1. Hello, and welcome back to Ruth’s (un)Officially Wacky Boolprop
Challenge! It’s always good to see you!
Before we begin, I would like to mention that this was not the
original title I had planned for the chapter. But Things Happen, and
the cheery title I had planned didn’t work anymore. If Gilbert &
Sullivan had been possessed of the foresight to write a song called
“O, Sweet Plumbbob, Make The Drama Stop!” I’d’ve gone with
that instead.
And on that far-from-promising note, let’s begin.

2. When I first opened the lot, there was no drama at all. In fact,
things were going very well indeed. Myrna had just taught Casilda
the last of her Toddler skills.

3. The ghosts were out and about, as usual, but weren’t doing any
harm.
RUTH:
PITTI-SING: Okay, Great-Grandmama! I won’t stay up too late on
the computer! I’ll go to bed right now, I promise!

4. Glen apparently harbors no ill will against the aliens, since he still
stargazes autonomously. I suppose he’s so happy to be having
another baby, he doesn’t really care how it came about.

5. Now, the normal, un-hacked household limit is eight Sims --
everyone knows that. However, Pets added two additional slots off
to the side, for dogs and cats, making a possible total of ten
occupants per house.

6. Under ordinary circumstances, this doesn’t change the way the
game works. However, thanks to a little-known glitch, if there are
seven Sims in the household, and if one gets pregnant, and if the
pregnancy results in twins, then there can be nine occupants in the
house.
GLEN: It hurts! It huuuuurrrts! Make it stop, somebody!

7. I was very careful to ensure that Glen’s pregnancy resulted in
twins.
I fed him nothin’ but cheesecake for the last trimester, that’s how.

8. Meet Deadeye (right) and Nanki-Poo (left).
Deadeye is named for Dick Deadeye, a sailor from HMS Pinafore,
because I always rather liked him, even if he is the antagonist.
Nanki-Poo is named for the Mikado’s-son-turned-wandering-
minstrel from The Mikado, because how can you have a Wacky
Gilbert & Sullivan-themed challenge and not use the name “Nanki-
Poo” when you have the chance?
See? You can’t come up with a way around it either.

9. With the birth of Deadeye and Nanki-Poo, I have completed all the
requirements for the Base Game bonuses. I am happy about this --
and thrilled to have alien twins. Squeeeeeeee twin alien baybeez!
And speaking of completing mini-challenge requirements…

10. Glen not only got his Gold Robotics badge, but I managed to get a
picture of it, so that he didn’t have to build a whole servo to prove
he had it. This gives me two out of three of the OFB mini-
challenge requirements. Now all that’s left (for that section,
anyway) is to run a business through all generations of the
challenge.

11. The Tacky Flamingo is currently at Level 10 and still gaining stars.
It has been open every single game-day since it was purchased…
even if I have to send the old lady or the son-in-law there at quarter
to eleven at night to open it up for an hour.
Wouldn’t work in real life, but fortunately Sims aren’t as picky.

12. I also learned something interesting while playing the Tacky
Flamingo. Do you see those flowers floating around the head of the
fellow in the toga? I wasn’t fast enough on the Pause button to get
photographic proof, but those flowers will show up and then the
Sim will think of either the ticket machine or the Best-of-the-Best
award and smile real big. It appears to be a function of the award
itself.
Seven years of playing and I’m still learning new things!

13. And speaking of occurrences at the business, Old Adam has been
up to his old tricks again.
LISA (V.O.): Poppa! You betrothed my daughter to someone who
lives in a trailer park?!*
OLD ADAM (V.O.): He seemed a very well-mannered boy, much
of an age with Pitti-Sing. And the betrothal is only provisional.
Both children must consent to the engagement before the young
gentleman reaches his fourth day after turning Adult.
LISA (V.O.): But you can’t do that!
OLD ADAM (V.O): My dear, I believe I already have. Cheer up: it
will all come right in the end!
*Read more about him in Auspicious It Ain’t, available at my LJ!

14. You may have noticed that Old Adam was looking extraordinarily
youthful still in the previous picture. He’s seventy-four at this point,
and I think he should have a few wrinkles. Alas, the only wrinkle
makeup that comes with the game is pretty heavy-handed (I suspect it
may actually be Bigfoot makeup), and I avoid it until my Sims are
eighty or over. But guess what? I found some really awesome layerable
cc wrinkles*, so now Old Adam can have a bit of soft aging to his face!
*Wrinkles are by Lolabythebay, and can be found at Garden of Shadows: Whispers
In The Dark > Photographs > Snapshots > GoS Blind Date - Flaunt Your Treasure.

15. Things were going swimmingly for most of the rotation… and then
I noticed this.
Oh, censor blur. Who was it?

16. Everyone had time left on their lifebars, and Grim usually shows
up at seven p.m., not three in the morning.

17. Nobody was cooking, I know that. Most of the people in the house
were tucked up safely in bed, as they should be.

18. Glen and Deadeye are accounted for, and since Babies and
Toddlers can’t die, Nanki-Poo is probably fine.

19. And there’s Old Adam, snoring away contentedly…

20. But why is Valerie’s* ghost floating around looking so pleased
with herself?
*Valerie Shankel was the mother of (u)OWBC founder Ruth.

