Leo was very close to death last night, and as I waited for the Hooded One to appear, I raced frantically to keep him in platinum. Well, I screwed up. Again. But first, let’s take a look at what I thought would be Leo’s last day on SimEarth…
He spent a lot of time lounging around and watching TV, his two favorite pursuits. I find that a bit odd for a Knowledge Sim, but hey, he’s an elder and he’s already maxed out all of his skills. What else does he have to do except be a man of leisure? Since he was platinum most of the time, I was using the Energizer on him, so he wasn’t wasting his valuable last hours in bed. He also enjoys interacting with his son Liam. In this picture it looks like Liam is asking Leo to pull his finger. Behind them, Taryn watches TV. She takes after her Grandpa in that respect.
In the meantime, Kaylynn was asleep in the toddler room while Maire played with the Logic toy. That’s pretty much the only toy I direct them to play with nowadays so they’ll do their homework faster when they grow up. Maire looks exactly like her sisters did when they were toddlers. I wish they’d at least randomize the hairstyles a little — I don’t think we can use the mirror to change the appearance of a toddler, so they’re pretty much stuck all looking alike…
I have a lot of silly pictures this time, mostly involving Taryn. I don’t know if it’s the granny glasses or what, but I just find her facial expressions amusing. Here her dad Devin is helping her with homework, but she seems distracted by her uncle Liam eating burnt spaghetti.
Under my usually tyrannical control, Devin and Kaylynn are too busy to interact with each other, but here they take advantage of my preoccupation with Leo’s aspiration level to have a little romantic interlude. Leo just happened to be looking on.
Since Devin and Kaylynn were so lovey with each other, and Kaylynn wanted to have another baby, I figured, why not? If I got another Fiona clone, I’d just move her out when she became an adult. Or have her die in some horrible accident. I know, I don’t like killing Sims, but I’m tired of the clones, and I might as well spice the game up a bit (!). So I had Devin and Kaylynn go upstairs to the boom-boom room for some good old woohoo, and Kaylynn became pregnant. Unfortunately I forgot to lock in her Have a Baby want, so she won’t get any points for it. D’oh!
This is definitely a TV-watching family. When I don’t direct them, that’s their favorite thing to do. I don’t mind too much — it keeps their Fun and Social up all the time. Since they were on the sofa anyway, I had Leo snuggle with his granddaughter Taryn. Fiona and Liam kept making faces and yawning, so I looked to see what they were watching — KidzTube. Heh.
Well, as my bad luck would have it, Death did not come for Leo that night. He was 80 years old, which is the longest any of my Sims have lived. But he went to bed that night, got up the next morning, and went about his business with the Reaper nowhere in sight. So I figured he could die at any moment. The race was on.
Before he woke up, all of his wants involved interacting with his son Liam — talking to Liam, telling Liam a joke, etc. He never has any wants to interact with his other son, Devin, and I’m not sure why, because they have an equally high relationship score. Maybe it’s because Liam is a Knowledge Sim like Leo. At any rate, when Leo awoke, Liam was at work, and would be until 7:00 PM that night. That was pushing it a little close.
What’s worse is that I forgot to lock in any of those interact-with-Liam wants, so when Leo finally climbed out of bed, they all spun away, leaving me with four new evil horrible difficult wants. Woops. They were as follows: Relative Gets Married, Win a Game Against Taryn, Fiona is an Overachiever, and Get a Grandchild. Well, the only relative who could get married was Liam, and he was at work, so that wasn’t going to happen soon enough. Fiona couldn’t be an overachiever until she reached the top of her teen career, and she had just started her new Culinary job that day. And the new grandchild wouldn’t be born for a few days yet. The only thing I could do was have him play chess or videogames with Taryn all darn day and hope that he would win.
Well, the videogames didn’t work, so they played chess. A LOT of chess. I watched them like a hawk, expecting the Reaper to swoop in at any moment. As Leo turned 81, his aspiration level was in Gold, and decreasing by the hour. Unfortunately he kept losing to Taryn. Woops again. At least Taryn maxed her Logic skill.
