Chapter 3.3 – Scares and hugs and makeovers, oh my!

Welcome back! That didn’t take long at all, did it? Last time they ran out of Ferby leftovers, certain extended family members (I’m looking at you, Helspeth and Ida) couldn’t make up their minds what Personalities roles they wanted to have, Dementia was asked to move in with Ferby and Ripley twice (once by each of them), important portraits disappeared (why me?), Horror was brought back as a playable ghost (yay!), and the boys’ Imaginary Friends were made real (finally). Then there’s the fact that good old Aunt Helspeth decided to turn Aunt Lucrezia into a vampire when Lu and her husband Borgio were already past their earliest possible deathdays. Sadly, this will guarantee that Lu’s going to be a widow for a while because it’s impossible for Imaginary Friends to be turned into vampires.

At any rate, let’s see what shenanigans the Overlords got up to the last time I had a chance to play them before my unexpected hiatus.

And what better way to start off the chapter than showing that Gnarl’s Coward trait does indeed make him faint at the sight of playable ghosts like Horror. Ah, this brings back fond memories of Lucrezia, doesn’t it?

Emperor: “That was so not cool, Terrible.”

Terrible: “Don’t be such a baby – I scare you all the time.”

Emperor: “Yeah, but this time you did it in a confined space that LE had to put the walls down for. I don’t think she’s happy about that.”

Exactly.

Terrible: “So? You’re not normally afraid of her.”

Emperor: “Yeah, well I just found out that she can make me and Sunshine have a dozen kids if she wants. I don’t want any!”

I can find a way to make you suffer too, if I so choose, Terrible.

Terrible: “Bite me.”

No. Grumpy people don’t taste good.

Terrible: “And you know this… how?”

You don’t want to know.

“You know, I’d understand if you didn’t like this one, LE. Although the distorted image and the overly red tint does seem a bit appropriate.”

You have a point, but I might still have you do it over again. Let’s worry about other portraits first though. You can take a break if you want though, because I’m going to go make sure De makes over the Imaginary Friends.

Gnarl, why are you in your bathing suit?

Gnarl: “Because I was just getting into the hot tub when De called me for a makeover.”

I swear that I should put that hot tub in the family inventory for a while. Every time I turn around someone is getting into the hot tub instead of doing what I want them to do.

Dementia: “A good soak in the hot tub actually sounds really good about now, come to think of it.”

No, De. You have two more makeovers to do.

Dementia: “Fine. Be that way.”

Gnarl: “Can I go now?”

Yes, you can go, Gnarl.

Gnarl Overlord, Emperor’s IF. He’s a Friendly, Inappropriate Coward with a Green Thumb who Can’t Stand Art. He likes Pop music, Fruit Parfaits, and the color Gray. He’s a Gemini who wants to have a Bottomless Nectar Cellar. I can get him started on the LTW, but there’s no way he’s going to be able to achieve it before he has to move out. That’s one of those ones that takes a looooong time, if not as bad as Monster Maker.

A little while later…

Igor, why are you wearing your formal?

Igor: “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

I know for a fact that the pirate captain coat was what was set in your formalwear tab.

Igor: “I don’t see any reason to pander to everyone else’s definition of normal.”

Oh, that’s right, you’re Insane. I almost forgot.

Igor: “Are you going to yell at me if I go watch TV for a while?”

Go right ahead.

Dementia: “Can I watch TV too?”

No, you still have work to do.

Dementia: “Drat.”

Igor Overlord, Terrible’s IF. He’s a Lucky, Insane, Hopeless Romantic, Couch Potato of a Loner. He likes Pop music, Spaghetti, and the color Lilac. He’s a Sagittarius who wants Golden Tongue, Golden Fingers (just like Dewey did!). I’ll get him as far along in Guitar and Charisma as I can before he has to move out and be sure to give him his own guitar before he leaves too so that he can keep practicing in the land of Story Progression.

Wow, Minion, you’re the only one who was actually wearing his everyday wear for the makeover. Good job!

