#and Emmett and Nikal had a good holiday

[victorluvsalice]

And giving Julia her first high chair meal! Which the kid promptly threw on the floor. -.- Welp, this is exactly the situation that Scruberoo was intended for, sooo. . .on the other hand, I also can’t blame Nikal for brewing a cup of tea afterwards and then retreating to the bath to drink it. As if she doesn’t have enough going on without toddlers making messes all over the place. . .

Fortunately, Julia came into existence as a proper Sim already a bit tired, so the proud parents soon read her to sleep and went back to waiting for midnight. Nikal and Emmett shared some enthusiasm (and confetti), and made some important resolutions -- Emmett wanted to gain another skill point, while Nikal set her sights on a promotion at work. Both achievable goals, I felt! And when midnight did roll around, they were on hand to watch the festivities and cheer as their TV sneezed confetti. XD Another successful holiday in the can!

Next time -- new season, and another holiday! Two in a row? Game’s keeping us on our toes. . .night all!

[victorluvsalice]

It’s Day 2 of our trip through Emmett, Nikal, Julia, and Einstein Brown’s Newcrest Adventures! Day 2 was three things in the game -- Sunday, the beginning of Spring, and pop-up holiday New Skill Day! Perfect thing to come up when one of your Sims has a New Year’s resolution to learn some new skills, huh? In fact, Emmett went above and beyond -- having developed an interest in painting, he earned another skill point in that to fulfill his resolution, and later got another point in Fitness while out on a jog with Einstein to fulfill the actual holiday! (Because it only counts skills you haven’t progressed very far in, you see. . .)

In addition to all this skilling, though, there was also the matter of practicing some magic! Both Emmett and Nikal weren’t far away from becoming Adept Spellcasters, so I had Emmett practice some practical spells in the kitchen (puddles and mysterious floating glasses to Scruberoo, a broken dishwasher to Repairio), while Nikal used her recently-obtained ingredients to try her hand at making a Potion of Plentiful Needs! As you can tell from that beautiful dark blue liquid in the cauldron, it came out perfectly -- good enough that Nikal did indeed make Adept! As her thing is potion-making, I had her choose the “Blender Arm” (speeds up crafting) and “Frugal Combination” (chance that not all ingredients will be used on a potion) perks. That should make alchemy that much easier in the future!

So yes, good start to the day. Was the rest of it just as good?

[victorluvsalice]

Aaaaand the first one promptly fizzled and blew up in Emmett and Ezekiel’s faces. At least they didn’t get set on fire! Fortunately, the second and third ones went off without a hitch, and Emmett and Nikal successfully completed SimCity Founding in full under their colorful glow. :) Go you guys! What are you going to do next?

. . .”Eat and nap” was the answer -- plus a quick swim in the nearby pool for Emmett, to wash off some of the dirt (I don’t have any pictures because it was getting cloudy and thus SUPER dark). Yeah, poor guys, they got completely worn out by the holiday -- but then, they did a lot of stuff! And they weren’t even quite through yet -- before sending them home (so Emmett could have a MUCH-needed bath), I had Nikal rummage through a bin for laughs, and she found a Sunset Valley postcard! So that got pinned up on the wall as a souvenir.

Next time -- I dose the couple up with some sleep replacement, and we return to the lab with Emmett. Will we get to see the fabled cloning machine in action again -- this time with something more VISIBLE being cloned? We’ll see next Wednesday!

[victorluvsalice]

Nikal ended her work day in good spirits -- once she finished up her meal, she headed back to the lab for a bit more experimenting, and ended up planting a few new things in the greenhouse! And fixing the toilet her coworkers busted with magic. Now that’s how you get levels in your spellcaster rank!

And then she got home and Emmett had accidentally upstaged her by getting an off-screen promotion. XD Whoops. Ah well, becoming Laboratory Leader is nothing to sneeze at -- and they could use the extra money with a kid on the way. New shower too! Didn’t really fit in their “public” bathroom, so I just stuck it downstairs in the lab for now. Really gonna have to spend some time upgrading their home now that there’s gonna be three people here. . .

