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May. 1st, 2022 10:05 am
Chapter 4, or Adolescence Achieved
Welcome back to the Elemental ISBI! In the last chapter Aristotle left the mortal plane, relieving Arche of the responsibility of constantly cleaning a filthy dog and traumatising all three children in the process. Cecilia and Arche also both had their adult birthdays, ignored and alone, and I can't seem to keep hens around for any length of time either.
We return to the triplets engaging in their favourite mischief, painting the idyllic country cottage they live in lurid colours that I'm sure distresses the local Homeowners Association hugely.
Also, Aristotle is back! I much prefer him in this form - free to play in chicken food to his heart's content, without getting dirty and making everyone around him disgusted.
Where there is autonomous mess-making, at least there is also autonomous cleaning up. I'm not sure I like the traditional gender roles being aggressively adhered to here...
At least, I must admit, chaos does not reign quite so freely now. There are moments of domestic pleasure, times when Arche can effectively parent his children, and the family finances enable prompt bill paying without too much scrambling for cash.
Occasionally, some homework even gets done.
And at one point Arche autonomously makes this single serving of a fancy chocolate dessert, and although he promptly scoffs the whole thing himself, his children are so impressed they literally applaud him as he sits down to eat it. Okay...?
The domestic bliss was somewhat interrupted, however, by these Sims having an irresistible urge to walk in on Arche in the bathroom.
I really thought leaving them mostly on autonomous would make this less likely, because most of the time I accidentally send Sims into occupied bathrooms actively, messing up my timing, and they're never smart enough to knock on the door first. But no, these kids waltzed in there under their own steam constantly, and were duly horrified by the experience.
Cecilia: there there, Ash, we've all done it.
Ash: walked in on Dad in the bathroom?
Cecilia: yep, literally all of us, several times.
To try and repair his relationship with his children and make some more progress on aspirations, a park visit seemed in order. An aborted mission to Willow Creek due to a blizzard was quickly replaced by a visit to Oasis Springs. Ember needed to play chess, and doing so she finished the Precocious milestone of Whiz Kid! +5
Anytime the family goes somewhere Cecilia rarely makes it past the entrance of the place, preferring to hang out there and talk unless called to a specific activity.
I had to change their outfits to stop them dying. I hope that's allowed. Arche made the family sandwiches, and called them to the meal so Cecilia would finally leave the pavement out front.
Of course, he also enjoyed a spot of fishing, which is a handy little money-maker for him now.
Back home, Arche has really settled into the smallholder life. I did a makeover of the garden at the end of the play session but for now all the plants remain in here, with the chickens. I forget the name of this hen; so many were eaten by foxes.
Rodney the rooster, hatched from an egg by Arche himself, appears to be longer-lived and able to fend off the foxes a bit more effectively, so it his him Arche chose to max his relationship with for the Critter Keeper milestone of Country Caretaker. +5!
Cecilia also sometimes actually makes herself useful. Blaze decided to do his homework all on his own and she decided to help him. What is this? Basic competency? I am shocked and delighted!
Unfortunately, two of the foxes that most frequently harass our hens passed away within a few hours of each other - Flare and I think Peppermint. You finally build enough of an understanding with them to ask them not to steal your eggs and they go and die. No doubt a new contingent of foxes will move in shortly and take up the important business of murdering the hens.
Grim seems a friendly fellow in this save file. After reaping a couple of foxes, he hangs out with the kids for a while to watch TV. As you do.
Meanwhile, Cecilia is less fond of Rodney than Arche is. Rodney, it seems, is a selective bird, as he attacks Cecilia whenever she ventures into the garden. A little gardening help wouldn't go amiss so this is annoying, as Cecilia invariably flees in terror after just a few minutes in the garden any time she tries to do some weeding. It was after this I moved most of the plants to the courtyard, so she could garden unmolested by a jealous and angry rooster.
Arche is blissfully unaware of his bird's unprovoked aggression towards his wife.
