3.6 Pulling the Strings

Lucida rolls the wish for even more new exercise equipment. 

Ben rolls a wish to increase his popularity with the jocks (an important voting bloc, to be sure).

Just Cal things.

Lucida takes a walk over to the sports stadium.

She has an encounter with her father in law, Igor Rossi. He knows what she looks like, but this is the first time they have actually met, and Lucida is nervous. She reflexively opens the conversation by boasting about her gamer skillz.

Igor responds positively to the boasting.

Igor has never even stopped by to see Carlos, but he is thrilled about Lucida's second pregnancy. He hopes to have plenty of grandchildren to carry on the family name and legacy.

He swears he can just hear that overachieving Rossi blood in there.

Lucida learns Igor has the diva trait.

This goes a long way to explain why he and his significant other live apart.

Carlos grows into a toddler. He has Ben's black hair and green eyes.

Ceth isn't sure how she feels about sharing her toys yet.

Taking Polka for walkies.

Lucida has her second child, another baby boy, this one named Milo.

With three cribs in the nursery, Lucida starts to wonder if something is up.

"Don't you think Ceth should have hit child stage by now?" she whispers.

Izalee nods. "Kind of like how Cayenne's pregnancy lasted too long?"

Lucida frowns. "That's so weird. What do we do?"

"I don't know that there's anything we can do." Izalee doesn't even know what's causing Ceth's slowed aging, so she can't exactly fix it.

With two pups children to feed, Swan on Fire gets back to work.

Old lady reaction is mixed.

Sure, let Carlos scamper around your feet while you are juggling knives.

That sounds perfectly safe.

Carlos makes a nuisance of himself, clawing up the community lot furniture while his mother is distracted.

Reggie thinks he's going to sneak up and scare Ray during Lucida's performance, but no such luck. Lucida's fire juggling is so captivating, Ray's watching animation cannot be interrupted.

Ronald Moretti just stands there humming to himself for an hour.

Once her work hours are over, Lucida dances with her uncle for a little while before leaving the festival lot. Reggie and Ben took Carlos home a long time ago.

Just a nice group picture.

Milo ages up to toddler. He is not very concerned about his blue freckles.

Like his brother, he has the dark green Rossi eyes, turned all glowy because he's a werewolf.

Ben feels like he can't take two steps without tripping over a dog, a robot, or a toddler.

He decides to do something about it.

"My cousin Ada and I both pulled some strings," Ben explains. "Your simbots now have a legal status; they are free to operate in town without your supervision, but they're more severely punished than a normal sim if they commit any crimes."

This is not exactly groundbreaking legislation. Some other towns have identical laws, while some ban sentient bots altogether.

As Ben quietly predicted, Cal and Ani are eager to leave the Goldbeard household and begin lives of their own.

Mech is conflicted. He doesn't want to leave his elderly creator behind, or miss Ceth, Carlos and Milo's childhood, but he does want to stay with Ani and Cal. He doesn't trust them to stay out of trouble.

"It's okay," Reggie assures him. "We'll be right here down the road if you need us."

Reggie buys the bots a house near city hall. It uses up most of what would have been his daughters' inheritance, but they'll be getting the Goldbeard household itself when he passes on, so nobody is too fussed on that detail.
 

This nice kitchen is a bit much for bots, who do not eat normal food, but maybe someday they will be entertaining guests.

"Maybe now more bots will move into town, and then they can fall in bot-love," Lucida suggests.

 Assistant Director Perenna. One day she'll make it to the top.

Ben rolls wishes about teaching the kids to walk and talk long before Lucida does.

Ben has a perfect family man image to uphold, after all. His kids need to look as cute as possible.

Milo and Carlos team up to claw the house to shreds.

Lucida buys her firstborn some Roos PJs, to match her Roos jacket. Go Roos!

Rhonda GilsCarbo—in charge of events for Hall Universale Park—chooses Lucida's act over all of the other applicants for the Wednesday evening entertainment. Monte Vista has no shortage of street performers, and Lucida does feel a bit bad using the family frenemy connection to get ahead.

The show isn't until tomorrow, but since Lucida is already here in costume with her props, she sets out a tip jar and hopes for the best.

Juggling fire is tricky. Swan on Fire finally accidentally sets herself ablaze, right in front of Emily...

Tami sees it too. Go away, Tami.

(The infant in Tami's arms is her daughter with Edward. The kid's name? Toni. Tami, Toni, Terry, Tori... all in one family! I'm glad I have charts to consult to keep all this straight.)

Lucida's day at the park ends with Tami's father, Antone, throwing a water balloon in her face.

Ben's mother's family is really hard to remain on friendly terms with sometimes.....

That night Lucida and Ben head over to Danza, the site of their first date, but they are so exhausted from their jobs and parenting responsibilities, they're kind of glad the place is too dead to judge how lethargic they are.


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Etc.: Hall Universale is Italian for Universal Lobby (according to Google). Universal Lobby is my favorite piece of Sims 3 music. I don't know why I named a park after it. I'm tired.

The park is a modified version of a lot I downloaded in my search for Monte Vista friendly (or easily alterable) showtime venues. Here's where I got it from.

Sorry the simbots leaving was so abrupt, but I couldn't stand the household being that full. I was going mad.