Tag Archive | veronica

5.14 What Price

Jul17

Hunter took a deep breath. “Forest, I need to ask you something.”

Forest was dragged out of a complicated calculation about the expected return and feasibility of moving into a new method of black market distribution. “Huh? Sure.”

“I don’t know how to say this,” Hunter began awkwardly, “but I’ve been doing some reading at the spiritualist shop. I know you’re into some serious stuff.”

Forest started to think of how he could deny any accusation of wrongdoing. Better to let Hunter play his hand. He shrugged and smiled. “I try to keep my hands in a lot of stuff.”

“You might be the only person who can help,” Hunter said.

Forest was stunned. Help? This wasn’t where he expected the conversation to go at all. “Tell me,” he said.

“There’s this girl. Eliana. She was behind us in high school. I went over to see her last night, and…”

Out poured the description of the frightening stranger and Eliana’s contradictory behavior. “I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m sure it’s something supernatural. I can’t describe what it was like to be around this guy, and his eyes–“

Forest knew those eyes. Hunter didn’t need to describe them. “I’ll do what I can,” Forest said quickly.

“Thank you,” Hunter said breathlessly. “I know you’re involved in some stuff you don’t want to talk about, but do you have any idea what happened there? Is Eliana in any danger?”

Forest offered up his best comforting smile. “I’ll see what I can find out,” he said, “but you shouldn’t let yourself worry too much. She’s probably OK.”

Hunter nodded. “Let me know if you learn anything.”

“Sure,” Forest said. “Thanks.”

“For what?” Hunter asked, perplexed.


Forest kept his face unreadable. “For coming to me.”

“You’re my brother, Forest,” Hunter replied. “I trust you.”

When Hunter had gone, Forest sat back to think.

So Hunter was sweet on Eliana Baerwyn, Sean Flynn’s new personal assistant.

Flynn had hired Eliana last month, and it was obvious there was some kind of back room dealing going on, though Forest didn’t know what it was. Eliana’s father, Robbin Baerwyn, had turned up on business expenses on a regular basis. He and Flynn had some kind of pay-for-favors thing going on. But whatever deal had involved Eliana was much bigger. Now Valerie Ursine-Mentary, one of Flynn’s high-ranked minions, was meeting with Robbin regularly.

All of this would be none of Forest’s business, except for Hunter.

If there was one guy who really believed that blood was thicker than water, it was Hunter. He wasn’t stupid, but he trusted Forest anyway, and he chose not to ask uncomfortable questions. 
Forest set his coffee mug down on the table so gently that it made no sound. Being too interested in someone Flynn found interesting was dangerous. Hunter was the kind of white knight who just might try to ride in and get himself badly hurt. Forest would have to find some way to direct his brother’s attention someplace safer.

The next day was Snowflake Day. With a hungry baby living with them, half the household was up at dawn to the sun rise over the glittering snow. Not a bad day for a holiday.

Enigma was up with the sun to attend to her newly-built pack of local dogs.

There were citizens to protect, small creatures to hunt, and newspapers to destroy.

The whole Sample family, human and canine, packed themselves up for a day at Avalon Festival Grounds. Ghostwriter planned a holiday performance that was not to be missed.



Charles was eager to show his baby grandson the celebration. Veronica had some kind of tournament she wanted to compete in.

Everyone had their own kind of fun in mind for the afternoon, even Enigma.

Adam was late, so Sky and Leah got started on duo music without him.


Forest listened with half an ear. He was still mulling the problem of Hunter over in his mind.
So when he looked up from his phone, he was caught completely by surprise.
“Ali!”
“Uh, hi. I didn’t mean to surprise you. I was just trying to get to… the concessions…”
There had to be something he could say that would evoke some tenderness from her. “It’s good to see you,” he managed.
There was pity in Ali’s eyes. “Forest….”
But her attention had already left him.

“Adam!” she said. “I heard you were going to perform today. I can’t wait to hear you play!”

Oh. That’s why she was here. Forest should have guessed.

Forest stepped back silently as his rival drew near.

“I haven’t seen you since high school,” Adam said. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”
“I took a job as an assistant at Mighty Pen Monastery,” Ali said. “The hours were really long. I have more time now. I was thinking maybe we could take some time to, you know, talk again.”

“You want to talk?” Adam demanded. “After I called you every night for weeks, and you refused to answer?”
“I’m sorry, Adam,” Ali begged. “I never meant to hurt you. It was complicated.”

“If it was complicated, YOU made it that way!” Adam shouted. “You were everything to me, and I never even got to find out what drove you away. If you wanted to talk, you missed your chance!”

