I LOVE your names. I could never come up with so many punny ones.

I have taken a good, hard look at the Hick family. It's something I never did when I was playing them in Sims 1. But, for some reason Marka's rendition of Mama Hick sparked something new in me. She's not trashy looking. It suddenly occurred to me that she's just a single mom doing the best she can. So, in my Downton handmaid hood, anyway, that's how I'm playing her.

Mama has been called that so long she no longer remembers her real name. Since the Records office was destroyed in the war, there's no way she could find out her real name even if she had ever had time to look. Time was something she never had anyway. As long as she can remember she has been in charge. First she raised her four sisters after their mother took off with a soldier when Mama just a little girl. They never knew their dad; they might not even have one. After struggling for a couple of years to keep her grades up, Mama quit school in 8th grade to work full time as a dishwasher. She's been there for awhile. The owner paid her from collected tip money because he felt sorry for the little girl. Naturally, she fell for the first boy to look at her. That's how she got little Elden. She stills sees him as Little Elden, even though he's now 16.

When the New Regime took over and Mama lost her job, her first, completely illogical, thought was that she was glad. Time. She'd never had time before. It seemed like a treasure. She would have time to read, to play the pinball machine someone abandoned near their house. Elden fixed it up and it worked just fine now, and she finally had time to play with it. She wanted to learn to cook and she wanted to have people over and she wanted, oh so many things she'd never had time for before. Her secret desire, one she'd never shared with anyone, was to find someone to love her. Time was her gift.

But it was going to be a costly one. How would they live?

Elden decided to quit school and get a job. He was able to score a really good one with a church. It's classified as a teen/elder opportunity, but it looks full time and they are paying him decent money. So, he left school without a second thought. He was never going to college anyway. In their country college is for the elite and the rich. They were neither.

Elden wants more out of life than his mother got. And he loves her and wants her to have the best, too. So, he did what many do, he turned to the dark side. He has become a Druid. A young Druid has the power of the mailpost (I have the hacked mailbox, which is seldom used to it's full extent). Elden wields this power now. His first act was to find someone for his mother to marry. His second was to enchant the post to restore fertility to both of them. So, Mama, unaware of this unhappy turn of events, is now married to Sinjin and they are excitedly expecting a baby. Elden also met Christy Toyonaga. She was worried because she's on her own and rapidly spending her savings. She was cute and he was crushing on her. So, he married her. It's a good thing he did, too. That very night he was abducted and impregnated by aliens. The NR welcomes babies and embraces technology which allows men to carry the offspring of their marriages. So, the family is pretending the unborn baby is his and Christy's.

These sims are all created by Peni Griffin. She is good with punny names, isn't she?

She really is. She's quite a talented girl.

@smorbie1:
I'm intrigued by your interpretation of the Hicks, I might keep it in mind when the family comes into existence in my Beginning hood. In this version the future Mama Hick is Betty Simovitch's (Newbie's) younger sister, Veronica and still a child. I haven't thought about how she'll meet Elden father or how it comes that she has to raise her child alone. I haven't even decided yet what Aspiration to give to her. I was going to play her as very trashy, but now I'm not so sure anymore.

---

In my hood there's teen drama! Non-canon teen drama! Michael Bachelor had his first kiss with....Coral Ruggybyne (future Oldie)!!! These two are actually a cute couple and are on their way to being each other's first love. The Ruggybynes are not gonna be happy when they find out their daughter is fooling around with the son of those two weird spellcasters from Downtown... and I wonder what this will mean for Herb... Due to Michael being a family sim in my neighbourhood he'd actually be a better match for Coral, if it wasn't for destiny and the need for Mary-Sue to exist. However their ages are not optimal, Michael is at the end of his time as a teenager, Coral just aged up.

And the infamous Bella Bachelor has just become a teenager, she and Mortimer are already friends (she was literally the first kid Morty brought home from school) so their legendary romance has already a good foundation!

Simis and Jocasta meanwhile have entered the final quarter of their adult lives, so they'll probably gonna look into making use of that Cowplant in their basement soon. But whom to feed to it? The local crime syndicate would probably make good targets...

