2. Welcome once more to SiMania Admods: The Musical! Finally we have
reached the last scene for my turn. When we left off, our two blue sims
– the only ones eligible for heir/ess – were about to have a double
birthday. Christine and Erik are ready to grow up, so let’s see what we
get.
3. Here’s Christine. She’s pretty lazy so she’s slumping in her birthday
picture, so I included another picture of her standing up straight
too. Besides the slow skilling, the laziness is the only thing I don’t
really like about her. Otherwise, I love this kid!
She rolled family/knowledge. I guess the upside to the slow
skilling is that now she can get some points for maxing her last few
skills due to the knowledge aspiration. I think Christine turned out
very beautiful and I love a good family sim.
4. Here’s little Erik, the baby of the family and the former subject of
Christine’s ire. They’re now best friends, though. He is also adorable,
although lacking the family eyes. He’s got such a great mix of his mom and
dad. *pinches cheeks*
5. Erik can now join his siblings in skilling. Thankfully, he takes more
after his brother Raoul than he does Christine. She is still skilling
suuuuuper slowly, and Raoul is set to max his skills before she does. If
she doesn’t work hard, maybe Erik will too, lol.
6. Just a cute little double belly rub picture. The dogs are an important
part of family life in the Encore household.
7. In the morning, Raoul leads his little brother on a jog to the
school bus, although they’re going to different schools since
we haven’t had the headmaster over yet for Erik. When he
returns home, Steven teaches him how to do his homework.
8. Meanwhile, Christine heads off for her first day in the science career.
It’ll change, of course, but on my computer she wants to be a mad
scientist for her LTW, so I sent her into the science career when it
opened up right away.
9. Christine left behind the boy who followed her home from school,
Aidan. He’s happy to help himself to a drink from the bar. Sure,
seems normal and healthy. Christine wanted to befriend him before I
sent her off to her job, but I’m not sure she should be friends with a
teenager that makes a beeline for the “juice.”
10. And a few hours later, Christine returns home an overachiever. Way to
go, Christine! Now go ahead and chat up Aidan if it’ll make you happy.
11. Raoul has maxed almost all his skills. Now that his sister is
working, it may take even longer for her to catch up with him.
12. The headmaster comes over that night and Marty manages not to
set anything on fire this time. He accepts Erik easily into the school.
13. Morning time brings the three
children together, and the three
beagles are quick to follow. It makes
for a pretty busy little room. At first
Christine and Raoul interact, but she
eventually lets Erik play too. Despite
their relationship scores, I think she
still holds a little lingering
resentment. Just my opinion, though.
14. The three kids head off to private school together for the first
time.
15. While the kids are busy with
school and work, the adults
don’t have much going on.
Marty is still working as a
visionary while she waits for
paranormal to come up on the
computer so she can start on her
third LTW. Consequently, she
runs around in her all-black
visionary outfit.
The grown-ups in the house
spend a lot of their time
together, whether that means a
dance party or communal make-
out time. They’re just
autonomously drawn to their
spouses, which is sweet.
16. Might as well be a flashing sign: Aria was here. No other ghosts
have figured out how to get into the house, but she’s a frequent
visitor. Thanks to her secondary knowledge aspiration, Christine
actually thinks it was a positive memory.
17. Erik’s predestined hobby is sports, and he frequently rolls wants
related to it. He especially is good at pulling his parents away for
a quick game of catch. Thankfully, his nice points (or lack
thereof) don’t come into play and he resists the urge to bean his
parents with the ball.
18. Raoul’s teen birthday comes around, and his growing up
well makes most of the household happy. Marsha and
Steven have primary or secondary family aspirations but
Marty’s become pretty good about rolling up family-
oriented wants despite being a romance sim.
19. And here he is, the only ‘normal’ sim of the generation. Raoul is still a
cutie, in my opinion. Just like his big sister, he rolled family, but his
secondary is grilled cheese.
20. Steven brought home a pretty coworker and Marty keeps a close eye
on the two of them.
