Sims 3: Zodiac Challenge - Chapter 4, The Rabbit & Chapter 5, The Dragon(s)

I'm so proud of Bunny.  She grew up in that unhappy house, full of ghosts, with a murderous, abusive mother and only her horse for company, and now she has a happy loving family, has had a successful career as a horsewoman, and her babies are all happy and doing well at school.  She's sold her last horse - she kept getting wishes to retire every time she had a baby and I finally gave in - so now it's just a dog and her five children.  Saoirse has aged up, but she's not quite on an A-grade yet.  Even if she were, I'm not moving my heirs out of the house until Bunny dies.

Some sad news - our butler, Davis, was electrocuted while trying to repair the dishwasher and died.  We were sent a second butler who did the exact same thing, despite the fact I'd already called the handywoman.  At that point, I just replaced the damn thing.

Bunny celebrated her first child's homecoming with an oldest-children jam session.

Hialeah also started her job as an architectural designer!  She's not finished her degree yet, but this is her hometown and everyone knows her, so I figured they'd give her a shot.

You get an assignment like this, with a list of things to include/improve.

Hialeah (I) kind of messed up by not putting a roof over the new laundry room, but the homeowner still liked it!

Inspired by Hialeah - seen here practicing her architectural sketches, which gives her both a job bonus and some artwork she can put on people's walls - Dan is taking an aptitude test.  He didn't do well, even in science and medicine, which is the degree he would like to do, since it will contribute well to his being a gentleman farmer.

Hialeah asked Bunny to pose for her, which Bunny was happy to do!

Sometimes, with a household of seven people (and a dog), I lose track of people.  I lost track of Bunny and found her sitting in the rocking chair in Saoirse's bedroom, watching over her as she slept.

Even more adorably, I had Hialeah and Sequoyah take a romantic picture together, and this is what they came out with.  I had them take three, so I have lots of copies.  I think it's supposed to be the same kiss photo that Hialeah took with Ayana, but the height mod turned it into a forehead kiss instead, which is even cuter.

I didn't take any pictures on gift-giving day, though I did have the sims take lots of pictures of each other, mostly so Hialeah will have lots of things to put on the walls when she redesigns other sims rooms.

Sims 3: Zodiac Challenge - Chapter 5, The Dragon(s)

Welcome to Hialeah's first semester of university!

She settles into her dorm then heads out to start meeting people.  She arrives on Sunday morning, has two classes Monday and Wednesday, one class each Tuesday and Thursday, and two exams on Friday, before heading home next weekend.  

Since Hialeah is doing a degree in Fine Art, she can approach people and ask to sketch them.  She can also ask to sketch them nude.  I really don't know what I was expecting when I chose that option, but it wasn't this.  FYI, Hialeah now has a crush on that girl (Ayana Yuki) and will spend the rest of the week trying to hang out with her.

Hialeah is still a celebrity in this world, which means she has both fans and paparazzi following her around.

On her first night at university, Hialeah is immediately invited to a party and challenged to do a kegstand.

Immediately after her first two Monday lectures, Hialeah goes home to take a nap.  To be fair, that is exactly what I do during most of the semester.  Learning new stuff is very tiring.  That's why I avoid it by making sims do it.  I have also had people fall asleep next to me in lectures.

Hialeah went out for burgers and coffee with Ayana, but Ayana just isn't picking up what Hialeah is putting down.  They did start making out by Friday but there's precious little time before Hialeah returns home for the holidays.

Tagging stuff helps to increase Hialeah's grade.  So does painting.  She did a bit of blogging this week and someone donated 7 simoleons to her, so that was successful.  Hialeah also met a vampire, but not a very interesting one, and she was able to pass her exams with flying colours and attend a few more parties.

In the last few hours of the semester, Hialeah was able to successfully ask Ayani to be her girlfriend.  I needed to assess her attractiveness (to prompt the game to realise they're both into girls and attracted to one another and give them the attracted moodlet) and have Hialeah confess her feelings before Ayani would respond.

