Last time, Raaj moved in with his two daughters and we got a house. Part of a house. And Ellie and Raaj eloped because we were struggling with money. Mostly because we have way too much house for our income, currently. Such is the legacy life.
Purnima: Nita! You have a monster under your bed! We have to get Ellie and Dad!
Prunita: Why does this stuff always happen to me...
I noticed when I was taking this that the 'monster' is only visible when I have one of the kids selected, which is a cute touch.
Ellie: This is not how I thought I'd be spending my wedding night...
Ellie goes to work earlier than Raaj, so we let Shavonne come over to hang out in the morning.
Shavonne: That's certainly an... interesting... house...
Seriously, Raaj?? You are not flirting with someone right after your wedding.
Took this one for no other reason but that he's cute.
Prunita stood up and left as soon as Purnima went to sit next to her. Which is what my older dog does when the younger one tries to hang out. Although in this case it might be less about Purnima being a bully and more about the stink clouds coming off of her.
Prunita: Finally, I can breathe again.... have you been standing out here alone since my dad left?
Shavonne: Yup!
Prunita took it upon herself to clean up all the dirty dishes after Ellie finished her dinner.
... you know you don't have to do that, right?
Prunita: I've accepted this is my lot in life.
Meanwhile, Ellie and Purnima become friends.
Ellie: I'm so glad you and your dad moved in before the snow started coming down. Otherwise I would have frozen to death.
She became friends with Prunita shortly after, but I didn't catch when it happened.
When Raaj came home I tried to get him to take a bath while Ellie cleaned the toilet, but they decided on their own to woohoo instead.
I'm so glad I spent money on the kitchen island, the barstools, and the table and chairs in the dining room so my sims could stand around in the kitchen to eat.
On Saturday, the adults were either working or sleeping, so the girls decided to have an outing with their kind-of-friend, Jerrilyn. We ended up going to the aquarium, becuase I've never seen one in the Sims and wanted to see how they'd made one. This lot is "Aquarium of Newcrest" by Melcstro.
It's a fun little build to explore.
Jerrilyn: Oh, ducks! I love ducks.
I think the kids liked it.
There was a computer in one of the back areas, so I sent Ellie to get some writing practice in and maybe write something we could publish for royalties. Somehow I don't think her 'poor' children's book is going to help our financial situation.
Then we get this call, which, uh... Harvey. You told us you're gay. You turned Ellie away in the first place because of that. She's married and started trying for a baby with her husband. Her stepchildren have one friend their age and it's your daughter. There are so many reasons why this wouldn't work out.
Back home, Purnima started to mop up a puddle left by the broken sink... and immediately stopped when she saw Prunita heading over.
Purnima: She can clean it up, then. I don't wanna.
When I compared her to Cinderella in the last chapter, that wasn't meant as a suggestion!
The Benoit family invited us over, and I thought I could maybe do the 'time traveller' event on this save while we were there, since the first objective was pretty innocuous. Watch the news for fifteen minutes.
I'm playing long lifespan so I can get Ellie all the skills and things she needs while still feeling like I have room to breathe; so I feel like I have time to do this stuff as long as the 'quest' things are still low-key. If it starts asking us to do high-level gardening or something we're going to have to bail, though.
The next thing is to check social media, but Raaj had to go to work and the kids apparently can't do social media yet. Because no child has ever pretended to be older than they actually are on the internet.
Purnima: But I AM old enough to troll the forums! I'm learning so many new words! Lots of things to call other kids on the playground.
Prunita: And I'm playing a game where you drop bombs on a city full of people!
Both very age-appropriate activities.
Shavonne made heart-shaped waffles for everyone because, like Jane Bennet, the character she was based on, she is a literal ray of sunshine.
Did I intentionally take this picture from further away to show off this room that I'm proud of? Yes.
Prunita: Today I learned how to run over things with tanks!
Marielle: Well, as long as it's educational...
