Festive!!

Welcome back! Lorien and Pascal are expecting their second child, a little sooner than I'd anticipated, but oh well.

Last chapter Lorien grew up and finally became heir. She and Pascal had a super-quickie, MasterController wedding after the game decided that while marrying your first cousin once removed is just fine and dandy, marrying your completely unrelated boyfriend is a no-no because his father and your mother recently got married and you're now step-siblings! So while Bree finally got her wedding wish, she and Gerard divorced soon after so the game would allow Lorien and Pascal to marry.

Little sims Tirion and Angrod joined the household, along with cats Merlin and Puck. Bree used her HPs to get a degree and is now evil, much to the chagrin of her son, Tirion.

I had her eat a few apples that were already in her inventory. The fruit thing stopped working for me generations ago, but maybe a new game file changed that.

"Unfortunately, Ang, I'm afraid that trying to claw her way back to the top of her career has made your grandmother's soul check out every once in awhile. Sorry about that."

"What?"

"Oh, yeah. Tirion told me she's crazy."

Lucky for Ang, Bree got bored and moved on to something else before he finished learning to talk.

"What the fuck?? My baby brother is pregnant and puking on my shoes!! This party SUCKS!!"

Thanks Gillian. And he's not pregnant, he's too stupid to not eat spoiled food.

"It wasn't spoiled! It's trying to kill me!!"

Suzanne: "I don't even know why I come to these things. I don't even get a break from my ancient harpy of a mother."

Linda is still kicking, she's out front playing gnubb. You know what they say about gnubb, Suzanne, maybe today's your lucky day!

"I've given up all hope. The woman is, like, 115 years old."

And in the "no fucks given" department, Lorien cheers on her baby brother solo while her Uncle cheers on her Aunt playing that damn piano.

"*sniff* It's just so exquisite!!"

Shut up you crazy old bastard.

When about 1/4 of the party pulls its head out of it's proverbial ass and finds its way onto the back patio to cheer, the maid decides now is the perfect time to grab Pascal's not-at-all-proverbial-ass.

"Uh, this isn't going to cost extra, is it?"

Idiot.

Tirion is now a Van Gogh, an artistic genius who is also insane! I like him!

So right around here I got a new laptop. Yay!! Everything miraculously transferred over intact and it runs like a charm. So Happy!  However, there's one downside.....

For reasons as yet undetermined, the game looks like utter shit in windowed mode - which is my preferred play mode. So now I'm in full screen most of the time, which isn't a problem except when there's unexpected pop-ups, like when a sim calls for a date and, most unfortunately, opportunities. I can't take screenshots in fullscreen, I have to be in windowed, and I can't switch while a popup is open. So no more opportunity/date/et al screenshots. Notifications work just fine, albeit a little harder to read.

Also, I got Seasons!!  Weird weather, funky gnomes, and aliens, here we come!! Anyway, back to the Valinors!

It's Gerard's birthday, too.

"This sweater is hideous, and my hand is ugly!"

Beatrice: "At least your hand is working, Mine got some kind of severe arthritis and froze!"

And as if two birthdays aren't exciting enough,

Well, sorry Suzanne. It looks like Arathorn's husband, Stephen, is the one who gets to put the death in birthday party.

"Stephen!! NO!! I told you not to eat any cake!!"

"I hear screaming. Am I too early? Has it not happened yet?"

No, you're fine, that's just Other Suzanne going into labor.

"Oh thank goodness, I'd hate to think I was losing my touch. Now, where is the deceased?"

On the back patio, just go through the door right there.

"You mean the long way through the front door and around the side of the house?"

Yeah, that's exactly what I meant.

"Why is this lady screaming at my birthday party?"

Don't mind her, Tirion. She'll leave eventually.

"A screaming lady AND someone died. Worst party ever."

"No shit. Now Uncle Arathorn won't stop crying. Ugh. Why isn't there an elixir for this?"

Meanwhile, in the front yard............

"What the heck? But I haven't finished my game!"

Dammit, Rex! You couldn't come around back to cheer or mourn. NO. You HAD to play gnubb.

"It's fine, really. I feel fine. I can finish."

The hell you will.

"Oh MY!! What a wonderful party! And so considerate! I didn't even have to leave and come back! This man so thoughtfully passed right after the first one, so all I had to do was float around the house. I so appreciate ...."

Please shut up, finish up, and GET OUT!!

"Well I never."

"Please Grim! I was almost done! I really want to knock down the King! Five more minutes!!"

"Oh dear, no. I'm afraid I have another appointment across town, so I'm a bit pressed for time. Off you go, now!"

Suzanne: "If only this had been my mother, this would have been the Best Party Ever!!"

Where is your mother?

"Bitch left right before this little boy blew his candles out, said she had something to do."

