3.9 Music Moves

Water... your... plants... ♪

Now that she's leveled up in career notoriety, Lucida is invited back to Acqua Verde, the club that rejected her for its simfest. She drinks a Winning Streak at their bar before dressing up to go on stage.

 

Wait... what?

Is this some kind of JOKE? Swan on Fire isn't going out in THIS.

She hastily finds some other clothes in her bag and tries to make it work.

Sims slowly trickle in to watch Lucida juggle fire. Her special effects equipment is malfunctioning, and so is the setting stage menu, but the show must go on.

Freeze frame images don't do an acrobat's fancy twirls and jumps much justice.

Teenage Gillian GilsCarbo is here, with her mother Ambra Ferrari.

Gillian's twin brother, Anselmo Ferrari, shows up later with Cinzia Almeria.

I... I don't know?????

The ball is glitchy, but I did get it to work for this performance.

Izalee is here.

She doesn't feel like being in the same room as Dean, though, so she leaves after only a few minutes.

(Dean is the guy she caught with Venessa in 2.37.)

Izalee lets Ceth play around with the karaoke machine upstairs, since nobody is up here to be annoyed by it.

Ceth really gets into it.

After that, some gaming. Synesthesia for Izzy, and Music Moves for Ceth.

Lucida's awesome performance lands her a steady weekly gig at Acqua Verde.

The next day is Snowflake Day, prompting Ben to beg to throw a party.

He's glad his mother could make it, though once again his father is too busy to attend family functions, and simply doesn't show up.

No, Ceth. Snowflake Day isn't all about you.

The guests crowd in, the gift pile grows tall, and the routing failure intensifies.

That weird moment, when your cousin/boss decides to skinny dip in your hot tub during a holiday party.

Ben's sister Lynnette is upset with Don Enmity for some reason.

(No, he's not the baby-daddy. That would be Ronald Moretti.)

Roberto Lombardi-Seng (former teen bully) shows up uninvited with a plate of cold hot dogs.

Even Lynnette thinks this is awkward.

Good thing Izalee is downstairs tending her plants, avoiding the heck out of this party.

Lynnette eyes up the hot dogs.

Reggie's brother Ray, the only sibling he still has in Monte Vista since Petra's passing, has hit elder stage. Gysael, if she's still alive, wouldn't be too far behind him.

A chess set! Carlos wanted one of those so badly.

Izzy sneaks upstairs once the more annoying guests have gone. 

Don, Ray and Terry are the last to leave.

Ceth and Carlos rush upstairs after their showers to play with the new chess set.




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Etc.: Acqua Verde is The Haute Place edited a little bit.

This was my first successful gift giving party. Every other time I've tried it, it just glitched out and never happened.

Oh, and of course I'm using mods that let kids play instruments. It always seemed silly to me that they couldn't, so I'm thrilled these mods exist now.

3.8 Night Vision

♪ I... don't wanna play... I just wanna bang on me drum all day... ♪

Polka is still dead. More news at 6.

Being a parent is exhausting.

Pinchies!

NO. Absolutely NO pinchies.

Ceth has been calling Reggie and Perenna "Grandpa" and "Grandma" since she could talk, so getting older and finding out they were not actually her grandparents was kind of a shock.

Despite how kindly the family treats her, she is jealous of Carlos and Milo, who have a mother and a father. Everyone at school has at least one or the other, too. Izalee is legally Ceth's adoptive parent, but she doesn't like being called "Mom", so this leaves Ceth feeling a bit troubled and left out.

Ceth channels some of her emotional uncertainty into paintings.

Carlos ages up. The cake taste isn't even out of his mouth before Ceth drags him into the bathroom and gives him a haircut.

"MUCH better!" she says, clapping. "I've been practicing on my dolls."

Carlos is not sure what he thinks about this.

"I'm going to be a hair stylist when I grow up," Ceth insists. "I'm going to be sooo fashionable and famous and everyone will love me."

"Hair stylist isn't a job," Carlos scoffs. "Anybody can cut hair!"

