Welcome back to I Hart Space, a space-themed joint legacy by Roxanne and Kristina. This is Kristina, back again to bring you part two of chapter seven! In this update, we will see our current heiress, Cassini, work towards achieving her second aspiration of becoming an archaeology scholar. We will also get started on finding a spouse and bringing in generation eight of this family!
If you need to catch up on part one, or any of our other chapters, you can do so here. If you're ready now, here we go!
In Part I of this chapter, we saw Cassini achieve her first aspiration of becoming a bodybuilder, then watched her work on a variety of skills to help prepare her for her second aspiration - becoming an archaeology scholar. We also saw her parents, Hadley and Jordon, leave the vampire lifestyle behind and become mortal. Her sisters, Suisei and Kepler, worked on their own aspirations, became young adults, and moved out of the house.
Everything was accomplished with the typical Hart family efficiency, with the exception of several breaks to mold clay blobs. Now, we are ready to move ahead and really get this generation started!
After a quick phone call, Cassini heads off on a seven day trip to the beautiful and mysterious Selvadorada. Upon arriving at her vacation rental the skies open and it begins to pour. Cool.
Cassini isn't daunted by this though, she's too excited to get out there and start soaking up the culture. As a creative, art loving sim, she's all about discovering new and interesting forms of artwork.
She starts off by heading down to the town square and runs into something new right away - the statue of Madre Cosecha. Viewing this allows her to start learning about the Selvadoradian culture.
Throughout the duration of her trip I'm going to switch her between the jungle explorer and archaeological scholar aspirations, in the hopes of achieving both. Viewing the statue took care of a jungle explorer requirement, and satisfied her art-loving soul.
After that, she gave the local food a shot and purchased a whole bunch of exploration supplies in the marketplace. This cleared the first part of the jungle explorer aspiration.
As things were getting awfully soggy outside, Cassini's next stop was the bar, where she proceeded to chat up a whole bunch of locals. She learned about Selvadoradian greetings, stories, and landmarks. By the end of the night, she was an expert in the culture skill...
and almost an expert in the local dance style. Dancing is one of the art forms she hasn't quite mastered yet, but I do admire her confidence.
We also met a curiously-coiffed man named Ferdinando Alvarado at the bar, who got along with Cassini extraordinarily well. After a bit of light flirting, he split for the night, but not before we snagged his phone number.
As the next day dawned, Cassini suited up for some exploration.
She started off with some excavation. Her archaeology aspiration required her to excavate three dirt piles, and she found her first one right at the Belomisia Trailhead. She came away with several artifact-shaped clumps of dirt and a relic piece.
After that, she headed deeper in the jungle to find more dirt piles. All that fitness skill served her well here as she wielded the machete.
The first spot she came across was an old plane wreck. She found another two dig sites here, and a treasure chest.
The treasure chest yielded a collection of things, including a curse that doomed Cassini to see visions of tempting, delicious food everywhere. A secondary effect of the curse was that it also doomed me to have extreme difficulty capturing pictures of Cassini without food mirages in them for two sim days. It was a struggle for both of us.
Between the curse and a random bug attack, I decided to call it a night after exploring the crash site. Cassini headed back to the bar for a bite to eat. As luck would have it, we ran into Ferdinando again.
I admit, I cheated a bit by giving him a sneaky makeover ahead of schedule, but the green mohawk just wasn't doing it for me. He hangs out with Cassini for the rest of the night, and they become pretty close friends. They flirt, they joke around, and no interaction between them fails, even though we learn that his first trait is unflirty.
Before turning in for the evening, Cassini snaps a picture, which is also ruined by a food vision, so at least we are together in our misery.
We start off the next morning with a little archaeology work. Cassini starts cleaning up the artifacts she unearthed the previous day and makes it to level eight in the skill. Finally, she starting to see some new and exciting art! She also clears the first step of her archaeology aspiration. Her next step is to establish some dig sites in the jungle and do more work authenticating artifacts.
After stocking up on some supplies, we set off later on in the evening to do some more artifact hunting.
