Chapter 12: One eye is taken for an eye

My sibling Wesley's artistic abilities are perhaps slightly overrated. His first portrait of me was completely unremarkable; the second was unacceptable despite his claim that it was "brilliant". I informed him, in no uncertain measures, that mere brilliance was an unacceptable standard for the Badmoon pack - we needed a masterpiece, and a masterpiece we should have. While he did manage to produce what I needed, I was sorely vexed with him; an opening came up to oversee clan business in another part of town, and I ensured that he was obligated to take the position. Lest I seemed as if it was a personal bias, I sent Anyanka with him.

GAZ NOTE: I'm in the final stages now. I've toyed with various ending requirements, but I've settled now firmly on The Artisans; all three current heirs have masterpiece portraits hanging in my lowest basement (aka "the gem room"). It is week 21, day 4, when I have Wesley and Anya move out. That leaves Sims in the house, or to put it another way, that leaves 3 open slots. I think you know where this is going.

An old acquaintance was easily persuaded to provide me the necessary genetic material. Prior to the necessary (and not entirely unpleasant) ritual, I had utilised the extradimensional entity once more to supernaturally increase my fertility, in combination with the genetic fertility enhancement treatment Faith had prepared. I was confident I would not have to engage in such primitive rites often.

Triplets, just as the extradimensional entity promised. All males, unfortunately, though that may be sufficient.

Indeed. As I write this I am awaiting a ruling on whether or not the final heir must be female, given my It's Hopeless handicap. Assuming of course one of these boys is a werewolf, it will mean that I can start painting them as a toddler, potentially - the only The Artisans requirement is that a portrait of each heir must exist, there is no requirement that the heir must be an adult. I could start as an infant except that I can't tell whether they're a werewolf at this stage.

It is week 21, day 7.

Glorificus has been somewhat outstaying her welcome, but I indulged her research. She became a world renowned artist and author, and a particular anonymous fan sent her some blueprints for an intriguing device. It requires a certain amount of life force to construct, but both Angelus and Doyle are young and will shortly have sufficient excess.

Moodlet manager unlocked! Now all I need is 60k LTR points, but honestly that seems doable for Glory in reasonably short order; she has 35k banked, and some fairly big ticket wishes locked.

Doyle was now the President of the Newly Unified Planetary Governent. We were not at all hesitant to ruthlessly exploit this for our own purposes, especially since we could finally make use of our large amount of land. We would ride out the rest of the apocalypse in luxurious comfort. But Doyle's duties would require him to live elsewhere - or at least, so I informed him. Then I invited over a random male of reasonable health to once again acquire his genetic material.

Politics lifted. A surprisingly powerful lift actually, since it unlocks the Funny interactions that I am so used to relying on to build friends. Of course it's a little late in the day for that now.

On week 23, day 6...

Glorificus has been trying and failing to successfully paint an appropriately perfect portrait of Gunn. She was this close to having me kick her from the premises, when she suddenly revealed an inspiring talent. With a little of my own inventive genius, we created a reusable device that I call the "Device for Managing Biological Functions and Neurobiological Abnormalities", or "Moodlet Manager" for short. Though Glorificus appears to prefer the name "Panacea", and I do have to confess that is a little catchier.

The last of my cubs is born. Lorne has a different father to the others, but both had adequate genetic potential.

Note that the choice of a single final child here is deliberate (it is the 8th Sim, so it could only have been a single birth). Earlier when I said I had requested a ruling on whether the final generation heir could be a male werewolf; the adjudicators were kind enough to rule that yes, this was allowed, so Gunn is the heir (which is why Glory keeps painting him - no masterpiece as yet). Same day as before.

Angelus became a very popular popular music performer. This has led to our pack being permitted several indulgences such as music, more television channels (though they still only broadcast in the evenings), and various toys - useful for the younglings, if not nearly as impressive as my own contribution.

Entertainment lifted, week 23, day 7. I decided to keep Angelus around so he could tutor skills into the next generation - it's not like I need the space. I have four restrictions remaining (Communications, Criminal, Master Thief, Naturalist) and four kids, so that will be sufficient.

One neat thing about Rock Stars - once you reach level 10, you have no fixed work days. Master Thief or no Master Thief, I can no longer be fired for missing work.

Time passes. On week 24, day 3, my children become teens, and Glory finally finishes a masterpiece portrait of Gunn. Ending Requirement achieved.

And so it falls to me to chronicle our final days. I am Gunn Badmoon, son of Winifred, daughter of Tara, daughter of Buffy. For decades since the Event our pack, and we alone, have endeavoured to not merely repair the damage, but to construct a superior society from the ruins.

But we do not do this for humanity. Not even those members of our blood that lack the changing gene. We do this for the lycanthropes alone - nah, not even the lycanthropes of other packs. The future of the world is Badmoon, and only Badmoon.

I get a little ahead of myself.

Week 24, day 3, Winifred is now an elder. Note that it would be apparently legal for me to leave her in werewolf form and never transition to elder - but as it happens she has sufficient LTW points to get me a ghost point, so I have no problem letting her age up.

With the moodlet manager I have no more rest cycles. Everyone is always active, always working towards a goal. I need neither beds, nor food, nor showers, nor friends, nor fun. Of all the LTR available in the game only the Motive Mobile comes close (and that requires Generations, so you're definitely looking at a trade off there). Moodlet manager even clears such conditions as Fatigued, so you can rapidly train Athletics.

