Sims Eugenics II, or, The Mouth of Persephone

[Heart Foam]

Glad to see you back. ;p You taught me style and to be braver with patterns. Oh yes.

Portia and her mother, Lacey are on Sulani. Admiral's Wreckage. I'm pretty sure I've included a picture of that somewhere. It's my Vacuous Green house, almost untouched. So she's fine.

I'm not really playing houses rotationally. That was a one-off, and just wanting a change of scene, because I wanted to play with a house that worked and I was frustrated with the chateau at the time. Since the remodeling -- the kitchen, the red galleries, the upstairs bedrooms, the gardens -- it's on the same level of enjoyment as my other houses. But for a while it wasn't quite right, and the chore of thinking about what was needed to sort it out, was demotivating. So that generation -- Kiera, Sawyer, Lacey -- were not very well raised kids. No toddler traits, no child aspiration traits. Kaitlynn is amazing. She's got top-notch toddler, gold scouting, all 4 child "gifted" traits, and the current generation of kids, Aili and Wayne, will also have a full set. Apart from hoping for breeding out the Persephone mouth, the current goal is to breed in the Sulani Manna trait. Until the magic stuff hits, it's the only inheritable "bloodline" trait.

I've got one save with auto-aging only on the active household, but that's the exception. I find the seasonal game of keeping some original family names alive to be engaging gameplay, and you get a funny looking Pancakes or Caliente who'll show up as a tourist.

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A recap for anyone else reading, and to straighten it out in my mind too:

1. Cornelius Wildingham (blue!) + Persephone Davenport (green!)
2. Scarlett (blue!), Alexis (green! Moved in with Johnny Zest, but he produced no daughters, and her line actually continues through a child with Don Lothario. Current female heir: Alicia), Rosalind (green! hitched up with Gavin Richards, had a remarkably normal looking daughter. Current female heir: Carolina)
3. Katherine (married Ahilac and Chadwick's alien, green, blonde, fashionable son Giancarlo)
4. Sawyer, Kiera (really strangely blue!), Lacey
5. Kaitlynn
6. Wayne -- he is destined for Aili Goth. She's the daughter of a demigod, Enele, and Yesenia Goth. Yesenia was moved in by mistake. And then we made a plan for her.

Kiera, the blue sister, has two children, Darrell and Kristie. They are all blue, and live at the Spencer-Kim-Lewis house, because blue Kiera married a blue Spencer-Kim-Lewis man.
Lacey has two children, Portia and Joelle. They live in Sulani. The father is absent in the sense that he's not alive. He was a random elder, and apparently a red-head.

Yes, Ahilac is still one of the stars of the show, though she is off stage. She has children who have died of old age. She's a YA, a spy, and Wayne's great-great-grandmother.

Actually one of Ahilac's descendants had a child with one of Alexis' green grandsons. Jayson is the other one of those grandsons -- we saw him visit as a tourist. He has a twin brother Matthew. Look, the green men are useless to me in keeping the family name alive, and the only daughter in the Alexis family line is not green. But in one last effort to keep the skin colour from Persephone in-game, Matthew has fathered a child in Ahilac's household, Arielle... sigh... who is not green. The green is over.

So many interesting sims, and a rambling, large family tree. And the joys of playing with aging on.

[Heart Foam]

Carolina Davenport, young adult, great-granddaughter of Rosalind:



Alicia Davenport, teen, great-granddaughter of Alexis:



--That's pollinator Mr Roland Ramsey's hair and eye colour.

[Heart Foam]

Regarding the above, I had no idea about what genetic traits had been passed down until I went looking for those sims now. The Persephone mouth is quite a dominant trait.

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Yes, house fixing:



Well, I think we all knew there was too much brown, and I've gone back to a similar wall pattern as before in the lounge. Those walls I had before might look okay with a thick carpet, in a library maybe, but I'm against putting carpet in that lounge.

And while I was fixing that, I ripped out the hot tub which was ruining the back view.



I kept the hot tub in the family inventory, it's fully upgraded after all, and idly thought "well, it could go in the roof...".

Behold: stairs to the roof. And I know I don't show much of the bedrooms, let alone the upstairs bedrooms.



And here's the room that was built for the hot tub.