“Adam, I…” Ali almost whispered.

“I came here to make music,” Adam said. “Maybe you should go home.”

Ali hung her head, and Forest could see the tears drip twinkle as the fell into the snow.

Adam turned and walked away. He didn’t even look in her direction as he set up his drums.
Ali stayed for the whole performance. She watched Adam, and Forest watched her. 

It gave him a lot of time to think, mostly about love — the joy and pain and ecstasy that it caused, the sacrifices one felt compelled to make for it.

When he looked at Ali, he felt like his heart would explode. If he never had her again, at least she had once belonged to him, and he would never forget.

And Adam. It was for this imperceptive fool that Ali had broken Forest’s spell. If Adam continued to fail to appreciate Ali now that she was free, did Forest have an opening to lure her back of her own free will? So many variables.

At the other end of the festival grounds, there was more for Forest to consider.

For Hunter and Eliana, the rest of the world might as well not exist. They were so unconsciously beautiful together. And they might not know it themselves, but they were already deeply in love.

Forest shoved his hands into his pockets. He knew what he had to do. He made quick goodbyes to his family and headed home to prepare.

———-

Wow, when Adam walked onto the lot, Ali tried to talk to him, and he immediately started shouting at her. He even slapped her! I was so taken by surprise that I was only able to get a snap of the head-spinny aftermath.

That is one raw, heartbroken boy.

5.11 Anticipation

Jun18

Veronica was inventing again. That made for plenty of adventures for the family.

“I call in the Routine Machine!” Veronica explained after she roped Sky into helping her test. “It uses advanced levitation and teleportation technology to get you fed, lighten your bladder, and zap you to your chosen location!”

Testing it was certainly exciting.

But the teleportation part turned out to need some work.

Hunter’s production was down for the winter, as expected.

But he could hardly spend a lot of time fretting. In addition to emails, he was exchanging letters with Eliana Baerwyn every other day.

She would be graduating soon, and he was terribly nervous. He wanted to visit her and tell her how he felt, but what if turned him down?

After the failure of his last date, Forest paid a lot more attention to Ali. One evening, he invited her out to the new western-themed club to watch a Simfest.

“I know things haven’t been great between us,” he said to Ali sincerely. “I’m hoping we can have some fun together and get past our troubles.”

Ali looked troubled, but she nodded. “I’m willing to try if you are.”

They watched a couple of performers and then made it upstairs to the lounge to get away from the noise and heat for a little while.

“How was your presentation?” Forest asked.

“It went very well!” Ali said. “I think they’re putting me up for a promotion.”

“That’s wonderful. I’m bringing in some great profits as well. We could make a good team.”

Ali gave him a hard look. “You never told me what you do,” she said.

“It’s really boring,” Forest said quickly. “You wouldn’t want to hear about it. Here, why don’t I help you relax –“

“Don’t you do that again!” Ali shouted.

She jumped to her feet and out of his reach. “I’m sick of you treated me like I’m some kind of gullible innocent! You’re involved in something you think I won’t like. I’m done with being patient. Tell me now, and we’ll see what it does to our relationship.”

Forest was suddenly terrified. “I–” he began.

Then he reached into his pocket and brought out the one thing that could end this conversation.

“Hey,” he said. “Let’s go back down and watch the rest of the performance.”

“Yeah,” Ali replied, sounding dazed. “Sure thing.”

Sky spent the tail end of her pregnancy bumming around the house. She felt too tired and too much like a whale to do any promotional work for Ghostwriter. Leah had decorated the nursery. Veronica was so eager to share intimate advice that Sky had started avoiding her. Charles was always asking her if she was warm enough or had had enough to eat.

Just to defy all of them, she took to practicing guitar on the front porch.

She also returned to painting, something she hadn’t touched since her band became a reality. First on her list was a portrait of Leah.

“I’ll start with your eyes. They’re so captivating.”

Leah enjoyed the attention, at least.

When the contractions came, Sky was more than ready for them. Childbirth couldn’t be as bad as continuing to be pregnant.

———-

Sorry to end on a cliffhanger! The second half will be posted shortly.

It turns out that the Not So Routine Machine teleportation feature conflicts with Sky and Charles’s innate teleporting, so it’ll be a while before you see it used again.