Not only that, but if you Cure someone as they are leaving the lot, it interrupts their leaving, so you can get them to stay. This is very useful for Adonis training (as well as being able to clear their fatigued state).

My siblings and I were raised by my aunts Faith and Glory, by my uncle Angelus, as much or more than mother Winifred. We bear her no ill for this; there were many plans she needed to put into motion ready for me. We had very little childhood - perhaps Lorne had a little, perhaps we even spoiled him a little - but when we were not at school, we were studying. When we reached our teen years, we never slept, we never ate, we never once veered from our goals. With the Panacea (and each of we teens had such a device, bequeathed by our forebears), we had no need to do any of these things. And there was so very much to prepare for.

We lived, in effect, in two houses. The plot that all my forebears had called home still stood, as a monument to their achievements, but with all of the land restrictions removed we constructed a massive house on the same plot of land. The adults spent more time in the old house - perhaps they felt more comfortable there - but we teens thought of the larger house as our true home.

Athletic ability was foremost. Not a one of our forebears could have been described as anything less than peak physical condition, and we of the fourth generation were no exception. Intensive training on superb equipment meant that we reached our potential rapidly. Then it was time for knowledge transfer - all the adults remaining were masters of many crafts, and masterful teachers. We absorbed everything like sponges.

Mother and aunt Glory hunted throughout the day - whenever we were at school, and had no need for their tutelage - and we obtained a king's ransom in gems and precious metals. A target for thieves, indeed - but only the licensed ones. Unlicensed thieves dared never risk themselves, for we never slept, and the weakest of us was a match for the strongest merely human rogue. Time machines adorned our lot, though we lacked the correct power source to use them. Mother claimed she understood the physics behind such machines, and even suggested a path by which they might be powered, but she also cautioned we could not avert the Event, so I deemed the suggestion a waste of resources.

I was basically smacking down Tutor In skills as quickly as I could. I also trained some more Adonises, and via the Transfiguration Trick I created a Compendium bar worth more than $2 million (so enough on its own to max out the bonus points for cash).

One by one the elder generation got old...

... and died. Not beyond our reach, thanks to previous contracts with extradimensional entities. But, presently, beyond our desire. They worked hard, let them rest for a time.

Once Faith died of old age, I immediately ranted Winifred to death. So that's 2 unique large tomb stones (old age and ranting). Note that the usual consequences of this (a mood crash) can be averted by... the moodlet manager.

Except for poor little Lorne, but hey - being a child sucks.

When we turned 18, my brothers and I entered the workforce. Of the four, only Spike's career would be at all ordinary - and even then, that is somewhat stretching the definition. Spike would be infiltrating the organisation that had, over the course of four generations, stolen millions of credits from us. His goal was nothing less than the leadership of this organisation, even if he had to start at the bottom. It must be said that Lorne vigorously disagreed with this plan, going so far as to issue an ultimatum, that if Spike succeeded then Lorne would never again speak to him. But the plan was the plan, and while Lorne was of course free to feel as he wished, it could not be allowed to prevent our rise.

Because Lorne is Good. Good characters hate the Emperor of Evil. I first discovered this when I had the unfortunate experience of having an EoE heir married to a Good spouse - it was exceptionally difficult to produce children, shall we say. Every moment they are near to the EoE their relationship takes a hit; you can, with a Charisma 10 Sim and extreme micromanagement, manage to raise it faster than it falls - but I seriously do not recommend it. Of course it won't matter here for anything other than roleplay purposes.

When Angelus hit his 60th birthday, it marked a phase shift. Lorne was still in school, but it was now clear that it was our generation, and not mother's, that would be in charge. I had been awarded an Einstein award in part from Angelus' teachings; since I could not effectively create elixirs without ingredients, I was inspired to end the toxic infection of our soil. This was a task that would be many layered; the first step was to fully understand the effects of the Event on both animals and plants. Since there were so few remaining, I decided I needed human subjects. I took a job at the local graveyard, ostensibly helping with interrment but under cover of secrecy, taking samples for analysis.

While I engaged in these necessary-but-unpleasant subterfuges, Riley's idea was to restore the fabled international computer network. We had the hardware capability, we just needed infrastructure and implementation. He began by infiltrating the business world to secure funding, by fair means or foul. We no longer cared about the laws of man, except where they served us, for a new day was coming.

I needed to know whether the problem was the water - it shouldn't be, aunt Faith should have remedied that decades ago - but to be certain, considering that uncle Angelus was surplus to requirements, I had him swim around for a while. And continue swimming. And swim some more, until the exhaustion drowned him. But I got the data I needed - water was not the problem. It is important to rule out certain hypotheses, however cruel. And I'm sure if I had explained that he would have volunteered. Well, reasonably sure. I couldn't actually leave that to chance. Perhaps we'll bring him back some day and explain it properly then.

Drowning ghost achieved.

Glory was also part of an experiment. I knew that those of the changing gene were hardy, but exactly how long would they take to die of starvation? As it turns out, a very long time indeed. That was excellent data. I left the graveyard job and got a job at the local laboratory so I could cross reference my findings. Riley, having secured funding for his communication network, also joined the lab to get access to their unique electronic inventions that he would need to complete his task.

