The Allen Invasion, Chapter Three

 **NOTE: As of right now, all my past pics are broken by Photobucket deciding to be mercenary jerks. I'll be getting around to reuploading them directly to the blog soon (ish? maybe?), so in the meantime, sorry for the inconvenience and please enjoy this update instead.

 

Last time on The Allen Invasion, the family had a roof over their heads for the first time with the arrival of The Box, the twins became teens, the triplets became children, and Sasha and Wendy had a sixth child because hey, why not? Let's see, what else? Oh yeah, we ended with a fire and Sasha is one operation short of a promotion. Now let's check in! (By the way, make sure to read to the end because we'll be reaching the heir poll in this chapter!) 

When I next loaded the game, Alec was scorched despite never having been on fire. It is a total mystery to me how he got like that, but it didn't seem to keep him from doing his homework, so that's good.

Aspen raided the garden and collectible spawners around the courtyard to complete the first stage of her Curator aspiration, much to the consternation of a poorly-dressed Clara Bjergsen. Now she needs frogs and crystals and stuff, but those are harder to come by in San Myshuno so she's probably only going to move further if she's the heiress.

After that successful night, the twins wake in their same ol' children-themed bedroom with no paint or floor covering (which they share with Caden because of space issues) and they appear . . . well, confused and/or beatboxing in Alec's case and just plain rageful in Aspen's.

Aspen: "Rawr! Why is there so much children's crap in this room?!"

Oh right, she hates children so she's pretty much always mad since there's four of them and The Box is so small they live on top of each other all the time. Also I did not makeover their room for teens, but everyone knows teens love nightlights and giant stuffed animals, so I don't see a problem.

Another side effect of a large family in a tiny space is that, with only two bathrooms, things are always filthy! The teens and adults clean constantly to deal with the accumulated grime of eight sims. Sasha is finishing up the bathroom before she and Wendy go on an excursion. All the kids have school today, but the adults both have a day off, so they are having a long-overdue date at the bluffs.

Sasha: "Did you really need to bring water in your inventory all the way out here?"
Wendy: "Have you seen the color of the water here? If you get thirsty while we're here, I guarantee you'll appreciate this."
Sasha: "Okay, maybe."
Wendy: "Let's go enjoy ourselves in that gross water, though. I mean, we finally have no kids around!"

Sasha: "You don't have to ask me twice, but I know what would make this even more fun . . ."

Wendy: "Dang, Sasha, for having given birth to six kids you're looking fine in that birthday suit!"
Sasha: "It's because I work out all day at the hospital instead of treating patients."

That's mostly true, actually.

With the notification that the kids are returning to the apartment, Sasha and Wendy cap off their awesome day out. They enjoyed it and got to spend some quality time together, which comes at a premium when you have six children.

Alec's aspiration is Leader of the Pack, so he formed a little club of teenagers, mostly premades. This had the intended effect of giving the kids potential future partners to meet and homework buddies to study with, but had the actual effect of making pretty much all these undisguised alien kids constantly embarrassed until every permutation of discoverer and discoveree had been found out. Good thinking, Roxanne. The club icon is a rainbow because Alec's such a chill, happy guy, as opposed to his sister, who is writing so angrily in her homework that I think the pencil lead might snap off and embed itself into someone. Aspen, for the sake of your own heart, chill out a bit!

Aspen: "CHILDREN EXIST IN MY PRESENCE!!!!"

Aspen did meet this cute guy, Darwin, through the club and they struck up a friendly conversation. I could see this going somewhere if she's not picked. Remember, only aliens are eligible as spouses for the heir/ess.

Aspen: "Oh God, now Darwin has boobs. Thanks for making it weird, Mom. Sigh . . ."

The mothership agrees and calls Wendy out for a timeout for her parenting foul.

Wendy: "This really suuuuuuuuucks . . ."

She returned home fine a few hours later.

