Despertar

generation three

I feel like shit today. Inside. My awful mood is compounded by the fact that I am wearing awful clothes (the orange dress and suit jacket I never touch unless I'm already feeling bleak) and awful shoes (the slingbacks that don't sling back and especially don't stay on my feet).

So. This is for me.

*

[abshire]

Averell (RED) (BLU) (F)
Renee Spear (BLO) (GRE) (F)
Beckett (RED/blo) (BLU/gre) (F)
         Heather Spriggs (RED) (GRA) (F)

Averell and Renee got promoted to the top, so they got the baby bonus. Which, honestly, turned out kind of unfortunately, as it were. Averell has hideous genes, so I was hoping for a blond girl who'd take after Renee, and got thwarted at every turn. Heather is an as-yet-uncreated out-of-towner of whom my primary expectation is that she cancel out Beckett's Averell genes.

[alani]

Mele (BRO) (BRO) (M)
Shen Fawcett (BRO) (GRA) (M)
Kiran (BRO) (BRO/gra) (M)
         Shane Sakura (BLA) (BRO) (F)
         Whitney Sakura (BRO/bla) (BRO/?) (T)
                   Ezra Schilling (BRO/?) (BLU/bro) (T)
         Owen Sakura (BLA/bro) (BRO/?) (T)
                   Jasmine Prescott (BRO/?) (BRO/?) (T)
         Nicole Sakura
                   Aiken West (BLA) (GRE) (T)
Kaya (BRO) (BRO/gra) (M)
         Bennett Kyle (BLA) (BRO) (M)
         Celeste Kyle (BRO/bla) (BRO/?) (M)
                   Samir Cox
         Stefan Kyle (BLA/bro) (BRO/?) (M)
                   Elle O'Hara
Keana (BRO) (BRO/gra) (M)
         Nicolo deLaurentis (RED) (BRO) (F)
         Matthew deLaurentis (BRO/red) (BRO/?) (T)
                   Abbie Stephanides (RED) (BLU/?) (T)
         Shada deLaurentis (BRO/red) (BRO/?) (T)
                   Desi Torrance (BRO/bla) (BRO/gra) (D)

I was expecting better things, honestly, out of the Alani girls. The twins, Kaya and Keana, are attractive enough, and Kiran is downright beautiful, so Mele and Shen would have been within their rights to anticipate a multitude of gorgeous grandchildren. For some reason, though, I married Kiran to average-looking Shane, with whom she produced equally average-looking Whitney, Owen and Nicole. Ditto Kaya, whose kids are still little but show promise toward total averageness. Keana's kids with Nicolo are a downright disappointment. Nicolo has chiseled, almost vampiric features that make him one of the more handsome out-of-towners, and Keana has the Fawcett eyes, but Matthew and Shada look like a failed science experiment. Particularly Shada, who has Keana's wide mouth and Nicolo's thin lips. Wide, thin lips. Yum.

[allen]

Michael (BRO) (BLU) (F)
Raven Chin (BLA) (BRO) (F)
Angelique (BRO/bla) (BRO/blu) (F)
         Nathan Westley (BLA) (GRA) (F)
Devon (BRO/bla) (BLU/bro) (F)
         Vanessa Girard (BLO) (BRO) (F)
Gavin (BRO/bla) (BLU/bro) (F)
         Elizabeth Chang (BLA) (BRO) (F)
Rachelle (BRO/bla) (BLU/bro) (F)
         Asher O'Hara (RED) (BLU) (F)
         Kyan O'Hara (BRO/red) (BLU/?) (F)
                   Tristana Daughtry (BRO/?) (BRO/lbl) (F)
         Anna O'Hara (BRO/red) (BLU/?) (F)
                   Jahiro Nakajima (BLA/?) (BRO/?) (F)
         Elle O'Hara (BRO/red) (BLU/?) (F)
                   Stefan Kyle

Oh, the Allens. Very Party of Five, their story. All four were bonus babies (Devon and Gavin were twins), so they basically raised themselves when their parents died shortly after Angelique became a teenager. It was really inspiring, watching them learn to cook and repair household things for each other, watching Angelique quit her after-school job so the little ones never had to be home alone, watching them grow up, one by one, into attractive, accomplished adults. Because they nearly all ended up rolling the dice for babylessness, I thought the Allen line was going to basically die out (and technically it has, as there are no future Allens, per se), but then Rachelle went and had an extra kid, so it looks like it'll keep thriving. Yay.

