Generation 3 Legacy Accounting

Dec7

Wow, it’s a lot time between the closing out of each generation in this legacy. I’d say it’s because I blog so much, but it’s really because I don’t get nearly enough time to play.

Keep in mind that I accounted for Cyclone with Generation 2 since he passed on before Lance and Layla did.

Generation 3: 1 point

Lifetime Wish: 4 points
– Zahra: Creature-Robot Crossbreeder (Science Career)
– Fabian: Dynamic DNA Profiler (Law Enforcement Career)
– Adjo: Super Popular (20 friends)
– Shanni: Heartbreaker (Be the former girlfriend of 10 sims. In this case: Michael Bachelor, Miraj Alvi, Richard Branch, Jake Roland, Willem Yo, Xander Clavell, Hank Goddard, Israel Bauer, Mortimer Goth, and Agnes Crumplebottom. Whew!)

Portraits: 4 points. All accounted for, painted by Lance.

Legacy House/Net worth:

Aspiration Rewards: 4
Zahra died at 240k (2 points)
Fabian died at 140k (1 point)
Adjo left the household at 70k (0 points)
Shanni left the household at 120k (1 point)

Total for Generation 3: 13

4.45 The Cold Equations

Dec6

After breakfast one morning, Zahra began to feel strangely warm and light.

She’d been around long enough to know exactly what that meant.

———-

I held off posting this because I couldn’t think of any words, so I decided to let the pictures speak for themselves.

I couldn’t really capture this in still shots, but what Zahra was doing with her fingers there was tracing numbers in the air like equations. I’ve never seen any other sim do that when they die. I wonder if it’s a Genius thing.

Rest in peace, Zahra. Better yet, work on that love life of yours.

Simantics: The Last Sunset Valley Report

Nov28

Wow, this is it for Simantics and town updates for Sunset Valley. Can you believe it?

A bit of Ada’s love life:

The pics from Ada and Alberto’s frolick in the hot tub were among the most tragic losses in my unsolved missing pictures fiasco. I couldn’t face posting without it, so I recreated the event on the night between when they got married and moved out.

It turned out to be the hardest-fought woohoo ever and took all night to get them to do the deed. I needed to max their motives with MasterController at least once per sim.

As soon as they got enough romantic interactions to get the Woohoo option, SOMEBODY would wander outside autonomously and be within line of sight.

Then they’d drop out of the whole romantic interaction progression, and I’d have to start over.

Then the GHOSTS started coming out.

ARGH.

It’s astonishing to me that they were able to do the nasty with so little issue the first time.

(singing) “Ohhh, you don’t want to see what’s going on here!”

Where do you THINK the baby ended up?

That whole scene with Adjo, Toya, and Karina showing up in the last post was pretty funny. Toya is Hotheaded, and so StoryProgression is always notifying me of some spat that she and Adjo had even though their relationship is very stable. So they show up, put the baby on the floor, and the next thing I know, I have the “something is definitely amiss!” SP popup. Adjo comes out of the dojo making all sorts of angry faces. Then he calmly walks back into the dojo and goes back to practicing.

I had’t realized that the fight thing was an interaction injection. Hah.

Susie failed to return to her grave one day and became really infatuated with Fabian.

She tried to get his attention by haunting the pancakes he just made.

Arlo Bunch Sharpe wandering around the house AGAIN. This lot used to be a park, and something clearly didn’t get reset when it was converted to residential. And it’s almost always Arlo.

“But how can we possibly read stories to two children in the SAME BED??”

Yep, you can’t. Zahra’s action with Sky was canceled.

Ghostly bedtime reading, woowoo!

“But I can’t cut the wedding cake! The wedding cake is in my way!”

Sims are awesome.

Alberto took a while to clue on the whole getting married thing.

“On the horizon, I see my mostly-naked wife!”

Shanni and Adjo looking very creepy while Ada gets married.

Charles writes Lancelot Sample a thank you note for a wedding gift he never received. Probably because Lance was long dead by the time Charles got married.

Townie/Cross-Pollination Update:

Morand and Bella Cagley are expecting! Glad they managed to get a kid in before aging up.

Evil didn’t turn out to be Faith Cagley’s type after all. After going out on a few dates with Sean Flynn, she abruptly announced her engagement to…*drumroll*… Willem Yo! Yeah, she likes old guys. But at least Willem got a girl in the end.