It is week 27, day 3. Werewolves starve at least half as slowly as humans, possibly even less than that. But in any case, hunger ghost achieved - not the first to die of starvation, but the first to do so with a platinum tombstone.

But eventually, Riley and I took different paths. He had obtained his funding, and his technology, but to work within the legal system was never our intent. Only criminals had the necessary connections for what we desired; he infiltrated their organisation as if born to it.

A slight exaggeration; Riley got caught by the cops once.

I extracted a large number of fish subjects from the polluted oceans. Approximately half of the cure for toxic soil is there; I need only find the rest of the cure.

I'm not sure how visible that is, but this is capturing Gunn getting "The Perfect Aquarium". It is week 28, day 1. He is at Science 6, but the plants are going to be the thing that takes the time.

To assist me, Lorne - now 18 - decided to infiltrate the black market. This was a separate organisation to the gangsters, though the low level grunts were typically shared. Given his new occupation, Lorne had a change of heart regarding his earlier ultimatum. Or at least, he did after (under cover of night) I performed a little impromptu neurosurgery on him.

That's right. Master Thief last. I am nothing if not unpredictable. Oh, and I gave Lorne a mid life crisis to zap out Good and replace it with Evil. I don't know if Evil helps. But it's thematically appropriate.

The key, as you now know, was to resequence the genetic structure of the hardiest fish and plants, to produce a new hybrid species that not only thrived in the toxic environment, but actually cleansed it as a result of its normal lifecycle. I was very close.

Week 27, day 2, science level 7 achieved. I have 7/8 perfect plants, but the way these things go is that I will probably need at least 3-4 more days to get the last one... except that I forgot at science level 7 you get bestowed a perfect death flower! So now all I need to do is let it mature, and we're golden. In fact not quite so easy, I get the old bug where I have 11/8 Perfect Plants, but the life time wish (on Riley) does not trigger. I will wait a couple of days to see if it works.

Riley finally managed to make the contacts he desired. WolfNet is now established. With it, those of our bloodline can be in constant contact, coordinating our attacks. Within days, we have effective control of the city; the military are no match for us, the politicians fear us, journalists are unable to get out any negative stories, and with our new camera technology there is nowhere for anyone to hide. The populace are largely unaware of their new masters. Only a few obstacles remain.

We are the Badmoon pack, and the world is ours. We know how the Event occurred. We can trigger it again at will, but in such a fashion that we would not be affected by it. We are become the ultimate predators, and the world itself is our prey.

Communications lifted. It is week 28, day 4.

Don't go out tonight.

Naturalist cleared, week 28, day 5. The lifetime wish for Riley hasn't triggered yet, but strictly speaking I was just using that to keep an easy count - I definitely have (more than) the plants required. I got a bit fed up in the end and did a Save & Quit followed by a reload, which finally triggered the LTW.

This allows me to start bug hunting.

As things wind down, let me pre-empt a few questions:
- "Hey Gaz, you must have a massive house right now." Yep. "So you're getting stung twice per week by Criminal still yeah?" Indeed. "How are you managing to pay the bills then? Most of your dudes don't even work, and the bills must be a few grand." The bills are typically 50-60k at the moment.

But paying them is easy:

I have what amounts to my own Tiberium mine. I mean, I have plenty of ways of earning quick cash if I want to, perhaps most straightforwardly I can transfigure Compendium to the appropriate level. But this way is trivial. Werewolves hunting for collectibles will find even collectibles that strictly speaking shouldn't exist - such as the World Adventures gems and metals. I have a massive collection of gems and metals too, but I won't bore you with screen shots - that would just seem like bragging, and that is absolutely not my intention. Rather you need to understand that I suck at collecting - normally I would have done whatever I needed to do in order to score a Collection Helper - but werewolves  are really good at it. Of course you need a few lifts first, primarily things like Military so they can wander around, but they can haul back massive amounts of gems and metals.

Now that naturalist is lifted, I have Gunn hunting for insects - we'll see what he manages to come up with before the game ends.

- "Is there anything you'd do differently?" Well, that's a tough question; the answer is certainly yes because I don't like to repeat myself.

- "OK, then did you make any mistakes?" I definitely think if I had it all to do again, I'd have made some different choices. Military would arguably have been a better first lift than Journalist; when you have a large family the way I do Journalist doesn't give you much on its own (though early access to the library and power skilling is very handy; I didn't beeline for Journalist because of that, but it turned out to be at least a reasonable choice once it was factored in. Long story short, don't lift Journalist first for better job control, do it for access to the library.

- "You're playing with World Adventures right?" I am. "Yet you don't seem to have taken any trips." That's right. You need to be very careful with "unmanaged time" like World Adventures, University Life (except for the founder), and Into the Future.

Remember that the primary goal is to lift restrictions; if you spend 1 day "off world" you need to be sure you've scored points, or gained skills, or whatever you need to make the trip worth it. The Apocalypse Challenge is no time for sight seeing.

In the case of World Adventures all the collectibles were available to my werewolves without needing to travel, so it would basically have been a trip to grab martial arts and nectar making devices. I judged that to be marginal utility at best; you may decide otherwise.

