Friday 7 April 2017

Update 1-7 - Generation I Finale

Soon, Zachary decided to help bring in money for the household. He was old enough for a part-time job now, and the spa had an opening.
It wasn't as exciting as he was expecting it to be. The highlight of his first day of work was a grumpy driver in the carpool.
Speaking of grumpy, Jonah was getting increasingly frustrated with everyday things. He found himself grumbling and complaining at things such as the food processor for no reason, and at one point while playing games on Zachary's laptop, he got so mad that he slammed the lid closed. He slammed it so hard, it broke.
There were ways to remedy this, though. Zachary began to do the cooking instead, and whenever Jonah was upset, Kylie pulled out her guitar and played some music. Something about that was always rather calming.
Zachary was turning out to be quite the bookworm - at least, when it came to skill books. Stories, he had no interest in at all.
Later on, the bathroom got rearranged. Yay, nicer tub, sink, and toilet. You can't see it, but they have a self-cleaning litter box now, too.
That new litter box was just in time, too! They hadn't been expecting it, but one morning they woke up to another kitten!
Kerri and Pumpkin's only daughter was named Skittles, after the candy.
Kerri was looking rather proud of herself. Taiga, on the other hand, barely even noticed her granddaughter as she went off to go play with a toy.
Skittles' first action was to follow Zachary around. (God knows what he's wearing in this screenshot, that's not any outfit I've given him)
Upon realising that someone had broken his laptop, Zachary decided to fix it for himself. He was rather glad he'd been reading so many skill books, as he didn't electrocute himself or anything like that.
Another cat in the household meant they needed another food bowl. They also put in a new kitchen, upgraded Kylie and Jonah's bedroom, and rearranged the living room a bit.
Between holidays, weekends, and snow days, Zachary had barely gotten to go to high school, but soon enough prom came around. Kylie found the spare change to hire Zachary a limo to go to prom in style.
Despite having absolutely no friends at all, Zachary was nominated as prom king. There weren't many teens in the neighborhood, though, so there wasn't much competition. He displayed his crown proudly on his dresser.
The next morning, Kylie woke up to see her son writing love letters on the kitchen table. She decided to leave him be. If he'd wanted to talk about it, he would.
And eventually, he did.
"Mom, can I tell you something? You have to promise not to tell dad.."
"Sure thing, honey. What is it?"
"Well, I met this guy at prom... his name is Donovan. Mom.. I think I like him. Like, like like him."
"Is that it? Zachary, honey, me and your father don't care if you like another man. Just make sure you're good to him, and he's good to you, and remember to use protection..."
"MOM!"
"Alright, Zachary, I'm just messing with you. I know you're old enough to know these things. I've got to head to work now, though. Just remember, we'll support you no matter what, alright?"

And that was that. After Kylie left, Zachary decided to call his newfound crush and invite him over.
They talked for a while, before Zachary realised he was behind on homework. He invited Donavan to come inside and join him, but Donavan decided that building snowmen was much more interesting.

The very next day, Kylie got a promotion at work. She was the fire chief now! The top of her career! She even got her own personal fire engine to park outside her house.
Kylie couldn't wait to announce the big news.
But Zachary wasn't nearly as excited as she thought he'd be - and Zachary was very easily excited. Something was wrong.
Quietly, Kylie asked what was the matter.
All good things come to an end, regardless of how great they were. Cats don't live forever, and Taiga was no exception. While Kylie was at work that day, Taiga had finally passed on.
Take good care of her, Reaper. She was well loved, and will be missed.
The loss hit Zachary like a brick. He could often be found sobbing into his parents' shoulders, or crying to himself. He loved that cat.
The cats of the household mourned, too. Hardimos in particular was heartbroken. Taiga's sons looked to each other for comfort.
Some flower bushes were planted out back, and Taiga was buried under them. Hopefully, nobody else will be joining her any time soon.
Even with the most recent loss, the house was still very crowded. The Attaways couldn't afford to move to a bigger house, but they could extend the one they already had.
A lot of the furniture was also upgraded, and I also added a bird cage - Taiga was quite the hunter, and had had quite a lot of small animals in her inventory when she passed, as I learned when Kylie's inventory was suddenly flooded with random minor pets. Kylie released most of them, but she decided to keep a cardinal.
The bird's name is Strawberry. There's not much to say about her, being a minor pet with very little impact on anything. She's getting a section on the characters page anyway, though. Why? Because I want her to. She's part of the family now.
Another critter that had been a part of Taiga's inventory was another rare bug. Move aside, red assassin bug, this thing is both prettier and rarer.
Now that the Attaways had vehicle, Kylie decided to teach Zachary how to drive. At the very least, it served as some sort of distraction from Taiga's death. Besides, how many teens could say that they learned to drive in a fire engine with the sirens on?
Later, Kylie also had another award to pick up from the town hall. Thanks to her great service to the town as a firefighter, the mayor awarded her with a key to display in her home.
Move aside, big bulky trophy, this thing is much higher an award. Oh, and that rare bug from before got moved from Zachary's desk to the dresser, to go besides Jonah and Kylie's achievements.
Eventually, the family stopped mourning Taiga and moved on to celebrate their living family - specifically, Skittles, who grew into an adult the same day that the mourning moodlet ran out.

