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Welcome back to the Elemental ISBI! In the last chapter things started okay, with autonomous caring of the triplets (which I'm still mad about having, by the way), but as soon as the toddler stage was reached havoc ensued. This only increased as money was tight and bills weren't paid. We left the Element family in a state of chaos, and to add insult to injury I had to replay a period of the worst chaos because of a glitch.
We thankfully start this new chapter with the lights and water back on and, miracle of miracles, all three toddlers asleep IN instead of ON their beds.
Arche is getting on top of garden and chicken wrangling. It turns out, I'm pretty sure Roger the rooster met his demise at the paws of a fox and I just didn't notice it, because I did see one snaffle a rabbit in this play session. Nature is cruel.
Not too much later, Eileen meets her end, dying of natural causes as an elderly hen, with a filthy dog playing in her food kind of ruining the ambience of her death scene. Arche buys a new white hen and white rooster to replace her.
And also manages to hatch one of the eggs she incubated, into a rooster chick he names Bob.
Meanwhile, Cecilia's favourite thing to do is teach her children things with flashcards. This might seem like a positive, but she does it no matter what their needs are, frequently ignoring anything from exhaustion to starvation. YOU WILL LEARN, CHILDREN.
She also likes to cook instead of eating Arche's safely prepared meals left in the fridge for her. She does manage to get to level 3 cooking without burning the house down though, so good for her.
This is a less appreciated behaviour. You're not even childish, Cecilia.
Arche, meanwhile, takes up fishing for some extra income and/or food and/or fertilizer for the garden.
Woohoo is an excellent way to give two Sims full fun bars when you have no TV. The extremely protected kind of woohoo though - triplets is enough, thanks.
Honestly, where they found the time and privacy though. Thank goodness it's time for the triplets to grow up. You will not be surprised to learn that not a one of them achieved enough skill points for the happy toddler trait. First up is Ember.
I think she's the cuter of the two girls, but she rolled the trait glutton, which sounds like it's going to be super fun in an ISBI. Can't wait for her to eat absolutely all of the food Arche prepares, especially as we have the simple living lot challenge. She wants to be a whiz kid.
Next is Ash.
A bit more tomboyish than her sister. Ash was the problem child as a baby and toddler, crying constantly and waking up her parents every damn night. Let's see if she improves now she's older. She's a kleptomaniac (good, please steal some stuff we can sell) and a rambunctious scamp.
Finally, Blaze gets to blow out the candles on the same cake. Sharing is caring, my friend.
He's an interesting kid. He could end up being very weird looking, I'm interested to see. He's a child of the ocean and also a rambunctious scamp, so if he becomes the TH, the family will get to move to Sulani. I'm going to go with random selection for the TH in this challenge, so we'll roll once this lot reach YA, since they're all going to get there at the same time.
Ash's first action as a school-aged child is to attempt to redeem herself after her trying toddlerhood.
Napping on the couch is not an approved activity though, Ash.
Meanwhile, Ember indulges her newly gluttonous nature and promptly scoffs two slices of cake in quick succession. I fear for her physique settings, I really do.
So, in an effort to get Ember away from the cake and to make some progress on their aspirations, I have Arche and Cecilia head to the park. Arche maxed his cooking skill while grilling, but as he's the TH I don't believe this is worth any points.
Blaze cooperates and makes a beeline for the jungle gym, and Ember goes with him though this is less use because she wants to be a whiz kid and would have been better off at the chess table. Ash, the other scamp, disappears. Blaze at least finishes the Energetic milestone of Rambunctious Scamp! +5
I'm less pleased with him when we get back home. As winter has started there's an ice skating rink within reach of the house, and he heads for it. This in and of itself isn't a bad thing - he manages two whole more skill points in motor looping around and around this thing.
Unfortunately this is to the detriment of literally almost all his needs. The kid nearly dies stuck in an endless loop of skating and only narrowly makes it back to the house and into bed before passing out.
The next day Ash repeats the whole fiasco again when she gets home from school. Argh! No points were lost but it was a close run thing!
Arche strongly prefers to be anywhere but the house, where he can rest and relax in peace and quiet and pretend he had just one child, like a normal person, instead of three all at once.
When dragged back home, he reluctantly engages in a bit of parenting and asks his son to stop making a mess everywhere, and while he's at it why not go do his homework?
The effectiveness of this nagging is...limited.