Tirion: "I don't like this party."

If it helps, kid, I'm not loving it either.

Turns out that Grim was hauling it across town to finally take out Linda. Chin up, Suzanne! You're going home to a much quieter house.

"Um, hello? Anyone? ......... A little help, here!"

You're a grown ass woman, Other Suzanne. Call a cab.

So in spite of the screaming woman and two old farts keeling over, everyone had a lovely time and the party was declared "epic".  At least everyone was entertained?

"I'm not entertained!! I'm scared!!"

Pascal never came home after work, opting instead to stand outside and play guitar. Which, considering he works at the mausoleum, was not such a great idea.

"IT'S COMING STRAIGHT AT ME!!"

That's just Socks! He belonged to Lorien's greatX5 Aunt Alterial. He won't hurt you.

"I'M GONNA DIE!!"

"Shiny!!"

Both cats are still alive. Having two of them is the way to go. They keep each other socialized and entertained so I don't have to pay them any mind.

Having Seasons (finally) means Festivals!! So that first Saturday I sent the household on a little field trip.

In formal wear, as you do.

"This is not helping my sensory issues, do I have to st....Oooo, flowers!!"

Wow! Those suckers are bigger than they look.

"Now I have to sneeze."

Go for it.

".....................................................nope, it's not happening. Crud."

Hate that.

He got his face painted instead. So cute!!

Alright, I did realize pretty quickly that sims will do this pretty much indiscriminately, but aren't they so sweet? That's Tanika, one of the paperkids.

Look at how Tirion's looking at her!!

I made them play tag for a bit, so now they're besties, just in case.

The whole afternoon gets derailed when Tanika is tragically killed by some soulless, heartless, asshole taxi driver.

My Simself: "Whatever. If those little bitches can't get up to speed then they need to get the hell off the road."

And let's not leave out the piercing wails of a woman going into labor in the middle of the festival.

"Crap!! I really want a rainbow snowcone!!"

* a few simhours later*

Lorien gets her second boy! Maybe the fruit is working again. The skin changing glitch seems to be gone as well. *knock on wood*

This is Aegnor, named after one of the other sons of Finarfin.

He already has the makings of a comic book superhero.

It's easier to tell in this photo that Aegnor takes after his mama, only his wings are red.

"Oh ice cream, your soft, pink swirls dotted with rainbow sugar sprinkles has almost made me forget about the brutal murder of my only bestest friend."

No worries, Tie, only I carry that kind of power, not my simself. Tanika is alive and well, and will likely be at school on Monday since your friendship should pull her out of homeless-sim purgatory, like Nadia before her.

"Really? Yay!!"

**spoiler** Yup. You're gonna marry her.  **spoiler**

"Ew."

To be on the safe side, Tirion invited Tanika over the next day,

and proceeded to pelt her with water balloons.

"I'm gonna get you!!!"

"No you're not! You can't hit the broad side of a barn!"

He's such a good sport.

Tanika spent the night in the treehouse, probably getting much better sleep than Tirion.

"Shut up, baby!! You're keeping me awake!!"

Aegnor: **screams louder**

I did finally fix one lingering problem.

"HA-HA!! Five AM, time to get up!! ................................................ Why aren't you waking up? ..........................Hello?? Ghost present!! Wake up!!!"

I finally fixed this shit in Retuner, you jackass!! No more reacting to ghosts!! No more queue dropping multiple times a morning for the same idiots they see day after day, night after night. Shut up and go do something else!

Finarfin: "Well aren't you a stick-in-the-mud."

"I don't know, Mom. Should I throw Aegnor a party for his birthday? The last one didn't go so well. People kept dying."

"He's a toddler, honey, he doesn't need a party."

"That's Angrod, Mom! Aegnor's the baby!"

"Oh, right, sorry. All these babies and toddlers, I'm confused."

"What 'all those babies and toddlers'? There's one baby and one toddler."

"There's two toddlers!"

"One! Yours grew up, mom! Tirion's a kid!"

"............................ oh. Are you sure?"

Merlin: zzzzzzzzzzzzz fish!!! zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Aegnor becomes a toddler who looks a helluva lot like his older brother and his cousin. Well, they are swimming in roughly the same gene pool.

"Come on, Tirion!"

"Where are we going?"

"To the park."

"Aw man!! I don't wanna go to the park!"

Angrod: "Too bad, cuz. If I gotta go, so do you."

"Alright, I guess I can eat some hot dogs. If I have to."

"Mmmmmmm, these aren't bad!"

"Now I'm ful.....hold on, did I win?"

"I did!! I won!! YEAH!!!  What do I get? ............................ Seriously? YUCK!!! I don't ever want to eat hot dogs again!"

Next day we're back down to one toddler.

"Well I'm NOT gonna grab that old man's ass. GROSS!!"

