Welcome back to Happy Acres.

When last we left, Founder Heaven Lindemann had just surprised Garret Hsia with something. What could it have been? We'll never know, because I can't remember for the life of me! On with the show.

Now, for some reason I decided that it would be a good idea to throw in the household splash pic to keep track of who all is in the thing when we start out the week. Current roster: Nabila, Ibrahim and Kareema.

And no, your eyes do not deceive you, Nabila is a genetic brunette. Yes, she dyes it. Yes, I pulled this pic from the folder before the makeover. No, I don't actually give enough of a shit to stress over it.

We arrive on the lot in time to watch Kareema break out the Robotics Station and start on her first toy robot. It's outside mainly because they haven't found a place to put it in the house yet, and it's not like it's going to rust, seeing as they live in a freaking desert.

Ibrahim: I feel pretty good about this move. It's a fresh start.Nabila: I guess so. I hope everything goes okay.Ibrahim: You worry too much. We're all adults here, we can handle ourselves.Nabila: It's more for our sister. I just hope she's able to make some friends here and not stay cooped up all the time.

That's a sweet sentiment, which is a rarity in this house. You'll see. Next slide?

Yeah. Welcome to The House That Was Allergic To Pants. We hope you'll enjoy your stay.

See? It's like some sort of weird household-wide Pants Embargo.

Don't worry if you don't get that reference, I don't expect people to have read all the old boolprop legacies. I assume you have better things to do with your time. Me? I have a lot of free time.

Hence stuff like this.

You don't want to know what else I do with it.

Sometime before dusk, Garret and his fiancee dropped by for a visit. That's just about the only thing to do in town right now--almost, anyway, and they took care of the other earlier in the day.

Keep in mind, these first updates are all technically concurrent in the timeline. Brain broken yet? Nosebleed, headache? No? Yes? Good. Let's move on.

Nabila also tries her hand at the station--she Wanted to earn a bronze badge, so I let her play around with it for a while. She's not half bad, so if I drop her in with Heaven, I might have to let them have one. Because funsies.

Her brother had other things on his mind. Need to be charismatic to impress the ladies, and he is all about impressing the ladies.

With his face, who could blame him? Me-ow.

It amuses me to no end that the two designated geek sims start off by talking about video games. I imagine Garret misses them a little, what with the lack of electricity and all. FYI, Kareema's the nerdy geek and Garret's the fun geek, in case you were wondering.

No worries about an extramarital here, folks, their Aspirations are so incompatible that it's a non-issue. And Kareema's amazingly well behaved; I can let her off the leash.

And then they move on to how she's basically going to be her own test subject when she's finally finished with this project and can set up her own lab, which Garret seems excited for. Maybe he's hoping she'll get the chance to Hulk out and smash things. Now there's a movie I'd pay to see.

Did I mention how she wants to be a Mad Scientist? How perfect is that?

Chess is the go-to fun-building activity in this household. There is always, always someone on it. Usually it's these two, because I have Kareema cramming Mechanical and bot-building all day, but every now and then she rolls a Want to earn a Logic point, and sometimes I let her. That's going to come in handy when she gets her job.

Guys, you have guests. Guys?

...Guys, seriously. Go talk to people. Sim cannot live by skill building alone.

Pretty sure that's macaroni and cheese there, and I'm also sure that one of the girls cooked it. It's been a while and I can't quite remember, but that seems about right. At least since they're in the same room they can all socialise together.

Only 3/5 of the people in this picture are wearing actual clothing and not underwear or pyjamas. It's like being in freshman year all over again.

It's a good thing they got the talkies done while they were eating though, because soon enough it's back to the old grindstone. I really, really want the settlers to not have kids in high school before there's running water. Not that she minds, because learning is fun.

See, I do so let her off the leash occasionally. She's good to me, though, constantly rolling Wants for skills and building robots and getting badges. This is why I love Knowledge Sims, they're so blinking easy to take care of.

Holy shit! You go, girl! This item netted them a cool 5000 Simoleons when we sold it. Enough to finish off the walls and floors, at least. This is good, 'cause they're going to need it.

Walls down pic just to show off how easy they all are. Every one of them chose to skill autonomously. They just chose the wrong things.

Sims.

...Okay, which one of you did this? Who honestly stopped skilling long enough to go catch butterflies?

Come over here and set these free, I don't want to deal with you sighing when you find them all dead in the morning.

Heaven popped by for dinner. I think she was just hoping to be fed, but then she found the chessboard and, well. Nothing quite like a nice, romantic game of chess to light the fires of Knowledge sims. They sat here for hours.

...I thought it was cute.

Then it's gossip by candlelight time. The winner, and still champion, of the town's Best Piece of Gossip trophy, people. He will never live that down, poor dear.

YAAAAIIISSS.Now all we need is that gold robotics badge and a maxed Mechanical skill, and we can all have a hot shower! It's so close I can smell it. Pun not intended.

God I can't; they're just so adorable. Not quite three-bolt stalky, but close.

/watches these interactions with face in hands.

Aww, Love hearts! This made me so happy. I was just sitting there, gleefully watching this go down. By pixelated candlelight.

They're so glowy.

Unfortunately, everyone was getting a bit tired by that point, so we say goodbye to the future Mayor and settle back down on the couch...