The guy on the right is someone Hialeah met at the Fresher's fare, made friends with, and then never spoke to again.  I did that too.  This is a very realistic pack.

So, Hialeah is now halfway through her degree and is home for the winter holidays!  The winter holidays part is a coincidence.  I forgot that she started her degree only a few days before gift-giving day, and since she came back at the exact same moment she left, that means gift-giving day is soon!  I thought it would be cute to celebrate with her family before returning to uni.

Sims 3: Zodiac Challenge - Chapter 4, The Rabbit

I spent some time working on Sequoyah's logic skill, and he's now a master ghost-hunter!  Saoirse also aged up, and the family spent some time working on their relationship levels.  This included Sequoyah, Remy, and Dan going to the harvest festival to play their instruments.

Hialeah had a birthday party...and broke up with her girlfriend.  She doesn't want to go away to uni attached.

Hialeah took the aptitude test again, with some improvements.

Meanwhile, Dan spent his sister's birthday party seducing a thirty-something woman.  He's about 17 now and he's quite tall so it's not clear that she realises he's a teen.  On the other hand, she has the inappropriate trait, so maybe she does.

You know, the boat may have been a mistake.  To be fair to Bunny, she spent her teenage years hiding out and never going home at night and she was just riding horses, so, in her innocence, this scenario probably hasn't occurred to her.

I'm having Hialeah go away in two segments, so she can come back and check on her family in between.  She leaves while Dan is explaining that he only wants to be friends.

Sims 3: Zodiac Challenge - Chapter 4, The Rabbit

Bunny's reign as the heir will end when all of her children have good grades, which hasn't happened yet because Saoirse is still a toddler.

Firstly, I built a boat!  I'm very proud of it.  I've decided that it can be Dan's personal space, since he's eco-friendly and it might be good for off-the-grid living.

In other news, I celebrated the start of the new semester by buying a new expansion pack.  I see no way this can go wrong.

The university mascot arrives - and complains about our gate - to deliver a university welcome pack.  Bunny puts it in Hialeah's room, since she's the eldest.

Hialeah opens it up to do an aptitude test, and she's entitled to a 1000 simolean scholarship when she ages up!  I'm looking forward to uni.  The way I think - and hope - it happens is that your sim goes away (and you with them) while their hometown pauses, which means it'll be a nice opportunity to spend one on one time with each kid without everyone else going off and living their own lives apart from me.

I'm not sure what the business thing is, apart from selling her paintings maybe.

I rebuilt the bandstand because, at its previous size, the bass or guitar players tended to go off and play near the swimming pool, so you couldn't zoom in and hear the whole band together.  Now Bunny can jam with her three eldest children!

I'm getting a bit sick of the celebrity rumour mill, tbh.  Of course Bunny has been woohooing with an occult, they've married for sixteen years.  What's worse is that Sequoyah and Bunny stopped being friends over this, which made no fucking sense, but at least it gave them an excuse to spend some time together and rebuild their relationship.  Because they both achieved the super-friendly charisma skill, their relationships don't normally decay at all.

We held a costume party, and Alice showed up pregnant.  The game actually had her make a joke, something like "like the costume?  I'll have it for another 4 hours or so".  This was inaccurate, she went into labour almost immediately after arriving and Bunny took her to hospital.

Hialeah wanted to learn the graffiti skill, so I let her paint a mural on the boat dock and tag the swimming pool.

Hialeah's girlfriend came to the party, and I tried to take them all out trick or treating, but everyone changed out of their costumes and Richard immediately ran home because it was late.  In fairness, two of them are ghosts.  I like to picture Dan knocking on the door and then Sequoyah and Remy popping out from behind him, doing ghostly things.

