Chapter Six: Grim and Ghost Begone Wanted!

This chapter starts out with Anita retiring from her job as a Mad Scientist. Everyone rushed over to throw confetti after her phone call.

I then decided it was time to add one of the few store content items I couldn't pass up, the cow plant.  I had bought it a while back on a splurge but hadn't put it out in my game yet. (I get very grumpy about the store content prices. I think it's way too overpriced compared to expansions and stuff packs.)  Everyone in the house loves the cow plant, even the ghosts all line up to feed and play with him. I've decided to not consciously take care of it. If the Sims do they're safe, if they don't their dinner.  We'll see how this goes, around this house it's hard to say how things will go because they never go as planned.

Brent decides he needs to throw a fundraiser for his career plans to be become leader of the free world, and well Grim likes to crash Brent's parties and take his guests.  This time it was Carissa Cameron.   She did not however leave an urn or a tombstone behind and quite frankly I'm glad.  Just the ghosts that we have are getting to be a pain in the butt, they stay up and bug the family until 9 am before poofing.

This Grim visit Brent wasn't the only one hitting the floor, turns out he invited another coward to the party, Darnell Wolfe. The funny part for me was catching Brent mid-swoon.  Aloysia of course took the time to chat up Grim again and found out he's a couch potato as well as Easily Impressed, Brave, and Mean-spirited.

And then it was growing up time for the twins.  Aleksia was up first.

Aleksia Shocklee
Traits: Brave, Evil, Frugal, Loves Outdoors, Technophobe
LTW: Become an Astronaut

Aloysia Shocklee
Traits: Absent-minded, Athletic, Brave, Unflirty, Inappropriate
LTW: Master of Arts

Both girls ended up starting out in Military careers because they both rolled the desire to.

Ephraim and Angela continued to roll wants to woohoo, kiss, flirt, make out, amorously hug, and what not.  The ghosts continued to thwart their love making attempts whenever they could.

They also continue to harass Brent making him pass out until the very last moment they could.

Brent finally got his last promotion and became Leader of the Free World.

And continues to faint when he sees the household ghosts....Guess you can be leader of the free world and still a coward...

Wait..what's this? I notice that Brent is not only talking to a ghost...but FLIRTING with a ghost... Oh boy...Now I have two reasons I have to monitor him when the ghosts are around.

Ephraim aged up to Elder like his lovely wife, Angela.  I did end up changing his lifetime want via change lifetime wish aspiration reward.  His LTW is to now be a International secret spy.

I wasn't sure who was going to be my heir at this point.  I had different reasons each of the three kids would make a great heir, but I decided finally on Adam.  Namely because both Brent and Anita rolled the want to see him get married.   I fired the male maid they had and the next maid to show up was a girl. Which was a good thing because all Adam does is fish and cook. He has like one friend and that is the maid he made friends with in the above picture.

Adam is working up the nerve to ask Cheri Waite to stay the night so that he can work up to getting her to marry him.  When oops....Angela dies of old age.

Cheri watches rather dispassionately as the Shocklee family races into the room to watch in horror as their beloved Angela dies and Grim doesn't spare her like he spared Brent.

Adam is determined to not let his parents down and he'd heard the family stories of dating so he was determined to not let the passing of Angela ruin his date.

Ephraim was heartbroken that the love of his life was gone.

In the morning Adam asked Cheri to marry him and they got married in his parents bedroom so that he could fulfill their wish for him to be married before they died.

Brent retired from his job deciding to spend his final days enjoying life.

 Is that Cheri throwing up? Why yes it is....Brent and Anita decided they wanted to see grand children before they died and since I'm so fond of them, I decided what the heck.  I'd soon have a lot more space in the house anyways.

The ghosts have decided to torture poor Ephraim.  His room has suddenly become their favorite room to haunt, and they even prevent him from being able to sleep by napping in his bed.  He refuses to sleep with them when they do this.

There are two stereos in the Shocklee living room. I'm not really sure why.  I want to say one of them broke, someone rolled the wish to repair it but I needed music, so I bought one.  Anyways, about this time Adam rolls a want to repair the stereo so without thinking about it I let him, I mean really what could go wrong?

 Really you would think I would know better by now than to think that....I mean this is the Shocklee family....They like to live up to their name..

Luckily there are two braves Sims in this house and they both rushed down to put Adam out.  However, Evil little Aleksia was not happy that her brother was put out so she immediately rolled up a wish to see the fiery ghost of her sister-in-law, Cheri. So very loving of her to roll a desire to see her pregnant sister-in-law dead, huh?