"It is a real job!" Ceth insists. "I've seen them style actors' hair at Grandma's work."

"Really?"

"They get paid A LOT."

Perenna is at the top of her career now. She is a well-respected director.

Ceth likes sitting in Perenna's special director's chair.

Like Ceth, Carlos is given his own bedroom upstairs. His chosen birthday present is a telescope.

Carlos is into space stuff. How cool would it be if sims could travel to distant stars?

Alas, this is only possible in his dreams.
 

 With Carlos and Ceth in school, poor little Milo is lonely in the nursery.

"These home grown onions really make the best onion fingers." Ben tries to curry favor with Izalee, but she just smiles unconvincingly at her bowl of soup and says nothing to him.

There's a simfest happening today at a club on Toscana Drive.

Sadly, Lucida is judged ineligible to compete.

Some of Izalee's inside planters inexplicably begin to freeze over, as if they were outside.

Reggie experiences a glitch that forces him to un-consign all of his inventions.

"I don't WANT to learn to garden! OR eat creepy witch cheese grown on a vine!"

Parenting Ceth is not easy. She's a very moody child.

What did I do to deserve this? Izalee wonders.

Ceth never apologizes for being a little diva, but she tends to instantly forget about being angry. Two minutes after a tirade, she's trying to teach Izzy a song.

Trying to get the adult interested in what she's interested in. As kids do.

Eh, maybe everything will be fine.

Howling at moon.

Milo tries really hard to copy his mother, but his howl is barely a squeak.

"Why are you doing that?" Ceth sighs. "The grown-ups cook for us. You don't need to."

"I like cooking," Carlos answers. "It's very math-y. And they won't trust me with a chemistry set, so this is the closest I can get."

"Uggghh. You are such a nerd."

Carlos rolls his eyes. Both children supposedly have the genius trait. So why doesn't Ceth even like math? He's calling shenanigans on this.

"I wanna have my own boat someday," she informs him.

"Going to sail far away and find your alien parents?"

"Shut up llamaface. I want it because I think the ocean is rad. It like, speaks to me."

"What does it say?" Carlos's tone is understandably skeptical.

"It says Carlos smells like a llama."

Despite the ground being covered in sparkling white, this winter is starting out gloomy, with constant dark skies overhead.

Carlos and Ceth are determined to enjoy their weekend anyway.

They spend Sunday at the festival grounds, drinking hot cocoa and watching people snowboard. They are the only children here, so they have the playground all to themselves.

Pumpkins ready for harvesting.

Carlos rolls a wish to have his face painted, but no matter how many times he goes into the tent, the face painting artist just trolls him.

Perenna and Reggie spend most evenings in. They are as much of a loving couple as ever, consistently rolling cuddly romantic wishes.

It's getting pretty late.

"Watch me!" Ceth calls out, as she spins in graceful circles.

"We need to get home," Carlos responds, not really looking. "It's nearly curfew."

Ceth isn't done skating, so. She refuses to go home.

Convincing Ceth of anything is a fool's errand. She's just too stubborn.

Carlos shrugs and walks home by himself.

...

Izalee was quite unhappy to find out Carlos left Ceth all alone.

He wanders up to Ceth's room to sulk for a while. 

Perenna checks on her grandson.

"Why am I in trouble for something Ceth did?" he whines.

"Sometimes we have to do whatever we can to protect our pack," she explains. "Even if what you're protecting them from is themselves."

"But she's not in any danger," Carlos protests.

"Ceth could easily get lost in the dark. In the cold!" Perenna dramatizes. "Her night vision is terrible compared to yours."

Carlos narrows his glowy eyes. "I guess," he concedes.

Pinchies!

Welp. Somebody's grounded.









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Etc.: Please don't leave your children unattended across town even if they have night vision.

Perenna's thing as an elder is constantly, autonomously pinching the kids' cheeks. I don't really have much for her to do now that she's at the top of her career, so I just let her roam around doing whatever most of the time, and what she chooses to do is stalk Ceth and Carlos for cheek pinching. Reggie doesn't do this.