The Gregory Legacy, Chapter 15

Welcome back to The Gregory Legacy! I can't honestly say a whole lot happens this chapter, but I hope the Halloween fun will make up for that. You see, I got Spooky Stuff, and so after a week or so when I couldn't play for various reasons, I was all ready to throw my sims a spooooky party. Unfortunately . . .

They, and specifically Aaron, were in no mood for that. In my absence from my game, I had kinda forgotten that Marjorie had literally just died right before I stopped playing, so the mourning moodlets were still strong. I dressed Aaron up as a Roman soldier of some sort, and while he looked cute, the quivering lip persuaded me to dial it back a notch until he felt better.

You see, Aaron was in full-on mope mode. I realize that's an incredibly insensitive thing to say about someone whose loved one has just died, but it is the sims, so . . . yeah. Aaron moped despite being with his four beloved children. Luke was also quite sad, though you can't really tell in this picture, as he was the only other blood relative of Marjorie's to have officially witnessed the death, despite everyone but Laurel being in the room for it. Sigh.

Aaron moped his way to work, moped through work to score a promotion, and moped home.

When Tessa came to visit, she had no idea their parents were recently deceased, but at least she had the excuse that she was out of the house. Aaron, for his part, moped through the visit despite normally enjoying his sister's company. Even when he was actually happy, due to being overcome by a multitude of happy buffs, he still pouted and made faces. It was actually pretty heart-wrenching.

Luke couldn't get much peace and quiet for his grief, though. Liam was always nearby with a handy insult or 'yell at' interaction. These two had been good friends, but near the end of their childhoods, they were just barely above the friend line, mostly due to Liam being a little jerk. That evil trait. Anyway, Luke also went through life unbearably sad for two days.

Dayna, who also witnessed the death, was feeling pretty good by this point, however. Because she wasn't related to Marjorie and wasn't really much of a close friend, her moodlet was much shorter. I don't think it even lasted a day. So she could get back to doing what she loved . . .

. . . which was not gardening, in case you were wondering. Despite her gardening skill increasing all the time, Dayna was still leaving puddles and taking forever to tend the garden, resulting in her staying up very late multiple times trying to keep everything in top condition for no apparent larger purpose.

Laurel, who had not really been touched by the death, had her sights set on finishing her aspiration, which she did while typing less than halfway through the child stage. Having earned the Physically Gifted trait, she moved on.

Now she aspired to be an Artistic Prodigy and horrible violin music filled the inspiration room.

Amusingly, both parents seem to know Laurel is the heiress and roll lots of whims for her. Occasionally a whim to interact with one of the other kids will pop up, but if it's a specific whim, it's almost always for Laurel. It's not because of relationship status, either. Aaron is actually best friends with and has a better overall relationship (by a little bit) with Liam, and yet Laurel is the clear favorite if we're judging by whims.

Dayna is being a real pain because she's apparently decided that the fish in the aquarium are icky and worth squirming over. They were fresh fish that I actually bought from the interaction with the object, not caught ones, so I don't know what her problem is. Unfortunately, she gets mighty uncomfortable from being around them when she's having to read books for her writing job.

Ooh! Our first Nathan sighting! Hi, Nathan! He played games all night so no one got to interact with him.

Another day, another Tessa visit, but she's finally figured out that her parents are deceased and is not pleased about it. Now she had two more sims to mourn every time she visits to make herself sad.

As the mourning moodlets pass, life resumes somewhat normally for the Gregorys. I discovered after all this time that a parent can read to more than one child at a time, which was quite handy since both Liam and Leo needed it for their aspirations.

Laurel had met simJ, my sister's simself, at the park and I wanted her to come to an upcoming party, so Laurel invited her over and then Aaron chatted her up since he would be throwing the party. They wound up cloudgazing, but simJ crawled under the bushes, so I'm not sure how great her view was. Regardless, they made friends, so hopefully she will come to our party!

"Can we ever just have a normal family dinner at the table like normal people?"
"Nope."
"No."
"Not happening."
"Sorry, Dad, but no."
"No way."

This picture immediately followed the previous one. Liam and Aaron got up and did an elaborate honeybee-like dance so that they could switch chairs. Sigh. Sims and their chair switching. I even have a mod that's supposed to suppress it somewhat, but it still gets rather ridiculous at times.

Then all three of the guys at the table got up and switched chairs down to the other end of the table. Meanwhile, Laurel and Luke have managed to stay put for an entire meal.

Marjorie sighting! Aw, cheer up, Marjorie. I guess the recently deceased do have a pretty good reason to be sad, but she can still play Blicblock as much as she likes, so that's something, right?