Originally, I had the hot tub and massage table swapped, but for Reasons, I couldn't center the massage table in that 4x3 space because of the adjacent door. Somehow, the hot tub fits in there with no pathing issues at all. The TV is one plucked from the gym. Sims go to watch it all the time (and I'm sure they still will), but in the gym they'd get energized by the environment. You end up with the case of an elder who wandered in to watch TV, and then start a strenuous workout and nearly dying. And they'd just stand and watch the screen like... like sims, with nowhere to sit. So this is better all round. They can hop in the tub.

Lacey came to visit Sawyer, and it's just a chance to take screenshots of the upstairs.




Aili and Wayne are back from school. Monday afternoon in winter. They're 4 days from aging up to teens(!), have finished their scouting badges, and for this final week in grade school will already be starting in Drama Club. We haven't had a properly famous sim yet in this house.



After school, there's only 30 minutes before drama, so there's not much time for anything, other than a quick dash to the bathroom or fixing one need. And even then, most of the 30 minutes is taken up by walking. When the drama teacher asks why Wayne was late he can say, quite legitimately, "but sir! I was just walking to and from the front door! blame the man who built my house!" Sure, it's a lot better now with two bathrooms, one either side of the entrance hall, but once you've showered and head out to the edge of the lot, it'll take a while to get there. 

I know she looks like a waitress, but Kaitlynn is now a level 10 journalist.



I'm not quite sure what to do with her now.

Having completed scouting, the children get a lot more parenting. They've both been given journals now, and Enele claps wildly. I enjoy how thoughtful Wayne looks.



Yesenia looks stunning. She's returned from the void as a level 9 instrumental wonder.





But she's also the parent that's done the most parenting.





Winter has come.

[Heart Foam]

Decisions, decisions. Do I skip forward to the bit you want? The bit I want? Do we skip over the fluff in the middle?



While I ponder that, and talk about other things, admire the adorable family skating. We left the lot, mostly because Kait said she was at work, but she wasn't. And I wanted to clear that bug.

Question: Stephen (Hi, I have a real name - not just something absurd from a line in a Victorian era musical), why was Kait at home when the game said otherwise?

Answer: Because she got one of the chance cards to get Fame, Glorious Fame, for being a bit notorious and getting fired.

Kait was already level 10, and as I said last time, I didn't know what to do with her. So it was an easy choice to make. She has a good reputation (my sims are all basically angels), and if you put a fame point in that section you can donate things to fans. Turn simoleons into fame. One thing the Windmilles & Wine family are not short of, with 8 perfect money trees, and every single sim "shrewd", is Simoleons. They might not all look human, but you take what you can get! Pros and cons! And I really like fame system, and really like the "easy street" perk.

So Kait got fired, got famous, and that produced the minor glitch that lead to the skating scene. Which is heartwarming. I love Yesenia's red because it stands out (in game, she's been moved out of red, because teen Aili is now the red Goth girl), and the Father Winter hats, and the lights, and so on.

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I'm being nudged to do a 10 gen dynasty, and I've been mulling over ideas for that while I play this save, and if I do, pursuing Fame might be my strategy because maxing a career becomes trivially easy. When you know you're only in a house, and everything it has, for 1 generation at a time (though, sure, you can visit) it changes up what I'd do first. I started this save with the GTW science for Persephone, because I think the cloning machine and serums and disease-curing shower are too good to avoid, and it's a fun career that's also best done with a small household. I always miss the shower in saves that don't have one. That still pulls me to science. A famous scientist? Hmm. 

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Kait signs an autograph for Father Winter. Yesenia's withering glare, and slightly raised eyebrow is too good.


The new chairs Enele was in the business career for. I know they're probably envisioned as desk chairs, but I like using them for chess. They're not entirely right, but they're the closest thing. Imagine Emma and Mr Knightely. Would they have flimsy chairs at a chess table? No. And nor would you. 



*That's Lacey, some sort of family relation, playing with Aili.

To easily see how many 5 star celebrities I have in a save, I've taken up placing any walk of fame tiles on the second path. She's all by herself for now, but is joined fairly soon. Place your bets.


Kait getting one of the Impossible Selfies.


And of course we come back to our demigod and Volcano Specialist playing with fire, and it scared him.



Nice work Enele. A juice mixer was more useful than you. Seriously? Volcanic bombs with your bare hands? Never mind.