Ada and Alberto have replaced Holly and Michael Alto as the happiest couple in Simland. They’re so cute together! They’ve also adopted a black kitten named Jeremiah. I approve.

Speaking of Holly Alto, she has completed her descent into insanity by marrying her enemy, Mortimer Goth. She has left poor Michael and their daughter Araceli behind to move in with her new flame.

Brenna Ursine-Sample is following in Genvieve Goth’s footsteps as the most hated sim in Sunset Valley.

Sigh. The move is the post after next.

4.44 Where Did the Time Go?

Nov27

Stories about the scene Veronica had made at City Hall were all over the papers the next day. Within a week, the science center phones were ringing off the hook. Some people just wanted to learn more about the program, but many had some kind of supernatural event going on in their house.

Business for Veronica was hopping.

Some customers got a lot more demanding. Genvieve Goth was the worst person Veronica had ever worked with. She spent the entire time Veronica was there screeching. “I called you here to do something about this thing! So do it! What are you waiting for!”

“Waiting for you to get out of the way, ma’am,” Veronica said with a smirk.

“I mean, I could have let you step into the beam, but that tends to send your individual atoms on separate vacations.”

Genvieve stopped talking then and went to pour herself a drink.

Her reception at the Ursine-Langerak residence was very different.

Charmaine was out, but Maya was home and watched everything Veronica did with reverent appreciation.

She treated Veronica like some kind of celebrity. “This is more like it,” Veronica said to herself.

“It’s finished!” Veronica announced.

“What’s that?” Charles asked.

“Why, the treehouse! The ultimate in scientific child entertainment.”

Charles looked the monstrosity up and down. “Usually people build treehouses with wood.”

“Wood isn’t very scientific!”

“I guess it’s more scientific if it has a lot of rivets.”

“Maybe we should be the first to play in it.”

The kids would never know.

Charles’s work was also hopping. His skills as a martial artist and as a teacher grew stronger every day.

One afternoon, a familiar face came walking onto the grounds of the dojo.

Charles couldn’t believe his eyes. “Sensei! It’s been a long time!”

“You invited me to visit your dojo a lot time ago,” Zahn Wu admitted, “but it’s a bit of a long trip.”

While Charles and Wu caught up on each other’s lives, Adjo and Toya arrived with baby Karina. “No time like the present to take up Sim Fu!” Toya announced. “Adjo’s going to give me some pointers.”

Charles looked at the new baby and wondered if that was such a great plan, but who was he to judge?

“So what do you think of teaching?” Wu asked.

“I never realized how much I would enjoy it. I learn more about martial arts every day just by helping people understand,” Charles said.

Wu nodded wisely. “Spoken like a true master,” he said.

They were interrupted by the sound of angry shrieking from the dojo. Adjo stalked outside and paced around the front lawn, fuming. “This better be baby hormones,” he growled. “That woman is making me crazy!”

“Uh, yeah,” Charles said. “Sorry about that.” Better to stay far away from Adjo and Toya’s relationship. Nobody understood it. Sometimes he wasn’t even sure they understood it.

“You sound like a true master of Sim Fu,” Wu continued. “I wonder if you fight like one.”

Charles grinned. “Let’s find out.”

Charles couldn’t remember ever being in a sparring match that intense.

They opened with a few attacks and feints to size each other up.

Then Charles threw his very best attack.

And Wu knocked him to the ground with a flick of his hand.

Wu then proceded to pummel him.

He was so fast Charles couldn’t even see the blows coming.

“Wow, sensei, I’m well and truly humbled,” Charles said. “I may talk like a master, but you fight like one.”

“You’re closer than you think. Work on your technique, and we should do this again soon.”

“Absolutely, sensei!”

Charles got right to work that night.

The treehouse was a big hit, especially with Hunter.

He would declare it a space station, orbiting an alien world of energy beings, and he’d only let Sky and Forest up if they could tell him the airlock password.

It was the most assertive anyone in the family had ever seen him.

The other two triplets were quick to follow along.

Even Forest, who usually liked to be in control of everything.

“I was wondering,” Hunter said wistfully as he sat with Forest in the treehouse with Forest. “Do you believe in magic?”

“Hmmm,” Forest said with an unnerving gleam in his eye. “Magic.”

Zahra had a brilliant idea for enhancing the mysterious lawn gnome that made it back from Egypt with Charles. Charles didn’t remember picking it up, but it started appearing around the house right after he returned from his last trip there.

