Welcome back to the Vermachtnis Legacy! Last chapter we saw big meanie Palmer grow up, marry Lexie, another big meanie, and produce a passel of little meanies, plus one – a son with maxed nice points named Sid. The other four kids are named Samwise, Sebastian, Sean and youngest Sasha. Let’s see what they’re up to now.

The oldest three are all children now and the focus shifts to studying. Sammy continues to be a very quick skiller and Sebastian and Sean struggle to keep up with him. Sean had been a quick skiller as a toddler but something about childhood dumbed him down and he skills sooooo slow as a child.

Sid and Sasha are still little toddlers so there isn’t that much going on with them. They both learn their toddler skills then spend the rest of their time playing with toys in the nursery or the play table in the playroom. Because he can’t do that many interactions yet, Sid’s niceness hasn’t been much of a contrast with his siblings, but he does enjoy following the grownups around the house.

Despite every single sim in the house (besides Sid) being mean, they all seem to get along pretty well. Like their older brothers, Sid and Sasha make best friends at the play table and are also close to their parents and grandparents. Palmer and Lexie have turned out to be excellent parents and they take very good care of their offspring.

Max and Maddie continue to be giddily in love with each other and spend a lot of time interacting. Max is also very fond of Zoe and becomes her master. Zoe loves fetch and manages to lure sims outside to play with her constantly. In between working on her LTW, Lexie heads downtown to buy birthday gifts for the kids’ upcoming teen birthdays: phones!

Because he’s been to college and the family has plenty of friends, Palmer quickly reaches the top of the education career and becomes Minister of Education. Personally, I would be worried about just what he plans to include in the national curriculum.

“Alien supremacy, of course!”

Hmm. With this, Palmer is now perma-plat and only Lexie’s LTW is left to be fulfilled. Palmer’s new LTW is to be Captain Hero. He is doggedly determined to keep rolling ‘good’ wants despite his evil character.

Birthday time has come for Sammy and Sebastian. Please roll good aspirations, you guys!

Sammy rolls romance/popularity with the LTW to become a Visionary. You can’t tell too much from the front, but his nose has really grown hideous. Lexie was hiding a really killer nose. Luckily, only Sammy and Sean inherited it. Nose aside, he’s pretty cute, I think.

It goes without saying that Sebastian continues to be very cute. He rolls grilled cheese/family with the LTW to eat 200 grilled cheese sandwiches. Hmm. I know I said I’d attempt the LTW again after Penny, but I wasn’t hoping to do it again so soon. :/

Birthday time has also come for the younger twins on the same day and they grow up in a different room shortly after their brothers grow up downstairs.

Adorable! Although their eyes are different, Sid looks very similar to Seb. Except for his ears, he’s the only truly ‘normal’ looking sim of this generation and the only brunet. He really does stand out from his siblings, for looks and personality. Sasha looks a lot like Palmer, if he were a girl. Her eyes are a little smaller, though. I still think she’s charming and I’m loving that we got so many redheads this generation.

Now that they’re teens, the boys get back to the business of building skills. Parking them on a couch near the snapdragon, with books from the Education reward bookcase, turns out to be a very efficient way to raise those skills. Sammy very nearly has eight points in all his skills, though Seb isn’t that far behind him.

While they were toddlers, Sean sometimes played with his younger siblings, but now that they’re all children they can really get to be good friends. Because he’s in the middle, Sean is best friends with all of his siblings.

Sammy begins his romantic conquests with the first poor soul that follows him home off the bus. He doesn’t seem like much of a settling type to me, what with the romance/popularity aspiration, so I’ve resolved to let him court whoever comes home with him from school.

“Mom, Dad, Zoe? Not helping. A little privacy, please.”

“Hi wife!”

“Hi Palmer!”

“I got a promotion!”

“Arrrrrrgh!”

Lexie’s promotion means that she has become a Celebrity Chef like her father-in-law and mother-in-law before her. Done and done. All the adults and elders in the house are now perma-platinum. I really lucked out with the job-related LTWs this generation. Nothing like Max and Maddie’s arduous date LTWs.

The boys are trying to become over-achievers to please family sim Palmer. On their second day of work, they hit a bit of a snag as both are affected by glitches. Seb gets stuck in the carpool car, unable to leave the lot, so I reset him, which makes him disappear from the lot. When I press play, he reappears, but Sammy – who had already been at work for an hour – also reappears, though in the inaccessible storage basement. After sorting out that mess, the boys drive to work (or back to work, in Sammy’s case) and are promptly scolded for coming in late. Sigh.

Seb kept rolling wants to get good grades – and then fulfilling them – so it took several days for his aspiration to get low enough to actually turn him into a grilled cheese sim. We get there eventually, and we’re finally able to comply with what the die decreed.