And when Blaze finally does head inside to do his homework, it's on Arche's bed, while Arche tries to sleep, and Cecilia distracts him chattering on about something.
Cecilia, who after a strong start seems to be getting more idiotic by the moment, does redeem herself somewhat by autonomously spraying the garden for bugs.
But then...what's this?
More unauthorized napping? And Cecilia, is that you? Napping on the kid's beds so they can't go to actual sleep? Loud sighing.
Also the lights got turned out again because they couldn't pay their bills. LOUDER SIGHING.
Also Aristotle is filthy in that picture because his favourite thing to do, despite being deathly afraid of the chickens, is to play in their food. Arche is the only Sim in the house ever likely to wash him, and the moment he does the damn dog is back out in the yard, leaping around in the chicken feed, getting dirty. I don't know what it is that we feed those chickens that makes the dog so gross, but it becomes an infinite loop of misery and for the first time ever, I begin wishing the darn dog would just die already.
Why did I think I should do an ISBI? I'm terrible at this game and now I am wishing death on a pixelated pupper! I am a terrible person.
Kids: oh no, there is a monster under the bed so we're all going to wake up and then we're going to wake up our parents.
Of course you are.
Arche is sent back out to try and earn money for bills.
Arche: I'd like to be anywhere but the house anyway, thanks.
Me too, buddy.
This leaves Cecilia free to continue cooking single servings of things and ignoring the leftovers in the fridge. Or maybe Ember ate them all.
Ash, bless her, tries to help out by mopping, but the fridge is broken so this puddle is infinite until someone fixes it.
I bring Arche home to do the honours, but he seems to have somewhere important to be out the back of the house instead.
Oh shoot. It's his adult birthday? My bad!
Arche: yeah, you forgot, which is why I came all the way to the back of the lot in the dark to age up, alone, away from the chaos of my family.
Speaking of chaos...
Ember: can I have food for my present, discount Santa?
Father Winter: *belly laugh*
Vlad: there are far too many children in this house, and my God, what is that smell?
Aristotle: :)
Father Winter: for the love of all that is holy...
Aristotle: :D
And then, after one final bath given by a resentful and exhausted Arche, Aristotle's chicken feed fossicking days are done, and to be honest I am mostly relieved.
That is not the case for the no doubt confused and possibly traumatised children, however, who have only recently had Father Winter and Vlad paying a visit, and possibly could have done without the Grim Reaper swinging by next.
Grim: you don't mind if I borrow a book, do you? I'll return it next time I reap here. I'm sure it won't be long, Cecilia keeps insisting on cooking, and at least one of those idiotic children is bound to skate themselves to death.
Despite the annoyance he caused in life, Aristotle's urn gets pride of place near the front door, so that a parade of very sad children can see it on their way out to school.
Arche seems...less bothered. He was the one that had to do all the baths, I guess.
In between the chaos of the dog and the bills, foxes got the white hen, though not before she managed to lay three hatchable eggs. Unfortunately all three were rooster chicks, so I sold the white rooster. I'll keep one of the roosters that grows up and eventually buy another hen, I guess.
Like mother, like daughter.
Still avidly interested in any chance to escape the chaos of his home, Arche accepts when Kim invites him out for dinner to console him about losing Aristotle. This is the first time Arche remembers to look sad about his dead dog, and it lasts until he eats his dinner.
If Cecilia is concerned about her husband going to dinner with and being consoled by another woman, she doesn't show it, instead preferring to research the apple tree.
Despite her gluttonous tendencies, Ember remains the most functional of the triplets, and I kind of hope she's rolled as TH. She plays with emotion regularly, building her creative skill AND her emotional control trait all at once, and moving past Aristotle's death more quickly than anyone else in the family.
Cecilia, on the other hand, unceremoniously ages up to adult on her return from work one day. Did I miss not one but two birthdays in this chapter? Why yes, yes I did. I did tell you I suck at this game.
I shall leave you here, friends, with the following:
1. The lights are still on, and Arche is busy trying to keep them on for the next chapter.
2. Ember is eating at least her second plate of food since getting home from school.
3. A minor makeover. Cecilia bought all her furniture with her when she moved in. I resisted using it - it felt like cheating - but decided to relent and use some things, replacing the crapper things with items she bought and selling the old stuff. The Elements now have a new kitchen, more decor, a desk and computer (not pictured, to the right of Arche), and a bigger bathroom with both a bath and a shower.
