Welcome back to Spotlight BACC! This is the second half of Brock & Natalie’s Rotation 9 week. The first half ended with the birth of their youngest child, Phoebe, officially filling up the house. (Natalie’s 100 Baby Challenge Matriarch mother would be so proud!)
The household at the start of the update, left to right: Fiona (Finn’s twin), Brock, Hank (Harrison’s twin), Caleb, Natalie, Phoebe, Harrison (Hank’s twin), and Finn (Fiona’s twin).
Thursday started off as so many days in this household did–with everyone building skills, eating breakfast, and bonding as a family. It was so nice and cozy and too good to be true, really.
Brock was having an especially good morning.
So good, in fact, that while he was playing with Harrison his mood flipped over into being Hysterical. I got distracted by other sims and assumed his mood would come down on its own…
But it didn’t.
Not thinking anything of it, I sent Natalie in to plead with Grim, sure that she would save Brock…
But she didn’t.
I’ve gone back and forth on whether or not to resurrect Brock, and therefore set a precedent for resurrecting sims who die of anything other than old age, but I don’t think I’m going to. )))))): I’m so sad, though! Other than his penchant for hooking up with every woman in a twelve mile radius, Brock was an angel to play. Truly too good for this world.
The last time the family portrait will feature Brock. ))))))))))))):
Slice of Life was giving everyone so many positive moodlets that they were still happy for the first little while after Brock’s death, which was really jarring to watch.
Grim, meanwhile, made himself right at home.
GEEZ. Isn’t that a little on the nose, Grim?
Rest assured, the moodlets behaved themselves and everyone quickly started mourning.
Natalie generally held it together pretty well with the kids…
But it was so, so sad watching her autonomously mourn. She had a few tearful baths. )))))): My poor girl.
At one point I found both Brielle and Roger sadly walking past the house, too. )))): I’m so relieved I had them around to the house several times in the new save so that they could get in some time with their dad.
I’m really relieved that I had her and Brock take pictures together while I still could. At some point I’m going to make some of my game screenshots into in-game pictures that I can hang up, but until I get around to that I’m going to try to fill my sims’ houses with selfies. It’s one of my favorite game features.
Caleb was the only one who wasn’t affected by Brock’s death, but it’s not his fault. He and Brock had a really strong relationship in the original save, but I hadn’t had time to build it back up in this one.
Making floral arrangements helped brighten Natalie’s spirit. She even did a little happy dance.
And of course her kids put a smile on her face.
Her mourning moodlet went away in the typical 2 days, but this almost makes me wish I could find one that extends it. I’m aiming for more of an immersion/realistic experience in this save (am I feeling really inspired by Clare Siobhan’s gameplay style these days? Yes, yes I am) and having sims stop mourning so quickly throws it off.
But it wasn’t pure sadness, don’t worry. See, here’s Harrison displaying the cuteness that is Toddlers playing in the snow!
Here’s Fiona displaying the cuteness that is the bee striped Toddler top!
Here’s Hank displaying NIGHTMARE FODDER!
As you may have guessed, it was, in fact, birthday time! (Check out that dollhouse, btw: it was one of the Winterfest gifts.) Finn and Fiona were set to join Caleb in Childhood.
Things I learned this rotation included: noncontrollable sims can autonomously take notes on plants!
Back to the birthdays! Fiona went first, and got the Cat Lover trait.
And Finn got the Goofball trait!
When it comes to the kid aspirations, btw, I’m trying to choose them based on their Toddler traits. (I’m using the in game randomizers for all traits.) So Angelic & Inquisitive Toddlers take on the Whiz Kid aspiration, Fussy & Charmer Toddlers take on the Social Butterfly aspiration, Independent & Wild Toddlers get the Rambunctious Scamp aspiration, and Silly & Clingy Toddlers get the Artistic Prodigy aspiration. (I debated between Charmer & Clingy for Artistic Prodigy, but went with Clingy because I figured you could interpret their description as meaning those kids are sensitive~ which would lend itself to an artistic temperament~) (And yes I say that as someone who was a sensitive~ child.)
The game gave both twins caps as part of their hot weather outfits, and I thought of Brock and got super emo about it. ))))))):
Birthdays also mean jazzing up their bedrooms! I ran out of steam with Finn’s, as you can probably tell, and will revisit it in the next rotation. ;;;;; But Fiona’s was fun to do. And I put together a little entryway area while I was at it! Since Natalie maxed out Wellness during one of the first few rotations, I wanted to give her that yoga mat decor piece that I recently downloaded. And I want to give everyone the umbrella holder, honestly.
This save seems to adhere to the “it takes a village to raise a child” philosophy in a number of ways. For example, they all like spraying the monsters under all the kids’ beds in any given house.
Requisite party interactions shots~
As always, the Royal girls have precisely two (2) modes.
Meanwhile, Natalie developed a penchant for just viewing the easel. It reminded me that I never had Brock make any more paintings, and the ones he painted in the original save were in his inventory (since I was going to add them to the museum whenever we put a museum in the save) and therefore lost when I switched them all to the new save. That half-finished painting was the only thing he had time to work on before he died. )))))):
Fiona and Finn getting in some cute, autonomous older sibling time.
Add Fiona to the list of kids who know they’re awesome. ^^
Even at this point, Natalie wasn’t quite back to her former self. ))))):
One ha-ha two ha-ha three kids wrecking the house simultaneously.
Phoebe aged up into a Toddler! She seems to have joined the Natalie clone contingent, but we’ll see how she turns out when she grows up.
Time for another neighborhood gathering–I had them invite over the usual suspects for New Year’s Eve.
There are 2 kinds of Toddlers.
Autonomous New Year’s Eve family bonding times. Finn kept rolling up wants to interact with Harrison, which was really sweet.
And sibling selfies time, too!
Avery somehow stuck around after the rest of the sims had left, so she was able to ring in the New Year with her aunt and cousins.
And yes, I audibly made a super emotional noise when Brock floated into the room a few minutes before midnight. T_______________T
I miss him. T__________T
(I just always like to document actual instances of Avery being nice.)
As if he knew what I was thinking, Brock actually painted us something! We’ll see if he creates any more art before his spirit fades, I guess…
Skills
Natalie: Gourmet Cooking (2), Fitness (6), Mixology (9). I was going to have Brock be the next person to max their Gourmet Cooking skill, but, well…
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