Merry Grace, Teen

Merry Grace, a Perfectionist Teen

Here she is – teenage Merry. The last stage of this journey is at hand. Merry is in her last two weeks of getting it done. Her birthday added a new trait of Perfectionist and she rolled Joke Star. This also gave her the Gregarious trait.

There are several aspirations that are not doable and some that are partially doable. But mostly, Merry will be working on skills.

The first thing Merry does is to start unlocking skills – she wants everything listed on her panel possible. Actually, the very first thing she does is to find a job. Taking a position as a Fast Food Employee means Merry had to quit the Scouts, which is fine since she had already completed all of the badges and earned the scouting aptitude trait. Because of her grades in elementary school, she starts as a Fry Cook, level 2. This means she only needs one promotion. She also starts high school with a “B” so she only needs to get one improvement in her grade.

She now has to learn to cook before her next shift, which is not for 3 days. Plenty of time. Especially as fast as she builds skills now. Really, really fast. Insanely fast.

Cooking… Tunsten Chef (level 10)

Even though she isn’t hungry, she keeps trying to take a plate to eat. She leveled cooking so fast that it is only taking a one to two dishes to complete a level.

Gourmet Cooking… Connoisseurus Rex (level 10)

Once she finished cooking, Merry moved straight into gourmet cooking.  Might as well keep on going.

Baking… Piece of Cake (level 10)

In for a penny, in for a pound, whatever that means.  With both cooking skills out of the way, Merry finishes up the trio by mastering the baking skill.

So, I got up for work and thought, I have a few minutes before I have to leave, I will load the game and update my spreadsheet before going to work. I started Merry cooking and she was flying through the levels and maxed it out so quickly, that I thought to myself that I would just have her start on gourmet cooking real quick. And then she maxed that out real fast so I moved her on to baking and I was going to go to work once she maxed that out. But she had to go to school as soon as she finishing baking so I sent her out (without doing her homework, which I regretted later), and since I don’t like to save and exit with anyone off of the lot, I waited for her to come home from school. She didn’t get her “A” (my fault for her not doing her homework). And then she came home tense. She had a project so I had her do it “real quick” with Portia and Castor’s help and then sent her to jog to calm down (I forgot about having her take a potion). Then Castor helped her do her homework. Then, I realized I was late for work. Shit! Crap! Damn!

Writing… Literal Genius (level 10)

Writing in the Private Journal builds Emotional Control and the Writing skill at the same time. She will write in the journal until Writing is maxed. Then she will switch to “jogging to clear mind” to build fitness and emotional control. In the time it took to level writing to level 10, she got emotional control half of the way to the sweet spot.

Charisma… Smooth Talker (level 10)

This is the point when I am beginning to really realize how powerful the stacked traits with the club bonuses really are when it comes to building skills.  Merry is flying through the skills like they are nothing.

Dancing… Dance Queen (level 5)

The notification teased me by saying she could do a back flip – I wanted to see it, but I can’t ask her to do it.  It must be autonomous and she never had the urge to do it for me.

Wellness… Well That’s Deep (level 10)

Not all of the skills have achievements so I had to come up with my own sayings and well, mine aren’t nearly as good as EA’s are… 🙂

Handiness… Beyond Repairs (level 10)

Once Merry took over the repairs, there really wasn’t much for Castor and Portia to do.  I forgot they were here most of the time and they just did whatever they wanted.  The good thing is no one died.

Painting… Flying Colors (level 10)

Throughout the challenge, Portia sold every painting except the masterpieces.  She kept every masterpiece so anything hanging on the walls is a masterpiece.  Portia also only painted landscapes.  Anything that is not a landscape was painted by Castor or Merry.

Mixology… Tender Loving (level 10)

Merry “played hooky” and in one class day went from level 1 to level 10 in mixology.  She played hooky from high school to learn how to make mixed drinks.  That would normally require a visit from social services.

Video Gaming… Games within Games (level 10)

Fitness… Fired Up (level 10)

Guitar… Mael-strum (level 10)

Comedy… Straight for the Jocular (level 10)

Rocket Science… It’s Not Brain Surgery (level 10)

Veterinarian… Crazy Cat Lady (level 10)

Bowling… Queen of the Pins (level 5)

Programming… Code Monk (level 10)

DJ Mixing… I’ll Party If I Want To (level 10)

Fishing… Cast Away (level 10)

She needed to read three books for Nerd Brain so she decided to read about Gardening, Flower Arranging, and Herbalism 🙂  This is as far as she progressed on these skills.  They are not skills I had any interest in leveling.

Flower Arranging… (level 3)

Herbalism… (level 4)

Gardening… (level 4)

Archaeology… (level 4) – While she was at it she also opened the Archaeology book a few times.  She has the Speed Reader trait so that helped with the few skills she read about.  If she had more time, she would have kept reading, but she ran out of time, literally.

Pipe Organ… (level 4) – The organ didn’t seem to level as quickly as the other instruments so she didn’t spend too much time on it.

Photography… (level 4) – it didn’t look like it was increasing the skill with the selfies so I stopped trying, but now I see it was working and I quit too soon.  {sigh}

Vampire Lore… (level 7) – I didn’t have her put too much time into this skill because of the extra 5 levels not giving extra points, as far as I could tell in the scoring.  The skill still counts only 10-points + 3 points for maxing and there were other skills that she could level.  It was on the list in case she had time to circle back around.  She was just picking up the book to bump it up to level 8 when she aged up to young adult.

