Tag Archive | shanni

3.4 Love in the Wrong Places

Adjo and Shanni were still joined at the hip. They did as much as they could together.

But now that they were teens, their personalities began to really diverge.

Shanni took up cooking.

Adjo discovered his grandmother’s guitar in a closet, dusted it off, and started to strum.

It turned out he had a natural talent. He hadn’t been able to keep his little hands off the xylophone when he was a toddler.

But most of all, Shanni discovered *men*. Every day, she came home from school raving about some hot boy in homeroom or gym class.

The first boy she talked about two days in a row was Michael Bachelor. She virtually stalked him on the phone to get him to go out with her.

Adjo, on the other hand, just liked people. He was particularly popular with married women with children. He developed such a platonic entourage of older women that Layla started to get nervous.

He also loved his family in a way that Shanni couldn’t seem to understand.

Once Shanni was able to get Michael to answer her calls, it wasn’t long before she had him wrapped around her little finger.

They couldn’t keep their hands of each other.

The problem was, most of the time when Shanni called, Michael wasn’t home. He claimed he had a part-time job at the bookstore that ate up all his time. Adjo also had a part-time job at the grocery store for about three days before he quit from stress. (Dude. Part-time jobs for teens SUCK. They get no time to do more than school, work, and homework until the weekend. AND they get stressed out.) He saw Michael hanging around talking to his friends after work when he was supposed to be visiting Shannni.

When Shanni found out, she freaked out.

She broke up with Michael then and there. She didn’t have time for men who didn’t have time for her.

Adjo, on the other hand, developed a show, shy crush on Toya Ursine. Sure, she was his second cousin, but that just made the connection deeper on, like, a family level.

He got her to go out to the movies with him, and he was just starting to get her to warm up to him when the POLICE showed up.

Instead of a girlfriend, he was treated to a lecture from his mom about staying out after curfew.

3.0 Passing the Torch to Zahra

Jun8

In due time, Zahra’s birthday came around. Along with Adjo and Shanni’s, all together in one big pile of aging up.

Layla threw a huge joint party for her beloved brood. Three birthday cakes were arrayed on the back lawn.

First Zahra.

Meanwhile, on the back patio, Layla’s dear Antonio Bauer, who was a little late to the event, decided to cash it in.

While Shanni had her moment to blow out the candles, half the guests were distracted by the arrival of Death behind her.

Antonio had no regrets in life, though he’d have been glad for more time. The sly dog left behind a young wife and a toddler, for heaven’s sake.

Shanni aged up surrounded only by close family.

Almost certainly NOT the look she’s going to stick with.

Death, having done his duty, stuck around to cheer Adjo on and get a slice of cake.

Now that she was of age, Lancelot passed the deeds to the family investments over to Zahra as his designated heir. His own life ambitions complete, he made ready to step to the sidelines.

After a wardrobe change, here we have…

Shanni.

Adjo.

(The first was his final look, but this pic has a great expression :).)

And our inheritor of the Sample line, Zahra, who decided to get a haircut. I do say, it looks good on her.

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.

2.24 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.

Zahra changed clothes, retrieved her glasses (forgotten by the age-up), and redid her hair. Much better. All that mauve didn’t really suit her.

Layla and Lance brought down the babies for their hopefully more sedate birthday.

First Shanni.

With change of clothes, she looks like a heartbreaker in the making.

Then Adjo.

With his change of clothes.

Awww….

(Not bad, either one of them, though they needed new clothes. The bald look suits Adjo, I think.)

2.21 Two for the Price of One

May3

Layla had a textbook pregnancy. Whe she wasn’t enraging spouses, she spent her maternity leave working in the garden. In due time, she went into labor.

It’s a boy! Adjo Sample was born at 12:04 AM.

And, um, it’s a girl too! Shanni Sample was born at 12:06 AM.

Lancelot spent both of Layla’s pregnancies pining for girls, so he was delighted at the second arrival. Not that he didn’t think Adjo was delightful. He just seemed to have fantasies about raising princesses.

Since they’d only planned for one child, there really was no place for two cribs. In desperation, Lance and Layla booted Cycl0n3 out of Jared’s old room to make a dedicated nursery. The ghost moved a bed to the attic and started sleeping there.

Time to do a lot of things in twos.

Time to get half as much sleep.

Good thing babies aren’t babies for long.

(OK, truth is that Layla has had Fertility Treatment since before she got pregnant with Zahra. So it was a surprise to Lance and Layla, but not so much for me.)