Summertime...and the living is easy...
In contemplating the future of the Fitzhughs, I've been thinking about how much I'm going to feature the extended family in my updates. I've come to the decision that mostly it's just going to be the main family, with the first cousins popping in where it's appropriate and the rest of the family not much at all unless the members pertain to my current plot. Which unfortunately means that the Vetinari line and the Morgan line aren't going to be seen much in the story from now on, except for Gordon and Ray who are both involved in plots I'm working on.
But that doesn't mean I can't show off some of their bits here ^_^ And since I've finally finished playing those two houses through summer, I've got some picspam for you. I don't know if I'm going to make this a seasonal thing but these two families have had a bit of excitement this season and I wanted to give you an idea of who's in the neighborhood at this point. I'm also going to start a teenage Who's Who post when the first batch of kids grows up.
Let's start with the Vetinaris who come first in my rotation.
The very beginning of summer, for this house, has actually been in the works since January. I have a huge soft spot for Spider Jerusalem and his brother Cassidy, who not only gets the short end of the stick frequently but who is also my adopted grandbaby now in Squeaky Clean. So I decided I wanted to reunite the brothers and to also put in Gilbert Jacquet for Cass, and Doc was gracious enough to upload Gil for me since I don't have Bluewater attached to Sierra Plains (there's a generic shopping district there instead).
First I was going to townify the both of them, but then I decided to play them, so we ended up with...
...elderly Cassbert. <3 Because I was going to add them to the house, it didn't feel right for Cassidy to be younger than Spider.
Not to worry, though, elderly Cassbert is just as cute as young Cassbert. Also, I really love it when a Sim will go and relax next to a sleeping significant other. Bless you, Gil.
So now this house has four elders: Spider, Ray, Cass, and Gil.
Then we have Spider and Ray's only son, Jaeger, and his wife Megan. These two are probably the ditziest couple in Sierra Plains. You can't argue that they're not very good-looking, though, because they are. Jaeger got the best of his parents' features and Megan is Remington-faced. I have never actually had a chance to breed in that template before, so this is awesome for me.
I don't think I would have married them if Jaeger hadn't been the only product of this line, because neither of them really wanted to, and you can just forget about kids. Their parenting is also pretty mediocre at best, but it's okay. They have grandparents and uncles to pick up the slack.
And this is their daughter, Robin, who's a Libra (5/9/2/8/8). I don't know where the heck all those nice points came from. She has more than her parents and grandparents combined. But she is quite adorable and I'm already seeing Megan's features in her face. We'll have to wait and see what exactly she got from Jaeger.
Because I know everybody wants to see Spider being the cutest granddad in the history of ever. <3
Every time I get close to writing Jaeger off as a doofus, he does things like this to remind me he's not totally unlike his parents. His lack of nice points, I see it.
Megan is a huge trooper for just smiling and taking the hits.
Speaking of Jaeger's parents... *shakes head* I adore these two, but they should just not play Punch U Punch Me anymore.
Spider: "This one doesn't look like me."
Ray: "Yes, she does, stop whining."
Spider: "Still, I'd better check to see if everything's working." *shakes toddler*
Spider: "SHE PUKED ON ME"
Ray: "...and you're surprised, why?"
Here you see the problem with having two Romance/Pleasure couples in the house when only one of the four likes girls.
Jaeger: "MEGAN IS HOT"
Megan: "GILBERT IS HOT"
Cassidy: "That's MY Gilbert you're swooning over!"
Gilbert: "...?"
All in all, though, everybody gets along really well and that's one of the main reasons I love playing this house. They all like each other and do positive interactions on free will, and they also have a really strong network of friends outside the house. It's a really nice change of pace from the main house for sure.
During this rotation, Ray hit the top of Education (that's the third career she's topped now) and Jaeger hit the top of Slacker, which was his lifetime want, so I no longer have to worry about him quite so much. Ray, as you see, got a hefty aspy bonus from topping Education but I only put her there to earn the bookcase, so no lifetime want fulfillment here. She's permaplat already though, having topped Journalism ages ago.