And Brent continues to either flirt or faint with the female ghosts on the lot. Bad Brent, Bad!  It's like he knew his wife lost her eternally faithful moodlet.  I have no idea how she lost it but she must have flirted with someone when I wasn't looking.

Adam rolls up the want to be in the medical career for like the 5th time in his lifetime. I decide if he can repair the laptop he broke he can have his wish.

Cheri Shocklee

Traits: Brave, Charismatic, Kleptomaniac, Neat, No Sense of Humor
LTW: Master Thief

Who dashed off to the hospital came home, put her baby on the floor and took a bath. Perhaps she was angry that Adam stayed at the hospital to apply for the job I promised him for successfully living through repairing the laptop?

Wen Shocklee
Traits: Clumsy, Genius

Meet baby girl Wen, named for ASimWen! I've long been a fan of ASimWen's Sims 2 and Sims 3 neighborhoods and I wanted to name one of my Shocklees after her.  Her birth add the hidden trait for maids to the Shocklee hidden gene pool, perhaps now the house will be less messy.

The elders again threw wants to do something for Adam, and decided he needed a birthday party.  Aloysia whipped out her guitar to serenade the crowd from her favorite location, the downstairs bathroom, because really no one needs to pee at a party right?

The road block to the bathroom at least drew people away from the traffic jam to the Wen and Ephraim's bedroom.  Everyone wanted to gather around Wen and shower her with affection because come on it's WEN! Who wouldn't want to coo and cuddle her?

The party ends with Adam aging up to adult and everyone watching.

This chapter ends with Anita and Brent pushing the end of their life meters and throwing wants for lots of grand babies and to see all of their children married off.  We'll see how much they get me to cave in before they die.

Random Photo:

There are two ghosts haunting in this photo...can you guess where the second ghost is? Poor Ephraim really isn't getting much sleep while he tries to get to the top of his career in his golden years.

I will update the scores page with Angela's points in the next few days.  I need to make sure I add credit for all the first the house had accomplished.

Chapter Five: Enemy of the State and Death comes for a visit

Meet Shannon Garrett...

No he's not moving in or part of the Shocklee horde...Brent has orders to make Shannon an enemy if he wants a promotion for work....Brent is at level 8 of my most "favorite" career for the Sims 3, the political track. He wants to be leader of the free world. And well Brent is getting old, so even though I dislike making enemies with my Sims, that is exactly what Brent is going to be doing because he wants a promotion the nice fast way.

  

Brent hunts down Shannon in a local park, and starts things off with an insulting introduction, then insults Shannon, slaps him, and starts a fight with him....

Which he promptly lost, and since he's a coward...Brent ran away...and he ran so fast I didn't get a picture of him running because I'd never seen a Sim run away from another Sim after a fight.

Brent remembers he wants his promotion and marches back to Shannon determined to make an enemy of him..  Slaps him and starts a fight with him..

 

Which surprisingly he won, I was kind of rooting for him to lose so I could get another shot of him running away, but alas he turned into a fighting machine and kicked Shannon's ass.  After much bickering he declared Shannon his nemesis and they part ways enemies.

Meanwhile across town, Angela stopped her ride home and aged up.

She continued on her way home, and I kept waiting for Adam to age up because he was due to become an adult, but he never aged up.  The next morning he woke up and I got worried about my game glitching out so I decided to birthday cake him up, and for once actually had a decent birthday pic to share with you.  His whole family was home as it was early am, and they all gathered round to celebrate his birthday with him.

 

Adam Shocklee
Traits: Excitable, Friendly, Light Sleeper,  Never Nude, Mooch
LTW: Culinary Librarian

His aunt Angela didn't feel like going to work that day, and really any day ever again so while everyone was getting cake she called in and retired, and then this happened....

Not really sure what the monster on the sign is supposed to represent but they all celebrated her retiring and it made me laugh so I took pictures to share.

Angela was constantly rolling wants for Ephraim so I decided it was time to let her have a husband and she invited Ephraim over. She was wooing him and Anita, Adam, and Aleksia were in the living room, when suddenly Adam passed out...

At first I thought Adam was Brent and that something had scared him, because Brent is my most frequent floor dweller, but it wasn't.  I took stock of the situation and what appears to have happened is that Adam was talking to his mother, Anita.  Anita has the trait "No Sense of Humor" and the option to "Bore to Death" other sims. She bored him to death and while he was busy passing out she went over to talk to her daughter Aleksia.   I'm assuming this is what happened.  I'd never seen so many sims randomly pass out but the trait "No Sense of Humor" seems to be the common denominator for the random pass outs.

Angela woohooed her sexy younger man Ephraim, asked him to marry her and before he could go home and get busy with work she married him and moved him in.