In the case of University Life it is a much tougher sell; really, the only thing you get from UL is a head start on your career. But even if you manage to graduate in 14 days, you only get to start at level 4 or 5; I am usually able to get to level 6 or 7 in 14 days starting from scratch. It's true, you get to skill a bunch in those 14 days too - the comparison is not entirely fair, since it's a lot harder to skill (early in the challenge at any rate) while trying to get promoted. I judge UL to be a trap past the founder - an enticingly baited trap, but a trap nonetheless, that you would do well to avoid.

Into the Future is a tricky one. There are collectibles there that cannot be had anywhere else, and if you are sufficiently precise you could probably justify a short trip there on the basis of the bonus points you score. But remember every day is -1 point, so you need to be prepared to score at least 2 collectibles per day and ideally 3-5. It's possible, no doubt. In my case I wasn't playing with ITF anyway so the temptation never arose.

It's bound to take your life.

Criminal lifted. It is week 29, day 3. While my dudes were at work a burglar came, and foolishly I hadn't put a burglar alarm in the "new house". I have to be honest with you - I have absolutely no idea what they took. There are lap tops, a big television, bunches of masterwork sculptures that the burglar never touched. He didn't take any of my fish either, or any of my numerous ingots of metal. Whatever it was, I clearly won't miss it. Anyway, I picked up No Bills Ever - I still have to pay the mob on Mondays, that was my handicap, but that's no problem - they won't get much any more, I have plenty of ways to spend my cash.

Riley's reward for being a superstar at LTR points is to get burned to death. Fire ghost achieved.

There's a bad moon on the rise.

Master Thief lifted, challenge complete. Here is my score:

• 19 from raising restrictions.
• 250 from Bonus Points:
• Admirable Adonis 49/50 (I didn't have 20 Sims, so that was the max!)
• Amazing Naturalist Collections 60/60
• Copious Librarian 10/20 (I didn't write any masterpieces)
• Family Einstein 6/30 (Buffy, Winifred, Gunn, Spike, Riley, Lorne; all for adult achievements only)
• Family Gallery 19/50 (portaits of the 4 heirs and many masterpiece sculptures by Riley)
• Ghostly Ghosts 15/15 (Faith old age, Glory starvation, Riley fire, Angelus drowning, Winifred ranting)
• Gnamely Gnomes 3/10 (Invention, Sculpting, and Master Manchu)
• I Want It, I Want It 15/15 (only a couple of my Sims missed their LTW)
• Money Money Money 10/10 (from a single Compendium bar; actual net work probably 10x that. I believe that pretty conclusively proves money is not difficult to get, even when you're zeroed out twice a week).
• Parenting 101 15/15 (almost all kids qualified)
• Photographic Memory 0
• Professional Student 2/10 (for Buffy's start)
• Sculptor's Anonymous 0
• Simply Simbots 0
• Skill Meister 26/40 (various. Noteworthy only perhaps in that I got neither the chess grandmaster nor the celestial explorer challenges - I never once challenged anyone to a game of chess, and barely used the telescope that I got towards the end).
• Slackers Not Allowed 10/10 (none of my Sims were permitted to not lift restrictions - how dare you sir! :) )
• Time in a Bottle 10/10 (I never halted aging).
• 0 from Occult:
• Call of the Wild 0 points
• 0 from Game Start Handicaps/Advantages:
• Higher Education -5
• Everyone's a Critic 5
• 10 from Breeding Handicaps:
• Pack Rivalry 10
• 40 from General Handicaps:
• Evil Cartel 5 (was never a problem, I never lost a job)
• Greedy Gangsters 5 (annoying but tolerable)
• It's Hopeless 10 (potentially could have sped me up a tad)
• No Country for Old Sims 10 (no problem - uncontrollable, might as well die was my reasoning)
• Walk to Work 10 (everyone had Athletics 10 as a teen, except the founder, who had it before the challenge started from Uni training - and I wanted Adonis points anyway, so this wasn't really a problem)
• -10 from General Advantages:
• Heavily Guarded -5 (extended curfew quite useful at start)
• Mental Endurance -5 (means that combined with No Country for Old Sims the elders died very soon after they stop being controllable)
• 0 from Bloopers:
• The only mistake I made was missing that Architect now restricted you to two floors. I had nothing on the third basement floor, so I deleted it when I noticed that. As you're allowed 5 mistakes, I don't get penalised for 1.
• 94 from Days to Finish:
• Finished on Week 30, day 4 (206 days)
• TOTAL SCORE: 403

Here ends my November 2018 challenge entry. If you're still reading, I hope you've found it slightly entertaining and possibly even instructive. Perhaps you kicked my butt in the tournament, perhaps I beat you - but it's all in fun. See you next time!

Chapter 11: Looks like we're in for nasty weather

GAZ NOTE: So it looks like I miscalculated with Moodlet Manager; Wesley will become a teen in 1 day, while Tara has 3 days to become an elder. I have therefore switched to pinning my hopes on Glory instead, who has 4 days to earn 3 more points of Painting and get a Still Life sorted.

To celebrate the birth of little Doyle, I decided to take Angelus to visit the library. Angelus was thrilled at the books I read him; it is so handy to have Winifred able to look after the younger ones.

Time is slipping away from me. Unlike puny humans we of the changing breed can keep our senses a little longer - but eventually the senility plague will take me as well. I can hope only that there will be time enough.

