Nalaar Legacy

Chapter Three

Too Many Pets

Hello and welcome back to the Nalaar Legacy! In the previous chapter, we had a total of five birthdays, got two pets, dealt with arson, renovated the legacy house, and everybody fell in love with Maria's face.

And a note to my more observant readers: You might notice that the family's surname is spelled differently in the game itself (such as in the picture above) than it is otherwise. This is because I accidentally left off the third 'a' when I made Ava in CAS and the twins were already born by the time I noticed it. At that point, there was no way I was going to restart just because of a missing letter. Now that that's out of the way, let's get this chapter started!

Who is this beautiful dog, you ask? It's Chrom! He finally left the puppy stage and got a job in Service, taking us one tiny, barely noticeable step towards completing Joe's LTW. You know, if I had known exactly how much of a pain this LTW was going to be, I might never have done it. I knew it was going to be tough, but good lord was it even tougher than I expected.

I guess I should tell you what the twins rolled on their birthday, even though it will just change in college.

Rosa here took after both of her parents and rolled Popularity for her primary, and Fortune for her secondary. Her current LTW is to become the mayor.

I can only imagine what kind of regime that would be...

Maria surprised me by rolling a rather interesting combination. Her primary is Family, and her secondary is Romance.

Her current LTW is to graduate three children from college.

Rosa has taken rather strongly to smustling in odd places. I didn't manage to get a picture of it, but the bathroom is her favorite spot for it.

Rosa: “Come on, townie! I can't smustle alone.”

Townie: “I'm not sure why I come here...”

Nothing to say here. I just love thriller pictures.

Maria: “Don't think Rosa's the only one who likes to smustle outside!”

Maria is also into smustling in odd places, but she hasn't taken to doing it in the bathroom the way that Rosa has.

Speaking of Rosa and bathrooms, she seems to like entertaining guests in there. She also cheers for herself whenever someone accepts a compliment from her.

Rosa is...a bit odd.

Rosa: “That had better not have been an insult.”

Don't worry. I love odd Sims. If you were all super normal I probably wouldn't have even gotten this far.

Rosa: “I'm don't quite follow that last part, but okay.”

It's turns out that Maria cheers herself, too. I'm not sure what governs this animation. I'm guessing that it's their outgoing points since Maria and Rosa both have quite a few of them, but I haven't seen Joe or Ava do this so I'm not sure.

Ava: “I am still here, you know.”

I know. But, the truth is, you're just not doing anything too interesting. You've just been skilling for promotions. Besides, after how much you hated me looking over your shoulder before, I figured you'd being left alone for a while.

Ava: “Just wanted to make sure that you haven't forgotten me.”

Uh huh...you know, I think you might be a bit tsundere.

Ava: “I don't know what that means.”

Basically it means that on the outside, you're all “Ugh! I hate you! Go away!” But, on the inside, you're all “I love you! Please stay forever!”

Ava: “Hmph. Call me that again, and your house will be the next one to mysteriously catch fire.”

Whatever you say, my little tsun-tsun.

*If I'm using the term wrong, let me know. My boyfriend's the one who actually watches anime.

Grima: [Master! What has happened to Master? Is Master dead?]

Grima: [No, Master! Don't be dead! Master, wake up! Tell Grima how to help Master!]

Joe: “See, Grima? That's how you pretend to be dead. You have to be an expert at playing dead if you want to be a star.”

Grima: [Haha! Master is not dead! Master is only teaching Grima! Yay, Master!]

Grima has made it to the big time and reached the highest level in Show Business! Endless pet treats and parties featuring the finest pet toys are some of the perks of celebrity status.

This makes him the first of the six pets needed to complete Joe's godawful LTW. One down, four to go!

One day, this girl Arcadia came home with Rosa on the bus. I have no idea what prompted it, but she went up to Maria and slapped her. Of course, Maria slapped her back. Ava went to send Arcadia home before things escalated, but...well, she wasn't able to get there on time.

Arcadia decided to attack Maria.

Arcadia: “Townie powers ACTIVATE!!!!”

Maria: [You have got to be kidding me.]

Unfortunately, Maria hadn't worked on her body skill and got her butt kicked.

Maria: [I can't believe I lost...to a townie. This is so embarrassing.]

Don't worry, Maria. I'm sure she'll get her comeuppance soon enough.

Maria: “I am definitely not going to lose another fight. Next time something like this happens, I will beat them so hard that they're kids will be born with bruises.”

