins, which will make an appearance on everybody later in the chapter. So if she looks a little different in the following pics than in this one, that's why.

The sisters immediately start up a funny conversation (Cassini loves to make silly faces and tell jokes) and they're just too adorable. My heart exploded and I had to be revived every time they dealt with each other.

Like a boss, Hadley manages two high chair lunches while being pregnant. She's incredible.

For their part, the girls are very good about eating their PB&J sandwiches. They both love new experiences generally and have very good attitudes.

When the girls are both in bed, Hadley invites her brothers over for a catch-up sesh. (Rook's on the driveway in the background there.)

They enjoy a great evening of conversation and gaming. To no one's surprise, Hadley won the first game, and Rook picked up the second. It was nice to see the guys again. The faces being made in this pic crack me up. These three are pretty tight as siblings and I like to see that.

After her brothers leave, the girls are up again, and Hadley, who seems to have boundless energy, is there teaching essential skills. Although independent Suisei could already use the potty on her own, she learns faster with her mommy's help. Cassini is already a pro.

The next day sees Hadley ready to adopt a new member of the family. We're going to get a puppy. The adoption agency brought three cute little candidates over for us to get to know.

Jordon: "Do we really need a dog, though?"

Don't think I won't put you up for adoption, Jordon.

*Jordon scrambles back to his guitar*

He is such an absent husband and father because it is taking him forever to finish his aspiration, and he just doesn't do a lot of other interesting stuff, so I end up not taking a lot of pictures of him.

Speaking of people not in a lot of pics, Io is still kicking around.

Io: "That's a pretty weird sculpture in the entry way. And those noises...Jordon must be experimenting with some weird kind of puppy-themed kazoo. Yeah, that makes perfect sense. Just gonna enjoy my cake and the yippy kazoo. Another good day for Autonomous Io."

I'm letting her do whatever she wants, which is mostly eat cake and sleep.

We settle on this Norse Elk Shepherd pup, a girl. I have no idea what that breed is, but it sounds like she'll be big when she grows up. She is loyal, adventurous, and a sleuth, so she sounds like a perfect companion for Hadley and her girls. We named her Laika, after the first dog in space.

Laika and Cassini are fast friends...

...and Suisei adores her too. Definitely a good addition to the family!

Laika has an obsession with the toilet for some reason, so she mostly lives in the bathroom during her puppy years. There's another legacy I read where a sim on autonomy spent a lot of time in a bathroom and was called a "bathroom gremlin," and that's how I've been affectionately referring to Laika in my head. Hopefully she'll branch out a bit when she's older. Apparently we adopted her right at the start of her puppy stage, because she took ages to grow up.

Cassini: "Mommy drink froggy? No!"
Hadley: "It's ok, sweetie. Just eat your unfertilized chicken eggs and I'll have my frog plasma, and everyone's happy."

Varied diets in this house, that's for sure.

Hey, our two absentee family members are reading the girls to bed! Hadley must have had to take a break to meditate or sleep in her coffin finally. She's immortal and an overachiever, but even high-achieving vampires need to sleep sometime.

Afterwards, for Jordon, it's back to tedious, endless skilling on the guitar, but now Laika's being cute next to him, so I'm willing to take a picture of it. Jordon playing sweet lullabies for the puppy is a lot more interesting than Jordon standing in this corner for 85% of this life by himself.

Louis: "Woo! Yeah! I approve of this extremely colorful nursery, but especially of the little darlings within it. My grandchildren!"

Hadley's up from her nap and rushes to interact with Louis. He's excited for the third.

Unfortunately he's already gone back to his urn when Hadley starts feeling labor come on...

...but let's take a break to notice Laika is sleeping on her back. Awwwwww. So cute! Why, yes, I am a dog person. Ahem. Anyway, back to our regularly schedule programming...

Hadley: "Amazing! Another little girl, Jordon! Hey, Jordon. Jordon, we have a third daughter! Are you listening to me?"
Jordon: "Do you have a file? I think my nails are getting a little long."

Sigh. At least he sat in the chair this time at the right time. Anyway, welcome to Kepler, yet another candidate for the heirship! Amazing that we had three girls again! I kept Hadley away from all fresh fruit and made sure she wasn't listening to the wrong stations on her earbuds, so I don't know how she did it, but it is Hadley so maybe it isn't so surprising. It is funny because Io's generation, the last on my computer, was also three girls, while Kristina's game is only content to spit out one girl per generation. Quirk of random chance, but still funny to me.

Anyway, Kepler is named for a space telescope maintained by NASA. It was in use from 2009 and was just retired in October of 2018. Its mission was to use a photometer to scan for exoplanets in other solar systems, and it found many exoplanets and thousands of what are referred to as "planet candidates." It traveled in a heliocentric orbit slightly behind Earth's own orbit.