After Zahra blasted it with the experiment ray, she discovered the most unpleasant tasted of old fridge in the back of her throat.

The gnome started spending most of its time watching television.

This couldn’t have been what was supposed to happen.

“Let me check my notes,” Zahra said.

———-

Man, Zahra’s experiments NEVER turned out right!

Maya Langerak kind of got hit with the ugly stick. I wish I knew who exactly her parents were.

This is the composite post, combining about three things that would have been their own posts. But since I didn’t have a lot of text in mind, this seems like it worked out pretty well as a montage of Sample life.

We’re All Mad Here

Nov24

Hmm. So, while playing around with Supernatural and Moonlight Falls, I created a foundress for this ISBI Weirdacy I have bouncing around in my head.

Meet Allison Wonderland

Closeup:

She is:
Cat Person
Childlike
Daredevil
Supernatural Enthusiast
and, of course, Insane

She comes to Moonlight Falls with two cats:

Cheshire

and a little kitten Dinah

Based loosely on this picture from Disney’s Alice in Wonderland.

Creating a kitten for a starting household was a pain in the butt.

Allison is a reasonably-pretty-but-not-gorgeous face from the simbin. My thought was to start with as normal a sim as possible as a starting point, just as prettacies start with incredibly ugly sims and uglacies with beautiful ones.

I have even reserved a blog to log the adventures: We’re All Mad Here. It doesn’t have any POSTS on it. I haven’t decided what exactly what I want do with it. I would like to blog the legacy, but there’s no way I can manage something that is the effort of the Samples. The whole point of an ISBI is that it shouldn’t be that kind of work because I’m only trying to play one sim at a time.

I’m also planning on doing a cat legacy of sorts. Cheshire and Dinah are destined to be mates, and I’ll introduce future mates with interesting genetics to see what we get there :).

One thing that I found to be amusing is that I played through one day with Allison, and it was hard to relax and not be trying to pause the game and jump around. I clearly need the relaxation.

One complaint: Is Moonlight Falls ALWAYS this dark? That picture of Cheshire was taken at 9am.

Also, there appears to be no simple way to divide out my screenshots, which is annoying.

Thank you Christmas Commercialism!

Nov21

Thanks to advanced Black Friday sales, I now have both Supernatural AND Seasons! I’m up to date! I’m not sure that has happened since 2009.

I’m not entirely sure what I’m going to DO with all those supernatural creatures with regard to the Samples. Since so much of their recent story has been built on supernatural creatures being uncommon, I think I’m going to ease Supernatural content into the legacy.

Actually, I am a little bit intimidated by such a huge content dump.

Three expansions at essentially the same time. Eeeek!

(Cultural note: Black Friday is the Day after the US Thanksgiving, which is tomorrow. It’s a day for extreme sales and deep-discount Christmas shopping. People stand in line for a store to open at 6am so they can get a $10 Blu-Ray player and all that kind of nonsense.)

4.43 While Sunset Valley Sleeps

Nov20

Zahra found herself driving Fabian’s old patrol car to work every day. It was familiar, and it reminded her of Fabian. And it moved more slowly than the other vehicles the Samples owned, which suited Zahra just fine. Her reaction time wasn’t what it used to be, not that she’d admit it to anyone.

One afternoon as she was leaving the lab, her phone rang. It was the emergency ringtone that she had set for threats to the city or all of mankind. Mad scientists had to make allowances for those sorts of things.

The voice on the other end of the line was the Leader of the Free World. “Zahra Sample! Thank goodness we reached you!”

“Just a moment,” Zahra said quickly. “Let me put this call on million bit encryption.” She flipped open the hidden compartment on her phone and flipped a switch. It beeped. “All right. Go ahead.”

“We have reason to believe that Sean Flynn, the Emperor of Evil, is building a doomsday device in his lair. He could activate it as early as tomorrow. Help us, Zahra Sample. Simworld has never needed you more.”

“I understand, ma’am,” Zahra said. “I won’t let you down.”

A doomsday device. Of all the bad timing. She was getting too old for this.

She spent the afternoon reminding herself of the most common varieties of doomsday devices and their hidden weaknesses.

She had to face it. Simworld needed her, but she was not as young as she used to be. She would have laughed at facing down the Emperor of Evil in her prime, but at this time in her life, she could be defeated. If she valued her life, she should refuse this assignment, but that would be cold comfort if Mr. Flynn’s dastardly plan succeeded.