5.10 Homestead

Jun11
It didn’t take much deciding. If Sky and Leah were going to raise this child together, Leah would move in with Sky and not the other way round. Leah was from a large family herself. In addition to her parents Arthrit and Mazuki and her younger sister Miyuki, she had a teenage brother Raen and kid brother just starting elementary school. Her parents had started their family young and weren’t even sure they were done yet. The Samples, on the other hand, were all adult. Baby-on-the-way would never want for care. In fact, if anything, there was a danger the poor kid would suffocate under too much affection.

But as winter descended on Avalon with a vengeance, it became clear that the newer, larger household just couldn’t stay where they were. Charles and Veronica were already sleeping on a bedroll in the basement. Sky’s room fit a single bed with no room for expansion. And let’s just forget about a nursery.
No one wanted to bring the idea up to Veronica that they abandon the home she had designed and worked on herself. In the end, Veronica had to call the issue. “I have a lot more years of creation ahead of me,” she said. “You just see what I do with the next place.” So they started looking for a place to live that was a bit more scalable.
“We have quite a lot of money, really,” Sky suggested. “Why don’t we get a much bigger, nicer place? Not that this place isn’t nice, Mom.”
“I’d like someplace a little more rural,” Hunter said. “I need to be able to raise more produce if I’m going to expand this business.”
“Just so long as there’s a good dark basement for my research,” Forest said.
With those parameters, they cast about the island until they happened in Windemere Cottage, an agricultural estate in a less-developed area that had laid vacant for some years.
Sky was still barely showing by the time they were packing up to leave.
If Veronica felt badly about leaving her biggest creation behind, she never said anything. She did stand on the step of their new home for a while to look out at the tip of the top tower that you could see in the distance. But even then, she didn’t seem sad. More… admiring, perhaps. 
They had found a buyer for the place. Some couple named Sean and Cynthia Flynn.
“This is the master bedroom?” Leah gasped when Sky showed her the space. “It’s so elegant and cozy. And so much velvet!”
“And the bed is so soft!”
Sky beamed. “I’m so glad you like it!”
“Shall we give it a whirl?”
In light of the fact that they’d have to move their bedroom back indoors, Veronica did extra work on her bedroom.
Charles was very appreciative.
The boys set up their bedrooms in the large, comfortable basement.
Hunter began to set up his winter greenhouse in the barn.
To his surprise, Leah followed him there.
“Could you use any help?” she asked brightly. 
Hunter scuffed his foot. “Well, I can’t pay you,” he said sheepishly. “I’m barely breaking even right now.”
Leah shrugged. “I don’t need money,” she said. “I just love to work with plants.”
“Well, sure then!”
They worked together in near silence for hours. Hunter couldn’t remember when he last felt so comfortable with someone.
Sky hadn’t done too badly on her choice of baby mama.
Since there was a baby on the way, Leah bowed to Sky’s hopeful pressure and quit her job at the police academy. It was a grueling job with long hours that didn’t pay very much, and it seemed more important to have the time to spend with the baby when it arrived.

Since there was no child just yet, she found herself with a lot of spare time. When she wasn’t helping Hunter in the garden, she decorated the nursery.
“Wow,” Sky said. “It’s so pink.”
Leah clapped her handes and squealed. “I knew you’d like it!”
“But what if it’s not a girl?”
“Sky!” Leah said. “I’m surprised at you. It’s terribly sexist to think that a boy can’t appreciate pink. Pink is such a nice color.”
“Yeah,” Forest piped up. “What’s wrong with pink? It’s a great color for anyone.” That pretty much ended the discussion. Who was going to argue with Forest about manliness?

Hunter didn’t say anything. He just looked.
But he was grateful that when he stumbled over the pink mermaid doll, Enigma was there to catch his fall.
There was even something for feline family.
And canine.
And avian.
The pond had fish in it, to Charles’s delight.
All he had to do was cut a hole in the ice.

It seemed like just the right place for the Samples.
While Veronica was full of more pregnancy advice and horror stories than Sky could handle, Charles took it upon himself to take care of her. He was always near to make sure she was warm, fed, and comfortable.
Their new home was wood heated, so this often meant he trailed his daughter around and stoked the fire wherever she was.
The prospect of a grandchild was clearly on his mind a lot. On one hand, how could he not be delighted? On the other, it was a solid reminder that they were growing older. He sometimes had trouble believing he was old enough to have a child, much less a grandchild.
It turned out that the place was not quite as perfect as it first appeared. Some of it was in disrepair, and not always in obvious ways.
They discovered too late that the living room fireplace was not vented properly.
Leah was terrified when she saw the flames. She shrieked and cried.
The Samples were largely annoyed.
Charles and Forest dealt with the immediate problem.
Though the aftermath would take a lot more time for a lot less reward. 