In the last hours of childhood, Aili was producing some videos. I think it's a more interesting way for kids to raise charisma. I always want charisma and logic, it's useful in many careers. Though in the real world, some people seem to get by without logic. So here the sims departs Reality. Sometimes I think the Sims 4 is unrealistic. Look, we're all friends here, and say it quietly okay. But... yeah. Hashtag Suspicions. Sure, we've all seen homemade rockets in the garden. That's normal. But logic ain't. And my logic is Flawless. Or it ain't. I don't know any more.



In the background, the blue confetti cake is already on the table. But that's an aside. I like movement in a picture, and when a sim walks through a doorway, I'm often pausing and spinning the camera around. Enele's I'm-hashtag-Posh-now jacket is a highlight. Lovely.



Who cares. Moving on. It's just a jacket. You can literally give it to your better sim. Who can put out a fire and not gawk at it.

What we want is Teenagers. (As a write that, I catch myself and doubts beset me.) First up, Wayne. Who is not Hashtag Posh.





So -- real exasperation -- do we pack this in now? Surrender? Admit defeat to the Mouth of Persephone?

... or do you want to see Aili?

[oshizu]

Oh my word, teen Wayne's mouth of Persephone. I had so much more to say but that final image leaves me speechless.

Besides your Master Builder skills, you know so much about playing your sim households to maximum effect.
And, wow, you are all over the Fame System (which I haven't even touched yet). Indeed, you should be starting a Power of 10 Dynasty! *nudge, nudge

I smiled at seeing the massage table in a rooftop room. My landscaping sucks so I have no compunctions.
You'll usually find my massage table in the front lawn somewhere for that last-minute pre-work mood-boosting massage. Now I feel ashamed of myself.
Thank you for sharing so many gorgeous screenshots of The House!

[Heart Foam]

I'm picturing that pre-work massage and laughing appropriately.

Rosalind's daughter with Gavin immediately lost The Mouth, so it can't be a programming bug, but it really is a strong trait. It's not just in this house, Alexis has passed it on too through multiple generations. I could definitely make a gorgeous mash-up of Wayne and Aili, if we picked the best of both. When that day comes, I'm going to hope that the mother, as per usual, contributes the mouth shape. Then we'll be okay. I'm also thinking that with a magical bloodline coming soon... wouldn't it be great if Wayne and Aili can pass on that trait, whatever it is.

I know Wayne's a tad awful, but this is his Beloved: Red Goth 2.

[oshizu]

I'm assuming that Red Goth 2 is Yesenia's teen daughter Aili? She's stunning!
Love how you pass on Bella's red dress!

[Heart Foam]

Yes, that's Aili. There's CAS portraits upcoming of both of them, and it's interesting to see what she looks like when she scrapes the makeup off. Goth women. Eyeroll.

I'll wait a bit before another big post to give people time to catch up. Much has happened. Another global superstar, toothpaste blue furniture in the lounge, the dog, science projects, death of a Stan.   

[Heart Foam]

Having revealed Aili above, this begins with a short flashback to her as a child approaching the Cake of Wisdom (TM). No, I'll remove the trademark and you can use that too.



An iconic, deep, profound picture of Wayne leaving as a teen as Aili arrives. I didn't get a good picture of her sparkling as she aged, up, partly because I was... surprised... by her wardrobe choices.



I didn't want to take them to CAS for a makeover right away -- scratch that, I really did because they're both Awful -- but other sims were down their rabbit holes and I didn't want to bring them home prematurely. So Wayne and Miss Goth had to survive until the evening, and raise Fun so they'd enjoy drama club better. She's got a nice nose. From how she aged, up, I wasn't really sure what she'd look like in Goth uniform. But hey, Sims taught this man makeup, and she's just the best. There's a lot of eye shadow and eyeliner that really doesn't help with the shape of her face. (Did I ever think I'd write such a sentence? Hmm.)



She did have black hair, which she lightened by a shade. You're not imagining that. The black hair loses some nuance and definition, especially for sims with long hair. The dark brown looks better.   



That's the same Miss Aili Goth in her athletic outfit, hair back, no makeup. There's a lot of Enele in her. And she has no eyelashes, poor girl.

Wayne, on the other hand...