After dinner, she sat under the stars and contemplated her options.

Sky broke her out of her reverie. “Would you read me a bedtime story, Grandma?” she asked innocently.

All right then. If this might be her last night on the mortal plane, what better way could she spend it than reading to her only granddaughter?

She let Sky drift to sleep in her bed and gave the little girl a gentle kiss on the cheek. Her family couldn’t know what she was up against tonight, so this would have to be her goodbye.

Now she was ready to face danger and save the world.

Perhaps a police car was not the most stealthy way to approach the hideouts of the Criminal Overlords, but the truth was that disguise offered her little protection where she was going. She preferred to have the comfort of Fabian’s memory.

She drove to the edge of town, as close to Flynn’s hideout as she dared.

She had all her equipment. There was no reason to delay.

One does not simply go into the Criminal Hideaway by the front door. Zahra knew the path to take on foot to the back of the apparently-abandoned warehouse.

The path took her to the back entrance of the Flynn’s lair. She took a moment to compose herself, used her pocket scrambler to break the code on the door, and walked inside.

They say the sounds of the epic battle between good and evil could be heard from Bridgeport to Moonlight Falls.

Unfortunately, Sean Flynn himself escaped to fight another day.

When the doomsday device was destroyed and she had scrambled their ability to build another, Zahra emerged from the lair and dusted herself off.

A new day dawned over the warehouse, a new day that the Simworld might not have seen if not for Zahra Sample’s bravery.

Now it was time to go home and take a nap.

———-

OK, that was the most hilarious opportunity I’ve ever seen. What you see is pretty much exactly how it happened. The game was so lagged at this point that she arrived at the warehouse around 3am, so it was a happy coincidence that Sean Flynn happened to be leaving work at the time. The actual evil madman in the opportunity had a different name. Heh.

Then when Zahra completed it, she got a small amount of money and maybe a little bit of job performance (she was already level 10, but perhaps she could have gotten a raise). I guess saving the world really is a thankless job!

Since I haven’t played the criminal career yet, I’d never actually looked at the criminal hideout rabbithole. I’m glad I looked at it before we left Sunset Valley. I think it’s the most awesome-looking rabbithole in the whole town.

4.42 Set It Free

Nov19

When Veronica was leaving for work one evening, she found Kirby Hawkins standing by the gate, grinning at her. “Care to comment on woohoo with a dead thing?”

Veronica stared him down coldly. “Ada told me you were harassing my sons at the park. Do it again, and I will call the cops.”

She watched him smirking at her as she drove away. He knew as well as she did that the thread had no teeth. The police hadn’t been helpful when they were living with one.

Veronica had to come up with some other way to retaliate. She couldn’t keep them out. She couldn’t reason with them. And the police couldn’t do much when her family wasn’t under physical threat.

“All right,” she said to herself. “I’ll give them something to write about.”

Not long after, Veronica received a summons to Sunset Valley City Hall. Long ago, Charmaine had put her in for an award for her ghost work, and apparently the city agreed with her.

She was received by city officials with intimidating pomp and circumstance. The kids were in school, but Charles was able to attend the ceremony with her.

She was presented with the Key to the City and a medal of honor. The ceremony was performed by Vice Mayor Tamara Donner because Toya was on maternity leave.

“I want to thank you again for your amazing work in protecting the city from paranormal threats,” Tamara Donner concluded. Her handshake was firm and professional.

“I see,” Veronica said. “Vice Mayor, I would like to show you something.” She pulled a canister out of her carrying bag and glanced over her shoulder.

Charles was waiting patiently. He had no idea what she had in mind.

“You see,” Veronica said, “we bring all variety of spirits back to our labs at the science center. We examine them and ask them some questions. Then most of them, we let go.”

She demonstrated.

The spirit uncoiled from the canister with a happy sigh. It seemed to wave at Veronica as it dissipated.

Tamara Donner shrieked. “What were you thinking! You let that thing out at City Hall!”

“And what do you think it’s going to do?” Veronica demanded. “What makes you think it’s a threat at all? Because you think it looks creepy?”

“I can count on the fingers of one hand how many times I’ve collected a ghost that was causing anyone any trouble. Most of these spirits aren’t looking to bother anyone. Some of them want to protect a home or person they remember. Some don’t want to exist at all.

