@mightysprite
Me too. If only because it's honestly getting expensive lol I've already spent $300 on this mess.
@sunblond
I keep thinking to myself, I'll play my legacies without mods. But I'm pretty sure that's a bad idea lol I had one save that had no CC or mods in it, that I was using to test a bug, I did a university run in it, and oh man I almost went crazy. And like it wasn't even the big, annoying things that got to me the most like the NPC generation insanity, it was stuff like idle chatting in conversations xDD
I didn't expect this one to happen so fast. Haven't played for two days because of varying reasons and I come back to this.
Like, almost immediately. I'm sitting here like wow you sure didn't put that off very long did you. (What was super amazing is, it was Caleb that initiated it, usually it's Ezio.)
Caleb seemed pretty happy about it, he trailed Ezio across the house like a puppy for a bit. They took turns losing and regaining flirty moodlets and wildly flipping in and out of flirty mood. And then Ezio grabbed him and kissed him silly.
I heard the proposal audio sting and I wasn't really surprised and then I SAW WHO IT WAS.
I'm sorry, WHAT????
Okay this is monumental!! Caleb hasn't autonomously proposed to anyone since Morgyn back in 2019! I was afraid he'd never do it again! Honestly like I got a little emotional. I'm so!
I was somewhat concerned about it because Ezio *is* still a Morgyn, and there's always the chance he'd say no because struck by a sudden bolt of Morgynism, but, he said yes. Like, before even taking the ring. I heard a yibs and then he reached for it.
This is how they should look at each other.
At least some things in my game aren't going terribly wrong. With ageing on, they'll live out their days together and eventually die off. Ezio is one day older than Caleb, so Caleb will probably outlive him, but not by much.
(Also, Ezio is pregnant. I guess the Morgenstern legacy is *not* failing.)
白雪夏夜我不停歇
我并不感到困扰
I am kind to everyone. But if you are unkind to me, kindness is not what you will remember me for.
I am autistic. Wording isn't my strong suit.
I was scheduled to play my Brindleton Bay family in the third week of winter this week, but I didn't feel like playing winter. So they took a vacation to Sulani. Before they left they got a new dog, named Rackham after the pirate due to the eyepatch markings.
I forgot that the game has Harlequin Great Danes as a separate breed so I just used the Great Dane breed and gave him spots. Maybe he's a Harlequin/regular Dane cross.
I'm going to just put a tone of Sulani fun pictures under the spoiler, so before that here's a quick guide to the characters for anyone who needs it.
The household was founded by Bruce and Walker, now elders.
Bruce was the oldest son of my founding sim, Walker his townie husband.
They had twins, Maximilian (male) and Bo (non-binary). Bo married Liberty Lee and they have a son named Brandon. They still live with Bruce and Walker.
Liberty brought her cat Justice with her when she moved in.
Maximilian lives in Sulani, so his family also shows up in these pictures. Apparently I didn't take any of Max himself, but his wife Millie and their daughter Kendall are behind Walker and Brandon in this shot.
Basically under the spoiler you'll see a lot of beach fun, everyone in the household helping with toddler care, and bonding with Kendall and the pets.
Here's Part Two of the "Magical Mastersons" story!
Part Two: Joining Societies
Narrated by Alexander Paraskevas
We had a couple of visitors that day, Dad and the twins' younger sister Artemis. The 'yellow room' was technically Xanthe's, but she didn't mind everyone gathering in there for a chat. Dad's always been pretty outgoing, so I wasn't surprised that he happily chatted away to Xanthe about her course whilst I concentrated on my own homework.
Having a talented cook for a girlfriend is beneficial in many ways. Students have a reputation for eating junk food, but that wasn't about to happen with Erytheia around.
I felt a little... stinky as I left for my class on Wednesday, so I was rather grateful to hear Erytheia performing the Scruberoo spell on me as I walked through the door. I really need to learn that spell for myself! I thought. It would save so much time.
Capp (Gonril version): I now play each Sim family for a week (Sims time) and the second Capp family had to take a day longer due to Gonril getting pregnant.
Ariel has grown into a fine young kid.
It was time to turn Hal into a teen (since he'd be one by now in TS2 version). Man, did he look weird.
Desdemona and Michael Evans (Good Times) could've been friends if she wasn't going through a phase that made her act mean.
With a pants and hair change along with fixing his ears, Hal now looks presentable.
I present to you, the newest member of the family, Cleopatra. (Named after the Shakespeare play.) Sadly, I forgot to get a picture of Miranda in her new young adult form.
No one got naked this time, but I find the concept of Uncle Phil (Fresh Prince of Bel-Air) wearing a superhero outfit funny.
Term 2 complete! Some skills went up, the grades were basically really good, Duck got promoted at work, etc. No surprises so I'm not posting much in the way of those shots. Well, one surprise: There is actually a departure point for class RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEIR HOUSE. Grr. I didn't have to do all that jogging across the bridge... oh well
We're now well into term 3. All their homework is done and they only have to take their finals. The suspense!
In the meantime, here is a classic romance festival moment. Bargain is basking in the warm happy glow of some finally successful flirtation with Yuki (in the background, at the food stand.) In the foreground is the back of Emilia Ernest, whom Bargain doesn't even notice.
But does anyone notice Don Lothario creeping around back there??
(I was kinda disappointed when nothing much happened after that)
Duck got promoted to the point where she needs to choose a career branch! She is now a Computer Constructor, the first career in the computer engineer branch. S145/hour, 9 hours 5 days a week.
Bargain takes out his school stress on the weeds.
Truffle takes out her stress on Kiyoshi in the hot tub.
Miko invited Duck over and she brought her siblings to meet Miko and the roommates. There might have been something romantic happening in Miko's room, but then everyone piled in and started talking. Roommate life.
Truffle was invited to Kiyoshi's beautiful home to meet his family. She wasn't allowed to actually use the chess table, but she sat there and made pleasant conversation. (She was allowed to finish grilling the elote after Megumi started it and then wandered off halfway through.)
Thanks to Miko and Angela, our grill at home gets cleaned more often than it gets used.
One is neat and one is handy. Teamwork!
Aww
Cleaner-bot! Hopefully now Miko and Angela can relax
Also, Alexander Goth stopped by in this game's version of his teen look. I think it's cool.
Not sure what's funnier: the doom eyes of the reaper gnome, or the fact that they're eating LAST year's poor quality Harvestfest grand breakfast.
But they had a proper (freshly cooked) Harvestfest dinner later.
Johnny Zest embarrassed himself in front of Paula after failing to prank her by scaring her. Poor Johnny, and he really likes her too. I believe he has already asked her out on a date once already. I had to have her turn him down because she was walking her German Shephard, Koji at the time of that call.
Paula has managed to reach level three skiing, and level two in snowboarding despite her wiping out several times on the bunny slope.
Paula finished painting a Humor/Hijinks festival scene.
Paula had trained her dog Koji to heel, sit, and play fetch.
Paula has been to several festivals in San Myshono, plus one more in MT. Komorebi.