Minion: “Um, thank you?”

So what are you going to do with the rest of your evening?

Minion: “I was thinking about asking Horror if he wanted to clean the house with me.”

Sounds like a great plan. Hey, De, want to join them?

Dementia: “No.”

All right. I suppose you can go watch TV then.

Dementia: “Yes!”

Minion Overlord, Dark’s IF (if you somehow hadn’t guessed). He’s an Adventurous, Neat, Easily Impressed Genius with a Good Sense of Humor. He likes Chinese music, Ratatouille, and the color Turquoise. He’s a Libra who wants to be a Master Magician. I’ll do my best to get him as far as I can in that career before he has to move out, because I like him and there are actually things I can do to make his promotions come faster.

De doesn’t have it nearly as hard now that the IFs have been made real and Horror is back. Horror can cook, Gnarl actually likes to garden, and Horror and Minion both get fun from cleaning. De’s primary responsibility at the moment is pretty much doing makeovers, which actively contribute toward her last promotion for her Lifetime Wish.

That night Dark went to a party at Ferby’s house.

Ferby: “Dark! It’s wonderful to see you!”

Dark: “OK, I admit it, I miss you too, Ferby. And not entirely just because of the food. How’s married life?”

Ferby: “Absolutely wonderful. I couldn’t be happier.”

Dark: “I’m happy to hear it.”

Ripley: “I am most pleased to see that you have decided to accept our invitation, Dark.”

Dark: “Just because I’m a loner doesn’t mean I don’t occasionally enjoy talking to people I actually like. Although in hindsight I wish I’d thought of waiting to talk to you until we were standing on the same ground level. I just know LE is taking pictures that I’ll look short in.”

Ripley: “I would not concern myself with that if I were you. From what I have been able to determine, LE has a talent for taking embarrassing pictures.”

Dark: *muttering* “Yeah, even if she has to stalk you in the bathroom to do it.”

Ripley: “What was that?”

Dark: “Uh… nothing. Is that a different outfit than usual?”

Ripley: “Indeed it is. Ferby and I are going to have a baby.”

Dark: “Really? That’s wonderful!”

Wow, I think Dark is genuinely excited for them.

Dark: “I’m really happy for you guys.”

Ripley: “Thank you, Dark. It is deeply touching to know that your feelings of endearment to us are great enough to feel happiness.”

Awww. Dark loves his family. (Don’t tell him I said this, but he’s such a sweetheart for an evil loner.)

The next day Gnarl worked on his Nectorology skill (at least I think that’s what it’s called). Might as well do what he can toward his LTW while he has the chance, right?

That day the brides-to-be got their adult makeovers too.

As you can see, Lydia loves hers. What else would an evil and childish sim wear? Plus it turns out that Yellow is her favorite color, so I let her have some in most of her outfits.

“This is awesome! I’ve even got plastic cat ears! That is so cool!”

Sunshine: “Wow, De, I love it!”

Dementia: “No problem.”

Sunshine: “Blue is my favorite color.”

Dementia: “I know. LE reminded me.”

Jael: “I look amazing, De, thanks!”

Dementia: “You’re welcome.”

Jael: “Just what inspired you for the semi-warrior princess look?”

Dementia: “Well, I thought about the fact that you’re Terrible’s girlfriend and figured I’d give you a look that’ll remind him he’s not the biggest bad in the world. You know, for his grumpy days.”

Jael: “Good thinking. You’re really good at this.”

Dementia: “I know.”

She may have a harmless personality (Good Sense of Humor, Family-Oriented, Hopeless Romantic, Charismatic, Ambitious), but I wouldn’t want to mess with Jael just the same. Somehow she strikes me as a girl who can take care of herself.

“LE?”

Yes, Igor?

“How long is it going to take to max my Charisma? Practicing speeches isn’t nearly as fun as watching TV.”

It’ll take a really long time, and so will mastering the guitar.

“Ah, nuts.”