...for another long night of reading by the candles above the couch.

Man, by the end of the week, she's going to have a certifiable ass groove in that thing.

No Pants Land. Population: Naked. Well, I guess as it's getting hotter, you're going to want to wear less clothes, if you're basically chained to a couch and a bot station in a desert all day. I guess I can respect her choice of attire. They are rather cute panties.

Heaven wanders by again in the morning, so I sent Nabila out to greet her, and what a greeting did she get.

So far, these two are becoming my fave sim couple, slowly but surely.

...What.What.

Ibrahim, I can't. I seriously can't deal with you right now. Why are you so creepy? Stop staring out that window.

No, really, he just. DID this. For no reason that I can fathom that isn't incredibly creepy and I just. Can't. Deal.

Let's move on from this disturbing subject.

Let's watch a girl in her underwear perfect unpiloted robotic flight. That's much more wholesome.

She so earned this. AND a long soak in the bath, her Comfort was bottoming out.

And from here....

Dongle get! And with this Kareema has mastered the Mechanical skill, enabling her to make sense of all those manuals and switches that will make the wind farm and water treatment plant a reality!

I didn't manage to get a picture of her gold badge when it popped (Ultra Speed :/) but she did earn it earlier that day, which means:

(drumroll please)

FINALLY. ELECTRIC LIGHTS!

It's a Thursday, so I'm going to be going around and updating the houses only on Thursday of the first week, except for Heaven, who will be getting her stuff on Monday when I open her lot again.

Now that there's electricity, the county let them put in phone lines. Power also enables cell phones and internet, where and when they will eventually be available.

This is going to be so useful when people start working and going to school. The kids are gonna need to know each other, after all!

And who do we invite over first but the founder!

I like how this is progressing. and now we know that at the very least, Nabila is quite serious about her girl, random flirting aside. Not quite serious enough to warrant a Want instead of a Fear, but still.

Smoochies abound. Shall we see what's cooking up for lunch?

Well, nobody's perfect. It's too bad she had the Fear in her panel, but at the same time? She's pretty pleased with herself anyway. So it's not so bad.

Resources are limited, so they still have to eat it though. :c

The next morning sees Kareema making her second best friend: her own sister! I'd comment on how sad that is, but that's about par for the course with my Knowledge Sims. Skilling keeps them happy! So it's easy for me to forget that Sims are social pixels.

Regardless, that looks like a very tasty omlette.

She Wanted to get a job in the Science career, so I let her look, and wouldn't you know it was the first one in the paper. Not pictured: her 10 points in the Logic skill. Because she does have them. That's basically all she's done all week: skill, and build robots.

She doesn't start until Monday though, and we have all the rest of the week to get through first.

And the Romance Sim Date Spam begins. Hope you enjoy shirtless furballs. His mood was pretty low by now, because he wasn't getting any lovin', so I indulged him.

Conquest No. 1: Esperanza Flores de la Cruz. This being The House That Never Heard of Getting Dressed, Ibrahim takes this time to show off his boss tattoos. The lady seems impressed.

Quite impressed.

The crush didn't take long, even without his Romance boost. She's amiable enough so far, but it looks like he's going to have to pull out all the stops to win this one, though, unless he wants to keep getting Rejected for his flirts, floaty hearts or not.

I guess she doesn't want to seem easy?

With a little more time, though, she starts to loosen up. Not to the point of instant makeouts, but they're getting there.

That's more like it.

The way her hair clips through his arm makes him look even hairier than normal. What can I say? I'm easy to amuse.

Flirt > Flirt > Romantic Hug > Makeouts > Besties.

Took you guys long enough. Now let's take care of that other want in your panels.

...Matching underwear. Nice. I didn't even do that on purpose. And that classy butterfly thong. I have a sinking feeling this is another thing I did at around 4 AM.

At least he's thinking of her here. I've had Romancers who wouldn't, thinking of someone else or even themselves.

Ibrahim: So, how about we get a little more comfortable?Esperanza: That is the oldest line in the book.Ibrahim: Yeah, but it works, doesn't it?Esperanza: (Giggling)

Living room: (More giggling noises)

Nabila: They're sitting there in their underwear, aren't they?Kareema: Yep.Nabila: We're going to have to get that thing professionally cleaned, aren't we?Kareema: I Scotch Garded it before we left.Nabila: Good girl.

Kareema: You know, he could make a lot of money as a gigolo. Nabila: Please don't ever tell him that. Bishop to King's Pawn three.

They've been there all day. I like to imagine them critiquing his methods quietly over the board, having a laugh now and then. What are sisters for, right?

They at least decided to take their canoodling somewhere private, which I'm sure the girls appreciated.

Oh, and check out THAT little tidbit. Kinda hilarious in a sad,never-going-to-happen sort of way. It's pretty hopeless, but he's not going to let that hold him back.

And since it's now Sunday, just past sunset, I let Kareema start on one final project. It's something she's been wanting for a while now, and she finally managed to get some free time. She worked hard, and she earned it.

I don't have to be coy about what it is with you, do I? Didn't think so.

And this is where we leave this house for the week. Next up is the Hsias, the wedding of the decade and BAAAAYBEEEEEZ.

Happy Simming, y'all.