“They’re nothing like my husband Charles here. Most of them are memories of something that was once alive. But we can learn something from all of them. That’s what I’m trying to do.”

“These are memories of real people. They were someone’s parents and lovers and children. They didn’t ask to be caught between worlds, and you all are treating them like vermin. It’s the same way you treat the real, living ghost people who live in your cities and pay your taxes.

“I don’t need your medal for protecting the city from spirits. I should have one for protecting spirits from the city. Think about that.”

Charles’s eyes almost popped out of his head, but he couldn’t think of anything to say, so he didn’t say anything.

Veronica called over her shoulder. “Hey, paparazzi, did you get all that? I can help you spell if you need it. I’m looking forward to reading the paper!”

Charles and Veronica rode home in silence. Finally, as they were getting out of the Vaguester, Charles asked, “What was all that about?”

Veronica sighed. “If we can’t beat the media, I thought we could use it as a pulpit to do some good.”

“You could have warned me,” Charles pointed out.

Veronica nodded. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know what I was going to do until I did it. But if it helps, everything I said was true.”

“So you’re releasing the ghosts you capture?”

Veronica nodded. “Well, some of them are angry and potentially dangerous. But the rest we are just relocating to places where they can hopefully be happier.” She took his hand. “Come with me. I’ll show you.”

She took him to the balcony outside their bedroom and pulled out her canister again. “I thought maybe you’d like to release a few together.”

After she released the first one, a surprising face peered through the wall.

“I felt a spirit nexus somewhere around here,” the ghost of Cyclone Sword said in an echoing voice. “Did you see it?”

Charles laid eyes on his father’s face for the first time.

“You’re the ghost of my father,” Charles said haltingly. “My father was a ghost like me, not like you, but you’re still him.” It sounded even more confusing when he said it.

Cyclone gave him a blank smile. “So you’re my son? I think someone told me I had one. Pleased to meet you.”

It wasn’t exactly a tearful reunion, but they floated together with Veronica for hours, greeting spirits and wishing them well.

At last, Cyclone’s ghost said, “This has been lovely, but I’m starting to think that three’s a crowd.” And he drifted off the way he had come.

Maybe three WAS a crowd.

“You’re amazing,” Charles whispered. “I was only looking to marry a partner. I didn’t expect to find an advocate at well.”

“I know I’m amazing,” Veronica said with a laugh. “But I like to hear it just the same.”

“I have a better idea,” Charles said.

———-

It annoys me that you don’t even get a moodlet for releasing captured ghosts.

Sorry that both of the main characters were oozing green stink for the whole scene at City Hall. Ha! I can’t remember why they had so badly neglected their hygiene.

4.41 Wedding Aftermath

Nov15

Romance was in the air when everyone returned from seeing Ada off. Charles and Veronica didn’t have many occasions to dress to the nines, and they liked what they saw.

“Eww,” Forest remarked. “Isn’t is supposed to damage our young minds to watch our parents being gross on each other?”

“I didn’t read that child psychology book,” Veronica said with a chuckle. “But I suppose we can help your delicate mind by going to our own room.”

Charles glanced over at the dining table, where Sky was sitting alone, arms crossed, staring down. “I’ll be right up,” he said. “I’m going to grab a slice of cake first.”

He tapped his daughter on the shoulder, warm ectoplasm touching same. “I’ll cut you a slice too.”

“Check this out,” Forest told Hunter. “It’s awesome. Dad just taught me how to play. I didn’t know he ever engaged in any exercise of the mind.”

“Ok…” Hunter said warily. “It looks really complicated.”

“It is,” Forest said. “That’s the beauty of it. “All the pieces do something different, and you have to line up a bunch of moves and counter-moves in your head.”

“You’ll trounce me,” Hunter said. “I know you’re a lot smarter.”

“It’s Ok,” Forest said. “Sure I well, but you can still think of it as a learning experience.”

“You know what’s the most awesome about this game?” Forest continued as he showed Hunter the complex moves the pieces were supposed to make. “It’s a little model of society. You have pawns that can’t do much, and their job is to be sacrificed to save the leader. Then it’s the leader’s job to get all the most powerful pieces working together to protect him from the powerful pieces on the other side that want to destroy him. It’s just like life.”

“Hmmm,” Hunter said. “I guess that’s like some people’s lives.”

Forest immediately took his queen.

Charles sat down with Sky for an evening snack. “So,” he said quietly, “What’s with the face?”

