Author Topic: A Bunch of Flowers (A ‘Who’s Your Daddy?’ Project)  (Read 61219 times)

Offline Ausette

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Congrats on finishing the Star Sign cluster. I can't believe you've had at least twelve nooboos already! :P

On a side note, Iris looks adorable! I love the big floppy hat with the rainjacket. :D

Offline KRae

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This is one project I don't think I'll be trying. I get exhausted just reading yours. I don't know how you deal with that many nooboos.



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Offline hazelnut

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Congrats on finishing the Star Sign cluster. I can't believe you've had at least twelve nooboos already! :P

Thanks :).  Zinnia is Ally's eighteenth child.  She'll end up with at least 27 if I finish the challenge, because it's pregnancies rather than children that count for scoring purposes and she had a set of twins right back at the beginning.

This is one project I don't think I'll be trying. I get exhausted just reading yours. I don't know how you deal with that many nooboos.

It was actually hardest at the beginning, with only Alison and Billy around to raise them and lots of other things to juggle, like money and skilling.  Now that there are usually teenagers around to help and the house mostly runs itself (almost everything upgraded and a relatively small garden), it's a lot easier.  I tend to leave the babies for the game to look after - someone will deal with their needs long before social services get interested - and concentrate on the toddlers during the day and school-age kids in the evening.  After so much practice, Ally can train toddler skills in a very short time (helped by Chinese incense - because burning, smoky, smelly stuff is the obvious thing to put in a nursery  ;) ).  She's getting better at the tutoring as well: she finished the challenge ages ago but still seems to be improving, possibly because she's not maxed logic yet.  She fits in cooking one or two high-quality meals at some point in the day to keep the fridge stocked.  Billy also cooks occasionally and some of the teens have made the odd batch of hot dogs.  Iris is quite a keen cook and has autonomously reached level three or four.  I'll miss her when she moves out, for all sorts of reasons.

On a side note, Iris looks adorable! I love the big floppy hat with the rainjacket. :D

Well, she is insane :).  I love dressing crazy Sims and Iris is also a diva, so she's even more fun.  She just had to wear that hat with one of her outfits.

Offline Alex

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He can do things they can’t, though.   Nobody else can sleep in mid-air.

:D

She may wear them at funny times, but I love Iris' clothes, especially the everyday ones.

Congrats on finishing the Star Sign cluster :)


Offline hazelnut

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He can do things they can’t, though.   Nobody else can sleep in mid-air.

:D

She may wear them at funny times, but I love Iris' clothes, especially the everyday ones.

Congrats on finishing the Star Sign cluster :)

Thanks :).

Congrats on finishing up the star sign cluster. Lotus is quite adorable  :)

Thank you.  Yes, she is - although I think Zinnia is even cuter.  Hopefully I'll get around to posting another chapter in the next day or two so that you can compare them for yourself :).

Offline hazelnut

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Re: A Bunch of Flowers (A ‘Who’s Your Daddy?’ Project)
« Reply #66 on: August 31, 2015, 06:31:27 AM »
Lots More Birthdays – and a Real Boy

There was a temporary lull in the baby production and a focus on skilling instead.  Billy had rolled a wish to master logic – slightly inexplicably, since he was only at level 4 of the skill.  It wasn’t as though it was required for his job, either: he was a Master Thief rather than Emperor of Evil.  He took five days’ unpaid holiday and headed off to the bookshop and library.  Having reached level ten, he popped the usual wish to learn all the potions, which took up all the rest of his leave.  Then he decided he’d like to learn science.  At this point, handing in his notice seemed like the simplest option.  The family didn’t need the money and he’d been having problems getting to work since they’d moved to Bridgeport.  The lot they were living on was right at the edge of town and the road’s a dead end, so maybe the vehicles aren’t really programmed to go that far.  It’s also supposed to be a community lot, which may not be helping (I converted it because it was the only place big enough to put the house).  Whatever the reason, Billy kept missing the carpool and starting work late.   The school bus also tended to stop a long way down the road and Iris in particular was all too eager to use that as an excuse.  She ended up teleporting to school after a scolding on a number of occasions.

Ally had been working on fishing since the beginning of the game (I’m pretty sure it was the first skill she unlocked, back in Riverview) but progress had been slow.  Now she concentrated on it whenever she wasn’t caring for the children.  Within a few days, she’d reached level 10 and had caught enough deathfish to stock the pond at home…

70.Pond-stocking.jpg

…with a couple left over to make ambrosia for the first time.

71.Ambrosia.jpg

Billy also had some but I didn’t get a screenshot.  He bought age freeze quite a while back but it stopped working when they moved towns.  I may have to get another genie lamp so that he can also wish for long life – it’s confusing having him ageing at a different rate from the rest of the household and he’s already nearly grown old once through my inattention.



Edelweiss aged up to teen…

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…and discovered the musical instruments that had appeared with the last extension to the house.  She practised the piano whenever she had a free moment.

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Zinnia became a toddler.

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Another child who seems to get almost all of her looks from her father :).

