A little backstory: the evening of the day that Gina fulfilled her first Lifetime Want, a striking fellow named Dawson Day strolled onto her lot uninvited and introduced himself.
"Um, nice to meet you!"
Dawson Day is a very mysterious Sim; not only
can he walk onto strangers' lots without waiting for an invitation, but I've
also seen him doing random walkbys in both University and normal Neighborhood
lots, which I didn't think was possible. He also gets into hot tubs naked.
Is all this just a consequence of having an Outgoing of 10, or something?
I could go into SimPE and check, but I'm enjoying the mystery too much.
They became good friends but (unusually enough) nothing romantic had developed between them. In her mind Gina had vaguely reserved Dawson for her Mom (although nothing had developed there either). One night shortly before she was elected to the Hall of Fame, she invited Dawson over, and for whatever reason something clicked.
Falling in love again.
Never wanted to.
What am I to do? Can't help it.
The day that she got her second lifetime want, filled with a new kind of euphoria, she invited him over again, and took him to bed with more in mind than friendly recreation.
More like friendly procreation.
Cue the lullabye music.
Not long after, Gina was invited to a party at the "Bright" house at SSU.
Raising the old roof.
Yeah, it was a small party;
it's a small house.
At some point during the party, she found herself doubled over in the bathroom.
Could it be?
Afterward she cleaned herself off and went
back to the party, which was a great success, if tiring; I have this great picture of
Allegra getting a Good Party memory while sleeping in her bed.
Later on out in the yard, thoroughgoing Family Sim Jane Stacks had some friendly advice.
"If you're expecting, you should take care of yourself!"
Note Allegra and Castor cuddling in the
hot tub in the background; they bought it just for this party.
(I was actually quite nervous at this point; when I had Allegra invite Gina to the party I'd forgotten all about that research into Sudden Pregnancy Death Syndrome that I'd done while Jane Danvers was pregnant with the twins, and how pregnant Sims aren't supposed to go out between conception and the first bump showing. As soon as this party was over and everyone'd left, I loaded up Gina's lot and played it until I knew what was going to happen one way or the other...)
So here's Gina later that night, having a comfortable soak and thinking about, well, about what Romance Sims are generally thinking about.
About how babies are made.
And here I am behind the camera, still nervous.
Fortunately it wasn't long until my doubts were somewhat resolved.
"What's this!?"
The rumors I'd been reading seemed to say
that the mysterious deaths happen before the first tummy-expansion;
so I felt some relief here.
Gina spent her pregnancy quietly, reading in bed and meditating.
Awwwwmmmmmmmm...
The Sims "meditate" action is of
course deeply offensive to serious meditators everywhere.
It's pretty funny, though.
Jane Stacks stopped by, and was impressed by how well Gina was taking care of herself.
"You have such a lovely glow."
Gina keeps wanting to flirt with Jane.
But we're cruel and we don't let her, because
we know of her powers.
Gina also asked her Mom to come over, so she could tell her in person.
"Oh, my baby!"
"Just don't start calling me Gramma."
Another idyllic interlude.
Good Time Girls
Note the locker in the background;
I should really get Gina a real dresser sometime.
And finally, as the time approached, she invited the father over.
"Did I do that?"
I was planning to have him around
for the birth, but I failed.
After a little prenatal exercise, they settled down to a peaceful sleep (during which Gina's stupid cellphone went off I swear four times in a row when she was trying to get to sleep, and her energy was in the red and I was sure she was going to die). A few hours later, when the contractions woke her up, she was alone.
"Yoo-hoo, Dawson, where are you?"
Would have been clever to have
some food around, and to have Gina actually ask him to spend the
night; but I wasn't that clever, and he left early.
So Gina labored alone...
(Religious connotations entirely unintentional)
After a bit of writhing and shouting, Gina held up her new son.
Love these pictures.
No doubt about who the father is here!
Note even the blond eyebrows.
Gabriel is also a striking-looking little person.
"Look deep into my eyes."
I'm thinking of making him Popularity, as
I've never played one
of those, and it seems like a good fit
to both his Dad's probably-high Outgoing score and
his Mom's Romance aspiration.
Maybe he can like befriend many of Gina's lovers.
If we're careful...
After all this, pretty much all of Gina's needs were pretty much down in the deep yellow. So she put Gabriel in his crib and dragged in the Orgasma-- I mean Energizer from the back yard (good thing that doesn't require any effort!).
"WoooooOOooooo!"
Nice not to have to worry about
her being gold or better when using rewards.
Gabriel's first nap was spent in a crib sitting in the front hall, but clearly that wasn't going to work for long. The results of hammering and sawing and bricklaying and painting are in the next section...
When Gina first got pregnant I realized that everything was prepared and well thought out except that I had no place to put the kid's room. I was (and am) very fond of the layout of Gina's house, and I didn't know where I was going to put a new room without, say, blocking off some important windows of an existing one.
I eventually figured out a solution I was more or less happy with. Here's the interior shot:
Classy joint
Middle picture from
Simsational Sandy's;
left and right pictures from
Sim City Gallery.
Also in the room but not showing here are a couple of Escher prints that
I made.
Paintings are fun.
And here's the aerial view of Gina's current house:
It used to be much, much smaller.
Nowadays it's pretty roomy.
Gabriel's new room is in the upper left, and it does look a bit like it was grafted on as an afterthought I'm afraid. Just below that is the main cooking and dining and dancing area, which I expanded leftward by one quantum to make room for the nursery door. In the center is the main hall and study area. Top right is Gina's bedroom, with computer and lip-couch in the niche (and Thomas Cole's "Course of Empire: Desolation" on the wall; I had to crop it rather painfully to fit the frame and it ended up flipped left-to-right, but I'm pretty pleased with it anyway), and the bed and the guitar in the main space. Bottom right is the bathroom (with a bicolor floor for no particular reason). Outside are the hot tub, the energizer, and (probably too small to see) a little stereo for outside dancing.
(Gina herself is barely visible here in her everyday clothes making dinner; Gabriel is represented by about five visible pixels in the crib, as most of him is behind that bit of wall.)
So there you are! Another Raptor enters the world, and the third generation of Sims swells and prospers...