Last we left the Shanleys, Tristan had become a teen and Vesta, my heiress, had become a child. They were coping well with the unexpected death of their father, Patrick, who was frightened to death by his grandfather’s ghost. Even though Patrick was a Knowledge Sim, his needs were sufficiently low that seeing Devin’s ghost killed him on the spot. That leaves Marie, his widow, free to romance all the men of Mt. Geneva without compunction. Not that anything was stopping her before…
Her son Tristan is following in her footsteps, but he’s taking his time. Since he is extremely shy, he has been easing into the life of a Romance Sim by chatting up the neighbor girl, Sheila. They seem to hit it off pretty well.
“You have, um, interesting features, Tristan…are you by any chance a Legacy Sim?”
Meanwhile Robi had an appointment with the Reaper at 6:00, so I was trying to get him into platinum. He wanted to go swimming, so I decided to indulge him by building a lap pool and directing him to take a swim. He impressed me with some really cool dives. What a hale old man!
“And competing for the Mt. Geneva team in this year’s SimOlympics, we have oldster Robi Shanley…”
Unfortunately fulfilling his Swimming want only gave him 500 points, and his other wants were rather inconvenient, so I decided to try out the SimVac. Other Legacy Challengers have used it to make sure their elders die in platinum, and while it’s not the kindest way to get aspiration points, it is one of the most efficient, I have to say. Marie happened to bring a friend home from work, so I had the perfect victim. I had read that it’s best to use it on visitors because it might result in a visit from the Sim Shrink, a -1 penalty if it he shows up for the Sims in my household. It also scores negative relationship points between the vacuum user and his victim. So I set Robi on poor Daria Shack to see if he could suck up some of her aspiration points.
“I’m sorry, Daria…you know this hurts me more than it hurts you.”
It worked pretty well — Robi shot right into platinum. Daria slipped into aspiration failure which triggered an arrival from an invisible Sim Shrink. While Daria was recovering, the family stood out in the yard and smiled into space, as Sims are often wont to do. I wasn’t micromanaging them because I was so focused on Robi. Stefaan took this opportunity to tease Marie, which Robi and Fiona seemed to find amusing.
“Nyah nyah, I’m a better Romance Sim than you are!”
Around this time I noticed that Fiona had a Fear of Robi dying. She was in low green, and his death would cost her 5,000 aspiration points, which would surely send her into aspiration failure and probably require a visit from ye old Shrink. I needed to raise her aspiration meter, and quick! I couldn’t subject poor Daria to another SimVac’ing, so I opted for Plan B. I switched over to one of my satellite houses, Shanley Cottage, and had Fiona’s brother Aidan propose to his girlfriend. Fiona wanted a relative to get engaged, so I figured this would do the trick.
“Hurry up and say yes before my sister goes into aspiration failure.”
Sure enough when I switched back to Shanley Manor, Fiona was in gold. I could rest easy knowing that Robi’s death wouldn’t send Fiona into shrinkland. Right at 6:00, the Reaper showed up on the front lawn with his hula girls and took Robi away. Just before that I had directed him to use the SimVac one last time as insurance; you can see Daria going cuckoo again. Everyone gathered on the lawn tearfully to watch him depart.
“Some call me the Reaper, others call me Death…but I like to go by Ku`u hoaloha `oi…”
The family mourned as usual, with Fiona taking it especially hard.
“Even spaghetti and meatballs remind me of my dear Robi…”
That night I saw Patrick haunting the house for the first time, and he’s a lovely shade of pink. It looks like he’ll be a 2nd floor ghost, unfortunately. He woke up his daughter, Vesta, but everyone else remained fast asleep. I’m hoping he won’t seek some kind of twisted revenge and scare any of his progeny to death!
“Hey, didn’t I die in my pajamas?”
The next day I was expecting Fiona to pass on, so I worked to get her into platinum. Her wants involved interacting with Vesta and seeing relatives get married and engaged. She also wanted to fall in love, which I didn’t think I could accomplish in one afternoon. I had her tickle and joke with Vesta until some non-Vesta-related want spun into view. By the time 6:00 rolled around, she was in green again, so she couldn’t use the SimVac on anyone as Robi had done. I had to get her into platinum somehow! So I switched over to Shanley Cottage again and had Rian propose to someone this time. He probably would have remained an eternal bachelor otherwise. So I guess in a way his sister hounded him into marriage! I invited her over to the Cottage so I could make sure she got the aspiration points.
“I’m gettin’ hitched all for you, sis! Now go die happy.”