She has also petted and fed a dolphin in Sulani, plus collected several different types of collectables.
Also befriended several children and some adults, including Johnny Zest.
@mightysprite Hopefully the university students do well! When my Sims have gone off to university, the departure point has always been in front of their house. I never considered that there were other possible departure points, my Sims have always just gone off to class by themselves. This is the first time I’ve had Sims live in Britechester for their degree, my previous university students have always lived at home (they start off in the family home, and then I usually had them move into their own home with a boyfriend/husband). The first two Sims I sent off (who were also twins) even started families whilst still at university!
@mightysprite Hopefully the university students do well! When my Sims have gone off to university, the departure point has always been in front of their house. I never considered that there were other possible departure points, my Sims have always just gone off to class by themselves. This is the first time I’ve had Sims live in Britechester for their degree, my previous university students have always lived at home (they start off in the family home, and then I usually had them move into their own home with a boyfriend/husband). The first two Sims I sent off (who were also twins) even started families whilst still at university!
I have had several of my sims depart for class at the university that they had attended via front door too. I think it's just a default departure point for the sims when they are off to a rabbit hole place. I've had my sims do this when going to help out at a soup kitchen, attending class, going to work at a rabbit hole job. I have seen them head off via back door and side door as well in some of my games. It's just that it's what ever door is set as the front door and that door can be at the front of the house, in back of the house, or on either side of the house.
Sorry for the long absence. I wanted to take a break from the sims and ended playing another game, Adventure Quest 3D, with my friends.
Also I've been going out a lot with my two younger sisters, mostly horseback riding. It was actually really fun. I was a bit nervous at first (if I fall off my horse), but it was easy and very relaxing if you go through the forest.
I added two chapters in one post to make up the long break.
Cute storytelling in the spoiler, final results below.
Graduation and the two days before were also their adult birthdays. So we spent exactly our entire young adult life stage in university, and that's taking university as fast as possible without mods. I peeked at the calendar and learned that there are only 3 more weeks before they become elders!
Duck was invited to give a lecture on engineering to the Foxbury students. She got a kick out of that. I don't have a degree, suckers, but here I am teaching you!
Final exams all done!! This is the "all done" dance
The night after they finished finals, Kiyoshi invited them to a party at the ruins. Sure, we'll take it!
We'll dance until our sedentary self gets tired, then look for a bonfire to cozy up to.
I guess it was Kiyoshi's birthday too. Oops.
He didn't seem offended that we forgot. He made grilled cheese for everyone.
Graduation photos! Bargain, please try to look more awkward
Ok. Now the moment of truth. Let's find jobs.
Truffle enters the Computer Engineer career at level 8, Processor of Processors, earning S310/hour, 8 hours 4 days a week, with a S2,340 signing bonus. She got that job even though she didn’t have the Robotics skill level for that job. (She does need to get to level 8 for her promotion to the NEXT level, just like anyone else.) This job without a degree is normally paid S220/hour, and the promotion bonus is normally S2,200.
Bargain enters as a Computer Constructor, level 7, which is exactly the same level as Duck is now, but paid S197/hour with a S1,980 signing bonus. Duck's rate of pay without a degree is S145/hour, promotion bonus S925.
At current levels, Truffle earns S2480 per day, Bargain S1576, Duck S1305.
So it looks like the distinguished degree is worth it by a lot, and the regular degree by a nose.
Their skills ended up pretty close to one another actually, which surprised me.
But what if you take into account all the money Duck earned while the other two were in college?
By my count, Duck earned S13,063 before the others graduated.
It will take Truffle just 5 days to earn that amount at her current career level. In 12 days, her lifetime earnings will overtake Duck’s, if both stay at their current level.
It will take Bargain 8 days to earn S13,063. His lifetime earnings won’t overtake Duck’s for another 51 days, otherwise known as “never” on normal lifespan.
This could change a little bit depending on promotions. the limiting factor on all three for further promotions is Robotics skill, and Truffle has farthest to go, so it’s possible the others might catch up to her career level. Even then, though, they won’t be earning what she is earning.
(I haven’t included tuition costs in this calculation because with a little more organizing than I did, it’s pretty easy to get a full ride or close to it.)
So, if you can get a distinguished degree, it will really pay off in the long run.
If you get a regular degree, you're doing the same workload for a fraction of the benefits, and you might not ever catch up earnings-wise to where you'd be if you just entered the career track when you became a young adult.
The only reason I can think to do a regular degree is for storytelling reasons, wanting to keep a household together in the same university housing, the social benefits of meeting lots and lots of other young adults. Or if you happen to need some skill that's easier for you to build by doing university homework instead of using the actual skill object. Doing university homework seems to build the skill faster than reading the regular skill books.
Morgenstern Legacy
I actually got farther in playing on this one than I expected I would. I've had a really strong interest in playing the Eisensterns, but I don't want to get too far ahead of my writing. I flip-flop wildly between that and "I don't owe anyone anything." (At this point, I'm pretty sure I'm depressed.)
Ezio looks like, "Why are you buttering me up, what'd you do?" lol But Caleb's just all-in when he likes another Sim. It's probably a good thing Ezio's always pretty into it.
Shortly after I posted, Ezio discovered he's pregnant and went to go tell Caleb. Caleb was like "WHAAAAT" and I was like yeah, woohoo does that my man...
I have try for baby turned off with MCCC, and risky turned on, and it's actually pretty high lol so if they woohoo chances are they're having a nooboo whether they like it or not. And I just flag no pregnancy on couples that I'm done with babies for. For legacies, I actually roll 1d4s before the legacy even starts for each generation to decide how many children they'll have. For the current generation of Eisensterns (Gabriel and Cassandra), they'll only have one. For the current Morgenstern generation, they're due 3.
I got a mod to make the pregnancy belly smaller. Side rant, the controllers FOR the pregnancy belly make 0 sense. Absolutely none whatsoever. You see here, Ezio shows a little, he's in first trimester (Cassandra does not show at all in first trimester). The difference between him and her is, both her muscle and her weight sliders are completely down. He has a little bit of a weight slider, but a much higher muscle slider, and the game treats them as the same thing re: pregnancy belly and I'm mad about it.
Anyway, he's the real test for how well the pregnancy belly size mod works, because when he was pregnant with his kids in the Eisenstern legacy, he always looked like someone was trying to smuggle a beach ball across a national border. -eye roll-
As usual, I changed Caleb's aspiration to the chef one, and he's working on it. Ezio doesn't make a bad cook (actually, he's never set anything on fire before, and has never made anything lesser than excellent quality, even at level 1, knock on wood), but we always give Caleb the cooking honours. He enjoys it, so, it works out.