...I think his Father Winter father was a pear. He's terrible. Skinny little arms. Mouth like a vacuum cleaner. Roland Ramsey's blue-eye blondeness continues to a 3rd generation, and that's okay, it's just everything else.

His mother Kait's fame has got to her, and she looks a bit different too.



I really like Kait's new look.

So, I said I'd not put a carpet down here... and now I've done just that. This room defeats me. The shape of it, the 5 doors in difficult places. I've never quite been happy with it. Playing the piano is a club activity, and that's why Wayne has promptly situated himself there. Everyone ends up being pretty good at it, and you often hear some sim bashing out Scott Joplin. (It is, right?) It's impossible to not be in good Humour when that plays.





I... kinda love that shocking blue. Embrace colour. Quite so.

Yesenia poses like she's in an oil painting of Duchess Brindleton and her fav hound. Because she surely ain't going jogging in those heels.

(She is, but this is the Sims.)





She got that as a quick, easy change for when Aili embraced the Red Goth look. I've since changed Yesenia's look quite a lot, and back to red. But not the classic Bella dress, obviously.

The entrance hall is one of my favourite bits. This room is a success. And I like Enele's pinstripe suit. I'd go for a different tie myself, but y'know. He's got quite a severe chin on him, but I do approve of his nose.



Some pictures of the brave, bold, blue furniture.





On the plus side, the room is big enough to play fetch with Maxie. That's never been a problem. The goal is to replace that TV with one Kait will unlock racing through the Tech Guru career.

So on the first day of high school, both kids got the rocket project to work on at home. Wayne did his first, with help from one of the adults, and Aili too for a little bit, and it was only "good". Other projects seem to be so much easier to make "excellent", and I really like the two-stage rocket with all the boosters. I'm always disappointed when it doesn't turn out like that.

Aili then, through the dead of night, did her rocket project without any assistance. Just to show up Wayne.



And naturally, she made an excellent one. By herself.

Oh! Yes! Traits. She's foodie + bookworm. Quite happy with that. I nervously used the random trait button. Wayne is harder to fathom. He's outgoing + unflirty. Shouldn't that be a conflict? Bookworm definitely gave Aili a slight skilling edge as a child. Anywho, she's nicer to look at, and less psychologically mixed up than her Beloved.



To end this post, an overhead of the house from the back. The palms have grown again, and the bench has been swapped for an arch. Yes, it's a wedding arch, and will eventually be used as one -- let's face it, this is the best wedding venue in the save -- but I also really like it for... being an arch. It's a good focal point. You look wistfully through it to the island of dead pets. Or not. Just look at the lighthouse then. Up to you. But you have to look through the arch.

[oshizu]

Please, no! Pears must not be allowed to perpetuate. Just use cas.fulleditmode! 
By the way, did Wayne get the Father Winter's Child trait? And what, exactly, does that trait even do?
Wayne has quite a nice profile! Is he that handsome boy sitting next to Aili, dressed in a light-blue shirt, grey vest, and a matching Sammy Davis Jr. cap?
That boy is very cute!

Also, the black glass frames and unplucked eyebrows--that's a fantastic look for Aili! She looks great! Even without lipstick, the shape of her lips is perfection!
I, too, am a fan of turquoise!!!
Took me a while, but I finally located the wedding arch in your screenshot! Is that the one with the turquoise ribbons?

[Heart Foam]

Well, yes, that's him but he still has skinny arms and inhuman mouth. And it's a little awkward that the best thing about him is his drama club outfit that he chooses himself. ;p I'll have to give him a vest and cap for one of his outfits. In that drama club outfit picture, one of both of them might still have a bit of a tan because both are going to be unstressed via the Beach Life aspiration. About that aspiration. Yes, I know teens can't make or drink kava, but they can still get gold on the party for the aspiration if there's an adult involved.

If I change his body shape, then I might as well change his Persephone mouth, and I feel that in this save such changes have to be off limits. So he is what he is. I want them to have a girl anyway -- so she can have a Father Winter Baby -- and girls tend to get their curves or lack of them from their mother. Aili still has Bella's figure, and all the girls in the house to this point, without exception, got Persephone's pot belly shape. So I'm not worried about Wayne's shape perpetuating. Red Goth 3 will still be classic Goth shape.