Once the youngest twins have good enough grades, the Headmaster is summoned to get them all into private school. He’s more than happy to help himself to leftover drinks from Palmer and Lexie’s wedding. Yes, the drinks have been sitting there that long. With June and Mary gone, the bar is rather abandoned.

Later, he gets to eat grilled cheese by himself so that he doesn’t talk too long and mess up getting the kids accepted, as has happened to me before. He’s not too impressed with this leg of the visit, but serving the grilled cheese makes Seb ecstatic.

Lexie has been very interested in music, though it’s not her One True Hobby, and she finds a lot of time to engage in it. Without prompting from me, she’s soon getting into the zone while blogging and changing into her concert hall duds to play the piano. It’s pretty rare that any of them bother to change out of PJs except for work, so the formal clothes are a nice change.

There’s always plenty of play going on at the house. Even though Sid’s nice and everyone else is a big ol’ jerk, the kids seem to get along pretty well. Like I said earlier, Sean is friends with everyone but the older twins and the younger twins don’t know each other that well because of their age difference. Sasha was born with strong relationships with both Seb and Sammy though, so she likes them just fine despite not interacting with them much.

Sammy is at the top of the teen athletic career as a SimJazzer instructor, and unfortunately he can’t wear his own hair to work I guess, so he runs around with a different haircut whenever he’s in uniform.

“Tragically, our Idiots’ Club meetings have been interrupted by the distinct lack of nurseries in the house at the present time. Luckily for us, we can relocate to the hall. Okay everybody, hang loose!”

Seb and Sammy keep working at their skills and eventually get all the skilling scholarships. They’re almost ready to go to college but not quite yet.

Through building many block towers and then gleefully smashing them down, Sasha manages to maximize her mechanical skill, a want that she’s actually had locked for a long time.

The teens spend most of their free time skilling, but the kids have plenty of play time. Sid and Sasha have become especially fond of showing off for any passing grown-ups.

“Um, a little privacy, please?”

“Sorry, Palmer. Don’t know the meaning of that word.”

“Not now, honey. I’m planning on doing ‘hang loose’ at your father.”

I would like to share a small victory that I’ve had. Maddie is super messy and I dread whenever she needs to improve her hygiene need because she leaves puddles as large as the bathroom is wide whenever she showers. I rarely have my sims bathe if I’m controlling them, but I discovered that she does not leave puddles if she takes a bath, so now she gets to bathe all the time. Very clever, Maddie. At least you won’t spend so much time mopping now.

While his brother continues to woo any poor teen that follows him home, Sebastian has less success. He tried making nice with the paper girl but he’s not very good at conversing and they leave each other’s presence with -1 lifetime relationship.

Eventually Seb brings a nice-looking girl home from school, but she admits that she thinks he’s super barfy as soon as she steps off the bus, so she’s quickly ushered off the lot. Sebastian just isn’t having much luck in the romantic department.

While Sebastian contemplates his loneliness with the company of the bushes, Sammy is already making friends with his next conquest.

The kids keep bringing people home and it makes for a rather crowded sidewalk. Now that Sammy and Seb have grown out of their age group, Morris’ sons are now coming home with the younger twins. I don’t know why that particular group of three children keeps getting chosen by the game to come home with people, but it sure likes sending them here. Eh, they make good friend material and it’s always nice to see relatives.

Now that she’s at maximum enthusiasm, Lexie has become a hobby busybody. The piano is pretty popular, but no one can play it without her rushing over to give tips – wanted or not.

The whole family is pretty musical, in fact. The drums got added because Seb finally wanted something that wasn’t grilled cheese so it was easy aspiration points for him without the downside of subtracted fitness points.

“Hey, Morris Jr. What? No, I’m just watching my older brother make out with another throwaway townie. He’ll be old news by tomorrow. Yeah, I’m sure this is a totally healthy thing for me to witness. No problems here.”

Poor Sean is a victim of Middle Child Syndrome, and he doesn’t even get a cake to celebrate his teen birthday with.

During the celebration, Morris comes over to pick up his sons but he’s got a little something on his mind.

“I hate Elle. We fought and I lost.”

No you didn’t. You won. What’s your problem? Did you lose some other fight that I don’t know about?

“I hate Elle.”

Fine, whatever.

Here’s Sean as a teenager. He finally gets to sit on the Teenage Couch of Skilling, but he is still so slow. Although the older boys have already got their skills at 8 or above, I can tell it’s going to take forever to get Sean there.

Sean’s aspiration is knowledge/grilled cheese and he has the LTW to max 7 skills. Perfect for such a slow sim.

Even Sasha makes a better teenage skiller than Sean, and she’s no teenager. Oddly enough, she keeps rolling skilling wants so she spends some time on the couch as well.

