6.56 Once More with Feeling

“And then she just walked away!” Edmund ranted at breakfast. “I just don’t understand women.”

“It’s probably not much comfort, son,” Dylan said, “but I’ve come to believe that if you’ve with a woman you don’t understand, you’re with the wrong woman.”

Edmund went on to take out his anxiety with a new spell.

That didn’t turn out well at all.

He set the magic aside after that and spent some time focusing on art with his father. That was still the language they could communicate in best.

He did produce a landscape he was particularly proud of.

Sawyer lined up some personal meetings with other neuroscience experts.

He had so much expertise to share with the smaller, less important researchers.

If only they would be a little more grateful.

Dylan and Andria had one more box to check off of their list of things to do on their second honeymoon.

Nectar tasting!

The nectarer had clearly sampled a bit too much of his own wares.

Andria made the first selection.

“Gak!”

“That tasted like a dead horse,” she said. “I don’t think I’ve ever really figured out this nectar stuff.”

“Let me pick one,” Dylan said soothingly.

“You go first,” Andria said.

“Mmmm,” Dylan said. “Fruity with a hint of floral.”

“All right,” Andria said. “If you think this one is good, I’ll give it a shot.”

“Hmmm,” she said, rolling the nectar over her tongue.

“No, I’m sorry, it’s still terrible.”

Dylan laughed and took her hands. “That’s what I love about you,” he said.

“That I can’t stand nectar?”

“Well, maybe in spite of that,” Dylan said.

“Ooop!” she squeaked as he knocked her off her feet.

“What are you doing?”

“Is it that hard to guess?”

“We need to go back to the tower,” Andria said huskily when she came up for breath.

“No,” Dylan said. “Absolutely not.”

“You know you want to try again,” she teased.

“I do not — all right, but whatever happens is your fault.”

“Last chance to chicken out,” Andria said.

“Nope,” Dylan retorted. “Too late.”

He took her by the hand, and they took the elevator to the top.

This time, they picked a better hiding place, and nobody found them.

“I guess I haven’t lost it after all!” Dylan chortled as they left.

“Remember,” Andria said. “I get full credit. You already said so. No takebacks!”

Before they left, Dylan found a perfect place to photograph a landscape to remember it by.

Back at the hotel, Edmund had started acting very strange.

“What in the simworld are you doing?” Dylan asked.

“It’s a spell I’ve been working on,” Edmund said. “It’s intended to coax a dragon hatching out of its shell.”

“Ah, right,” Dylan said. “I’ll just, ah, leave you to it.”

While Edmund made strange gestures and muttered to the egg, Dylan busied himself tidying up. They were headed home tonight, and it would be improper to leave the place a mess.

“Wait!” a guest cried. “What’s wrong with that rock?!”

The shards of the egg fell apart and dissolved into sparkling dust.

The creature inside immediately jumped off the ground and flew to Edmund’s outstretched arm.

“I’ll call you Kalai,” he said.

“Is that really a lizard on your shoulder?” another guest demanded. “Is that sanitary? Should that be in a bedroom?”

Edmund scowled. “Nobody here appreciates magic.”

 

The return flight left that evening. “There’s no time for me to cool a fancy dinner,” Andria said. “I think I’ll just grill something at the fire pit.”

“Yike!”

“OK, new plan. We’re going out to eat.”

 

Back home, Victoria and Winston set about erasing the traces of their party.

Victoria tried to repair the shorted out stereo.

Which required a bath.

Which required another repair.

Winston, meanwhile, kept his promise to Victoria about the den. After the party, you almost couldn’t tell that it had been cleaned beforehand.

Gamora had no more interest in the aftermath of the party than she did in the party itself. She ignored what her cousins did and focused on scheming.

First she perfected her formula.

Whitney Ursine-Sample had just been practice. Now she had her sights set on her mother, Manisha Kapoor-Yo.

Her chemical formula, when ignited, would make their house stink for days.

The best part was, while her father, aunt, and uncle were away, she was untouchable. A neighbor saw her lurking around the Kapoor-Yo residence and called the cops. They escorted her home, but there was no adult for them to report to.

Freedom, sweet freedom.

Eventually, though, it all had to come to an end.

Dylan, Andria, Sawyer, and Edmund returned to a home that was just as they left it… only more so.