Anyway, nothing much special to report after that -- they watched some politics on the TV, Nikal finished her shelf (which was NOT of excellent quality, annoyingly), and Emmett tuned up the mattress firmness on their bed, making it even better. All while it kept snowing away outside, harder and harder.

But that’s okay, because tomorrow’s a holiday and nobody has to go out! Next time -- the gang celebrates Winterfest!

[victorluvsalice]

It’s Day 7 of Emmett and Nikal’s (still captionless) Newcrest Adventures, and we’re wrapping things up on their end with another holiday -- Harvestfest! Yes, it may only be the beginning of November around here, but in my game, seasons are only one week, so they’ve already come up on Sim!Thanksgiving. Which means food (like freshly-brewed tea), fun (like washing dishes next to your pooping husband) --

AND GNOMES. We all remember the trouble I’ve had with these little buggers, don’t we? Fortunately, they weren’t quite such a problem this time. Emmett looked like he was keeping the “upset the gnomes and suffer for it all holiday long” streak alive when he angered the ghostly gnome with pie, but -- well, turns out the ghostly gnome is a bit more chill (ha) than some of his brethren. One quick pleading, and Emmett was forgiven for his trespasses. Which is good, as I didn’t feel like fixing everything on the lot, even if Nikal DOES have Repairio!

To be fair, though, maybe the gnome looked at Einstein and thought they had enough to deal with at the moment -- yeah, our dog woke up sick again. Bad case of swamp mouth, poor thing. Fortunately, I’d previously stocked up on wellness treats, so it didn’t take long to cure him. Just in time for the gnomes to invade the bathroom when Nikal wanted a shower! -.- Will an offering of a toy police car get them to go away?

[victorluvsalice]

It’s Day 6 of our trip through the Brown-Kosperov portion of Newcrest, aaand photoset captions still don’t work. *grumbles* I’ve sent off a support ticket to tumblr -- we’ll see if anything comes of it.

Anyway, to start off the actual update -- it’s the Lottery! Yes, this is actually a holiday in The Sims 4, if I haven’t mentioned it before -- one of those pop-up ones. The only tradition is to buy a ticket, then wait with bated breath for the drawing the next day! Emmett and Nikal both made the $100 investment, because they can afford it, and -- well, it would be super cool if they won, wouldn’t it? Certainly give me enough money to give their house a proper TECHNO-SPELLCASTER makeover (or perhaps just replace it with something semi-appropriate from the gallery, like I ended up doing with their old residence when they swapped lots with the Van Dorts). Einstein doesn’t seem to approve of such financial daydreaming, though. XD Really, Einstein? Like, right then?

Anyway, I had a hankering to do more with magic, so Nikal and Emmett zapped themselves to the Magical Realm to chat with the Sages, search for more tomes, and generally experiment! Emmett picked up the Inferniate spell from Morgyn, allowing him to set things (and people, non-fatally) on fire -- I’m not sure when this skill will come in handy, but you never know! XD Nikal, meanwhile, found a Tome of Good Fortune during her search of the bookshelves -- annoying me, as that’s a potion recipe she ALREADY KNOWS. On the other hand, Emmett doesn’t know it, so I threw it in his inventory to study later. Honestly, the main reason I came here was to pick up the free “Orb of the Dragon Familiar” that sits in L. Faba’s study for Nikal -- I’ve decided that, since she’s part of the “fire” section of the map in her home game, Spellfall, and the second area of that section has a dragon boss, she should have a dragon familiar. And I had the perfect name too -- Vale! After DragonVale, another game by Backflip. Isn’t he the absolute cutest thing? :D Seriously, if the Sims team decided to make plushies of the familiars, I’d snap up the dragon (and the leafbat) in a HEARTBEAT.

Anyway, after that, it was just time to practice magic and experiment with the cauldron until it was time for work! And since we followed Nikal last time, I decided we’d be joining Emmett on his scientific adventures this time! What strange and exciting things awaited him at the lab?

[victorluvsalice]

And ascend to SPELLCASTERS! EMMETT BROWN, TECHNO-WITCH IS REBORN! :D Aaand promptly spent his first hour as said techno-witch scouring the bookshelves for good tomes along with his wife. Came up with a familiar orb of the Skull (two, in fact -- they both got one), but no books, meh. So I figured I’d send him to Caster Alley instead to get some wands and stuff!

