After the excitement of her adventure, Kit Yi was resolved to get back on track with her legacy. The next morning, she examined her fellow explorers at the base camp. Bashir Nahas seemed young and approachable as he danced by the stereo, so Kit Yi joined him and schmoozed for all she was worth.
The conversation was going really well, until she started discussing family and the dread truth became clear. Bashir disliked children. This wasn't necessarily an insurmountable obstacle, but both Kit Yi and I felt that it was more trouble than it was worth right now. In a huff, she stalked out of base camp, and we promptly got distracted by the beauty of her surroundings. She spent the rest of the day happily exploring the nearby hills, excavating a relic and some solid mercury from a dig site and finishing up at pretty Camp Orchid. She slept here for the night, a little richer, but no closer to the family she was so determined to have.
Kit Yi now had only one day left of her vacation. This was it, no more distractions, she was going to find her man. That morning, she trekked to the marketplace... Neither of us were particularly fussy at this point, but then
he appeared. I'm not normally one to worry over the beauty of my Sims, but Shen Su was just too attractive to pass up. He wanted to talk to his brother, the relic merchant. I had Kit Yi waylay him--his brother, at least, seemed to see where this was headed...
A bit of socialising revealed that Shen was flirty. This seemed promising, up until he wandered into the general store (player reaction: Oh, so
that's where it is!) and started chatting up the merchant there. After Stephen's abrupt marriage to another, Kit Yi wasn't taking any risks. She pulled out her bikini and shamelessly monopolised Shen, building up their relationship as high as she could over the course of the day.
She left China with a new friend, and she wasted no time in inviting him over. He arrived when she returned from work the next day, and immediately ran to the middle of the lot to admire the view. Kit Yi followed him and did some admiring of her own. He readily accepted her flirting, and finally she felt the time was right to confess her attraction and have their first kiss.
And things progressed quite smoothly from there....
Shen, at least, was having a blast on his holiday, and showed no inclination to go home. It soon became apparent that Kit Yi was pregnant, and when she announced the happy news to her lover, he was also delighted. I breathed a sigh of relief and waited for Kit Yi to do the honourable thing and ask him to marry her. She did not seem to share my priorities and thoughts of proposing never entered her head.
In fact, when they went out for a celebratory meal, she went home on her own afterwards, leaving her lover to flirt with strange women. On the plus side, considering her condition, it looks like Shen has no problem with women on the plus side....
However, once he was done flirting, he decided to go back to China, leaving Kit Yi to finish the final trimester of her pregnancy alone.
Kit Yi took this in her stride, she had a day's maternity leave, and she decided to spend it making some friends. A gang of wealthy criminals lived at Goth Manor. She was acquainted with one of them and had been given the opportunity to become best friends with him, so she decided to pay a house call. Every politician needs to get the Mob on their side, after all.
Some schmoozing and a game of chess later, she was officially friends with Swindle. Not a moment too soon either, for she immediately went into labour. She panted through the contractions, waiting for her new friend to assist her to the hospital. Instead he and his brothers stood around panicking. Finally, Kit Yi gave up and called a taxi herself. Bloody men.
And so it was that Kit Yi went alone to the hospital to become a single mother. She gave birth to a daughter, who was named Lara.
In my Sims 2 legacy, Lara was my generation 2 heir, so since this baby was a girl also (I had made sure Kit Yi avoided apples and watermelons throughout her pregnancy), I decided to reuse the name. The Sims 2 Lara's defining characteristic was that she was pure evil, and I was tempted to choose the evil trait for this Lara also, but my original resolution had been to randomise all heirs' traits, so I stuck with that. Baby Lara rolled absent minded and easily impressed, which didn't seem too bad to me. Certainly, she seemed easily impressed with her plumbob, quite happily spending hours lying in her crib and staring up at it while Kit Yi slept.
We had expanded the house for Shen's visit, and we brushed things up a little more for the new baby, so the Chans now had studio-style living quarters. When Lara's first birthday came around, Shen was invited over for the event. I tried to capture a picture of Lara growing up, but managed to snap the precise moment when she disappeared between baby and toddlerhood. At least you can see the new living arrangements.
I had not accounted for Sims' unwillingness to squeeze through small gaps, and I ended up having to move the bed outside due to Shen's complaints. Stupid, high maintenance Sims. Still, neither he nor Kit Yi minded woohooing under the stars.
Kit Yi, the shameless hussy, still felt no need to make a commitment to Shen. Apparently she felt a new sense of independence and accomplishment as a single parent. So Shen went home again, and Kit Yi revelled in motherhood, teaching Lara all the skills she'd need for a successful life.
Of course, it's not easy for a single Sim to raise a toddler, and once Kit Yi's maternity leave expired, things became more awkward still, even with Bart Shannon's willingness to babysit throughout his school day. I tried to figure out what was holding Kit Yi back from settling down with Shen. She still spun up wants to hug Stephen occasionally, and I decided that it was time she closed that particular book. She invited him over, greeted him rudely and told him that she just wanted to be friends. He did not take it well, but she seemed to be safely over him.
Still, she was not willing to make the next step with Shen. Perhaps after seeing how much weight Stephen had put on since his marriage, she was unwilling to risk Shen's impressive torso? Whatever the reason, her next birthday arrived and she left her youth behind her still alone.
To be honest, I can't fault Kit Yi too much. She was doing a pretty good job of combining career and motherhood--she was roaring through promotions while Lara was building up a solid foundation for her future skills. But it was hard work for her to keep up with her needs and Lara's and the various household chores, leaving her little time to keep up the friendships she needed. It was one thing when she was lower down the political totem pole, but now that she was a City Council Member she needed friends and charitable donations to advance. A mate could take some of the household burden off her shoulders and let her put in some career time.
Kit Yi refused to admit this, but perversely, she was willing to discuss marriage with her daughter.
She'll be on about grandchildren next.
Shen visited often and built up a close relationship with his daughter, but if he wanted to settle down, he didn't let on either. As for Lara? She was happy as long as she had her Noo Boo Bear. Just as well, since I certainly wasn't going to try for a brother or sister with the current setup.
Finally the time came for Lara's next birthday.
She went from a cute toddler to a singularly unattractive child. Ah, well. Sims 2 Lara was downright creepy as a child and grew into a swan (albeit an evil one), so I shall not worry about Sims 3 Lara yet. The important thing was that Lara was now old enough to go travelling, so Kit Yi promptly took her off to China to see Shen. This time they paid a housecall to him, and this time, rather than look for relationship commitments, I tried to see if Kit Yi would be willing to let him move in.
Kit Yi was amenable to this request and so was Shen! Woohoo! Well, not woohoo--he was too tired for that, but Shen Su is at last officially part of the Chan household!
Now Kit Yi can turn the heat up on her career while Lara, who rolled the artistic trait for childhood, can skill build while figuring out
her future.
