Generation 2 Legacy Accounting

So, Generation 2 has finally come to a close, and here is their Pinstar point accounting.

I’m including Cycl0n3 here. Though he is technically part of Generation 3, he lived out his short ghost existence and passed on before Lance or Layla.

Now, technically Pinstar is adamant that playable ghosts and their children don’t count. However, his reasoning is that you can’t bring back a member of the bloodline after death to get more time to max him out. Cycl0n3 wasn’t someone who accidentally died and was resurrected. He entered the household as a ghost, and he married into the bloodline as a ghost. Therefore, I’m declaring Pinstar’s rule inapplicable.

Generation 2: 1 point

Lifetime Wish: 3 (4) points
– Lancelot: Renaissance Sim, skills Painting, Athletics, and Martial Arts
– Layla: Perfect Garden
– Cycl0n3: Chess Legend

Layla also became a Celebrated 5-Star Chef. This was NOT her Lifetime Wish. However, I’m unlikely to pursue a culinary sim again, and she did all the work for it without any overlap. I am contemplating awarding points for multiple, non-overlapping LTW criteria that are met by the same sim. For example, Lance wouldn’t get credit for Physical Perfection — Maxing Athletic and Martial Arts skills — because those skills were already applied to his existing LTW. But Layla could get credit for maxing out her career AND growing a perfect garden. Keeping in mind that you can’t duplicate Lifetime Wishes, so a future sim couldn’t take that wish.

Portraits: 3 points
Lancelot painted portraits of himself, Layla, and Cycl0n3.

Legacy House/Net worth: 1 point.
The house has added over $100k in net worth since Generation 1

Aspiration Rewards: 4
Lancelot died at 260,000 (2 points)
Layla died at 190,000 (sob, 1 point)
Cyclone died at 100,214 (1 point).

Cycl0n3 just barely made it, and he probably wouldn’t have made it if not for the extra days he got from his aging being frozen. So I suppose that’s a bit of compensation for losing Layla’s point.

Total for Generation 2: 12 (13)

2.32 Not All Love is a Fairy Tale

Jun5

Lance and Layla’s marriage has been going through what you might call a “rough patch” recently. Layla has been working long hours at the Bistro, and Lance has been taking long spirit journeys to China by himself. When they’re home together, Layla has taken to spending most of her time in her garden.

When they go to bed, they’re usually exhausted, and they only exchange a few words before going to sleep.

The woohoo has almost completely drained out of their lives.

To make matters worse, Layla’s flirtatious nature has gotten on Lance’s nerves more and more. Recently, he caught Layla flirting with Cycl0n3 of all people, right in their own study.

Lance absolutely lost it. He raved like a lunatic, and Layla had to just stand there and take it.

Layla got fed up with Lance’s possessiveness. He knew what she was like when he married her. She’s never once even thought about being unfaithful. Why couldn’t he trust her just the littlest bit?

Frustrated and insulted, Layla started expressing herself behind Lance’s back. She kicked up her very flirty friendship with Antonio Bauer, but she made sure they kept all the fun at work.

What Lancelot didn’t know about wouldn’t hurt him.

2.31 Chess God

Jun5

Cycl0n3 was hard at work on his own (un)life’s ambition.

Game by game, he had fought his way to the top of the town’s chess club, and now he was ready for the final battle.

His opponent, whose name I have forgotten, turned out to be a creepy prick. First he helped himself to the Sample family bar without asking.

Then he stomped poor Cycl0n3 at their chess match.

Afterward, he said goodbye. Cycl0n3, never the most observant guy, went off to bed. Instead of leaving, however, this guy sneaked down into the twin’s bedroom.

He played with their toys on the floor beside Shanni’s sleeping form, and he stayed there until Adjo got up in the wee hours of the morning and kicked him out.

When Adjo told Cycl0n3, Cycl0n3 was mortified. He’d put the kids in danger. And, honestly, who would expect dedicated chess players to be creepy stalkers? Oh, wait, that’s happened a few times before.

Cycl0n3 wasted no time inviting this guy back for a rematch, this time in the middle of the day rather than the evening. This time, Cycl0n3 was victorious, and with that victory he took the Chess Legend title for the whole town.

While Cycl0n3 was celebrating, the creepy pedo made his way back down to the twins’ room, though they mercifully were at school this time. Cycl0n3 found him down there and ripped him a new one.

That was enough. No more chess opponents would be welcome in this house.

(Cycl0n3 really did rip this guy a new one spontaneously. It was pretty cool.)

2.30 Haven’t Lost It Yet

Jun2

It’s Lancelot’s big day. He’s going to qualify for senior citizen discounts, and people will offer him their seat on the bus. If he ever took the bus.

Not to be outdone by his mom, Lance throws himself a party in the park.

That wasn’t so bad, really, especially after he got home and restored his beard. (Why is it that the Sims age-up routine will keep your old hairstyle if it applies to your new age range, but it always drops the beard? Argh.)

People came from all over town to wish him well.