. . .Wand stall closed shortly after he got there. *grumbles* At least I was able to get him a broom. Namely because the astral projection of Caleb Vatore never sleeps. Because, you know, vampire. XD And I got another look at the cool scenery in this world -- seriously, those torn-apart houses are the best. Really add to the feel that this world was saved JUST from the brink of destruction. Lovely. :)

And after that, I just had them practice magic and experiment with the cauldron until they had to head home to grab some sleep. Of the two, Nikal’s the only one with a spell right now -- Repairio! Instantly repairs broken objects and upgrades the quality of crafted ones. . .unless it fails, in which case it will set things on fire. We’ll, uh, see what Nikal manages in the next episode. ^^; Maybe we shouldn’t muck around with that spell until we know Chillio. . .

Anyway! Tomorrow, back to wo -- oh, wait, no! Tomorrow’s Spookfest! I made that a holiday! Okay, yeah, next week -- early Halloween for my two freshly witchified Sims! This should be fun. :)

[victorluvsalice]

Because, well, even just ONE angry gnome out of three (they managed to get it right with the third one that appeared) will fuck your shit up, it appears. No matter where that little bastard went, stuff either broke or got dirty -- or both! I had Marty and Jennifer apologize about five times, and they just kept getting zapped for their trouble. I was just about at the point of saying “SCREW IT KICKING PARTY” when Marty was FINALLY able to get the gnome in question to chill. Which, honestly, is probably for the best, as kicking a gnome gets all of them pissed off at you and even MORE stuff broken/filthy. I have enough shit that needs fixing and cleaning now, thank you.

Despite the gnome shenanigans, though, it was a good holiday for the family. I discovered Sims could send thank-you cards to get up their Thankful Spirit (also a tradition), so I had Jennifer send one over to Wheatley. Hey, dude literally delivered her second child -- that deserves a card, doesn’t it? Emmett also happened to walk by (in a Maxis Disaster outfit -- the game chooses the WEIRDEST outfits for the Sims I’m not playing, I swear), and Marty invited him in to share in the big family meal, which he accepted. I was going to OFFICIALLY invite both him and Nikal over, but then I got distracted by evil gnomeage. Ah well, at least he got to be thankful and have a good turkey dinner with his best friends.

The most important part of the day was yet to come, however. . .

[victorluvsalice]

Day 5 of our Brown-Kosperov Newcrest Adventures, and -- it’s the Lottery! Yes, everyone’s favorite state-approved gambling holiday has come upon us again -- and, hell, Nikal and Emmett could afford it, so I had them buy tickets. Be a hell of a thing if they won right before I finished their cycle, wouldn’t it? XD

Anyway, after purchasing some tickets and crossing some fingers, I decided that today was Emmett’s day -- not only for going to work, but also for working on his Spellcraft & Sorcery Aspiration! He’s doing pretty well in it, but he does need to win three duels in order to complete his current level. So, before work, I sent him over to the Magic Realm to find someone to engage in glorious combat with!

And, after a few minutes of waiting and gathering a few motes (now that he can see them permanently), he found someone -- Menuia Niu! (This -- may not be the NPC’s name, I wrote it down in a rush and now I can’t read my own scribbles. ^^;) They agreed to duel for knowledge -- Emmett didn’t get off to a strong start, but he managed to come back at the end and defeat his foe. He learned the spell Burgliate out of it -- plus, talking to the guy about puzzles and whatnot afterward lead to him maxing out his Logic skill! :D So that’s pretty awesome. Really, the only thing bad that happened there was him using a pranked toilet, and even then, just a good opportunity to use his magic and get some more XP! Though there was that charge curse to worry about. . .