“I can’t believe it!” Dylan declared. “This place is even cleaner than I remember! I never thought you children would be so responsible.”

“Just don’t go into the bathroom,” Victoria said weakly.

Then Vickie caught sight of the shape on her older brother’s shoulder.

“What is THAT!” she exclaimed.

Edmund puffed up his chest. He didn’t need more explanation of what Victoria meant.

“This is Kalai,” he said. “She’s a rare dragon hatchling, thoroughly enchanted.”

“If you’re interested, I could show you the spells I designed to help her hatch.”

“Uh, sure,” Victoria said. “Maybe some other time.”

 

“Come one come all!” Andria exclaimed. “It’s time for the main event!”

Surrounded by family, Andria was finally ready to step into her next stage of life.

“I am ready to rock this old lady gig!”

Even Gamora decided to have some cake, just for family solidarity.

“Family,” Andria said. “That’s what it’s about. Also cake.”

———-

Dang, I let this post get LONG. I just really wanted to get through the vacation and back on track for Vickie’s birthday. It was so much fun to PLAY, but sheesh — time for the next generation to take over!

As a tribute to Andria, I think this is the first time that everyone has sat at the table without route-failing out of one of the end seats. Woot. I may have moved the table somewhat to accomplish that.

I was really excited to find the accessory shoulder dragon I’m using with Edmund. The baby dragon will sit on your shoulder for a while, but as soon as the sim does any action other than walking, it disappears into inventory. I’d like to see Edmund walk around with that dragon on his shoulder most of the time. UNFORTUNATELY, it took quite a while for me to realize that the accessory dragon doesn’t actually look like the real dragon. I’d love to learn enough CC skills to create a proper accessory dragon. Eventually I’ll find a forum to ask about that.

I thought it would be fun to have Dylan and Andria try woohooing in the Eiffel Tower again. This time they didn’t get caught! But the object STILL didn’t show any hearts or woohoo animation, which was a bummer. I’m not sure what’s up with that.

While I’m free associating in the notes, I’m experimenting with posting this stuff to Tumblr. I really like the Sims community there, but the lack of comments makes it very non-interactive. I’m not sure I’ll stick with it.

I am posting hair conversions over there, though: http://echoweaver.tumblr.com/

4 thoughts on “6.56 Once More with Feeling

  1. I didn’t mind the length at all! It was all really interesting. Andria’s face when tasting nectar is priceless. So maybe all that time when Dylan was striving for a good one, he just had the wrong taste-tester?! I loved the ending of their second honeymoon, although it’s disappointing for you that the tower didn’t have any of the animations, it was fun to read. And I really empathized with the kids trying to get everything clean and repaired… but their parents were really impressed with their work in the end! So Gamora got brought home by the police, but she didn’t actually end up getting in trouble with her dad? By the way, I loved that part about him talking to lesser (albeit unappreciative) scientists. He’s so arrogant and socially awkward!

    Tumblr is easy to post to, but I also get discouraged by the lack of interaction. For months I haven’t found the motivation to put any extra posts there, just the automated ones whenever I post to the blog. There is quite a sims community though, and it’s a great place to post your CC. I hope you are able to make a shoulder dragon you really like one day, that sounds cool.

    • I’m glad you didn’t mind the length! I’ve been trying to power through with fewer posts, but I don’t seem to be able to cut content, so it just seems to make the posts longer and longer.

      But I do really enjoy my sims. I put all that stuff in there because they entertain me :).

      I love Sawyer, but I don’t think I could handle being friends with him. He’s such a pain in the butt. Yes, Gamora did get picked up by the police and brought home while the adults were on free vacation, so there was nobody to punish her! It was pretty funny.

      I like the Tumblr format. I’m currently copy-pasting all my posts there in smaller chunks. I have added Disqus comments and started some conversation with some other posters there. Mostly, I’m just looking to build a community like the one I used to have.

  2. Oh wow, a dragon! That’s something I have never seen on TS3 before. Kalai is a nice name, is there a certain meaning behind it?

    Also, I loved some of the facial expressions in this chapter. xD

    • I put a lot of thought into naming Kalai, and now I can’t for the life of me remember what it means or in what language. Lets just say it means something in an ancient alchemical language that Edmund reads in his dusty tomes.

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