I've never played the beginning of hoods, even though I have them. I'm not sure how that would work. I'm afraid I would become too attached to my own little story lines that would naturally develop along the way, like Michael and Coral's falling in love. I fear I wouldn't be able to direct the story the way I wanted it.

As for Mama Hick, I don't think I've played with her at all since Sims 1. Back then I always went the trashy route. I think it was the curlers. But when I went into the game and looked at her, she's not an elder, she's neatly dressed even though she's wearing that stupid cap, she's pretty. The trailer is neat. I just suddenly realized there's nothing to peg her as trashy. She was stuck as a dish washer. But that could have been from a super-hard life. I started thinking about my life as a single mom and all the single moms out there. I thought poor and trashy are not the same thing.

It's been interesting to play her this way. The added twist of having Elden be so protective of her that he would risk his life to make their lives better, is kind of driving the story right now. As to how she will appear in her next incarnation, I don't know. But, I've developed a kind of kinship with her, so I think her trashy lives might be behind her.

I had Frida and Caelum graduate from college and move them into the Goth house. After they got married they ACR woohooed and I heard baby chimes. Frida was pregnant with one baby. Frida got a level 8 job in the Gamer career, most likely from her major in college, and Caelum got a level 7 job in the Journalism career, also most likely from his major. Victor and Gretle both have "have a grandchild" and "relative gets married" wants (Gunther is engaged, but hasn't graduated and married yet, so the get married was most likely directed at him). Frida gave birth to a baby boy named Aaron with alien skin (Caelum has alien skin from his PT, and Aaron inherited his dad's alien skin.) They immediately ACR woohooed after Frida gave birth and I head desked when I heard baby chimes and saw from the ACR pregnancy scanner that she was pregnant with twins. I played until Aaron became a toddler and Victor and Gretle took care of Aaron as a baby more than Frida or Caelum. Frida gave birth to boy/girl twins named Heidi and Issac.

I switched to Gunther and Cornelia's dorm to get them graduated. I moved them into their own house after they graduated but didn't do anything else with them since it was late and I was tired.

I had Frida and Caelum graduate from college and move them into the Goth house. After they got married they ACR woohooed and I heard baby chimes. Frida was pregnant with one baby. Frida got a level 8 job in the Gamer career, most likely from her major in college, and Caelum got a level 7 job in the Journalism career, also most likely from his major. Victor and Gretle both have "have a grandchild" and "relative gets married" wants (Gunther is engaged, but hasn't graduated and married yet, so the get married was most likely directed at him). Frida gave birth to a baby boy named Aaron with alien skin (Caelum has alien skin from his PT, and Aaron inherited his dad's alien skin.) They immediately ACR woohooed after Frida gave birth and I head desked when I heard baby chimes and saw from the ACR pregnancy scanner that she was pregnant with twins. I played until Aaron was a todder and Victor and Gretle took care of Aaron as a baby more than Frida or Caelum. Frida gave birth to boy/girl twins named Heidi and Issac.

I switched to Gunther and Cornelia's dorm to get them graduated. I moved them into their own house after they graduated but didn't do anything else with them since it was late and I was tired.

On and off today I played the Al Mahmoud household to try to get Nighat to teen to start getting her relationship going with Flamenco. Once again a burglar came after everyone had just gone to bed at 11:15pm. The police woman beat the burglar and nothing was stolen. Everyone in the household is furious with the burglar and has a negative burglar memory. Nighat became a teen, and I had her get a job in the Teen Intelligence career. She went to work once, and got promoted to the top of the Teen career. She got the Overachiever scholarship and the Creativity skill scholarship. Benazir became permaplat from filling her LTW to reach the top of the Intelligence career.

A sim of mine named Sonata Greystone is about to have her third babby, the first sim to be born in 2018 in my hood! She is 71 hours pregnant so she's gonna pop in like one minute!

Edit: She had a son, his name is Kingston.

Vidcund Curious has become the first Sim in my game to be abducted by aliens thrice (without the use of cheats). Too bad he's an elder now and can't have any more babies. Although that's probably a good thing, seeing as his twins are driving me insane with their constant fighting. Either way, he now wants to be abducted five times.