Luke has finally mastered the motor skill to complete Rambunctious Scamp. His new one is Social Butterfly but I probably won't try that hard for it. Spare, you know?

"Cool cake, Dad, but Luke and I don't grow up for another two days."
"It's not for you guys, actually. We're going to have a party."
"Awesome!"
"Don't you want to know what kind of party?"
"All I need to know is that it's the kind of party where you serve severed heads. That's good enough for me."

Aaron also prepared nasty-looking "cheese eyeballs," filthy-ing up the counter in the process.

In case you haven't guessed from all the heavy-handed hints, it is finally time for that spooky party! This room had never gotten furnished and is basically just a hall, so it was the perfect place to transform into a haunted party room, complete with treat bowl, pumpkin-carving stations, zombie cake on the table, Skelly Bear, and various decorations.

Besides zombie cake, Aaron also displayed his cheese eyeballs and some orange sherbet that he whipped up. I think we're ready for the party.

Oh, but first, costumes. This is how the game dressed everyone. I lol'ed.

This is how I dressed them. Aaron is an awesome ninja, Dayna is a festive witch, Liam is a fearsome headless horseman, Luke is a hotdog because reasons, Laurel is a princess because she's the heiress, and Leo got the skeleton jammies because he's a laid-back kind of guy. Now we're ready for the party!

Luke and Leo got their dance on while Laurel and Liam started on the party's primary objective, which was to carve two pumpkins. We were just waiting for the guests to arrive. Aaron invited his aunt and uncle, his brother and sister, simRoxy, and simJ. Should be a rockin' party.

And . . . only simJ showed up. Seriously. Everyone else blew off our awesome party, including my emotionally-needy simself. SimJ, for her part, brought the terror by dressing as a mail carrier. Good form, sis!

So the party was pretty much just my sims, but oh well. They could have a good time. Dayna is completing a party objective by drinking orange juice. I didn't feel like hiring a mixologist and only one drink was required, so orange juice from the fridge it is.

Liam and Laurel are hard at work on their pumpkins. What you can carve on a pumpkin is tied to handiness for adults and motor skill for kids, so Laurel had more options than Liam, though that was still just three: classic, cat, or cockeyed.

The party was a little sparse, so Aaron invited his family over, and they all showed, but of course they weren't technically part of the party so none of them dressed up. Still, there was much socializing. Aaron also invited simRoxy over again, but it said she was busy, so she was the only guest who never showed. Busy doing what, I have no idea, since this iteration of simRoxy has no job and her housemate was at the party. Let's be honest. She was probably playing Sims Forever.

SimJ bumped poor Luke out of the way to carve a pumpkin. I found that hilarious. A teen nearly running over a kid in a hot dog costume to carve pumpkins. Luke had to wait for his turn, but that's a small price to pay for entertaining the only sim who cared enough to come to our party in costume.

We needed some mischief socials done for the party score, and who better than our evil Liam? He tried a few out on Tessa, like scaring her here, but they didn't count since she wasn't an official part of the party. He had to go annoy his mom instead.

Luke, in the background: "I'm a hot dog!"

Hot Dog Luke tried out the candy bowl and got scared from it, resulting in a tense moodlet. In a test party I ran in a different save, the person who got scared by the bowl just laughed and got playful. I guess they can have different reactions to it, but Luke's was not good.

He still got a piece of candy, though, so all's well that ends well, right Luke?

"My nemesis!"

I forgot until I noticed Liam's angry moodlet, but simJ has the good trait, which of course makes evil sims angry. She probably had a sad moodlet from being around an evil sim, but the party was fun enough that simJ was happy throughout. I'm a little worried about Liam and any possible plotting, though. Luckily, they stayed away from each other for the most part. Everyone had a good time and we got the gold medal for it.

We also wound up with these five pumpkins. SimJ's is the white one. It would be just like her to carve a cat pumpkin. Incidentally, the ones carved by the kids with high motor skill sold for around $110. That's a nice chunk of change for just getting rid of a pumpkin! They had a timer on them, so apparently they will also rot after a while, which is pretty realistic.

Altogether, the party was a good time. I wished more sims had come because the best part for me is seeing them in different costumes. With that over with, it's about time to wrap this chapter up. We'll get back to actual legacy events next chapter. First, though, let's check in to see if Aaron has any final words for us . . .

"Soldier, I am ordering you into that bed this instant! Don't make me get the flog from my chariot!"
"Ma'am, yes, ma'am . . . but maybe you could bring it anyway?"

Oh dear, no one needed to see that. Forgot last words. I think we'd best leave these two alone for a little while. Check back soon for more Gregory adventures, and be sure to visit me at SiMania and Boolprop! Thanks for reading! <3