Around this time I finally realised the whole favours for villagers system in Henford-on-Bagley could actually be quite lucrative. Yes, it took me this long to work it out. I've told you before and I'll tell you again - I am not good at this game.
Once I figured it out though, ooh boy, did I make the most of it. Arche baked, searched, chatted, asked questions...anything these random villagers wanted him to do, Arche was their willing servant.
Of course, he's also Cecilia's willing servant, as if Arche doesn't fix things at home, they just stay broken forever.
Cecilia: look at my handsome man, twiddling that large red tool around, performing magic!
You could do this too, Cecilia. The game treats fixing sinks as something that just kind of happens, even if you know nothing about sinks to start with, as long as you twiddle a tool around for long enough.
Cecilia: magic!
Cecilia limits herself to cleaning, but to be honest I'm grateful to get that much at least from her.
Interestingly, when Blaze takes a break from causing mess everywhere he goes, it's to take an unexpected interest in helping with the garden. This is not something I even realised children could do, so it's a pleasant surprise.
Arche: you into gardening, kiddo? Good for you! Do that more!
Blaze: huh? Oh, I mean, only since you planted those weird mushrooms which I'm hoping to sneak a little taste of one day, but sure. No problem Dad.
He also autonomously decided to work on a school project for a while. Where this new responsible streak has come from I don't know, but it meant he got an A in school. Amazing! Incredible! +5
With his most mischievous child's new streak of goodness, Arche is free to indulge in a little more fishing time. Yay, money!
And in fact, the mess-making days are nearly behind us for this generation! It's the triplet's teen birthdays, so of course Arche bakes a hamburger cake. After all the shenanigans of their childhood, it seemed the most appropriate choice.
Successfully raising three kids at once to teenage hood without killing even one of them through neglect or just good old fashioned murder seems worth a party to celebrate, so off to the park they go. Of course, Cecilia does not want to leave the teleportation zone, and nabs Blaze to keep her company. Ash and Ember wisely zip off to engage in actual park activities.
One last mess for nostalgia's sake? I guess, Ash. At least it's someone else's lawn being painted for once.
You too, Ember?! These children are shameless. Shameless!
Arche grills to provide food for the party, and looks rather pleased with himself for this stereotypical display of masculine provision.
Then Dirk Dreamer, proper celebrity, helps himself to a serving and Arche uses that as an excuse to get uncomfortably close to a famous person.
Arche: mm you smell good
Dirk: oh my God
Cecilia: I leave the teleport zone for food, and nothing else.
Not your children's birthday?
Cecilia: only food.
Cecilia: I guess since I'm here already I can stay though. Yay Ash!
That's Ember.
Cecilia: whatever.
Oh look, your father joined for your turn, Ash.
Cecilia: yay, girl child number two! What? It seemed safer.
Finally, Blaze gets both the biggest crowd and the worst weather.
And here they are all grown up! Ember rolled High Maintenance to add to Glutton, and appropriately, wants to be a Master Chef. I love that combination of traits and aspiration; I imagine her as a fragile, finicky food genius...a combination Gordon Ramsay and Suki St James from Gilmore Girls.
Ash and Ember are identical; only their hair and eyebrows give them any differences in their faces. Ash rolled Proper to add to Kleptomaniac, so she'll be very polite to you before stealing your shit. She wants to be a Party Animal, but an extremely well-mannered one, I suppose.
And finally Blaze, who looks very different from his sisters in both facial features and colouring. As I guessed, he's interesting-looking, but I think not in a bad way? He kind of looks like one of those alien-esque high fashion models. Inspired by Ember's example he adds Glutton to Child of the Ocean, and wants to be a Master Mixologist. It seems he would be happiest kicking it in Sulani, making cocktails and eating good food.
All three of the triplets are pretty interesting and I can work with their personalities, so I'm pretty happy with things so far!