After her fight with Arcadia, Maria immediately began rolling wants to gain body skill and to get fit. She is one determined Sim. Plus, it turns out that Fitness is Maria's natural hobby, which actually fits her really well.

Maria: “I'm going to get strong enough to take down Colossus...strong enough to take down Namor...I'll even be able to knock the Hulk on his big green butt.”

It's good to have goals.

Maria: “Did you really spike that volleyball right into Arcadia's face during gym?”

Rosa: “Yep! No one messes with my twin and gets away with it.”

Maria: “Oh man, that's awesome! I just wish that we had the same gym period so I could have seen it. Did she bleed a lot?”

Rosa: “Totally. That girl really needs to eat more iron. She bled all over her gym clothes. And then she spent the next twenty minutes crying about it.”

Maria: “What a baby!”

Maria: “What are you doing? I thought you said no one was allowed to mess with me!”

Rosa: “Yeah! No one but me! Ha!”

Rosa is constantly doing. She actually has more nice points than Maria, but her autonomous behavior would make you think otherwise. Maria likes to play chess or video games, dance, play with the dogs, and talk to people when left to herself. But Rosa mostly likes to pick on people. I guess Maria is more of a vengeful mean while Rosa is more of a straight-up bully.

Homework? What happened to scaring the teachers into automatically giving you A+'s?

Maria: “Turns out that high school teachers are a lot harder to intimidate than elementary school teachers.”

Rosa: “Yeah. We even told them about how Mom set fire to that one guy's house. But they still told us that we could either do our work or fail. Can you believe that?”

Don't worry. As odd and contradictory as it might seem, college will be way easier.

Rosa: “Really? Shouldn't it be the other way around?”

It really should, but it isn't. Shorter classes, easier work, no daily assignments. Much easier.

Maria: “Man, I can't wait for college.”

Don't worry. It won't be too long before you're both ready to head off to SSU.

Since Grima has topped Showbiz and Chrom is working his way through Service, I figured it was time to get started on pets 3 and 4.

Joe headed down to Pepe's Pets yet again to pick up two male cats: Yarne and Owain. They both promptly got jobs in the Security track since that's what Joe wanted.

Here's a close-up of Yarne.

Honestly, Yarne has been a huge pain in the butt. He's cute and my Sims love him, but despite having his intelligence set to 'genius', Yarne is nearly impossible to train. He takes ages to learn a new command, and can't seem to learn any behaviors other than using the litter-box. After having him for a week, I had already lost three beds, two couches, a chair, and the changing table to his scratching...even though there are two scratching posts in the house.

Owain, on the other hand, has been much more pleasant. He learns commands and behaviors just as quickly as you would expect from a genius. He only had to get scolded for scratching the furniture once and he never did it again. I am definitely a fan of Owain.

Also, you may have noticed that all of my pets so far have been male. This is because I really didn't want to chance any of them having puppies or kittens. I only just started playing with pets after I got Ultimate Edition, and I wasn't sure if pets can breed autonomously. I didn't want to risk it. So I only allowed male pets for the first four.

I don't actually like cats in real life (I'm a total dog person) but I do like them here. Well, except Yarne. I don't like him. But I do like Owain and the other cats I've seen come around.

Oh for heaven's sake. Girls, I know you're both of fond of dancing in odd places, but can you please not dance in each other?

Rosa: “Hahaha! I told you that would freak her out!”

Maria: “You were so right! I can't believe that we didn't think of that sooner.”

Both: “Hahahahahahahaha!”

The top position in Service is teeming with excitement, fulfillment and financial rewards. A savior to adventurous but unlucky Sims everywhere, Chrom has earned a place among the heroes of the Emergency Response Disaster Squad.

That's two pets down, four to go.

Later that night, the Nalaars get their very first burglar.

Gordon King: “I can't believe I drew the short straw on this one. Why do I have to be the one to rob these guys?”

Wait, aren't you happy to get a chance at the loot?

Gordon King: “Why would I want to rob the Nalaars? We all know what happened to the last guy who got on the wrong side of Ava Nalaar. You know what? I don't think I'll even take anything. I'm just going to sneak around until the cop shows up.”

Good luck, man.

True to his word, Gordon King didn't take a thing. As far as I can tell, he didn't even try. He just sneaked around the house until the cop showed up and attacked.