She and Lotus played together constantly and were soon friends….

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…although I’m pretty sure their IF dolls didn’t enjoy their playtimes as much as the two toddlers did.

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The next birthday was Valerian’s.  A conscientious and friendly child, he’d qualified for an early cake.

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He didn’t look very happy about it.  He’s an Inkbeard, all right.  The face shape may be different but that grumpy expression is exactly like his father’s.

80.Teen_Valerian.jpg

(Incidentally, I took the Inkbeard family into CAS in a new game and confirmed my suspicion that Morgan, as well as Shorty-John, has skin on the red slider.   I also found out where Val’s hair came from: if you age his grandmother Victoria down from elder, she has exactly that hair colour.)



Iris, easily the worst scholar since Jonquil, eventually made it on to the honour roll on her young adult birthday.  She aged up in the nursery, where she’d been putting Lotus to bed.

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At least someone looks happy about having a birthday.

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After a makeover, she moved out.  The house will be a less interesting place without her madness.

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As soon as the older children had gone to school the following morning, Lotus had a birthday cake.

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She spent the day being tutored to an A and then Presiding over the Royal Court.  (What is it with the kids in this family and standing up on chairs waving a sceptre about?  Apart from Val’s devotion to bandit-chasing, the toys haven’t seen much use.  Even the sandpit is mostly played in by the supposed adults.)

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When she was sent up to the Royal Bedroom for the night, Lotus remembered something her mother had said and put her doll Oleander down on the floor.

86.Oleander.jpg

Sure enough, he grew up to child-size and started moving all by himself.  Mum said Edelweiss and Val had friends like that, even though no-one else could see them.  Was the rest of it true?

“Oly, my mum says that I can make you really real.  My dad made this special stuff, see and…”

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Oleander didn’t believe her.  She had to stay up way past her bedtime playing and chatting to get him to trust her enough to try.

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By the time she’d persuaded him to drink the potion, dawn wasn’t far off and she was exhausted.

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Wow!  Something was definitely happening.  And the bubbles were so pretty!

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And there he was.  A real boy.

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Her mum, who must have been woken up by the excited noises coming from upstairs, took them both next door to Bogaard Overlook in the motive mobile so that they’d be OK for school in a few hours.  Then Lotus cycled home to play with the Royal Chess Set…

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…while Oleander got tutored, right there in the car park.

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He didn’t seem to mind.

95.Hug.jpg



That was a spontaneous hug, by the way.  Oleander’s a sweet kid.

(Although it does look disconcertingly as though Ally's about to take a bite out of his head  :o.)



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Offline Alex

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…although I’m pretty sure their IF dolls didn’t enjoy their playtimes as much as the two toddlers did.

Oleander looks okay. Zinnia's doll not so much :)

(Although it does look disconcertingly as though Ally's about to take a bite out of his head  :o.)

Which, given the challenge rules and his (I assume) future, is all kinds of creepy. *shudder*

Offline hazelnut

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Which, given the challenge rules and his (I assume) future, is all kinds of creepy. *shudder*

Erm... no comment?  *Looks shifty*  :-[



Offline Roxanne07

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Re: A Bunch of Flowers (A ‘Who’s Your Daddy?’ Project) - updated 31 August
« Reply #71 on: September 01, 2015, 02:53:36 AM »
Hi hazelnut, just read through this. The challenge itself is quite interesting (definitely tempted to try it out, but I had to uninstall the game to make room for TS4  ::) ) , and your writing makes the story really enjoyable to read. I'll be looking forward to more!  :)

As for the IF, it does seem a bit awkward, but I guess it's the only way to go!

Offline Ausette

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Re: A Bunch of Flowers (A ‘Who’s Your Daddy?’ Project) - updated 31 August
« Reply #72 on: September 01, 2015, 05:49:07 AM »
She better not take a bite; Oleanders are poisonous :P . And I somehow missed just how pretty Iris is until that last photo of her. Wow!

Offline hazelnut

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Re: A Bunch of Flowers (A ‘Who’s Your Daddy?’ Project)
« Reply #73 on: September 01, 2015, 01:49:41 PM »
Wow, Ally does look like she was going to take a bite out of Oleander. Awkward  :o

"You're so cute, I could just eat you up!"  I had a great-aunt who said things like that to children.  It used to really scare me.

She better not take a bite; Oleanders are poisonous :P .

True :D

And I somehow missed just how pretty Iris is until that last photo of her. Wow!

I think it's partly the flattering hairstyle but, yes, she grew up into a beautiful young woman.  I was assuming that having a zero-slider EA clone for a father, she'd either be pretty in a bland way or another Ally (whose facial sliders are mostly set a long way from the centre).  Instead, the blend of features turned out amazingly well.  I'm planning to revive/rejuvenate some of the kids after the end of the challenge and let Ally have grandchildren.  Iris will definitely be in that group.