[bayheart]

Samuel (BLA) (GRA) (D)
Scarlet Shelton (RED) (GRA) (D)
Alicia (BLA/red) (GRA) (D)
         Jihad Cox (BRO/bla) (BRO/gre) (T)
         Samir Cox (BRO/?) (BRO/gra) (M)
                   ...

Raising Samir was the biggest pain in the ass ever. Alicia is an only child, and her parents had no one else to whom to bequeath the house, so they moved with her into the Cox Homestead, where a total clusterfuck ensued. The Cox Homestead is on the smallest possible lot and is built for, at most, three people (two tiny bedrooms, one tiny kitchen, a tiny living room and a single bathroom), so once Samir was born, with seven people in it, it was a complete hellhole. On the one hand, it was nice to have four living grandparents on deck to care for Samir so Jihad and Alicia could concentrate on their careers; on the other hand, all the rivalries and sour relationships that developed (the grandfathers were friends, but hated each other's wives, and Scarlet and Naima's relationship score stayed consistently in the red) made it impossible to get anything done or get any two people into the double bed. Thank God all four grandparents died in the space of two days, after which Jihad and Alicia, no doubt, breathed a sigh of relief.

[chesney]

Jeremy (BLO) (GRE) (T)
Annica Guaraldi (BRO) (BRO) (T)
Max (BRO/blo) (BRO/gre) (T)
         Taylor Wildwood (BRO) (BRO/gra) (D)
         Cameron
                   Chicago Stephanides (BRO/red) (BRO/?) (M)

Unlike the prolific Chesneys of my first neighborhood, Jeremy and Annica had set a frustrating precedent for single-child living. I was kind of disappointed that Cameron wasn't twins (also that she wasn't cuter, but, eh). Cameron will be marrying into the Stephanides family, though, and you can always count on a Stephanides to make a bunch of unnecessary babies.

[cox]

Trevor (BRO) (BRO) (T)
Naima Rahim (BLA) (GRE) (T)
Jihad (BRO/bla) (BRO/gre) (T)
         ...

Again, such a pain, playing these folks. Also a pain that, for every opportunity he had to inherit wildcard recessive genes, Samir ended up a brown-brown like his dad.

[herrera]

Jason (BLA) (GRA) (M)
Marisela Gutierrez (BLA) (BRO) (M )
Cara (BLA) (BRO/gra) (M)
         Byron Alero (BRO) (GRE) (F)

So it looks like the Herreras are done for. Cara had nothing but time as a teenager to build skills, and the house was fully built, the outside relationships fully cultivated, so I was sure we'd wind up with at least one baby Alero. There are still a few days left before menopause, but it looks like no dice. Which I guess is fine. We don't need a bunch more brown/blacks anyway.

[jones]

Tanner (RED) (BRO) (D)
Natasha Douglas (BRO) (GRA) (D)
Jonathan (BRO/red) (BRO/gra) (D)
         Colby Wildwood (BRO) (BRO/gra) (D)
         Brandon (BRO/?) (GRA) (D)
                   Danae Torrance (BLA/bro) (BRO/gra) (D)
         Keenan (BRO/?) (BRO/?) (D)
                   Jaden Sheffield (BRO/bla) (BRO/gra) (D)
Kyla (BRO/red) (BRO/gra) (D)
         Dante Stephanides (RED) (BRO/blu) (T)
         Paris Stephanides (BRO/red) (BLU/?) (M)
                   Dacia McCool
         Sydney Stephanides (RED) (BRO/?) (M)
                   Cannon Killick
         Chicago Stephanides (BRO/red) (BRO/?) (M)
                   ...
Logan (BRO/red) (BRO/gra) (D)
         Chelsea Blackfoot (RED) (BRO) (D)
         Courtney (BRO/red) (BRO/?) (D)
                   Dashiell Torrance (BRO/bla) (BRO/gra) (D)