Immediately after giving birth, Hadley is on the job for Suisei's first bath. What a cutie!

Then we're growing Kepler up just a few hours after she was born, because she and Cassini won't be toddlers at the same time long enough, otherwise, for...our surprise. Is it cheating? Arguably. But I don't care. This is important.

Kepler is another black-haired, brown-eyed beauty like her sisters.

So here's the plan for Kepler. So far, she looks a lot like Cassini to me, but all three girls are fairly similar at this point and figuring out toddler genetics is pretty cryptic. We'll see when they grow up. Kepler strikes me as that person that is quiet and keeps to themselves, but is secretly quite smart and observant, and has hidden talents if they trust you enough to reveal themselves. For Kepler, it'll be art, cooking, and an affinity for tidiness, like the domestic lovechild of Banksy and Marie Kondo. Oh yeah, and she'll keep the family trait of erratic going. I know it says insane, but that's because I made this card before they changed it. She'll follow her mother and grandmother's tradition of self-storytelling, but if you can get past that, she's a secret prodigy with a unique outlook on the world and a killer plan for dinner.

Our three girls in their PJs wake up bright and early in great moods and skill a little to pass the time. Finally everyone is in a good mood and it's that time of the morning that people won't reject our invites. It is time...

...for the inaugural HART TODDLER PLAY DATE. I've been planning this forever! Bradley and Elisa came as caregivers (unfortunately I can't invite specific caregivers, if I'm remembering correctly, which is the only reason the whole fam isn't there), and besides our girls, Zond, Rosetta, and Gaia have been invited to a cheery "toddler café" that I downloaded from the Gallery then modified slightly to be a park so it was an eligible location for play dates. Seems like an oversight to me, but it was easily rectified and this lot is PERFECT.

Rook's kiddos are already halfway around the corner from the spawn point, eager to get in and have some fun.

Rosetta, Bradley's daughter, stays behind to chat up her grandmother.

All our girls are dressed in their party best, so let's take a quick peek because when do you ever get to show off toddler party outfits? Suisei is rocking the orange cat print.

While Kepler, still quite shaky on the go with her nearly-complete lack of movement skill, is looking sweet in a pineapple print and sherbet-colored shoes.

Normally energetic Cassini is modeling a head-to-toe green look, and she's seeming a little reserved, but with a little coaxing she heads inside too. Let's follow and see what the day has in store.

Hugh: "Sigh. These could have been mine and Hadley's babies."
Jordon: "Dude, I am right here."

Of course Hugh is here! I didn't invite him, but I don't need to: he gravitates to Hadley wherever she goes. Anyway, this café is tricked out! It is a colorful explosion of kiddie activities and seating places for adult conversation. Perfect for a playdate, and Jordon was even able to get a grilled cheese!

Hugh soon cheers up. He must be childish, because he can see the imagination images when he plays with the toys. I find this strangely endearing.

Everyone is socializing and having a good time, the extended family getting to know the main family and vice versa. It's all going very well and the adults are enjoying getting to know their relatives. As for our girls, they tended to keep to themselves and play, but they'll get to know their cousins when they're older, because I'll keep them growing up alongside the main trio. Let's check in on them.

Cassini: "Doll wear my dress! Hee hee!"

Just about! Good eye, Cassini. Keep at it!

Suisei: "Slide no no! Too scary!"

Aw, our big bad vampire baby found the slide a little much for her by herself. Too cute.

And Kepler is queen of the mountain in the fort. Looks like everyone's having a pretty good time.

Hadley had a strong "that was cute" moodlet from the toddlers, and Cassini told her a joke and that tipped her over and made Hadley hysterical, so she had to duck into the bathroom to cool off a little because I am not having any more emotional deaths in this legacy, thank you.

Eventually Caleb Vatore showed up and Kyra (Rook's wife) stopped by, dressed as the park hobo, and that triggered the magical number of vampires in Haldey's Vamp Buds club for it to become a club gathering. All the toddlers were getting a little tired, this was getting hectic, and we more than accomplished what we set out to do (get cute pics and introduce the branches of the family to each other), so it was time to head home.

The girls are read to sleep and tucked in back home. Kepler is backwards because I get this bug (not just at time of play - it is still going on, so if you know the solution, please share!) where toddler beds, seemingly randomly, cannot be interacted with against a wall. That's fine and dandy if you have one toddler bed in a big nursery, but these three beds in this little nursery can't exactly just be placed anywhere I want. So when this happens, I flip the bed around and somehow that allows it to be interacted with again. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Laika, who has been home alone all day, is so filthy that she can't even see straight and ran right into the door frame, becoming one with the dark gray. Considering she's apparently spent all day in the bathroom, I don't want to know how she got so dirty.

