The Vincis (A) - Round 11

Starring:

Gretchen Chin, Adult Knowledge Sim, 3rd LTW Max Out All 7 Skills

Craig Chin, Adult Knowledge Sim, LTW Become Criminal Mastermind

Sadie Chin, Teen Fortune Sim, LTW Become Space Pirate

Cole Chin, Teen Popularity Sim, LTW Become Hall of Famer



Bitsy Chin, Knowledge Servo, 3rd LTW Become Hand of Poseidon


~*~*~*~*~

Last round at the Vinci-Chin house, Bitsy achieved her 2nd LTW of Becoming a Media Magnate. Gretchen achieved her 2nd LTW of Becoming a Game Designer. Craig continued slowly making progress toward his first LTW, still. Sadie and Cole each took teen jobs and worked on skills that would earn them scholarships, like physical fitness and dancing. This round, the teens will be leaving for university. Let's see how the house handles it.

Cole immediately got a promotion at his new job. It wasn't very hard since he'd studied so hard as a young person. He already had all the skills he needed to be more than just a teen employee. However, without a degree, he was trapped at this lower level in the sports career path. It was okay for him, though. His paycheck was a nice bonus for buying food, clothes, and the occasional electronic equipment.

Sadie actually began to apply for scholarships, and she was delighted when they started rolling in with Yes answers stamped all over them. She was going to have more than plenty of money to handle her semesters at university. Not only would she have enough for books, tuition and food, she could probably buy herself a cool laptop or some other stuff with the leftovers.

After all that hard academic work, she decided that she deserved a break from cracking the books. She spent a lot of time in the family greenhouse, learning about plants and really taking an interest in how they grew and flourished. She was rewarded with a bronze gardening talent badge.

The kids weren't the only ones with interesting things happening, though. Craig was finally ready to join his beloved bride in elderhood. Gretchen teased her younger hubby that his cake looked like it might set off the smoke detectors, and Craig only stuck his tongue out at her before blowing out the candles.



Seemingly before everyone's eyes, he shrunk a bit and his black hair turned silver. Craig was officially an old man, now.





Gretchen was an old woman, and she was glad to see her husband join her in the golden years. But her age didn't slow her down a bit. By indulging in a lot of relaxing and stress-reducing yoga, she managed to achieve her third LTW of maxing out all seven skills. It was a good day to be Gretchen Chin.



With her newly-developed interest in finance, she thought that her next goal might be to own a chain of very successful businesses, but in reality, she knew this would probably never happen. It was okay, though, she'd had a long and very fruitful life.



Sadie, too, got a teen job, in the same field her father had struggled in for years. When she quickly brought home a promotion that set them equal to one another in career stature, she could see the hurt in her father's old eyes. She decided he didn't need that competition and that, moreover, she had something important to do.




A few days later, she packed up her things and all the scholarship paperwork and headed off to Sim State.



Not wanting to be left behind, Cole quickly tallied his own scholarship awards, and before the family could say "see you at thanksgiving," he was heading off to Sim State with his sister.







It wasn't that he was anxious to leave home, he just really didn't want to do that college thing without Sadie around.




With the house quieter than the three adults could remember in ages, the promotions began rolling in again. Bitsy was slowly making her way forward in her new oceanography career (despite the obvious challenge of exposure to rust and damaging salt water). Craig continued to try to achieve the position of criminal mastermind.




Life became very quiet in the house. Gretchen kept Craig company while he pursued his interest in working on his knowledge, and Bitsy quietly kept the house clean and her "family" fed.




Bitsy, who had been working in the Adventurer career track while she waited for a job in the Oceanography field, decided that it was finally time for her to start putting her heart and soul into looking for a position in her chosen field.




After hours of searching, she finally found a low position in the Oceanography field, and though it was below her skills, she took it, knowing that she could work her way up.



Her determination paid off, and she was promoted almost instantly. Bitsy was on her way to the top of her career track yet again.


[[Author's Notes: This house was kind of boring after the kids left, in case you couldn't tell. I guess someone will move back into this house, though I'm not sure who, when they graduate from college. I love that Bitsy is constantly around to keep the house neat and cook and add funds to the household worth. My first servo is definitely my favorite. Nothing else really important to report for this house. I leave you with a few bloopers.

Bloopers:
Who peed in your cornflakes, Aurélie? Oh that's right, no one, you're just mean. // I got bored and wondered what would happen if I ordered Bitsy to take a bath. Ultimately, it just drained her battery. Boring. ]]

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The Beaumonts (A) - Round 11

Starring:

Armand Beaumont, Elder Family Sim, 2nd LTW Marry Off 6 Children

Adelaide Beaumont, Elder Knowledge Sim, 3rd LTW Eat 200 Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

Cooper Bigfoot, Adult Bigfoot, LTW Become Education Minister

Alexandre Beaumont, Adult Knowledge Sim, LTW Become City Planner


~*~*~*~*~

Last round at the Beaumont house, Cooper continued to work toward his LTW of becoming Education Minister. He and Adelaide and Armand enjoyed a peaceful existence together, and the Beaumonts even allowed him to watch after the house while they went on one last vacation tour, trying to collect all the vacation mementos. (They ultimately failed at this.) Let's see how they do this round, while Alexandre rejoins the household after graduating from university.



The first thing the Beaumonts did when Alexandre returned home was to add a small addition onto the back of the house for an additional bedroom. After all, they didn't really want to sacrifice their study OR their art studio. Alexandre was happy to have his own little corner of the house.




Cooper continued to come home with good reviews from the school, much to the pride of Adelaide and Armand, who had come almost to feel like he was an adopted son. Yet they stopped short of telling him what he should and shouldn't so and simply were proud of him.



