Chapter IX
Wolfie and Zippo have become... English Setters!
Zippo has the black spots, Wolfie has brownish spots. You will see plenty of her in the future, never fear. They are uh-mazing. When I encouraged them to mate last time, they didn't. So no puppy immediately. The are 7 sims in the house, so that's totally fine. We need that space to be able to swap people in and out the house in the next few sim weeks. Just because I'd prefer a smaller house, and because I want a legit English Setter - not one fashioned out of a Generic Dog in CAS - when they do have puppy / puppies, I'll keep one and put the rest of the hounds up for adoption to an lovely home. Having Zippo die again, or Wolfie die for the first time, would be Unpleasant. And in this adventure, we are all about the Pleasant - that's why I chose such pleasant sims...
No. Wait. They're a mess. At least I can invite Ahilac over when we need something non-hideous to look at.
Moving on... it was time to pay the Roomies a visit. No one had yet met Gavin Richards, head-hunted for the amazing genes he can lend to the Family!
Cornelius chaperoned Scarlett, because I don't think a teen can invite someone to move in. He's also a bit of an (evil) creep, and waved awkwardly at Zoe.
Unfortunately (or, perhaps if we take a broader view,
very fortunately) Cornelius didn't have the charisma or traits to befriend Zoe. Or Gavin or J. I can use the group sauna woohoo to get the designated daughter pregnant, but someone would need to be friends with Gavin after that to bring up the "move in" option. As I said last time, if we moved any of the men into the big house there'd be no room to get pregnant. So when the time comes, it'll all be
deeply-immodest-but-hey-it's-The-Sims instant try for baby. There's just so much going on in the house, and so much time spent micromanaging Persephone through making her serums and planning the garden that I don't have the inclination to divert my attention to pretending there is real Romance between the frightful looking twins and Gavin / Johnny.
When Persephone was home from the lab, she met everyone and with her higher charisma + Incredibly Friendly trait befriended Mr. J Huntington III, who joined the household. After all, he has the pretentious name to fit in at the pretentious house as well as being a non-committal womanizer. A nice change from Dodgy Don.
Rosalind and Scarlet are thinking hard. Or hardly thinking. J did pay nominal attention to his tech guru career, but it wasn't his main calling.
I love the body language. We've all been there J. I can relate.
He soon went on a house visit.
Despite promising early progress, Eliza was hard to get. She needs to realize if she wants kids, this is how it's gotta be.
J invited her back to the Windmille where I could fill her with Rose Serum, or if that failed, introduce her to the sauna...
He tried to impress Eliza with Zippo, but Zippo must've been thinking "who is this strange man? I hardly know him". Eliza was not amused. I think I put the sauna in at this point because Eliza was living too much in the real world, and not enough in the Sim world where couples do not get pregnant. J did eventually succeed.
After Eliza, it was easiest to start by inviting over the women J already knew. Such as Zoe...
Come on Zoe, your kid will live in the lap of luxury!
The dining room got a makeover as you can see by the table and chairs. Persephone is fixing her problems with drugs, and J is heading outside...
... to the bush. I think that's Zoe with him.
Look at Persephone! A picture of liveliness! The serum collection on those shelves is steadily growing. They're all tested. Really there are only 2 or 3 that are likely to be used, but for the sake of completion and because they look cool, I did want to complete the collection before quitting the science career.
And she was still quite content to test them on her children. Because evil.
We don't want to risk them on J. He's too precious. We need him awake. For doing stuff.
The living room got a gentle makeover. There's a floor pattern under the carpet, but really looked cluttered and messy and I wasn't happy with it. This room is the focal point of the house, so it's important to get it right. I threw all sorts of colours and furniture and curtains at it.
As you can see here...
But it was Saturday, and time for a holiday. This time, to Granite Falls.
Through Persephone's efforts with analyzing flora, a perfect bluebell has been planted. The first perfect plant. That means we are able to start building the money garden. The two main plants for this are from Outdoor Retreat as they produce fruit every 18 hours. I'm going with the morel mushroom and fireleaf. So at the same time every day, with some margin for error, a gardener sim can harvest. There will also be a few Trees of Emotion grafted with UFO. The TOE is sadly a 24h plant, but it adds height and will hopefully look interesting along the path. The apple tree shape might be better. But that's what I've gone with to start with, and it can always be changed.
And seen as we're in Granite Falls, it would make sense to get some herbalism skill. I've got some questions in my head about how some of the herbalism salves would interact with Selvadorada adventures, like curing insect bites, but regardless of that there are some useful ones that it would be handy to have on a shelf ready to clone. The deodorizer would be great for adventuring.
Persephone has maxed handiness, so she could take advantage of sculpting overpriced souvenirs. As ever, Funds are quite low.
Scenic picture! If you can make out a sim hastening to a plant, that's Scarlett.
Persephone's inventory is overflowing with plants and archaeology, and science and handiness that it made sense to do the gathering with Scarlett whose inventory was basically empty. With Persephone it would be hard to know if she had got both varieties of a plant.
While Scarlett collected, Persephone sculpted.
And just for the sake of interest, this is the hermit. A rather too fashionable, non-hermit-like hairdo. I'd rescue Gabrielle if we had room in the house. But we don't.
While we were away, the twins have managed to swap sides on the couch. Um. And that's it.
Scarlett now starts munching through her herbs in the comfort of a club gathering, and flies through the levels. She didn't fail to identify a single plant on first attempt.
One cannot have enough dogs. So, here's Alexis about to hug Zippo.
Persephone, still in her adventuresome outfit, makes a call and J goes to take a steamy shower. (To be read ironically:) What ever can be happening. I have no idea. What a mystery.
Yip. She's adding the women she knows to the family club, then inviting them over to meet J. Might as well do it efficiently. I don't want the houses to die out, and nor do you Dear Reader!
The lucky guest this time is... Nina Caliente!
And finally, Cornelius frolics in the pool.
You might have mistaken me for a Frolic Enthusiast, who cannot but avail himself of the Chance to indulge in the refreshing exercise of Cornelius, but No! There is a reason to that picture, and it's the tulip bushes. In the Vlad's Nose House, the pool was indoors and part of the gym. There were energizing trophies on the wall. So swimming energized, and the benefit being in the right mood brings, was the norm. The way to make an outdoor pool energized... is with tulips. Yip. I remember way back someone asking what gameplay purpose any of the plants served, so I set about finding out. It's not a boost I've often had need to use. It's only a little +1, but assuming there are no overriding emotions, those two tulips pots will make anyone swimming energized. And they look good. So they won't get harvested.
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Next time: Glorious, picturesque dogs! Ahilac! Bears' Night!
