Week 3, Part 3: Curious (OWBC)

[lakewood_bacc]

Hello, and welcome back to Lakewood: Just a BaCC! This time it's turn for the Curious family OWBC. Let's see how the various family members are.

Hi there, Bonita, hi Odessa. A bit of sibling bonding going on? Good, good.
 

And hi there Pascal, what's... oh.

Pascal: "My pancakes! My pancakes just went up in flames!"

I see. I'll be right back. *marks "2 fires" on the BaCC score sheet*

With no alarms, Pascal got to be the hero and extinguish the fire himself. He was unharmed, the pancakes less so.

Hi, Nervous. Just a word of warning: those pancakes are, well, really well-done.

Nervous: "I was wondering why Pascal smelled like burned sugar when he headed for the shower. Well, anyway, I better eat these anyway, I'm starving."

That's true. Well, at least this is the last obligatory pregnancy, so unless you guys go for more yourselves, you don't have to go through this anymore. Try to hang in there.

Loki came to steal our newspaper. Well, at least it wasn't gnome #2, right?

After getting showered and eating, Pascal spent his forenoon studying a bit of magic. After that it was time to hit the broom.

First off, Pascal headed to meet the Good Witch. If he was to perform some magic without spending all his time chained to the cauldron, he would need to buy some reagents. Mind you, that doesn't mean that he doesn't need to spend time chained to the cauldron.

Pascal: "For me?"

Good Witch: "Yes, for you. You just bought them, remember?"

Then, he headed to the electronics store, so that he could spend some time chained to the robotics station instead. Well, at least that one gains some fun.

Pascal opened the store, and customers were steadily buying things.

And gaining stars. We made it to level 8, woot woot!

Being a warlock, Pascal is pretty good at running a business: he doesn't even have to be in gold or platinum so he could energize, but he can just occasionally cast Benemodus Simae on himself and keep working.

Still, running a level 8 busy business alone is kind of a heavy task, and since Nervous is currently stuck at home with the little ones, we decided to hire some help. None of the potential applicants had any relevant badges, so we just went with Mary Sue.

Pascal: "Hi, Mary Sue, welcome to your first shift at Curious Gadgets. Would you please start with the cash register?"

The start was of course a bit rough for Mary Sue...

... but soon enough she started getting it, thanks to the Smarter Cashiers fix.

Wow, that's two gold bags in a row – I think Curious Gadgets must be the financially most successful business in town. Please don't screw this up, Mary Sue!

She didn't. In fact, before Pascal's session ended, she'd learned enough to gain a silver cashier badge.

Pascal: "Great work, Mary Sue! Now let's see, it looks like you're somewhat underpaid at the moment, so let's fix that. Now, I think that's enough for the day. Thanks for your help and see you soon again!"

Indeed it was enough for the day, as Pascal was in a hurry to get back home. He had a toddler to train, as Odessa's birthday was going to be that night.

Meanwhile, Nervous got to run away from the bees again. Well, at least he caught something first.

He was having a bit of a rough time needs-wise, so he got to energize.

And a good thing too, since tonight it's time for Odessa's child birthday, and thus the obligatory party of the spring! Nervous gets to do the invites.

The party is on, and there is some romance in the air apparently.

Coral: "Minding my own business here."

And where do you two think you're going?

Nina & General: "Nowhere, nowhere, go on enjoy the party."

Nina: "Hey, I was going to take that gnome!"

General: "What are you talking about? I wasn't going to take it."

General: "Ok, so, I was totally going to take it."

Well, it looks like Nervous has some work to do later. But now it's time for Odessa to grow up.

With an appropriate amount of cheering.

Odessa: "Daddy's toeses!"

Odessa is still cute. Although I do think we'll need to do something about that outfit first thing tomorrow.

Right now it's party time, and as Bonita's friend from school, Reese, is still over, Odessa can get to know her a bit.

Meanwhile, the adults have fun in their own way. Daniel F., I don't mind you boosting the party score, but don't you think Daniel P. might have something to say about this?

Daniel F.: "He doesn't mind, he's the Romance sim of the household."

Well I suppose you're right.

All in all, the party was a roof raiser.

Odessa needed a place to sleep, and since I wasn't about to makeover the house in the middle of the night, she got a temporary bed in the nursery.

Late that night, Nervous went into labor. No one else was there, since everyone was asleep while he was still wandering in the kitchen. The labor also got in the way of stealing back a gnome.