Ephraim Shocklee
Traits: Daredevil, Good, Grumpy, Never Nude, Vehicle Enthusiast
LTW: Leader of the Free World

I was NOT happy when that Leader of the Free World popped up.  I'm sick of the political career track.  I decided as soon as I can get Ephraim a mid-life crisis I'll change it. I was instantly worried my game was giving me a hint that Brent was gonna die, and immediately had Brent eat three life fruits to ensure he finishes his lifetime want to be leader of the free world before he dies.  He's at level 8, and will get to level 9 once he goes to work because of making Shannon his enemy.

I also decided to work on his campaign donations and have a campaign fundraiser at the house and invite over people. These parties usually leave my Sims all happy and social so they don't bitch at me for a while that I don't let them out of the house much.  I have been trying to let them leave more often but it's hard because Monte Vista really is challenging to get around. I'm considering moving the family to a new neighborhood when there are a few less people and I don't have to worry about friend counts for jobs.

This is how my party started...with everyone trying to crowd into the bathroom, because Aloysia decided to play her guitar I bought her and the most logical place to play a guitar is in the bathroom right? So all my guests and family members start bitching because either A) They can't get in the bathroom to listen, or B) they have to pee and this house only has two toilets.

And that was the only thing that was noteworthy during the party. I invited Shannon Garrett to the party in the hopes of something interesting but alas other than nasty thoughts about each other the two didn't fight.

Aleksia wanted to go to the community pool and even though it was late I decided to let her....

Surprisingly though the place was empty when she got there she did find someone to play with in the pool.

But shortly later she got busted for breaking curfew...

And the cops gave her a ride home.  This little getting busted might come in handy though because it was a boy cop that pulled her over and now he's in her phone book to call and chat up.

Brent rushed out to lecture his misbehaving daughter, but it cost him because while he was lecturing her....Guess who came out to visit?

That's right...Eddie and Ira...Ira's in the stove, but it was Eddie that had Brent hitting the floor this time.

However a few minutes later, Ira got his turn to make Brent hit the floor because Brent just had to complain about the stereo before he went back up stairs.  Bet he's regretting waking up to rush out and hollar at Aleksia now huh?

The next day Brent went to work and got promoted to Vice President, so close!!! Only one more promotion from his dream of being leader of the free world! Nothing can go wrong.....right?

Ephraim spent the day running around town doing random things and learning the Charisma skill via a class like he wanted to and on the way home he rolled the want to visit the graveyard.  I send him to Monte Vista's graveyard and for the first time I notice this interesting statue which at first I thought was a grave but was actually just a statue of Grim...I should have probably seen this for the sign that it was..but of course I didn't...

Can you guess where this is going?

The whole family was home so they all rushed in to sob over Brent as Death arrived to come and get him...

But wait what is this that Brent is handing Death??

A pretty death flower saves the day!! Death decides that in exchange for the Perfect Death Flower that Brent would be spared and brings him back to life.

And some things never change... After wooing Death with a flower, Brent promptly goes "OH MY GOD, it's DEATH!" and passes out!

Brent is almost back on his feet, when Aloysia walks in sees Death and chats him up, causing Brent to go right back down to the floor.

While all this is going on Anita goes downstairs to watch television and ages up to an Elder.

Meanwhile the twins settle in to catch up on homework while Brent continues his dramatics of fainting over Death's visit.

Newlyweds Ephraim and Angela were trying to get their woohoo on but were tired, and then Ira came out to haunt and they just gave up and went upstairs to get their freak on.

The next morning Ira is still haunting and poor Brent runs into him while trying to get his breakfast..

Though he apparently got over Ira enough to eat breakfast next to him.  This is a first, usually he faints until the ghosts are gone.

And we'll end the update with a shot of Adam cooking Eggs Machiavellian. For some reason the game gave him credit for his lifetime want when he earned Menu Maven.  I"m going to try and learn all the recipes he doesn't know though before I count it because he isn't even max cooking yet so I'm not sure if this is a bug or the purpose but he's supposed to know all the recipes and he just doesn't and I only have the base game installed so it's not even that hard to do.

Will Brent finish his lifetime want before Grim comes for him again? Will I cheat to change Ephraim's lifetime want, achieve it even though it would mean no points for the LTW or change it with a mid-life crisis.  Also which of the kids will be the heir? Adam, the cook, Aleksia the troublemaker, or Aloysia who likes to flirt with Death?

Random Photos:

All three of Brent's kids from before he married Anita.  The girl is Kenyetta Lord and the fat boy is Javon Shocklee, with Ephraim behind Javon dancing.  I would move in Kenyetta and Javon but there just isn't room for them.