Chapter 4: Illicit Midnight Trysts

"Hey, Mr. Grim? Where are you going with my cat?"

Magic's time was up, and Mystery is left to raise their four kittens on her own.

Tamira, pregnant with her third child, plays on the floor, oblivious to the growing squalor. Until now, I didn't know that old laundry could emit green clouds and flies.

In other news, I was informed that I was mistaken about letting Sims pursue their LTW without wishing for it. Because I'd had Tamira collect a few small pets without wishes, I pretty much had to change her LTW to something else. I chose the Rock Star wish, since music was her chosen career. As for Jamie, it's pretty unlikely he'll ever achieve his LTW, but I haven't changed it. He'll probably just go unfulfilled.

It's a good thing the Mithrilen kid is an ice elemental...

I'm not an ice elemental.

Oh. Well, then, one of your parents should probably get you out of the snow.

"This is your house, Faelan?"

Yasmin O'Reilly came home from school with Faelan, much to his mortification. No one has touched those laundry piles in days, and there are dirty fly plates everywhere, as well as his mother's toys scattered all over the floor.

Of course the biggest cause of laundry piles on the floor is Faelan's compulsive need to change into his royal costume and preside over his court.

Miracle is rolling around in a puddle forming around the toddler potty that no one has emptied in days. Or weeks. I've stopped counting. I'm just glad I can't actually smell anything going on in this game.

Aw, childhood crush!

The third child is another son, Drustan. His traits are Hopeless Romantic and Neurotic. Tamira still has a wish locked in for a girl.

Carey gets the Neat trait for his childhood birthday, and is immediately distressed by the squalor that surrounds him.

Please do something about it? Please?

So the first thing he does is ask his brother Faelan to clean up the clothes he's been throwing all over the floor. 

And there was much rejoi---

Faelan's queued cleaning chores get dropped when a kitten demands attention. I love cats, but this queue stomping is a huge problem, now. I had to get rid of Bonehilda because she was useless. She'd pretty much stopped cleaning anything in favor of playing with kittens, and was just getting the way. And pretty much any attempt to clean anything is foiled by kittens being in the way or stomping queues so they can get their own demands satisfied.

Yes, Drustan, now a toddler, is being potty trained on a potty that hasn't been emptied since his brother Carey was toddler. Yes, it's disgusting. But, despite all the disgusted moodlets everyone has in this house, all the time, no one does anything about it.

I reached my breaking point, and decided to use Tamira's free day to clean the house. The 'free day' is a reward you earn when your heir has accrued more than 50k points. I upped that to 150k in my game because my heirs usually have 50k accrued by the time they reach YA. Even so, I have yet to use a free day...for the most part it's a fail safe to use if your heir never wishes to marry/have kids. (This may be what saves Tamira's sister Sitara back in my LP wishacy, but that's another story). The cleaning may only last a day, but it was worth using up my free day for it.

I also did a little restructuring, blowing out a two tile space in the wall between the kitchen and dining/living area. I had a hamper in the kitchen near the laundry machines; now that it's all one room, when anyone changes clothes in the living/dining area, the clothes will go in the hamper instead of the floor.

In another attempt to deal with the future squalor, I had Tamira and Jamie buy degrees with their points, which let them add a new trait each. Tamira got Neat and Jamie got Neurotic (Neurotics get obsessed with making beds and cleaning dishes, and the trait just seemed to suit him.)

Tamira gets Drustan started on the Hopeless Romantic path early.

Faelan becomes a teen, with Yasmin (and one of those Mithrilen kids) looking on. Yasmin apparently doesn't mind the crossed eyes, she's totally excited to see her childhood buddy grow up.

Okay, now, wish to kiss her!

Nope, they just stand around like this, then she does her homework while he plays kicky bag until it's time for her to go home.

Tamira still has her wish for a daughter to fulfill, plus she and Jamie both have wishes to have another baby.

Success! This time, Tamira gorged herself on watermelon after the chime, before the bump. Ten watermelons in total. This one better be a girl, because I'd like to stop at four kids if at all possible.

Love Day finally inspires Faelan; he wants his first kiss. And to find a date for the prom, which is being held the next day.

He and Yasmin have been close friends since childhood, so working up to the first kiss is easy enough. She also accepts his invitation to the prom.

That night, little Tamsyn is born.

Jamie: I wanted a boy.

Tamira: You have three boys.

Tamira decided to throw a birthday party for Drustan. Jamie is not changing out of his underwear for this event.

Michael McCarthy sends love letters to Tamira all the time, and sometimes gifts. But so far, he's all talk and no action.

