Leia Royal

Leia Royal was one of the six founding sims in my Build a City Challenge. She is the only one who lived in the Original Household for her entire life. She's a warm, nurturing character who loves her children, her garden, and her husband (though she caused her own share of truly bonkers drama over the rotations). Her signature color is green.

## Original Save

Leia was from the first Sims 4 save I ever played. I played the game very off and on for the first couple of years, setting up a couple of households in that save and then quickly abandoning them and the game in general. Finally I decided to try playing a legacy and created a sim for the purpose, Megan Royal. She married a sim from one of those other households, and over time all three were interwoven into the legacy. Megan and her spouse had two daughters, so I decided the legacy would have dual heirs. Leia and her cousin, Naomi Royal, were the generation five (or was it four?) heirs, but I got bored and wandered off from the save during their reign. However, I liked them a lot as characters, and when I decided to create the BACC with sims from pre-existing saves I quickly decided that Naomi and Leia would be the ones to represent their save. Leia's brother, Lancelot Royal, is the only other resident originally from that save.

## Rotations 1-6: In the Beginning

Leia was added to the save at the beginning of the challenge.  Conditions were rough so they all got to work building their various skills and also getting to know each other. Leia maxed her guitar skill during the second week, which started unlocking a lounge lot for the save (not a priority, but easy to do while the others worked on higher priority lifts) and which began her lifelong penchant for whipping out her guitar at the drop of a hat. During the third week she attended all five of the gold medal parties Naomi threw, which unlocked being able to interact with townies.

While her fellow residents paired off during rotations 3 and 4, Leia didn't find her romantic interest until rotation 5, when Jaxson Hill began his one-man campaign to woohoo his way through the BACC residents. Leia was actually the first sim Jaxson hooked up with, resulting in the birth of their first child, Darien Royal.

Leia began working on her gardening skill during the first rotation, but this was more of a slow and steady progression. She maxed out the skill in rotation 6, which allowed me to add the first park to the save. This is notable because it was the Pirate Wedding Park, meaning that my residents both had a park to visit and play in and also a wedding venue. I had been waiting for a wedding location to have any sims get married, so weddings began occurring thanks to this lift.

## Rotations 7-9: Same House, New Household Members

Leia's fellow original BACC members had all moved out and established their own households as of rotation 7. Leia remained in the original household with Darien, and they had some new roommates--Siobhan Fyres and her son Roger as of rotation 7 and Sofia Bjergsen and her daughter Diane as of rotation 8. Siobhan and Sofia both gave birth to daughters in rotation 8--Siobhan's being Loretta and Sofia's being Kirsten.

Leia's life was pretty low-key from rotations 7-9. She did a lot of helping out at other people's households, interacting with her son (Leia and Darien have one of my favorite parent & child bonds in the whole challenge), attending parties and club gatherings, and just generally going around being beautiful inside and out.

## Rotations 10-15: (Eventually) Married

At the beginning of rotation 10 it was just Leia, Sofia, and their children living in the Original Household. I decided that I really wanted Leia to have another child, so I had her build her romance with Jaxson back up.

Jaxson aged up to an Elder during Leia's week, which alarmed me and made me realize how attached to him I was and how much I wanted him to be a playable sim, so I kept building up their romance. She rolled the want to ask him to be her boyfriend, so she did. (She then rolled up the want to try on clothes in the closet, and the first thing she tried on was a wedding dress!) A few days later I had Leia propose to Jaxson, only to discover that he had remarried a townie named Skylar! Leia tried asking Jaxson to break up with Skylar, and he agreed, so I went ahead and set up their wedding and started the wedding event--only to discover that the game hadn't split Jaxson and Skylar up. (Since the wedding wasn't happening then, I did at least have Leia try for a baby with Jaxson, resulting in the birth of their second child, Rocky, later in rotation 10.) I ended up moving Jaxson in at the end of the rotation and manually had him divorce Skylar myself.