I have no idea why the game randomly decided that your LTW should be to master Charisma and Guitar when you’re neither a Virtuoso nor Charismatic (or particularly social, thanks to that Loner trait).

“I have no idea either.”

Sunshine: “Aaagh!”

Lydia: “Heh heh heh.”

Sunshine: “Why did you scare me?”

Lydia: “Because it was funny.”

Sunshine: “You—! You’re such an evil child!”

Lydia: “Yes, and?”

Sunshine: “You b—!”

Hey! We’ve got a legacy of rebelliously mild language to uphold around here, Sunshine. You want to marry Emperor, then get with the program.

Sunshine: “Right. Sorry.”

Lydia: *smirks*

That’s enough out of you, Lydia.

Whatchya doin’, Horror?

“I figured I’d take a little break and do some Inventing. I’m Eccentric, so I think it’s fun.”

Yet another thing I always loved about you.

Meanwhile, Ayesha apparently decided to catch up on the news.

The local news (at least the part I care about) is as follows:
Sunshine became the Slayer. That won’t last long since she’s marrying into the active household in less than a sim week. Active sims can’t be used in Personalities scenarios, which means that either the role will be dormant until she moves out or I’ll have to manually reassign it to someone else.
Vincenzio proposed to Vanessa, his pregnant girlfriend. They won’t be due to get married until after the baby is born, but at least the kid won’t be illegitimate for long. I’m already foreseeing illegitimate children courtesy of his brother Tucker, I don’t need them from him too. I’m still trying to decide how I’d handle mothers of illegitimate sparespawn on the family lists.
Emil’s the Gigolo again. *sigh*
Ida decided to become the Cat, which is what Helspeth was before deciding to start playing roleswap with her daughter over and over again.
Vincenzio became the Robin (as in Robin Hood for those who forgot).
And now Helspeth is the Harpy again. Maybe she’ll stick with it for a while this time?

Here we go again. Is the Jaws theme playing, or is that just me?

Emperor: “Ooga booga!”

Dark: “Yaaahh!”

Wow, Dark has the best scared face ever.

Dark: “Oh, man. You really got me there, Emperor.”

Emperor: “Heh heh heh.”

Emperor: “Can I have a hug?”

Dark: “Seriously? I should probably be mad at you now, you know.”

Emperor: “Well?”

Dark: “Oh, why not?”

Emperor: “Later, Dark.”

Dark: “Later, Emperor.”

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was all on free will. I just sat back and took pictures. This is what passes for normal around here, actually.

And where was Terrible while his fellow triplets were bonding in the usual Overtriplet fashion? Rocking out on his mother’s guitar, of course.

OK, guys, stop whatever you’re doing. It’s time for all six non-ghost men in the house to attend their graduation ceremony.

OK, let’s see… It looks like everyone made it. Wait a minute. Why isn’t Emperor in his graduation gown? I guess the coding hasn’t made him change yet? I don’t know.

Nope. This is all of them leaving afterward. Apparently Emperor got away with wearing that for graduation. I suppose that means he really is too cool for school. Terrible does not seem to approve, but he’s probably just jealous.

Dark was voted Most Likely to Become a Sports Star. Seriously? He’d hate being surrounded by fans, let alone a sports team. I know he’s Athletic, but come on.
Emperor is Most Likely to Take Over the World. Yeah, that sounds about right.
Terrible is Most Likely to be a Rock Star. Also a fair assumption by their classmates.
Minion is Most Likely to be Mediocre, which is making me look forward to playing the Castaways in my ISBI again.
Gnarl is Most Likely to Offend Others, which also reminds me of my ISBI. Additionally, they really hit the nail on the head with that one.
Igor is Most Likely to Get Married. Must be that Hopeless Romantic trait of his.
None of them were Class Valedictorian for some reason.

Later that day I found out their uncle Terrill died. That’s Dewey’s younger brother, not the guy Dementia is going to marry. At least now there’s only one Terrill of significance to the family running around town. I think they only have one aunt left on that side of the family.

