Last time the younger three Jacobsens had some fun as teens. This time, more teendom, some romance, and a lot of growing up in the dark.

Berlin gets a promotion after her very first day of work, then immediately finishes her homework. Good girl.

Harlowe: “So, uhm, kissing, what are your views on that? Like, specifically kissing me?”

*awkward pause*

Emrys: “Well THAT escalated quickly.”
(LOL His hand is not really there, is just the angle, but I cracked up when I saw the pic.)

Looks like his views on kissing, like specifically kissing her, are pretty favorable.
I give you a snap of Liam on his 111th birthday.
Liam: “Eleventy-one years is too short a time to live among such excellent and admirable sims…”
Well, you’re sticking around, I just wanted to show your cute old man face again.

Harlowe heads over to Emilio’s house later on. “Look, Emilio, we’ve been friends forever. But ever since we went to prom together, it’s been weird. You answer my calls but won’t ever come over. Aside from school, we haven’t seen each other at all. I miss just hanging with you. Can we just go back to being friends?”

Emilio: *blows the eff up* (Seriously wish there were a couple choices. Like “dump X” would be mean and “ask X to be friends” would be friendly.)

And Harlowe smiles because she knows she’s free to date Isidro now. LOL (She and Emilio are still at “best friend” status despite the blowup though.)

Harlowe went to work her shift at the bookstore (where she apparently works in a lab coat and goggles?) As soon as it ended, she called Isidro up for a date like she’s been wishing for a while. I sent them off to watch a movie, but they didn’t even make it inside.
It was her birthday and I totally forgot. At least her sister and Isidro were there to cheer her on.

She grew up, as expected, quite lovely, and rolled Good Sense of Humor. ๐ You get a CAS pic (I was in there changing her clothes/saving her for download) since she grew up in the dark. It did put the kibosh on her date though. It’s okay, I think he grows up tomorrow.
And at this point, I went through and edited some things regarding life stages. I play on normal, and I’ve been wanting to tweak it to make it seem more reflective of real life stage length for a bit now. So I made the infant stage as short as possible (I wanted 1 day, 2 was as low as it would go.) I made toddlers be 5 days (figuring toddler/preschool age is ages 1-5). Child stage is staying at 7 days (elementary being roughly 6-12). Teen stage I haven’t changed yet since Emrys & Berlin are in the midst of it, but once they hit YA I’ll change teen length to 7 as well (ages 13-19.) I am treating “young adult” to be the (non-teen) child-bearing years for ladies, so I have it at 28 I think (20-47). “Adult” is the non-child-bearing-but-still-in-the-workforce years, so I have it at 20 (48-67). Elder is retirement age (68+) but I think full life is around 80 (85?) rather than 90 on the normal settings. And then I used Nraas to set it so that adult females can no longer get pregnant so that it fits more with my ages, and I downloaded a mod to make pregnancies be 1 day instead of 3 (again in keeping with my ages of 1 day being roughly 1 yr).

Berlin had been out with Darrick when the curfew police nabbed her. Harlan chewed her out and grounded her. Of course.

Harlan: I wonder if I was too hard on her?
Berlin: It won’t stick. I’m his baby girl.
She proceeds to walk off, and he follows her, stopping her to “ask about day” and “chat” and all sorts of friendliness. LOL

Finally she had enough. “We were just hanging out at the park, making sure we were in front of God and everybody so that no one could think we were doing bad things. The stars were so pretty, I lost track of time. Besides I LOVE him, and it’s not fair that you want to keep us apart when I didn’t do anything wrong!” (Okay, she just talked about hearts, but I’m pretty sure this is what that translated as.)
Harlan decided to keep up with the friendly actions, so I figured he had a change of heart and had him let her off the hook.
She met up with Darrick at the park again the next day to make it official. (Because story progression kept having everyone else flirt with him)

He agreed that being her steady boyfriend would make him very happy indeed.

Isidro grew up, so Harlowe tries that date again. They chat in front the theater briefly before going in…
I took my cue from that chat, and they *ahem* expanded on their talk backstage.
And then Isidro had to leave (work?), said the date was good he guessed but maybe they could switch it up a little next time. Oof, hard to impress, that one.
Harlan aged up that evening. Adorable little old man.
Ember aged up too. She toned her style down some in her old age, but I gave her a pair of glasses with bright red rims.
Emrys finally rolled a lifetime wish a couple days ago – he wants to be a creature-robot crossbreeder. So he’s now in charge of the garden, and spends time watching fishing shows and working on logic items. This evening, he discovered a yellow giant. We named it Big Bird, because what else would you name something large and yellow?

Speaking of large and yellow.. LOL Harlowe had a belly pop! Looks like the little tour of the theater did the trick.

She called Isidro over to break the news to him.
Harlowe: “So, remember our chat outside the theater? And then *ahem* inside the theater? We may need to talk about that further..”
Isidro: “OMG, for real? Squeeee!” *family-oriented trait discovered LOL*
Since their dates have all gotten cut short (by aging up, by needing to work, etc.) I sent them on a final one before the baby was here. Movie first, then dinner because she was hongry.

