Chapter 9: We Love Love Day, and Other Adventures

Unlike her sister, Ida is a fussy toddler.

The fussiest.

Daddy is not amused.

"Sweetheart, you know I can't feed you until you stop crying..."

Holy sh*t kid, you seriously look like you're about to break your back in hysteria. 

Once everyone is fed and dressed and it's time to go to the Festival. It's Love Day!

Earl decides to come with.

At the park...

Whee!

Shanti has a hot dog. It's not healthy, but it's okay because it's a holiday.

"It's Love Day, baby, and I love you!"

Unfortunately, it starts to hail. Earl Steel leaves, but the Hands decide to stay a bit longer. Maybe the weather will clear up.

The freezer bunny pop is made more delicious by the fact that sweets are discouraged in the Hand household.

Rain follows her small act of rebellion up with plenty of play on the jungle gym and spring... seats... what are they called?

Ah, yes. Spring riders. Because you ride them. In spring.

It's called Love Day for a reason.

Shanti looks for hidden eggs, while Alexander decides to let Ida have a go at the spring riders.

"Rain, let your sister ride, you've played long enough."

"Aw, Dad, you know there are two of these though, right?"

"...Oh, alright then."

At this point the hail stops and the skies clear up. The day is beautiful again.

"Tired now Daddy."

Rain notices a boy she doesn't recognize and goes to say hello. His name is Marlin Wan. Immediately after they introduce themselves, the kid's father, Hank Goddard, doubles over in pain.

"My Dad ate a family bag of frozen tacos last night! Mom said he'd be sick but he didn't listen..."

After a minute of Hank grunting and groaning, Marlin starts to become anxious. He only becomes more worried when Shanti abandons her egg hunt to poke and probe at Hank.

"Is that your mom?Is she a doctor? 

What's she doing to my Dad? I can't look!"

Hank's stomachache is quickly cleared up with an injection of bright green fluid, and everything is copacetic once more.

Later:

"The only thing grosser than jellyfish tentacles is watching my parents make out!"

The kids make faces at Alex and Shanti's back while they're doing "cootie stuff."

Alex heads home with a tired Ida while Rain and Shanti go to a party at Hank Goddard's house. Shanti finally gets to meet Morgana's husband, Thornton Wolff.

Rain doesn't care that she's the only kid at this party (who doesn't live there, anyway). In fact, she might go so far as to say, in her pretentious way, that her and her mother are the only true adults at the party. 

Okay, so maybe she can still act like a kid sometimes.

Rain might be a very grown-up little girl who goes to formalwear parties now, but she still spares some time for her baby sis and her favorite dollhouse.

And peek-a-boo, too.

Two and a half seasons later and Parker Langerak is still sitting that same chair reading creepy books. 

"My last name is Alto-Langerak now..."

He and Holly actually split up, but he hasn't gotten around to changing his name back yet.

Rain has a wish to visit the museum.

She likes the animal pictures.

Inspired, she goes home and reads an art-school textbook.

Precocious little thing.

So. Fussy.

Rain passes a lawn gnome on her way to check out her father's easel.

"Why do we have that weird little thing again?"

For all her boasting and inborn artistry, Rain starts at the beginning like all Sims. Well, all Sims who haven't read their toddler books, that is.

Over the weekend, the girls get some new toys.

Ida helps break some of them in.

The Hands live next door to Jamie Jolina and her daughter, Rosalind. Rosalind is a loner who hates the outdoors, so Rain takes it upon herself to run over and say hello.

Jamie is glad to see her quiet but excitable daughter making friends.

Rain: "Homework is important and fun!"

Rain insists they finish their schoolwork before getting into any shenanigans.

Rosalind grumbles. "Why'd you come over to my house and make me do homework? You're no fun."

Once the homework is done, Rain shows Rosalind that she knows how to have fun, too.

Rain learned this game from Shanti.

~Interlude!~ 

Shanti has been promoted to head of the hospital, and is now a world-renowned surgeon! She's been promoted higher than Morgana, her boss, and even higher than Morgana's boss. Her first job under her new title is to deal with the local crime syndicate's involvement with Sacred Spleen. Apparently, the old head surgeon was a bit crooked, and borrowed some money from unsavory places. As the new head surgeon and hospital administrator, Shanti is faced with the unnerving task of severing ties with the criminals without angering them.

First, she talks to Nick Alto, whom everyone knows is a rotten crook.

With a little shmoozing, Shanti is able to get Nick talking. He says that he'll clear up the debts for a favor in return: Shanti has to convince the local police to look the other way while the crime syndicate takes their shady business elsewhere.

Shanti has mixed feelings about what she's being asked to do, but of course her job and the integrity of the hospital comes first. She pays a visit to Blair Wainwright.

Blair is a bit of an airhead, so Shanti just tells her that the police are doing a good job, "like, a totally great job, actually like so good, it's too good, you know what I mean?" Blair, proving that she's is completely unfit for her job, happily agrees to pull back the force's focus on Doo Peas. 

Shanti leaves feeling a little dirty, but mostly proud of herself to have finagled control of the hospital out of the hands of crooks without anyone getting hurt. The raise and the bonus help the guilty feeling wash away, too.

~Interlude over!~

Rain invites Rosalind over to her house, since Rosalind's mom is fighting with her "weird guests."

"I know you don't like to be around people a lot," Rain sighs. "But you're my next-door-neighbor, it only makes sense for us to be, like, partners in crime or whatever. Well, more like partners in, like, doing homework and stuff. What do you say?"

Yay, friends!

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Notes - 

I don't think I've ever been at the top of the Medical career before, and there are a lot of funny/weird opportunities I never got to play. Part of the reason I like blogging the sims is that it forces you to follow up with your sims, instead of playing for a little while before getting bored and throwing the family to the wayside. I probably never would have encountered the "sever ties with crime syndicate" opportunity if I was just playing freeform. :+)

Btw, both Shanti's and Alexander's LTWs were completed this chapter: Shanti got world-renowned surgeon and Alex got eight perfect plants. All Alexander does is make nectar and tend the garden, so I tend to forget to take screenshots of him, but rest assured he's still alive and thriving, lol.