After a quick bath, Hadley shows our pup some love. She's a good, if a little strange, girl.

And then she's dirty again while she's playing with her squeaky toy, I guess? I don't know. Her coat is kind of weird such that when she's in shadow, I can't tell if it's just the shadows or if she's dirty. So she probably got more baths as a puppy than she strictly needed, but she was always good about it. Anyway, playing with the squeaky toy! Look at those little puppy teeth fangs! Sooooo cute! But what's that racket coming from the kitchen?

Io: "And then I says to him, hey bud, you got the wrong chick if that's what you're after. And this big, scary dude..."

Io: "He just starts screaming and screaming and screeching. So high pitched! It was horrific. I've never seen such anger in all my life."

Io: "But the kicker, if you can believe it, is this: after that fit, and with me still standing there in my Sunday best, he has the nerve to say in front of the whole fifth grade class..."

Io: "He says, 'I just wanted some Girl Scout cookies!!!!!' *jazz hands*"

Yeah, we're going to be leaving now. Thanks, Io.

And then a long break commenced and Seasons happened, so I redid the garden area and moved it out to the backyard, where it is looking pretty good and dead because I think I started the save in fall.

Also Laundry Day, so a portion of Hadley's vampire lair was sacrificed to make a laundry room in the basement. I think it turned out pretty cute.

Super dark picture because I originally just took it on a whim but forgot to take a better picture, but here is our garden. We've got Patchy. I don't know if we'll befriend him or not. I kept the garden open air because we have tons of money so we don't really need the income, and if some of the plants are seasonally dormant, it'll be less work for Io and the rest.

Anyway, a new day dawns on this cool autumn morning, and we have a hangry toddler parade. Time to drop a meal on the floor and pan away. So good at parenting. A+. Sims has taught me so much about child care.

Of course, when Suisei's portrait remains red, I have to check back on what's up with her, and she's painstakingly traveled up to the roof to throw her fish tacos on the ground and wander around starving. I'm not even sure there's a chair up here. There may be a bench, but I don't remember. So I'm really not sure why she's up here, but I got her fed.

Hadley then swoops in for a little one-on-one with all of her girls, but this picture is just of Suisei's turn. Hadley is good friends with all her daughters.

Unsurprising, since we take such good care of our toddlers. Yeah, I feel really good about this picture.

Hadley makes random friends off the street purely for the purpose of drinking from them when she's recently drunk from Jordon and needs more plasma. Io is kind of a jerk about it and hardly ever lets Hadley feed from her.

I guess she needs to conserve her energy for more important pursuits.

Party time! It is Cassini's birthday, and we threw a big party. Of course, it went like any Sims party, which is to say very disjointed and confusing. Here, Hadley has just set Cassini down after blowing out her candles. She set her down on the other side of the cabinet from all the party goers so they have a good view of her, I guess. Not that anyone but Hadley is watching. Typical.

And then Random Plasma Donor strolls through with the clean-up from a toddler potty just as Cassini grows up into an outfit that is so not her.

Before I can take a look at Cassini's face, the camera is jerked away to see Baako Jang (I think that's his name? He came with City Living), who Hadley had turned for some part of her aspiration, I think. Upon returning to the lot as a late arrival for the party, he finally finished his transition into a vampire.

However, his dark form is really badass so I'm not even mad.

Meanwhile, Bradley and Elisa are loving up on each other out on the patio. It's nice to see I made a successful match. I don't see Rook and Kyra interacting as much, but then I don't think she came to this party anyway, so that may be why I'm not remembering them.

Rook was there, however, and he was quickly cornered by our newly-minted Social Butterfly with a love of art. She was able to kick out a lot of her aspiration at this party by bothering all the captive audience adult friends of the family.

Then I moved the cake and I guess it called everyone over to this one corner of the kitchen? I don't even know.

And here's Hadley making a toast to the birthday girl, by herself, out of earshot of everyone that could potentially celebrate the toast.

Hadley: "What? I got stage fright!"

You can see Hadley still making her toast outside the door. The guests and the family found the cake. The party goals are getting crossed off pretty quickly, and Cassini is continuing her quest to chat up every guest. I promise we'll get a better look at her after the party.

Hadley: "Guys! No one even clapped after my toast! It's like you didn't even hear me."

Gee, you think?

Unrelatedly, Louis wouldn't miss an opportunity to haunt his eldest granddaughter's birthday party! Also, the cake logjam is still in progress.

The toddlers weren't totally left out. They got syrupy pancakes to celebrate the first sister escaping the toddler nursery. The party was a gold medal, and it was good to see a lot of familiar faces. Now let's see how Cassini is turning out.