(Continued on Page 2)
Hi Jen. You are doing really good. I was a little scared you lost another sim to weird death. I’m so happy about Vesta! How cool is that. :)
I hope you don’t mind me saying, I hope your sims aren’t boring you too much. I wish I could go over and play for you to give you a break. Also you usually comment between your updates.
Jen thanks for all your hard work. Your update truely give me a little taste of what I’m missing since I don’t have the game :(
Vesta is so pretty! She’ll make a great hier, I’m sure. And an easy one – Family Aspiration!
I feel bad for Daria. Poor thing, so innocent! Lol. I’m glad Stefaan didn’t die after the shocking incident. I hope you’re having fun with your family! Keep it up!
Great Job! I just love your photo captions they always crack me up.
I totally forgot about the sim vac to get them in platinum before Old Grim comes by. Shucks I missed out getting a family platinum tombstone when my 2g passed she got the hula gals but a boring gray slab.
Hey everyone, thanks for the comments. I’m still having a blast with my Legacy family — I just wish I could play more often! I’ve also been having urges to tell stories and build houses, but I want to finish the challenge first. I’m planning a little side story with Vesta, though, just for fun and to satisfy some of my storytelling urges. Stay tuned!
PRMami, I’m sorry to hear about your grey slab for 2G. Good luck next time!
finally, able to get some tiem off from school work and read some simming tales. great job as usual. You updates makes me feel like playign sims myself! anyhow, I accidentally read this post before the previous post so I’m a little “huh?” with some of the things like how come Patrick’s dead! anyhow, I’ll be reading the prev post now.
Another fun update. I’m glad you’re having such a good time with your legacy family. Wow, when I read how you’re managing them into a plantinum death, it sounds like so much work. The Shanleys are my favorite family to read about. It doesn’t hurt that they’re all so easy on the eyes as well. I LOVED that aspiration vacuum. How funny is that!
hi jen! love this update, I lol with the pic of stefaan in skeleton mode! looks so funny!
LOL! Nice update, Jen. I really love your captions. They’re so funny! Oh no! Robi and Fiona are both gone!! It seems like Fiona lived forever. I’m sure you’ll really miss her. She was around for a while. I’m sure Vesta would do very well as the heir though! ^_^
Oh! and I love the vacuum! That’s hilarious. It’s acctually a REALLY good idea! I’m gonna do that for MY elder Sims too! (I never knew what the Vacuum was for until now) Yeah, I’m so lame.
By the way, sorry for the double post… :P
Sorry about your G4 elders. XC I suppose they are in Sim Heaven now, sucking up other people’s aspiration points! *wonders if that made sense* So…I hope that Vesta gives birth to many beautiful, non-identical children. I have a suggestion for boys’ and girls’ names:
Boys: Zion, Caleb, Azu, Hermes (another Greek God name…), Tyson, Houston
Girls: Rune, Cheniba, Nelina, Zoe, Klere, Kaeti, Shelby, Camrynn, Kendal
Whew! *wipes forehead* So many names…so many sims…too slow typing XD
*raises hand* I have a question! Are we allowed to post pictures here…so we can show and tell our sims? XD
QF, you can start a blog site on wpblogs.com like I have! It’s a lot of fun and you can show and tell your Sims! ^__^
It’s FREE too! :-) Lol.
Yesh…I kow that Leslie. Thanks anyways though. I was just wondering though, for this site XD
That’s too bad in a way, it would be neat to see your sims, QF. Do you have a Legacy Challenge family?
I suppose, Jessica. I have a family with fourteen kids now and about five grandchildren. But, I mean…I’m bad with blogs! XD I’m good at telling stories and stuff, but these ‘free’ blog websites get ze QF confuzzled XD
I don’t even know WHERE to find my Sims 2 pictures. I’ve looked EVERYWHERE on my computer-no where XD Help? *gulps*
Um, you can find the pictures at the Storytelling folder in your Sims 2 folder. You go to My Documents/EA Games/Sims 2/Storytelling. It’s that simple! Then you sort them by right clicking a blank space and sort them by “modified” and then go to thumbnail. Then you will see all the pictures! Hope that helps ^_^
i just quickly skimmed through the comments – but you mentioned that Stefaan autonomously repaired the computer?! i had no idea they would do that!! i’ve always hired a repairman so they wouldn’t get shocked. they look so funny when they get burnt to a crisp.
Vesta is really pretty and what a perfect name! I love reading your updates, it makes me want to play so bad! I can’t wait until my computer gets fixed. :)