Nobody was hurt, though, and the Samples knew better than to take that for granted.
Veronica immediately got out her tools. “All right, then,” she said. “You’re going to be harmless as a kitten when my grandbaby gets here!”
Leah threw herself into Sky’s arms, choking on tears. “I was terrified for you and the baby! I’m so glad you’re all right!”
“It’s all right, love,” Sky said. “It’s all right. We took care of it. Don’t cry.”
“I don’t want to be jerk,” Hunter said. “But could you two please go to your room?”
———-
Leah is an Artistic, Hopeless Romantic, Green Thumb, Schmoozer who Loves the Outdoors. She is quite seriously the Sample dream-in-law. I’m a bit perplexed as to why Story Progression assigned her to law enforcement, though. 
This is mostly slice of life transitional stuff to show off the new lot. I loved this place and wish it could have worked out better. But as you’ll see, not so much. Primarily, the problem was that the landscaping was so elaborate that there was almost no place you could do anything outdoors. No flat places. Too bad.
The nursery came with the lot, but Leah’s favorite color turns out to the spiceberry, which is essentially pink. I guess spiceberry would be the “bashful” in “blush and bashful.” (You foreigners can look that up :). )
Tangentially, I don’t think I ever mentioned it, but you might have noticed anyway. Forest’s favorite color is pink. I find this very entertaining and always make sure he’s wearing the color someplace.
Oh, yeah, and the Mai family is in fact large and still growing. I created the family from four anime sims I downloaded from ModtheSims, who I assembled into parents and two teenagers. The child Raen is actually the genetic product of his parents. (And he turned out very nice — I’ve seen him around town.) Then I forgot and left both parents as YA. They’re madly in love and still cranking out kids.

5.9 Escape to Reality

Jun2

After Veronica’s little freezing incident, it wasn’t a big surprise that a cold winter was coming. It descended on the Sample house almost overnight, bringing beautiful snow and ice with it.

Veronica set Charles and herself up with a bedroll in the basement, which was hardly living in the style they had become accustomed.

Veronica was spending more time at a desk processing research and less time out in the field these days, but she relished her field assignments when they came.

And there were always new discoveries to be made.

Ghostly snow prints in the kitchen….hmmm….

Eventually the nagging cold combined with Charles’s wanderlust. Charles booked tickets

And the two swinging seniors escaped to France for a long vacation.

It had been a long time since they’d had so much time to spend on each other. What to do first?

Oh, right.

The hotel had trouble with random people wandering into hotel rooms, but the elder Samples didn’t particularly care if rude people got a show.

The skies were so dark in Shang Simla that you could see the stars in a way you simply couldn’t at home.

Around the town, Charles even happened to run into his old flame.

After so many years, the spark was still there with Berthe. But they had their own lives and were too wise to do anything about it.

She did invite him back to her house, however, and they enjoyed a nice afternoon of tea and catching up on each other’s lives.

And then there were adventures.

If Charles was losing his touch, he wasn’t going to admit it to anyone, even himself.

But he did take some breaks in between scorching flame traps and sleeping gas traps to enjoy the simpler things in life.

Meanwhile, Sky tried to reconcile herself to domestic life. What was it that mothers did, anyway? They probably had to be able to cook healthy, nutritious meals for their offspring.

Oh, dear.

Wow, it probably wasn’t supposed to smoke.

All, right, her child was just going to have to live on pizza.

When the doorbell rang, Sky fully expected it to be pizza delivery. Instead, to her shock, it was Leah.

“C-come in,” Sky stammered at the door. “It’s freezing out there.”

“Yeah,” Leah said. “I think I need a heavier coat!”

She stepped inside, stomping the snow off her shoes.

“I, I thought maybe I should give you some space,” Sky ventured.

Leah nodded. “Yeah, that was probably a good idea. I had a lot to think about.”

“I swear I’m not lying to you,” Sky said. “It’s really your baby. I didn’t cheat on you.”

“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking,” Leah said. “And I’ve decided to trust you. I mean, who could make this stuff up?”

“Leah!” Sky threw herself into her girlfriend’s arms. “You’re amazing!”

“I love you so much,” Leah breathed.

“And we’re having a baby!”

———-

Not the best organized post, but what I had to work with was kind of eclectic. I couldn’t NOT post Veronica on the bannister.

5.6 Chills

May26

It was morning, and Ghost was up to his favorite hobby.

The temperature dropped suddenly in the night. Avalon was setting a new low temperature record. Even Charles and Veronica, who were very good at keeping each other warm, were starting to feel it.