The Smith household is super full at the moment. The household currently consists of: PT#9 and Jenny (both quite old by this point), Jill (adult) and their youngest son Jack (Teen). Then there's Jill's 3 kids (Twins Gemini and Capricorn with Buck Grunt, and baby Polly with Fraces J. Worthington III), and then Johnny's son's girlfriend Alice Tinker, who had to move to Strangetown after being abducted by aliens, resulting in a pregnancy. She's currently staying in Johnny's old room, once the baby is born, she'll be going off to university and the baby will live with Johnny's family. Jenny says if she could, she'd have all her children and grandchildren living at home... But I think she also hates all the sleepless nights with Polly while Jill sleeps in until noon.

The Loner house was interesting. Avril (the youngest daughter of Ajay and Alex) is having a secret relationships with one of her Mother's friends. He's married, and this is the third time I've tried to split them up due to their age difference (Avril is 2 days into being a teen, and Morty Roth has been an elder for at least 2 real-life years...) But yet again, there they are romancing each other while I focus on getting Gloria into college.

I've played "Mama" Hick (I renamed her Marion) as a poor woman who desperately wants to have people like her. She's so eager to be liked and admired that she'll cheat on her lovers in front of them so they'll go back to their spouses (she doesn't like being hated by other women) and do her best to not become anyone's enemy.

She's deeply scarred by a past incident that she'll do anything to gain friends. I don't know what it was, but she's not trashy. Just lonely and friendless because everyone thinks she's just such a suck-up for their attention. They have no idea what kind of person she is and are quick to dismiss her as an annoyance to be gotten rid of as quickly as possible.

Because she's so friendly, and nice, I always give her the popularity aspiration. She's not that much into money, even when she has obviously been poor all her life, and she doesn't necessarily want lovers, but she does want people to like her.

I hear you. I do aim at roughly recreating the situation of vanilla Pleasantview/Bluewater Village, but I do not consider everything set in stone. I include extra brothers and sisters to a lot of characters (Brad Burb has two sisters, Coral has an older sister, Herb has a younger brother and Mama Hick was revealed to be Betty Newbie's sister etc.) and still aim to play each Sim as an individual with their own, unique story, no matter what the family tree says. I change some names i dislike (Flora Goth instead of Frieda, Tadeo and Franceso Caliente instead of Tango and Flamenco) and I give most characters aspirations I feel that fit them, even if that means they don't match up with "canon" (whatever that is in Sims games).

Bella won't disappear in this neighbourhood, and I'm pretty sure I'll drop the whole "Don and the Calientes aim to get the Goth fortune" storyline. I'm actually very interested if I can develop Dina and Nina into characters that are more interesting to me if I play them from the beginning of their lives

I actually really like the Michael and Coral situation, they can be each other's high school sweethearts and later own as they grow old, they can always wonder "what might have been". Michael will be alright, he already has Chris Roomies (fashioned after the Sims 1 sim) waiting for him at Uni, however I do feel a bit sorry for Coral, a family and a romance Sim pairing is a bit difficult. I consider having the whole thing be a shot gun wedding caused by Coral getting pregnant with Mary-Sue (she'll be their biological aughter in this timeline, because Angela and Lilith look like Herb's and Coral's grand daughters, but not like Mary-Sue's daughters...)

On topic: Despite 8 nice points teenage Bella is kinda snobby and very random with whom she likes and dislikes. She's all buddy-buddy with mafia-princess Nancy Landgraab (Malcolm II's daughter) but no matter what Diane Danders tries to befriend her, Bella will almost always react negatively...
The Landgraabs, meanwhile, had a third child, a little, blond boy who'll grow up to be Johnny Zest from Sims 4. Malcolm II is also starting to think about who will follow into his footsteps as Mob Boss, he doesn't want his sons to become criminals like him, so it's probably gonna be Gordon King (a CAS sim who was created to be Malcolm's bodyguard) to cement that succession and the continued safety of his family Malcolm plans to marry Nancy to Gordon when she comes of age (they'll be the parents of the burglar Gordon King from Vanilla Pleasantview). But it's not sure yet wether Nancy wants to marry her father's associate (who is much older than her) I'll see if they have any chemistry when she is an adult. I also haven't decided whether that means that her current boyfriend will...have an accident...or wehtehr Malcolm will just "suggest" to the boy to stay clear of his daughter (yes the situation is pretty creepy, it's supposed to be pretty creepy, they are a family of messed up criminals)
Nancy also had the first, big teen party of the Neighbourhood (this is the first time enough teens exist, and know one another, to stage a really big party) so that was fun, since it was really nice to see so many young people from different households together, the neighbourhood is really coming to life.