Robin cuteness! Man, I love this kid.
Autonomous coupley cuteness! See what I mean? I'd love playing these guys just for this stuff. Cassbert and Spider/Ray are three bolt couples, and Jaeger and Megan have two, so there's a LOT of this, and I love it.
Speaking of coupley cuteness...
...the main event of the season was getting Cass and Gil engaged. Cass rolled the want really early on in the season and I was just waiting for Gil before I went through with it, because Cass deserves this.
The look on Gil's face here breaks my heart. You don't need to worry, dude. I'm not letting anything happen to the two of you or the rest of this family.
ZOMG STOP THE PRESSES. Jaeger and Megan are actually playing with Robin autonomously! *shock*
And speaking of Robin, the season ended with her birthday. Isn't she cute? I can't wait to get back to this house and play her some more, figure out who she is.
Jaeger and Megan are not having any more kids. They can handle one all right, but I wouldn't want them to have a large brood and they wouldn't either. So it's up to Robin to perpetuate this line. I think she can handle it.
Over at the Morgan residence, the only ones there are Gordon, his wife Sydney, and their son Phillip. Phillip is named after a babydaddy from the matriarch half of De's Pierce Legacy, and all future kids from this line are also getting named after spouses from her Legacies.
It's a stark contrast from the Vetinari household. It's very quiet and Gordon especially always looks so sad. I feel terrible about separating him from his parents.
And of course, because there are only two adults, this was inevitable. There are six at the Vetinari place and we never needed a nanny there because one of them was always at home, but Gordon and Sydney both work daytime hours for the moment and Sydney's still working on getting to the top of her career (she wants to be a Celebrity Chef).
I don't usually use nannies because there's no need, and a good many of the ones I have used aren't bad. This one, however? EPIC FAIL.
I wanted to turn the fridge around so I put out the day's ration of food so she wouldn't get hungry or anything, but she totally ignored it.
!!!!! You did not just put my Phillip on the floor!!!
She eventually went back to get him, but then she took him down to the fridge and spent the better part of three hours complaining that she couldn't get him a bottle, putting him on the floor, and then picking him back up again and repeating it.
I turned the fridge around for a reason! Phil had a bottle before his parents left and there's a snapdragon next to his crib! GET WITH THE PROGRAM, LADY.
Sydney: "If I tip you, will you get the hell out and try not to screw up as bad when you come back tomorrow?"
Nanny: "Sure!" :D
Sydney: "There, Phillip. Mommy's got you. We're going to take you back upstairs to your nice bed so you don't have to lie on the nasty floor anymore."
Sydney, like Megan, is a Romance Sim, but unlike Megan, you'd never know it.
Best superhero team ever, y/y?
This is how Gordon and Sydney spend most of their time. Gordon no longer has to skill for his career, so he works the phone, and Sydney works her tail off trying to get the skills she needs. She's almost there, but then she'll be permaplat and what the heck are they going to do after that? I feel so terrible for taking Selina and Stephen away. D:
Now, who does this remind me of?
(Also, Gordon fans, here's your free fanservice. <3)
She's baaaaaaaaack. *glares at nanny*
NO DO NOT TOUCH THE BABY.
AGH. Can someone please tell me how it makes sense to
1) change the baby manually when there is a perfectly good changing table RIGHT THERE
2) put the baby on the floor to throw the diaper away when there is a perfectly good crib RIGHT THERE
At least she eventually put him back this time and went and played chess until Sydney got home like nannies are SUPPOSED TO.
Sydney: "I hear your treatment of my son was marginally less idiotic today. Have a tip and keep it up."
Unlike with Jaeger and Megan, I was actually considering letting these two have a second kid. The house is really sad with only three people. I held off because I didn't think Sydney would go for it, but she's been a really good mother to Phillip so far and Gordon would definitely love it. So, new baby on the way, and this one plus the new Fitzhugh baby are going to be IT for the generation. That'll make thirteen kids, and that's plenty.