Sky had been out late with Leah again, but she slept poorly. She felt like her insides were tying themselves into knots. There was no point to trying to sleep longer, so she might as well take the opportunity to paint the sunrise.

“This frost chills all the way to my bones!” Veronica growled a she got up, also earlier than she had intended.

“Well, you *are* getting older,” Charles pointed out. “You bones probably chill a lot easier than they used to.” His eyes twinkled as he said it. Charles never really felt the cold himself.

“I am NOT getting older!” Veronica declared. “I can take on anything I could when I was 20. I dare you to let me prove it to yoouuueerrg.” The last word was hard to make out over the chattering of her teeth.

Then something unexpected happened. Veronica stopped shivering. In fact, she stopped moving altogether.

“What the–” she said in a strained voice.

KEEE-RUNK! Over she fell, landing on the frost-hardened ground with a thunk.

“Are you all right?” Charles asked. “Did you freeze up?”

“Will you hush up and get something to warm me up with??”

Charles smiled blandly and went to get a hair dryer.

“That did not happen,” Veronica said when she could get to her feet. “We may have to rethink our sleeping arrangement.”

Sky, watching from the garden, couldn’t help but giggle. But when she tried, it suddenly turned into a gag. She felt terrible.

Almost as if — but that was impossible. Impossible!

Right?

———–

Couple of short posts lined up because I didn’t really want to mix up the different moods.

HOPEFULLY they’ll be out quickly.

5.4 Open Doors

Apr16

Things only seemed to get more intense for Sky and Leah.

They liked to keep things adventurous, and they were always sneaking away to woohoo in strange and exciting locations.

When Leah wasn’t around, Sky was usually thinking about her.

Hunter was also in a pretty good mood, though he didn’t talk much about details.

Forecasts warned that this would be a record-breaking winter in Avalon. Hunter stored most of his seeds and moved a few important plants into a makeshift greenhouse to last out the cold.

But the thing that his family noticed most was that he was suddenly spending a lot of time sending email on the computer. Sky thought she heard him say something about Eliana Baerwyn. She still had another term left in high school, so email seemed like a good place to talk.

Meanwhile, time passed for the Samples. Veronica and Forest bonded over chess — it was a good thing to fall back on when they couldn’t find much to talk about.

Charles took care of Ghost.

And one day Veronica’s phone rang. When she answered, it was the Mayor of Avalon on the line. They wanted to give her the key to the city as a tribute to all her work with the supernatural.

It took a lot to floor Veronica Krane Sample, but this definitely was it.

On the day of the ceremony, the old Motive Mobile pulled up at the gates of Camelot.

Sky took the chance to entertain the crowd before the ceremony began. If nothing else, it was a good way to increase her visibility.

Shanni made it to the ceremony. “I’m getting too old for this sort of thing,” she admitted. “But then again, I’m getting too old for a lot of things these days.” It was hard to take her seriously when she said that while she was holding her toddler daughter Holly.

Jeannette was there, along with Shanni’s elder daughter with Jeanna, Renee.

Jeanna and Shanni had shared a long and loving marriage after all, which was more than Shanni thought she was offering when they got married. They took every day as a gift.

It was a gift that couldn’t keep giving forever, unfortunately. This was the last time Shanni spent time with her extended family. She died quietly in her sleep not long after. Since she and Jeanna were married, she’d been saying, “If I die in bed with a hot younger woman, I’ll consider myself lucky.” And that’s exactly how it worked out.

As the clock struck 4pm, Veronica stepped into the Great Hall and accepted the award from the major, who she’d never met before. He shook her hand warmly and thanked her for everything she’d done for supernatural understanding within Avalon and throughout the simworld.

Veronica, who had been thinking for a long time about how she would respond, grinned and said, “Yes. About that.”

She walked out of the hall onto the lawn, held up a flask filled with colored liquid. “This is my latest invention, and I think it might help with supernatural understanding.” Then she threw it at her feet. The crowd gasped as Veronica was enveloped in glowing smoke.

When the smoke cleared, Veronica was a ghost.

“I wanted to know what it’s like,” she declared in a voice that echoed like Charles’s. Then she floated over to her bemused husband.

He seemed awfully human and solid by comparison. But neither of them was really paying attention any longer.

“You always surprise me,” Charles said breathlessly when they returned home.

Veronica chuckled. “Well, I try.”

Then she was suddenly solid again. “Oh, that’s not fair!” Veronica exclaimed. “I was hoping it would at least last long enough for me to take you to bed. Now I’ll have to make another one!”

