Hello there. I got sidetracked for several months after playing this chapter, so my memory of a few events isn't up to speed. However, I decided it was time to finish it in hopes of moving on, so here you go.
This chapter started off already in high gear, for it was the twins' birthday, and time for a sigh of relief as they were now officially out of diapers.
Talk about bad luck all around. At least Mooch has some benefits: Tamara's a Mooch as well, and sometimes rolls easily fulfilled wishes. However, these kids are not shaping up to be very good people in spite of their parents taking good care of them.
Coincidentally, it was also Owen's birthday, so everyone had to eat up three cakes at the party.
Darn, Owen didn't have any better luck when it came to rolling a trait. It must really be awful to try to get things perfect only for them to fail.
I don't remember if it was at Owen's party or later, but Beatrice spent some time dancing with her mom's friend Gumshoe. Beatrice had spent most of her time skilling, so it would be nice for her to finally make a friend.
I'm pretty sure that, even though it may not look like it, Beatrice's birthday was a bit later than her siblings'. She was able to pick a trait thanks to being on the honor roll for so long, so let's see what the dice rolled up.
Okay, that's more like it. It's even worth some points according to the rules. I guess Beatrice will be the one inviting people to parties from now on.
To my amusement, Beatrice decided that overalls were in style. It reminded me a lot of my Yeoman Farmer family in Sims 2.
This painting turned out very nicely indeed; it looks like a fire sorceress from a fantasy novel. Although as I found out later, someone had already painted an identical picture to this, so I now had two of them hanging up.
Laura and Olivia spent quite a lot of time at the chessboard together. Future evil geniuses need to make sure their minds are sharp, after all. (Sadly, they weren't at all close with their big sister and brother; everyone spent lots of time skilling, but not much with each other.)
Owen had been spending quite a lot of time at the beach ever since he was old enough to ride a bicycle. I'd locked in his want to learn the bait for jellyfish, but I wasn't having much luck finding it or filling in the rest of the journal entries for preferred baits. Maybe I need to start writing down which fruits he tries during each excursion. On a more optimistic note, William finished his twenty-first book; the title was somewhat inspired by Edward Norton's character in the rather forgettable heist movie
The Score.
Tamara continued her mission to paint beautiful artwork. I swear I've seen a painting like this before. I'm thinking it was by Claude Monet, but I don't remember much of what I learned about art history.
William banged out another science fiction novel. This one was unapologetically ripped off from a
Blue Oyster Cult song.
Although I hadn't mentioned it, William had quit his job in the military and had started working as a chef quite some time ago. It was probably not a smart move, considering that his earlier job had only one day of work a week, but I wanted an excuse for him to meet some new people for his charisma skill and to study cooking more.
It had taken her a long time to get there, but Tamara finally mastered painting, her third maxed skill. With that, she had no more milestones to achieve in painting. I'll have to think about what else she can pursue.
Owen decided to mix things up and try fishing at one of the parks, partly in hopes of catching some different fish to use as bait at the beach.
Having decided to pursue athletics, Tamara ran all the way to the museum. Perhaps because she was tired from her workout, Tamara managed only a stick-figure drawing--which, oddly enough, proved highly valued. I'll never understand art criticism.
It appears that, while my back was turned, Beatrice had joined the criminal underworld. She was now working as an art forger, specializing in Italian Renaissance paintings.
William got promoted again, although the broken radio meant that there was no music to celebrate his achievement. Meanwhile, despite her tender age, Olivia tried her hand at the family pastime and worked on a novel.
I meant to show this in the last photo, but I'd clicked off the notification by mistake. However, here's proof William had finally mastered cooking, so no dish was off the table now.
To show off his newfound culinary prowess, William finally read that pesky recipe book that had been hanging around and made a showstopping angel food cake for everyone.
Beatrice had been working hard on her skills as well, and officially marked the one-third milestone of her lifetime wish.
Having completed all of the writing skill challenges gave William confidence that he could handle a longer book this time, and his first romance novel brought in some significant rewards. (Although a title like that sounds more like a trashy affair than a respectable romance.)
Time had really flown by, for it was now time for the twins to start high school.
Good heavens, Olivia can't catch a break. At least Laura got something nice this time around.
Laura got a kind of punk look, although it's probably fitting for an evil sim. She doesn't seem entirely happy with it; maybe a visit to the salon is in order.
Not only did Olivia get the short end of the stick in regard to traits again, she got an unattractive top, ended up with an identical haircut (the same thing that happened during their last birthday), and had to listen to a guest laughing at her. Once this challenge is over, I'm letting her reroll her traits.
On a more positive note, Beatrice finished the second milestone of her lifetime wish; all she lacked was gardening skill.
For her part, Tamara topped off all of her skill challenges by completing a pastiche of Vermeer.
Although it was expensive, the price of the ambrosia recipe was not a major setback at this point (thank you, money trees!). The only piece of the puzzle left was for Owen to catch a few deathfish, and the adults' dependence on life fruit would diminish quite a lot.
I'd gotten tired of trial and error without success when it came to fishing baits, so I let Owen buy a few books to make the process of elimination easier.
Although she didn't need to improve her painting skill anymore, it was a good source of income and decorations, so Beatrice worked on some small paintings until she learned how to speed paint.
William needed one more humor novel to unlock a new genre, so he wrote another one of those instead of a shorter science fiction book. And he upgraded from that beanie to a proper chef's hat; doesn't he look dashing?
And soon enough, he marked off a major milestone with a novel in said new genre, a satirical work whose title was inspired by Elvira, "the sassy lassie with the classy chassis." What could be the object of said satire? Could it be a political piece, or perhaps a lampooning of perception of Americans abroad, or a clash between North and South? I will leave it up to the reader's imagination; presumably, William is discussing his point of view with Laura as she finishes her history assignment.
Points added in this chapter:
45 (15 x 3) for three birthday parties: Olivia and Laura (children) plus Owen (teen), Beatrice (young adult), Olivia and Laura (teens)
10 points for Beatrice rolling Party Animal
10 points for William mastering a fourth skill (cooking)
25 points for completing 25 books
Total points: 45 + 10 + 10 + 25 = 90
Previous points: 150
New total: 240
I didn't even come close to finishing the chapter before the September 30 deadline, but it's good to make it to the halfway mark. Around that time, I was late updating back then partly because I'd been sidetracked playing Live a Live, and currently, I've been playing Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous and Baldur's Gate 3. However, I did have a more valid reason to be late; back in October, I finally finished a cross-stitch piece for my niece's birthday; which had taken up a portion of my evenings for several months. I'm working on another pattern for my mom now, so I may not play Sims much until April or so. However, if you'd like to see it, here's the project I made for my niece:
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