02 - The First Labor

While I was "playing" a lot of last night, I didn't actually get many screenshots so this "update" will probably be shorter than most (maybe?). I spent most of it building, is what I'm trying to say.
Our newlyweds had just finished their wedding and watched the stars together, being cute as can be, when they wished to Pillow Fight.
Well, this can only end in tears.

Even my most compatible, gentle Sims can throw a fit when they pillow fight someone, which is beyond frustrating to me, yet to my surprise Liam and Adilyn just giggle it off.

Bullet-dodged!
Well, to be really fair, I technically have a mod in that prevents relationship LOSS from pillow-fighting (for the very reason that it was just tanking good relationships left and right for no reason).
For some reason none of the baby options were showing up for Liam (like "Feel Tummy" etc), and I was freaking out that my game was bugged already.
Then I realized that Liam technically didn't know there was a baby - Adilyn had not yet announced her pregnancy. In a last ditch effort of hope, she decided to drop the baby-bomb on him.

Adilyn: "You know, we're in this challenge, right? The one we signed up for? You remember that right?"

Liam: "Yeah, of course I remember that."
Adilyn: "Oh good, well then the next part should be easy."

Adilyn: "I'm pregnant!"
Liam: (literal mouth drop to the floor).
Goodness boy your mouth is so big.
Surely enough though:

A+ realism on that one. Cannot "Listen to Baby" when one does not know there IS a baby to be listened to!
Adorably, Liam is super pumped about the pregnancy, after those interactions dropped, he cheered.

Guess fathering 24 kids isn't so bad anymore, now is it?
Story time, feel free to skip if stories bore you: Liam is one of my "rough around the edges" characters in the World of Atalan (home of the Reapers, Factions, Willow and Nightingale stories). He has the nickname "the angry alchemist" and he's known for his hot-headed reactions and general bitterness due to how he was raised/his mother (I won't spoil anything here, but we'll settle on she wasn't a stable nor nice person). When I first sketched out my legacy (Reapers) Liam went through a rather toxic love affair with another character, but he's just so damn loyal; he was really burned out on love and relationships and wanted nothing to do with them.
When this challenge came up, I jokingly thought to throw him in to test the waters with another lady. Now it was truly a joke, I wasn't planning to do it. I completely planned to avoid any story characters coming into this challenge for several reasons, I could write a whole essay about why I don't mix challenge characters with story characters. The gist of it is, my story characters have fully fledged personalities that exist in my head that I've spent ages and ages fleshing out and developing their backgrounds and the Sims that represent these characters are not always on par with these ideals and reactions. In order to prevent confusion or to prevent my character's personalities from getting muddled, I keep them away from silly challenges that are Sim-focused.
You probably notice I don't really have many silly/funny things going on in this story, which if you've read or even poked your nose into my Nix Short Dynasty you'd see is very unusual, but it's because Liam is a character and having a "challenge" him and a "story" him will take time to parse out... if I even manage it at all. Right, the story in place here was that the character Liam whose personality I have fleshed out in my head has generally turned his nose up at love, so I jokingly thought I should throw him in here to test the waters with a girl for when the Reapers storyline comes around to him. He scoffed at this and I went on with tweaking Sheera Nix.
Well, that had gotten Liam's attention in my head and he started poking his nose around and asking questions about her before he "begrudgingly" (his words) agreed to the challenge.
Yes I'm fully aware that I probably sound insane to you, I accept this.
So here we are, Adilyn got a name and I slowly started fleshing out her personality for future story reference. Honestly when the 1/10 attraction hit both of them I freaked a little bit like "not only are you tanking your future relationship chance, but you're taking my challenge down with you! Nooo!" Yet in true Liam fashion, the second he got to know her he suddenly poured his heart out to her and got his 10/10 attraction (you can't see me now, but I'm rolling my eyes). Yes, I avoid characters in challenges because sometimes Sims gets them wrong... but sometimes Sims gets them so right...
Anywho... STORY FINISHED. The Angry Alchemist has a potential lady.

They celebrated the baby news by watching the wall.
I mean stars.
Same difference?

Liam is still a beekeeper and he seems to have a way with the beasts. I have never gotten above "good" quality honey before in this game, but Liam is already pulling in "excellent" level honey. Way to go Angry Alchemist!