[victorluvsalice]

We’ve hit Day 4 of our Newcrest Adventures with the Brown-Kosperovs and -- after a three-day break thanks to holidays, Emmett and Nikal are finally back to work! Yes, about time that we actually visited the lab again, huh? I decided to follow Nikal to FutureSims Labs this time -- though, despite what those first few pictures in this update suggest, Emmett didn’t stay home to take care of the kid. Nope, all that feeding her breakfast, then having to deal with the results of breakfast, stuff happened before he and Nikal left for their shifts. I get the feeling that, as much as Emmett loves his daughter, he was happy to get away from dirty diapers for the day! XD

Anyway, after that reasonably chill morning, Nikal arrived at the lab to discover it was one of those “find new specimens for the lab” collect-a-thon days! And oh, look at that, she had a handy Potion of Good Fortune in her inventory to chug down to help her with her collecting! And so she set out into the greater desert around the lab, fishing and chipping and chiseling to find various crystals and minerals and whatnot. . .

[victorluvsalice]

Yup, putting up the decorations seemed to attract the Flower Bunny to the lot -- who, in turn, seemed very interested in annoying Nikal in particular, poor girl. XD Bunny, I know talking to you is a holiday goal, but you don’t have to loom creepily like that.

Fortunately, this did not put Nikal off her woodworking -- she actually maxed the Handiness skill with those latest projects of hers! Now isn’t that nice? :) She and Emmett also spent some time learning the newest spell available to them from the tomes they picked up in the Magical Realm’s library -- Minionize! Make Sims do -- well, not whatever you want, but a few activities at least. Again, this seems rather redundant when you can mind-control people with Sim Rays, but hey -- at least now they can show off their new ability to make magical books float!

They can also show off their egg collections, as everyone in the family managed to find a complete set and complete that tradition! Emmett’s are one one of Nikal’s homemade shelves; Nikal stuck hers in the display case (they haven’t got anything ELSE to put in there yet!), and Julia got hers on a new little shelf for her room. Nothing too special, egg-wise, but at least they all had a good holiday as a result!

[victorluvsalice]

Well, for Nikal it was -- after bottling up her first set of potions, she went down and did the mom thing with little Julia -- baths, bedtime stories, the works. Improved her relationship with her daughter and got her a Parenting skill point for the holiday! And then it was straight back up to craft some more potiony goodness, taking advantage of her new ability to let the big stirring stick do all the work.

For Emmett, though -- well, the walk with Einstein went well enough, even when his dog tried stretching his little leash to its limit wandering off to investigate things. Once back home, though, he tried practicing some more magic --

And picked up a curse! The Curse of Uncontrollable Charge, to be precise -- now when he casts magic, he gets much more charged much faster, risking overcharge and possible death. Fortunately he DOES already have the “Discharge” Perk, which lets him empty out his charge every so often (as he did while listening to bedtime stories -- Julia was hopefully impressed with the light show!). But I decided he should take it easy on the magic and instead had him focus on his science for a bit, tinkering with the serum benches down in the mad science lab. Hey, even with magic at his command, he IS still a scientist!

[victorluvsalice]

We’re back to Newcrest this week, with our fourth family on the roster -- the Brown-Kosperov clan! And, as usual, the moment I load up the lot, Nikal is outside grilling. Because if there is one thing Sims 4 Sims are good at, it’s obsessing over random shit. And then stepping in it when the dog goes to the bathroom right next to your grill. XD

Anyway, after a rather unusual breakfast of leftover cheese pizza for Emmett (Geoffrey Landgraab brought that over, if you recall) and grilled potatoes for Nikal, it was into CAS to start playing around with the newest feature added to the game -- Likes and Dislikes! Though, amusingly, Emmett actually managed to jump the gun on this, developing “Likes Video Games” on his own. Hey, cool with me, he seems the type! Anyway, the other Likes and Dislikes I set up:

Emmett: Likes Orange, Retro Music, Rocket Science; Dislikes Gray, Tween Pop, Skiing

Nikal: Likes Green, Summer Strut, Cooking (I would have picked “Grilling” if it had been an option!); Dislikes Pink, Hip-Hop, and Playing Violin

I admit, I found it easier to pick likes than dislikes -- I never thought much about what they might NOT like doing. But yeah, this is the basic set of what they enjoy and don’t enjoy. We’ll see where it all goes from here in gameplay!

