Ding Dong Adult Start Apocalypse

So welcome back. As you might recall, Ding Dong died at the end of the last update. Not

that anyone noticed.

Seriously, this was the only mourning ANY of the sims did. Margaret sighed then

continued on with her life. It’s like she knew that they were better off without him.

Young aged up that same night.

She’s a handful at 7/4/6/10/8. No clue where the playful are coming from. Not that it

really matters until Dance is lifted.

And literally less than 12 hours after Ding died, Margaret gave birth.

This time to a little girl named Duck. Let’s hope her personality isn’t so weird. Knowing

me, it will be.

Since Long can’t skill unless it raises fun, he’s now relegated to food duty. Making hot

dogs is pointless for this. If you want your sims to raise cooking by actually cooking you

will need to make lunch meat sandwiches and cereal.

I was lucky with Long. I didn’t have as much fun stuff for him to do so he jumped rope a

lot as a kid to raise his fun. (That and I locked him in the house so he couldn’t go build

snowmen) So now he can do yoga. I suspect that Young MIGHT be a jump roper with her

high active and playful. But she hasn’t jumped rope yet.

Proving yet again that toddler skills aren’t necessary in the face of snuggles and tickles.

As most of you know, drop everything to answer the phone. But a trick is to meet a sim

and have them befriend someone else in the house. In this case it is Holly Anderson who

was Ding’s friend. She met Long when he was a toddler and she played with him. Now

she’s calling to get reacquainted.

Which is good, because we need all the friends we can get. We dropped from 10 family

friends to 3 when Ding died. Long here has been nominated as the friend maker.

“I’m an alien.”

“You don’t say! How fascinating!”

One way to make friends really fast is to chain the Apartment Life Social group gestures.

They only net you 3 short term points per gesture. But they are never refused and you

can chain them until you can gossip/tickle/appreciate chain which build relationships very

fast.

No purpose to this slide, I just thought this was cute.

Once you’ve made friends with one family member, allow them in the house so that the

rest of the family can socialize with them. Toddlers on the bunny head are great at this.

Visitors will play with them for as long as they are on it. Young made friends with Tina

here by the time she needed to go to bed.

Meanwhile, I had Margaret go hunting for Criminal. Not only does it suppress the weekly

payments which I am doing the $150 method (although I am actually funding away about

$5000 a week,) but it also is Margaret’s lifetime want.

I think I may have forgotten to mention it before, but Long is Popularity/Family and wants

to graduate 3 children from college. Which I will totally do if I decide to make him heir.

For now he is just happy as a clam at being the friend maker.

He’s also the honorary father of the girls. He aged up both Duck and Young.

Duck here is a Scorpio of 10/9/9/3/4. Well, it’s still extreme. But in a totally different way.

That night was also the first time Ding haunted. He cheered his bed.

Scared his wife.

Scared one of his friends.

Then hung out by his grave. I’ll take it. He’s not too bad as ghosts go.

Since I have two toddlers at the same time and don’t feel like buying another bunny head.

I had Margaret teach Duck a nursery rhyme. Toddlers will sing it themselves and raise

charisma with it.

Okay, so I’ve decided, Long is heir despite his weird personality. The lack of neat is

counter acted by medical. And I can deal with the rest.

So, ren-u-porta-chug make me like sims that are high in their jobs and good at cooking.

That should keep me away from the insta-suppressors if there are any.

Oh and Young grew up. Now mop that puddle. Then chain yourself to the chess table

because I see that friend want.

And there it is. Young is more plat again.

And Margaret is now in Criminal.

So to celebrate, I bought a bird. Again it is allowed. You have to feed them about once

every two days using your one meal though. Doable. You need the fix from Caged Pet

Fixes fromTwoJeff’s though unless you like dead birds with full food bowls. It fulfills a want

of Young’s, but that isn’t why I bought it.

Teach the bird to talk and…

You have Charisma skilling for Children and Teens that raises fun and is faster than a

mirror. It also raises fun really fast and the kids will roll wants to play and talk to the bird.

Which is of the good.

Margaret left for work in the morning all ready to go for a promotion. Here’s a trick. Max

3-4 of your needs before work and you are going to get a jump on the performance meter.

The ones I tend to max are Fun, Social, Comfort and Bladder. Having those maxed even

if you are starving will still give you positive job performance. It makes the promotions

come a little faster so you don’t have to go to work on the same level more than twice.