Dark, are you… skinny dipping?

“I should think that you can figure that out on your own.”

But… why?

“Why not? I was alone out here until you showed up.”

But it’s outside where any paparazzi could just stroll up and notice.

“So?”

… You’re doing this just to shock me, aren’t you?

“Not really.”

No?

“No. My dastardly plan is simply to make you too embarrassed to hang around much longer. Is it working?”

*sigh* I suppose. I’m going to go ignore you and your indecency now. Don’t spend too long in there though, there’s someone inside you might want to see before going to bed.

Dark: “Mom!”

Tyranica: “Dark! You’re all grown up!”

Awwww! I would like to point out that I have not been taking pictures of every time the Overlords hug each other. For every time I catch them doing it in a good location to photograph, I miss or can’t get a good picture of at least two other occasions. The triplets are absolute gluttons for hugs, and don’t let Terrible try to tell you otherwise.

This same night I got the popup that Ferby and Ripley had twins! A boy name Deon (Clumsy and Artistic) and a girl named Annie (a Clumsy Couch Potato). I think it’s cute how they’re both Clumsy like their dad. Although I checked the family tree and saw that neither of them are blue. There have been seven children between two different Ripleys and not one of them has gotten Ripley’s blue skin? Really? Just what do I have to do to get a blue baby in one of these challenges?! Oh, well. At least I can be reasonably sure that they’re cute regardless of coloring.

Guess what happened the next day? You know what this picture is? De finally achieved her LTW making over Susana Bunch! Whoo! Go De!

She may not look excited yet, but wait until she realizes that means she can finally get out from under my heavy thumb.

When I sent Minion to the park to do some Magician work, I found Hellcat and her little boy there. Brady definitely has his mom’s hair and eyes. Technically the skintone too, though I’m not sure I’m going to count that since Emil’s is pretty much the same as well.

Speaking of Emil, he’s old now! That means he’s automatically disqualified from being the Gigolo. Finally. If he knows what’s good for him he’ll actually pay attention to his wife instead of becoming the Casanova again. I may step in otherwise, because Hellcat doesn’t deserve to have the Casanova’s admirers literally attacking her because she has the audacity to be married to him.

I check back in on the house just to find this happening.

Gnarl: “Horror, can’t you clean the bathroom later?! I’m bathing in here!”

Horror: “Oh, sorry. The ability to float through walls makes me forget about things like knocking sometimes.”

Gnarl: “Seriously – get out!”

Horror: “I’m going.”

Gnarl: “You too, LE!”

Sorry, Gnarl. I wanted to know what the yelling was about. (Apparently sims no longer recognize privacy situations if they’re doing the Clean the Whole House interaction. I did not know that until this happened. I expected Horror to come back to that bathroom later.)

How’s the prestidigitation going, Minion?

“Great! I’ve already been promoted once!”

Good! It’s time to go home now though. You need dinner.

“No kidding – I’m starving!”

Wait a minute, what’s this popup…? What?! Borgio died?! I’m sad now. He was 105.

Minion: “De, did you just criticize my family?”

Dementia: “Yeah, want to make something of it?”

Minion: “But I’m literally a magical doll given life through your brother’s imagination and made real by a potion mixed by your mother. Doesn’t that make your family my family?”

Dementia: “Um…”

Dementia: “While I’m generally against it, I think I want to apologize this time. That was purely a misfire of my Mean Spirited trait.”

Minion: “It’s OK, De. I think in this case your Mean Spiritedness is it’s own punishment.”

I’m cracking up here. That was hilarious! De really did just walk up to Minion and criticize his family! Just when I thought she’d run out of surprises, then she pulls this.

Dementia: “Hi, Terrill. Want to come over?”

Igor: *apparently didn’t get out of the hot tub in time to change before his soaps came on.*

Dementia: “What do you mean ‘why?’ I’m your girlfriend and haven’t seen you in over a sim week, isn’t that reason enough? I’m on the verge of my Adult birthday, Terrill, the clock is ticking. Are you going to get over here when so nicely invited, or do I have to dump your sorry butt and find someone who isn’t going to question the fact that I might actually want to see him periodically?”