Currently, however, he seems to be in the cooking-challenged stage. xD
There was a thunderstorm going on, and right after this screenshot the power went out and I lost this bit of gameplay, but it wasn't a lot. Just when I had him go cook the second time around he happened to have an inspired moodlet from adoring Ezio, so his animations came out better. lol
They got married in Ezio's old bedroom. This'll be the kids' room, too, so that's rad. I wish I had a thousand different dresses that fit him, and I could put him in a different dress depending on who he's marrying, but that's unfortunately not possible because apparently Sims 4 dressmakers think their dresses don't need to fit male frames. So I always turn to this one when Ezio or Morgyn are getting married. (Just in red for Morgyn.)
But they look good in it, so I don't regret. Also, Caleb decided to play along with the goth wedding ordeal, and he wore all black and this really nice shirt.
Ezio wears this sometimes too, but man Caleb looks really good in it. Wow. What a goth little wedding and we'd expect absolutely nothing else from Ezio at least. IIRC Drake even sorta went along with the goth motif too lol I mean primarily because I made him, but, you know... Drake the character would too.
Anyway, onto second trimester. Ezio's still not looking like he's smuggling any beach balls or watermelons, so that's good. I'm okay with that.
Surprisingly, this time around, Ezio's not whining about being pregnant as much. For those that don't know what I mean by that, there are several different pregnancy idles (and I think there's a mod to stop them outright) that Sims will do, and some of them just sound like the Sim's going to throw up, and other ones are a slight little groan noise, and other ones are a whimper-whine. Ezio was very consistently choosing the whimper-whines all throughout all three of his Eisenstern pregnancies and about drove me up a wall.
In this particular bit of gameplay, amusingly, there was a series of thunderstorms during our series of thunderstorms lol and Ezio and Caleb decided to ride this one out by flirting with each other.
And then Ezio took a nap. First pregnancy nap! I think his only one too.
And then attack of the kisses! It's rare Ezio does this, wow. I'd be surprised, but, pregnancy hormones I guess. (Is that valid for a Sim? Idk.) It sure seemed to work out okay for them.
That scared moodlet didn't stand a single chance.
Ope. Look at that.
Ezio actually initiated that one. But Caleb looks like he's not complaining. I am because they're wasting a conception opportunity. The horror.
Ezio's just casting repairio on the toilet, but it looks like he's fighting off the hounds of the underworld.
Third trimester! Yeah, notably better. No beach ball smuggling anymore. Gosh Ezio, you sure had a criminal record here.
Lilith came over! Probably to see Ezio not Caleb, because actually she had a higher relationship bar with Ezio than Caleb, hahaha, but I sent Caleb out there instead.
Oh no, go time!
Every time Ezio and Caleb have children, Lilith's arrival signals the birth of the first one. Every time.
Surprisingly he didn't run off and immediately go give birth like he did in the Eisenstern legacy with Bryn (oh man he was ready to have Bryn out of him and be done with it). But! We had a little boy. And I named this one Axel, too.
At least Aunt Lilith has good jokes to make dad feel better.
Family Save Household: Ember
So I went ahead and swapped Tess to the twins' mom, instead of Lana. It was a good decision. Tess has a clear preference for Ezio, but she doesn't ignore Morgyn, either.
They get into group conversations a lot and Tess talks to Morgyn as much as she does Ezio. In this one, Ezio decided he also needed to talk to the cat. Because yeah. I also changed my default replacement skin here so everyone looks a little different. I can barely recognise Lana, actually lol
Teenage Simeon looking bored. xD
Morgyn's going to age up and be really pudgy I suspect. That's not surprising. Morgyn's got serious trouble keeping that weight slider down, oml.
Okay, I have a mod that shows the hidden traits for pets, and he does not have obsessed with the fridge, but he sure as heck all acts like he does. He's either following the kids around, or sitting right there at the fridge.
Baby Ezio decided to run around. Outside. In his pyjama onesie. In the freezing cold snow.
That's absolutely something Ezio would do. Absolutely.
白雪夏夜我不停歇
我并不感到困扰
I am kind to everyone. But if you are unkind to me, kindness is not what you will remember me for.
I am autistic. Wording isn't my strong suit.
Morgenstern Legacy
I actually got farther in playing on this one than I expected I would. I've had a really strong interest in playing the Eisensterns, but I don't want to get too far ahead of my writing. I flip-flop wildly between that and "I don't owe anyone anything." (At this point, I'm pretty sure I'm depressed.)
Ezio looks like, "Why are you buttering me up, what'd you do?" lol But Caleb's just all-in when he likes another Sim. It's probably a good thing Ezio's always pretty into it.
Shortly after I posted, Ezio discovered he's pregnant and went to go tell Caleb. Caleb was like "WHAAAAT" and I was like yeah, woohoo does that my man...
I have try for baby turned off with MCCC, and risky turned on, and it's actually pretty high lol so if they woohoo chances are they're having a nooboo whether they like it or not. And I just flag no pregnancy on couples that I'm done with babies for. For legacies, I actually roll 1d4s before the legacy even starts for each generation to decide how many children they'll have. For the current generation of Eisensterns (Gabriel and Cassandra), they'll only have one. For the current Morgenstern generation, they're due 3.
I got a mod to make the pregnancy belly smaller. Side rant, the controllers FOR the pregnancy belly make 0 sense. Absolutely none whatsoever. You see here, Ezio shows a little, he's in first trimester (Cassandra does not show at all in first trimester). The difference between him and her is, both her muscle and her weight sliders are completely down. He has a little bit of a weight slider, but a much higher muscle slider, and the game treats them as the same thing re: pregnancy belly and I'm mad about it.
Anyway, he's the real test for how well the pregnancy belly size mod works, because when he was pregnant with his kids in the Eisenstern legacy, he always looked like someone was trying to smuggle a beach ball across a national border. -eye roll-
As usual, I changed Caleb's aspiration to the chef one, and he's working on it. Ezio doesn't make a bad cook (actually, he's never set anything on fire before, and has never made anything lesser than excellent quality, even at level 1, knock on wood), but we always give Caleb the cooking honours. He enjoys it, so, it works out.
Currently, however, he seems to be in the cooking-challenged stage. xD
There was a thunderstorm going on, and right after this screenshot the power went out and I lost this bit of gameplay, but it wasn't a lot. Just when I had him go cook the second time around he happened to have an inspired moodlet from adoring Ezio, so his animations came out better. lol
They got married in Ezio's old bedroom. This'll be the kids' room, too, so that's rad. I wish I had a thousand different dresses that fit him, and I could put him in a different dress depending on who he's marrying, but that's unfortunately not possible because apparently Sims 4 dressmakers think their dresses don't need to fit male frames. So I always turn to this one when Ezio or Morgyn are getting married. (Just in red for Morgyn.)
But they look good in it, so I don't regret. Also, Caleb decided to play along with the goth wedding ordeal, and he wore all black and this really nice shirt.
Ezio wears this sometimes too, but man Caleb looks really good in it. Wow. What a goth little wedding and we'd expect absolutely nothing else from Ezio at least. IIRC Drake even sorta went along with the goth motif too lol I mean primarily because I made him, but, you know... Drake the character would too.
Anyway, onto second trimester. Ezio's still not looking like he's smuggling any beach balls or watermelons, so that's good. I'm okay with that.