We make out pretty well, despite the creepy bats. We spend all night in the jungle, discovering more artifacts and reaching level 9 in the archaeology skill.
While camping out, we learn that the jungle is a dangerous place. The next morning dawns with a terrifying spider attack. Luckily, Cassini's high logic skill helped her keep her cool and avoid any trouble.
Heading deeper into the jungle, we discover the Omiscan Royal Baths, where we take a few moments to indulge in a swim.
The rest of the day is spent authenticating more artifacts and excavating dirt piles. Cassini maxes her archaeology skill and gets to spend time examining all kinds of vases, masks, knives, and skulls.
She also makes it to her first temple, where she can finally start tackling more of the jungle explorer aspiration.
Inside, she examines and passes through several traps. Her collection of skills allows her to figure out all the right options with ease, and before long, she makes it deep inside the temple.
Indeed, Cassini seems to be made for this type of adventuring. There are bugs, snakes, skeletons, and scary, glowing statues around every corner, but she handles them all with ease.
Before long, she uncovers the temple's hidden treasure, which consists of more artifacts and an ornate golden frog.
She also begins assembling a relic, as she needs it for her explorer aspiration.
Back outside, she refined a crystal for it and inserted it into the base, officially completing a Balampalsoh Death Relic.
The last thing left to do in the third tier of the explorer aspiration was to fend off some natural dangers. Later that night, during a little excavating, Cassini successfully gets rid of some bugs and finishes it off, pushing her to the final step of the aspiration. To complete it, she needs to open three Omiscan treasure chests and activate a mystic relic five times.
The next day is Love Day, and even the temple is getting into the spirit. Cassini had been camping out in the jungle for a few days at this point, so I sent her home to freshen up and give Ferdinando a call.
After a little conversation and flirting, they set off on a jungle date. Just like before, they get along incredibly well.
We learn that Ferdinando is cheerful and ambitious on our date, making him an excellent option for our spouse. Traits aside though, these two genuinely like each other. Their relationship grew very quickly and was completely drama-free.
They wrapped up their date with a trip to the waterfalls, where they had their first kiss and became boyfriend and girlfriend.
Their date didn't last too long though, because Cassini had work to do. She spent some time authenticating enough artifacts the clear the next step of the archaeology aspiration. She's now on the last step of that aspiration too!
The last few things for her to do now are to give an archaeology lecture and to write a good archaeology skill book. That night at the bar, she handles the lecture. Conveniently, Ferdinando showed up to listen.
Ferdinando's vigorous round of applause over breakfast the next morning confirmed that Love Day was indeed successful. He's such a dork, and I love it.
After eating, it was right back to business for Cassini. She headed over to the museum to work on writing her archaeology skill book. She needed to write a "good" one to satisfy the requirement, but alas, her writing skill was not high enough and her first attempt was merely average.
That first book gave her a bad case of writer's block, meaning that we couldn't start on another attempt right away. Instead, I decided to have Cassini start chipping away on the explorer aspiration goal of activating relics. First, she gave her Balampalsoh Death Relic a whirl on herself...
...with horrifying results. Skeletons have honestly always freaked me out a little, so I'm not exactly a fan of this particular game feature, but it does have it's advantages. Being a skeleton gives Cassini a few days where she doesn't have to worry about her needs at all - they freeze.
To take advantage of the frozen needs, I sent her out to explore another tomb. She still has to clear three more to finish the explorer aspiration.
She makes her way through the traps without any trouble and collected the treasure.
She even met a friend down there named Scapula. It was a pretty weird day.
As Cassini didn't need to sleep in her skeleton form, I sent her back to the library after she finished the tomb. Her writer's block finally cleared, so she worked on another archaeology skill book. By morning, she finished a "good" book and her aspiration along with it. She is now officially an archaeology scholar, well-versed in art from the ancient world! She played her ribs like a xylophone to celebrate. It was terrifying.
With the archaeology aspiration complete, she moved back to the jungle explorer one. She still had to activate a relic four more times and explore two more temples. She started by activating her existing relic on some unsuspecting tourist.