Wow. Do not mess with Mean Spirited women, even if you are Grumpy.

Gnarl: *gasp* “Lisa’s baby is actually Daryl’s love child? And now she’s dying of cancer?”

Dementia: “It’s nice to know I have the ability to remind Terrill what his priorities should be. He’s on his way.”

Good. If all goes well, maybe you can finally get engaged. I’ve been trying to get you two engaged forever.

Gnarl: “If Karen finds out that he was cheating it’ll destroy her!”

Dementia: “What is he going on about back there?”

No idea. I don’t personally understand the fascination with soap operas myself. Every time I hear about what’s going on in one it always seems to involve people cheating on their significant others with their significant others’ best friends or someone dying of cancer… or both. I think Terrill’s here already.

Dementia: “Wow, that was fast. I guess I made an impression.”

Dementia: “Terrill, you’re here! Um… when did you become a vampire?”

Terrill: “Not that long ago. You hadn’t heard?”

Dementia: “Nope. LE must have not been paying attention to the popups when that happened, because she probably would have mentioned it.”

(Just when did that happen? His being a vampire took me completely by surprise.)

Is it just me, or does he look kind of green as a vampire?

Dementia: “Terrill?”

Terrill: “Yeah?”

Dementia: “Will you marry me? Preferably before my birthday?”

Terrill: “Aren’t you blinded by the shiny ring, De?”

Dementia: “I’m strategically holding the box in such a way that the lid blocks the ring from my sight.”

Terrill: “Oh, well as long as you’re OK, I’d love to marry you!”

Dementia: “Considering that it’s my birthday in just a couple of days, want to spend the night and get married in the morning?”

Terrill: “Sure, De. Whatever you want.”

Look at De’s face. That is one girl who is really happy to finally be on the eve of her wedding. She looks almost as relieved as I am.

After everyone went to bed, I decided that I’d give De one last parting gift to enjoy before the ceremony. Now what’s the one thing that would make her even happier?

A truly ginormous TV, that’s what! In the morning, she gets to watch TV with Terrill, then get married. But that will have to wait for the next chapter.

Additionally, while I missed getting a picture of it for some reason, De did finally track Tucker down and give him that makeover he refused before. He pretty much went half and half with the features he inherited from each of his parents, didn’t he?

Speaking of that branch of the family, Vincenzio and his bride-to-be Vanessa had a boy named Jarrett! He’s not Jarrett Overlord yet, but he will be as soon as they get married.

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And that is all I have for this chapter. The only other thing of note is the fact that Horror will not be rekindling his relationship with his former wife, because Desiree got remarried literally the day before I was able to resurrect him. She spent the entire time she remained a vampire (a normal sim’s lifetime, almost) staying single. Then, just when I was thinking I’d be able to have a wonderful love story of the two parted lovers being reunited, she gets turned human and apparently decided that the clock was ticking. Ironically, she ended up marrying one of the two adult guys I inserted into the town with the six teen girls which makes her the step-mother of one of the girls that Tucker keeps bouncing around in between. We’ll see how that turns out. Of course, because Horror and Desiree are exes only because he died and she remarried before he returned from the grave, they still have almost maxed relationships. I wonder if that will cause any drama once he’s not under my control anymore. I guess we’ll have to wait to find out on that front as well.

Before uploading this chapter I made sure to load up the saves for both of my challenges to make sure that they still work. Fortunately, they loaded and ran just fine, which means that I’ll be able to play enough for new chapters in the near future. Personally, I’m excited to finally be getting back to them. I missed my challenge sims, and really missed writing about their crazy lives.

Next time we’ll see how the Overlords react to the sudden inclusion of the gameplay mechanics of both the Supernatural and Seasons expansion packs! How will those factor into the overall story? Come back to find out! Thanks for reading!