But in the meantime, they headed to bed anyway.

[I had a picture of the key, but I can’t seem to find it. I’ll put it in a post at some point.]

———-

This was a really cute end-of-career award opportunity that got totally borked in some later expansion. I ran it about five times, and the Mayor disappeared every time without giving Veronica the key. I assumed this had something to do with the Jynx rabbithole rug I was using for City Hall, but no — when I looked it up online, this opportunity has been borked for ages. So I built a story out of it and gave Veronica the key using buydebug. 🙂

And, once again, how the heck did Hunter get to be so hot??

This is where I finally had to kill Shanni manually. She was caught in some kind of in-between glitch where half the system thought she was dead and the other half did not. I felt bed doing it; she’s a favorite of mine. But she’d already lived an unnaturally long life, so it was way past time. I didn’t even know that Renee existed until this sequence. I was only aware of Holly, who was an adoptee I replaced with a genetic child by both of them — I couldn’t figure out why Jeanna was adopting, and when I went into MasterController to fix it, I discovered Shanni listed under dead sims. Renee certainly looks like she’s a genetic child of Shanni’s though.

5.3 Haunting

Apr9

Ghost really didn’t like gnomes. With the way she treated them, you’d think she had a bad experience in her past. No gnome was safe from her wrath.

Veronica was a spiritual ambassador these days. She gave a constant stream of lectures on the nature of the spirit world, primarily focused on dispelling misconceptions and encouraging sims to approach spirits positively.

She also did a bit of outreach work.

Sometimes reality wasn’t quite as rosy as she made it sound in her speeches. Few spirits locked on the mortal plane were all that happy to be there. Most of them wanted get to back to the Netherworld. Sometimes they were pretty cranky about it.

But she was a persistent and skilled negotiator.

Usually they came around and started working with her to get home.

Then again, some spirits you just couldn’t reason with.

For those, you just had to open up the can of whoopass.

Since the Sample-Royales were such night owls, Veronica was able to take some extra time between assignments to visit her sister-in-law and nephew.

Tomas looked almost too old and wise to be a toddler.

She also took some time on her rounds to test out some fresh inventions.

“Let’s see if this helps you stop obsessing about my husband.”

It might have worked, and it probably didn’t do Ariel any harm.

One place in particular seemed to show up on her spirit reports, but the kind of activity people reported there didn’t really seem like the kind of thing that trapped spirits would do. Eventually, the reports stacked up so much that Veronica couldn’t ignore them. So she made a special trip to an old abandoned crypt on the edge of town.

Well, she’d been TOLD it was abandoned.

For an abandoned graveyard, this place seemed to have a lot of visitors.

She poked around inside for a while and found no real evidence of supernatural activity. Then she ran into a large, menacing, entirely NON-supernatural guard, who escorted her swiftly and firmly back outside.

“I poked someplace I shouldn’t, didn’t I?” Veronica asked.

The man grunted and closed the door. “Poke someplace closer to home next time,” he replied.

Well, THAT had been interesting. Not terribly useful to her work, but interesting.

It wasn’t long after that the doorbell rang at the Sample residence, and Forest opened the door. Standing on the doorstep was a figure that made him tremble just a little bit.

There was something wrong with this creature’s eyes. The longer Forest looked at them, the colder he felt.

“Who are you?” Forest asked. “Are you looking for someone?”

“Sometimes I’m called Flynn,” the figure said. “I just wanted to introduce myself to my neighbors.” The way he said it held some sort of menacing undertone. Forest could have sworn he’d heard that name before…. Wait, no. It couldn’t be could it?

Maybe it was.

Sean Flynn. The legendary lord of the underworld. Some called him the Emperor of Evil.

What on earth had attracted Flynn’s attention here?

Flynn was dangerous, and he knew it. More than that, he made it clear to everyone else just by the way he held his body. And he looked strangely young for someone who had been a legend in organized crime for decades.

His very skin radiated some kind of unreal chill. If he could feel it from here, Forest couldn’t help wondering what it would be like to reach out and touch that hand…

“Ahem,” Flynn mused. “I just came here size up the place, but perhaps I found what I was looking for after all.”

He handed Forest a slip of paper. “If you’re interested, call this number. We can teach you want you want to learn.”

Learn what Flynn knew? Flynn was arguably the most powerful man in the simworld. Of course Forest was interested!

Their hands touched briefly as Forest took the paper. The cold left a tingle on Forest’s skin long after the contact was gone.