When she got home as a newly promoted Bagman. She celebrated by falling in love and

woohooing one of her old co-workers from Medical. I shrugged and let her do what she

wants with him. She’s 4 days to elder at this point.

She didn’t want to do much. So I started skilling her on Creativity. She had a lot from

when she moved in and she’s already maxed Body and Logic. We can always use more

novels.

And Long needs the experience in fixing electronics. I’ll admit, I didn’t send him to this

until after he’d eaten, peed, bathed, and played 3 games of red hands to make it so if he

electrocuted himself he wouldn’t die. And I bit my nails while watching. But he made it

and got a mechanical point out of it. Whew.

Duck wasn’t as nice about her wants as Young. So I had to teach her a toddler skill to

make her plat for her age transition.

Yay Duck. Now you can do homework and sleep in beds.

Although Young would like to say that homework is hard. Seriously, it bears repeating,

keep your kids plat.

And Long continues his project of befriend the town. This reminds me, I really need to go

build a community lot Downtown for the family to go to. I don’t know any of the

Downtown townies yet and they come in with high careers a lot of the time. Not right

now though, It kind of depends on what Long gets as his job.

I realized I should probably give you a tour. Here’s the downstairs. We cook here and

skill here. The fence is to keep those sims going to work from noticing if the food has

gone bad.

Main floor. You can see the sleeping/skilling room. I used to do yoga here. But having

beds away from the haunting Ding is necessary.

Second floor. The Heir Bed and the movable shower. I have Long shower there and

make a mess and then have him or one of the girls clean it up. It works well.

Finally the roof. Not much here other than the bat box some food and the ACR adjuster.

I want to talk about the cribs. I always put two in this position even if I only have one kid.

Why? Diaper changes. If you select “Change Diaper” while the kid is still in the crib

there is a very good chance that the diaper will just disappear and you won’t have to pick

it up and lose hygiene while carrying it. This is more important when you don’t have

Medical lifted. But it also helps save on space by making it so you don’t have to buy the

changing table.

I love it when things break. Long doesn’t but I don’t care.

Now I wanted to see what tinkering does, if anything. And unlike the sims3 where

tinkering can raise mechanical and breaks stuff. Tinkering in the sims2 does nothing but

raise fun. But oh how does it raise fun. It raises it about as fast as red hands. Seriously.

He went from 1/3 full to full in about two sim hours. Fast.

Time also moves fast. Margaret is now an elder.

Who decided that she liked the tucked look now rather than the untucked look she was

sporting before.

Note the puddles. That is Long’s contribution to skilling.

Okay, we need to talk about the kiddie oven. It isn’t restricted at all AND baking a muffin isn’t

listed as counting toward the daily food ration. I checked. It raises fun and cooking so it works

for the pets restrictions. Now, I know what you are thinking ‘But Lark! Baking muffins is like

filling the food dish/getting a snack’ but that is very open for debate. Baking a muffin doesn’t

use a food point. And food points are what you replenish when ordering food. Snacks/meals

take away from the food points. Each food point has a certain cost and filling the food dish is

equivalent to filling a food point for the pet in question. So, ostensibly you can have your kids

pump out muffins to feed the family while learning cooking pre Pet Showbiz. Think about it.

“You mean I could have been making food for myself all along and not have to have eaten

green food that makes me sick?”

Yep! That’s what I totally mean.

“I think I’m going to be sick.”

Yeah, in the oven’s favor though, it doesn’t fill the hunger bar much. It’s about the same

as half a sandwich or burnt hot dog. But it will keep you from starving. And will allow

kids to feed themselves and the elder when they are home alone with an uncontrollable

elder. They’ll also cook autonomously when they are a little peckish rather than raiding

that fridge you forgot to turn around.

So it’s that time. Time for Long to repair one more sink then grow up. Which I totally

didn’t get pictures of.

Long aged up with 2 cooking, 4 mechanical, 10 charisma, 10 body, 7 logic, 0 creativity,

and 7 cleaning. Not too bad. Wish I had maxed logic though. Also the riding pants…

sigh. He is Ding’s son.

But he made up for that by making 12 friends. That’s pretty much one a day for each

day of teen.

Since it’s Tuesday, time to invite over his highest bolt person. Holly Anderson.

The Jobs listing was a goldmine. GOLD MINE!!! The options were from least to most

useful – Criminal, Music, Oceanography (tempting for want locking and elixir), Adventurer

(really bloody tempting oh JUMBOK!!!) and finally the single most powerful lift of all time…

INTELLIGENCE!!!

