Week 5/Day 29 (Sun)
Misa: Welcome to the fifth week of the Sanada family’s Wonder Child Challenge!
Before we begin, please allow me to introduce a little surprise that’s been “in the making” since last week.
Last Tuesday, after Satoru’s teen birthday and the birth of our fourth child Mitsuo, Jin and I had a little celebration all of our own. And the result?
Jin: You want to know why we didn’t mention this earlier?
Well, it’s rather embarrassing, isn’t it? First of all, I’m an elder!
Secondly, this is a Wonder Child Challenge, so there’s really no excuse for us to bear so many children.
Misa: Can’t we blame it on the fact that we both have the Family-Oriented trait?
Jin: Since Misa had finished mentoring Satoru in all but Handiness and I’d be the one mentoring him in Painting and Writing, we thought we could squeeze in one more child.
Misa: And considering that we have only one daughter, I started stuffing down the strawberries.
Jin: Late Friday night, Misa gave birth to our fifth child.
Readers, we are very proud to introduce you to our second daughter, Tomomi Sanada.
W: Also, although I’d praised the three oldest Sanada siblings for welcoming their new siblings, I can’t say the same for Mitsuo.
After Tomomi was born, only Mitsuo stomped around with an angry “Unwanted sibling” moodlet for four hours.
Satoru: And now back to moi, the Wonder Child!
Misa: You’re very close to maxing Handiness, darling. How was babysitting last night?
Satoru: Thanks to Dad remembering to switch the club vibe to Playful for my work shift, my maxed Charisma, and the Entrepreneurial trait, I actually rose from Level 2 to Level 3 in one evening.
After the promotion, I forgot to quit the job but I’m still wearing the work uniform, Mom.
Watchette: Love that color combo and the hat on you. We can duplicate it in CAS.
Misa: Is it a uniform set in CAS like for adult careers?
W: Nah, I checked earlier. But we can mix and match to get the same ensemble.
Aya: Shinji and I ace the Manual Laborer job on the second day of work, then quit.
After we get home, the whole family visits the Willow Creek museum so that Satoru can work on the Painter Extraordinaire aspiration.
Mitsuo is so much younger that he’s missed out on skilling together with the rest of us.
Still, he’s completed three of his childhood aspirations. He’s a genius and isn’t even going to try finishing Social Butterfly.
W: It’s perfect that Satoru will be trying to complete the Angling Ace aspiration. He and Mitsuo can spend more time together over the next few days.
Day 30 (Mon)
Jin: I love the open-air space on the first floor, but where do I hang my paintings?
W: I know, right? It would be great to have a bigger lot.
The island has two lots—The Lighthouse (30×40) and the Von-Windenburg Estates (64×64), but they don’t sit right on the beach.
Jin: I painted the portraits of Misa and Satoru, while Jin painted the portrait of me.
Jin: I also painted an angry painting that we’d never seen before. Satoru thought it was really strange.
Seeing a shark makes you scared, not angry. Or are we supposed to identify with the shark?
Aya: Do you like my new school uniform? Today is my first day of high school!
Shinji, Mitsuo, and I attend the same public school on the mainland, which goes from kindergarten all the way through high school.
But Shinji’s not with us today. Dad wrote an excuse note for him to stay home and learn programming.
Only Satoru attends a special government school. Dad’s very secretive about it and Satoru won’t talk about what he learns there.
Whatever! Let’s stay focused on what’s important, people!
And that is: Satoru and I look totally awesome in our school uniforms!
Misa: Incidentally, I aged up yesterday.
Unfortunately, the Deity of Ageing was not as kind to me as she has been to Jin.
Shocking, really, and terribly unfair, if you ask me! blah, blah, blah….
Jin: (pretends not to hear his wife complaining about him looking younger)
W: How’s Satoru doing? Is he making progress according to plan?
Thanks to your helping him with his childhood aspirations and your mentoring, he’s been leveling like crazy this past week!
Misa: He learns so quickly that we can’t mentor him anymore.
And except for Wellness, Satoru has already done all the skilling he’ll need for the Apocalypse Challenge.
W: He’ll no doubt age up around 10 p.m. on Sunday and he has six days left.
Last night, he finished Nerd Brain and I’m sure he can complete as least Angling Ace and Freelance Botanist this week.
After ageing up and before his party ends, he can also complete Renaissance Sim.
Misa: So, if he has any time left over this week?
W: Level up his Wellness skill and finish as many other aspiration milestones as you can.
Once the Apocalypse Challenge starts, he won’t be able to switch around between aspirations until a career restriction is lifted.
Jin: Okay that’s our game plan! High five, my partner in crime!