It is week 16, day 4. I have 3 teens (Winifred just got Athletics 10, with 9 days to go), 3 children (the twins Glory and Anya have 1 more day), and a toddler (with 3 more days to go; he'll easily get Parenting 101, and hopefully the books too). Glory now counts as having fulfilled all the child requirements for Moodlet Manager. Hopefully she can get a portrait of Tara (she already has a still life) before she dies.

It is time to join Mumsy. For a while, at least.

No problem with getting things done before she died. I could have kept her alive indefinitely. Werewolves do not age transition while in werewolf form - and of course being uncontrollable I was not even allowed to switch her back to human form. Using "Call Household To Mean" I kept her fed for a while, but eventually Winifred was about to age up, so there was no real point delaying it further, and I stopped feeding her.

Definitively, a sub optimal result there. The sudden cessation of my forebear's terrestrial existence has engendered in me a form of melancholia that will doubtless adversarially affect my performance as I begin a career in natural philosophy.

I am Winifred Badmoon. I bear a genetic anomaly shared by both my forebears, and also my sibling Glorificus, that results in my physical form being only metastable. The usual expression of this phenotype is outwardly indistinguishable from other baseline humanity, however at will (and also when subjected to excessive lunar radiation, a problem in the past that has been alleviated by a terrestrial engineering project initiated by my uncle Xander, that has resulted in the moon never leaving a waxing gibbous phase) I can assume a more feral aspect, which comes with enhanced sensory abilities and animalistic traits.

But at present our knowledge of such things is sparse and hardly conclusive. It is high time that this phenomenon was studied more carefully; as the third heir to the Badmoon legacy since the Event, it falls upon yours truly to undertake this task.

It's week 17, day 6, when Tara dies and Winifred becomes a YA. It is almost as if I planned it that way. :) Having lifted both Military and Journalism, I can freely choose careers by walking to the appropriate site; having also lifted Paranormal and Espionage I can do this at any time, without escort. Our new heroine is Ambitious, Genius, Green Thumb, Handy, Slob; she has the skills Athletics 10, Charisma 2, Cooking 1, Fishing 1, Gardening 10, Handiness 1, Inventing 1, Login 6, Painting 6, and Writing 5. Her LTW is to become a Creature-Robot Cross Breeder, which not coincidentally is her chosen career. As with all attempts at Science she's going to suffer with Fishing at some point, but I am confident that this will only be a minor road bump.

I have fraternal twin siblings Wesley and Faith that are, chronologically, only slightly younger than myself. When they reach the age of adulthood they chose the paths that we had previously planned for; Wesley would put his rebellious talents to use as an art appraiser and, eventually, via patronage, allow us to end many of the restrictive housing requirements we have laboured under for 3 generations. Faith, by contrast, was more similar to myself; following the biological sciences instead of the physical, she entered the medical profession with the intention to (amongst other requirements) clean up the water supply so that it is, once again, safe to bathe in. Only those members of my family that were sufficiently lacking in societal graces (such that they could bathe themselves in a sink like common animals) have been free from dirt for decades - Faith's contribution will be a welcome one.

It is week 18, day 2. Architect and Medical are on the list. I've been having Wesley rant about various things, and use a few LTR rebel influences to close the gap; he's straight into the Art Appraisal career. The base game method is, to my mind, both unpredictable and object heavy (though I am capable of owning multiple easels, it really is difficult to fit them). The Ambitions method requires too much micromanagement (I am controlling 7 Sims after all). So the University Life method is my selection.

In order to make sure that Glory didn't become a teen before maxing Painting, I left her in Werewolf form. Again, this prevents age transitions - and the rules do not forbid this. One of the little tricks for werewolves.

Each of my other siblings (save only Doyle) have now entered the employment sector. Glorificus has followed in uncle Oz's path, though she intends to diverge from it into the forensic rather than the espionage route. Anya's cooking skills are unrivalled and she is rapidly taking control of the small eatery at which she works; soon she will have secured us a supply of clean food that we will eat at our leisure. This has not been the starvation diet one might have suspected, as most of my siblings (save only Glorificus and Wesley) have hardened stomachs capable of tolerating food that is pass its optimal use date, but nonetheless it will be welcome to eat what we wish, when we desire. Angelus follows Aunt Cordelia, though his tastes run more to the modern popular music rather than the symphonic side. Should he be successful - and he is a Badmoon, one can hardly doubt it - then we will have far more entertaining options opened to us - for while my work and that of Faith are necessary to support life, one must not neglect the artistic endeavours that make life more pleasing.

So I'm also lifting Forensics, Entertainment, and Culinary. Doyle, in a few more days, will start on Politics. One might ask while I'm not beelining for Master Thief - the fact is, I don't really need it. I'm careful never to be late to work, I always make sure my werewolves are in wolf form before going to work (so they don't leave to change if their mood drops). No Criminal for better beds? Again - I don't need it; with Paranormal lifted I can take Meditative Trance Sleep and quickly restore energy even with poor beds. (They don't all have that yet, but most do). Winifred is basically using her free time to Hunt for Gems at the moment, while I'm gradually closing in on the Moodlet Manager with Glory (2 more points of Writing, 3 more Best Sellers, and likely the royalties will pass $4000 at that point. There is very little synergy with her career there, but it's not so bad. I suppose I could go Naturalist or Communicatins but honestly, it will all work out. I probably don't have time to get Alien Technology in generation 4, and the only real reason to do so would be Collection Helper, which I can largely supplant with werewolf hunting.