Uh, Isidro? You okay there? He derped his way on inside the restaurant after Harlowe.
Halfway through dinner the restaurant emptied out. That kid started shrieking like he was being gutted.
Harlowe: “What’s with the kid?”
Kid: *horrifying scream*
Dude: “Nonononono..”
Harlowe: “Seriously, you guys. Isidro, what’s — oof, that smarts. *breathes through a contraction* Whew that passed.”
Isidro: “Omgomgomgomgomg”

She had no patience for them losing all chill, so she set off to the hospital on her own.
Harlowe and Isidro would like to introduce the newest member of the family – baby boy Paolo. (No idea why they both wanted to stare up at the ceiling, but at least it gave a good angle on the baby.)
Disturbed by all the camera-time her sister was getting just from having a baby, Berlin made sure she and Darrick were being autonomously adorable as Harlowe brought the baby home.
Then they went to water the garden.
As soon as she had Paolo, Harlowe wished to get married. She had asked Isidro to stay the night when they brought home their boy. In the morning, before he even had time to get dressed, she called him out on the balcony and proposed. He happily accepted.
Neither one of them had any desire for a big get together, so they opted for a private ceremony right then and there.
And while Harlowe is a beauty and I love her and Isidro’s awkwardness together, she got two votes in the heir poll and is not our heir. So here we see the new little family as they leave the house to strike out on their own.

Lightening the mood, a little father-son bonding moment.
Also, the twins both had wishes pop up to attend prom. I KNOW the actual pop-up didn’t show, because I’ve been watching for it. Maybe I didn’t just not notice the last two proms, maybe my game’s not giving me the notification. At least we’ve got the wishes, so prom should be in the next couple days I guess?
Stuff was boring at home, so I had great-grandpa Liam (yep, still kickin’ around) visit Harlowe as soon as baby Paolo aged up. Isn’t he a cutie? Both mom & dad have black hair and tan skin, but his eye color looks to be from Gramma Ember, who in turn got it from her gramma I believe. ๐

Berlin: “So I heard that prom is coming up and I was wondering if you’d want to take me?”
Darrick: “I’m so glad you asked me! Maybe we should match or coordinate outfits. Do you want to hang out afterwards? Maybe we can go hang out before? Or we can talk more at school. Oh my… I am so excited.”
And then Emrys came over and butted in with some comment about getting a bed but not for sleeping.
Darrick: “Uhm… I’m uh.. I gotta go. See you later, Berlin.”
Berlin: “OMG, Emrys, what is WRONG with you?! Why would you.. UGH! Don’t you want me to be happy?!” *storms inside*
Emrys: “Whatever. That was funny. At least I’ll be alone out here when Sheena arrives.”

Emrys: “Prom should be a blast, but even better if you go with me. What do you say?”
Sheena: “Are you pranking me? I’m so happy you asked and I’ll go with you for sure! Be prepared to have an awesome pose for our prom picture!”
The next few days went by fairly boring. Berlin consistently rocks the honor roll, is at the top of her part-time career, has gotten a raise, and has grampa Liam training her generally in her spare time. Emrys is on the honor roll too, ditches whatever after-school activity it was that he signed up for, but has gotten his logic, fishing, and gardening all maxed. (Thank you tabcasts) Ember & Harlan are still all cute and in love. Ember is thisclose to maxing her career. Hopefully one more book will do it.
Finally, the day for prom arrived. I wasn’t sure it would ever get here. They got drug down to the park for a few shots of them all dressed up. There was some jostling for position, a bit of drama because Emrys was hogging all the best light that Berlin had wanted, but at least we got one fairly decent one of the two together.
And because they’re here and dressed up (and also because prom took forever to get here and so they’re aging up this evening and I don’t know if it will even let them finish prom if they have to age lol), we nabbed one of each separately.

Emrys
Berlin
And then they headed home to await the limo to prom, where I will try to catch the highlights.
-Emrys was deemed ruler of the school. Prom King never looked so good.
-Berlin was tearing up the dance floor when they announced she was Prom Queen. Everyone high fived her as she ran up to accept. (Dramatically, I’m sure.)
Kids are still leaving the school. Here’s Darrick walking out despite being Berlin’s date, and apparently revealing that he likes Berlin a lot at the same time.
-Emrys is tearing up the dance floor. Wooooo! (Number of o’s is approximate.)
-Darrick (Darrick’s clone?) has been getting Berlin punch the entire night. Impressive.
-Emrys spotted a wardrobe malfunction. (Might be the most excitement he’s had so far.)
-Emrys’ picture is reportedly awesome.
-Darrick still getting Berlin punch. (This prom is putting me to sleep.)
-Berlin & Darrick were the dynamic duo of the dance. Everyone was copying their moves. Definitely chemistry there.
-What an amazing night! Emrys won’t soon forget this dance. (I totally will though. These updates are a snoozefest. Where’s all the drama?)
-Emrys spots a three-eyed llama. For the second time.
-Berlin & Darrick were inseparable! They are definitely hitting it off and possibly the cutest couple at the dance! (Emrys’ date Sheena did show, as he got the wishes fulfilled for it, but she wasn’t mentioned at all. LOL)
And with that, prom was done. Emrys came out first and..

…party time!

Here he is! He rolled athletic to add to his other traits.

And with zero votes in the heir poll (poor thing), he is not our heir either. But here’s a good peek at his face before we send him off next chapter.

Of course, Emrys aging up means it’s also time for Berlin. “Everybody, it’s my birthday!”

She sparkle-spins her way into young adulthood and… ooof. Don’t worry, I got you, boo.

There. Better. She rolls Lucky to add to her traits.

I’ll get better closeup ones later, but here’s a sneak peek until next time of your official new heiress, with 80% of the vote!