Tag Archive | zahra

3.0 Passing the Torch to Zahra

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.

2.29 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.

2.24 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.)

2.22 Dead Things are Cool

May5

With hard work and dedication, Zahra managed to find a kid as geeky as she was. Sure, she had to stalk him at school and track him down at a neighborhood cookout, but Fabian Branch was eager to talk about science when she got him cornered.

Especially space stuff.

But the truth was, ghosts were far more interesting. She started staying up late to catch her grandparents’ spirits when they decided to hang out.

She and Connor got along swimmingly.

He never seemed to tire of her geek talk.

(The Sim Gods decided to shave Connor’s beard *again* when he died, and now I have no way to fix it. *Sob*.)

She was incredibly excited to meet Susie, too. At last, after death, Susie could meet her granddaughter.

Sadly, they didn’t seem to find common ground.

Oh, well, some things are not meant to be. Maybe grandmotherhood wasn’t a big dream of Susie’s. Or maybe she just didn’t get geeks. She led a perfectly happy life with the goals and family she had.

(It’s impossible to get a screen shot of this, but Zahra does a little “this is awesome!” happy dance whenever she meets a new ghost. Other Sim reactions to ghosts are the kind of “talk to the hand” freak out that Cycl0n3 and Connor, amusingly, both do. There’s also the grimace of disgust. I’m sure this is related to personality traits. Oh, and Coward Sims faint. Good thing the family trait is Brave, which is the opposite of Coward.)

2.19 Not Quite Right

May1

So, Cycl0n3 wasn’t dead, and he wasn’t alive either. Before his death, he and Sandi French had been a hot item. They’d never tied the knot for some reason he couldn’t really remember now. What would she think of him now that he was back?

Sandi was married, that’s what. They’d been together for years and never really even talked about it. It hadn’t taken her long to get over him. But for all that, Cycl0n3 couldn’t seem to feel hurt. He was glad she was happy. But whatever had been between them was just a memory.

Eventually, he couldn’t resist the tug of his ghost nature.

Zahra, on the other hand, was finding socializing at elementary school harder than she’d thought it would be. She came home and called everyone she knew at school to play with her, but nobody wanted to come.

Eventually she played by herself.

At least she had one best friend.

2.18 Off to School for You

Apr29

Zahra’s birthday came around just as Layla returned from her trip to Egypt. Layla, now the family socialite in the absence of Susie, threw a big party.

The Ursines were invited. Rachel was married again. Her first husband, Pablo, had been about thirty Sim-days her senior and had died of old age right after they were married, though they’d managed to produce a son, Jess, on their wedding night. Now she was married again to Harvey Jean, a fellow a good 20 Sim-days her junior. I guess that balanced the scales. Rachel, her brother Julian, and Jess, where all invited. So was Antonio, Layla’s boss with whom she got along almost too well.

Layla didn’t have quite the social-fu that Susie had. The guests all lingered out on the front deck, chatting, and didn’t give little Zahra much mind.

There was also a rather large influx of people nobody had ever met before. And they spent a lot of time thanking Lance for inviting them. Hmmmmm.

Zahra aged up!

She almost immediately developed an aversion to the art around the house. With a rock star grandmother, a grandfather who was a successful author, and a father who wanted to be the next Renoir, enough was enough. She demanded that the art be removed from her bedroom.

She turned to math and science, burying her nose in books about logic, astronomy, and geometry.

And Cylcl0n3 won a chess partner.

Layla, OTOH, finally capitulated to Lance’s meaningful glances.

One more child. Just one.

At least the baby-making is lots of fun.

2.14 Zahra Sample

Apr12

So, here’s a revised Zahra.

She has a change of clothes and new hair. For the Sims-uninitiated, I have control over a character’s hair color and clothing, but not skin or eye. Since hair can be dyed, it’s something that the player can always change, but whatever you change it TO becomes inheritable to the next generation. I guess Sims 3 genetics is Lamarkian :).

I’m perfectly fine with the genetics model producing combinations not found in nature, but carrot top on Middle Eastern skin tone just clashes. It’s not very visible here, but I did give her red streaks in her black hair.

Her name means “flower,” from her garden-crazy Egyptian mother. Layla bargained with Lance that if she took his name, she would name their children, so all kids will have Egyptian names.

Zahra inherited Lance’s trait of Good, which Lance inherited from Connor. That’s friggin’ enough Good characters! She’s also Brave, the family trait. Her favorite music is Chinese (? where’d she get that?), and her favorite color is turquoise. I initially thought that her eyes were Connor and Lancelot’s amber hazel, but it turns out they’re Susie’s green. That’s nice. Unfortunately, the best pic to see that is the birthday picture :-p

Also note that our older, more mature Lance is sporting a goatee. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a good face shot and will provide them later. Comments on whether he should keep it are welcome.

Don’t eat the spoiled, burned birthday cake, Cycl0ne3! Don’t eat it! (He was totally thinking about it.)

“I’m begging you not to scream at night and wake mommy and daddy…”

Zahra’s actual first word is mouse, of the computer variety. I wonder what this says about her future.

Considering the negative effect the lack of it had on Lance’s development, the eager parents got her potty trained first off.

Lancelot’s wish list went bonkers with wishes to spend time with Zahra. He is totally doting on her. Daddy’s little girl.

He also sprouted a fairly high-powered wish to have another child. Layla, OTOH, got a high-powered wish to be promoted at work. I sense some long conversations in their future.

After everyone has gone to bed, Zahra’s special friend reads to her.