Surprisingly, this time around, Ezio's not whining about being pregnant as much. For those that don't know what I mean by that, there are several different pregnancy idles (and I think there's a mod to stop them outright) that Sims will do, and some of them just sound like the Sim's going to throw up, and other ones are a slight little groan noise, and other ones are a whimper-whine. Ezio was very consistently choosing the whimper-whines all throughout all three of his Eisenstern pregnancies and about drove me up a wall.
In this particular bit of gameplay, amusingly, there was a series of thunderstorms during our series of thunderstorms lol and Ezio and Caleb decided to ride this one out by flirting with each other.
And then Ezio took a nap. First pregnancy nap! I think his only one too.
And then attack of the kisses! It's rare Ezio does this, wow. I'd be surprised, but, pregnancy hormones I guess. (Is that valid for a Sim? Idk.) It sure seemed to work out okay for them.
That scared moodlet didn't stand a single chance.
Ope. Look at that.
Ezio actually initiated that one. But Caleb looks like he's not complaining. I am because they're wasting a conception opportunity. The horror.
Ezio's just casting repairio on the toilet, but it looks like he's fighting off the hounds of the underworld.
Third trimester! Yeah, notably better. No beach ball smuggling anymore. Gosh Ezio, you sure had a criminal record here.
Lilith came over! Probably to see Ezio not Caleb, because actually she had a higher relationship bar with Ezio than Caleb, hahaha, but I sent Caleb out there instead.
Oh no, go time!
Every time Ezio and Caleb have children, Lilith's arrival signals the birth of the first one. Every time.
Surprisingly he didn't run off and immediately go give birth like he did in the Eisenstern legacy with Bryn (oh man he was ready to have Bryn out of him and be done with it). But! We had a little boy. And I named this one Axel, too.
At least Aunt Lilith has good jokes to make dad feel better.
Family Save Household: Ember
So I went ahead and swapped Tess to the twins' mom, instead of Lana. It was a good decision. Tess has a clear preference for Ezio, but she doesn't ignore Morgyn, either.
They get into group conversations a lot and Tess talks to Morgyn as much as she does Ezio. In this one, Ezio decided he also needed to talk to the cat. Because yeah. I also changed my default replacement skin here so everyone looks a little different. I can barely recognise Lana, actually lol
Teenage Simeon looking bored. xD
Morgyn's going to age up and be really pudgy I suspect. That's not surprising. Morgyn's got serious trouble keeping that weight slider down, oml.
Okay, I have a mod that shows the hidden traits for pets, and he does not have obsessed with the fridge, but he sure as heck all acts like he does. He's either following the kids around, or sitting right there at the fridge.
Baby Ezio decided to run around. Outside. In his pyjama onesie. In the freezing cold snow.
That's absolutely something Ezio would do. Absolutely.
The one sim that's dressed all in black the top pic reminds me of Edward Scissorhands, the character played by Johnny Depp in Edward Scissorhands.
I decided to make a thread in the stories section for generation 2, so I can keep the updates in one place. I'll still post here though. I considered making a blog, but I tried that before and just forgot to update it
Helios has a bit of a green thumb, so while his siblings chatted with a random human, He tended to his garden. The Eons were trying to blend in with the humans. It turns out that the random human wasn't the nicest human, and she left shortly after criticizing Nui.
While the outside of the Eon home looked average from the outside, the interior was filled with advanced technology. Naturally, Helios had a conversation with one of his three toilets with advanced AI. The stereo also had artificial intelligence. A toilet is an odd friend to be sure. However, humans weren't always nice, and sometimes, Helios needed to talk to someone other than his older siblings. Most concerning for Helios was his immortality that came with being a merman. His siblings didn't have the same gift, or curse.
Helios found comfort walking along the shore of the beach. That afternoon, Helios found a seas shell that called to him. He couldn't understand why it felt so important, but the "Ordinary" Conch Shell seemed to hold greater significance to him than it did before he became a merman.
As he returned home, he stopped by the beach supply shack to get a few things for when he spends time in the sea and some other things for his garden. The supply shack sold kava roots and coconuts. He bought a jet-ski on a whim. Given his fishy nature, it was unlikely that he would use it. He guessed that his older brother's materialist nature was rubbing off on him.
As the night settled in, his siblings sat at the table to eat dinner and chat. After mutating into an Alien Merman, Helios stopped feeling hungry and only had cravings to be in the water.
Kalama: "I think we should do something for Helios. He seems down ever since that dare."
Nui: "I think you're right, but I don't know what we can do?"
Kalama: "He likes the sea. Maybe you could do something with him in the ocean. After all, you're the one that dared him."
Nui: "Well, you'll have to do something too."
Kalama: "I have my own ideas. I just doubt that you figured something out."
Nui: "I'm still working out some ideas."
Kalama: "What about trying out your new jet ski?"
Nui: "That's sweet idea."
Kalama went to bed in her sleeping pod while Nui prepared a meal for himself. Their kitchen was small, but it had everything they needed.
Nui heard the doorbell ring before he could sit down to eat. A nocturnal guest decided to show up. A creature of darkness with a destructive nature that naturally opposed the forces of creation. Damion also just wanted to chat.
Nui was a bit oblivious for an Alien, and he saw nothing wrong with chatting.
Nui: "This is my first time seeing a human with orange glowing eyes and sharp, pointy teeth. Did you use make up to give yourself those scars."
Damion's mouth hung open. He didn't know how to answer this strange humans' questions. Damion fully intended to drink his plasma up until Nui's questions confused him.
Damion thought: "Can a human really be this dense?"
Nui: "I think you look pretty cool. You should show me how to create scars like that with make up. The ladies would love it while I'm lifeguarding. It'd be like I fought off a shark!"
Damion's thought: "If I drink his plasma, I'd most definitely be contaminated with whatever makes him this dense. I'll just smile and nod."
After Nui went to bed in his sleeping pod, Damion ran to the ocean to look for his favorite prey.
The next morning before work, Helios went for a swim in the ocean. When he arrived at SimLabs, he felt refreshed and ready for work.
The receptionist caught his eye. He felt a connection with her. It felt like she shared his connection with the sea. He walked past her and into the lab. Maybe he'd get to know her later.
Helios started his day with a few experiments before inventing the Momentum Converter. He was pretty proud of his invention after creating it.
Helios continued to practice analysis after completing his invention. He was determined to discover a form of life extension that would help him keep his sibling around. He was afraid of being left alone after they pass on. If he could discover a serum or unlock the magical secret of immortality, he wouldn't have to worry about being left alone.
But, the question circulated in his mind: "Does the secret of immortality reside in Science or Magic? In one hand, his mermadic nature was the product of a biological mutation, but in his other hand, he felt a power connected to the sea he didn't know about until recently."
Helios continued to work hard as he looked for answers to his questions. Sulani, his new home, had a youthfulness to it that seemed strange. So many individuals looked young. Almost no one progressed into their elderly years. It was as if a fountain of youth or some kind of secret of eternal youth was withheld from him but shared among the locals. He considered the possibility of magic being involved.
