6.9 – The One With The Skilling Basement

So, as I said in the last post, I’ve played nearly all the way to the end of this generation! Una has something like three days before turning YA, so I’m probably going to churn out a load of chapters faaaairly quickly so that I can keep playing. I think I have a rough idea of who’s going to win (my boyfriend has managed to determine every winner so far, it’s kind of freaky) and I have some home renovations planned – also TS3 store is giving away free Sim Points (which I discovered after buying some) so I may or may not be abusing that power and buying stuff!

I’ve also planned all my naming themes until the end of the challenge!

RECAP; Victoria made her debut, Una started skilling in order to beat Lyra, Yvaine became a child with Unlucky locked in, Una started potions, Billy became an Adult, Yvaine started painting, Remus got set on fire by a jump, Tristan continued Alchemy, Yvaine started Piano and started to swear like a sailor, Una became a dramatic teen, and I realised that everyone was actually quite family-like!

Tory: Hello, I am pretty.

Indeed you are! She rolled Party Animal, and I’ve been in this game long enough to tell you that she has Billy’s nose and Remus’s jaw shape. Everything else is currently up for dispute.

Uh, Remus? It’s the middle of the night?

Remus: I am young and hip. Young people stay up to all times of the morning, right?

I would love to say no, but as my current bed time is about 2am…

And then, disaster struck!

Buckbeak: Sutter no! Don’t leave me with these fools!

Sutter: I have to, Beaky. It is my destiny as a Unicorn. I hope that I come back as a beautiful rose bush!

Beaky: You have a very weird sense of destiny.

Grim: Don’t worry, Sutter, I’m a horse fan. I’ll make sure you pass on into the rosebush of your dreams.

Sutter: You are too kind.

Beaky: Oh, bleh.

And so Sutter and Grim galloped off into the beyond, leaving Buckbeak yelling insults into the void.

Beaky: Damn you, Sutter! Why couldn’t you have stayed alive just a little bit longer!?

While all this was going on, the Evil Music Pap from a few chapters ago was back, completely oblivious.

Tory: Alright buddy, move along. That guitar isn’t for you.

It was then quickly placed into Yvaine’s inventory.

I feel like this picture had a purpose when I took it, but I really can’t remember what it could possibly have been.

Remus: Part of me is slightly insulted that you gave my children ginormous bedrooms while ours is tiny, but all my children are wonderful and deserve the giant bedrooms.

Another death in the family means everybody stopping to cry once every five minutes.

Una: Leave me alone! I just heard the news!

Sorry.

Yvaine: Huh? You don’t wanna play with me?

Tonks: I don’t feel like being sworn at, Miss Potty Mouth.

The Christmas Stuff Pack stuff makes an appearance! I really love those chairs, even though I think they’re from Outdoor Living, and those desks are utterly gorgeous. The dining chair in the last picture is also new, and you may be wondering why this room seems larger than it does when I’ve taken pictures in it before.

This is why! Look! I managed to fit stairs into the foundation! They’re not quite right because they refused to go in the space alongside the wall, so they’re a little boxed in. The stairs are actually behind the bookcase, the stairs you can see here go down onto the ground, then it turns a corner and descends into the basement.

I also made this cute little reading area, but I had a stroke of brilliance (potentially) last night, which may see this removed by 6.12.

This is the main room when you come down the basement stairs; I kept the same wallpaper and staircase as above ground.

Tristan’s alchemy corner!

The potions corner that nobody touches, ever.

A gym! These are either from stuff packs or ITTF, but this space also let me get out Lyra’s firefighter memorabilia!

I lined up all the ‘Most Likely To’ and maxed skill awards I could find in Remus’s inventory on the walls down here; it is essentially just a skilling room, after all.

Or skilling dungeon, as my boyfriend calls it.

I also dug Lyra’s legendary chin-up bar out of the family inventory, because I feel like Una might like it.

Also, it looks cute.

Home theatre and gaming corner!

I’m sure you can piece it together, but this area and the gym are separate squares coming off the main room, divided by little half walls.

Remus also had this thing in his inventory, so we took it out for a trip to the newly placed alchemy shop.