Guess which one he took?

Now let me show you how I got the job I wanted… Tuesday’s paper had Oceanography

first.

These were the papers he had in inventory with Tuesday’s in front of the kiddie oven. (I

had to take this in buy mode so you can see that they are all still good.) His mother had 3

more in her inventory.

So in order I had offered:

1. Oceanography

2. Music

3. Criminal

4. Adventurer

5. Music (again)

And finally the job we took:

6. Intelligence.

I had one paper still in reserve otherwise I was taking Adventurer.

And here’s proof that I had 7 good papers to look through. This, my friends, is the paper

trick. And it makes Journalism lose most of it’s teeth.

Now, all of these papers are being dispersed through inventory for the girls’ turn.

And we move her in. They have two bolts which I hope means that she’s high in a career

or has high cooking. But it can just mean compatible signs, like Margaret and Ding.

I took a deep breath and checked. Virgo, Knowledge, Top Secret Researcher. I admit it. I

got up out of my chair and did a little dance. SCIENCE!!!

Holly Anderson, I love you. Now to just get you to the top of the career. Then we can

move out people. Yay for moving out people. No more ghosts!

To lighten her inventory, she changed her turn ons – she had red hair and creative and

disliked glasses. Now she has athletic and charismatic and still dislikes glasses.

“Hi Long! I like you here’s a really large TV you can’t use.”

“Gee thanks. I foresee placing this in the future though.”

“Awesome! So want to go to downtown?”

“No, I need to do something else.”

Or rather someone else. No chimes but I can hold off for a moment.

I need Holly to be ready and able to go to work so a novel reading.

“Dear me! This is worse than Dusk! Whoever this Ding Dong was they sucked.”

Then it was work time. For both Long and Holly.

Holly came home with a promotion and a friend. Hi Downtownie who always seems to be

a Mad Scientist!

And even though she wasn’t skilled for the next promotion, I sent Holly to work anyway to

work on getting the job meter up since she was still plat. That’s something to remember,

sometimes it is worth it to send someone to work even if you don’t have to just to get the

performance meter higher for when you do want to get promoted.

Long came home soon after with a promotion.

And was immediately sent back to work. Ahhhh the power of Walk to Work.

“Why do I get this feeling that my life is going to be miserable?”

Because Young grew up and became a Fortune/Knowledge sim. She’s going to be

miserable and going to have a nervous breakdown when she ages to adult. That’s not

going to be fun.

Still, she aged into a matching outfit. And she and Duck even managed to coordinate.

Why can’t I get this all the time?

Another promotion and Bella Goth.

But I wasn’t going to send him to work again. Mostly because I couldn’t, I also want to

skill for a little.

“Skilling?”

“Skilling.”

Another promotion and another Walk to Work.

“You’d think the carpool would wait for me.”

You’d think that. But no. Still, he’s on level 3 and about to get 4 and he’s only been an

adult for 2 days. Go Chaining promotions.

“I think I just saw a ghost.”

Ding’s actually pretty easy for a ghost. He cheers his bed and then hangs around the

upstairs for someone to scare. Then once he does that he goes back outside and doesn’t

bug anyone who isn’t on the ground floor.

It’s Thursday and Holly’s got time off coming up. So you know what that means…

Engagement (Long’s rolling the want).

Followed by babymaking woohoo.

Okay, time to talk about fridges. Did you know you can have more than one? You can

only replace one a week. But you can have more than that. I shove one up by the

nursery so that the babies and toddlers are hauled all over to get a bottle. The other is

the one I replace weekly for the most part because it’s the one I cook out of. Fridges are

great. They are one tile items that even if you can only do one a week, you can shove

them in inventory or on a roof and let them go.

“Have a computer!”

“Can’t you have me follow in my father’s shoes and get a promotion?”

“Nope! You get useless stuff!”

Networking, it’s a crapshoot.

And here’s Holly coming home a Mad Scientist. I’m not going to buy anything because I

am holding out hope that Long will get intelligence soon and we can get rid of our lowest

rated crap and have good stuff now.

“I got a promotion and a cold.”

Ugh! And I don’t have an isolation room. Fine. Just don’t spread it.

Duck also grew up. She was a baking fiend and got 3 cooking points from the oven.

Totally awesome. She is also screwed. Pleasure/Family. And she’s serious. And wants a

golden anniversary. Poor Duck.