In that moment of thought, he had a genius thought: "What if the inhabitants of Sulani were actually merfolk? If most Sulanians were merfolk, it would explain the large number of young adults around the islands."
Helios had his second break through, inspired from his ability to live without eating. He discovered a compound that would instantly satisfy the hunger needs of anyone who consumed the serum. Immunity to Starvation was one step closer toward eternal life!
Helios returned home feeling exhausted and went to sleep. His sister was on her way to bed when the Eons had an unexpected visitor.
Kalama: "Oh laser beams!"
Kalama called up to the spaceship: "I just started my career as a comedian. I'm not ready for space parties yet!"
Shortly after being abducted, the Aliens returned Kalama.
The Aliens: "Your llama jokes weren't that funny."
Kalama: "Ouch, I told you that I was still working on my llama jokes. You can abduct me after I've had more practice."
The Aliens: "We will consider this. Farewell for now."
Meanwhile, Nui is snorkeling around the reef in the rain...
Helios swam out to the reef and used this as an opportunity to try out his mermadic magic. He felt unlimited magical power in the ocean, and as he blew into a conch shell, he could feel his own power changing the weather. The sky cleared after a moment.
Nui saw his brother and decided to show off his new jet ski. He rode around with fireworks shooting out of the back of his jet ski. The jet ski itself glowed different colors. The light show was completely, and awesomely, obnoxious. Music blasted from the jet ski. Helios couldn't help but take notice.
Nui rode his jet ski next to his brother: "Hey bro, let's race. With these streamers, I'm undefeatable."
Helios smiled: "We'll see about that."
After a sharp turn and with flames burning alongside the fireworks, Nui pulled ahead of Helios. Nui won by a millimeter as he past Helios's jet ski.
As the sun rose, Nui swam in the surf. Helios snuck up on him and splashed him, leaping out of the water and kicking saltwater at his brother with a flick of his fluke.
Helios: "I can't believe it's already dawn. We spent the entire night in the sea!"
Nui: "I can't believe you're acting like a sporeling over that."
Helios: "Can you blame me? I've never felt like this before. Something about this new form and being in the sea. It makes me feel so alive. I'm glad I can still spend time with family in the sea. I was worried that things would be different."
Nui: "You don't have to worry about anything changing. Me and your sister will always have your back."
After doing so many big household, I decided to try some smaller ones for a change and here is Bianca Monty.
Today on "Guess Who Got Naked", Geoffry Landgraab did as Bianca (desperate to be a mommy) chats up with Jeff Boomhauer (King of the Hill). In case you're wondering, she's wearing a milk mask for her skin.
Bianca did try to romance Nervous Subject, but his quirks crashed her attempts.
Bianca wanted a small pet and thanks to a mod that lets you have hedgehogs that look like Sonic characters, I went with one that looked like Shadow the Hedgehog.
After some work and no longer being sad (which is a block to romance), Bianca has found love with Jeff. I'd do more, but her week was up.
I upgraded my Princess Jasmine's Palace & some of my other sims homes with the new Courtyard Oasis Building Objects. This new kit is so pretty and wonderful.
First term is complete! There's also sad news about a beloved family pet...
Part Three: First Exams
Narrated by Alexander Paraskevas
The night before our first set of exams, both of the twins' parents popped over for a visit.
"It's nice to see you, Alexander," Caroline said. "How is university going?"
"It's fine, thank you," I replied. "We've got finals tomorrow."
"Oh, good luck," she said. "It might be nerve-wracking, but just try and relax."
"Thanks for the advice," I said. "Hopefully I'll do well."
"I'm sure you will. Your mother tells me you're a smart young man."
(For those who don't know, Caroline Masterson and Anastasia Paraskevas are best friends).
I went off to my first exam mindful of Caroline's advice. I reassured myself that I'd done plenty of preparation and that the questions therefore shouldn't prove too difficult.
Whilst doing some last-minute revision for my next exam, I heard someone rushing upstairs and, just a couple of minutes later, the sound of someone throwing up and then the toilet being flushed. I had a horrible feeling that it was Erytheia, and I hoped she was OK.
Comments
Me too. If only because it's honestly getting expensive lol I've already spent $300 on this mess.
@sunblond
I keep thinking to myself, I'll play my legacies without mods. But I'm pretty sure that's a bad idea lol I had one save that had no CC or mods in it, that I was using to test a bug, I did a university run in it, and oh man I almost went crazy. And like it wasn't even the big, annoying things that got to me the most like the NPC generation insanity, it was stuff like idle chatting in conversations xDD
I didn't expect this one to happen so fast. Haven't played for two days because of varying reasons and I come back to this.
Like, almost immediately. I'm sitting here like wow you sure didn't put that off very long did you. (What was super amazing is, it was Caleb that initiated it, usually it's Ezio.)
Caleb seemed pretty happy about it, he trailed Ezio across the house like a puppy for a bit. They took turns losing and regaining flirty moodlets and wildly flipping in and out of flirty mood. And then Ezio grabbed him and kissed him silly.
I heard the proposal audio sting and I wasn't really surprised and then I SAW WHO IT WAS.
I'm sorry, WHAT????
Okay this is monumental!! Caleb hasn't autonomously proposed to anyone since Morgyn back in 2019! I was afraid he'd never do it again! Honestly like I got a little emotional. I'm so!
I was somewhat concerned about it because Ezio *is* still a Morgyn, and there's always the chance he'd say no because struck by a sudden bolt of Morgynism, but, he said yes. Like, before even taking the ring. I heard a yibs and then he reached for it.
This is how they should look at each other.
At least some things in my game aren't going terribly wrong. With ageing on, they'll live out their days together and eventually die off. Ezio is one day older than Caleb, so Caleb will probably outlive him, but not by much.
(Also, Ezio is pregnant. I guess the Morgenstern legacy is *not* failing.)
我并不感到困扰
I am kind to everyone. But if you are unkind to me, kindness is not what you will remember me for.
I am autistic. Wording isn't my strong suit.
Stop player on player violence.
I forgot that the game has Harlequin Great Danes as a separate breed so I just used the Great Dane breed and gave him spots. Maybe he's a Harlequin/regular Dane cross.
I'm going to just put a tone of Sulani fun pictures under the spoiler, so before that here's a quick guide to the characters for anyone who needs it.
The household was founded by Bruce and Walker, now elders.
Bruce was the oldest son of my founding sim, Walker his townie husband.
They had twins, Maximilian (male) and Bo (non-binary). Bo married Liberty Lee and they have a son named Brandon. They still live with Bruce and Walker.
Liberty brought her cat Justice with her when she moved in.
Maximilian lives in Sulani, so his family also shows up in these pictures. Apparently I didn't take any of Max himself, but his wife Millie and their daughter Kendall are behind Walker and Brandon in this shot.
Basically under the spoiler you'll see a lot of beach fun, everyone in the household helping with toddler care, and bonding with Kendall and the pets.
