1.02 - The Start of a Castle

Mr. NonMutton Chops and Haru were enjoying their post-move-in bliss.


And for once, Haru is surprisingly quiet about this. I quite like Erick. He keeps her busy.


Very busy.


Still busy.
Haru: Shush, we're on a date!
That's right, with Erick's Soulmates aspiration, I got straight to work on completing at least 4 or 5 of the required dates back to back to back. This ended with a specific wish Erick wanted to fulfill:






Looks like our Haru has found her Baron after all... *sniffles*


Heee, aww, Erick, can I call you Baron now? 
Erick: Uh... no.
Baron Von Mutton Chops? Baron... SANS Mutton Chops? Baron Erick sans Mutton Chops-
Haru: *shushes me* We're busy!




So that was how our Haru found her Li-Baron-ian.
Haru: *snorts*
Hah! You ARE my character! My characters are all suckers for a good pun! 



Haru: No I was laughing at your attempt. Good effort. Nice try.
Erick: Well, this should be exciting.


Erick: *squinting* Well, I hope Haru likes eggs with her pepper.
*snorting* I'm sure she'll be just fine. Pepper is good for the soul.


Haru: So... how do I get this knife to sit nicely in this block of wood.
With a lot of force.
Haru: Yeah... I somehow really doubt this.


Yeah, well, poking it ain't gonna do much either. 
Haru: I'm not just poking it, I'm visualizing.
Mhm, sure thing.
So this is where things stand: Erick is going to be a stay at home writer and homemaker, while Haru goes out and gets launched into space for money.


As such, you can imagine that Erick is going to be here a lot, working on his books.


Erick: annnnd another blue screen of death.
That's ok. Haru can fix it later for her aspiration. See? It all works out. 
Erick: Yeah, but what do I do until then?
... I don't know... other stuff? You could talk to me!



Haru made it home from work and was ambushed by Erick.
Erick: Please never leave me alone with her for that long again without something to do!
Haru: There, there. It'll be ok. Let it out.


Haru had a laundry list of things that needed fixed, and soon she popped outside to work on her requirements for her next promotion.




Erick, meanwhile, worked on his requirements for Soulmates and finally we got enough royalties pulled in to expand the house a necessary amount.


Anyways, in order to complete the Soulmates, Erick needs to be married so... off to plan this beautiful wedding event!
[Spoiler alert: it goes terribly]
They started their days off together -


... who says romance is dead?
Uhm, so long story short, I remember I hosted the wedding at the park, and the requirements were merciless. They didn't have a cake... or a bar... or food... or music. So I think we barely got a Silver on this party? I mean at least they got married, lol!







Haru and Erick didn't care about the points, though. They were just happy to have each other and so I guess I don't mind the lack of a gold medal.
I seriously have no idea how I'm going to coordinate so many gold parties... No one tells you how to keep track of this shit. *flips furiously through the guide and print-out*
*grumbles*
*counts on fingers*
*stares at sky*


*counts more on fingers*
*grumbles*
*pulls out an excel spreadsheet*
*writes figures on a whiteboard*


I DID IT! I DID IT YES! I DID... way more... than I needed to. Ahem. It probably won't look like much to everyone, but it's neat and tidy for me! The top left corner, teal-looking boxes will keep track of my parties:points ratio, then the grid right below that keeps track of how many more parties I'd have to host to complete my 1000 points needed. I've got the equations all hooked up nice and neatly! It's shaping up to be roughly 30-something per generation, but that would be including the 10th generation, so we're looking at about high-30-something/low-40-something per generation. Now if I pull out the Soulmates Aspiration for each heir and spouse that should knock out at least 14 per generation. Gold dates are easy, so I'll probably milk that some more to get my 40-ish per generation.
...As you'll find out in future chapters... birthdays are hard.
Especially hard on me.
I also didn't realize you could edit lots, because well... in the Sims 3 you can't so I just assumed you couldn't in the Sims 4, which is hugely why Erick and Haru's wedding tanked so badly... but... NEVER AGAIN!


Random Dude: Hey Haru! Did you know-
Haru: Yes that's a table, I'm very aware!
Random Dude: By the GODS how is she so smart?! Erick you're one lucky bloke!


Erick: Beauty and brains, what a catch indeed!
Haru: I know, I try. He's at a table, and there's tables way over there too.
Erick: Woah now, don't over-exert yourself.
Haru: *snorts* No, I'm saving that for later...




So life resumed in the Ghibli house as normal. Haru continued pursuing her Aspiration, and Erick pursued money-making in self-publishing.