With Forensics and Politics lifting, I will be able (should I so wish) to send the final generation to University. I doubt that is worthwhile, but we'll see.

Utilising the services of an extradimensional entity summoned by means of a paranormal device discovered by Uncle Xander, I returned the founder forebear to corporeal existence. This will enable her portrait to be painted by one of our resident artists, hopefully in a fashion that will render it a timeless masterpiece. Dealings with these entities are never entirely safe, but in this case (having reviewed possible research from Anya regarding a biological solution, and concluding it would require considerable effort in cultivation that we are not presently prepared to carry out) I have deemed it the only reasonable course of action.

I have finally succeeded in my experiments to restore the physical sciences as more than a mere scholarly pursuit. Sadly the material sciences and biological sciences are still limitations, so I am heavily dependent on my siblings Faith and Wesley, but they are proceeding well. While the perfect portrait of Buffy is being attempted, I am concerning myself with improving my hunting skills.

Faith does not disappoint; her newly developed sanitation and medical techniques have revived a flagging biological science discipline.

So that's Science and Medical lifted. While I can replace the sink in the bathroom with a small shower, I'm honestly struggling to find room to put a television. Kudos to the adjudicators - the combination of Architect + Politics is now a very real space restriction, whereas before it was largely cosmetic.

What's that you say? Don't cram the house full of Sims and you'll have more space? How dare you sir, how dare you! :)

Medical saves on a lot of micro management, depending on how far you want to go. Steel Bladder for everyone means you only need a toilet for children. Get rid of the hamper, unless you really need the laundered clothes moodlet. Get rid of the sink (which I only have for sponge bathers) and replace it with a dish washer (if you like; personally, I prefer to handle that myself, so that no well meaning idiot cleans up all my rotten food). Simmunity means that they can eat rotten food without needing to be Slobs. (Of course in my case Culinary isn't far from being cleared but that's by no means always true). However most of that is cosmetic; the main reason to lift Medical early is for Fertility Treatment, which reliably gives twins if you combine it with working out to the Kids channel (occasionally triplets - and you can skip the workouts if you have both parents with Fertility Treatment). That allows you to quickly fill up your house. If you prefer not to do that - and I repeat, how dare you sir! - then Medical can be one of the last lifts without any real problem. (It is quite late for me, after all).

My forebear's portrait was finally perfected by Wesley, after which I deemed her a waste of resources, so she quickly returned to the incorporeal realm. Inspired by his masterful painting, Wesley then became a master authenticator - inducing such demand for his services that many of ther restrictions on our home were removed. No longer did we have arbitrary limits on the number of floors, nor were we denied high quality goods. To celebrate, I arranged for the resurrection of my immediate ancestor Tara, to obtain a high quality painting of her as well.

A bunch of things happened simultaneous and I closed the wrong pop up, but as you can see - Architect is also lifted. I immediately took advantage of this to build two more sub basements; the first with a bunch of fun objects - TV, sculpting station, inventor station, another easel - and the second for my new gem cutting machine and my gem collection.

Anyanka was not too long delayed in her own contribution - a solid food source, an end to rationing. Still no fresh vegetables or plants, but I am certain one of my own offspring will be capable of rectifying that slight omission.

Culinary lifted, week 20, day 7. Entertainment and Politics are proceeding. I could drastically reduce the number of Sims in the house right now, and I'm of two minds about it. I need Wesley for the moment to paint - Glory is at least as good a painter, but she has to devote her efforts to Writing for the moodlet manager. Faith is the one I've been using to cut gems, so she's tough to ditch. Anya is certainly the most expendable, but even if I ditched her now I'd only be able to get a single kid. Better to wait until the Tara masterpiece is finished, and then have Faith, Tara, and Anya move out together. With a little help from the genie lamp I can guarantee triplets, and if I've calculated correctly I only need 4 lifts in the final generation. So I'll keep Anya a little while longer, she can train a couple more Sims for Adonis points.

Glorificus finally completed her law enforcement attache training, coming away with a new method of DNA analysis that works even after the Event and all the disruptions caused to normal technology devices. Using this seed DNA, we are able to cure Tara's dementia, and she leaves to be properly treated by the now re-instated elderly care facilities.

I know, Forensics sucks. But compared to Naturalist is was a lot less micromanagement, compared to Communications it is less mucking around with career switches, and compared to Criminal and Master Thief it does actually have some impact, if very minimal, whereas those two really don't at this stage. It is week 21, day 2. As soon as Wesley manages a masterpiece of Winifred, it will be time to seriously thin the herd.

In any case, that's a good point to leave it. Stay tuned for the final chapter.

Chapter 10: I hope you are quite prepared to die

Twins this time - Faith and Wesley. And it turns out that Winifred has the changing gene, so she will be well placed to take over for me as soon as she is older. Her uncle Xander has been in charge of her education so far, in between his attempts to be a mystic. I did tell him it was a dumb career.