Hi hazelnut, just read through this. The challenge itself is quite interesting (definitely tempted to try it out, but I had to uninstall the game to make room for TS4  ::) ) , and your writing makes the story really enjoyable to read. I'll be looking forward to more!  :)

Hi, and thank you :).  It's a fun challenge to play - well, apart from the constant celebrity disgraces for cheating/woohoo with an occult/having a baby out of wedlock, which are really annoying.  If you do have a go, I'd certainly recommend avoiding fame for as long as possible.

As for the IF, it does seem a bit awkward, but I guess it's the only way to go!

Eew! I guess that's the only way to snag that lifestate though.

Yes, I agree.  The whole thing is completely eww.  Of all the morally dubious things Ally has done in the course of the challenge, this is by far the worst.  (But, as with the Chinese books, I don’t quite disapprove enough not to do it  :-[.)

When I started this, I was going to turn an IF real at the last minute, just before young adulthood, and then have them father the next child.  I was also planning to ignore the social group cluster because it seemed like the hardest to complete and didn’t seem worth it compared with the bigger groups.  Then Al the genie became a nerd/video game programmer and I began to wonder whether I could fit it in after all.  The obvious people to do the other social group jobs were the two I had control over: Billy and the imaginary friend.  But if the IF was going to have enough happiness points to buy his way into the group, he’d need to spend longer in the active household: Al did it in three days but I was lucky with his traits and LTW – and kids don’t acquire points as quickly as adults.  So here Oleander is, almost a part of the family and innocently unaware of what Ally and her watcher have planned.  Ulp.



Here’s to You, Mrs Flower

Oleander’s traits are unlucky, eccentric and never nude.

96.Never_nude.jpg

I love this screenshot because of the lack of pixellation: it’s nice to be able to see the bath in use for once.  Although there are two children’s bathrooms upstairs, the kids seem to prefer Ally’s bath.  I just hope they don’t know what’s gone on in this room apart from bathing  ::).

The imaginary friends who are still imaginary appear to be ageing at different rates.  Vetch is keeping pace with Valerian but Eryngo became a young adult before Edelweiss was halfway through her teens.

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They stopped being friends at about this point.  I think she was nasty to him when she was having a mood swing.

Fluellen was still vainly trying to get Flax to come to life…

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…but then ran out of time.

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As a teen, Flu showed an unexpected new talent.

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This baffled me completely until I thought to read Alan Stanley’s Sims Wiki entry and discovered that he’s a pyromaniac, for no terribly obvious reason.  Maybe one of his parents was a firefighter.



The current group of kids are a remarkably well-behaved lot.  They almost always do their homework as soon as they get in from school, with no prompting from me.

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(Although that’s the only time I’ve seen them all sit down together to do it.)

Their smooth progress through school was briefly interrupted by Leisure Day.  Good heavens, had they been in Bridgeport for four weeks already?!

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I think of Leisure Day as the Sim equivalent of August Bank Holiday (even though it’s far more likely to be the 4th of July), so it’s good to see that Bridgeport has the traditional weather.  I’m sure it’d be tipping down if I hadn’t disabled rain :P.



Since imaginary friends aren’t subject to the same rules as the other children, Oleander had a birthday on the Saturday morning, three days before he was due to age up naturally, so that he’d have plenty of time for driving lessons and tutoring before school on Monday.

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I think he’s getting suspicious of Ally’s motives…

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And not without cause.  If you can ignore the green clouds drifting across the table from Valerian’s armpits (not at all a good look for a red-skinned Sim), you’ll notice the teeniest, tiniest, half-suppressed thought of babies over Ally’s head.

108.Oleander_teen_BD.jpg

To do her justice, she was probably thinking of a certain townie.  Or even Billy – she’s rolled several wishes to have a child with him.  Or maybe she was just thinking wistfully about babies in general.  After all, she is family-oriented and she hadn’t been pregnant for a whole week at this point  :-\.

Oleander went off to the mirror and dresser to ditch the cardie and bunny slippers…

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…but then I caught him staring thoughtfully at his reflection – and Ally’s bedroom.

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Oly, are you deliberately trying to make me feel guiltier than I already do?

They’re only pixels.  They’re only pixels.

Even little Queen Lotus seemed to suspect that something odd was going on.

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“Dad, why is Mum spending so much time with Oly?  And why is she wearing her swimsuit?”



On Sunday afternoon, Oleander, now with a driving licence and an A in his pocket, was able to give his new Avant Garde trait free rein.

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(He reached level ten after school the following day.  Really, the way the street art skill builds is ridiculous.)

Meanwhile, there was another birthday.

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Zinnia became a child and, for the first time since the early days of Alison and Billy’s marriage, the nursery was empty.

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And, also for the first time, there were too many people for the available bedrooms.  Edelweiss spent her last night in the house napping in the rocking chair.  Early the following morning, she blew out her candles.

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Eryngo might no longer be her friend but he still wouldn’t miss such an important event in his human’s life.

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Edelweiss aged up with unfortunate hair…

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…and hurried off to the mirror immediately to fix it.

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She and Eryngo moved out at once, leaving behind her school souvenirs.

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And I realised that I’d missed Iris’s from the last update, so here they are:

120.Iris_awards.jpg


 

anything