It's neat that they can flirt with each other while doing this to help fulfill Erick's Soulmate aspiration requirements!


Of course, there's always a price to be paid for such smoothness.
Doesn't that... hurt?
Haru and Erick: *kissing noises*
Shortly after this, Erick got invited over to hang out with someone - someone I assumed he knew since they called to ask and hang out over at his place... well...


Haru: *pained smiling* where the hell are we, writer?
*is scrambling through Erick's relationship panel* WAIT he doesn't even KNOW this dude! How did he get your number to invite you over? 


... and WHY is this dude a teen?!
Haru: We should probably go before some Dateline shows up to haul us away in the back of cop cars for trying to meet with a minor...
So, she and Erick bailed.


They had better things to do, anyways.


Like... eat!


Any Red vs Blue fans out there? No? Just me? My name is Michael J. Caboose, and I. Hate. Babies.
Anyways, you know what eating does, of course:




It makes you FAT! And you suddenly gain 4 cup-sizes in bra. I wish I got streamers every time I went to the bathroom. Would make life more exciting.
What's that you say? Oh right, I guess pregnancy is a cool thing to celebrate too.
Haru: *glaring at me*
Shouldn't you go tell your husband of this wonderful news? I've got future names to plan here! 



Haru: So... honey...


Haru: I'm pregnant!


Erick: That's great, Haru! It only took us one try, too!
Haru: Exactly!
Woah guys, don't get TOO enthusiastic there. All this extreme excitement is just going to make the room BURST. 
Haru and Erick together: Your sarcasm is bad and you should feel bad.


Anyways, Haru needed to do her exercising before she went into work the next day. She's going to work straight through any and all of her pregnancies.
Spoiler alert: yeah, there's more than one.


Haru is pretty sweet though, subconsciously touching her stomach. The Whims in the Sims 4 don't really feel... important? It's hard to explain. I always knew when my Sims in the Sims 3 wanted to get married or have a child - it was like their wishes gave them agency. The Sims 4 just has really frivilous whims that seem to disappear way too quickly to actually matter. I'll save them, but most of the time I forget they're even there. It kind of feels a bit aimless.


Anyways, after her short intermission on the couch, I sent her back to finish hammering out that daily task. We need 100%, Haru! Nothing less!
So Geoffrey Landgraab is one of Haru's only friends, and by "friends" I mean "loose acquaintance." My sims usually live about how I do - as anti-social as possible. Anyways, Geoffrey called telling Haru he was having a birthday party and to come over. I felt obligated to oblige so...


Here's the Caterer... that... pancakes guy everyone is super obsessed over.


He made the cake though, so like... A+ Caterer. Haru went over and "celebrated" at the cake. Then she and Erick stood around in the seemingly empty house and tapped their toes...


Malcolm popped up out of nowhere - he's a teen in this picture (I'm pretty sure). Senior Pancakes there made a second cake, which was good because Haru had the pregnancy munchies and just wanted to eat everyone out of house and home.



Erick came down and they all chatted with Malcolm as Haru dug into her second (third?) slice of cake.
Haru: Whfat? I was hungfrey!
Chew your food, swallow and THEN talk, sweetie.
Haru: *sticks her tongue out at me* *takes another bite of cake*


A signature stack of pancakes made later and I realized Geoffrey wasn't even going to make it home in time for his own birthday party!



And tiny Haru is somehow only a second trimester here... holy shit. Anymore and she'll pop.
So Geoffrey arrived home shortly after the party ended (as an elder, I might add!) and we got a note of "well that was embarrassing, huh?" from him.
So my dynamic duo went home.


Erick: I prefer my pajamas anyways.
Same, bro, same.



Haru was gone for a long shift at work as Erick began working on his writing. It was here I think he mastered the writing skill. I don't remember exactly, though, because this was before I turned the UI on. Sorry in advance if UI being on BUGS people, but it's more for my reference, plus it's easier to joke about what Sims are doing if I actually have a sense for...well... what they're doing. XD


Erick also had a wish to learn the Parenting skill. Probably a wise idea, all things considering - Haru is set to give birth that afternoon!


Erick: Fascinating! Did you know babies can recognize their mother's voices because they hear it so frequently in the womb?
Mhm, all that pregnancy fanciness. It's neato.
Erick: You don't have kids, do you?
Hey! I have a fuzzy child. That's all that matters to me. 
Erick: *eye rolls*


Then he goes back to reading until Haru got home and was immediately ambushed by Geoffrey Landgraab who wanted to hang out.


Sure...? Why not?