GAZ NOTE: My tried-and-true plan of "always multiple births where possible" does have the snag that it leaves the mother pretty much unable to do much child rearing. Poor Xander is really being made to pay for his keep, but he's up for it. The twins are born on Week 13, Day 7.

Twin girls, Anya and Glory. It seems like less than a week ago that the toddler twins Wesley and Faith were born - and can you believe that Fred is now in school? How time flies.

I make a decision here. With 15 days still to go before Tara ages up, I decide to delay her next pregnancy until I get rid of Xander. There is no hurry; I need only 2 more kids, and that gives me at least 9 days leeway. Plus, that way Winifred will be a teen in time to help train the last set of toddlers. Normally I push as hard and as fast as possible, but with my heir already established there is actually no savings in time to be had here, as it will be impossible for Winifred to need to kick out the last set of siblings before they've lifted.

BTW, note the awesome parenting of throwing the kids on the ground outside. :) In all seriousness though I did get Parenting 101 with Winifred and will likely do so with all the kids this generation.

Xander finally finished his whole mystical nonsense. Well I say nonsense. It turns out that we now have a bunch of awesome magical powers, not limited to the ability to silence ghosts by carrying them around in our (super enhanced, thanks to me) backpacks. That sounds pretty useful actually - and we may even get better sleep too. He decided to start his own cult; I wished him the best as he moved out.

Yeah but I'm still annoyed that Paranormal was the best I could do here - no matter how nice a spin I put on it. It isn't useless. It's not that great either. One thing it DOES allow me to do is attempt The Artisans as an ending requirement, since I have the ability (via a dusty old lamp) to resurrect Buffy to pose. That's an unexpected benefit, to say the least. He also gets Illustrious Author the same day, so basically he's done, and moved out.

It is week 14, day 7. Getting close to the point where I'll need to breed again, so I called over her FB and got her knocked up once more.

A new boy cub, Angelus. Again with the no twins. What sort of scam did you sell me on, Mumsy?

The reason that annoys me is because all of that time she spent working out to the Kids channel is basically wasted; she could have been tutoring her children instead. Sometimes a few minutes is enough; sometimes days without end is insufficient (as in this case). But this is not a show stopper; she has 7 days until she is an elder. It is week 15, day 4; I'll let her get some Energy back and then invite over her lover for the final shot.

Another boy cub. I think that is the last of them. My pack is stronger than Mumsy's, and we will do amazing things - already Winifred (can you believe she's a teenager already?) has begun to plot her course in life.

When Winifred became a teen, I decided to give her Green Thumb as I intend her to lift Science and Gardening is the first skill requirement. Thanks to my lifts of Espionage and Military, she is able to work out at the gym and benefit from the speed boost; I have children studying at the library as well. Furthermore, Wesley has Painting 5 and has painted a still life of Tara (his best friend); once she becomes an elder he'll have fulfilled part one of the optional clear for Moodlet Manager. Anyone who knows my Apocalypse Challenge work knows that I am a massive fan of the Moodlet Manager.

Anyway it is week 16, day 1; Angelus has already been trained in all of the toddler skills so it's just a case of seeing if I can get him all 9 toddler books; a family trip to the library will probably sort that. This is a good place to end this chapter.

Chapter 9: I hope you got your things together

I know I've thrown some shade on Cordy, but actually now that she's become a hit movie composer, the air has been cleansed of toxic ash, and there's new hope in the air. I'm not quite sure of the physics of that to be honest, but I'll take the win.

GAZ NOTE: And yes, I'm pretty guilty of throwing shade here myself. To be clear: Symphonic is a perfectly good lift - one of the best, even. It is just not what I was hoping for in the early 2nd generation; something like Science would have been much nicer. Symphonic helps a lot more if you're playing with Seasons because it finally gives you a respite from snow everywhere, but since I'm not using Seasons, the main thing it gives me is the ability to lock wishes. And I'm not going to lie, that's really really good. Just not Science good.

It's week 12, day 3, and Cordelia and Willow both age up to Adult here. Note that they are both humans, so they do not immediately age to Elder.

The soldier boy Giles did good work - he managed to get up into space! From there, a few well placed mass drivers from the "totally we won't miltarise space, oh look, what's that over there?" station, he took out a bunch of the main zombie clusters. It's a lot safer to walk around now.

This is on week 12, day 4. Military + Journalism means I no longer have any excuses; from now on, I can walk to get any job I like. So if Generation 3 sucks, that's on me. I'm not moving Giles, Cordelia, and Willow out just yet because there's no point until I'm ready to get Tara knocked up, and I want her to get to Athletics 9 and get the LTW first.

They made me a superstar athlete. I finally learned a bit about sports ball - there is a sport, it does involve a ball, but anything else they said was on a need to know basis.

I was a bit angry at that, I have to admit. There may have been some thrown objects. I might have called someone a bleeping son of a bleeping bleeping bleeper. And it's really hard to make those bleeping sounds without some sort of device, I can tell you.

To smooth things over, Giles, Willow, and Cordelia decided to move to temporary housing for on-site oversight. And then there were 4.

I couldn't honestly be bothered waiting around for Cordelia to get her LTW, so Heart Breaker is still on the table. I won't need it; from here on I ought to be able to use job related LTWs.

But not for long; I found a mate, and he put a bun in the old oven.