Another day at the medical center, and apparently today we are running a children's hospital. Sasha needs to perform surgery, which children cannot receive, so she treated an adult in the hopes that he would need surgery. After his treadmill test (which was inconclusive, ugh) she then went from room to room, trying to seat him in every taken bed, rather than the available one that had just been made up by the nurse in the patient's absence. None of the children felt like giving up their spot, so this was just a huge waste of time before Sasha finally took him back to his original bed, some two hours later. Sim logic at its finest.

Um, Sasha . . .
Sasha: "Not now. I'm x-raying this guys's thigh. See the little green mark? Thigh."
But the machine is on his . . .
Sasha: "Thigh, yes, I know. I can read the image too."
Fine. Whatever. He didn't need surgery unfortunately, so she treated him, sent him on his way, and headed for the next adult.

Anton? Davon? I can't remember which of the only other two aliens in town this is, but whoever it is got a nasty surprise when Sasha went to take his temperature. She's really doing great today, isn't she?

Her alien friend also didn't need surgery, but the third adult did, and Sasha performed it successfully, removing a dangerous piranha from his intestines (remember, kids: piranha-eating dares never pay off!) and netting her a promotion! Finally!

We celebrate by having Alec's Study Buddies and General Embarrassment-Causing Club over again, along with a neighbor that has a key. I don't know how anyone is getting any work done in that environment, but they're making it work.

Then I got Parenthood and Brady broke the pack in by making our first mess.

Sasha: ". . . so you see, sweetie, that's why we don't make messes. Because most of our high-rise penthouse doesn't have a railing and accidents are so darn common, hint hint. You get me?"
Brady: "Oh yes, I will never make a mess again."

Well, that's a lie, but I'm not sure a mean mother is the best at giving helpful encouragement. Interestingly, I'm assuming the kids' traits influenced the character values that they loaded with, because most had a little green or a little red in all of them, but slobby Caden had about half a red bar towards messiness. This was not really an ideal time in their lives to install this pack, as it turns out, because since they missed increasing their skill through infant and toddler years, Sasha and Wendy were vastly unprepared for six kids' worth of messes and advice-asking.

A coworker invited Sasha out (and subsequently ditched her) but it was to Alien's Night, so I had to send her in the hopes of meeting potential spouses for her kids. A cute female alien at the door is a good sign.

Anton and Davon were there, of course, but several new aliens had spawned as well. Sasha made sure to get everyone's digits. Since we have no one in science and no rocket ship in the works, this is the only way to get alien spouses for whoever the heir is.

After meeting two latecomers, Sasha was getting pretty exhausted, so she called it a night. All in all, definitely a success!

At first she's feeling chipper at her job the next day . . .

. . . but the previous late night eventually catches up to her. Luckily she's fulfilled her requirements for the day so napping the afternoon away, waiting for some sim to need to give birth, is just dandy with her supervisors apparently. They have really lax standards for the doctors at this place.

Aspen: "Hey, Mama, is it just me or does The Box feel different?"
Sasha: "Yeah, there's definitely something a little different here."

You could say that. I built a shell of what I want their eventual penthouse to look like, but in order for them to afford it right now, I had to remove all the stairs, all the windows, doors, and walls from the upstairs floors, remove the wall covering from the outside and buy them absolutely no new furniture. Totally worth it. Because they only have access to the first floor, they are making do. Aspen and Alec, for instance, are sleeping in what is eventually going to be the dining room. We're making progress towards having a penthouse to be proud of, but for now this is the only peek you get because it's really embarrassingly barren at this point.

The kids celebrate with a homework party. Boring. Alec, invite your club over and spice things up a bit.

Mmm, watching TV with Darwin. Yeah, real exciting. Well done there.

Well, Sasha, I think that realism painting is looking just fantastic. I'm sure you'll get a great price for it. It's so . . . realistic. :/

Sasha then paints a tombstone while Wendy works on her newest novel with the monitor turned off. We gotta work on bringing in that cash if we want this place to look nice anytime soon, but I'm not sure these two are trying their hardest.