Michael's son Van is at the party. He's too old for Tamsyn, and his sisters aren't in the right age groups for the boys. So my love affair with the McCarthy genepool will carry on unrequited for awhile at least.

Drustan gets taken to his cake.

And I make a point of actually getting an age up picture of him. But I forgot what his age up trait is.

"Hey, Morrigan, you're a witch, right? How would you like a cat for a familiar?"

As much as I hated to do it, I can't deal with five cats being constantly underfoot. So Tamira sold Daisy to Morrigan O'Connell-O'Reilly. SP gave her and her husband Aiden O'Connell a hyphenated last name, which I let them keep for the lulz.

(I figured the one free interaction per Sim per day rule would cover a pet sale). That leaves four cats, which is still quite the handful. But at least they are all grown now and can use stairs, so they aren't all concentrated on the first floor.

Faelan's prom was also held this evening. I didn't get any pics of him, but he and Yasmin (who is Morrigan's sister) decided to go steady during it.

Also, behind Tamira's head in this picture, you can see young neat freak Carey going in to empty the potty. His Neat trait finally kicked in and he's becoming a real help around the house.

Here he is the morning after the birthday party, cleaning all the leftover party dishes. One of the guests brought a platter of waffles, which you can see rotting on the table.

Back to the Future! Or something. Carey and Drustan playing pretend with the costume chest they just got.

Magic's ghost comes around sometimes to play with his progeny.

That's Miracle, the first born.

And Thistle, the one male in the litter of three.

Dandelion, the girl. (Her sister Daisy looks just like her.)

More pet spam, because I can.

Tamsyn becomes a toddler. Her traits so far are Loves the Outdoors and Hopeless Romantic. 

Hey, Tamira, it's 2am and you're nearly completely exhausted. Where are you going?

Michael McCarthy called to ask me on a date.

I'm all for you starting up something with  him, but do you remember the last time you went on a 'date' with him?

I went fishing while he made a snow angel.

Exactly. You know this is hopeless, right?

You're the one who clicked 'Accept' when the date thing popped up.

*Sighs* You got me there.

This time they meet up at the public pool, where Guadalupe Shaw is busking for tips. Everyone is really too tired to even be here at this hour.

So, what's on the agenda tonight? Michael starts off by showing off his daredevil trait, impressing Tamira by eating some dirt off the floor.

"My Mom totally used to do that!"

She still does, Tamira. She also flirts with your sister's boyfriend while he loafs around the house in his underwear. But that's another story.

The 'date' only goes downhill from there, as Michael joins Guadalupe in the pool, and Tamira lounges on the lounge chair.

Despite these illicit midnight trysts, Tamira remains eternally faithful, and Jamie is none the wiser.

Carey becomes a teen, and acquires the genius trait.

Despite not having any particularly romantic traits, he dives right into the teen relationship drama by rolling wishes to kiss both Cara Gallgher and Maggie Hooley on his first day of high school. Both girls are older than he is and already have steady boyfriends, so this should be fun.

Carey goes home from school with Cara that day, so she is up first. The boy with the purple hair is Dillon Lawless, who is the steady boyfriend of Carey's other intended romantic interest, Maggie Hooley. Cara and Dillon both live in this orphanage, owned by Cassidy Predergast.

Once their homework is done, Carey makes his first moves. Cara is receptive, and is quickly talked into breaking up with her boyfriend, Frederick Eames. Who is now Carey's mortal enemy.

First kiss wish fulfilled.

Then they run off to the master bedroom together. 

"Oh, don't mind me, dearies, I'll just get out of your way then..."

What kind of orphanage are you running here, Cassidy?

Overnight, Cara must have made things up with her ex-boyfriend Frederick, because they decided to go steady again, and the Carey lost his 'Romantic Interest' status with  her.

Which is quite all right, since he still had a locked wish to kiss Maggie Hooley for the first time. So, the next morning, he invites her to the Leisure Day festival. 

"I love you as certain dark things are to be loved, in secret, between the shadow and the soul."

"Uh. Sure. Okay. How about we get some snowcones?"

Quoting Pablo Neruda does not have the desired effect; Maggie shrugs off Carey's attempts at flirtation.

Desperate times require desperate measures. Carey goes for a heat of the moment kiss.

Well, I guess that did it then. Kiss wish fulfilled. And he didn't even have to ask her to break up with her boyfriend, Dillon.

Oh, right, there's one of these things on this lot. Carey certainly has a way with girls...

Ah, nice refreshing snowcones.

After this, Carey rolls wishes to go on dates with both Maggie and Cara.

Up until this point, I was highly favoring Tamsyn as heir, just for being the long awaited girl. But Carey is making a serious play for my attention here.