Tagging @AlwaysAsking and @Becka28 because it's Bruce and Walker.
Part Two: Joining Societies
Narrated by Alexander Paraskevas
We had a couple of visitors that day, Dad and the twins' younger sister Artemis. The 'yellow room' was technically Xanthe's, but she didn't mind everyone gathering in there for a chat. Dad's always been pretty outgoing, so I wasn't surprised that he happily chatted away to Xanthe about her course whilst I concentrated on my own homework.
Having a talented cook for a girlfriend is beneficial in many ways. Students have a reputation for eating junk food, but that wasn't about to happen with Erytheia around.
I felt a little... stinky as I left for my class on Wednesday, so I was rather grateful to hear Erytheia performing the Scruberoo spell on me as I walked through the door.
I really need to learn that spell for myself! I thought. It would save so much time.
The rest is here: Part Two
This is Logan. c: Active, dog lover, self-assured.
我并不感到困扰
I am kind to everyone. But if you are unkind to me, kindness is not what you will remember me for.
I am autistic. Wording isn't my strong suit.
Stop player on player violence.
Ariel has grown into a fine young kid.
It was time to turn Hal into a teen (since he'd be one by now in TS2 version). Man, did he look weird.
Desdemona and Michael Evans (Good Times) could've been friends if she wasn't going through a phase that made her act mean.
With a pants and hair change along with fixing his ears, Hal now looks presentable.
I present to you, the newest member of the family, Cleopatra. (Named after the Shakespeare play.) Sadly, I forgot to get a picture of Miranda in her new young adult form.
No one got naked this time, but I find the concept of Uncle Phil (Fresh Prince of Bel-Air) wearing a superhero outfit funny.
We're now well into term 3. All their homework is done and they only have to take their finals. The suspense!
In the meantime, here is a classic romance festival moment. Bargain is basking in the warm happy glow of some finally successful flirtation with Yuki (in the background, at the food stand.) In the foreground is the back of Emilia Ernest, whom Bargain doesn't even notice.
But does anyone notice Don Lothario creeping around back there??
(I was kinda disappointed when nothing much happened after that)
Duck got promoted to the point where she needs to choose a career branch! She is now a Computer Constructor, the first career in the computer engineer branch. S145/hour, 9 hours 5 days a week.
Bargain takes out his school stress on the weeds.
Truffle takes out her stress on Kiyoshi in the hot tub.
Miko invited Duck over and she brought her siblings to meet Miko and the roommates. There might have been something romantic happening in Miko's room, but then everyone piled in and started talking. Roommate life.
Truffle was invited to Kiyoshi's beautiful home to meet his family. She wasn't allowed to actually use the chess table, but she sat there and made pleasant conversation. (She was allowed to finish grilling the elote after Megumi started it and then wandered off halfway through.)
Thanks to Miko and Angela, our grill at home gets cleaned more often than it gets used.
One is neat and one is handy. Teamwork!
Aww
Cleaner-bot! Hopefully now Miko and Angela can relax
Also, Alexander Goth stopped by in this game's version of his teen look. I think it's cool.
Not sure what's funnier: the doom eyes of the reaper gnome, or the fact that they're eating LAST year's poor quality Harvestfest grand breakfast.
But they had a proper (freshly cooked) Harvestfest dinner later.
See you at graduation!!
College degree experiment thread here
https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/989653/is-a-college-degree-worth-it-an-experiment#latest
Paula has managed to reach level three skiing, and level two in snowboarding despite her wiping out several times on the bunny slope.
Paula finished painting a Humor/Hijinks festival scene.
Paula had trained her dog Koji to heel, sit, and play fetch.
Paula has been to several festivals in San Myshono, plus one more in MT. Komorebi.
She has also petted and fed a dolphin in Sulani, plus collected several different types of collectables.
Also befriended several children and some adults, including Johnny Zest.
Sorry for the long absence. I wanted to take a break from the sims and ended playing another game, Adventure Quest 3D, with my friends.
Also I've been going out a lot with my two younger sisters, mostly horseback riding. It was actually really fun.
I added two chapters in one post to make up the long break.
Chapter Five: Dark Past and Chapter Six: Can You Hear the Bells?
Cute storytelling in the spoiler, final results below.
Graduation and the two days before were also their adult birthdays. So we spent exactly our entire young adult life stage in university, and that's taking university as fast as possible without mods. I peeked at the calendar and learned that there are only 3 more weeks before they become elders!
Duck was invited to give a lecture on engineering to the Foxbury students. She got a kick out of that. I don't have a degree, suckers, but here I am teaching you!
Final exams all done!! This is the "all done" dance
The night after they finished finals, Kiyoshi invited them to a party at the ruins. Sure, we'll take it!
We'll dance until our sedentary self gets tired, then look for a bonfire to cozy up to.
I guess it was Kiyoshi's birthday too. Oops.
He didn't seem offended that we forgot. He made grilled cheese for everyone.
Graduation photos! Bargain, please try to look more awkward
Ok. Now the moment of truth. Let's find jobs.
Truffle enters the Computer Engineer career at level 8, Processor of Processors, earning S310/hour, 8 hours 4 days a week, with a S2,340 signing bonus. She got that job even though she didn’t have the Robotics skill level for that job. (She does need to get to level 8 for her promotion to the NEXT level, just like anyone else.) This job without a degree is normally paid S220/hour, and the promotion bonus is normally S2,200.
Bargain enters as a Computer Constructor, level 7, which is exactly the same level as Duck is now, but paid S197/hour with a S1,980 signing bonus. Duck's rate of pay without a degree is S145/hour, promotion bonus S925.
At current levels, Truffle earns S2480 per day, Bargain S1576, Duck S1305.
So it looks like the distinguished degree is worth it by a lot, and the regular degree by a nose.
Their skills ended up pretty close to one another actually, which surprised me.
But what if you take into account all the money Duck earned while the other two were in college?
By my count, Duck earned S13,063 before the others graduated.
It will take Truffle just 5 days to earn that amount at her current career level. In 12 days, her lifetime earnings will overtake Duck’s, if both stay at their current level.
It will take Bargain 8 days to earn S13,063. His lifetime earnings won’t overtake Duck’s for another 51 days, otherwise known as “never” on normal lifespan.
This could change a little bit depending on promotions. the limiting factor on all three for further promotions is Robotics skill, and Truffle has farthest to go, so it’s possible the others might catch up to her career level. Even then, though, they won’t be earning what she is earning.
(I haven’t included tuition costs in this calculation because with a little more organizing than I did, it’s pretty easy to get a full ride or close to it.)
So, if you can get a distinguished degree, it will really pay off in the long run.
If you get a regular degree, you're doing the same workload for a fraction of the benefits, and you might not ever catch up earnings-wise to where you'd be if you just entered the career track when you became a young adult.
The only reason I can think to do a regular degree is for storytelling reasons, wanting to keep a household together in the same university housing, the social benefits of meeting lots and lots of other young adults. Or if you happen to need some skill that's easier for you to build by doing university homework instead of using the actual skill object. Doing university homework seems to build the skill faster than reading the regular skill books.