21. And why is there an urn in front of the easel where Myrna was
painting not ten minutes ago?
Oh, no…

22. Myrna (Sanders) Shankel, 75 years old. Myrna was friends with
Old Adam Shankel as a Child, and was quite hurt when he dropped
out of touch in their Teen years. As it turned out, this was only
because he’d become a vampire. After a brief period of confusion
in college, when Myrna became engaged to Old Adam’s brother
under the pernicious influence of The Gloaming, everything
worked out happily. Myrna never really understood her husband’s
enthusiasm for all things Victorian or for alien abductions, but she
supported him nonetheless. Myrna’s favorite Gilbert & Sullivan
song was “There was a time” from The Gondoliers.
Rest in peace, Myrna.

23. I am not the only one who misses Myrna, and who wishes that I
had been keeping a closer watch on her. It cast a pall over the
whole last day of the rotation at the house.

24. But time marches on, and at six o’clock that evening, Olga Grew
Up.
OLGA: Oh no no no no no. This hand has a severe absence of
glove. That must be rectified immediately. And the dreads have got
to go.
Olga is a Pop Sim who likes Creativity and Mechanical, and
doesn’t like Hard Workers. For now, anyway. I forgot to roll for
aspiration and turn-ons/turn-off, so I’ll almost certainly have to
change everything when I go back to the household. (sigh)

25. Casilda Grew Up at the same time, although she didn’t seem as
upset about not having any gloves on.
CASILDA: Wow! Now I can reach the cookies in the fridge!
She doesn’t seem to get upset about much of anything, come to
think of it.
And since I have run out of pictures of the main household, that
means it’s time to see what’s happening with their relatives. (And
exactly why I wanted a song about stopping the drama.)

26. At Buttercup’s house, the sparklies and the hula zombies arrived at
the same time. And, naturally, they both arrived in the most
awkward possible place to photograph.
Albert (Adams) Shankel, Buttercup’s husband, was 75 years old.
He would have said that those seventy-five years were mostly
happy ones.
Penny got a makeover, but it doesn’t seem respectful to show it just
now.
A bittersweet rotation, to be sure, but no drama involved.

27. There’s no drama at Rose and Dmitri’s house, either. Alexander has
grown into a handsome little chap who looks rather like Rose about
the chin, and his parents have Tried For Another Baby now that he
is no longer snuggly and cute.
I was in the bathroom, so I don’t know if they managed it.

28. Chant provided Nicholas with a little sister. Nicholas was less than
thrilled at the prospect of a sibling who would age faster than him,
so Chant got out some of the (expired) Plantropic-C kept on hand
for in case Oliver or Oakapple become plantsims again and fed it to
the new plantbaby. Alas, even after a nice makeover, Phoebe was
less than thrilled about this.
PHOEBE: At least a child of my sister’s would be blood to me!
But this -- ! Ah, thou hast betrayed me!
Nicholas was pretty chuffed, though.

29. Now, Phoebe’s preference probably does not come as a surprise,
especially if you remember this picture from last time. (We’ll
ignore her other two sisters for the moment.) I had planned this
picture to be the start of an elaborate Plot -- a Plot that had to be
completely readjusted on the fly. Why the readjustment, you ask?

30. Because two days into the new rotation, Leila was frightened to
death by one of the ghosts in her haunted asylum. (It wasn’t
haunted when she started out, which should give you some idea of
my asylum-playing skillz.)

31. There were two unidentified Toddlers found in the building
afterwards. They were obviously far too old to be Leila’s, and so
they were placed in the local orphanage run by Phoebe’s sorority
sister Catherynne.
(The Adults in the picture are the only two not-dead inmates of the
asylum. I did mention my complete lack of asylum-playing skillz,
right?)

32. Because the facility was being closed, and because of Phoebe’s
connections with the orphanage, the twins were left with her for a
few hours. Chant was actually in charge of the hand-off, and the
kids he handed off made it to the orphanage safely. You can read
more about them in Already in Progress.

33. I happen to be a fan of happy endings, not tragedies, and
fortunately Leila’s boyfriend Abhijeet is a reasonably powerful
brujo* with a Bone Phone. Following Leila’s resurrection, her
lifebar was reset to the beginning of the Adult lifestage, and
Abhijeet popped the question.
*Brujo (BREW-hoe), noun. A man who can use magic.

34. Abhijeet even managed to give Leila what she wanted more than
anything else in the world: fairy wings.
If it wasn’t for that lingering retrograde amnesia covering almost
two weeks, everything would have been perfect. But then,
retrograde amnesia is not all that uncommon after severe trauma.
Sometimes it clears up on its own, and sometimes it doesn’t. Either
way, Leila and Abhijeet will undoubtedly be very happy, and you
can read all about them in Already in Progress.
Until next time, Happy Simming!

35. Notes, disclaimers, and other trivia
I most sincerely and humbly apologize for breaking out the old
“amnesia” chestnut. Gilbert never stooped that low, but I couldn’t
figure out any other way to make the Plot work. If you have also
read Leila’s asylum challenge, The Jack Point Home for Pedestrian
Playables: yes, you’re correct. (If you haven’t read it, don’t worry
about it. All will be made clear in time.)
The title of this chapter is from The Mikado. It is sung by Katisha
when she learns (erroneously, in her case) that the man she loves is
dead. Alas, it seemed to fit.