This had predictably unsettling results.
It was also prank day, so Cassini also spent some time performing mischief interactions on sims. I feel like doing this stuff as a skeleton could give someone pretty significant emotional damage, but hey, I wasn't going to let our heiress be depressed from not doing holiday traditions.
With her time as a skeleton ticking down, Cassini wrapped up the day by fusing a few more relics together. She used one of them to give an unsuspecting tourist a mystery illness before heading home for the night. So basically, it was a rough day to be a tourist in this particular museum today.
At this point, I extended Cassini's vacation a few more days, to allow her to finish up her goals. I also checked back in on Jordan and Hadley, to make sure they were behaving themselves in our absence. They were up to their normal pursuits of molding clay, mostly.
Jordan was approaching his elder birthday at this point, so I had him take a youth potion. This made him roughly the same age as Hadley. who is approaching adulthood.
Speaking of Hadley, she was continuing to work on her paintings. She actually finished her Fabulously Wealthy aspiration when I directed her to sell her latest works. I switched her over to the artist one next, since that's about all she does anyway.
Then, since Laika's passing had left a doggy-shaped void in the family, I decided to adopt a new pet. This little girl was the cutest option on the computer that day.
Jordan was instantly smitten, and frankly, so was I.
Which is why it was so disappointing when I figured out what her traits were.
At that point, it was too late though. Jordon didn't want to put her down, and who am I to stand in the way of destiny?
And that's the story of how we adopted Marfusha, a stubborn, glutton, couch potato of a dog.
Marfusha is named after the first rabbit cosmonaut! The original Marfusha was launched into space by the Soviets on a high-altitude test flight in 1959. Surprisingly, (at least to me) she made it back to earth alive.
Back in Selvadorada, Cassini reverted back to her normal form. Immediately, she activated her relic again and went back to being a skeleton.
This allowed her to explore another temple pretty quickly. Just one temple left to go now, and another relic activation, then she will be ready to go home.
For now, she heads back to her rental to wait for the temple to reset. Ferdinando comes over and they take advantage of her pool. For some reason, he doesn't find Cassini's look alarming.
She transforms back to her normal self right after their swim. These two are so stinkin' cute together. Even though it's only been a handful of days, both their friendship and romance bars are completely full.
Plus, they autonomously hug all the time, meaning that Ferdinando is a true Hart. It's time to lock this guy down before Cassini heads home.
They took a trip back to the Royal Baths, where Cassini got down on one knee and proposed.
He said yes, obviously.
And then they headed to a nearby bush to celebrate. Please ignore that leaf that is decapitating our heiress.
After the engagement was taken care of, Cassini transformed back into a skeleton (which took care of her requirement to activate a relic five times) and tackled her last tomb. Another skeleton friend showed up to cheer her on.
Reaching the treasure finished off her jungle explorer aspiration, meaning that Cassini has achieved all of her exploration dreams! She's fully explored a new corner of her world and studied a variety of ancient art. Now, it's time to head home and tackle her next big challenge - ushering in the next generation of little Harts.
She returns home with one day of being a skeleton remaining. I switched her over to the Fabulously Wealthy aspiration, which completed instantly. At this point, she had finished four aspirations. I put her in the painter one next, since I figured that it was high time for her to create her own art.
Inside the house, no one seemed to mind her skeleton look. Hadley welcomed her back with open arms while Marfusha looked curiously on.
We did terrify Eric Lewis, who was here for a Legacy League gathering, but messing with that guy's head is nothing new.
We had arrived back just in time for Hadley's adult birthday, and the family actually managed to celebrate while she was blowing out the candles this time.
She aged up nicely, as expected. She's so young for this point in the legacy - all that time she spent as a vampire means that we have a lot of days left with her.
With Cassini back in the house and ready to start bringing in the next generation of Harts, I gave the master bedroom a redesign to suit her personality. Some of her artifacts are displayed, and the furniture has a bit of an explorer vibe.
Marfusha also had a birthday that day, and she became a rather adorable bad girl.