I really don't envy Sydney this part, though. Yuck.
And here's Phillip, who's a Gemini (4/10/10/8/3). STEALTHY ACTIVE POINTS ARE STEALTHY. Gordon's got all of one and I think Sydney only has three.
I was a tad bit worried about how he was going to turn out, since Gordon's got a very interesting mesh of templates and Sydney is the Remington London face (remember Archie's grandmother? Yeah, that one), but I actually think he's really cute. He's definitely going to grow up with very unique features. I can see the cheekbones already.
Teaching Phil to talk was hilarious. He'd say a word, but then refused to repeat it, as if to say "I ALREADY SAID IT LEAVE ME ALONE." I love this kid.
So it was about this time that I decided poor Gordon needed a Project. The dancing is cute, but when you have nothing else to do...yeah.
Therefore, I gave him a Project.
And of course, that was the night that the burglar decided to come and steal the Project, as well as their truck and chess table. Carlos, what are you doing here, I thought I got rid of you! O_O
Burglar: "Who with the what now?"
(This is actually not Carlos, but he's got the same template and hair color and it was just creepy.)
Another reason why this stuff isn't going in the update is that some of it's just ridiculous. There is no way to explain a Captain Hero standing by idly while the burglar takes his stuff. Gordon should have (and would have, if coding allowed it) beaten this guy to a pulp.
Phillip: D:
I know, kid. I know.
You know, I seem to recall that the last time this happened, a certain young toddler and his Reaper-child father took it to heart and WOULDN'T SHUT UP ABOUT IT. Spider and Jaeger STILL flamey-thought-bubble the freakin' burglar. Are these guys TRYING to scar my kids for life?
One last thing that I thought was semi-amusing...I was rereading some bits the other day and I found this:
"My mom had a baby today while we were at school!" Lex had barely recieved the news before turning and reporting it to his new friend, Andrew Pitts. "I can't believe I have a new sister! That's so cool."
"You're lucky," Andrew said, smiling. "My only sister's way older than me, and she's at college so I barely ever see her."
"You can share mine," Lex said, diplomatically, "but Dad says I have to wait to play with her til she's bigger."
AHAHAHAHA I was foreshadowing and I didn't even know it! Oh, Lex <3
But that doesn't mean I can't show off some of their bits here ^_^ And since I've finally finished playing those two houses through summer, I've got some picspam for you. I don't know if I'm going to make this a seasonal thing but these two families have had a bit of excitement this season and I wanted to give you an idea of who's in the neighborhood at this point. I'm also going to start a teenage Who's Who post when the first batch of kids grows up.
Let's start with the Vetinaris who come first in my rotation.
The very beginning of summer, for this house, has actually been in the works since January. I have a huge soft spot for Spider Jerusalem and his brother Cassidy, who not only gets the short end of the stick frequently but who is also my adopted grandbaby now in Squeaky Clean. So I decided I wanted to reunite the brothers and to also put in Gilbert Jacquet for Cass, and Doc was gracious enough to upload Gil for me since I don't have Bluewater attached to Sierra Plains (there's a generic shopping district there instead).
First I was going to townify the both of them, but then I decided to play them, so we ended up with...
...elderly Cassbert. <3 Because I was going to add them to the house, it didn't feel right for Cassidy to be younger than Spider.
Not to worry, though, elderly Cassbert is just as cute as young Cassbert. Also, I really love it when a Sim will go and relax next to a sleeping significant other. Bless you, Gil.
So now this house has four elders: Spider, Ray, Cass, and Gil.
Then we have Spider and Ray's only son, Jaeger, and his wife Megan. These two are probably the ditziest couple in Sierra Plains. You can't argue that they're not very good-looking, though, because they are. Jaeger got the best of his parents' features and Megan is Remington-faced. I have never actually had a chance to breed in that template before, so this is awesome for me.
I don't think I would have married them if Jaeger hadn't been the only product of this line, because neither of them really wanted to, and you can just forget about kids. Their parenting is also pretty mediocre at best, but it's okay. They have grandparents and uncles to pick up the slack.