Kyla's one of the prettiest women in the neighborhood, and Logan isn't half-bad, but Jonathan is ugly, like his dad. The space between his nose and top lip is just too long. I was kind of annoyed that he and Colby ended up with twins--they were supposed to have one kid and then try for the baby bonus. The thing about twins, when they don't have any brothers or sisters, is that you get all the stresses of raising two kids (difficulty achieving promotions, difficulty maintaining energy levels, tremendous messes of bottles and potty material) but all the boredom of raising one kid (such as the endless teenage years, during which there are no fun birthdays to punctuate the time).

[killick]

Patrick (BRO) (GRA) (T)
Tess Thatcher (BRO) (LBL) (T)
Colton (BRO) (GRA/lbl) (T)
         Sasha Stephanides (RED) (BLU/bro) (T)
         Adam (BRO/red) (BRO/?) (T)
                   Angel Schilling (BRO/?) (BLU/bro) (T)
         Simone (BRO/red) (BLU/?) (T)
                   William August (BLO) (LBL) (T)
Damien (BRO) (GRA/lbl) (T)
         Ailani Wildwood (BRO) (BRO/gra) (D)
         Cannon
                   ...
         Kierson
                   Carlin Kyle (BLA/?) (BLU/bro) (M)

The Killicks are kind of annoying to play. First of all, poor planning on my part yielded a whole bunch of families with medium-skinned children bearing similar-sounding names, which is really confusing for pairing purposes. Anyway, though, adding Stephanides blood to any line kicks its stock up, so we're glad to have Adam and Simone in the mix.

[kinard]

Landon (RED) (BRO) (D)
Ella Dixon (RED) (GRA) (D)
Cree (RED) (BRO/gra) (D)
         Daelan Torrance (BRO/bla) (BRO/gra) (D)
Alexandra (RED) (BRO/gra) (D)
         Christian Sheffield (BRO/bla) (BRO/gra) (D)

Yada yada. I'm not a big fan of the Kinards, but I had to add them for balance.

[kyle]

Ashford (BLA) (BRO) (T)
Kimberly Roan (BLA) (BRO) (D)
Chadham (BLA) (BRO) (M)
         Ashton Michele (BLA/blo) (BLU/gra) (M)
         Carlin (BLA/?) (BLU/bro) (M)
                   ...
         Michelle (BLA/?) (BRO/?) (M)
                   Caden McCool
Bennett (BLA) (BRO) (M)
         ...

Then there are the Kyles. Their homogenized alleles are a little annoying, but they're attractive enough men. Chadham is a darker-skinned version of his dad exactly, same turned-down lips and pointy chin. Bennett looks a lot like both of them, but with fuller lips and a little less malice in his expression. Bennett's got the more attractive kids, too, but that's mostly a function of wife-choosing. Kaya is moderately beautiful, where Ashton is a total horseface.

[loveland]

Ethan (BLO) (GRE) (F)
Morgan Peale (BRO) (BLU) (F)
Melody (BRO/blo) (BLU/gre) (F)
         Eja Nakajima (BLA/blo) (BRO) (F)
         Tara Nakajima (BLO) (BRO/?) (F)
                   Keaton Campbell (BLO) (BLU) (F)
         Jahiro Nakajima (BLA/?) (BRO/?) (F)
                   ...
Amelie (BRO/blo) (BLU/gre) (F)
         Dylan Prescott (BLA/red) (BRO) (M)
         Keara Prescott (BRO/?) (BRO/?) (T)
                   Gage Stephanides (RED) (BLU/?) (T)
         Jasmine Prescott (BRO/?) (BRO/?) (T)
                   ...