In the picture, it looks like Taryn is asking a rather indelicate question about her inheritance.
My last hope now was to have Liam marry Melissa so they could fulfill Leo’s A Relative Gets Married want. As soon as Liam got home from work, I had him invite Melissa over. When she arrived, they hugged briefly, then I had Liam propose marriage right there on the sidewalk. Unfortunately it didn’t work. Even though Kaylynn’s fourth child isn’t born yet, the game recognized that there would be too many people in the house if Melissa moved in, so it wouldn’t let them get married. Curses! Foiled again!
As I was kicking myself for missing out on yet another platinum headstone, I had a sudden flash of inspiration. Why not have Leo drink the Elixir of Life? He would get three extra days, which would give me another chance to get him into platinum before he died. Duh! I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before. So I spent 30,000 of Leo’s 300,000 aspiration points (!) on the elixir, had him drink, and voila! His age went back to 77. I had beaten time at his own game…for now. (continued on page 2)
you had me in suspense until you gave Leo the elixir. *whew* i can’t wait to see the latest rendition of the Shanley home!
With all these kids, how do you choose which one to follow onto the next generation? I’m not sure if you already described what angle you’re taking with this challenge. Just curious since you mentioned moving one of the kids (when they turn into an adult) out of the house if you get another “clone.” Is everyone living in the same house right now? You haven’t moved anyone out yet, have you? I’m just trying to keep track. (It’s almost like I need to have a picture of the family tree every time I read a new story! I think I need to make my own shanley family tree. LOL)
This story answered a lot of my questions about elders Sims, so thanks! I was wondering if they would die at an exact age – like the minute the turned 80. Whew, I’m glad to know that they won’t, otherwise my whole Freakshow family will die on the same day. That would totally bite. I know that no one will be dying platnimum, since it’s an autonomous house. I’m actually looking forward to some unhappy ghosts, haunting those that are left. :-)
I’m also curious about which family will become your primary storyline as well. You planning on jumping around?
Kathy – I did another family tree for you — I’ll post it tomorrow morning! :-D I know how it is, because when I read other people’s legacy stories, I get all confused about who’s who. To answer your question, I haven’t moved anyone out yet. So far I’ve only had the legacy heir each generation have children, so there haven’t been any cousins yet. And so far my legacy heir has been the eldest child, or in the case of the twins, it was the one who had the most personality points (Bree). Hope that all made sense…
Lauren – Yeah, if they all transition to elder in different aspiration levels, their deaths should be fairly staggered, I would think…I look forward to seeing what happens with the Freakshow family when they all transition — I didn’t realize you had aging on! As for which family will become my primary storyline, I’m not sure. I kind of rotate between a few different families. Depending on how the Shanleys turn out when I’m done with the challenge, I might start telling stories about them, too…
wow I felt a relief when I read about the elixir! I wish u get that platinum headstone. Also I’m lookin forward to see my Sims in elder stage! good Luck! want to read more!!
I know what you mena about randomising hair styles. All toddler girls and all Toddler boys have the same hair style. And what’s even more annoyinh is their same personalities. one of my legacy twins has the exact personality as one of my older lecay twins.
I’m also undecided as to whether to move out some of my sims as the house is getting too full. But I think for me the thing with moving sims out is that I’ll have to play the moved out sims aswell so that all their age groups tally. I don’t like killing off sims on purpose but I think I might have too. by the way, if we kill off a sim say by drowing/starving/burning etc. when they’re in Platinum, do we get platinum headstones and do they count for points in the Challenge?
Janice – I’ve heard that only Sims who die of old age in platinum get the plat headstones. I think Sims who die of other causes get the regular old gray headstone. However, you would get one point for each ghost color you collect, so that makes up for the plat headstone, if you can vary the causes of death!