Of course, since this is The Sims, the cop promptly got his butt kicked. And then Gordon promptly ran out of the house before anyone in the family could get a good enough look at his face to track him down. Still, I imagine he's going to try to lie low for a while. At least until Ava's gone to the Great Luau in the Sky.

Rosa: “So what do you say we do if we see that burglar again?”

Maria: “I say we lock him in a room with a bunch of rotten food and let the flies have him.”

Rosa: “Simple but vicious. I like the way you think.”

A few days later and Maria is still furious with Gordon King for daring to even so much as break into their house.

She'll interrupt whatever she's doing all the time to make faces and punch her hand. The others are still furious as well, of course, but Maria seems to be the most dedicated to it.

Maria: “So, Dad, looking forward to getting all crusty tonight?”

Joe: “Maria, I would appreciate it if you did not refer to it as 'getting all crusty.' It's insulting.”

Maria: “Oh, come on. It's just a joke.”

Ava: “Listen to your father, young lady. Neither of us are particularly fond of being referred to as 'crusty.'”

Maria: “Ugh...fine.” [Since when did they get so sensitive?]

Maria somewhat rudely stated, today is Joe's birthday! It always feels a bit strange when the generation one spouse goes gray.

And, of course, I have once again shown up for the birthday party. In case you haven't guessed it, I plan to be in attendance at all the Nalaar birthdays. Even if they don't know exactly who Cap really is.

Joe: [I wish to be able to leave behind a large enough fortune that all of my descendants can live in luxury for all of their days.]

Joe is really sweet...and somewhat selfless for a fortune Sim. He may just be one of the best married-in Sims I've ever had.

Maria & Ava: “Let's see that gray hair!”

Rosa: “Come on, old man! Get crusty!”

*If you're wondering about the comfort soup on the table, Ava had a cold at this point, so Maria whipped some up for her.

Ava: “Oh my...I really hope he changes soon...”

Maria: “Hahahahahahaha!! My dad the golfer!”

Rosa: “Change right now, Dad. Don't you dare let any of my friends see you dressed like that.”

Here's Joe after his elder makeover. Isn't he handsome?

Joe: “Any chance I'll be able to trade these coke bottles in for some contacts?”

Nope. Sorry. Besides, I think those glasses look very dignified on you.

Joe: “I suppose I'll just have to get used to them.”

Yarne really loves to pounce. He does it about 90% of the time that he's at home. He's even nearly starved himself on more than one occasion just because he wanted to pounce on things.

Hey, Ava. What are you smiling about?

Ava: “Oh not much. Except for the fact that Sim City has finally recognized my astounding genius and given me power over the entire court system. Now I am The Law.”

The idea of you ruling the courts is slightly terrifying, but yay! Ava's LTW has been accomplished and she is now permaplat! Her new LTW is to have 20 simultaneous best friends. She currently has around twelve, but I probably won't go for the additional eight. Joe's LTW requires too much focus.

Speaking of Joe's LTW, we've gotten one pet closer to accomplishing it!

As a decorated member of the fabled Pet Corps, Owain's days will be filled with high stakes and dramatic moments worthy of slow motion.

Three down, three to go! We're halfway there!

Maria: *shouting* “Come on, Rosa! Hurry up or I'm leaving you behind!”

Rosa: *whispering* “Geez, Maria. Quiet down. Do you want Mom and Dad to wake up and bust us?”

Maria: *still being way too loud* “Oh stop being such a worrywart! They won't even know we were gone! Now come on! I'm not going to wait all night!”

Rosa: “I'm coming, I'm coming. Calm down.”

Uh oh...looks like someone got busted.

Ava: “Just what were you thinking, missy?! Sneaking out in the middle of the night?? And on a school night?! You're just lucky that that cop brought you back here instead of taking you to jail! Actually, jail might have been better! At least then you'd get the luxury of me having a few hours to calm down after finding out that you were caught wandering around downtown at two in the morning! Do you know what kind of people are downtown at this hour? Do you?! You could have been bitten by a vampire! You could have been cursed by an evil witch! Would you even know what to do if you saw a vampire or a witch? What about a werewolf? Would you know what to do then? Of course you wouldn't! You're just a teenager! You have no business putting yourself in so much danger! You are never allowed to have friends over ever again! If someone tries to follow you home on the bus, you send them back to their house right away, no matter who they are! Now get inside that house right this second and get in your bed! Now, young lady!”

Joe: “I can't believe that your sister thought that she could sneak out without getting caught. How irresponsible can she be? I'm just glad that you didn't get dragged along in such a harebrained idea.”