Alexandre, luckily enough, found a very high position in his chosen field right away. He couldn't wait to get his drafting table and start working on house plans and then city plans. The studious man wasn't one to let his dreams get away.




He found that despite the insane amount of studying he'd done in his teen and young adult years, there were still some skills he really needed to polish in order to be truly successful in the architecture career.



Of course, there was always time for fun too. One thing Alexandre had learned from being in the Greek House was that it was a good thing to take a break from studying once in a while and simply enjoy spending time with the people around him. Especially since his parents were getting older...he was worried they might not be around much longer, despite how strong and energetic they still seemed.




Armand, too, took time out to really pursue his hobbies. He found that his painting really calmed him and made the hours fly by in pleasant silence and contemplation of color and form.





Cooper had more good news: he finally achieved his goal of becoming the education minister of Rosebud. He found out that he was the first bigfoot to ever have earned that achievement. Adelaide and Armand were bursting with pride. Even Alexandre was impressed with the big hairy creature he was starting to grow more fond of day by day.




He decided that next he might like to try Journalism. After all, he had a lot of experienced he wanted to share with the world, to increase tolerance of Bigfoots in mainstream society.




On the other end of the work spectrum, Adelaide and Armand finally decided that their working days could be over. All of their children had graduated from college, and they were as comfortable in their finances as they had ever been. The break was long overdue for both of these hardworking parents.



The two of them had a lot to remember from their long lives as well. Armand actually managed to get good enough in his painting to sell a masterpiece.



And they'd had so many wonderful vacations. They'd had a lot more happiness than they ever would have if they hadn't moved their family to that tiny, unpopulated town of Rosebud so many years ago.




Sadly, Adelaide could tell that she was slowing down. She'd forced herself to go to work, but it had been getting harder and harder every day. Though she tried not to make a big deal out of it, she began planning for the time when she would no longer be around. She started by giving Alexandre a lot of little things she'd collected over the years, saying simply that she had no use for them, and she wanted him to have them.



Alexandre was no dummy; he could see the tired wrinkles around his mother's eyes and the way she stooped all the time now, like her back had slowly bent into half of a set of parentheses. It made him unspeakably sad, but he thanked her as graciously as he could.



From that point on, Alexandre made it a point to try and make family meals so that they could all sit down and spend some quality time together. Now that he was finally allowing himself to accept what he didn't want to accept, that his parents wouldn't be around forever, he began to see that they had both aged quite a bit since he'd left home. His father slept more often and tired easily after a day of painting. It made Alex unspeakably sad, but he was determined to make the best of the remaining time he had with his parents.




Even Cooper seemed to sense the increased love in the house, and he frequently displayed it with his enormous bigfoot hugs, and Armand simply laughed away Alex's worries that his frail bones would snap under the tight embraces.





Of course, Adelaide and Armand got their fair share of quiet time together as well. Since they had both retired, their entire days were spent with one another and with the family. It was the happiest and most content they'd felt in years.





That was what made it so unspeakably hard when death finally came. Adelaide woke one night and found that her time on this earth was up. She didn't want to leave her family, but she knew it was time for her to go.




As she knew, she'd had a wonderful life, and Grimmy greeted her with such kindness (and such yummy polynesian drinks) that she could feel some peace of mind about leaving the mortal coil.



The will she'd prepared split up her remaining earthly goods amongst all those she loved, and she finally left the Beaumont household for the last time, leaving behind only the gleaming urn of a woman who had truly achieved all her goals in life.





The remaining family knew they should take comfort in this fact, but it didn't make it any easier. Alexandre and Armand and Cooper cried endlessly for a solid week after Adelaide's death. Even Abbey howled her laments.





It was after that week that, in broad daylight, Alex spotted Grim coming once again, and he rushed down to his father's bedroom, prepared to plead for the old man's life. It was too soon after Adelaide's death for him to handle another.



But it wasn't Armand's turn...it was poor, loyal Abbey's turn to join pet heaven. Cooper stood by helplessly while Grimmy gently and kindly whisked his best furry friend away into oblivion.



He was absolutely inconsolable. Abbey had been like a kindred spirit. Sure, she was a dog and couldn't talk or walk or anything like that...but he felt a certain relation with her, his sole furry companion in the house.



He tearfully requested that Abbey be buried back amongst the trees surrounding his rooms, so that he might visit it and also so that the neighborhood children wouldn't see it and kick it over in a fit of naughtiness. Alex and Armand sadly obliged, heartsick themselves at the sudden emptiness in the house.




The house took on a sad, mournful air, and the three remaining men of the household stuck together closely. Everyone, including Cooper, made sure to remind the others how much they loved them, every day.


[[Author's Notes: *sniff, sniff* Waaahh! My first CAS adult! And poor, sweet, hardworking Adelaide. It was so hard to see her go. I swear, when Grim came floating down the sidewalk like THE NEXT DAY, I knew it was going to be Armand. I never even saw it coming for Abbey. Poor fluffy puppy. Alex and Cooper are going to be alone in the house really soon, because Armand's meter is maxed. I might let Cooper get a puppy to soothe his poor, broken heart. Also, did you notice the pic of their vacation mementos? They missed it by ONE FREAKIN THING. I had them go to Takemizu Village like five times for one day trips every round I played them, and they NEVER saw someone doing tai chi. Growl. I wanted them to have at least that for being great CAS parents. Oh well. Guess someone else has to do it now. I move on to bloopers, to cheer you up from this depressing post.

Bloopers:
Cooper is really, REALLY sad about Abbey. // Are you rolling in Abbey's pee? That's disgusting. // AND NOW YOU'RE DRINKING IT? UGH. Find a pond! Sal and Inari have one! Go, fetch! Please! // In your son's bed? Really, guys. ]]

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