Now that Sean has joined him in teenager-dom, Seb tries to get in a little grilled cheese talk before being bullied by Sean. There’s some of that mean sim! I was starting to get a little worried, what with how everyone was friends and just played with each other.

While Sammy’s last date drops off a fountain for us, the three teenagers take turns leaving for college. Their youngest siblings still have a few more days before they can join them.

“Hey, former coworker of Seb, hang loose!”

Oh great. Until now, the infection had just been passed around the house but now it’s been spread into the community at large. I can see it now: my entire neighborhood is going to be filled with brainless sims hanging loose at each other.

The malady is alive and well in the home still. It has such a strong effect on the intelligence of sims that Sasha doesn’t even take care to avoid phasing into her grandmother’s leg.

This is . . . you know what? I don’t even know her name. She’s a coworker of Sebastian’s but she hung out at the house long after he went to college. I lost track of her for a while and when she turned up again, she was in her underwear and awkwardly doing ‘hang loose’ to Madeleine. How did she end up in her underwear? I have NO idea. There is something kind of screwed up in my game with visitor behavior. Either that or the townies are really losing it.

Aww, parent hugging. Palmer and Lexie are beloved by all their kids. They’re actually rather sweet for a family of mean sims. That makes them a bit more difficult to write for though.

Sasha and Sid get a headstart on their teen skilling so they can join their brothers in college sooner. Meanwhile, Lexie takes an interest in logic and begins rolling want after want, culminating in a sweet 8,000 points when she maxes it. Sid is happy to join her along the way. In general, Sid really enjoys being with his family and is always interacting with someone.

“Okay Zoe, come here!”

“I am here, silly. We’re standing a foot and a half apart.”

“Dogs can’t talk, Zoe.”

Zoe learns her first – and let’s be honest, probably last – trick from Sasha, who has become (along with Max) one of Zoe’s favorite people.

Learning the trick comes just in time for us to say that Zoe did something useful during her adult dog years. It seems like just yesterday (okay, yesterday plus four years ago) that she was born, but she’s already an elder. She’s the first pet I’ve played to elder stage in my game and I’m going to be really sad when she’s gone. The Vermachtnis family will miss her a lot too – they all really like her.

This is our fire tree. We keep it around because lightening rods are too boring for my sims. It’s much more exciting for the willow to catch fire during every single storm that passes through Halcyon River Hills. Thanks for such neat code, developers – it sure does keep the game interesting!

The boys come home for a visit from college one night. They’re all looking good: they’ve matured nicely, and Sean and Sammy’s noses have grown disproportionately from the rest of their body. Just what I was hoping for. *sigh*

Lexie has become addicted to blogging and now autonomously blogs about several different hobbies, no longer just Music and Dance. She’s turning into quite the little hobbyist. Out of all my sims, she seems to be getting the most benefit from Freetime.

Ah, mean sims. Leave them to themselves for a little while and this is what you get – lots of arguments with people they’re on perfectly good terms with. If they weren’t already in such good relationships, I would have fights breaking out left and right based on the number of arguments that they all have. As you can see, Max is a frequent offender despite having the second highest number of nice points in the house – a whopping three points. Yep, except for Sid, they’re all jerks. The arguments are actually kind of entertaining so I wouldn’t mind so much except that it sends the kids running from the room, crying. Not cool.

Wolf fight!

On the front steps!

In the middle of the night!

That is all.

After many, many days, the Law Enforcement career finally comes up on the computer and Palmer is able to start working towards his second LTW of becoming Captain Hero. Lexie’s second LTW is to become a Visionary but the art career hasn’t turned up yet. The downside of having so many careers is that it makes it a lot harder to find particular ones. If either of them had wanted to be an oceanographer, though, they could have joined the career about five times over by now.

One little hug before they grow up – which Sid loves and Sasha smiles for through gritted teeth.

It’s finally time for the last of the generation to become teenagers and eventually head to college.

A quick makeover for a picture, and then it’s two calls to college for the youngest twins of generation seven.

Sid is fortune/knowledge with the LTW to be a world class ballet dancer. Cute.

Sasha is popularity/family – someone who wants to be loved, obviously – and her LTW is to be a celebrity chef. Great – we can get three generations of celebrity chefs in the house if she gets picked to be heir. How necessary!

Everyone finally arrives at college and gets their new looks settled. Sid finally tries a new haircut. You can see the tragedy of Sean and Sammy’s noses pretty clearly here.

Sammy is majoring in Art, Sebastian in History, Sean in Economics, Sid in Drama and Sasha in Philosophy.

So begins the process of getting all five kids into the ancestral Greek house. Mr. Talin Bui, our placeholder, starts with Sebastian and works his way through making friends with all of them before I remember that once one of them joins, he or she can bring on the siblings that they’re already friends with. Whoops.

