Once we got Helen settled and Gideon in bed, I decided to take some time to relax.
When William wandered by, I called to him, “Come on in, the water’s fine!”
“Um,” he said. “I’m sure you’re really angry at me, but–“
“Hush now,” I replied. “Here’s where you make it up to me.”
“Yes, ma’am!” he replied!
And he did.
One of these days I’m going to really kick his butt.
After that, it was back to feed the baby.
William decided to keep Franklin company on his first night in a big boy bed. Awww.
OK, maybe not so cute now.
I love how he just shook the pee off his ankle and wandered off as if nothing happened. Way to be classy.
Right to bed with me. How nice.
Franklin’s such a conscientious kid. It’s good to have someone to help clean up, rather than just someone who LEAVES HIS BOTTLES OF BLOOD EVERYWHERE.
Then, when we were all least prepared, it happened.
Mum was, I think 107. We knew she was on borrowed time. But that didn’t make me any more ready to see her go.
She seemed to take everything in stride. I’m sure that the Netherworld will just be another adventure for her.
Somehow it seems appropriate that Grim couldn’t even reach her across a level floor with no obstructions.
So she just left him there, complaining on the landing, and walked off into the next world.
That left the rest of us behind. Mama was, of course, devastated. I don’t think she really could believed it had happened.
Bungle slammed the door on William, and both of us missed our chance to see her go. I have no regrets, though. She and I patched up our teenage feuds a long time ago.
Poor Franklin. I’m sorry he had to go through it.
I don’t think I’m speaking to Bungle right now.
At least Gideon and Helen are too young to know what happened, though now they won’t get to know their Grandmum.
Nova slept through the whole thing, but at least she dreamed of Mum.
And hey, I’m feeling sick again. I don’t think I need to guess what this is.
William and I buried ourselves in our work to get through our grief.
Hey, I think I found a potion for morning sickness!
And of course we treasured our children.
Franklin was so lost in thought about his Grandmum that he didn’t make it home from school one day.
Instead, he went back to his classroom to play games by himself.
I think he just needed the alone time.
I took a few more cases and used public bathrooms for my office.
Get a load of this client! Not bad!
With Mum gone, William and Mama worked a lot harder at being civil to each other.
Gideon continued to make noise.
Franklin went on a field trip to the science center.
Where he tried to work up the nerve to talk to a girl from his class.
And almost managed it.
But she headed home on her bike instead.
He was pretty choked up about it.
By the time Helen’s birthday rolled around, I think we were doing a lot better.
Wait! Where’d she go?
Oh, there she is!
My little girl.
I got out and took a long walk one evening to meet with a client.
Who asked me to go all the way back home and collect dirt — literally — on the family in the house next door.
About the time I reported back to her, it was really time!
So I made the trek back to the hospital by myself.
I have to give it to William, though — he learned his lesson. He came racing in like an undead, bloodsucking Superman. Faster than a speeding bullet!
And guess who was on duty to help me bring our fourth child into the world!
Meet Imogen
I think maybe I’m going to call our family done now.
———-
Children: 8 + 1 = 9
Deaths: 0 + 1 = 1 (but it’s not untimely)
Self-peeing: 10 + 1 = 11
I let Allison live out her very long life without giving her any trouble, just because she was Allison, but everyone seems to be way outliving their lifespans now. I’ve changed some StoryProgression settings to make the chance of death a lot more likely after a sim reaches the end of her lifespan.
I’m going with the one-child-per-letter convention, and I turned out to be really hard. If she were male, I’d’ve gone for Ivan. I’ve renamed her several times, but I think I’m going with Imogen. It’s sort-of Ire in Wonderland, pronounced a little funny. I also just like the name Imogen :).
Helen just aged up to child in gameplay, so I’m actually getting pretty close to being caught up!
Oh, no – Allison! Wow, it's always tough to see the founder die. Even if she was way over her lifespan.
Four children, huh? Now that only three adults are around, that is going to be quite a challenge, since most of them are so small. And who knows how Hetal will live. I'm feeling like this was easier in the last generation, but just noticed that it was only three adults back then, too. Maybe I should re-read that. 😉
Well, I have a confession to make. I'm cheating. I'm now running Retuner at 80% on all my games. It doesn't FEEL terribly different, except that my sims are just a little bit snappier and less prone to lag. That little change has a huge effect on the fail count of the ISBI :).
I'm also running on a new computer, and I think that helps
I'm having my stupid day today 😉 – what's the retuner? A mod that makes the sims do more intelligent stuff autonomously?
No *I* am having a stupid day today. I meant Relativity. It's an NRaas mod. It doesn't make sims more intelligent. It alters the flow of time in the game so that the animations don't take as many sim-seconds to complete. Thus you can go to the bathroom in less than an hour, etc. With animations taking 80% of the time (in sim-seconds) they used to, my idiots seem to shockingly be able to reach the bathroom and bed a lot more often.
It's just a bit confusing to configure, but if you want to try it out, I'll be happy to advise :).
Oh that is a brilliant thing! Thanks for explaining. I think I'll try that at some point – it annoys me to no end that easy actions, like going to the bathroom, literally take an hour.
At the moment I'm swamped with things again, but I will definitely get back to you. 🙂
Great chapter! 107 days? Wow. Do you have it on extended life spans?
Thanks! 🙂
I have a custom lifespan that makes babies and toddlers a bit shorter and childhood a bit longer. It comes out to 92 days. But everyone in the household, including cats, has been outliving that by a minimum of 10 days when left to their own devices. I love my characters, but it's been kind of maddening.
Hmm. Apparently, I didn't comment on this. I wonder how that happened?!
I'm surprised and a little sad that Allison died so soon. She wasn't an elder for that long it seemed. At least she faced death head on, without fear. Much like she lived her life in fact.
Franklin is adorable and I love how vamps sleep with v signs over their head. It looks like little Helen is a member of the undead too.
I have mine set at 96 days and all (but one) of my Sims have died exactly at 96. It's so weird. At least by your Sims varying it's a little more realistic.
Aw, Allison, always sad to see a founder leave. But she did have a particularly good life, especially for a TH presiding over so many idiots. And she made Grim route fail, which is always fun.
Helen looks like a cutie, Hetal/Erin’s nose with William’s colouring. Hopefully she’ll get a good mix of genetics.
Always hard to lose the founder 🙁
Super fun to see toddler Helen! So cute!