We spent the rest of the day working on various aspiration goals. Jordon continued to write novels, and Hadley and Cassini painted.
The next morning, Cassini called up Ferdinando and invited him to move in. He's officially in the Hart house now, and a wedding won't be far away.
Upon his moving in, I discovered that Ferdinando's dream is to achieve the Nerd Brain aspiration. He's got a (mostly) nice collection of traits and is pretty handsome too. He'll make quite a nice addition to the family.
He gets started working on his aspiration right away. Playing chess helps him build up both the logic skill he needs and his relationship with the other members of the Hart family.
His portrait also joins the wall, alongside all the other Hart heiresses and spouses.
After a few rounds of chess, Ferdinando moves onto reading three books. He finishes that rather quickly, and moves onto the next level in his aspiration.
The next thing he needs is some handiness skill, so he gets started on crafting some statues.
He manages to sneak away between projects, and, of course, he finds his way to the clay. He's going to fit in around here just fine.
The next day dawns rather boringly, with Cassini taking Marfusha for a walk. Since she is a stubborn girl, she takes a long time to learn things. One thing she is refusing to learn is how to go potty by herself. She stands around and cries until someone tells her to go out or take her for a walk.
Ferdinando continues to build up his relationship with Jordon with a little cloud gazing.
And then he moves onto repairing objects for his aspiration. He begins with upgrading the kitchen sink.
After that, he starts working on his relationship with Hadley over the chess table. She's not trying too hard to make friends in this particular shot, but they do get along pretty well overall. Everyone likes Ferdinando.
After Cassini returns from taking Marfusha out, she spends the day working on her painting. She's at the step of her aspiration that requires her to paint some emotional paintings. This playful one came out so well that I decided to save it.
It matches our redecorated playroom quite nicely. It's exciting to think that we'll have some kiddos hanging out in here soon.
I love the way Ferdinando looks at Cassini. He does it all the time. These two are seriously into each other. He was a pretty lucky find - not bad for literally five minutes of looking at all the sims that walked into a bar!
Life with a bad dog means that you get woken up with barking every morning by a pet that refuses to learn not to bark. It's pretty great.
So, after that rude awakening, the family starts to prepare for a very important day. It's wedding time! Cassini and Ferdinando decide to formalize their relationship in the most annoying way possible for their loved ones...a destination wedding in Sulani.
As an adventurous sim and world traveler, of course Cassini wanted to travel somewhere different to exchange vows. The islands were the perfect spot for a little romance.
The whole family was invited, of course. The exception was Cassini's sister Suisei, whose vampire skin couldn't take the heat. Everyone looks fabulous in their formal beach attire.
Cassini and Ferdinando exchanged vows with the ocean sparkling in the background.
It was a beautiful ceremony. It would have been great if the rest of the people we invited could have seen it.
I've had terrible luck this generation with getting the family to actually watch celebration events, so this is hardly surprising. Hadley and Jordon refused to detach themselves from the bar for most of the wedding, and I don't even know where Kepler ran off to.
We only host the classiest and most dignified events in this legacy, clearly.
But hey, at least that one teenager that Cassini went on a date with ages ago, Duane, was here to see the nuptials.
After the ceremony was over, the rest of the day was pretty fun for everyone. There was cake, dancing, and lots of sunbathing.
There was also a lot of fainting. All the writing that Jordon has been doing for his aspiration lately has raised his celebrity status to the point where his fans just can't handle the glory of being in his presence.
He still only has eyes for Hadley though, and his autonomous hugs with her are adorable and numerous.
Once they arrive back home at the end of the night, the newlyweds get started working on that right away.
The first attempt was unsuccessful, so they had to go for round two. Marfusha, creepily, turned up to supervise.
And I guess her presence was good luck, because the second try was successful. Generation eight is officially on the way!
Cassini ran to tell Ferdinando the good news, and he reacted like most sim dads - disappointingly. To be fair though, he's got a lot going on with his tan lines right now, so he probably wasn't thinking clearly.
The next morning marked the start of our pregnancy progression waiting period. The family gathered together for breakfast, and, predictably, selected seats that made picture-taking difficult for me.