While I was furiously working out to the sound of children's music - they say it multiplies the cubs, and it seemed to work for Mumsy - my twin became a power broker. We were now on all the best lists, and we could buy as much stuff as we liked. To celebrate, she got her own house. And then there were 3.

Oz became an international super spy. Not bad kid, not bad - especially since Xander is still struggling with the whole mystic thing (ooh! spoooky!). I put him to work undercover; he moves to a safe house so that he can report on all the nefarious dealings of the corrupt bureaucracy.

Week 13, day 3, and now Business and Espionage both lifted. Business basically negates Criminal - you just buy a bunch of stuff before the crooks come, and sell it again afterwards - plus, you can become business partners to soak up some excess cash. It's handy - not awesome, but useful. Espionage isn't that great, but since I had to get it anyway, it does work reasonably well to unlock pretty much all sim interactions with other sims. Again - I wouldn't have picked it. But I'll take it. Poor Xander is still struggling at Mystic 9, but he has 3 days prep time before he's back to work, so I'll try and smash out some more alchemy skill. His LTW of Illustrious Author seems unlikely - still on just Writing 8. Though there's no particular hurry to clear him off until the house is otherwise full, so there might be time (16 more days until he's an elder).

I guess Mumsy had a trick she never shared, because Fred here is not a twin at all. Never mind - time to sleep little one, while I get to work on your siblings.

The twin trick is not guaranteed of course, but it is disappointing nonetheless. Still, Tara has 21 days until she ages up, which is plenty of time to get more kids out of her. This has been a rather action packed session - let's leave it there for this chapter.

Chapter 8: I hear the voice of rage and ruin

Even baby Oz has now joined the ranks of the big boys. He reckons there might be a way to stop the gangsters by infiltration and maybe making the local cops less corrupt. I can't judge, I'm just hanging around the sports ball games.

GAZ NOTE: And my luck continues - Retired, Law Enforcement, Journalism. LITERALLY no choice here - well, I mean I guess I could pick Forensics, but that does very little for me when my elders are controllable for 3 days and die shortly after the 4th.

Sure was good I picked Journalism, so that I could pick the good choices, right?</sarcasm>. I did get Education (which is good) and Military, so once that's lifted I can at least move out the other family members rather than engage in some creative Sim Murder, but I wouldn't have picked literally any of the others. My ideal 2nd generation would have been Communications, Culinary, Education, Master Thief, Medical, Military, Science. I was prepared to believe I wouldn't get quite that good, that I might have to compromise once or twice, but I'm facing down a 3rd generation that still has food problems, still has telephone restrictions, still has no showers. Even Architecture so that I could have built a 3rd level would have been nice. As it is the ending requirement that looks the easiest to get is The Writer's Guild. I could easily get the shinies too, but that will involve some World Adventures Travel that, for maximum efficiency, will need to be delayed until pretty much the end of the challenge (otherwise I am wasting days travelling that I cannot be using to advance careers). I suppose Landlord is doable as well - despite getting robbed twice a week at the moment I am not actually cash poor, and Landlord can be a gradual process. But I've already written best selling fiction and non-fiction books (by Tara and Dawn respectively) so in a sense I'm already on that track.

But again - this is getting way ahead of myself. It's important to plan, but we've already seen how well my plans stack up against events.

Big sis Willow managed to reinvigorate the education system. I was against this, but as I look ahead a bit, to my own sprogs that I will inevitably have, I can see the benefit of getting them out of the house and not eating all our food. Plus, she reckons she knows advanced learning techniques that might mean my kids are not complete losers.

Education lifted. It is week 11, day 4. I should have lifted it the previous day - I misjudged the bar. Never mind, doesn't really affect anything. I'll leave her employed for now so that she can get her LTW, but as soon as Giles lifts Military (he's at level 7, probably another week should do it) she can leave.

They named me the MVP. I don't even know what I'm supposed to do with the ball yet, let alone what that stands for, but apparently it was really inspiring. They used my muscle tissue from my werewolf form to cure muscular degeneration. Sounds dodgy as, if you ask me, but whatever - I'll take the win. Despite my success, I might stick with this just for a little while longer - I'm dying to know what sort of ball we're supposed to be using. And why this game is played in a laboratory, under anaesthetic, rather than on some sort of field.

Athletics lifted - note this is only level 8, but that's all you need. It is week 12, day 3. In 3 more days at most Military will be lifted - potentially in only 1 more day (Education => Mid Life Crisis + Multitasker really helps). Then I can move out 3 of my Sims to start the next generation. Symphonic, Business, and Espionage are going pretty well too; I'm having some trouble with Paranormal, because I apparently forgot how much I hated the Private Readings requirement, but I'll get there - it won't slow my overall progress, even if Xander is the last one to clear. In the interim I might as well get to level 9 Professional Sports and claim the LTW. Incidentally, both Willow and Giles have both achieved their LTWs (so the food situation is not really dire - Slobs are now on the menu, so to speak). It is surprisingly annoying to make friends when you're denied Funny interactions; poor Cordelia (Heartbreaker LTW) has yet to have even a single boyfriend, let alone 10, and I might even wait until she lifts Symphonic, gather enough LTR points, and change her wish.

Anyway that's a decent stopping point for this entry. I won't say things are looking up - I'm still far from happy with this progress - but at least things are progressing adequately.