Leia spent the rest of rotation 10 attending gatherings and parties, and in the Royals' post I noted that she was one of the gen 1 sims most well-liked amongst all the kids in the save, further cementing my headcanon of her as a warm and caring sim. She even chaperoned Sofia's daughters at the Morgans' Toddler party, resulting in a very cute shot of her surrounded by a flock of Toddlers.

Less wholesomely, at the Morgans' Spookyfest party Charles Seagraves flirted with her right in front of his wife, Mabel Seagraves, marking their first romantic interaction (but not their last). In still less wholesome but at least happening within a committed relationship news, Leia and Jaxson had another woohoo bush go-round, this time at Ricardo and Siobhan's wedding.

In other scandalous news, Leia's brother, Lancelot, and his first wife, Maci Redmond, divorced during rotation 10. Lancelot continued to live with Maci and their kids for the rest of rotation 10, but I moved him into the Original Household during rotation 11. That wasn't the only change for the Original Household in rotation 11--Sofia and her daughters moved in with Maci, and Jaxson's son Moses and granddaughter Scarlet also moved into the Original Household. And in one final scandalous, convoluted rotation 11 household change Leia hooked up with Charles Seagraves and later gave birth to their daughter, Lucy. Despite all of this, Jaxson and Leia did finally get married near the end of their eleventh rotation, and we all hoped that the thunderstorm that started at the end of their ceremony wasn't an omen.

The rotation 11 drama didn't stop there--during the Royals' week Leia flirted with Jude Morgan right in front of his wife and her cousin/best friend, Naomi, causing Naomi to drop dead from rage within a few minutes. Since her death was a glitch--the actual death sequence never played out, she was just gone--I resurrected her. This was basically Leia's final act as a Young Adult--I'd forgotten to age her up during her household's week since so much else was going on, so she shared what would have been Jude and Naomi's birthday party.

Thankfully the rest of Leia's eleventh rotation was less complicated--she just showed up at the usual round of parties and gatherings, and even put in an appearance at the newly opened Karaoke Restaurant in what seemed to be a very sweet date with Jaxson, complete with a mistletoe kiss moment. She also showed up at the Flea Market in San Myshuno, where she provided a live guitar performance, and she and Jaxson seemed to be on another date at the Romance Festival.

The Original Household's rotation 12 photos were lost, along with most of the households', but she did put in some appearances throughout the save--she was at Lancelot's home for Winterfest, where she even fixed food for the occasion, and she was one of the first guests to arrive at the new church for his afternoon Winterfest wedding. (Her green formal dress was extra fitting for the occasion.) She was also at Lancelot's house for New Year's Eve, where she took part in several toasts and tossed streamers with her niece, Ginny, at midnight. Leia also visited the Fitzhugh and Kibo households.

By the time the thirteenth rotation started, Leia had given birth to her fourth and final child, Chloe. At this point the Original Household consisted of her, Jaxson, their children together (Darien, Rocky, and Chloe), Leia's daughter with Charles (Lucy), and Jaxson's son with Mabel (Malcolm). (Later in the rotation Dorian also adopted a puppy, Mochi.) Also at this point Leia had begun climbing the Gardener career track. It was a lot to keep up with, but Leia handled it with grace, and with the occasional fainting spell.

As usual, Leia was seen elsewhere as the thirteenth rotation went on. Notably, she, Jaxson, and their daughter Rocky had a cute family outing at the Genesis Diner. She and Jaxson also celebrated New Year's Eve at her stepson Moses Hill and stepdaughter-in-law Daisy Fitzhugh's house, complete with a closet hookup. And she put in appearances at her share of Toddler parties, including one at the Kibos' where she showed flash cards to Knox Fitzhugh.

The fourteenth rotation at the Original Household maintained the status quo--birthdays, gatherings, everyday life tasks, the usual. The fourteenth rotation out of the Original Household was also the same as usual for Leia in terms of putting in appearances, with a few exceptions--she and Mochi showed up in Mt Komorebi and she attended the Fitzhughs' New Year's Eve/birthday gathering. The only other notable thing for Leia was that she started knitting this rotation.