Okay already, you guys!

The looseness is hung!

The hanging has been done loosely!

Now the hung items are all loose!

Please move on.

Sasha settles in for a long bout of research in the Urele Ara Hoh library. Seb sits down for a chat but eventually joins her. When they’re both done pledging and join up, they have full study bars. That makes my life a bit easier! Well done, sims.

Not all the decisions that these five make while pledging are good ones, however. Sasha and Sid spend a good amount of time dancing, despite the fact that neither of them have ever danced before, resulting in quite the little comedy in one corner of the house. Sammy sits down to enjoy some rotten pizza while Sasha watches him carefully, abstaining from the pizza herself.

“Did you hear? Your mother . . . tee hee . . . she married . . . ha ha . . . your father! Oh, the drama!”

Talin, you make Arthur Masterpiece look like a good gossiper. At least abductions are mildly scandalous, unlike weddings. Hmph.

“Um, who are you and what are you doing here, little guy?”

“Oh, I’m Peter Vermachtnis, one of Morris’ sons. I called Sasha on the phone and she answered so I thought I’d invite myself over and stand outside your porch and smustle awkwardly. Why, is that a problem?”

Once everyone is a member of the house, Talin can head back to the dorms for another generation. Sasha and Sebastian are all studied up for this semester, but the other three have to work on their assignments and term papers to catch up.

Here’s the difference between very, very mean sims and very, very nice sims.

Sasha, a zero-pointer, scowls even during a great convo with her new best friend brother.

Sid, a ten-pointer, goes around giving hugs and family kisses to everyone. Luckily most everyone likes him so they don’t reject him. It would probably crush his sweet little heart.

Since she’s now a popularity sim, Sasha is very interested in making friends with her two older brothers. A little hanging out, a few hugs, and everyone’s besties.

Were you worried that the bathtub would get lonely without Palmer there to bathe in, play in, and clean it?

Well, worry no longer! He’s neither particularly playful nor neat so the bathtub doesn’t get the variety of attention it used to, but Sid makes sure to keep it company by taking frequent bubble baths instead of studying.

Sammy starts cutting a romantic swathe across campus, beginning with his professors. Despite his deformed nose, he’s pretty successful with this romance stuff. He also goes on a series of dates all across downtown and Bluewater searching for male NPCs. Most of the male NPCs are either hideous or are ones that we’ve already had in the legacy. The boys are all straight or bi so they get a mate if they are chosen, but Sasha needs a possible mate if she becomes heiress, as well as any future female heirs. We eventually find an attractive male professor as well as a few other potentials. Thanks, Sammy!

The last popularity sim I played a lot was June Vermachtnis. Like her great-grandmother, Sasha spends a lot of time on the phone. Unlike June, however, Sasha is really bad at conversation and gets a lot of negatives while she’s talking. I like to imagine that she’s saying really inappropriate things.

“Your son is totally hot! I want to . . .”

“Yeah, I thought your haircut made you look pretty ugly. What? What’s wrong?”

“Hello, Professor Goopy Fancey*? Would you give me the answers to the exam tomorrow? What do you mean that’s not an appropriate question? All you people and your manners and your social mores are really starting to bum me out. And your toupee is way stupid, FYI. Okay, see you in class, Prof!”

*I did not make this name up.

The older twins actually got up to eight points in all their skills and Sasha has quite a few as well thanks to being a good skiller. Sid and poor, slow Sean are pretty deficient so they have to do a fair amount of studying just to be able to fill up their study bars. They spend *a lot* of time in the library these days.

Eventually everyone is pretty caught up for the semester and it’s time for play. It’s no surprise that the musical instruments are a big draw. All three of the oldest boys have games as their One True Hobby, so there’s plenty of gaming that goes on as well.

With a successful first year behind them, the seventh generation of the Vermachtnis family is ready to continue growing and improving in college, moving inexorably forward to the eighth generation. But to get there, we need to pick an heir first so let’s go ahead and do that. Keep clicking for stats on the five kids and then you can vote on them at SiMania. Thanks for reading!

Samwise “Sammy” Vermachtnis – the Long-nosed Lothario

Romance/popularity – Become Visionary

7/8/9/10/1

Sebastian Vermachtnis – the Cheddar Cutie

Grilled cheese/family – Eat 200 grilled cheese sandwiches

10/8/4/10/0

Sean Vermachtnis – the Rudimentary Reader

Knowledge/grilled cheese – Max 7 skills

7/8/9/10/1

Sid Vermachtnis – the Outlier

Fortune/knowledge – Become World-Class Ballet Dancer

4/7/10/4/10

Sasha Vermachtnis – the Controversial Converser

Popularity/family – Become Celebrity Chef

8/8/10/1/0

Until next time . . .

“Hang loose, everyone!”

*headdesk*