Maria: “What can I say, Dad? Going downtown at this time of night is just dangerous. Besides, it is a school night.”

No kidding, Maria and Rosa both sneaked out at the same time, but only Rosa got caught. Maria got back at the same time the cop was dropping Rosa off, and she just walked into the kitchen, sat down, and had breakfast with her dad while Ava lectured Rosa. This is especially amusing since Rosa was the one who was actually trying to be sneaky, but Maria just ran out of the house as soon as the limo showed up.

Maria: “Ouch! What the hell, Rosa?!”

Rosa: “That's for taking off with that townie as soon as we got to the Lounge and leaving me behind to be caught! And for letting Mom and Dad think that I snuck out by myself! You're supposed to be my best friend! How could you do that to me?”

Maria: “Hey, I asked you to come with us! It's not my fault you decided to stay behind. And don't pretend that you would have thrown yourself into the fire if I had been the one who got caught.”

Rosa: “Ugh! Whatever! You know, sometimes I wish that I didn't even have a twin!”

You okay?

Maria: *sniff* “I can't...I can't believe she said that.” *sob* “How could she wish that she didn't have a twin? We've been best friends since we were born...how can that just end?”

Don't worry, sweetie. She just needs some time to cool off. Give her a few days and then try to talk to her.

Maria: “O-okay. I hope you're right.”

Three Days Later

Maria: “Um...hey, Rosa...”

Rosa: “What do you want?”

Maria: “I wanted to say that I'm sorry for leaving you behind when we went downtown...and I'm sorry for letting Mom and Dad think that you went alone. I should have taken my part of the blame. It wasn't fair of me to make you face Mom's wrath alone.”

Rosa: “Well, you're right. It totally wasn't fair. But, honestly, I would have done the same if it were me. Mom is scary when she's angry. No way would I have faced that unless I was forced to.”

Maria: “You sure?”

Rosa: “Yeah. And...I'm really sorry for saying that I wished I didn't have a twin. I didn't mean it. I was just upset. After all, we've been best friends since we were born. There's no way I would have survived Mom without you.”

Maria: “I don't think that I would have made it, either. So...best friends?”

Rosa: “The best there ever was. Besides, who else would I room with at SSU?”

Aww...so sweet.

Joe: “Come on, girls. Don't look so sad. I want to remember you two as being obnoxiously happy.”

Rosa: “Sorry, Dad. But we can't help it.”

Maria: “Yeah...I mean, this is probably the last meal we'll ever have as a family.”

Ava: “All the more reason for you two to be especially happy. The memory will be better that way.”

Rosa: “Alright, Mom. I guess we can try at least.”

Rosa: “So Maria and I agreed: she gets to pick the carpet for the living room, and I get to pick the carpet for the bedroom. I hope she doesn't mind sleeping in a sea of pink.”

Maria: *groans*

Ava: “It's so hard to believe that my little girls are heading to college today.” *sniffle* “It seems like just yesterday I was eating an entire cheesecake to get you both.”

Only a couple of hours later, Maria hopped in the cab that would take her off to Sim State University, the place where she would spend the next four years of her life. Most of it in a crackerbox.

Maria: *snickers* “Rosa's just going to loove that...”

Rosa jumped in her own cab just moments after Maria had left.

Rosa: “Please tell me that I did not hear you say the word 'crackerbox' earlier.”

Sorry, dear. Even with the scholarships, you and Maria are going to be poor college students for a while. A crackerbox is the best I can do.

Rosa: “And here I was actually looking forward to college.”

For those of you who are interested, Maria and Rosa got a total of twelve scholarships, netting them an 10,000 simoleons to rent a plot, build a house, get furnishings, and—since it is almost guaranteed to be necessary—new clothes.

I figure that it would be best to wrap up Joe's LTW before our heiress returns from Sim State. That way there's less actual people in the house to worry about, and there's more time to worry about teaching whatever commands are necessary for promotions.

Since the first two pets were big dogs, and the second two were cats, I figured that the last two should be small dogs. This little cutie here is Maribelle, and she is a Star in the making.

And yes, I got girls this time since I figured out that pets can't breed autonomously.

This cutie is Tharja, who wants nothing more than to assist needy Sims through the Service track.

With so many pets in the house, I decided to temporarily convert the second couples bedroom into a pets room. Almost everything a pet could need is in here. I did have to leave a few things in other parts of the house, though. The food bowls are in the hallway right outside the room, the litter-boxes are in the bathroom, and the wall things that cats play with are also in the hallway.