After the challenge of this chapter, I think I deserved it.
Final score:
Previous chapter: 15
Aspiration milestone (x1): +5
Total: 20
We thankfully start this new chapter with the lights and water back on and, miracle of miracles, all three toddlers asleep IN instead of ON their beds.
Arche is getting on top of garden and chicken wrangling. It turns out, I'm pretty sure Roger the rooster met his demise at the paws of a fox and I just didn't notice it, because I did see one snaffle a rabbit in this play session. Nature is cruel.
Not too much later, Eileen meets her end, dying of natural causes as an elderly hen, with a filthy dog playing in her food kind of ruining the ambience of her death scene. Arche buys a new white hen and white rooster to replace her.
And also manages to hatch one of the eggs she incubated, into a rooster chick he names Bob.
Meanwhile, Cecilia's favourite thing to do is teach her children things with flashcards. This might seem like a positive, but she does it no matter what their needs are, frequently ignoring anything from exhaustion to starvation. YOU WILL LEARN, CHILDREN.
She also likes to cook instead of eating Arche's safely prepared meals left in the fridge for her. She does manage to get to level 3 cooking without burning the house down though, so good for her.
This is a less appreciated behaviour. You're not even childish, Cecilia.
Arche, meanwhile, takes up fishing for some extra income and/or food and/or fertilizer for the garden.
Woohoo is an excellent way to give two Sims full fun bars when you have no TV. The extremely protected kind of woohoo though - triplets is enough, thanks.
Honestly, where they found the time and privacy though. Thank goodness it's time for the triplets to grow up. You will not be surprised to learn that not a one of them achieved enough skill points for the happy toddler trait. First up is Ember.
I think she's the cuter of the two girls, but she rolled the trait glutton, which sounds like it's going to be super fun in an ISBI. Can't wait for her to eat absolutely all of the food Arche prepares, especially as we have the simple living lot challenge. She wants to be a whiz kid.
Next is Ash.
A bit more tomboyish than her sister. Ash was the problem child as a baby and toddler, crying constantly and waking up her parents every damn night. Let's see if she improves now she's older. She's a kleptomaniac (good, please steal some stuff we can sell) and a rambunctious scamp.
Finally, Blaze gets to blow out the candles on the same cake. Sharing is caring, my friend.
He's an interesting kid. He could end up being very weird looking, I'm interested to see. He's a child of the ocean and also a rambunctious scamp, so if he becomes the TH, the family will get to move to Sulani. I'm going to go with random selection for the TH in this challenge, so we'll roll once this lot reach YA, since they're all going to get there at the same time.
Ash's first action as a school-aged child is to attempt to redeem herself after her trying toddlerhood.
Napping on the couch is not an approved activity though, Ash.
Meanwhile, Ember indulges her newly gluttonous nature and promptly scoffs two slices of cake in quick succession. I fear for her physique settings, I really do.
So, in an effort to get Ember away from the cake and to make some progress on their aspirations, I have Arche and Cecilia head to the park. Arche maxed his cooking skill while grilling, but as he's the TH I don't believe this is worth any points.
Blaze cooperates and makes a beeline for the jungle gym, and Ember goes with him though this is less use because she wants to be a whiz kid and would have been better off at the chess table. Ash, the other scamp, disappears. Blaze at least finishes the Energetic milestone of Rambunctious Scamp! +5
I'm less pleased with him when we get back home. As winter has started there's an ice skating rink within reach of the house, and he heads for it. This in and of itself isn't a bad thing - he manages two whole more skill points in motor looping around and around this thing.
Unfortunately this is to the detriment of literally almost all his needs. The kid nearly dies stuck in an endless loop of skating and only narrowly makes it back to the house and into bed before passing out.
The next day Ash repeats the whole fiasco again when she gets home from school. Argh! No points were lost but it was a close run thing!
Arche strongly prefers to be anywhere but the house, where he can rest and relax in peace and quiet and pretend he had just one child, like a normal person, instead of three all at once.
When dragged back home, he reluctantly engages in a bit of parenting and asks his son to stop making a mess everywhere, and while he's at it why not go do his homework?
The effectiveness of this nagging is...limited.
And when Blaze finally does head inside to do his homework, it's on Arche's bed, while Arche tries to sleep, and Cecilia distracts him chattering on about something.