Speaking of which, with Preferences calibrated, it was time to take care of something else -- New Year’s Eve! Yes, already the start of another Sim year in this save. . .Nikal and Emmett hung up some decorations and spun some noisemakers to get into the spirit -- though there’s only so much one can do to celebrate a holiday with an infant in the house, of course. So they decided to send Julia off temporarily to the outer void of daycare while they got out of said house for a bit. And so it was off to the Magic Realm -- Nikal to experiment some more with alchemy, while Emmett started browsing the tomes for any new books. . .

[victorluvsalice]

Quite nice, if you ask me -- a shimmering spectacle of blue and gold! :) This is why I like getting the decorate-it-yourself tree -- you get a little more variety, and thus a little more fun. Plus it’s great for fulfilling traditions! Lots of good festive spirit around now. :)

With the tree all lit up, the pair moved onto the next big tradition of the day -- a nice grand meal! I decided to have Emmett put together a nice ham dinner, as he has the better cooking skill, while Nikal grabbed herself a snack, then set the table. I was just wondering what else I could have her do when I realized I’d lost track of Einstein. And when I went to track him down, he seemed to be having a chat with some stranger outside the front door. . .

And then I took another look, and realized it was Morgyn, our favorite Sage of the Untamed! Apparently he decided to stop by for the holiday. I had Nikal invite him in -- moments before discovering that Einstein had apparently had an accident inside the house. Ew. >.< And, of course, when Nikal tried to magically clean it up, what should happen but her first backfire! I managed to get rid of the poo with another doze of Scruberoo -- but by that time, she was charged enough to be literally crackling with magic, so I had her mop up the puddles by hand. This is why you don’t use magic for all your chores, everyone!

Ah well -- with the living room back to a decent state, it was time for the meal! Nikal rang the bell, and everyone came and grabbed a plate. . .

[victorluvsalice]

Day 4 of turning my Sims into TECHNO-SPELLCASTERS, and it’s -- appropriately enough -- SPOOKFEST! :D AKA Sim Halloween! Of course, Nikal and Emmett had to bust out some decorations -- this is not a holiday they can skip! Though I found decorating their house from the box to be a bit tricky. . .they don’t have a lot of places to hang banners and lights and such from, given they live in a one-story without a front fence. I made do with some flags around the top of the house, and then threw a few fake pumpkins and the projector cauldron outside for color. It gives the right impression, anyway!

Now, Spookfest is a true-blue holiday in Newcrest -- aka, Sims get the day off work. So, naturally, Nikal and Emmett headed straight back to the Magic Realm to brush up further on their spellcaster skills! (And to be a bit mischievous with the locals, since, you know, Mischief Spirit is a tradition today.) Emmett searched the shelves for tomes, while Nikal hit up Simeon for some potion help. She came off the better -- Simeon happily handed over the recipe for the Potion of Good Fortune, plus a free sample, while the only book Emmett was able to find was above his skill level. Meh.

On the plus side, though, the wand stall was open! So I had Emmett book it down there and buy a nice Ancient Wood Wand -- hey, it was the cheapest, and it still looks cool. :D And now that he was fully equipped with a wand and broom -- might as well try them out, right?

[victorluvsalice]

Mostly because, apart from everything else, it was a pop-up holiday -- Season Premiere! This one’s pretty simple to celebrate -- just make sure to watch the right option on the TV for a while, and you’re set! I figured Emmett and Nikal would be up for this after a long day at work and had them settle in on the couch. . .

Though it wasn’t long before they were less interested in the premiere and more interested in each other. XD And I was only too happy to encourage that interest. Hey, they may not be my OTP, but they’re still a cute couple! They deserve the same chances to cuddle and kiss and just be happy.

At least, until Nikal went into labor. Yup, midway through the premiere, it was go time! I had them power through the last bit of the Season Premiere to get the holiday checked off and to get them both some Sleep Replacement potion (as they were both exhausted), then it was off to the hospital! Where Nikal apparently thought flying her broom to the back entrance to get closer to the vending machines to buy snacks was a good idea. *facepalm* She managed to weather crashing her broom and got prepped to have her baby delivered by Dr. Abby. . .

And then, apparently, there was a shift change at the hospital, and Nikal and Emmett had to move to the OTHER room so Nikal could have her baby delivered by this intern who looks vaguely like Keanu Reeves. *facepalm* Well, okay then! Do we have a baby now?