Buck Grunt chose to use at least the first day of the weekend to ignore homework entirely...to the point of lying to his father about having already done it. "You're about to fail school," Jill Barrett warned him as she pulled her own half-completed homework across the table toward her after breakfast -- a breakfast that had included a hastily-downed werewolf cure she'd bought earlier that morning from the matchmaker, because nobody here was going to find out about her getting turned when she went Downtown.

Buck scoffed. "And Dad still hasn't paid the hotel bill from that trip you lot went on," he replied. "We all choose what we avoid. I hate school, and it's no use to me. I need to build the business."

Buck's Books was indeed doing well, and he sold a few copies of Ripp's new book along with quite lot of Sophie-David books and things. He invited Blossom Moonbeam Grunt over and tried to sell her a copy of the new book, but his sister-in-law protested that she was too broke to further pad Eleanor L'Amore's pockets -- especially now that she and Tank were paying rent. Feeling sorry for her (and quite a bit more, to be honest...but let's not go into those feelings) Buck offered her a job as cashier. Then, feeling even more sorry for her as he watched her struggle with the balky register in the sweltering heat, barely shaded by the scrap-metal roof, he raised her salary to far more than she deserved. Unless business soars, he won't be able to afford her long...

Buzz's procrastination about the vacation bills caused some problems, as they exploded and brought the Repo Man...who took a large and very random assortment of items. I get it; always pay vacation bills! I've never seen him take a fridge before, but this time he did (it had leftovers in it!), along with the map that had been on the living room wall awaiting the next vacation, the action figure Jill had found digging up the hotel grounds (which had been on the dresser in her room), several pictures, both the bath and shower from the upstairs bathrooms, the weight machine, the entire swing-set, and the telescope (which made the guy stick around a long time because he had to climb the observation tower to get it!). Not great, but they did have the money to replace the stuff they needed -- and now Camp Grunt has an army-green bathtub and more utilitarian shower. Who knows, Jill might accidentally get a too-powerful telescope when sent shopping for a replacement -- one that can spy on more aliens than the ones down the road -- because she doesn't know why Buzz made a point of only having a cheap one...

Buck even managed to sell books to some of the new residents when the shambling Patrizio Monty and Kendal Lawson got out of the Beaker castle and wandered down to the main road. He had sent Blossom home by that time, and was too hot and tired himself to notice how strange they were. At least the air conditioner hadn't been taken, so he could go cool off in front of that!

~

As Sirius and the pets are remarkably self-sufficient, Lazlo Curious was left in peace to learn all about couples counselling. The Beakers weren't answering any phone calls, Vidcund had gone off to work in a huff, and that lamp didn't look like much use...

"Can we please try it now that you've finished reading, Uncle Lazlo?" Sirius asked as Laslo put his book away. "You'll know what to ask if it works like in the books Count Christopher told me about!" Considering it at least a harmless entertainment for the kid, Lazlo picked up the golden lamp and rubbed it. He wasn't really expecting a genie to emerge.

Minutes passed with Lazlo staring at the genie that did emerge from the lamp. He didn't dare say anything for fear it would be interpreted as a wish. He didn't dare make a wish for fear it would be interpreted the wrong way. Moody and Sirius watched him impassively, and Lazlo became increasingly fearful that his nephew would accidentally make a wish. Finally he dared to say, "No wishes at this time; they are to be saved for a later date." The genie nodded and returned to the lamp.

"That was cool!" Sirius enthused once the genie was gone. "You did it perfect, Uncle Lazlo! What are we going to wish for? We could wish for Moody to learn how to give himself baths...or maybe I can have a little brother...or a jump rope that goes from here to my star...or..."