And this is their daughter, Robin, who's a Libra (5/9/2/8/8). I don't know where the heck all those nice points came from. She has more than her parents and grandparents combined. But she is quite adorable and I'm already seeing Megan's features in her face. We'll have to wait and see what exactly she got from Jaeger.
Because I know everybody wants to see Spider being the cutest granddad in the history of ever. <3
Every time I get close to writing Jaeger off as a doofus, he does things like this to remind me he's not totally unlike his parents. His lack of nice points, I see it.
Megan is a huge trooper for just smiling and taking the hits.
Speaking of Jaeger's parents... *shakes head* I adore these two, but they should just not play Punch U Punch Me anymore.
Spider: "This one doesn't look like me."
Ray: "Yes, she does, stop whining."
Spider: "Still, I'd better check to see if everything's working." *shakes toddler*
Spider: "SHE PUKED ON ME"
Ray: "...and you're surprised, why?"
Here you see the problem with having two Romance/Pleasure couples in the house when only one of the four likes girls.
Jaeger: "MEGAN IS HOT"
Megan: "GILBERT IS HOT"
Cassidy: "That's MY Gilbert you're swooning over!"
Gilbert: "...?"
All in all, though, everybody gets along really well and that's one of the main reasons I love playing this house. They all like each other and do positive interactions on free will, and they also have a really strong network of friends outside the house. It's a really nice change of pace from the main house for sure.
During this rotation, Ray hit the top of Education (that's the third career she's topped now) and Jaeger hit the top of Slacker, which was his lifetime want, so I no longer have to worry about him quite so much. Ray, as you see, got a hefty aspy bonus from topping Education but I only put her there to earn the bookcase, so no lifetime want fulfillment here. She's permaplat already though, having topped Journalism ages ago.
Robin cuteness! Man, I love this kid.
Autonomous coupley cuteness! See what I mean? I'd love playing these guys just for this stuff. Cassbert and Spider/Ray are three bolt couples, and Jaeger and Megan have two, so there's a LOT of this, and I love it.
Speaking of coupley cuteness...
...the main event of the season was getting Cass and Gil engaged. Cass rolled the want really early on in the season and I was just waiting for Gil before I went through with it, because Cass deserves this.
The look on Gil's face here breaks my heart. You don't need to worry, dude. I'm not letting anything happen to the two of you or the rest of this family.
ZOMG STOP THE PRESSES. Jaeger and Megan are actually playing with Robin autonomously! *shock*
And speaking of Robin, the season ended with her birthday. Isn't she cute? I can't wait to get back to this house and play her some more, figure out who she is.
Jaeger and Megan are not having any more kids. They can handle one all right, but I wouldn't want them to have a large brood and they wouldn't either. So it's up to Robin to perpetuate this line. I think she can handle it.
Over at the Morgan residence, the only ones there are Gordon, his wife Sydney, and their son Phillip. Phillip is named after a babydaddy from the matriarch half of De's Pierce Legacy, and all future kids from this line are also getting named after spouses from her Legacies.
It's a stark contrast from the Vetinari household. It's very quiet and Gordon especially always looks so sad. I feel terrible about separating him from his parents.
And of course, because there are only two adults, this was inevitable. There are six at the Vetinari place and we never needed a nanny there because one of them was always at home, but Gordon and Sydney both work daytime hours for the moment and Sydney's still working on getting to the top of her career (she wants to be a Celebrity Chef).
I don't usually use nannies because there's no need, and a good many of the ones I have used aren't bad. This one, however? EPIC FAIL.
I wanted to turn the fridge around so I put out the day's ration of food so she wouldn't get hungry or anything, but she totally ignored it.
!!!!! You did not just put my Phillip on the floor!!!
She eventually went back to get him, but then she took him down to the fridge and spent the better part of three hours complaining that she couldn't get him a bottle, putting him on the floor, and then picking him back up again and repeating it.