College degree experiment thread here:
https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/989653/is-a-college-degree-worth-it-an-experiment#latest
I actually got farther in playing on this one than I expected I would. I've had a really strong interest in playing the Eisensterns, but I don't want to get too far ahead of my writing. I flip-flop wildly between that and "I don't owe anyone anything." (At this point, I'm pretty sure I'm depressed.)
Ezio looks like, "Why are you buttering me up, what'd you do?" lol But Caleb's just all-in when he likes another Sim. It's probably a good thing Ezio's always pretty into it.
Shortly after I posted, Ezio discovered he's pregnant and went to go tell Caleb. Caleb was like "WHAAAAT" and I was like yeah, woohoo does that my man...
I have try for baby turned off with MCCC, and risky turned on, and it's actually pretty high lol so if they woohoo chances are they're having a nooboo whether they like it or not. And I just flag no pregnancy on couples that I'm done with babies for. For legacies, I actually roll 1d4s before the legacy even starts for each generation to decide how many children they'll have. For the current generation of Eisensterns (Gabriel and Cassandra), they'll only have one. For the current Morgenstern generation, they're due 3.
I got a mod to make the pregnancy belly smaller. Side rant, the controllers FOR the pregnancy belly make 0 sense. Absolutely none whatsoever. You see here, Ezio shows a little, he's in first trimester (Cassandra does not show at all in first trimester). The difference between him and her is, both her muscle and her weight sliders are completely down. He has a little bit of a weight slider, but a much higher muscle slider, and the game treats them as the same thing re: pregnancy belly and I'm mad about it.
Anyway, he's the real test for how well the pregnancy belly size mod works, because when he was pregnant with his kids in the Eisenstern legacy, he always looked like someone was trying to smuggle a beach ball across a national border. -eye roll-
As usual, I changed Caleb's aspiration to the chef one, and he's working on it. Ezio doesn't make a bad cook (actually, he's never set anything on fire before, and has never made anything lesser than excellent quality, even at level 1, knock on wood), but we always give Caleb the cooking honours. He enjoys it, so, it works out.
Currently, however, he seems to be in the cooking-challenged stage. xD
There was a thunderstorm going on, and right after this screenshot the power went out and I lost this bit of gameplay, but it wasn't a lot. Just when I had him go cook the second time around he happened to have an inspired moodlet from adoring Ezio, so his animations came out better. lol
They got married in Ezio's old bedroom. This'll be the kids' room, too, so that's rad. I wish I had a thousand different dresses that fit him, and I could put him in a different dress depending on who he's marrying, but that's unfortunately not possible because apparently Sims 4 dressmakers think their dresses don't need to fit male frames. So I always turn to this one when Ezio or Morgyn are getting married. (Just in red for Morgyn.)
But they look good in it, so I don't regret. Also, Caleb decided to play along with the goth wedding ordeal, and he wore all black and this really nice shirt.
Ezio wears this sometimes too, but man Caleb looks really good in it. Wow. What a goth little wedding and we'd expect absolutely nothing else from Ezio at least. IIRC Drake even sorta went along with the goth motif too lol I mean primarily because I made him, but, you know... Drake the character would too.
Anyway, onto second trimester. Ezio's still not looking like he's smuggling any beach balls or watermelons, so that's good. I'm okay with that.
Surprisingly, this time around, Ezio's not whining about being pregnant as much. For those that don't know what I mean by that, there are several different pregnancy idles (and I think there's a mod to stop them outright) that Sims will do, and some of them just sound like the Sim's going to throw up, and other ones are a slight little groan noise, and other ones are a whimper-whine. Ezio was very consistently choosing the whimper-whines all throughout all three of his Eisenstern pregnancies and about drove me up a wall.
In this particular bit of gameplay, amusingly, there was a series of thunderstorms during our series of thunderstorms lol and Ezio and Caleb decided to ride this one out by flirting with each other.
And then Ezio took a nap. First pregnancy nap! I think his only one too.
And then attack of the kisses! It's rare Ezio does this, wow. I'd be surprised, but, pregnancy hormones I guess. (Is that valid for a Sim? Idk.) It sure seemed to work out okay for them.
That scared moodlet didn't stand a single chance.
Ope. Look at that.
Ezio actually initiated that one. But Caleb looks like he's not complaining. I am because they're wasting a conception opportunity. The horror.
Ezio's just casting repairio on the toilet, but it looks like he's fighting off the hounds of the underworld.
Third trimester! Yeah, notably better. No beach ball smuggling anymore. Gosh Ezio, you sure had a criminal record here.
Lilith came over! Probably to see Ezio not Caleb, because actually she had a higher relationship bar with Ezio than Caleb, hahaha, but I sent Caleb out there instead.
Oh no, go time!
Every time Ezio and Caleb have children, Lilith's arrival signals the birth of the first one. Every time.
Surprisingly he didn't run off and immediately go give birth like he did in the Eisenstern legacy with Bryn (oh man he was ready to have Bryn out of him and be done with it). But! We had a little boy. And I named this one Axel, too.
At least Aunt Lilith has good jokes to make dad feel better.
Family Save
Household: Ember
So I went ahead and swapped Tess to the twins' mom, instead of Lana. It was a good decision. Tess has a clear preference for Ezio, but she doesn't ignore Morgyn, either.
They get into group conversations a lot and Tess talks to Morgyn as much as she does Ezio. In this one, Ezio decided he also needed to talk to the cat. Because yeah. I also changed my default replacement skin here so everyone looks a little different. I can barely recognise Lana, actually lol
Teenage Simeon looking bored. xD
Morgyn's going to age up and be really pudgy I suspect. That's not surprising. Morgyn's got serious trouble keeping that weight slider down, oml.
Okay, I have a mod that shows the hidden traits for pets, and he does not have obsessed with the fridge, but he sure as heck all acts like he does. He's either following the kids around, or sitting right there at the fridge.
Baby Ezio decided to run around. Outside. In his pyjama onesie. In the freezing cold snow.
That's absolutely something Ezio would do. Absolutely.
我并不感到困扰
I am kind to everyone. But if you are unkind to me, kindness is not what you will remember me for.
I am autistic. Wording isn't my strong suit.
Stop player on player violence.
@Lucy_Henley Blog's are useful for creating Index's or Table of Contents... But, yeah, it's easy to forget to update it.
https://theislandelementaltwins.blogspot.com/2020/12/index-httpsforums.html
The Sulani Aliens: Helios Eon
The Eons Move to Sulani Part 1
Helios has a bit of a green thumb, so while his siblings chatted with a random human, He tended to his garden. The Eons were trying to blend in with the humans. It turns out that the random human wasn't the nicest human, and she left shortly after criticizing Nui.
Helios found comfort walking along the shore of the beach. That afternoon, Helios found a seas shell that called to him. He couldn't understand why it felt so important, but the "Ordinary" Conch Shell seemed to hold greater significance to him than it did before he became a merman.