Anyway, all went well and Nervous gave birth to the third girl of the generation, whom we named Octavia. Welcome to the family, little one!

Since Nervous wasn't too tired, Octavia promptly got some new, warm clothes.

And to my delight, Nervous also stole back a gnome yet that night before bed.

I'll make a confession: I think that at this point, we were actually missing two gnomes, but I was a little confused so I'm not sure. So I'll just say that what Nervous stole back was gnome #1 and we're all good for that bonus.

 

Daddy Pascal drove to the Walmart first thing in the morning, so litte Odessa got a makeover. Pretty cute, I'd say!

Oh, and the house also got a little bit of a makeover. I built a second floor so that the girls could get their own rooms, and as a side product, Pascal got this spiffy little secret magic room.

Everyone in the family of course knows that he's a warlock (and someone will very likely follow him as one later on), but hey, I can't think of a reason not to have a spiffy little secret magic room! At least it should keep any curious toddlers/kids from accidentally falling into his cauldron.

Nervous gets to start his day with some baby duty. Which is of course a favorite, he's a Family sim.

As noon rolls around, Pascal gets to work on the broken household items. That particular rule seems to be pretty hard to remember, but so far I have.

After Octavia is all happy and needs her rest, it's of course time for more bugs.

After school's out, Bonita and Odessa get to raise their fun and bond at the same time. It seems that they're getting on pretty well.

In the evening, it was time to work on studying, for both of the older girls. Somehow I forgot about teaching Bonita to study, and only in the morning realized how slowly she was getting through her homework. Well, better late than never.

After that, it was again bug time for Nervous. It's always bug time for the Bug Nut! (And I'm sure I'll have seen enough of bugs for a while when this challenge is over.)

In the morning, Pascal left Nervous with the kids and the bugs, and headed to the electronics store. Customers were confused as always.

Mary Sue: "Don't look at me, I just run the cash register."

Consort: "The owner of the store! Did he just do what I think he did?"

No, you must be seeing things, Consort. Nope, nothing odd going on at all.

In other words, I just realized that being a warlock is even more useful than I thought: Pascal can not only improve his own needs, but the needs of others! Employee needs are always an issue especially in longer business sessions, well here's help on that!

Pascal took a break from running the business and went to buy some more reagents. We couldn't resist the temptation to try the throne. The rules say active mood boosters are allowed, and since Pascal has to sit on the throne for it to work, I'm ruling it legal. And the rules don't say anything about it not actually being Pascal's, so...

Pascal: "Ooh, this is nice, I want one of these!"

I bet. Well, that's going to take some more practice with magic, but let's try.

Then right back to the business and the robot bench it was. Pascal earned his silver badge.

We also opened the store again shortly afterwards, and were able to get it to level 9.

And a little bit after that, Mary Sue earned her gold cash register badge.

Well done, Mary Sue, you've earned yourself another raise! Now it's time to head back home again.

Once there, it was time to take care of baby Octavia. She got to spend a bit of time in the bouncy chair, too, so she wouldn't feel bored.

Bonita got her first A+. Daddy Pascal was appreciative, but he was also busy practicing to paint.

Since school was over, the big girls decided to bond and have fun at the same time, and a water balloon fight was perfect for that.

Since the girls could use the perks of private school and Pascal could use the aspiration boost, we decided that it was time to invite the headmaster for dinner.

Pascal prepared the dinner, so Nervous got to do the house tour. The headmaster seemed to enjoy it.

Meanwhile, the girls were still outside, continuing their bonding. Which was going rather well.

The headmaster dinner went well, too, for all I could tell. At least the headmaster was hungry?

Well, we had to resort to having him drink coffee, but the girls made it to private school.

Yet that night, it was time for little Octavia's birthday. No party, because we just had one, and everyone was pretty tired after the headmaster visit. In fact, it was only Pascal and Nervous, because Bonita and Odessa had gone to bed already.

Daddy Nervous got to do the honors and blow the candles out. Let's see how little Octavia turns out.

Hi there Octavia! Aren't you a cutie? Now Daddy Nervous will first take you to potty and then get you some nice clothes.

And indeed it was time for a late night potty training session and a makeover before it was bedtime for the Daddies. Octavia wasn't tired so she got to play with her big sister's old alien toy.

She's a cutie. I think her eyes are quite interesting: she got Pascal's blue eyes, but the eye shape is clearly Nervous'. Oh, and her stats: 6/10/10/7/2 (Gemini).

