Having seen his friends die around him, Harlan tries to cheat death through gardening. When that doesn't work, he tries the old fashioned way.

Read about it after the jump.

Thanks to a spoiler in the earlier comments section, I now know that if I can grow a Death Flower, I can use it to pay off Death when he arrives. Unfortunately, none of the mysterious seeds I've been planting have turned into a Death Flower bush. And from a gameplay perspective, I have zero desire to run around town gathering seeds by clicking on tiny specks. What an awful prerequisite for gardening.

I do, however, have a Life Plant in my garden now. Harlan can eat a pieces of fruit harvested from the plant to add another day to his life span. However, it's slow going with only a single Life Plant, and I'm reluctant to use them to cultivate more plants at this late stage. I extend Harlan's life expectancy for a few days, but the days are burning faster than the Life Fruit grows. This is not going to work as a long-term solution. And unlike The Sims 2, you can't buy a Fountain of Youth from which to drink. It looks like Harlan's going to have to transcend mortality like everyone else: by having children.

Harlan's paramour is Nicole Fugger. It's a bit weird to think that Harlan once knew her as a tiny baby who mysteriously appeared as part of the family of his friend Chuck Fugger (rest is peace, Chuck!) without any hint of a mother. But she's a young adult now, so everything's above board. I don't want to simply get Nicole pregnant without doing right by her. So on Harlan's 93rd day of life, he proposes in the middle of the night. She accepts, a wedding party is scheduled for the next day, and the formalities are exchanged then and there so the two of them can try for a baby.

But here's where it gets messy. When you get married, you merge households. But Chuck Fugger didn't just spawn a single baby. Nicole has a younger brother and sister! So now Harlan is merging households with Kara Fugger, an absent-minded, grumpy, insane teenage girl, and Tavares Fugger (Tavares?), a brave and athletic school boy. They immediately show up, tired and grumpy and complaining about wanting to go to bed.

So much for, uh, trying for a baby tonight.

Nicole and Kara, you get the double bed in the bedroom. Tavares, you get the couch. I guess Harlan is sleeping on the bench out in the garden, next to Chigurh the gnome.

Up next: the wedding guest from beyond
(Click here for the previous Sims 3 game diary.)