The Father Winter's Baby trait would be quite useful in the 10 gen dynasty, because of the 10k satisfaction points requirement. The trait gives a 50% boost to points from whims (not aspiration milestones though). That 100 point whim is now 150. The 25 point whim is 37, and so on. So sims with the trait rack up satisfaction super fast, and ultimately will be more stacked with more traits. But also means you'll reach the points for the trait you want sooner.

I quite like giving sim girls real eyebrows. I think it helps Aili a lot in particular, not having much in the way of eyelashes. She had glasses as a child, and we're not throwing them away now. I see she doesn't wear them with her drama club outfit.

Grief, I dunno. It's the nice arch? Yes, absolutely.

[oshizu]

I appreciate (and now agree with) your reason for not CAS-editing Wayne's pear shape. Huh, I never knew that about the dominance of the mother's body shape in their daughters.
Useful tip about the Kava Party. All I've done so far in Sulani is a few odd jobs, haha. I'm unversed, so to speak.

Now you've got me thinking...it would be devilishly hard to get an heir or Founder with the Father Winter's Child trait.
For one, doesn't Father Winter lose his job once he's moved into a household? When I did that in my legacy, he was replaced by a new Father Winter.
Can he still pass on the trait while "unemployed"?
So our founder/heir would need to get preggers and give birth out of wedlock...hmmmm, hmmmmm. *checks rules to see if the spouse must be moved in for "firstborn" to count
Haha, it's a little too complicated for me and I've already asked the Challenge Team too many questions, hehe!
For the P10 (Power of 10), earning that initial $10k goes quickly.

Weird about the eyelashes. Now I need to check if the devs deprived all the single-lidded eyes of eyelashes. That would be subtle racism!
Now you've got me looking forward to Red Goth Girl 3---are Wayne and Aili still teens in your game? Lol!

[Heart Foam]

Yes, they're still teens. We hope they make it to adulthood, there was a mild problem with dying of laughter. Warm laundry. 6 sims, you lose track of one, and he or she dies. -Not Aili or Wayne, they're fine, but I had a side project in mind that can't be done now. The comedy / hysteria mechanic is... I dunno. Maybe it's good game design because otherwise nothing untoward would ever happen.

With aging on, Father Winters do get replaced, but never seem to die of old age. Or that was the case in my Get Famous house. And only the current one passes the trait on. I once had a child with a former Father Winter without realizing another one had been generated, and no trait. So no, he can't pass it on when he doesn't hold the Office. I've never moved him in, and I'll have to try that once, but the game is going to instantly generate another Father Winter.

I've got ideas about where I'd start a P10, and what type of house I go for, and I've been looking at various builds for ideas. But running two time intensive saves here, I dunno. I want to get to Wayne and Aili's child here, that's always been a goal.

EDIT to add: [The child of] Red Goth 3 will have Sulani Mana + Father Winter's Baby. If that's the end point of this save (or it goes on hiatus) and I start something new, that's also fine.

[oshizu]

I agree that concurrently playing two multi-generation games would be time-consuming as well as tricky (due to different gameplay settings and restrictions).
My vote would be to play until Red Goth 3 has both the desired traits, at which point you put a hold on this save and start your (finite) Power of 10 Dynasty.

Confession: I'm completely confused how Red Goth 3 could have both traits.
If Red Goth 3 will be the daughter of Red Goth 2 and Wayne (hence the Father Winter's Child trait), how can Red Goth 3  get the Sulani Mana trait?
Does Red Goth 2 already have the trait? (Did Yesenia dally with an elemental?)
Or do you mean that Red Goth 3 won't have the trait herself but will woohoo an element for an offspring with Sulani Mana?
Dazed and confused...my apologies in advance for my denseness.

[Heart Foam]

Enele is an Elemental. Aili, his daughter, has Sulani Mana. She's a demigoddess or something (there are picture here of her using her powers as a child), and the trait seems to be straightforward genetic inheritance.

So she'll pass it on to her child. Wayne is obviously not Father Winter, but from here on, we've got Sulani Mana in the bloodline of the original family. So Red Goth 3, a girl, will be able to have a child (Red Goth 4) with both traits. And maybe I can add in some Magical Bloodline as well.

Red Goth 3, Aili + Wayne's future daughter, will not have both. Only Sulani Mana. Well spotted. That was a mistake.