I turned the fridge around for a reason! Phil had a bottle before his parents left and there's a snapdragon next to his crib! GET WITH THE PROGRAM, LADY.
Sydney: "If I tip you, will you get the hell out and try not to screw up as bad when you come back tomorrow?"
Nanny: "Sure!" :D
Sydney: "There, Phillip. Mommy's got you. We're going to take you back upstairs to your nice bed so you don't have to lie on the nasty floor anymore."
Sydney, like Megan, is a Romance Sim, but unlike Megan, you'd never know it.
Best superhero team ever, y/y?
This is how Gordon and Sydney spend most of their time. Gordon no longer has to skill for his career, so he works the phone, and Sydney works her tail off trying to get the skills she needs. She's almost there, but then she'll be permaplat and what the heck are they going to do after that? I feel so terrible for taking Selina and Stephen away. D:
Now, who does this remind me of?
(Also, Gordon fans, here's your free fanservice. <3)
She's baaaaaaaaack. *glares at nanny*
NO DO NOT TOUCH THE BABY.
AGH. Can someone please tell me how it makes sense to
1) change the baby manually when there is a perfectly good changing table RIGHT THERE
2) put the baby on the floor to throw the diaper away when there is a perfectly good crib RIGHT THERE
At least she eventually put him back this time and went and played chess until Sydney got home like nannies are SUPPOSED TO.
Sydney: "I hear your treatment of my son was marginally less idiotic today. Have a tip and keep it up."
Unlike with Jaeger and Megan, I was actually considering letting these two have a second kid. The house is really sad with only three people. I held off because I didn't think Sydney would go for it, but she's been a really good mother to Phillip so far and Gordon would definitely love it. So, new baby on the way, and this one plus the new Fitzhugh baby are going to be IT for the generation. That'll make thirteen kids, and that's plenty.
I really don't envy Sydney this part, though. Yuck.
And here's Phillip, who's a Gemini (4/10/10/8/3). STEALTHY ACTIVE POINTS ARE STEALTHY. Gordon's got all of one and I think Sydney only has three.
I was a tad bit worried about how he was going to turn out, since Gordon's got a very interesting mesh of templates and Sydney is the Remington London face (remember Archie's grandmother? Yeah, that one), but I actually think he's really cute. He's definitely going to grow up with very unique features. I can see the cheekbones already.
Teaching Phil to talk was hilarious. He'd say a word, but then refused to repeat it, as if to say "I ALREADY SAID IT LEAVE ME ALONE." I love this kid.
So it was about this time that I decided poor Gordon needed a Project. The dancing is cute, but when you have nothing else to do...yeah.
Therefore, I gave him a Project.
And of course, that was the night that the burglar decided to come and steal the Project, as well as their truck and chess table. Carlos, what are you doing here, I thought I got rid of you! O_O
Burglar: "Who with the what now?"
(This is actually not Carlos, but he's got the same template and hair color and it was just creepy.)
Another reason why this stuff isn't going in the update is that some of it's just ridiculous. There is no way to explain a Captain Hero standing by idly while the burglar takes his stuff. Gordon should have (and would have, if coding allowed it) beaten this guy to a pulp.
Phillip: D:
I know, kid. I know.
You know, I seem to recall that the last time this happened, a certain young toddler and his Reaper-child father took it to heart and WOULDN'T SHUT UP ABOUT IT. Spider and Jaeger STILL flamey-thought-bubble the freakin' burglar. Are these guys TRYING to scar my kids for life?
One last thing that I thought was semi-amusing...I was rereading some bits the other day and I found this:
"My mom had a baby today while we were at school!" Lex had barely recieved the news before turning and reporting it to his new friend, Andrew Pitts. "I can't believe I have a new sister! That's so cool."
"You're lucky," Andrew said, smiling. "My only sister's way older than me, and she's at college so I barely ever see her."
"You can share mine," Lex said, diplomatically, "but Dad says I have to wait to play with her til she's bigger."
AHAHAHAHA I was foreshadowing and I didn't even know it! Oh, Lex <3