Flynn turned immediately to leave. Forest couldn’t wait until he was off the property to make that call.

The very next night, it was Forest outside that “abandoned” crypt.

Except that they offered him a job, and he took it.

——–

So the subtext here is that in the University patch, EA FINALLY fixed the bug in the Ghost Hunter profession that was introduced in Supernatural. Veronica hasn’t been able to do the two top level jobs — Ghostly Presence and Angry Ghost Invasion — since she achieved the level to do them. I’ve mostly been getting her promotions by raising her Logic skill, which is why she spends half of her screen time blown up. Once she was actually able to do jobs again, she topped out the career and reached her LTW very quickly.

Since Forest’s LTW is Emperor of Evil, it was a foregone conclusion that he’d be joining the Criminal career. However, this little sequence played into the plan very well. Veronica got an opportunity where the police asked her to release ghosts in the criminal rabbithole. As she was leaving, Flynn came out, but he dashed away with super vampire speed before I could snap a screenshot. Then when she went home, for whatever reason he followed her, and Forest answered the door to talk to him.

This is the beginning of a truly disturbing friendship.

5.0 Passing the Torch to Sky

Mar27

Charles sat down at the academy to work on some financial records and was met with a nasty surprise.

“Yes!” Forest said to himself as his smartphone pinged that his trap was sprung. “I set that trojan last year. How often does Dad run his finances anyway?”

“You have got to be kidding me,” was Charles’s only response. “An ape?”

Veronica was busy with a new invention that helped the stove learn how to make better meals and teach the chefs.

“But wait!” she suddenly exclaimed to thin air. “We’re forgetting something important.” She dove for her phone and scheduled a party.

It was to be held in the clubhouse of the Little Cottage Park. All the extended family was invited. Darrin Wu-Ursine arrived with the happy regards of his pregnant wife Azaela, Zahn Wu’s niece.

Shanni was still kicking. “I wouldn’t miss this for the world!” she declared. “Nothing tells you’re old like watching your great niece and nephews grow up.”

She was approaching 100, had raised two families, and didn’t look a day over 80.

Oh, and of course there were a couple of party crashers who just showed up to get free cake.

This time, Sky took the first turn.

Though nobody said it explicitly, everyone knew that she would be the one to care for her parents in their advancing age and carry on the family line. Why? Close families just know these things sometimes.

Then it was Hunter’s turn.

He and Sky met eyes across the room and shared a private smile that was all their own.

And at last Forest, who had dashed over to the party after work in his bookstore clerk uniform, or as he liked to call it, his “monkey suit.”

During the mad scramble for cake and ice cream, the three siblings of honor carved out a place for themselves together.

“This is it,” Sky said. “Now we’re going to go out to live in the big scary adult world together. Do you think we can handle it?” It was kind of a trick question. Sky knew exactly what she wanted to do with her life, and the fact that she could finally start doing it made her giddy with excitement.

“I’m ready for the challenge,” Hunter said. “Life is all about finding beauty, and I think I’ve learned a lot about how to look this year.” Indeed, this kid who had barely managed to get out of middle school without being held back a grade had finished Round Table Culinary Institute near the top of his class. Hunter was just as quiet as always, but it was a more confident quiet than it once was.

Forest just smiled that unsettling smile of his and took another bite of cake.

———-

And here it is! Generation 5!!! Can you believe it? I’m not sure I can.

I have to actually update the Story So Far page, which needs pretty much Charles’s entire life story.

I included the bits in the beginning because Charles did autonomously trigger some prank that had been set on the academy computer while I wasn’t watching. Then Forest got a “Successful prank!” moodlet while he was at school. I guess he must’ve set it while he was at the academy peeing himself while talking to Ali, though I hadn’t realized he’d gone that long on autonomy. I found the whole little episode very entertaining.

Sky and Hunter’s age-up looks were actually pretty good, just not suitable to their personalities. Forest’s, on the other hand, was the kind of sim awesomeness that makes me wonder if my ISBI should follow DragonWife’s a make all the idiots dress themselves. Get a load of that kilt.

I cannot believe Hunter aged up so hot. *fans self*

Oh, and it turned out that Shanni was bugged, and it took me a long time to discover it. SP thought she was dead, but somehow her death sequence didn’t complete, and she was stuck wandering around town essentially immortal. I’ve caught that happening to two more sims since (Martin Luther Butterfield-Callender and Willem Yo, if you’re curious.) In fact, I’m not completely sure if ANY sim who dies off-screen is actually dying. The only way I found to fix it was to click a sim who is actually on the screen and use the sim’s NRaas menu to force kill her, which I did I think the next time she came up. But the good news is that she had a *very* long life, and she saw her eldest daughter with Jeanna age into a teen.