Bunny's only remaining goal is to have five kids with good grades, so Hialeah and Richard will take over from her from that point since I'm still doing the dual legacy.  Both of them will attend university seperately.  I don't know yet if Remy, Dan, or Saoirse will want to go.  Remy wants to master every instrument, so I picture him going out gigging every night and paying his dues.  Dan is eco-friendly, so I think he'll inherit the ranch, maybe convert it to an agricultural farm.  I don't know much about Saoirse, since she's a toddler.  I don't think Remy would go to university, since there isn't really a music degree (though apparently Fine Arts has a guitar component), but Dan might do science, since it includes gardening.  We'll see.  

Sims 3: Zodiac Challenge - Chapter 4, The Rabbit

Okay, I worked it out.  When Hialeah is 15, Remy is 10, Dan is 9, Richard is 3 and the unborn is zero.  That means there's twelve years between Hialeah and Richard, which means they were both born in the year of the Dragon.  Which means they both qualify as the heir, and, tbh, I'm leaning towards Hialeah.  Here's the description of the Dragon.

Two people died at the pool party - despite having access to ladders - so I reloaded, got everyone out of the pool and rebuilt it.  We will never speak of this again.

At the party, Hialeah started talking to this girl, Tracey (tbh, I considered changing her name, since that's the same as the name as Avery's first wife, but I've decided to leave it for now).

Hialeah was entranced.

...and they kissed.

I like to think that Hialeah is about 14-15 now, because Richard has aged up into a child.  He has Bunny's eyes and jawline, like Hialeah, and unlike Remy and Dan.

I really like that Bunny is able to bake her own children's birthday cakes.  I think it's a nice touch, as part of her being family oriented.  Richard has grown up to have Bunny's jawline and eyes, but his father's hair.

Hialeah met Gerard, her "love interest" and the child of Alice and Antoine Crews in town.  The game considers her to have cheated on him - and she has a reputation now - even though they just kissed at prom, and weren't even formally dating.  I do like to think that he's her best friend though, and it makes sense that she'd share her new feelings for a girl with him, and that he would feel betrayed by it.  He's also Hialeah's closest friend - and one of the only other teenagers in town -, so hopefully they'll be able to patch things up.  I'm taking Hialeah's reputation as being due to being the only potential-lesbian in a small town (spoiler alert; I know she's gay, but she's still figuring out what she's feeling).

Later that day, Hialeah was left to 'babysit' when Bunny went into labour.  This is how she babysits.  This is her second attempt at a painting of Bunny because the first one was too dark and I wanted to do something a bit less posed.

Luckily, the three boys were playing video games together while the butler read a book, so they stayed out of trouble.

...and this is Bunny's final child, Saoirse!  

...and this is Bunny's finished legacy portrait!  She's playing a video game, and right after this shot, Sequoyah came to join her.  He's a technophobe, but they had fun.  Hialeah is also in the portrait, because I thought that was a cute touch.

Somehow, I got the option to tell Richard what to dream about!  I chose 'being a royal'.

Somewhat adorably, Richard has inherited the ability to salute from Bunny, who inherited it from her father.

Bunny has aged into an elder, shortly after Daniel aged into a teenager.  Remy has already aged up, and learned how to drive, but I forgot to take any pictures.  Remy gained the virtuoso trait, so I let him go play on the drum-kit.  I also let him choose his lifetime wish - to be a one-man band, by mastering the drums, piano, bass, and guitar.

Bunny's a bit concerned that she's old now, while Sequoyah is still a young adult, but they still love one another.  I do need to fix her hair though.

This is Dan as a teenager!  His favourite colour is pink, remember.  I think he's going to be in a band with his brother.  He gained the eco-friendly trait, like his dad, so they have a lot to talk about.

Finally, here is Saoirse as a toddler.  She has the same haircut and colour as Haven, with Sequoyah's eyes, so I think she looks a lot like her great-grandmother.  I assume Bunny is explaining some facts of their family to her.  She randomly got the neurotic and loner traits, so that's fun for her.  I assume it's a fact of growing up as the youngest child of two celebrities, one of which is a ghost.

Bunny's reign will technically be over when all of her children achieve As in school, so soon after Saoirse ages up.