"A jump rope that long would destroy the world, and I can see hazards in altering canine psychology," Lazlo said. "We need to be careful what we ask for. I actually...we might be able to bring your father back with that."

"Daddy Pascal is boring!" Sirius declared; the present-tense reference made Lazlo realize that the child had never had matters properly explained to him last night. "A little brother would be much better, because he'd be green and I wouldn't be so different from everyone but the Smiths."

"How about a cousin?" Lazlo asked, rubbing his slightly bulging belly thoughtfully. "He -- or, well, maybe she -- should be green." It might be better not to try to explain the adopted brother that it seemed Sirius did have, or that the Goth twins were probably his very not-green cousins.

Sirius shrugged. "Cousins don't live with us, do they?" he asked. "I don't even see any of the Smiths, and we can see their house..."

"This one will..." Lazlo suddenly realized that going by what the aliens had told him, his child would actually be a half-sibling to Sirius. "OK, then, what if I do give you a little brother or sister?"

Sirius looked confused and said he was going to go play on the roof. Not wanting to let the child climb around unattended, but unable to accompany him outside, Lazlo called his friend (but really nothing more) Lisa Chun (not-Crystal Vu). She was sympathetic and agreed to help him watch Sirius until sunset. They chatted a bit after Sirius got hot and came down to take a cold shower and watch TV, and who knows what might have happened... Vidcund returned home at this point, rushing indoors full of outrage about having been saddled with ordering fast food at work and having made the wrong choice when he chose to avoid pizza because of its garlic content. More importantly to Lazlo, he had tracked down Cassandra Goth, who Nervous Subject had mentioned having something to do with the situation at the Beaker place, and had convinced her to come home with him by milking Lazlo's distress and bringing up his pregnancy. Good idea, as Cassandra does have kind feelings for him, even though she has no real use for him now that she has the twins. Lisa had already taken a protective stance about Lazlo, and saw Cassandra as being nothing but a meddling snob. Cassandra said a few casually rude things about aliens and was vocally disgusted by male pregnancy. Lazlo went to lie down in his coffin, while Vidcund demanded why she'd been involved in helping the Beakers with such a thing if she felt that way. Cassandra wound up explaining just about everything that she'd been involved with at the Beaker place as she tried to defend herself, and admitted that she'd been blackmailed into helping them use Mortimer's work.

"Blackmailed about what?" Vidcund asked sarcastically. "What could the perfect Cassandra Goth have to be blackmailed about? What skeletons grace the closets of such a respectable family? No, don't bother answering. I'll just ask Bianca Monty."

"She'll never tell," Cassandra said. Despite the sureness of her words, her voice was shaking.

"She might tell me," Vidcund said with a smirk.

"Then I'll tell her mother where her newest grandchild is coming from," Cassandra said. "The Monty family may be mad, but they are not of a status which can allow such goings-on as Bianca is involved in. Her desperation for a child is repulsive."

"Unlike yours?" Vidcund was pleased to see the panic cross Cassandra's face, telling him he had been correct. "I can count, and I've seen too much of Lazlo's infatuation with you. You shouldn't have risked visiting him here."

Lisa burst into loud laughter from around the corner of the hallway. Cassandra's first reaction was to try to buy the interloper's silence with money or favours, which Lisa took as an insult. By the time Lazlo got up to use the toilet, Lisa and Cassandra were whispering viciously at each other, and moments later, a violent fight broke out between them. Cassandra was lucky it happened when it did, as just after she was thrown to the ground as the loser, Lisa changed to wolfish form. Lazlo was impressed, Cassandra horrified. Vidcund took advantage of the situation to make a meal of Cassandra before sending her packing -- he didn't know she was in tears at realizing that Lazlo wasn't just pale because of the abduction. Lisa made grits with shrimp, then ate most of it herself (she'd been "asked to watch kids" with the mod, so was in nanny-mode and able to cook). Sirius was disgusted at something that had shrimp floating in it, put away the remains, and ate leftover spaghetti instead. Lisa, well fed, agreed to provide a meal for Lazlo and then played chess with him most of the night. She felt he needed looking after, and she was willing to do it...though she certainly wasn't going to become live-in help!