Besides Shinji, one other member of the household didn’t attend school today.
This is exactly how Tomomi appeared when she aged up last night.
Do you think her hair is silver because of her father?
Or is this just another effect of having a mother with lavender hair?
As the youngest child, she’ll probably be spoiled rotten.
Here, Jin “encourages” her as she draws.
Just as we’ve kept Aya’s blonde hair, we’ll be keeping Tomomi’s silver hair.
If Aya resembles Misa, then Tomomi resembles Jin.
Day 31 (Tue)
Jin: I wrote an excuse note for Satoru last Friday, but now I’ve not been able to write one for him again yesterday or today.
I wonder how that feature works.
Satoru: Don’t worry, Dad. I have three vacation days left, so I’m taking one today to try and complete Angling Ace.
Maybe another two hours of fishing left!
Watchette: See? I can do this! An entire chapter without a single shirtless shot!
Shinji: You want me to learn the woodworking schematic for the camping mascot sculpture?
I see you’ve kept it in inventory since Satoru used it, but why should I bother to learn it?
Satoru and I will become young adults in five more days.
Watchette: I was reading the Apocalypse Challenge Rules this afternoon and discovered that after Satoru splits to found his own household, I can move the rest of you into a house in his neighborhood.
Also, who knows? I might decide to keep playing the family or to use you for a different game!
Shinji: I’m happy to learn the schematic if that’s what you want, but it would have been cool to visit Granite Falls to learn it there instead of in our backyard!
Day 32 (Wed)
In the morning hours before school, Tomomi is mentored by Jin to complete the Artistic Prodigy aspiration.
They make quite a pair with their matching silver-grey hair!
Satoru: Last night, I completed Angling Ace and just now–thanks to taking a vacation day from school–I complete Botanical Enthusiast (I was already level 9).
Shinji also takes a vacation day off with me. It’s only 9:15 a.m. so we really have the whole day left.
The age bars of both Mom and Dad say “Number of days lived: 90,” but Dad’s age bar is completely full.
Shinji: That’s why I took today off, bro. Let’s take Dad somewhere special! You fly to Sixam on the rocketship then summon us there.
Satoru: Well, that didn’t work, Watchette. When I tried to phone them, I got a “No phone service in this area” message.
W: I guess you can bring others with you using a wormhole generator, but not with a rocketship. Sorry!
Satoru: Oh well, I’ll just quickly run around and gather specimens of Sixam’s rare flora and metals.
W: Oh nooooo! It’s a good thing that Aya didn’t come with us! Last week, she finally finished designing a dress that she’s been saving to wear on her YA birthday.
Satoru: I know! But here on Sixam, I see two female aliens wearing that exact same dress, when Aya hasn’t even gotten the chance to wear hers once yet!
Of course, I completely ignored them out of a sense of solidarity with my sister!
Satoru: Just before leaving Sixam, I run across two more female aliens. Seriously, have they no shame at all?
W: Hmmph! If we weren’t so close to the end of this challenge, I’d invite those aliens back to your home, drag them into a closet, and rip those outfits off their alien bones!
The nerve! I can’t believe I just saw four female aliens wearing knock-offs of Aya’s dress and denim jacket!
Jin: I was deeply disappointed that we couldn’t all visit Sixam but so excited to see the exotic fruit Satoru brought back!
And Speaking of Aya, she’d aged up to a teenager on the chubby side, but she’s slimmed down recently because all of her exercising.
She’s really gorgeous now—she looks a lot like her Mother.
Day 33 (Thu)
Satoru: I’m only one masterpiece away from completing Painter Extraordinaire.
Jin: Watchette, I’ve been wondering if he wouldn’t be better off completing Bestselling Author for the Apocalypse Challenge…
W: You know, Jin, I absolutely agree. He can paint one more masterpiece any time, but all the books he’ll need to write for the Author aspiration would take a considerable amount of time and effort.
If he stays focused (as in glued to the computer), though, he might come close to finishing it before his birthday!
Jin: Right! Hey, Satoru, a little change in plans….no more high school for you, ever!
And so we leave the Sanada family early Thursday morning.
Satoru and Shinji are taking vacation days today and tomorrow. They will never again attend high school.
In three days, they’ll celebrate their young adult birthdays on Sunday night, thus marking the end of this Wonder Child Challenge.
Jin’s age bar has been bubbling since yesterday afternoon. I wonder if he’ll live to attend the twins’ birthday party?
*whispers: See, I did it! I knew I could do it! One whole chapter without a single shirtless shot!
Thank you for reading! Please join us next time for the final chapter and the end of this Wonder Child Challenge.
oshizu's asylum 