Bedivere’s life is kind of boring these days. The maid service was canceled after the disaster last chapter, so he’s been put in charge of keeping the house clean. He changes diapers, he mops up puddles, he clears away everyone else’s dirty dishes, he does the laundry… The highlight of his day is when I allow him to indulge one of his many wishes to interact with his hawt foreign GF.
Bedivere: “‘Shall I compare thee to an Egyptian summer’s day? Thou art hotter by far…’ No, that’s a bit too much, don’t want to scare her off by moving too fast; I’ve got it! ‘I want to have your babies, although I am admittedly unclear on which of us would be the childbearing partner due to our wildly differing biology.’ Perfect!”
At one point, I noticed that she was back in Sunset Valley, so I had him invite her over, but she walked in the door and immediately turned around and left again. I guess she got called back to Egypt? Bummer. What really sucks though is that their revolving-door of a date still counted as a date, and Tahiya got pissed at him and tanked their relationship.
Bitches, man.
Catherine has been taking advantage of her enforced horseless pregnancy leave to work on her painting skill, so that Ismael can finally get his portrait. (At this point, I had somehow forgotten that she could’ve just taken his picture with her very expensive Egyptian camera. *smacks forehead*)
She’s actually in front of the easel when her water breaks. Bedivere the neat freak freaks out immediately.
Bedivere: “NO! Not on my beautiful floors! I just had them cleaned!”
Cue hospital visit. The labor is much more intense than it was with Karla, which is because…
…they had twins!
Bedivere: “Oh no. A toddler and two babies in the same house? I can already smell the dirty diapers piling up.”
Catherine: “No, those are actual dirty diapers. This one just…um…did her ‘business.’”
Don’t ask why Ismael is thinking about food right now. Just…don’t.
Get used to screaming babies! Anyway, the Gallants ended up with even more female progeny, because apparently Brienne’s amazonian warrior woman genes run strong.
Catherine and Ismael name the first twin Bela, after Bela Lugosi. She’s born Grumpy, and doctors inform her parents that she shows early signs of the Insane trait. (Yikes.)
The second twin is named Lee, after Christopher Lee. She is born with the Athletic trait, and rolls Loves the Heat.
It takes a lot of rearranging, but eventually all three girls have their own crib crammed into the nursery.
Later that very same night, Catherine and Ismael both have their birthdays.
They’re still sickeningly in love, of course. They’re also both going through a midlife crisis, despite being highly successful and filthy stinking rich. *sigh*
Ismael has been getting a lot more impatient lately. Normally he’d take the time to talk this ghost through her death, bring her to terms with her mortality, and gently encourage her to pass on to the other side, but when you’ve got three or more jobs a night, sometimes you’ve just gotta beam the poor sucker up and call it a day.
He’s been overwhelmed with Sunset Valley’s sudden spirit infestation. Most nights, he doesn’t get home until early in the morning, and only has time to pass out for most of the day before heading out and repeating it all over again.
Because he’s so busy, Catherine and Bedivere have more or less taken over caring for the girls. Ismael helps out when he can, of course, but when three babies are screaming for attention, everyone around who’s needs aren’t in the red pitches in. It just so happens that Ismael is almost always either at work, starving, or about to pass out from exhaustion.
Late one night, Jared comes a-haunting. He takes some time to build a snowman…
…checks out photographs of the granddaughters he never got to meet…
…and dissipates the next morning in the middle of cooking a key lime pie. LUCKILY, the house doesn’t burn down. Instead, the stove becomes bugged and unusable and has to be replaced. Goddammit Jared!
Bearing Ismael’s hectic workload in mind, Bedivere tries to remember to be patient with his brother-in-law. But after several weeks without even a word of update on the experiments he’s meant to be running, he decides to gently bring it up.
Bedivere: “Let me preface this by saying that I in no way want to take even more time away from you and your girls, but, erm, how is our…special project coming along?
Ismael: “Hmm? Oh, my studies into the paranormal, you mean! Quite interesting! Bedivere, I had no ida you were interested in the field of spirits!”
Bedivere: “No, I- what? That’s not what I-”
Ismael: “Pardon me, I think I can hear the twins howling. Remind me to continue this conversation later!”
Bedivere: “…”
Bedivere: “Something is very wrong here.”
Snowflake day comes, and the Gallants throw a party to gather the whole family round for some pictures and exposition celebrate. Catherine learned from her mother’s mistakes, so only a handful of family is invited; El has apparently changed her hair after hitting her adult birthday, but Leo remains pretty much the same. Ismael’s dad (Ethan Bunch, for those who may have forgotten) has insisted on dressing like a goth weirdo ever since his wife died.
Connie has continued to irrationally hate Catherine, so she wasn’t invited, but her daughters actually get along very well with their aunt. That’s Sylvia Ursine over on the left, and her twin Laquita on the right with her man Francisco Bunch. They have…somewhat unfortunate faces, but I’m getting to be quite fond of them. I keep getting StoryProgression popups about them being adorable with their boyfriends – who are, by the way, brothers. They’re Darlene Bunch’s sons – and the only reason they didn’t come out fugly is because their dad is Sam Sekemoto. Dodged a bullet there. *shudder*
Another way of looking at it: not only are these twin sisters dating brothers, but Catherine’s nieces are dating Ismael’s cousins. Think about it.
Speaking of Ismael…
His midlife crisis made him roll a bunch of wishes to change his look, so I gave him a bit of a wardrobe upgrade. It…really works on him. He’s got a kind of hot, nerdy professor vibe? He looks like he teaches that one class that’s boring as sin, like History of Pottery Making or Textiles Economics, but his class is always packed full anyway because his students love him. I’m digging it, in any case.
Sylvia: Mee-ow, handsome!
Hush you, he’s happily married. And you’re dating his cousin.
This guitar was a Snowflake Day present; normally Catherine prefers piano, but apparently she likes to rock out too!
Bedivere: “I will find out what you did, Evil Alien Mom.”
nervous laughter
Uhh, hey everyone! I think we can now safely say that I can only be reliably counted on to pump out chapters every six months or so, huh?
EDIT: BAD NEWS.
So, it looks like at some point in the past few months, my save for the Gallants has been corrupted. As have all of my back-up saves – yes, all four of them. Which is…pretty heartbreaking, not gonna lie. I’m in the process of seeing if there’s anyway to maybe export the family and load them in another town, but it doesn’t look good.
If a miracle doesn’t strike, this might end up being the last chapter of the Gallants’ story – which isn’t to say that it will be the last time I play Sims3! If nothing pans out, I will be starting a new legacy, which I will be sure to link to from here. Wish me luck!
-<3 Mo