As he returned home, he stopped by the beach supply shack to get a few things for when he spends time in the sea and some other things for his garden. The supply shack sold kava roots and coconuts. He bought a jet-ski on a whim. Given his fishy nature, it was unlikely that he would use it. He guessed that his older brother's materialist nature was rubbing off on him.
As the night settled in, his siblings sat at the table to eat dinner and chat. After mutating into an Alien Merman, Helios stopped feeling hungry and only had cravings to be in the water.
Kalama: "I think we should do something for Helios. He seems down ever since that dare."
Nui: "I think you're right, but I don't know what we can do?"
Kalama: "He likes the sea. Maybe you could do something with him in the ocean. After all, you're the one that dared him."
Nui: "Well, you'll have to do something too."
Kalama: "I have my own ideas. I just doubt that you figured something out."
Nui: "I'm still working out some ideas."
Kalama: "What about trying out your new jet ski?"
Nui: "That's sweet idea."
Kalama went to bed in her sleeping pod while Nui prepared a meal for himself. Their kitchen was small, but it had everything they needed.
Nui heard the doorbell ring before he could sit down to eat. A nocturnal guest decided to show up. A creature of darkness with a destructive nature that naturally opposed the forces of creation. Damion also just wanted to chat.
Nui was a bit oblivious for an Alien, and he saw nothing wrong with chatting.
Nui: "This is my first time seeing a human with orange glowing eyes and sharp, pointy teeth. Did you use make up to give yourself those scars."
Damion's mouth hung open. He didn't know how to answer this strange humans' questions. Damion fully intended to drink his plasma up until Nui's questions confused him.
Damion thought: "Can a human really be this dense?"
Nui: "I think you look pretty cool. You should show me how to create scars like that with make up. The ladies would love it while I'm lifeguarding. It'd be like I fought off a shark!"
Damion's thought: "If I drink his plasma, I'd most definitely be contaminated with whatever makes him this dense. I'll just smile and nod."
After Nui went to bed in his sleeping pod, Damion ran to the ocean to look for his favorite prey.
The next morning before work, Helios went for a swim in the ocean. When he arrived at SimLabs, he felt refreshed and ready for work.
The receptionist caught his eye. He felt a connection with her. It felt like she shared his connection with the sea. He walked past her and into the lab. Maybe he'd get to know her later.
Helios started his day with a few experiments before inventing the Momentum Converter. He was pretty proud of his invention after creating it.
Helios continued to practice analysis after completing his invention. He was determined to discover a form of life extension that would help him keep his sibling around. He was afraid of being left alone after they pass on. If he could discover a serum or unlock the magical secret of immortality, he wouldn't have to worry about being left alone.
But, the question circulated in his mind: "Does the secret of immortality reside in Science or Magic? In one hand, his mermadic nature was the product of a biological mutation, but in his other hand, he felt a power connected to the sea he didn't know about until recently."
Helios continued to work hard as he looked for answers to his questions. Sulani, his new home, had a youthfulness to it that seemed strange. So many individuals looked young. Almost no one progressed into their elderly years. It was as if a fountain of youth or some kind of secret of eternal youth was withheld from him but shared among the locals. He considered the possibility of magic being involved.
In that moment of thought, he had a genius thought: "What if the inhabitants of Sulani were actually merfolk? If most Sulanians were merfolk, it would explain the large number of young adults around the islands."
Helios had his second break through, inspired from his ability to live without eating. He discovered a compound that would instantly satisfy the hunger needs of anyone who consumed the serum. Immunity to Starvation was one step closer toward eternal life!
Helios returned home feeling exhausted and went to sleep. His sister was on her way to bed when the Eons had an unexpected visitor.
Kalama: "Oh laser beams!"
Kalama called up to the spaceship: "I just started my career as a comedian. I'm not ready for space parties yet!"
Shortly after being abducted, the Aliens returned Kalama.
The Aliens: "Your llama jokes weren't that funny."
Kalama: "Ouch, I told you that I was still working on my llama jokes. You can abduct me after I've had more practice."
The Aliens: "We will consider this. Farewell for now."
Meanwhile, Nui is snorkeling around the reef in the rain...
Helios swam out to the reef and used this as an opportunity to try out his mermadic magic. He felt unlimited magical power in the ocean, and as he blew into a conch shell, he could feel his own power changing the weather. The sky cleared after a moment.
Nui saw his brother and decided to show off his new jet ski. He rode around with fireworks shooting out of the back of his jet ski. The jet ski itself glowed different colors. The light show was completely, and awesomely, obnoxious. Music blasted from the jet ski. Helios couldn't help but take notice.
Nui rode his jet ski next to his brother: "Hey bro, let's race. With these streamers, I'm undefeatable."
Helios smiled: "We'll see about that."
After a sharp turn and with flames burning alongside the fireworks, Nui pulled ahead of Helios. Nui won by a millimeter as he past Helios's jet ski.
As the sun rose, Nui swam in the surf. Helios snuck up on him and splashed him, leaping out of the water and kicking saltwater at his brother with a flick of his fluke.
Helios: "I can't believe it's already dawn. We spent the entire night in the sea!"
Nui: "I can't believe you're acting like a sporeling over that."
Helios: "Can you blame me? I've never felt like this before. Something about this new form and being in the sea. It makes me feel so alive. I'm glad I can still spend time with family in the sea. I was worried that things would be different."
Nui: "You don't have to worry about anything changing. Me and your sister will always have your back."
Helios: "I think... I think I believe that."
Today on "Guess Who Got Naked", Geoffry Landgraab did as Bianca (desperate to be a mommy) chats up with Jeff Boomhauer (King of the Hill). In case you're wondering, she's wearing a milk mask for her skin.
Bianca did try to romance Nervous Subject, but his quirks crashed her attempts.
Bianca wanted a small pet and thanks to a mod that lets you have hedgehogs that look like Sonic characters, I went with one that looked like Shadow the Hedgehog.
After some work and no longer being sad (which is a block to romance), Bianca has found love with Jeff. I'd do more, but her week was up.
Part Three: First Exams
Narrated by Alexander Paraskevas
The night before our first set of exams, both of the twins' parents popped over for a visit.
"It's nice to see you, Alexander," Caroline said. "How is university going?"
"It's fine, thank you," I replied. "We've got finals tomorrow."
"Oh, good luck," she said. "It might be nerve-wracking, but just try and relax."
"Thanks for the advice," I said. "Hopefully I'll do well."
"I'm sure you will. Your mother tells me you're a smart young man."
(For those who don't know, Caroline Masterson and Anastasia Paraskevas are best friends).
I went off to my first exam mindful of Caroline's advice. I reassured myself that I'd done plenty of preparation and that the questions therefore shouldn't prove too difficult.
Whilst doing some last-minute revision for my next exam, I heard someone rushing upstairs and, just a couple of minutes later, the sound of someone throwing up and then the toilet being flushed. I had a horrible feeling that it was Erytheia, and I hoped she was OK.
The rest is on my thread: Part Three