In the morning, it was time for Bonita and Odessa's first day in private school.

So it was just Octavia and her Daddies at home. They had a nice time together.

But they also had some work to do. Like for instance potty training.

While Octacia was amusing herself, Nervous had an important phone call to make.

Nervous: "Hello? The real estate agency? I hear you have a new community lot available, a club?"

Before he could visit his new business, though, Nervous had other duties. Like teaching Octavia to walk, which he managed quite quickly with smart milk. (Have I mentioned lately how much I love smart milk?)

 

And where was Pascal during all this? Well, he was busy too, busy getting the portrait painting palooza started for the Family Scrapbook bonus.

The girls brought a friend from school and out gnome promptly went missing again. Some friend you are, Bottom! (That's a seriously mean look on her face, too.)

Odessa, too, got her first A+, and was very pleased about it.

In just one afternoon, Pascal managed to finish Nervous' portrait and it was promptly hung on the wall. (Well technically a still life painting, like all my portraits. I had to try the actual portrait option a couple of times before I remembered how glitched it is and why I never use it.)

Finally, after the afternoon's fuss was over, Nervous got to go to his new business for the first time. Welcome to Club Flamingo, the second business of the Curious family and the seventh altogether in Lakewood!

As the name implies, the business is a club. This means that it makes for the "Boolprop Clubhouse" bonus of the OWBC, and also unlocks a position in the Slacker career. Strictly speaking the OWBC rules talk about the founder of the challenge owning the place, but since elsewhere just the "founding generation" is mentioned and Pascal already has a business, I'm going with Nervous.

Anyway, come on in and make yourself at home. At Club Flamingo, we've got it all! We have a karaoke machine (and not pictured: a bar)...

... a hot tub, a bubble blower...

... and we have a dance floor, too! Don't mind the DJ, he's a bit inexperienced, but he'll learn.

Apparently we also have customers who know how to entertain themselves.

Well, all the better, since that gives Nervous some time to focus on other things. Like hunting bugs.

In the midst of his bughunting, Nervous did have enough time to sell tickets so that he earned the sales gold badge and learned to dazzle. Now his friends won't know what hit them!

After that, well, there were a lot of sims singing karaoke in their swimwear, and other sims trying to sing karaoke in their swimwear. The customers seemed to like that, so we made it to rank 1. Thanks Lizzie!

When Nervous headed back home, it was already evening. He found his oldest daughter playing outside with her friend from school, Bottom.

By the end of the evening, the two girls were already in quite friendly terms.

Before the evening was over, the adults still had stuff to do. In Pascal's case, that meant a trip to the electronics store, to work on his robotics. He didn't even open the store, just spent his time at the bench.

And in Nervous' case, he needed to steal back the gnome that Bottom stole.

The morning started with some toddler training, as Pascal tought Octavia to talk. Her first word was "teddy".

As the older girls were in school and Octavia was taking a nap, Pascal and Nervous had a little time to themselves.

After school, one of the girls (I forget which) brought Bottom home again. And she promptly stole the gnome again. Not again, Bottom!

Meanwhile, the Curious girls get to bond and entertain each other. Private school isn't as mind-numbingly boring as public school, but they still need their fun boost.

It's not a bad thing that Bottom was already over, since it was again time for a party: this time, Bonita's birthday. Nervous got to do the inviting again.

The party got started and the birthday girl's younger sister, Odessa, enjoyed playing catch with Daddy's friend Lola. Not sure that Lola enjoyed it as much.

Odessa: "Whoops! I threw harder than I thought. Totally an accident!"

Lola: "Yeah, totally. Like the last three times."

Nina, another Daddy's friend, got her agreeing face on and had a discussion with Pascal.

But these undoubtedly fun activities didn't last long, as it was time for the birthday girl to blow out the candles, with appropriate cheering.

So Bonita made a wish, blew the candles, and spun around.

And became a whole lot bigger. Congratulations, Bonita! I suppose that dress isn't totally horrible, but we'll get you something that's more you tomorrow.

For her aspiration, Bonita rolled Knowledge/Family, and her LTW is to become a Criminal Mastermind. She likes ladies who wear hats and/ore are stinky, but she isn't much into ones who are very good in Mechanical.

The party continued, and it seems the Lola and the General continued to be into each other.

Of course, there was also cake.

Nervous: "Have you thought about having babies, honey? Because babies are pretty awesome, you know."