Four Corners-Bitville now has its very first child (in a very long time)! Eternity Stardust aged into a child on the second day of Winter, and she is definitely the first child in a very long time, as both Jacob Margison and Madison Fortuna are about to head off to college!


Good thing there are more toddlers who will soon be joining Eternity, or else she'd be quite lonely in school. That is, assuming the school opens anytime soon...her first day turned out to be a snow day!

I played the Caliente household today to try to get Flamenco's relationship with Nighat established since they are both now teens. I used TwoJeff's crystal ball to bring her to the lot since Flamenco hadn't met her before. I had them talk and flirt, and they now have two bolts and are capable of using the phone to call for dates. I had Flamenco call her for a date, and they had a Great Date. They both got their first kiss and are now in love. Last time I played the lot someone had gotten a magic lamp, and I had Tiento wish for wealth. I had forgotten that wishing for wealth increases the chance for a burglar, so when everyone went to bed, the burglar came again. They hadn't gotten over their furiousness from the previous burglary and now they are back to full red furiousness over the second burglary.

Dulcinea and Tango keep rolling wants to plant so I have a small greenhouse on the their lot with a lemon tree and a few tomato plants. The darn tree is sickly all the time but no one has gotten a gardening badge yet to be able to talk to it. Tango got the Tsang Footwork scholarship, and Flamenco got the Logic Skill scholarship.

Dulcinea reached the top of the Dance career and is now permaplat. Nestor reached the top of the Law Enforcement Career awhile ago, and has been permaplat for awhile. I got a message one time when he came home from work that he was sick with a cold. I had him make Grandma's Comfort Soup, but it didn't help with the cold. As soon as he finished eating, I got a message that he was sick with a cold. I sent him to bed to sleep, and got a message in the middle of the night that he was finally better.

I moved Tango and Flamenco into dorms. Nestor saw Tango off to college, and Pollination Technician 7 saw Flamenco off to college. I think that may have been the first time Flamenco met Pollination Technician 7. He grew up with Nestor and Dulcinea and his half brothers. They moved in, but I didn't do anything else with them. I'm planning to create a CAS Sim spouse for Tango, and to move Nighat in with Flamenco when she's ready.

I played Gunther and Cornelia Goth's house to get them married and at least get Cornelia pregnant with Mortimer. Immediately after they married ACR kicked in and they woohooed. Cornelia got a level 5 job in the Adventurer career, and Gunther got a level 7 job in the Oceanography career. Thankfully Cornelia gave birth to a baby boy without having to exit without saving. She gave birth to Mortimer and I exited the game because I had a headache starting.

I finally got my new modern 'hood started, but I'm not finished the basic setup yet. This time, I'm playing with the Pleasantview townies, Maxis vacation locals, and with Tarlia's Bluewater sims, but otherwise empty templates. I attached Bluewater because I wanted a few more townies and I wanted townies with skill badges for the employee pool. I didn't want Bluewater itself though, so I attached the terrain I intend to use for a military base, had the playables sell off their businesses, moved everyone into the sim bin, and checked to see if the lots were OK to delete. Everything went smoothly, but I had forgotten that Bluewater has 25 dead ancestors, and that's a lot of useless character files if left alone. I decided to resurrect about half of them, and to spawn the tombstones of the others. Families with sims to be resurrected were moved to a temporary home and I cheated to be sure everyone had enough money to pay Grim well. The resurrected sims then moved out and I moved the original families back to the bin. Sims brought back include: all of Tessa Ramirez's grandparents, Florence's parents, the Larsons' parents, and Chester's parents. I thought about bringing back Malcolm II as he was the last Landgraab to have died, but I think having his entire family die before he reached adulthood is a key element of Malcolm IV's back story. Instead, I moved Malcolm onto the lot where I will eventually play him and spawned the tombstones for his six ancestors. Similarly, the Jacquets and Tinkers now have homes and tombstone collections. Some of those tombstones will eventually be moved to create a cemetery, but the Landgraab house may stay haunted.