21. She’s right to do so, because Steven is heavily attracted to his
coworker. That’s not right for a family sim. Focus on your family,
Steven! Ignore the pretty Captain Hero! Stop telling her how
attractive she is!
22. “Sweetie, will you ever leave me alone while I’m using the
bathroom of giant polka dots?”
“Never, my love.”
“I thought as much, honey.”
23. Raoul has maxed all his skills finally! Christine is still working on hers,
but Erik is swiftly catching up with her.
24. Since the only two she had left were cooking and cleaning, Christine
retired to her room to use the bookshelf there. Maybe a little alone
time will help her focus better.
25. Raoul has become enamored with the newspaper girl, Renee. Like
in his childhood, his go-to topics are all about school and learning.
He makes sure to let Renee know that he has a bunch of
scholarships and has maxed all his skills.
26. He also puts on this face. I can just imagine his inner
monologue: “I’m talking to a girl! For real! A girl! Is
talking to me! I’m so excited! A real girl! Talking to
me!”
Whoa there, boy. When we can see your lower gums,
you’re smiling too wide.
27. Renee is into hearing Raoul talk himself up, but she draws the line at
talking about grilled cheese. That’s just not attractive to her, I guess.
28. Raoul drowns his sorrow in the cool stream of music emanating from
the stereo. And looks like a total dork doing it.
29. “Oh my god, a chair!”
“Mom, there’s a chair! Wow!”
I think this chair got haunted once and ever since it elicits this
reaction from anyone in the vicinity. What an exciting chair!
30. When he’s not playing catch
with his parents, Erik’s
getting his siblings to swing
him around. He’s such an
active little guy.
31. Steven! You’re a family sim! Act like it and stop bringing her
home with you!
32. Raoul daydreams about Kaylynn Spitzig, who he has never met. That is
her name, right? I’m not even sure. But apparently her reputation
precedes her.
33. Christine literally studied all night and
still hasn’t maxed her skills. She’s
close though. She needed to take a
break for an energizer pick-me-up,
and everyone nearby had to come
check out the new object.
Marty and Marsha couldn’t help
gossiping, but maybe they should
have been a bit more discreet?
35. And Erik just has to show off by maxing his the same day.
36. Raoul is an overachiever. I forgot his LTW on my computer, but I sent
him into science with his sister so they’d have the same hours.
37. Christine got her first kiss with Aidan the lush. It’s really hard to keep
family teens happy without resorting to relationships, so even though
they have only a few days to be together, I went ahead and let her fall
in love with Aidan like she wanted.
39. Christine brings home another boy despite having a boyfriend. Don’t
emulate your dad, sweetie, he’s doing family sim wrong. You’re
supposed to be devoted, not constantly bringing home fresh meat like
some degenerate romance sim.
40. Christine’s new friend had to be asked to leave after he
started picking on Renee, who was over visiting Raoul. She
didn’t put up with any of his pranks, though. Meanwhile,
Lloyd smustles on the sidewalk.
41. Renee apparently got stinky from poking random guy too much, but
Raoul doesn’t mind. He’s just too happy to get his first kiss.
42. He’s found a better outlet for talking about grilled cheese.
Although Renee won’t listen, Christine’s 10 nice points assure
that she’ll talk with Raoul about grilled cheese any time.
44. Aww, Marsha’s time has come. She
was studying one of the non-skills
from the bookcase and her book, left
on the floor where she laid it, is a
testament to things left unfinished.
This was a hard death on those
there to watch it. The dogs wailed
and wailed while Marty, Rolfe, and
Erik cried.
45. Here’s the aftermath of Marsha’s
death. Rolfe reluctantly sleeps
alone for the first time in a long
time. Soprano and Diva stayed in
the room where Marsha died and
howled for several hours. The next
morning, Erik can’t stop thinking
about his grandmother while he
plays with his toys. He seems
particularly hard hit by her death.