“You have Mom. Forest and Hunter have each other. Great Aunt Shanni and Great Uncle Adjo are close. Everyone was so eager to see each other at the wedding. Except me. Nobody’s ever eager to see me.”

“Wait,” Charles said. “I’m eager to see you every day.”

“You’re supposed to say that,” Sky pointed out. “You’re my dad.”

“You know, we’re fish of the same color,” Charles said. “I’m a ghost man, same as you. I know it’s hard.”

“You’re like a Sim-Fu god. Everyone respects you. You don’t have to go to school where everyone keeps their distance because you’re so creepy.”

Charles remembered back on his childhood, where people didn’t keep their distance because they almost never saw him. At the time, he’d have given anything just to be more than a shadow. But he couldn’t say anything like that. It would come out as, “You think you have it hard? When I was your age….”

So he just said, “It will get better. It doesn’t seem like it, but trust me.”

She forced a smile. “Thanks for trying anyway. Here, let me clean up.”

“Good grief, Sky!” Charles said. “That is NOT cleaning!”

———-

Not much to this one, but it was a little bit of character activity right after the wedding with everyone in their formals, and it didn’t seem appropriate to let this stuff steal Ada’s thunder.

I’m going to start trying to pick up the pace here. I’m at a point where I want to do an heir vote, and I want everyone to meet Generation 5 as teens before I post one. Plus, it’s high time everyone got to see Avalon and hear what’s going on with your cross-pollination sims.

It’s HARD for me to pick up the pace, though. I seem to have a psychological block against leaving out anything interesting. I have sorted the pictures for the rest of the posts I’m planning to do in Sunset Valley, and it looks like there are five more after this one — that’s including a montage post that includes several episodes I’d expected to post separately. Heh. I’ll see how fast I can put text to them and get them out.

Also, following my strategy of buying expansions from Amazon Download when they go on deep discount after the release of ANOTHER expansion, I now have Showtime. Nobody in Gen 5 will probably have much to do with it, since those characters are essentially complete, I’m not clear how many special lot spaces I’ll need in my almost built-out Avalon to be able to do much with it. We’ll see :).

4.40 Will the Real Ada Please Say “I Do?”

Nov14

When the news about Fabian reached Ada, Alberto never left her side.

Well, he never left her HOUSE anyway.

Whether this was a comfort to Ada was between her and Alberto, I guess.

(That’s Ada’s bed Alberto is sleeping in.)

Alberto, Charles, and Zahra all suggested to Ada that she postpone the wedding while her grief for her father was still fresh. But she shook her head. “Dead people are parents too,” she explained.

The ceremony was, of course, to be held at the Sunset Institute of Modern Art. “They’re opening a gallery for me,” Ada said in passing.

“They’re what?” Charles asked in astonishment.

“Oh, a gallery dedicated to my work. They’re letting me use the room for the ceremony before it opens.”

She said it as if it were no big deal. Perhaps her muse always knew she would be that successful. Charles rolled through a dozen different responses and just settled with, “Convenient, that.”

He and Sky were among the first to arrive, which wasn’t terribly surprising.

Followed by Jeannette Crumplebottom.

Garry Crumplebottom.

Charmaine Ursine-Langerak and Starr Ursine-Sample Andrews were both on their honeymoons. Charmaine sent affectionate regards. Starr hadn’t said anything. The younger Ursine-Sample kids were there, though.

Darrin.

Brenna.

Toya’s half-sister and foster-daughter (of all the weird combinations) Valerie Ursine.

And Latrice Hodgins, who claimed to be somebody’s date, though she never specified whose.

Shanni and Adjo stood back and watched three generations of Sample clan running about.

“It’s been a wild ride,” Shanni murmured to her twin. “And it doesn’t seem to be slowing down.”

“Tell me about it!” Adjo agreed.

As if to make Adjo’s point, Toya waddled into the art museum.

“This baby’s going to pop out at any minute,” she said at the top of her lungs to be sure everyone could hear. “Can you believe it? At my age!”

Hunter cast about the rapidly-filling gallery. Something was definitely amiss. “Forest, where’s Grandma?”

“Huh?” Forest said. “I saw her before we left home.”

“Uh, oh….”

Indeed, Zahra had a flash of inventing inspiration as the family was loading up in the Motive Mobile, and she found herself unexpectedly delayed.

By the time she got herself together, she found that in all the confusion, the rest of the family had left without her.