Alec: "Hey Mama, are we all gathered because it's the triplets' birthday today?"
Sasha: "Exactly! We'll have cake later, but I wanted to get everyone together for a surprise while we wait for your Mom to come home from work."
Barry: "Oh boy! Are we going somewhere fun?"
Sasha: "Nah, we're gonna volunteer or something. Aspen and I both have been wanting it for some reason."
Caden: "Mama, can I talk to you first? In private?"

Sasha: "Okay, Cay, what's up?"
Caden: *farts in a dramatic pose*
Sasha: "Is that . . . is that really why you called me over?"
Caden: "Oh. Also I want to be a ninja or something?"
Sasha: "Hmm, well my only option, since I have such low parenting skill, is to tell you to practice your hiding, so yeah, do that."
Caden: "Cool. That lowered my neatness."
Sasha: "Great. You definitely need that."
Caden: "Yeah, I'm already on track to get that negative trait!"
Sasha: "Good to have goals, I guess. Okay, let's go volunteer now."

Sasha: "Man, volunteering is the worst. I forgot that I hate making people happy."

Sasha got an angry moodlet from volunteering because apparently mean sims don't like to. She's the one that wanted to go in the first place! Also notice that Barry is looking at her, a little ticked off. That's because, thanks to a chance card, he got lost and no one noticed but he eventually found his way back. It is just constant chaos with these guys, even when they're all off lot.

Then I remembered that while we were farting around (literally, in Caden's case) volunteering, these two still had unfinished aspirations and were due to age up tonight! Whoops! They both just need to max their respective skill (motor for Brady and mental for Bryce) and then they'll be ready, so I send them into a skilling frenzy.

Meanwhile, Sasha angrily bakes three cakes because volunteering really, really makes her mad.

So, I sent Brady to play on the monkey bars because I think maybe, possibly that raises motor faster than the computer. Not really sure on that, but I thought I'd try. Bryce had already maxed his mental and completed Whiz Kid. However, every time I told Brady to get on the monkey bars and looked away for a second, he would be making a mess. Every time! I eventually had to babysit him because I think the mess interaction was advertising too strongly, because he would play for a minute or two then get off and get the flour and chocolate out again. I was despairing whether he would make his childhood aspiration at this point, which was frustrating me because ordinarily he's one of my top picks, but boy was he making me mad. Finally he maxed it and we could have our little party.

Of course, by that time everyone else had been mismanaging their motives, so Alec had a healthy orange uncomfortable glow and Aspen a red one. Everyone was pretty miserable but they managed to put on a good face nonetheless.

Aspen: "YES! FEWER CHILDREN!"

This girl really needs to do less screaming.

Brady, determined to tank his place in my own personal ranking, is apparently going to do everything late today.

He hogged the show and got all the confetti, though. 

 

Finally the exhausted family (except for a peppy Sasha and Bryce, who snuck a nap after his skilling frenzy) can go to bed while I send Bryce to the mirror. Let's take a look at our triplet boys.

Barry looks great! He adds Geek to Outgoing and picked up The Curator aspiration like his big sister. He stuck with a casual red and denim theme.

Brady continues his suave sophisticate look but with a bit more edge. He added Perfectionist to Art Lover and picked up Freelance Botanist.

Bryce, who got a really, really unfortunate body shape that is completely unlike either of his mothers, cribbed Brady's notes and so also wants to be a Freelance Botanist. He is now Outgoing in addition to Neat. His style is reflected in relaxed purple clothes.

Morgan had invited herself over late to see Bryce, so he went ahead and gave her a key. They can totally be a thing if this guy loses the heirship.

So Aspen is nearly at the top of her career, an esteemed and skilled doctor, and yet somehow when everything breaks it's her responsibility to fix it. Today was one of those themed 'everything is crappy' days.