Bonita: "Geez, Dad. I did roll Family for my secondary aspiration, but I just became a teenager literally an hour ago!"

Nervous: "Sorry, sorry! But I do like babies."

The birthday girl spent most of the evening playing pool upstairs.

Meanwhile, love was in the air downstairs.

I suppose neither thing hurt the party score, which reached Roof Raiser before the end.

The night wasn't over yet though. Pascal needed some aspiration, so he got to gain some. By studying, how else.

Meanwhile, Nervous and little Octavia worked on Octavia's final toddler skill, the nursery rhyme.

And yet before bed, Nervous stole back the gnome that Bottom took before the night's party.

In the morning, Pascal got to start working on another requirement in the first generation. The Family Scrapbook bonus requires writing a novel per generation, so better get typing.

For Odessa, it was time to get homework done. Not quite a novel, but hard work nevertheless. Fortunately it was Saturday, so there was no hurry to catch the schoolbus.

Like I promised, Bonita got to go clothes shopping in the morning. She also took the chance to meet some girls, although no one particularly interesting yet.

After that, she got home and got her teenage makeover. That looks a lot more like Bonita I'd say!

Saturday was rather uneventful. Little Octavia got a bath.

The fresh teenager spent time on the phone.

And Odessa chose to play chess. Like Lauren Davidson in the neighbor family, she too is quite fond of the chess board.

Nervous, in turn, got to practise painting, because he too would need to paint Pascal's portrait for the Family Scrapbook bonus. And someone would need to paint all three girls too.

Pascal did convince him to take a short break, though.

Since the day was so quiet at home, and now Bonita was old enough to watch over her sisters, the Pascal headed to the electronics store, and for once, Nervous was able to come along and help. Seeing how popular the store is these days, it was much needed.

Nervous mostly took care of selling and restocking, and Mary Sue was the cashier, while Pascal made the toy robots that were a very popular product.

Sometimes Pascal did have to come out of the robotics lair to help Nervous out with the restocking, because the customers were buying the store empty. All in all we were very happy with the results, and as a side product, Nervous gained a bronze badge in restocking too.

Nervous dropped Pascal back at the house and went for his own session at Club Flamingo. He could manage just fine on his own in a level 1 business.

We had a very productive session. Not only did the reporter give us the Best of the Best Award...

... but also we got enough stars to make it to level 2! Well done, Nervous, now we can head home.

Back at home the little girls were doing fine. Odessa was pretty much where her Daddies had left her – yep, the chessboard – and she'd managed to get Bonita to join her.

That quiet Saturday was also little Octavia's birthday. This time it was celebrated with only the family in attendance, as we just had the previous party.

Octavia got cake, as is the habit, and she would have liked to have the candles too, but Daddy said no. Boo.

So once again it was time to wave goodbye to toddlerhood...

... and to say hi to childhood. Hi there, Octavia! Not a bad transition outfit there.

Octavia: "Thanks. I think I'd still like something different, though. Can I?"

Of course. Actually, you can just go and rummage in the closets, I'd think your Daddies have bought plenty of little girl clothes by now. If there's nothing you like, we can go find something else tomorrow.

So yet before bed Octavia got her childhood makeover. That looks a lot more like her, I think.

In the morning, Pascal's original plan of action (continuing on the novel) was canceled, as the Leader of the Pack walked on the lot. We would very much like to complete the Monster Mash bonus, so it'd be much handier if there already was a werewolf in the household.

Plus, I've never managed to have a werewolf in the first place, so it'd be interesting.

Alas, the thing that everyone always complains about with Leaders of the Pack happened with Pascal. He got maybe two interactions in, when the Leader of the Pack headed to destroy the couch, and after I got it away from that, it left the lot. So the visit didn't do a whole lot of good. Oh well.

It was Sunday, so the girls got to do something fun. But of course, something productive too.

A bit delayed, Pascal got back to novel-writing.

And Nervous got to work in the garden, earning a bronze badge.

In the afternoon, it was time for another business session. First, Nervous headed to the club.

It was really the usual. Nervous first sold enough tickets to fill the place, then let the customers enjoy themselves (we got a good review, too) and meanwhile, he spent his time being chased by bees, ahem, I mean, by trying to catch bugs.

And the customers did seem to enjoy. We made it to rank 3!

After a quick stop home to pick up Pascal, it was the electronic store's turn. It continued to be as popular as ever.