How about you don't grab anybody's ass?

"But, it's a party!"

Angrod is now an excitable genius who loves ........................... cats.

I'm starting to think that this trait rolling thing is not as random as the dice icon would have one believe.

"And then Pinocchio said to the sausage ..........."

ANGROD!!!

"What? He thinks it's funny!"

"*SOB* This poor man! He's been dead forever! It's so heartbreaking."

He's routinely out at night hogging the computer, breaking the hot tub, and jumping on the trampoline.

"SO SAD!!! *SOB*"

"♫ Buddy you're an old man, poor man, bleedin' with your eyes gonna be a zombie some day.....♫"

"Mom, that's not even close."

"Yay, Tirion!! Happy Birthday!!  Pascal, honey, the party is this way!"

"YES!! We finally got a new bed!!"

Random kid: "You got that bed weeks ago, man. Where you been?"

Tirion rolled for his trait and is now an insane, artistic genius who has a good sense of humor.

"NEEEEIIIGHH!!! Doggie likes cake!!"

Tanika: "Dogs say 'woof', Tie."

"NEIGH!!!!!"

You're a lucky girl, Tanika.

Well, she is homeless. No reason not to do this sooner rather than later.

"Um, Tanika? Even though I can't be heir, I'm the simgod's favorite and she says you can move in, if you'd li...."

"OH MY GOD!! I would LOVE to live here!!"

"Really? Cool!"

"Oh yeah, it's way better than the library or the gym."

"You know, that means we'll be together all the time."

"Well, I hope so!!"

AW!!!!

"YOU GUYS HAVE BEEN BLOCKING THE DISHWASHER FOR TWO HOURS!!!"

LOL! There's been a serious traffic jam of pissed off sims in the kitchen the whole time I've been girlfriending and moving in Tanika.

New girl. And yes, she's getting a Defcon 5 makeover stat.

She really is pretty once you remove the hideous haircut and put her in clothes an actual teenager would wear.

Gerard is not going to let a little rain get in between him and his snowcones. Sims love this thing, on par with the hot tub and the gnubb.

Next morning, when Tirion's party has been over for HOURS......

"Um, Tirion's cousin? If you're not going to go home, could you please not block the stairs."

Valerie: "I'll block these stairs if I want to. I'll block these stairs all.damn.day!"

"Valerie, I swear, do not make me call Gilly and have her come get you."

"You all know you have another staircase, right?"

Rebecca: "Man, I have to pee SO BAD!"

Then go home and pee!

"Nah, I'd rather mess up your floor."

"Uhhh................ hi."

"Why are you in your underwear?"

"It's morning. I just got up."

"Uh-huh. I'm callin' the cops."

Another weekend day, another visit to the fair. This may be my favorite face-painting.

Tanika has a serious love affair with the haunted house.

"Eh. It's not that scary."

She's brave so she finds the haunted house a little boring. You'd think that'd be a reason to not do it over and over and over and over and over. You're wrong.

One time too many...............

"I feel funny. I think I may be coming down with something."

Want to go home?

"No, no, it's fine. I'll give it another try. Maybe the 12th time will be scary. Hey, look! They moved the door!"

She deghostifies just in time to lose to Lorien in the apple-bobbing game. As long as someone wins us a pie, I don't care. Free food!

So ten years ago, Tanika.

Don't worry about Bree, she's not cheating.

"Ang, you really need to tell your little friend to go home."

"I'm Aegnor, and I have no idea who this smelly girl is."

"Aren't you supposed to have wings?"

"Are you going to move so I can get to the bang-bang toy?"

"I don't know why I even bothered teaching you to talk."

Rebecca: "I'm getting kind of hungry."

Gee, I wonder why that is?

"I'm gettin' kinda hungry, too."

Meet Necromancer, our first (of ever so many) Seasons gnome! Tanika found her in the haunted house.

Tanika's well over a dozen trips into that house earned us enough tickets to buy the scarecrow, who I later learn spawns even more witch gnomes! Awesome!!

Tanika did take a break from ghosting herself and nearly drowning in a tub of water and apples to get a photo with Tirion, who I'm pretty sure is in his bathing suit.

"I'm HorseDog!!"

Not a problem. I made a little science center awhile back, for Twinbrook as it seemed to need a little intellectual boost, and it has the gene-splicer thing.

We'll end it here. Coming up next, will Rebecca and Valerie ever leave? Who will be the heir for the 10th generation? Angrod? Aegnor? Or will Loriscal squirt out another one? How full will I let this house get before kicking someone out? Find out in the next chapter, or two.

Opportunities

Lorien got one gardening opportunity and she turned it down.

Points

Each child: +1 (Aegnor)

Skipped Opportunities: -1

No change in points, score is still +276