Then there's that. Eja more closely resembles his mother, Laura, but has Daniel's straight Japanese features. I worried about mating him with Melody, because I thought, uh-oh, look at that, they've both got that recessive blond gene, but what are the odds, and then, lo and behold, there was Tara, a total genetic anomaly, looking nothing like her father and everything like her paternal grandmother. It just isn't likely, though. It's not impossible, but it's unlikely. That cornsilk hair.

[mccool]

Charles (RED) (GRA) (F)
Christiana Zorzos (BRO) (BRO) (M)
Kelley (BRO/red) (BRO/gra) (T)
         Justin Stephanides (RED) (BRO/blu) (T)
         Mia Stephanides (RED) (BRO/?) (T)
                   Micah Schilling (BRO/?) (BLU/bro) (T)
         Abbie Stephanides (RED) (BLU/?) (T)
                   ...
         Gage Stephanides (RED) (BLU/?) (T)
                   ...
         Summer Stephanides (RED) (BLU/?) (T)
                   Django Torrance (BRO/bla) (BRO/gra) (D)
Maddox (BRO/red) (BRO/gra) (T)
         Ife Wildwood (BRO) (BRO/gra) (D)
         Caden
                   ...
         Dacia
                   ...

I had big hopes for the third generation of McCools. Charles and Christiana were both just average-looking, but somehow managed to produce the two most attractive children ever born in-game. Kelley is stunning and Maddox is dashing, and I approached their matchups with two different schemes in mind. Kelley I paired with Justin, thinking we'd get a bunch of kids who were all either gorgeous or adorable. Instead, we got two sets of clones, one set bearing the trademark Stephanies lips (Mia and Summer are both dead ringers for their aunt Sasha, who doesn't even look that much like Justin), the other set kind of average but not exactly gorgeous like we'd hoped, either. Maddox I paired with Ife, simply hoping his handsome genes would outbalance her ugly Wildwood ones. Caden and Dacia haven't hit childhood yet, but I have a feeling the Wildwood hideousness will win out over the subtle McCool beauty.

[michele]

Lauren (BLA) (GRA) (D)
Chloe Larsen (BLO) (BLU) (T)
Sheadon (BLA/blo) (BLU/gra) (M)
         Anthony Carradine (RED) (BRO) (F)
Ashton (BLA/blo) (BLU/gra) (M)
         ...

If I had known how Sheadon and Ashton were going to compare, I probably would have switched their husband matchups. Sheadon has absolutely perfect Larsen genes on top of equally perfect skin. Old Horseface has the brains of the outfit but is not half as good-looking as her sister. It really is unfortunate, that Sheadon and Anthony (who's no Maddox McCool but isn't half bad, himself) wound up childless while Ashton, who doesn't even look good in full makeup or with any combination of hair, eyebrows and glasses) got to add extra ugly branches to the family tree.

[nakajima]

Daniel (BLA) (BRO) (F)
Laura Grayson (BLO) (BRO) (F)
Eja (BLA/blo) (BRO) (F)
         ...
Kaolla (BLA/blo) (BRO) (F)
         Kerrick Daughtry (BRO) (LBL) (F)
         Tristana Daughtry (BRO/?) (BRO/lbl) (F)
                   ...

We've already discussed what a blunder I made pairing Eja with Melody Loveland against the blondness risks. Kaolla, on the other hand, did me proud. Whatever. Tristana looks exactly like her, not a trace of Kerrick anywhere, except in that she inherited his brunette genes. Other than that, everything about her face is identical to her mother's, and she isn't even grown yet.

[prescott]

Jai (BLA) (BRO) (M)
Susanna Whitmore (RED) (BRO) (M)
Layla (BLA/red) (BRO) (M)
         Geoffrey Schilling (BRO) (BLU) (F)
         Micah Schilling (BRO/?) (BLU/bro) (T)
                   ...
         Angel Schilling (BRO/?) (BLU/bro) (T)
                   ...
         Ezra Schilling (BRO/?) (BLU/bro) (T)
                   ...
Dylan (BLA/red) (BRO) (M)
         ...