Guess what Kylie found while firefighting - a child! Finally, story progression got off its lazy bum and put some children in this town.
I've been wanting to add this screenshot to the collection of firefighting shots for a while, but only now have I ran into a child while on the job.
Apparently, the extension on their house was pretty eye-catching. This burglar thought that the household must be rich, and walked on in to steal things.
It ended horribly for her, as she got beat up by both Kylie and the police officer almost immediately.
Kylie got over it fast. Apparently, feeding Strawberry is more important than being robbed.
On Zachary's next birthday, some random lady walked in and stole some pancakes from the fridge. I have no idea who she is and why she thought she could just do that, but nobody bothered to chase her away.
While Jonah set up for the party, however, an emergency came in. Not another fire, no. 
Apparently, the local criminals were planning some terrible plot to steal all of the clouds in SimNation. Their plot backfired horribly - while they got all of the clouds, they soon got trapped in an indoors thunderstorm and needed help from the firefighters.
The rest of the team chickened out of going in there, which meant Kylie bravely faced the disaster alone, just as she had done for every other emergency in her career.
She succeeded in saving the criminals, and worked with the police to get most of them arrested, too. By the time she got home, however, Zachary's party was already halfway over.
Only two people were invited - Donavan and the random girl who stole their pancakes, who was apparently one of Zachary's classmates named Stephenie.
Zachary spent most of the party chatting to Donavan.
After a nap, Kylie provided the music.
Not for the party or anything though. Instead, she provided music for the bush and the sleeping cat outside. She mastered guitar while she did this, though. I thought that was kind of fitting.
Donavan and Stephenie didn't stay long - not even long enough for the cake that Jonah had convinced Kylie to let Zachary have. Despite that, Zachary didn't celebrate his birthday alone - he had all of his family around him.
Finding gifts for him wasn't an easy feat, since Zachary had no hobbies at all. Kylie just gave him an old chair for his college room, and Jonah gave him a family photo and a piece of advice.
"Son, let me put it bluntly. That shirt looks awful on you. I bought you some new clothes yesterday, go check your dresser. You can't show up to college looking like that."
And so, Zachary planned out a much nicer outfit. Then, he rushed to take the aptitude test for Sims University.
He didn't score as highly as he would have liked, but it was something. He'd enrol in university as soon as he graduated from high school - which was the next morning, which meant he needed to sleep early.
Zachary woke up the next morning to find that his bird, Strawberry, had passed. She hadn't been with them nearly as long as Taiga had, but Zachary still cried.
He didn't dwell on it for long, though, as he had to graduate!
Zachary had felt very anxious in the hours leading up to his graduation ceremony, but once it had come, it passed all too quickly. He was given his degree, declared 'most likely to take over the world' by his class, and then it was over.
That was it. He had graduated from high school. Zachary Attaway was an adult, and he was soon to head off to university. He wasn't sure what he was going to do with his life after that, but he didn't let himself worry about it. Not now.

Kylie and Jonah couldn't be prouder. While they had each given him a gift for his birthday, they felt that graduation was a special event that deserved something more. It was a once in a lifetime event, and soon he would be off at university where they wouldn't see him for a while.
They each gave him something to display in his room, to make him feel more at home even when he was miles away. From Jonah, the jade snake from China, and from Kylie, an old medal she was given back in her earlier years as a firefighter.
"Remember, Zachie, you can call or write to us at any time. We're so proud of you. The house is going to feel so empty when you're gone." Kylie said as she gave her son a hug.
Zachary drove his family home in the fire engine, before finally enrolling in university.
This was it. Zachary's parents had passed on the torch to him now. He was the next generation, and he was going to make his family proud.

2 comments:

  1. That chapter went from "Aww! :)" to "Aww.. :(" real quick! Skittles is cute, she looks a lot like Pumpkin.

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    Replies
    1. I love Skittles :D She's so cute.
      (And I'm glad she didn't turn out to have the default face and shape like poor Aslan did)

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