Parenting… can’t be learned by teens.  They can read the book but I read that it doesn’t unlock the skill until they become Young Adults.

Pet Training… she never adopted a pet so never got around to working on this and there wasn’t a book for it.

Selvadoradian Culture… she didn’t travel to the jungle so this one never made the list and there isn’t a book for it.

The first aspiration Merry completes is the Leader of the Pack, after which she promptly removes everyone from the club except her parents.

Merry continued to purchase and use club perks (skill bonuses) throughout her teen years – she bought all of the club perks by the end of the challenge.

Merry achieves an “A” on her second day of school, 10 days remaining until her birthday – way to go Merry. Unfortunately, you don’t have enough vacation days to get out of school the rest of the time, but we will do what we can. Now off to do homework before heading out to her first day of work. Teenage mood swings – she came home mortified, about something angsty.

Well it will take more than one day at work to get the one promotion Merry needs.

This thunderstorm is probably the reason Merry didn’t get a promotion – it made her tense at work. That is my story and I am sticking to it.

Merry’s daily drink when she arrives home. She will miss these when she starts her next challenge.  She has not have actual food since she was a toddler.

I goofed and chose the wrong answer on an Advice card and dropped her Conflict Resolution out of the sweet zone. Now she has to find ways to bring it back up. So, she is being mean to Castor and Portia and then apologizing. She is on target for four character traits and is working to build the last one. But she is also working on skills and aspirations, so it is a balancing act of time management.

Merry is promoted to Food Service Cashier with 8 days remaining to her birthday. What makes this even more remarkable is she has a rash from something she is wearing. I thought she was sick but apparently her clothing was scratchy and it feels as if there is a swarm of invisible insects marching all over her skin. Even so, she still managed to come home with the promotion. Now to go see if she has to keep the job, or if just getting the promotion is good enough and she can quit… (never even looked).

Merry completed her second aspiration – Nerd Brain. She earns the Handy trait and can instantly fix and upgrade objects now.  These are the only two adult aspirations Merry completed.  I focused solely on skills and buying traits with her aspiration points.

Castor and Portia continue to do their part to keep Merry on track and to keep the club vibe set to the appropriate emotion.  They really had no other purpose once she became a teen.  Most of the time, they were spamming whatever activity was set as the club activities or working or about to pass out because they were spamming the club activities.

When Merry gets around to leveling fitness, she never had a chance to do it on her own.  Portia set the club vibe and Castor began mentoring her.  If she was working out, one of them was mentoring her the entire time.

Merry has been fortunate in not having to attend school and getting away with it, with either vacation, holidays, or playing hooky.  She finally ran out of good luck and got penalized one day towards the end for just not going and lost a lot of responsibility which she then had to spend time making up. After that, I learned my lesson – no more just not going.  With two school days remaining until her birthday, she got lucky with one day being HarvestFest and the day after was her birthday.

I never noticed until just before the challenge ended that at some point the weight machine got fried.  It was under a roof on the front porch and I didn’t realize lightning would strike under a roof.  I know it was technically outside, but it was UNDER a roof.

The aspirations that Merry did work on or complete in some fashion either on purpose or accidentally.

• Painter Extraordinaire… partially completed (2/4)
• Musical Genius… partially completed (1/4)
• Super Parent… partially completed (1/4)
• Successful Lineage… partially completed (1/4)
• Big Happy Family… partially completed (1/4)
• Master Chef… partially completed (1/4)
• Fabulously Wealthy… partially completed (1/4)
• Mansion Baron… partially completed (1/4)
• Renaissance Sim… partially completed (3/4)
• Computer Whiz… partially completed (1/4)
• Nerd Brain… completed (4/4)
• Leader of the Pack… completed (4/4)

Traits Earned and Purchased (35)

• Mean, Perfectionist, Hot-Headed
• Top-Notch Toddler (Mastered all toddler skills)
• Creatively Gifted, Physically Gifted, Socially Gifted, Mentally Gifted (completed all four childhood aspirations)
• Scouting Aptitude (Llamacorn Scout)
• Emotional Control, Good Manners, Responsible, Mediator (positive character value traits)
• Insensitive (negative character value trait)
• Gregarious (from choosing a Popularity aspiration)
• Morning Sim, Night Owl, Savant, Gym Rat, Speed Reader, Observant
• Always Welcome, Speed Cleaner, Mentor, Professional Slacker, Great Storyteller
• Storm Chaser Sim, Waterproof Sim, Cold Acclimation, Heat Acclimation
• Frugal, Entrepreneurial, Free Services
• Natural Leader (Leader of the Pack)
• Handy (Nerd Brain)

Merry’s earned a total of 519 points as a teen + 248 points as a child + 30 points as a toddler = 797 points total

• Learned all toddler skills (28 points)
• Clean Diaper Club (2 points)
• 8 days left until birthday after earning an “A” in elementary school (8 points)
• 10 days left until birthday after earning an “A” in high school (10 points)
• 8 days left until birthday after topping her teen career (8 points)
• 35 Traits (350 points)
• All Childhood Skills (52 points)
• Adult Skills (339 points)

Happy Birthday, Merry!

Congratulations on finishing!

…but there’s more…

Doesn’t she look excited… 🙂

continue reading … Merry Grace, Young Adult

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