And we'll finish out this chapter with a quick snapshot of their still very small but now made-over, age appropriate bedroom.
Final score:
Previous chapter: 20
Aspiration milestone (x2): +10
A in school (x1): +5
Total: 35
We return to the triplets engaging in their favourite mischief, painting the idyllic country cottage they live in lurid colours that I'm sure distresses the local Homeowners Association hugely.
Also, Aristotle is back! I much prefer him in this form - free to play in chicken food to his heart's content, without getting dirty and making everyone around him disgusted.
Where there is autonomous mess-making, at least there is also autonomous cleaning up. I'm not sure I like the traditional gender roles being aggressively adhered to here...
At least, I must admit, chaos does not reign quite so freely now. There are moments of domestic pleasure, times when Arche can effectively parent his children, and the family finances enable prompt bill paying without too much scrambling for cash.
Occasionally, some homework even gets done.
And at one point Arche autonomously makes this single serving of a fancy chocolate dessert, and although he promptly scoffs the whole thing himself, his children are so impressed they literally applaud him as he sits down to eat it. Okay...?
The domestic bliss was somewhat interrupted, however, by these Sims having an irresistible urge to walk in on Arche in the bathroom.
I really thought leaving them mostly on autonomous would make this less likely, because most of the time I accidentally send Sims into occupied bathrooms actively, messing up my timing, and they're never smart enough to knock on the door first. But no, these kids waltzed in there under their own steam constantly, and were duly horrified by the experience.
Cecilia: there there, Ash, we've all done it.
Ash: walked in on Dad in the bathroom?
Cecilia: yep, literally all of us, several times.
To try and repair his relationship with his children and make some more progress on aspirations, a park visit seemed in order. An aborted mission to Willow Creek due to a blizzard was quickly replaced by a visit to Oasis Springs. Ember needed to play chess, and doing so she finished the Precocious milestone of Whiz Kid! +5
Anytime the family goes somewhere Cecilia rarely makes it past the entrance of the place, preferring to hang out there and talk unless called to a specific activity.
I had to change their outfits to stop them dying. I hope that's allowed. Arche made the family sandwiches, and called them to the meal so Cecilia would finally leave the pavement out front.
Of course, he also enjoyed a spot of fishing, which is a handy little money-maker for him now.
Back home, Arche has really settled into the smallholder life. I did a makeover of the garden at the end of the play session but for now all the plants remain in here, with the chickens. I forget the name of this hen; so many were eaten by foxes.
Rodney the rooster, hatched from an egg by Arche himself, appears to be longer-lived and able to fend off the foxes a bit more effectively, so it his him Arche chose to max his relationship with for the Critter Keeper milestone of Country Caretaker. +5!
Cecilia also sometimes actually makes herself useful. Blaze decided to do his homework all on his own and she decided to help him. What is this? Basic competency? I am shocked and delighted!
Unfortunately, two of the foxes that most frequently harass our hens passed away within a few hours of each other - Flare and I think Peppermint. You finally build enough of an understanding with them to ask them not to steal your eggs and they go and die. No doubt a new contingent of foxes will move in shortly and take up the important business of murdering the hens.
Grim seems a friendly fellow in this save file. After reaping a couple of foxes, he hangs out with the kids for a while to watch TV. As you do.
Meanwhile, Cecilia is less fond of Rodney than Arche is. Rodney, it seems, is a selective bird, as he attacks Cecilia whenever she ventures into the garden. A little gardening help wouldn't go amiss so this is annoying, as Cecilia invariably flees in terror after just a few minutes in the garden any time she tries to do some weeding. It was after this I moved most of the plants to the courtyard, so she could garden unmolested by a jealous and angry rooster.
Arche is blissfully unaware of his bird's unprovoked aggression towards his wife.
Around this time I finally realised the whole favours for villagers system in Henford-on-Bagley could actually be quite lucrative. Yes, it took me this long to work it out. I've told you before and I'll tell you again - I am not good at this game.