Not only does having a pets room help keep the other parts of the house from getting too crowded, but it also makes it a lot easier to keep track of all six pets.

Yarne was one promotion away from joining Owain at the top of the Security track, but he was having a very difficult time learning his final command. He resisted all attempts by Joe and Ava to teach him, so I ended up just calling the pet trainer. Although she wasn't able to finish teaching it, she did get him close enough that a few minutes with Joe got the job done.

Which paid off big time when Yarne finally joined the Pet Corps the next day.

This makes it four pets that have topped their career tracks, which means that Maribelle and Tharja are the only ones left before Joe is finally permaplat.

The next week or so was filled with teaching commands and basically pampering Tharja and Maribelle as much as possible to keep them in good moods for work.

Joe wasn't the only one working hard on his LTW. Ava pitched in as much as possible. Whatever hours she didn't spend at work were spent training.

Joe: “Thank you for working so hard to help me with this, Ava. I love you so much. I...words couldn't possibly express how happy I am that you chose me to start this legacy with.”

Ava: “Oh, Joe. I love you, too. There's no need to thank me for helping. I couldn't have possibly become The Law if I hadn't had you helping me learn new skills and tirelessly making friends. There is no one else in all of the universe who I would have rather started this legacy with. I am the luckiest woman in the world.”

Joe: “And I am the luckiest man.”

Joe: “Hey, I have an idea. How about, after we've got the pets careers taken care of, I take us all to Three Lakes for a few days? Think about it: me, you, the girls enjoying roasted marshmallows and learning the local gesture. What do you think?”

Ava: “I think that sounds amazing. You know I've always wanted to go to Three Lakes.”

With the promise of a Three Lakes vacation in the future, Joe and Ava doubled their efforts to train the pets. Both of them were willing to go to just about any length to get the final promotions. Including, at least in Joe's case, kneeling in fresh urine.

The hard work quickly paid off for Tharja and she joined Chrom in the Emergency Response Disaster Squad.

This means that Maribelle is the only pet left to reach the top of her career before Joe's LTW is finished.

In the midst of all this training and career topping, Grima, the first pet to be obtained by the Nalaars and to top a career, became an elder.

I wish I had been paying more attention to his life meter so Joe and the others could have made a big deal over this, but it's hard to keep track of such things when there are six pets in the house as well as two elder Sims. At least I managed to get a picture of him showered in confetti.

Well, here he is. Grima fully grown and matured. He might be a doofus who took ages to train, but he is a great doofus and I love him.

The same day of Grima's birthday, Maribelle was able to successfully use his connections to become a Star.

JOE'S LTW IS FINALLY FINISHED!!!! YESYESYESYESYESYESYESYES

FINALLY!!!!

Joe: “Cap, you have always been a great friend of mine, and I was hoping that you would be able to do me a massive favor.”

Cap: “Let me guess, you want me to take the pets?”

Joe: “Correct. Not all of them, of course. I would very much like to keep Grima and Chrom around. But now that I have completed my life's work, I see that it would be very difficult on everyone to keep all six around. And who could I trust to take proper care of them more than you? What do you say?”

Cap: “Of course I'll take them, Joe. It would be my honor.”

Cap: “Well, guys, looks like you're coming home with me. Don't worry. You'll like it there. I'll make sure that you have every pet luxury I can provide.”

True to my word, I provided Owain, Yarne, Tharja, and Maribelle with every luxury they could want. I even built them their own little house right to the side of mine.

I hadn't quite placed everything when I took this picture, but here's the inside view of the Captain Mills Pet PalaceTM

Thanks for joining me for another chapter of the Nalaar legacy! I'll try to have chapter four up later today (possibly tomorrow).

Ethan the Butler: *grumble grumble* “Hair all over the place...stains on the carpets...” *grumble grumble* “Who has six pets anyway?”

Yarne is the son of the taguel Panne in Fire Emblem: Awakening. His fear of battle is often mistaken for cowardice, but is really the result of being the last of his race.

Owain is the son of the princess Lissa in FE:A. He is a fan of grandeur and naming his weapons.

Tharja is a Dark Mage in FE:A who is recruited to the hero's party from the enemy kingdom of Plegia. She is known for trying out her new hexes on unsuspecting allies...including her own daughter.

Maribelle is Lissa's best friend in FE:A. She is a healer who is obsessed with propriety and nobility.