I'll be honest, I didn't care much about the Prescotts. They are ethnically ambiguous, uninteresting to look at, pointy and boring and have one of the ugliest houses in the neighborhood (red accents and flooring, ugh). Marrying Layla to out-of-towner Geoffrey Schilling changed that somewhat. Geoffrey sort of mixed up the weird Prescott gene pool and helped Layla produce three (unfortunately cloned) children who are far greater than the sum of their parents' mediocre parts. Angel, especially, is a beautiful flower; her lower lip is kind of weird, yes, but she's marrying a Stephanides, anyway; what difference will a little lip action make?

[sheffield]

Chai (BRO) (GRA) (D)
Payton Prince (BLA) (BRO) (D)
Christian (BRO/bla) (BRO/gra) (D)
         ...
Jaden (BRO/bla) (BRO/gra) (D)
         ...
Gabriel (BRO/bla) (BRO/gra) (D)
         Djavan Torrance (BRO/bla) (BRO/gra) (D)

Blah. Bunch of clones.

[stephanides]

Richard (RED) (BRO) (M)
Angelica Jaines (RED) (BLU) (F)
Justin (RED) (BRO/blu) (T)
         ...
Dante (RED) (BRO/blu) (T)
         ...
Sasha (RED) (BLU/bro) (T)
         ...

My favorite family. I like when I can trace a particular genetic attribute back to its origins, and the Stephanides family illustrates that perfectly. Richard was not handsome, but had thick, wide, unmistakable lips that stretched his lower face out to twice the normal width. Angelica was unremarkable in appearance, with a high chin and low forehead. Justin takes after his father. Dante takes after his mother. Sasha takes after her father, has his lips and everything, but inherited the general shape of Angelica's chin, so that when she was a toddler and child, we were briefly afraid she was going to grow up a total freak show. Of the nine third-generation Stephanideses, Mia, Summer and Adam all bear the lip legacy. Mia and Summer are, as I think I already mentioned, nearly identical to Aunt Sasha, but with more normal chins. Dante's three children are three various types of odd-looking, but favor, I suppose, their paternal grandmother. Sasha's Adam looks just like a brown-haired version of Grandpa and Uncle Justin. Genetics are wonderful.

[torrance]

Mark (BRO) (BRO) (D)
Linnea Saxon (BLA) (GRA) (D)
Django (BRO/bla) (BRO/gra) (D)
         ...
Danae (BLA/bro) (BRO/gra) (D)
         ...
Dashiell (BRO/bla) (BRO/gra) (D)
         ...
Djavan (BRO/bla) (BRO/gra) (D)
         ...
Daelan (BRO/bla) (BRO/gra) (D)
         ...
Desi (BRO/bla) (BRO/gra) (D)
         ...

Poor Torrances. They got saddled with the six-child card, which is pretty much a death sentence for every mother. Either she spends all her time pregnant, starving and too exhausted to make it to the fridge, or she never gets to recharge her batteries at the office because she's still got infants and toddlers at home and her husband doesn't have the paid vacation days she does, or she keeps running back and forth to feed/bathe/matriculate her children, interrupting her action queue and preventing her from tending to her own needs. Anyway, Linnea fell prey to all those ills, and died no fewer than four times between Django's birth and Desi's second birthday. Disappointingly, Daelan and Desi turned out to be Dashiell clones.

[wildwood]

Price (BRO) (GRA) (D)
Amalia Templeton (BRO) (BRO) (D)
Colby (BRO) (BRO/gra) (D)
         ...
Taylor (BRO) (BRO/gra) (D)
         ...
Ailani (BRO) (BRO/gra) (D)
         ...
Ife (BRO) (BRO/gra) (D)
         ...

And the Wildwoods, the infamous two-sets-of-girl-twins family. The house turned out beautifully, and I'm sure the four sisters would have fought to the death for it. Colby inherited it uncontested, though, though it probably would have served any of the other sisters better, with their crazy in-laws and staggered babies.