Called Ellie over when she was done with work, but she's sad for some reason?
Ellie: All the waffles were eaten already, and I have morning sickness, and this house is much nicer than mine.
That's fair; it is.
Prunita: I wish we could live here instead of that weird empty place.
Ellie: *sigh* Me too....
At least Ellie can check social media for stuff about Emit!
The other reason I decided to do this time travel thing in this save is, well... I feel like it goes along with the theme of the legacy. Science and such.
And Purnima now has a fear of being inferior. The 'everyone else is doing better in life' thing is weird when you consider everything Prunita has been through compared to her.
Today I learned that burnout is a thing in the Sims. I'm not entirely sure how to deal with this, but there's two holidays swiftly approaching, so... hopefully that will help.
Both Prunita and Purnima put a tooth under their pillow the night before. I don't know which of them got their tooth fairy money first, but I do know one of them fully got ยง10 more than the other.
And it's Christmas Morningmas Eve! A bunch of the households in this save are from a Curse of Strahd campaign I'm playing, so I went with that when I was deciding what the holidays were going to be called. Praise the Morninglord.
Prunita is now going through her own phase, this one where she wants to wear a bear costume at all times.
Prunita: It's not a phase! This is who I am!
Personally I support her if she's a furry or otherkin or whatever else s he wants to be.
One of the holiday traditions is baking cookies, which the game says Raaj LOVES, but apparently that's not helping with the burnout... because the burnout is from his cooking job, I guess. Whoops.
Mandatory family snowpal making session. For the holidays.
Maybe a little family bonding will help Raaj?
Also, we need to get a dresser so I can get rid of Ellie's random rings. And set it so Raaj's beard stops growing. I feel like the person who thought shaving would be a fun game mechanic was the same one who came up with the 'bust the dust' thing.
It's still only mid-afternoon, so the Mendeleevs head off to the park to find Emit, since he's supposed to be there. He and Ellie... uh... find each other intellectually stimulating, it seems.
I get a notification that Raaj is about to die of cold. Because he was making snow angels in his athleticwear.
Maybe it's a good thing that we have to cut the Ellie/Emit thing short.
Father Winter comes to give us Morningmas Eve presents, which we will promptly be selling. But after he leaves so it's not awkward.
We got these things, and a tea set, and I believe a dollhouse that was identical to the one we already have.
Father Winter: Oh, a cookie! Would you perhaps like to share it, in the spirit of Morningmas?
Ellie: I am heavily pregnant, and I will bite your hand off if you try it.
Purnima: She's so cool...
I decided to spend some of our money to get a present pile for the family, since it's Christmas Morningmas, and I want them to have a nice holiday. I remember that Purnima got a gnome and Prunita, for some reason, didn't actually get to grab a present. And one of the adults got something called a Land-Coral Garden??
Oh. Morninglord bless us, every one, indeed.
Here's the current status of the house. Still bare-bones, but we're getting somewhere. I think we're going to make the room off of the master bedroom into a nursery, so it's easy for adult sims to access while still being separate. The floorplan had a bunch of little spaces for pantries and things, but we don't really need spaces like that in this game, so those bits are probably going to be bathrooms.
A legacy house can never have too many bathrooms.
The extra big room was in the floorplan as a garage, but I kind of want to turn it into a family museum? Or maybe use it for whatever weird skills our sims need to build over the generations. Home gym and such. We'll see.
Most exciting, for now, is our little living room. We now have some ways to entertain ourselves that don't involve smashing the dollhouse.
There's now an en suite off the master bedroom, as well, which is great, because people have been constantly walking in on each other while using the bathroom. We can lock doors, but for some reason there's no option for sims to lock the door behind them for bathrooms?
Ellie's going to give birth in ???, so we'll leave off there and wait to meet baby Hydrogen next time! Hopefully just Hydrogen. I don't think I'm ready to deal with a multiple birth at this point. *shudder*