He was certainly the man of the hour, except for poor Fabian Branch, who only had eyes for one person.

So what did this mean for a guy who prided himself on his physical prowess?

Lancelot felt his time running out. He had personal goals to reach, and while his joints weren’t creaking much YET, he knew he wasn’t going to have those firm abs forever.

He bade temporary farewell to his family and jumped a plane to China.

Though, this time he traveled in more style, since he managed to bring his car along with him in his luggage

At last, he was able to locate the fabled magic axe.

He meditated.

With some surprising results.

He put out an invitation to all challengers in all places at all times. That led him to find himself in combat in the strangest of places.

(This is the men’s public toilet at Lance’s hotel, splashing about in the water leaked from a broken faucet, while some poor guy is doing the pee-pee dance.)

And man, he hadn’t lost it. He could kick the snot out of people half his age.

Before he left, he had his mastery of Sim-Fu. His greatest life goal was complete.

When he finally returned home, he and his beautiful wife had only one thing on their minds.

Sleep.

2.29 Susie’s Still Around

Jun2

Zahra always wanted to get to spend time with the ghost of the grandmother she never knew in life. Connor and Jared’s ghosts come out to play a lot. Jared either plays table hockey all night or else steals a few winks in someone else’s bed, causing either a shock when the living Sample wakes up or trouble when he goes to bed. Connor, on the other hand, almost always settles in the study sofa with a good book. But the patroness of the Sample line almost never comes out to play.

On the rare times she does, Zahra rushes out to talk to her.

But the conversations seldom last long.

Susie seems to have more to talk about with Zahra’s little brother who doesn’t much care whether he talks to a ghost or not.

The truth is that that Susie and Zahra have very little in common. Susie was a rock star, a socialite, and a party girl. Zahra is socially awkward and more interested in science and logic than people.

Zahra has idolized her grandmother from all the stories she heard growing up, but sometimes the stories are the best part.

2.28 The Land of Their Ancestors

May24

The new place was looking pretty nice, and there was plenty of space for everyone.

Lance took advantage of the amazing view to inspire his art.

Cycl0n3 made another pass at a chess opponent, this time at Margarita Landgraab, a woman he’d known while he was alive.

Poor Cycl0n3.

The family ghosts made themselves at home.

(Ghost Connor is missing his beard, damnit.)

Now that Shanni and Adjo were older, Layla started to feel homesick. She wanted her children to see their homeland and meet their aunts. Lance, always eager for another vacation, packed with her for a trip to Egypt.

Their first destination was the Lufti sisters’ house.

Layla’s sister Meena was home. She and Shanni and Adjo bonded pretty quickly.

Aisha was manning her shop as always.

She and Zahra seemed to get along well.

Meanwhile, Lancelot the eternal adventurer found an, um, secret stair in the master bedroom…

…that led to a master spy center?

What? Was Layla some kind of a spy?

A few minutes reading in the empty control center reassured Lance that they didn’t have much interesting information to show for all the flash and dash.

2.27 Bustin’ at the Seams

May23

Time passed so quickly that nobody was really ready when Adjo spontaneously aged into a child.

The prospect of two adults, two elementary-aged kids, a teenager, and an um ghost living together, a three-bedroom Victorian, no matter now lovely, started to feel incredibly cramped.

The Samples hastily began house-hunting for something with a bit more room. They happened on a contemporary home on a cliffside lot overlooking the sea.

Zahra admittedly had a lot of voice in this decision. She was more level-headed, and her parents were pretty frantic to get the extra space. All the artsy-fartsy quaintness of the Victorian had really started grating on Zahra (who can’t stand art). The modern home was just about as bland inside as you could get. Everything, and I mean everything was done in eggshell and brown.

Still, it was a great place, and a great space, and they could redecorate at their leisure.

Layla stayed behind to sell the old house while Lance moved the kids into the new place, where there was actually enough space for the beds Shanni and Adjo were going to need to sleep.

Once everyone was settled, they held a late-night, family-only celebration of the twins’ birthday.

Lance and Layla bid each other a temporary farewell.

It would be hard to sleep apart, but they’d be able to reunite in a day or two when all their affairs were in order.

It actually only turned out to be one day. The Victorian sold like a hotcake. Then Lance and Layla got busy making the new place their own.

(What really happened here is that Layla had a really high-point gardening wish that was just about to be fulfilled. I put off moving the family into a more appropriate-sized house for twin children in hopes that the last plant would mature and fulfill the wish. But Adjo aged up earlier than Shanni for some reason, and I had to get them into someplace with an appropriate number of adult beds before nightfall. I decided to keep Layla in the house until the wish was fulfilled, using a standard hack to let them keep their wishes as I switched between houses. But somehow I managed to screw it up ANYWAY. Layla lost the wish, so the whole finagle was completely pointless, so I moved her into the new house the next morning.)