Remus: Hi, do you have anything to cure a person of the fae… – of fairyness… – of… to stop somebody being a fairy?

Elixir Lady: Do you mean Potent Cure Elixir? Because we don’t have any of that in stock, currently. But I’m happy to take on all of those fruits and vegetables you’re carrying around.

Remus: Okay, we’ll do that. Has anybody ever told you that your hair is kind of intimidating?

If anybody was wondering why Remus was after a potent cure elixir, is this boy here!

He was supposed to be adopted at the same time as Victoria so that they would be twins, but I had too many people and pets to allow for another child. So, I waited until Sutter died and then adopted him.

Meet Victoria’s twin who has totally been here since the start of the last chapter, Shakespeare Gordon!

He is a Daredevil, Genius, Computer Whiz, and his favourite colour is spiceberry and his ‘theme’ is the map print, because Captain Shakespeare was a pirate.

Shakespeare: Please go away, I can’t concentrate with you yammering on.

Well, sor-ry!

In answer to the age old question of gender preference, Una is bisexual much like her father Billy.

Billy: Good child…

He really, really loves his kids.

Tristan: Why don’t you use a tablet to do your homework, Vick? It’s much easier.

Tory: I don’t have one. Don’t rub it in.

Billy then takes Una to start learning to drive, completely missing another important event in his kids lives.

Billy: I can feel something important happening to one of my children! We must return immediately!

Happy birthday, Tristan!

Tristan: Who is that kid behind me?

Shakespeare: I’m Victoria’s twin, and I’ve totally been here the entire time.

This little nerd rolled Proper. I’ve never played this trait before, so it could get interesting.

Remus: Soooooo…?

Tristan: I’m straight.

Remus: We still love you!

For the first time, he’s also able to use a wand and practise magic!

EA I hope that wasn’t a euphemism.

And he soon descends to the basement to start proper skilling, where we discover that he is already level six.

Tristan: Oh, yeah!

Meanwhile, upstairs…

Remus: Argh, rubbish!

Remus: Wait, it’s my birthday today!? But – my eldest children are teenagers… I have five kids… Oh god, I’m old!

Yeah. He had a midlife crisis.

Remus: Oh god… I’m old… I’m wearing a different hat… my life is falling apart!

Billy: You’re younger than me, and yet I can keep it together.

Remus: This bed is trash. My beautiful children deserve better than this.

Maybe take the potty out of their room, then?

It was at this point I realised that Una was missing (I assumed she’d come home with Billy), and found her in somebody’s pool down in the town.

Una: Relax, I’m coming home. This was fun though, I’m going to do this again.

Sutter: Excuse me, this inadequate grave is in my way of moving on. How can I become a rosebush when I have this ugly piece of granite holding me here!?

Hey, Lori’s up! She’s been up a lot recently, she and Ella are probably the most active of my ghosts.

Tonks: Sup, dead lady?

Joel’s up, too! He’s never up without Lori, or at least not for long. It’s kind of cute, actually.

Lori: Look, just because my husband had a horse, doesn’t mean I like them or really want anything to do with them every again.

Beaky: Rude.

Yvaine: Did you know? I’m planning to start a band!

Everyone has been really desperate to talk to Lori lately, it’s like they sense an heir poll approaching, and desire her approval.

Remus: My hat doesn’t match my bathrobe and my dead father is sitting at the table eating birthday cake. What has my life become?

Martin: Happy birthday, kid!

Shakespeare: It wasn’t my birthday.

Martin: Oh.

Billy is stir crazy and so close to completing his LTW (he needs two more friends), so he gets sent to the park in a last ditch attempt to complete it.

Billy: I can feel my life’s purpose getting ever nearer…

We started by attempting to befriend this guy, but he ran away before they could get to friend status.

Billy: Rude. And I was so charming, too!

He then heartfarts this guy, who is clearly thinking of using Billy as a way to get back at whichever dude just broke his heart.

Billy: Only in his dreams, maybe.

They still managed to become friends.

These two heartfearted as well, and it seems that she was extra susceptible to Billy’s charming greets because he completed his LTW seconds after greeting her.

Billy: I feel so fulfilled and popular right now.