Another promotion and another Walk to Work. Intelligence is nice for the chaining it will

let you do. They stagger their work hours from Ending at 3 to 6 to 8 to 10 to 11. Can’t

get that last one, but you can at least get some sleep unlike the medical chains.

Oh, and if you didn’t guess, Holly brought back energizers. I can keep most of the people

gold so this means I only need to feed the kids and those people who are in Green or

lower aspiration.

“Shadi-bo-bo!”

I like Long. He gets promotions. Of course he rolls fulfillable wants for things like “Get Engaged.”

Trick for you. If there is a want that you want to keep for a while (like have a baby) but are afraid

of rolling away. Take naps. If you sleep for less than 2 hours at a shot, the chances are unlikely

that you will get the wake up reroll. You’ll still get rerolls from coming home from work/school.

But this is one way to keep a want you want pre locking it.

This is also how I manage to get my kids lots of cleaning skill. Long takes showers and

with only 1 neat point makes puddles and he breaks stuff on a regular basis. And when

something plumbing breaks I let it go and have the kids clean up the puddles until I feel

like having one of them fix it for the mechanical points.

Baby pop! That can only mean one thing.

Pajama wedding!

LONG!!! You infected your pregnant wife.

“Sorry. I can’t hear you through all of the aspiration points.”

MOAR SKILLING!

Holly because she wants to. Long because I am trying to keep ahead of the promotions

and get him to where I need for the final level.

Long eventually got better. Holly didn’t.

Go take a bubble bath.

“Hi Daddy! Nice to see you again!”

Ding also met his posthumous daughter, Duck.

I look forward to lights.

In order to keep her Comfort up, I had Holly start to write a novel.

She did that until it was time for baby sign.

Say hello to Short Dong! He’s a little boy who has black hair and dark blue eyes.

“So Holly, want to tell me something?”

“I dye my hair.”

“How?”

“Every woman has her secrets.”

Also if the last slide wasn’t a tip off, Holly is totally pregnant again. Long wants 3 kids to

graduate college and I want the college lifts out of the way. One of the girls is going to

have to get Education while the other gets either entertainment or athletic. Or I find a

spouse in Athletic.

Finally Tuesday rolled around and It was time to move Margaret out.

Young was the only one to say goodbye. Probably because Duck was taking a bubble bath

fulfilling a want and everyone else was a work or sleeping.

Sigh. Demoted. At least it happened after she lifted.

I also broke down and bought the cheapest TV to skill cooking.

The bird died. I don’t really care at the moment. I’ll buy another bird when/if I need one

for short. For now I can make food every day rather than every other day.

“Call me Dong, Long Dong!”

Short grew up and is apparently prematurely grey. He’s also got his mother’s mouth.

And a personality of 9/2/9/2/10. Not sure where that came from. But go Short!

Oh the irony, peeing yourself while potty training.

I think Holly was really mortified. She cried about it for days.

Also you can totally see Ding’s wedding ring floating there.

Okay cross your fingers. Duck here has a whopping 0 mechanical and is trying to fix the

computer. She’s fresh off of energizing so she shouldn’t die if she gets electrocuted.

Which she does.

But she manages a mechanical point out of it. Young fixes it the rest of the way later.

She’s got 4 so is less likely to electrocute herself.

And then it’s time for Holly to have kid 2. Yes, she just taught Short the Nursery Rhyme.

Both wanted it and yay aspiration points.

While down stairs the locked out people gave their moral support.

Holly gave birth to a little girl with dark blue eyes who I named Tiny. Yes there is a

theme. And Yes some of them are real people’s names. I’ve heard worse at work. And

no I am not telling you.

Also that night, Long came home as the head of the SCIA lifting Intelligence.

Intelligence is the single most powerful lift in the apocalypse. More powerful than

medical or culinary. Why? Lowest rated, coupled with the Ask, Give Gift, and Service Sim

restrictions. At this point, if I want, I can move in the next spouse (once I find a person in

a career I like) for Tiny or Short and they can get to lifting.

“Here Johnny. You’re a playable to never moving in. You can have all of our one tile

lowest rated crap and stuff we don’t want.”

“Oh Gee you shouldn’t have.”

“Now don’t go away. I can only hold 3 things at a time, so I’ve got to do this 19 more

times.”

And she did. Twenty “Give Gift” interactions but we got rid of all of the stuff.

“I’m bored.”

And so am I.

So this is where I am ending this part. See you next time!