Back at the art gallery…

All eyes turned to the couple as they walked into the room.

Alberto hadn’t dressed up as much as you might expect, but at least most of his body was covered.

And then there was Ada. The room went silent as her family gaped.

Shanni had spent hours on the look. She called it her masterpiece.

“You have to look just right for that all eyes on you moment!” Ada’s aunt advised, and who would know better than she?

Ada glided into the room as if she were walking on air. She looked down the aisle at her husband-to-be, and something in her face fell.

“I’m so sorry!” she cried to nobody in particular. “I just can’t do it!”

“Ada!” Charles exclaimed. He tried to get across the room and to be close to his sister.

Ada had just lost her father, and she had not yet let herself express her grief. She’d always marched to the beat of a different drummer, to put it mildly. There was no telling what she might do now.

With a wordless snarl, Ada threw up her skirts and disappeared for a moment in a cloud of white satin and lace. The sound of tearing fabric filled the air.

Then the wedding gown hit the far wall with a fluffy thud. The jeweled tiara followed right after.

“Oh!” Ada sighed. “I feel so free.”

She turned to Shanni with a chagrined smile. “I tried. I really did. But it just isn’t me. I can’t start a wedding with a lie.”

She turned to her assembled friends and family. “This is who I am. We — my muse and I — need to do this our way, or not at all.”

She dashed up the aisle to a bewildered-looking Alberto. “Will you still marry me, weird and weirder, till death do we part?”

Alberto laughed. “Are you kidding? If I wanted a normal girl, I wouldn’t be here.” He walked to the wedding arch and waved for her to follow.

“She’s always been like this,” Toya whispered to Jeannette. “I hope it’s not genetic.”

Meanwhile….

Zahra didn’t feel safe in Veronica’s souped-up sports car, so she found herself driving Fabian’s creaky old patrol jalopy as fast as it would go into Sunset Valley downtown.

Some folks dashed away from the road as she dashed by. She wondered what they had to hide. (That’s good old Arvid Voss there.)

Just as Ada opened her mouth to begin the ceremony, Zahra came crashing into the gallery, yelling, “I made it!”

“Mom!” Ada cried, dashing away from Alberto to give her mother a hug. “What happened?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Zahra panted. “The point is you’re going to get married with your parent here. Don’t let me slow you down.”

Ada giggled. “Here we go!”

And they became Ada Lovelace and Alberto Sample-Royale.

“The house isn’t going to be the same without her in it,” Zahra said wistfully.

“Yeah,” Charles said.

“By the way,” Zahra said to Adjo as they waited in line for cake. “After all these years, you have to know what goes where by now. You’re having another kid to keep Toya out of trouble, aren’t you?”

Shanni chuckled as she walked by, humming, Ask me no questions. I’ll tell you no lies….

Adjo smiled back blandly. “Toya and I love being parents,” he said. “It’s not my fault that my wife loves motherhood more than she loves taking over the world.”

The reception ran late, but reluctantly guests drifted away to go home and sleep it off. A party couldn’t last forever, not even this one.

Soon the art museum was empty and the lights out.

Except for a few people who couldn’t quite let go of the moment.

We’ll miss you, Ada.

———-

So. Many. Pictures! I cannot believe I took so many pictures. I know I go progressively more nuts with each big extended family event, but I just can’t help it.

Up until I decked her out as a bride, I hadn’t realized just how beautiful Ada grew up to be.

Latrice Hodgins got glitched throwing confetti and was still tossing it when the whole household left and the lights went out….

I have to say that sim genetics were not kind to Latrice. I think the new lesson is, “Never make a baby with Xander Clavell.”

To my annoyance, it turns out that sims won’t sit on those sofas during the wedding routine.

I wish the portrait of Alberto had come out better. It would have made the last shot more poignant. Ah, well. Ada couldn’t get married immediately after returning from vacation because she’d wasted so much time getting a good portrait of Veronica (dude — the portrait generator does NOT handle dark skintones well) that she hadn’t quite finished up her writing skill. After Fabian died, Alberto became a “legitimate” member of the household, so I had Ada paint his portrait for the Pinstar point. It’ll only come into play if Ada and Alberto actually have kids, which — to my surprise — they haven’t done as of this writing.

Ada Lovelace Sample left the household with 130,000 lifetime happiness points. She completed the Illustrious Author Lifetime Wish.