2.26 On the make

May20

(Hey. It’s been a long time. Like, almost a year to the day since I last played Sims 3. About this time last year, I learned I was pregnant. Now I have a lovely 5-month-old baby girl. I recently got the Sims bug back, and I’m going to see if I can pick up where I left off. We’ll see.)

Life gets into a fresh routine for the Samples. There’s lots to teach the new new toddlers.

Cycl0n3 helps out when he can get away with it.

Zahra isn’t much of an extra mom, but she does take some time to get to know her new much younger siblings.

Shanni’s first word is, “dragon.”

I see an active fantasy life in her future.

Adjo, on the other hand seems to be the marrying type. Hmmm.

(Note from the future: Wow, the twins’ first words TOTALLY forecasted their adult personalities. Like, with eerie precision. Ha.)

Zahra’s school chum Fabian invites her to the park for a date.

They stay out late talking about the best sorts of geek stuff.

But in the end, perhaps they’re better off as friends.

Cycl0n3 is on the make, but the prospects are not great for a man in his… unique situation. One of his ranked chess partners turns out to be especially hot.

It’s not too hard to direct their meeting from business to pleasure. This is a party girl.

When the time is right, he makes his move.

Denied. Ouch. At least he beat her at chess.

At least Zahra and Cycl0n3 understand each other.

2.25 Death Takes an Evening Out

May10

Lance took some time to drop by Julian’s place one evening to congratulate him on his new marriage.

His new bride Elaina, however, turned out to be a whole lot of do-not-get.

It would be possible for Julian to have fallen for a creepier woman, but it was hard to see how.

Seriously. And with Rachel madly in love with Sunset Valley’s ganglord, maybe this corner of the family was just a lost cause.

(The Ursine family trait seems to be Mean Spirited. Jared was Mean-Spirited. Perhaps his baby-momma Claire was too. Rachel is Mean-Spirited and Friendly. Julian is Mean-Spirited and Good. WTF? Both of them appear to have Evil spouses. Also, it’s not at all clear how old Elaina is. She looks Elderly, but she didn’t seem to have the normal Elder stoop. She might just be an Adult with randomly-chosen gray hair. For whatever reason, she and Julian have no chosen to breed as of this writing.)

Elaina and Lance took an instant dislike to each other. Lance made his excuses and hightailed it out of there. Julia, old pal, was just going to have to come visit at the Sample place.

Layla, OTOH, got away from baby-wrongling to spend some of her maternity leave in the garden. She counted the days until she could head back to work.

And it finally came!

On her first day back, all of her coworkers rushed out to the pavilion to witness a terrifying sight. One of her coworkers had given up the ghost, quite literally.

The Grim Reaper did his solemn duty.

Then, his job done, he changed into a dinner jacket and had a nice dinner at the bistro.

(When he walks he kicks up clouds of black shadow too.)

2.24 No, THIS is the Best Birthday Party Ever

May9

In due time, a triple-birthday came up. Zahra was turning into a teen, and the twins were ready to be toddlers.

Zahra had spent most of her elementary school days trying to attract the attention of Laura, who never seened to be interested in getting to know here. The afternoon of her birthday, she finally got Laura to come home with her.

It was a disaster. Laura didn’t like geek-talk at all.

And she was utterly creeped out by Cycl0n3.

That was just a deal-breaker. Nobody was allowed to diss Cycl0n3 in her presence.

Layla threw a big formal shindig for the triple birthday. Mostly, she invited her and Lance’s friends, including Layla’s dear Antonio Bauer, Kyra the amazing maid, and Rachel and Julian Ursine. But she did invite Fabian Branch, who had made it to high school just before she did, and Rachel’s son Jess Ursine. They pointedly didn’t invite Rachel’s second husband Harvey, a now legendary town gangster and all-around creepy guy. Rachel’s taste in men was just epic. Her enormous pink formal gown was doubly-epic.

They gathered about the birthday cake while Zahra blew out the candles.

At which point Julian discovered that Layla had set the grill on fire.

Layla? You’re supposed to be the responsible chef!

Lance was up on the nursery, entangled with the bables this time. Nobody who discovered the fire could do anything but panic. In fact, Jess Ursine fainted dead away. Cycl0n3 was his own brand of useless.

Soon it was a raging inferno that threatened to catch the house itself on fire.

Zahra, completely upstaged by the hellfire in the back yard, aged up alone.

She then raced to the back yard with a fire extinguisher, called the fire department on her cell phone, and got to work on the flames herself.

She’s a level-headed one, our Zahra.

And Kyra arrived!

Followed by Lance. All three of them attacked the fire to get it under control. It was a real father-daughter bonding moment.

After everything was under control, two (!) firemen arrived and admonished them to be more careful. No kidding.

With a big chunk of the back yard a smoldering cinder, Layla hastened to get the remaining guests, i.e. those who hadn’t already fled in terror, back into the house. (?) was never going to speak to Zahra again, but that was OK because the feeling was mutual. Fabian didn’t run off, and he was still her friend.

Cycl0n3 did his part by challenging Julian to a ranked chess match, during which time they did nothing but blather about the fire.