Oh my goodness! She's so adorable! I love her! Again, this is from later with my new skins, which you can especially tell around the eyes and lips. She's definitely got those slightly-angled Hart eyes that came from Brandy, and I see a little Jordon in her as well. She's beautiful! Like I said, she is now a Social Butterfly and an art lover.

Here's her outfit. We stuck with green and the kind-of-silly theme from her toddler years. I still think of her as being pretty carefree.

I also grew up the spares' kids since the younger girls will be following suit soon, and this way they can be socialized with by Cassini and then the other two when they're old enough. This is Zond, Rook's boy. He's a Social Butterfly and a perfectionist, so I kept his look neat and clean.

Rosetta, Bradley's vampire daughter, has a fierce look that I think she gets mostly from her mother, who is also dangerously cool. She is a bit of a dichotomy as she has the motor aspiration but is lazy. Thank goodness I don't have to try to skill her.

And Rook's daughter, Gaia, is still a lovable weirdo with antenna hair.  She is a Whiz Kid and she Loves the Outdoors, so she got a daisy necklace and matching glasses.

Back home, Jordon crawled out of his corner to do some parenting for the first time in a while. Granted, Cassini is looking at him like that because she just finished her homework and is putting it away, but hey, he tried.

The only reason he's even on duty is because Hadley needed a rest.

Cassini rolled a want to do laundry, which I may have squeed a little bit over as she is truly my perfect angel baby. Cute, socially gifted, and she wants to clean up after us? Go on, I won't stop you.

And she's adorable while doing it. You are too much.

This is where I finally installed those skins I've mentioned a few times, so everyone looks slightly different from here on out, but it isn't a very drastic difference.

Laika, still a puppy, sings along with Jordon. Jordon is the slowest skiller ever, despite being in a room with a super-strong inspirational aura. His aspiration is going to take his entire life at this rate. At least it gives Laika an opportunity to be cute.

Cassini has signed up for scouting!

She busted out a badge while working on her aspiration with Hugh, while Laika supervises very watchfully nearby.

I kind of regret not putting these two together. Then maybe we would have gotten something besides all dark-haired, dark-eyed children. Plus Hugh really will not let go of his thing for Hadley, and he's interesting, unlike some sims, JORDON. In Jordon's favor, he made really cute kids, so I guess we'll just let the past lie. Although now I'm tempted to play in CAS and see what kind of kids these two would have made. Hmm.

In other news, Io is thoroughly enjoying all that fall has to offer. I really love Seasons. It's such an immersive pack.

And...the girls are still eating pancakes? Or eating pancakes again? I think I kind of lost my focus on the toddlers temporarily now that I had a child to play.

After getting to know her at the play date, Cassini is able to call Gaia over to become friends. They became best friends, helping Cassini greatly with her aspiration. I love this picture because Gaia is a classy little lady in her outerwear, and Cassini is a big goof. Cousins. I picked Gaia because she seems the closest in personality to Cassini, so I think they'd be close.

He must have passed a milestone or something, because I can't imagine another reason I'd take a picture of just him, but I don't remember what it was. I'll let you know next chapter if it was anything important.

Io is still running on free will, and she enjoys leaving masterpieces for me to find, which I have to say I also enjoy.

Io: "Well, enough painting. Time for Family Story Hour."

Hmm, what might that be?

Oh. I should have guessed.

Hadley: "But the bear reared up and growled, and the campers all screamed!"
Io: "You won't believe what happened next..."

Hadley: "The bear stretched higher and higher, taller and taller, until it was as tall as the pine trees, and most of the campers wet themselves!"
Io: "The woman gathered all of the Easter eggs in her basket, challenging the children to take them from her."

Hadley: "Just then, one wet and smelly camper jumped out, begging for mercy from the bear while his pants sagged pitifully..."
Io: "'Just come and get them, my pretties,' she said, because it turned out she was actually one of those witches that eats kids and she needed the candy in the Easter eggs to build her house again, but she wasn't opposed to a snack while she was gathering supplies."

Hadley: "And lo, the bear was embarrassed for all the pee-soaked campers, and he cowered back to his normal height. 'Aw geez, guys. You didn't have to go and make it weird,' the bear said, while sauntering back to his cave. The campers survived to see another day, but their underwear would never be the same."
Io: "But then the Easter Bunny popped out of literally nowhere like a Sims 2 Social Bunny and he gave that witch a royal smackdown, and afterwards was seen passing out the candy-filled eggs to all the good children again while the witch filed a formal complaint with his superiors for assault. To be continued..."

Well, all's well that ends well. Also, well, this is a good place to end! Thank you for reading and check back next time for more Hart adventures, including the childhood years of our potential heiresses and the adult form of Laika. Hopefully we will see Hadley complete her aspiration and Jordon his, so he can be a functional member of the family again. Take care! <3