Geoffrey mostly leaves these two alone. I don't even know why he bothers wanting to "hang out." Maybe he's as anti-social as they are... and his wife is super social and pushy. Nothing like a wife saying "GO OUT AND HANG OUT WITH PEOPLE" thus sending him to find the only people who will "hang out" in a way that isn't torturous for him.
No? Just me?
Ok then.


I don't have many pictures, but Haru was pretty miserable this first pregnancy. She was tired all the time and hungry all the time, and constantly having to pee. From what I've heard, that's pretty accurate to pregnancy, but I still feel bad for her. Working and doing all that too? Misery.


Erick dotes on her though. They're actually really, really cute.


Haru had time to kill before labor and her aspiration and career required her to have a rocket, so she worked on building that. It wasn't long before she was interrupted by some beautiful husband time.







...and it was THIS picture (I'm 99.99% sure) he finished his aspiration!


Because I remember taking this one thinking OH IT SHOWS THE ASPIRATION AS COMPLETED ACROSS THE SCREEN---except I didn't have UI on. So thus began my first debate of "do I leave UI on or off?"
I also hate how this folder labels screenshots. REALLY hate it. Why can't they just use the Sims 3 method? That worked! It was so CLEAN!
*grumbles*
*contemplates just switching to a new screenshot program all together*
*downloads four of them*
*ends up hating all of them*
*returns to the Sims 4 built-in one*
*grumbles more about UI*


Haru: Uh... can you be done being a brooding writer and help me! Owwww!
Huh? Oh! Labor! Labor! Yes!
*Rushes off to roll for the traits of the child*
Haru: Do you have the name ready?
Yes, I do, my deary-o. I'm very ready.
Thus Haru gave birth to the first child of this legacy: a baby boy.





Geoffrey: OMG. WOW. CHILDBIRTH.
Haru: *ignoring* *gritting teeth* make him go away.
Consider it done. Poof.



I was torn at first between which Ghibli film I wanted to use for the second generation - especially at the birth of the second one. I was leaning one way but I decided in a split second to go a different direction, then rolled his traits and found myself deliciously pleased by how perfect it all worked out:




Howl Ghibli.



The charming, arrogant, womanizer wizard. That's right, we're starting off with the Castle - Howl's Moving Castle, my absolute favorite movie of the Ghibli movies. Phenomenal music. Phenomenal art. Phenomenal everything. I'm going to end up leaning very heavily on the books for this generation (minor spoiler alert).


The first two books (Howl's Moving Castle and Castle in the Air) were very good; the last one (House of Many Ways) was more boring for me. Anyways, I found this personality extremely fitting because Howl, in the books, was a musician who would impress girls by playing the guitar.
The Neat is also fitting, if anyone knows Howl's little tantrum he throws when Sophie messed up the way he ordered his potions in the bathroom:


AKA I'm squealing and we're off to a good start!
...and Haru and Howl were off to bed, conking out as soon as they laid down.


Childbirthin' is some hard stuff, ladies and gents.
Haru didn't sleep for long. Eventually she woke up and resumed working.


Erick also stood up and had this weird post-birth meltdown. I thought it was hilarious.


Erick: OH MY GOD WE HAVE A CHILD. WHERE IS THE CHILD?
In your bedroom, resting.


Erick: WHAT IF HE'S NOT BREATHING? I NEED TO GO CHECK!


...and the verdict is? Is he dead?


Erick: Nope! Just a stinky nappy and an empty belly!


Ah, parenthood.


Seeing as Haru was still a working lady with absolutely no maternity leave whatsoever, Erick pulled all the late night changes with a smile. Parenthood looks really good on him. He even started encouraging me to place Howl in the same room as him at all times.




It was really cute.
Anyways, we'll finish this update with an update on Haru's career!


Lookin' good, Haru! Nice face.
Haru: Shut up.
So what promotion did you get?
Haru: .... if you laugh I swear I'm going to-


HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Yeah, you're a real SPACE cadet. HAHAHAHA! 
Haru: *growling*
Hey, shush, I wish I could make $104 an HOUR. You're not even maxed out of your career yet. 
Haru: Still a long... long way to go.
We'll do what we gotta do, babe. 'Cause we just gotta do it.
Until next time!

Comments

  1. Hhaaaaaa they're super gooey I love these two, even when they're dislocating their arms to reach other snort
    Lol seems TS4 is just like TS3 in terms of visitors overstaying their welcome

    FIRST BABY and heeeee HOWL hahahhaashit that movie was GREAT. The traits really are perf, I snorted hard.

    Erick your perf for this legacy mhm hehehe

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