Pascal was chained to the robotics bench as usual, and Nervos took care of restocking. Apparently he got to witness some romance too.

And even though the Curiouses struggled to keep up with restocking the store and keeping it in robots, the customers very much liked it. I suppose it's saying something that Loki Beaker gave us the last star that got the place up to level 10. Wow!

After closing down the store, Pascal and Nervous stayed on the lot for a bit, for various things. To have an aspiration boosting date for one thing.

And in Nervous' case, to try and catch some bugs. Slowly but surely his efforts were paying off. I think by this point he's about five or six bugs from completing his collection.

Meanwhile, Pascal worked on his robotics. He managed to maximize his Tinkering enthusiasm, but the gold talent badge was elusive.

After that, Pascal and Nervous headed back home, where it was time for a studious evening for the kids, with some phone time thrown in between. Pascal got back to working on his novel, and yes, Nervous was in the garden.

After the others headed to bed, Pascal yet spent some time on working his magic. Casting the needs raising spells while doing business has been a good way to hone his skills, but a little studying never hurt anyone, especially not a Knowledge sim.

And suddenly it was Monday morning, the last half a day of this extended rotation. The morning started nicely, as Pascal finished the novel for the first generation.

It was a bestseller, too.

Meanwhile, Nervous got started painting Pascal's portrait. Better get that out of the way as well.

The day passed, and in the afternoon our mean littel ladies bonded by repeatedly hurling a baseball at each other. To each their own I guess.

Pascal wanted to maximize his creativity, and the family had plenty of money, so we bought a keyboard and Pascal got his wish.

Yet before finishing the rotation, Nervous got to do a quick trip to Club Flamingo. It paid off, as the club made it to level 4.

Nervous maximized his enthusiasm in Nature, and gained some sweet aspiration points for it too. He managed to catch something too. In the very end, he was four bugs away from completing his collection.

While all this was going on, townies were being townies: gossiping about another townie, who hadn't actually done anything gossip-worthy.

Well, all good things must come to an end, and eventually Nervous headed back home, where it was finally time to finish the rotation. It was a long and eventful one, and this update has definitely been long enough. Only one more thing to do, and that was to pay the taxes. Pascal got the honor of paying record taxes in Lakewood (if we don't count the very first taxes by the Davidsons, when they accidentally paid too much), 9,100 simoleans. Right then, Pascal, take care and see you next week!

One thing left, as always, the scores. First off, the BaCC:

Playable sims: 18 + 1 (Octavia) = 19
SM: 13
Population: 247

Households: 5

CAS sims: 1 placed / 16 + 1 (for Club Flamingo) = 17 earned

Community lots: 7 businesses + 1 free = 8

Businesses:

Lakewood Recreation Center (Lizzie Davidson, level 10)
Yummy! (Regan Capp, level 8)
Curious Gadgets (Pascal Curious, level 10)
Variety Buffet (Daniel Fortunato, level 10)
Face the Music (Ajay Davidson, level 0)
Better Dressed Sims (Jenny Capp, level 1)
Club Flamingo (Nervous Curious, level 4)

Other community lots:

Lakewood Walmart (general store)

Careers:

Business: Unlocked! / 1 taken (Ajay Davidson, level 10)
Medical: Unlocked!
Architecture: 2 openings / 1 taken (Jenny Capp, level 8)
Culinary: 1 opening / 0 taken
Criminal: 1 opening / 1 taken (Regan Capp, level 5)
Music: Unlocked!
Slacker: 1 opening / 0 taken

Business Tycoons: 1 (Ajay Davidson)

Universities: 1 (privately funded, founded by Lizzie Davidson)
Business Districts: 1
Downtown: no

Fires: 2
Burglaries: 2
Electrocutions: 1

Taxes collected from this household: 111,000*0.05 + 50,000*0.05 (for level 10 business) + 20,000*0.05 (for level 4 business) = 9,100 simoleans*

Taxes collected total: 52,800 + 9,100 = 61,900 simoleans at 5% rate

* I round both the net worths and the results so as to make calculations and keeping track of payments easier.

As for the OWBC, still no change, the tentative total remains at 3. We've got a lot of points that we can only get in the end.

Well, that was it for this time. Thanks for reading and welcome back next time for a week with the Fortunato family. Until then, happy simming!

Comments

[skyburned]

Bonita looks so cute as a teenager. Wonder what boy is going to interest her?