Sasha: "Who made such a gross mess all over the lab?"
Lab Tech: "No idea. The only other person who's been in here today was . . ."

Saanvi: "Mwa ha ha!"

I have decided to blame Saanvi for the mess. I do not foresee Sasha having a problem with this.

Sasha: "Oh look, there's trash behind the desk. Also a literal pile of refuse."
Saanvi: "Don't you have an oil puddle to mop, Dr. Sasha?"
Sasha: "Right after I mop the floor with your ass."

So these two still get along well. Fighting Saanvi on the side of her medical practice keeps Sasha pretty happy.

Back home, and we've got broken wrists and empty rooms! Oh joy!

Also a perturbed Aspen standing guard to make sure no children enter the lobby of the building. Okay, honey, time to go upstairs.

Aspen: "Freakin' children. Think they're so smart."

The next morning, the teen boys enjoy a nice breakfast of pancakes and grilled cheese together . . .

While Caden makes the obligatory messes. As the only child left, he really has to. I mean, who else is going to perform this essential task?

Sasha: "Hey, kids, get out!"
Alec: "Gasp! Mama! What are you doing showering in the bathroom of all place?"
Aspen: "It's cool. She has a glitchy default bra and a modesty towel."

Aspen is oddly okay with her mother's naked butt. I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that.

So Darwin got really sick while he was visiting Aspen. He's a teen, so he can't be pregnant, so I guess he must have eaten something bad. Either way, he's fouling up a toilet that just got cleaned, so I'm not pleased.

Our two aspiring Freelance Botanists start some additional plots together to work on the first tier of their aspiration.

On the eve of Caden's birthday, a weekend day where everyone was still in pajamas, Sasha gave her oldest son a royal telling-off while pointing in a most unfortunate direction.

I can only assume this contributed to his sudden "Everyone is looking at me!" embarrassment phase. He was mortified and I didn't know if teens could die from emotional deaths or not, so he had to go give himself pep talks in the mirror to cool down to a not-dying status before the party could start.

This time we are having an actual, honest-to-goodness party since this is the last birthday before the heir poll. Everyone looks so nice, don't they?

Unfortunately, every. single. guest. decided to be fashionably late, so they went ahead and celebrated without the dozen or so people we invited over. Caden is now a teen!

As though they had planned it, this is when all the guests showed up en masse.



Two guests who I don't think are related started getting romantic at the party. That was mildly entertaining. Otherwise it was a pretty boring party since they just have a smattering of furniture in a huge, empty concrete structure. Somehow it was still a gold medal, though. 

 



Here's Caden's final makeover. He stuck with his childhood primary colors clothing scheme. He adds Mean to Slob, making him truly a contender for worst personality (his adult trait will be Non-committal, sealing the deal) and he wants to be a Renaissance Sim. Please don't choose him. Please. He also has a really weird profile. I'll show you in a minute.

So here's our comparison shot of the teens. Quite a lot of variety in the way facial features mixed, although you can tell who got what from which parent. I'm disappointed none of them were green or purple, but I do love that they're not all the same color and I love the inexplicable variety in hair and eye colors as well. Altogether, quite an interesting bunch. I'm excited to see who will be chosen for heir/ess.

As the sun rose over San Myshuno, the kids, still in their party clothes, gathered together for one final shot before the vote that will determine their destiny. Which of these weirdo aliens will lead the family? That's up to you to decide.

Meanwhile, after their semi-raucous party, Wendy and Sasha sleep it off peacefully, knowing they will soon be able to hand over responsibility to one of their children who is hopefully not Caden. Thanks for reading. Scroll down to see summary cards of the kids. Because of some . . . interesting . . . variations, I also included full body and profile shots along with their headshots and personalities. I will not be doing these layouts in the future because they were a royal pain to put together, so enjoy the detail while you can. You can vote in comments here, or at SiMania or Boolprop, where you can also find me if you want to chat. Pick a good one! :D