Whether I've moved the sims onto a lot or left them in the bin, I won't be playing with these households for a while. I had wanted to play a BACC variant, and by my rules, those sims won't become part of my rotations until they either are earned with CAS points or they form significant relationships with my founder or heirs - and my sims can only talk to them if they are brought home from school or work and even after that can't call them. Normally I've started these sorts of 'hoods with either a single household of young adults (I don't lock university, I just make sims pay a lot for it until the town earns lower tuition), or I roll a die for the number of households and then roll for the composition of those households. This time, I'm starting with a single sim on a Trailer Park Challenge lot. The trailer park challenge rules apply to that household, and for that lot alone my BACC restrictions won't apply (so they can go to school/work or visit the one temporary store I've made just for them). The heirs that move out will have face the BACC restrictions and they will be the sims working to build my town.

My sims were having a comfy time while their kids are at school and it got so steamy the butler called the Fire Dept even if there wasn't any fire on the lot. I'm not sure if this was a joke or if their butler needs some professional help along with the Pleasants/Oldies.

I've talked about Kelly and Alexander Goth in this thread before. Well, they don't have 8 children now, but 9. It's neverending, but I rolled an unexpected pregnany challenge (I don't know how I manage to roll these kind of challenges in the busiest houses). Kelly wants 10 children now *sigh*. I think they'll drive me crazy for a while longer.

tfw you can't be bothered with making recolors on SimPE anymore that you just popped your family photos on the custom paintings folder?
yeah...
work it work it good my simmies!

These two dumb NPCs had been fighting for the fifth time.

From the megahood of Greater Pleasantview:

General Buzz had always thought he'd get away with everything. After all, he was by far the most powerful Sim in Strangetown; who would dare to lay hands on him? But then Strangetown had been incorporated into Greater Pleasantview, and the very wealthy and influential Mortimer Goth had been persuaded to convene a Court of Elders. Even then, Buzz hadn't been too bothered. It was about that business with Ripp, he thought, and he was pretty sure he could convince the court that it was simply a matter of disciplining an unruly boy.

Edward and Opal Contrary were tried first, charged with abusing their son, Rick, and with failing to report him missing in a timely manner. Natasha Uno also brought a charge of assault against Opal. The Elders heard everybody's side of the story (except Rick's; the boy hadn't been found yet) and retired to discuss them. When the court reconvened, Opal was sentenced to nine days in prison - six for beating Rick, and three for assaulting Natasha. The charges against Edward were dropped; the Elders were satisfied that he had acted only in self-defence, Rick having inherited something of Opal's temper, and that he genuinely wanted to have a good relationship with the boy.

Then Daniel Pleasant was charged with assaulting his daughter's boyfriend, Dustin Broke, and harassing the family by repeatedly kicking over their bin. Pleasant initially denied everything and suggested that young Dustin had got into a fight in town. It seemed to be the word of a trailer park boy against that of a wealthy man...but then Kaylynn Langerak, the maid, stepped forward as a witness. Pleasant was sentenced to seven days. From the fury and betrayal in the man's eyes, Buzz suspected the woman had been more mistress than maid. A wicked woman, to turn against her man. Just like Lyla...

Buzz was feeling a little anxious by now, remembering that he had also slapped that fool who called himself Nervous Subject, but he didn't think quaking little Nervous would have the guts to press charges. It didn't help that the Specter witch had kidnapped Ripp and Buck and was no doubt brainwashing them, but surely a father was entitled to discipline his son, and he'd filed charges of his own against her. It wasn't as if they'd actually run away. But then the charges were read out. The murder of his wife, Lyla, and of the toddler, Joseph Specter. The attempted murder of Olive Specter, and the unlawful killing of Willow and Creon Nigmos. Assaulting Ripp and Nervous, and verbally abusing Nina Caliente.