Cassini shared her big news with everyone, and they were all excited. Autonomous hugs abounded, including this awkwardly inappropriate one between a mostly naked Ferdinando and his mother-in-law.
Not in the mood for hugging though, was Cassini, whose first bouts of morning sickness started hitting her.
For the rest of the day, the family worked on their aspirations. Cassini painted, Jordon continued writing novels, and Ferdinando built logic skill with the telescope.
Hadley busied herself in the garden, tending to the money trees that have finally matured.
Later in the day, Ferdinando made it to the next step of his Nerd Brain aspiration, meaning that he had to get to level five handiness and launch or upgrade a rocket five times. He started in on the handiness skill first.
And as night fell, he moved onto rebuilding the rocket in Eris' old secret hideout. Things are going slowly. Probably because all he's doing is rubbing a wrench all over the rocket's outer hull.
The next day brought us into Cassini's second trimester. We called a Legacy League club gathering to help push everyone's skilling up and Suisei came over to feel the baby.
After some catching up, everyone heads off to their separate activities. Cassini battles through some back pain to continue making art.
Jordon finished writing enough novels to move onto the last step of his aspiration, in which he needs to write three bestsellers. He produces some clay from out of nowhere to celebrate.
Cassini was making good progress in her artist aspiration too. She arrived at the step where she needed to view three pieces of art in a museum. She set off for the nearest one with Ferdinando and made it a date. Obviously, he enjoyed himself much more than she did, at least in terms of comfort.
Pregnancy difficulties aside, they ended up earning a gold medal. It was nice for them to get away together one more time before their lives turn into an endless cycle of toddler skilling.
As night fell, the couple returned home and got back to work. Ferdinando's rocket is finally coming along. It's completely built, and now he is working on the upgrades.
A rather uneventful night ensued, bringing us ever-closer to the birth of our baby. While the whole family tries to patiently wait for the big moment to arrive, Cassini paints the first of five required masterpieces for her aspiration.
She also takes some time to authenticate a handful of artifacts she received in the mail, an actitvity so profitable it's ridiculous. She's basically on her feet all day, flitting from one activity to another, but we all know that Hart women are the toughest pregnant sims on the planet.
Ferdinando continues to add upgrades to his rocket, during which time he maxes out the rocket science skill. Somehow, banging on the side of the rocket with a hammer helped him achieve this milestone.
Jordon was supposed to hop right back on the computer to try and write a bestseller, but when I went to check on him, I found him passed out on the floor, with a negative moodlet from being "recently bitten." Suisei stood nearby, trying to appear innocent.
By the way, in the midst of all this hard work and excitement, Marfusha has been thriving. Between being filthy, barking, drinking from puddles, and crying every single time she has to pee, she barely has time to ignore all the lectures she's regularly given. In spite of all this, everyone in the house dotes on her and is always giving her treats. So many mixed messages here.
Finally, as night turns into the wee hours of the morning, Cassini goes into labor. Like the boss that she is, she'd just finished painting masterpieces two and three out of five immediately before the contractions started.
Here's a quick reminder of our legacy rules and my own luck with births in this family. I Hart Space is a matriarchy. We can only have female heiresses. Every time I have had the family so far, I have only had one girl in the whole generation. I have also always had a boy as the first child. I'm hoping to change my streak this time around so that there will be a choice for heiress.
Our nursery is extremely tiny, so the amount of people that managed to crowd inside for the birth was impressive. Ferdinando was there having his pre-parental panic, Hadley was there for moral support, and Suisei was there to distance herself from Jordon's unconscious body, presumably.
Of course, Cassini was there too, to have the baby. Doesn't she just look thrilled at the amount of family members currently in the room? The Harts have always been an enthusiastically supportive group.
And with that, I'm going to leave you here! It might seem cruel, but I want to save all the good, cute baby stuff for part three of this chapter. Stay tuned to see if we have a boy or a girl first, learn what the naming theme will be for this generation, and see how Cassini and Ferdinando do raising the next generation of Harts!
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