Cecilia, who after a strong start seems to be getting more idiotic by the moment, does redeem herself somewhat by autonomously spraying the garden for bugs.
But then...what's this?
More unauthorized napping? And Cecilia, is that you? Napping on the kid's beds so they can't go to actual sleep? Loud sighing.
Also the lights got turned out again because they couldn't pay their bills. LOUDER SIGHING.
Also Aristotle is filthy in that picture because his favourite thing to do, despite being deathly afraid of the chickens, is to play in their food. Arche is the only Sim in the house ever likely to wash him, and the moment he does the damn dog is back out in the yard, leaping around in the chicken feed, getting dirty. I don't know what it is that we feed those chickens that makes the dog so gross, but it becomes an infinite loop of misery and for the first time ever, I begin wishing the darn dog would just die already.
Why did I think I should do an ISBI? I'm terrible at this game and now I am wishing death on a pixelated pupper! I am a terrible person.
Kids: oh no, there is a monster under the bed so we're all going to wake up and then we're going to wake up our parents.
Of course you are.
Arche is sent back out to try and earn money for bills.
Arche: I'd like to be anywhere but the house anyway, thanks.
Me too, buddy.
This leaves Cecilia free to continue cooking single servings of things and ignoring the leftovers in the fridge. Or maybe Ember ate them all.
Ash, bless her, tries to help out by mopping, but the fridge is broken so this puddle is infinite until someone fixes it.
I bring Arche home to do the honours, but he seems to have somewhere important to be out the back of the house instead.
Oh shoot. It's his adult birthday? My bad!
Arche: yeah, you forgot, which is why I came all the way to the back of the lot in the dark to age up, alone, away from the chaos of my family.
Speaking of chaos...
Ember: can I have food for my present, discount Santa?
Father Winter: *belly laugh*
Vlad: there are far too many children in this house, and my God, what is that smell?
Aristotle: :)
Father Winter: for the love of all that is holy...
Aristotle: :D
And then, after one final bath given by a resentful and exhausted Arche, Aristotle's chicken feed fossicking days are done, and to be honest I am mostly relieved.
That is not the case for the no doubt confused and possibly traumatised children, however, who have only recently had Father Winter and Vlad paying a visit, and possibly could have done without the Grim Reaper swinging by next.
Grim: you don't mind if I borrow a book, do you? I'll return it next time I reap here. I'm sure it won't be long, Cecilia keeps insisting on cooking, and at least one of those idiotic children is bound to skate themselves to death.
Despite the annoyance he caused in life, Aristotle's urn gets pride of place near the front door, so that a parade of very sad children can see it on their way out to school.
Arche seems...less bothered. He was the one that had to do all the baths, I guess.
In between the chaos of the dog and the bills, foxes got the white hen, though not before she managed to lay three hatchable eggs. Unfortunately all three were rooster chicks, so I sold the white rooster. I'll keep one of the roosters that grows up and eventually buy another hen, I guess.
Like mother, like daughter.
Still avidly interested in any chance to escape the chaos of his home, Arche accepts when Kim invites him out for dinner to console him about losing Aristotle. This is the first time Arche remembers to look sad about his dead dog, and it lasts until he eats his dinner.
If Cecilia is concerned about her husband going to dinner with and being consoled by another woman, she doesn't show it, instead preferring to research the apple tree.
Despite her gluttonous tendencies, Ember remains the most functional of the triplets, and I kind of hope she's rolled as TH. She plays with emotion regularly, building her creative skill AND her emotional control trait all at once, and moving past Aristotle's death more quickly than anyone else in the family.
Cecilia, on the other hand, unceremoniously ages up to adult on her return from work one day. Did I miss not one but two birthdays in this chapter? Why yes, yes I did. I did tell you I suck at this game.
I shall leave you here, friends, with the following:
1. The lights are still on, and Arche is busy trying to keep them on for the next chapter.
2. Ember is eating at least her second plate of food since getting home from school.
3. A minor makeover. Cecilia bought all her furniture with her when she moved in. I resisted using it - it felt like cheating - but decided to relent and use some things, replacing the crapper things with items she bought and selling the old stuff. The Elements now have a new kitchen, more decor, a desk and computer (not pictured, to the right of Arche), and a bigger bathroom with both a bath and a shower.
After the challenge of this chapter, I think I deserved it.
Final score:
Previous chapter: 15
Aspiration milestone (x1): +5
Total: 20