Buzz frantically tried to lay Lyla's death at Olive's door - which was, after all, literally where it had occurred. What he didn't know was that Jenny Smith had found her and taken her to Olive. Lyla had told Jenny everything. He first denied any involvement in the death of Willow and Creon, then claimed that their deaths were purely accidental and that he had only been doing his duty to Strangetown in attempting to rid it of the witch and her demonspawn. Still, it was hard to look young Ophelia in the eyes when she stood up to tell the court how her parents had died. But the proof that he was right, he said, lay in the fact that the boy had died or disappeared; clearly the Grey Lady had not seen fit to intervene and return him to his mother, as She had taken Ophelia to her aunt.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you," said Nervous Subject, in a voice suddenly as deep and cold as the grave, "but the Lady did save him...me. I am Joseph Specter Grimsson. The court will note that the General is not guilty of my murder, since I am clearly still alive, but that he does not deny attempting to kill me, or killing my aunt and uncle by mistake."

The Elders sentenced Buzz to a total of 48 days of hard labour, and recommended a request to the Army to strip him of his rank. He was still screaming "Nooooo" as a teleporter dropped him beside a bed in a cheerless dormitory. But the worst thing about it all, he thought, the very worst thing, was the look in Tank's eyes as hero-worship gave way to loathing of the man who had murdered his mother.

I've wandered through my hood rotation and am now back in Elsewhere, the refugeed home of my communist hooded simmies. When they were refugeeing, little Newson Desmarais got separated from his parents. The resettlement officials took custody of him and dog, Jake, who wouldn't leave his side. They assigned him a temporary guardian, Garnet Carpineti. She just dropped him off at the boardinghouse address she was given for his parents. They weren't there. So, poor little Newson, just a toddler, and Jake hid in the back of the boardinghouse, living on scraps Jake was able to pull from the trash. After finally aging to child, Newson discovered he actually had been given a room in the boardinghouse. He spent a few of his precious simoleans to buy Jake a dish and enjoyed being able to sit at a table and eat, shower, and sleep in a bed at night. Not knowing any better, he confided in John Burb, a friend from school. John ran away from home the very next day and moved in with his buddy. The boys were happy to have each other, and Jake was happy to have a food dish.

One day, though, the settlement guardian just thought about the poor little guy. She couldn't get him off her mind. She took a taxi to the boarding house and discovered the children and Jake with no adult in sight. She moved in that very afternoon.

It's a good news/bad news thing. They now have a nice little family. But they are still sharing a tiny smaller than a half bathroom.

The Walsh family just had their third baby and I am so excited now because the first child had brown hair, second child had blond hair and this third child has red hair! I love seeing the grandparents recessive genes finally coming through.

Ha! Chocolate, Vanilla, Strawberry (Neapolitan ice cream sundae) children!

My most recent Pleasantview is super corrupted and glitchy. I thought it wasn't that bad, but while I was playing today, Nina's daughter just disappeared. While checking her memories, a lot of them were messed up. So that hood is done. I have Super Collection so I could just reset the neighborhood but I'm worried something in my downloads folder caused the problem. I wanted to delete some CC and redo my downloads anyways.

Possibly making a Custom Hood with Pleasantview, Veronaville, Strangetown and Bluewater Village. I barely play Strangetown anymore, which was always my favorite hood growing up so could end up just playing Strangetown standalone.

well all pre-made hoods have corruption so i'd replace them with tarlia's clean hoods to prevent disappearing sims again.

After all the unexpected violence in Greater Pleasantview, it was a relief to get to Belladonna Cove and see my college students pairing off.

Francis Worthington and Klara Vonderstein met when I moved all the non-Greek premades into a single dormitory, and had built up a very strong relationship, so the two of them moved back into the house Francis was originally renting. Both made the Dean's list, so were able to pay their next semester's tuition without resorting to loans.

I had been intending Sophia Baldwin to marry Isaiah Gavigan, but Isaiah showed no interest in going to university when he finished school, so for the time being he's staying home and working full time. Meanwhile, Sophia got talking to Justin Cleveland, he flirted with her, and...well, sorry Isaiah, but you missed your chance there! Justin and Sophia both scraped though the second semester of their sophomore year, but weren't really interested enough to justify running up any more student loans, so they dropped out and moved back to the Clevelands' farm. Jason is one day away from retirement, so having the young couple earning while he and Marissa work on the farm means they'll be able to keep on top of the mortgage payments and maybe even pay off some of the capital. Despite having a crush on one another, Justin and Sophia aren't even best friends yet, so it'll be a while before they need to worry about building another room for the next generation.