Once I figured it out though, ooh boy, did I make the most of it. Arche baked, searched, chatted, asked questions...anything these random villagers wanted him to do, Arche was their willing servant.
Of course, he's also Cecilia's willing servant, as if Arche doesn't fix things at home, they just stay broken forever.
Cecilia: look at my handsome man, twiddling that large red tool around, performing magic!
You could do this too, Cecilia. The game treats fixing sinks as something that just kind of happens, even if you know nothing about sinks to start with, as long as you twiddle a tool around for long enough.
Cecilia: magic!
Cecilia limits herself to cleaning, but to be honest I'm grateful to get that much at least from her.
Interestingly, when Blaze takes a break from causing mess everywhere he goes, it's to take an unexpected interest in helping with the garden. This is not something I even realised children could do, so it's a pleasant surprise.
Arche: you into gardening, kiddo? Good for you! Do that more!
Blaze: huh? Oh, I mean, only since you planted those weird mushrooms which I'm hoping to sneak a little taste of one day, but sure. No problem Dad.
He also autonomously decided to work on a school project for a while. Where this new responsible streak has come from I don't know, but it meant he got an A in school. Amazing! Incredible! +5
With his most mischievous child's new streak of goodness, Arche is free to indulge in a little more fishing time. Yay, money!
And in fact, the mess-making days are nearly behind us for this generation! It's the triplet's teen birthdays, so of course Arche bakes a hamburger cake. After all the shenanigans of their childhood, it seemed the most appropriate choice.
Successfully raising three kids at once to teenage hood without killing even one of them through neglect or just good old fashioned murder seems worth a party to celebrate, so off to the park they go. Of course, Cecilia does not want to leave the teleportation zone, and nabs Blaze to keep her company. Ash and Ember wisely zip off to engage in actual park activities.
One last mess for nostalgia's sake? I guess, Ash. At least it's someone else's lawn being painted for once.
You too, Ember?! These children are shameless. Shameless!
Arche grills to provide food for the party, and looks rather pleased with himself for this stereotypical display of masculine provision.
Then Dirk Dreamer, proper celebrity, helps himself to a serving and Arche uses that as an excuse to get uncomfortably close to a famous person.
Arche: mm you smell good
Dirk: oh my God
Cecilia: I leave the teleport zone for food, and nothing else.
Not your children's birthday?
Cecilia: only food.
Cecilia: I guess since I'm here already I can stay though. Yay Ash!
That's Ember.
Cecilia: whatever.
Oh look, your father joined for your turn, Ash.
Cecilia: yay, girl child number two! What? It seemed safer.
Finally, Blaze gets both the biggest crowd and the worst weather.
And here they are all grown up! Ember rolled High Maintenance to add to Glutton, and appropriately, wants to be a Master Chef. I love that combination of traits and aspiration; I imagine her as a fragile, finicky food genius...a combination Gordon Ramsay and Suki St James from Gilmore Girls.
Ash and Ember are identical; only their hair and eyebrows give them any differences in their faces. Ash rolled Proper to add to Kleptomaniac, so she'll be very polite to you before stealing your shit. She wants to be a Party Animal, but an extremely well-mannered one, I suppose.
And finally Blaze, who looks very different from his sisters in both facial features and colouring. As I guessed, he's interesting-looking, but I think not in a bad way? He kind of looks like one of those alien-esque high fashion models. Inspired by Ember's example he adds Glutton to Child of the Ocean, and wants to be a Master Mixologist. It seems he would be happiest kicking it in Sulani, making cocktails and eating good food.
All three of the triplets are pretty interesting and I can work with their personalities, so I'm pretty happy with things so far!
And we'll finish out this chapter with a quick snapshot of their still very small but now made-over, age appropriate bedroom.
Final score:
Previous chapter: 20
Aspiration milestone (x2): +10
A in school (x1): +5
Total: 35