As Adilyn's main want is to have children (and lots of them) I'm encouraging her to have multiples using the TV trick. Let's hope it works!
(Well, I mean, she's already gone through labor in my game, so I KNOW if it worked or not, but let's have a LITTLE suspense).

Close-up because I'm in love with her skin/eyes/makeup/freckles. OH the freckles! 🖤🖤🖤🖤

Adilyn, despite being adorably pregnant and occasionally watching some kids TV, still tends to her garden. Both she and Liam rolled a wish right about now to go on a date, and one of the Tiberium grew and Liam managed to sell it at the Elixir store for 60k, so they both rolled wishes to be business partners. I killed two birds with one stone and sent them to each partner with a building and meet up at the festival for a celebratory date.

Of... hotdog eating.
Let's see, we've got a lady, a wolf, an older gentleman, and a pregnant lady... who shall be victorious?

Why, the pregnant lady of course.
If you can't tell, Liam came in third.
Third.
I'm ashamed of you, Liam; losing to your pregnant wife is one thing, but losing to a not-pregnant petite lady is another entirely.

Celebratory back-rub. I love how Liam's eyes just glow at night. His green eyes are perfect all lit up! 😍

They played some chess, got a greeting card photo and went home to call it a night.
The next day dawned and Adilyn dropped her queue mid-wish-granting-rampage and...

Baby!
Also, her hands kept clipping deeply into her stomach, which made grabbing pictures difficult.
I mean... that's ONE way to perform a C-section on yourself...

Push! Push! Push!

Take a break to sneeze, then PUSH!
We got twins: Blaze and Brylee - a boy and a girl! Wahoo! We're now 1/12 and 1/12 and 2/24. I like living dangerously so I rolled for traits:
Blaze is Eccentric and a Heavy Sleeper; Brylee is Friendly and Absent-Minded.

Liam had run out to do another consignment store flip and when he returned there was some weirdo in a strange swimsuit shouting on the doorstep.

THIS EVIL WILL COVER THE WORLD LIKE A PLAGUE OF LOCUSTS. 
Yeah I'd laugh too if I were Liam.
I'm still laughing now.

Daddy Liam says hello to his first babies and life resumes.

Which means life with the BEES!
Oh and his wife is there too.

I leave them alone for a few minutes to get a drink and they've decided to autonomously woohoo - no Try for Baby though, thank goodness!

It wouldn't be the end of the world, but I do want to space these kiddos out a bit more to avoid hitting the max household limit too soon and overwhelming the parents. I want a steady stream of kiddos coming in, not bursts of all at once. We must optimize the household space!
Or something.
So the other Tiberium dust grew into a large spire and Liam sold that one as well for ~60k, which brought the funds well over 100k, I decided it was time to fully crack down and furnish out the rest of the house.

They got a second floor, but that remains empty as of right now because there's no need to overly furnish, plus I spent a solid hour and a half on the rest of the house so...
I was really done with building by the time I got around to it, haha.

The future kiddos will be here.
Here's the new first floor:

Well not "new" but... "fully furnished" more like.
I'm actually super pleased with my house design this time, and for something I just slopped together on the first day I've gotta give myself an A+.

I moved the garden and bee box out onto the back porch to avoid the zombehs of the full moon.
Here's the living room up close:

The new and improved kitchen and dining room:

Plus I added one more bathroom.

We'll need a lot more bathrooms than this, but this should do for now. The master bedroom and the nursery had already been upgraded, so they're unchanged.

Adilyn has been painting and practicing magic, yet she's rolled a wish to have another child. Babies on the brain! Liam got the wish too - must be something in the air. I'm happy saving the wish, but we're not ready just yet! I want to wait until the toddler birthday (or maybe even a few days after?) before I get the babies rolling again. I need to do some math.

Brylee is a witch (like her mother) and Blaze is a werewolf (like daddy Liam!). Liam also has been rolling a wish to "Hunt with a Pack" now which I find adorable. He's just SO excited to take Blaze out on a hunt with him, but baby! He's not old enough yet, sweet Liam! One day though...
That's all I got for this chapter! I know it's not super funny or interesting, but thanks for sticking with me!

Next Chapter >