47. Rolfe’s time is up the very next day after Marsha’s death. At least he
didn’t have to live without her for too long. Poor little Erik is there
to witness this one too.
Also: not to ruin the solemnity of the picture, but could we please
have a death scene without someone stomping and complaining?
48. Wishing you were somehow here again / Knowing we must say, "Goodbye“
/ Try to forgive, teach me to live / Give me the strength to try / No more
memories, no more silent tears / No more gazing across the wasted years /
Help me say, "Goodbye"
--from Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again, The Phantom of the Opera
49. Two deaths in two days cast a shadow over Erik’s birthday – literally in
this case, as Raoul looms over Erik, crying.
50. The family musters some
excitement for little Erik despite
the grief and shock they’re all
feeling.
Erik’s birthday present is his
inheritance. It doesn’t change
anything about the sadness
and poor timing of the deaths,
though, but this shows how
close Rolfe’s death was to
Erik’s birthday.
51. While Erik is doing his spin, Christine thinks of Rolfe’s death and Raoul
breaks down in tears again in the corner. I think this may be the most
depressing birthday party I’ve ever played.
52. With the tears dried and the cake eaten, here’s Erik. He grew up
very handsome, in my opinion, which can only help him as he has
rolled up a popularity/romance aspiration.
53. Even though it’s just two days before I’m going to hand them off,
Christine rolls the want to go steady with Aidan, so I let her. Luckily,
moving to another computer is like going to college – a get-out-of-
broken-teen-hearts-free pass.
54. “Hello there. I have a deformed-looking hand.”
Eesh. I thought this was so cool back in the day but sometimes this
skin just makes me cringe. I like that we’re continuing it but I wish I
had made it better. The recoloring/shading in spots leaves much to
be desired, among other faults.
55. Erik continues to be all go-go-go
and active, playing the drums like
a maniac and luring people off to
play catch.
Raoul is much more
contemplative and autonomously
feeds the invisible koi on the way
home from school.
57. Erik also went to work – in the athletic career if I’m remembering right
– and returned home an overachiever. Although some of the days are
different, he keeps the same hours as his scientist siblings, so they
carpool together more often than not.
58. Besides the overachiever designation, Erik also came home with a cold.
He spent some time napping on the recliners in the sun room. Luckily he
can sleep despite his mom holding a conversation in the background.
Someone decided to play the drums shortly after this picture was taken,
however, and that definitely didn’t help his nap.
59. For a minor aspiration boost, Erik meets someone new by greeting a
walk-by.
60. Then it’s straight back to resting, which doesn’t exactly make Erik
happy. He doesn’t really like to sit still or do quiet things, so
relaxing on the couch makes him cranky, as you can see by his
expression.
61. The reason I didn’t immediately hand the family off when Erik became
a teen is because Marty finally found a job in the paranormal career
and I knew that one night of work as an exorcist would help her
achieve her third LTW, assuming nothing went wrong. She heads off,
dressed in her . . . interesting work attire.
62. Meanwhile, Steven sets to cooking up
some of Grandma’s Comfort Soup to
help out his ailing son. Unfortunately,
Aria is also on the prowl.
“Woo. That is one smoking
ghost!”
I wouldn’t check out the ghost if I
were you, Steven.
“Why ever not?”
64. Erik finished the whole bowl of soup and I got a notification that he felt his
illness was “melting away,” but then the next pop-up said he had a cold!
How many bowls of this stupid soup does it take to cure a cold? Regardless,
we really only had time for the one since this is the last day I’ll have the
family. Poor Erik will just have to go to Lydia sick. I tried. I really did.
65. Early the next morning, while everyone else is sleeping, Marty
returns home from work as a cult leader, fulfilling her third lifetime
want. Now my turn is complete.
66. So who will be the heir, Erik or Christine? What other musical will be
used in the naming process? Will the blue skin pass as easily to the
next generation as it did this time around? Tune in next time with
SiMania Admods: the Musical! for the answers to these questions.
As always, thank you for reading and please visit us at SiMania!