4.55 Enchanted Evening

Mar18

Ada and Alberto Sample-Royale welcomed their son Tomas into the world with an after-the-fact baby shower.

“Don’t bring gifts, but wear your swimsuits!” Ada exclaimed on the phone. “It will be fun!”

“I didn’t think you had a pool,” Charles said.

“We don’t have a pool. Why would you think we had a pool?”

“Never mind.”

The party was in the evening, which seemed like an odd schedule for a baby.

“Isn’t it past Tomas’s bedtime?” Veronica asked in passing.

“Oh, he sleeps all day and is awake during the night.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Veronica said, remembering the difficult days when the triplets had been babies.

Ada looked puzzled. “Why are you sorry? Do you need to sleep too?”

Veronica smiled. Insanity aside, Ada and Alberto were both self-employed, so maybe the kid’s sleep schedule really didn’t bother them.

Tomas wiggled and gurgled and did adorable baby things on his play mat while everyone cooed at him.

The only one who wasn’t cooing was Jeremiah, who wasn’t pleased about loosing his place as Ada and Alberto’s baby.

It had been such a long time since Charles had held a baby. He dandled his nephew and reminisced about how delightful little ones were without a shred of irony. Parents are so forgetful about the baby stage.

Maybe all the sleep deprivation helps keep the long-term memories from forming. Probably better for everyone.

Once Tomas had gone to bed, Charles and Veronica found a good use for their swimwear.

Prom had rolled around, and Hunter still wasn’t sure what he was going to do. He had no date and no prospects of one, and the idea of standing around feeling self-conscious in a loud, dark room filled with other teenagers gave him shivers. But everyone talked about prom. Perhaps it would be better to go, even if he had a bad time, just so he wouldn’t regret it later.

But wow, it was a lot of people all in one place.

Then, while visiting the dog park with Enigma the morning before the dance, he found an unexpected answer.

Eliana Baerwyn, who was the class a year behind Hunter in school. She met his eyes from across the park, then dropped her gaze with a flush. It was like an electric shock ran through Hunter. He stumbled over a rock, a clump of grass, and a dog bowl trying to get closer to her.

“Hi,” he said. “You’re, um, here early.”

“I had to bring PJ back in time for me to get ready for prom.”

Hunter cringed inside. “So you’re going too?”

She nodded. “Weston Mentary asked me.” She sighed. Then she perked up. “Are you going? Maybe I’ll see you there!”

Hunter gulped. “Sure I’m going! I don’t have a date, but all kinds of people go stag.”

She beamed “I’m so glad.”

An hour passed while they talked about their dogs. Eliana glanced at her watch and gasped. “I have to go get ready!”

“Oh!” Hunter exclaimed. “Goodbye!”

“I’ll see you in a few hours!” Eliana cried as she dashed away.

Well that settled that. Now he had to come up with something to wear.

When he returned to the house, Sky and Forest’s dates were already there. Apparently everyone was going to change in the basement.

Leah was gushing with anticipation, but Ali was mostly quiet and distant. There was some kind of tension between her and Sky that he didn’t understand.

Then everyone scurried away to do their hair and makeup.

Veronica and Charles were thrilled to help Hunter dig up something that wouldn’t embarrass him at prom. It turned out that an old coat of Charles’s worked pretty well, and though Hunter carried more weigh than his father, you wouldn’t notice if he left it unfastened.

“You look dashing,” Veronica said. “My baby is growing up to be such a ladykiller!”

“Mom!”

Charles gave his son an elbow nudge. “She’s just teasing you. Have a good time.”

All right then. Showtime.

Well, Forest and Sky had a perfect evening.

For Hunter, it was pretty much the way he expected. It was dark, the music was loud, and he couldn’t work up the nerve to ask anyone to dance. Lots of them were there stag, but they weren’t the kind of people who usually talked to him.

Well, at least he’d never wonder if he’d missed the pinnacle of teenagerhood because he didn’t go.

As the dance let out, he was the first one out the door, and he hung around the schoolyard waiting for his lovestruck brother and sister to finish lingering over the last dance.

“Hey,” came a quiet voice.

“Eliana! I thought you’d be in there dancing with Weston.”

Eliana blushed. “Well, you know, it’s really loud in there. It really wasn’t my thing.”

Hunter was so wrapped up in talking to Eliana that he didn’t even notice when Forest and Sky emerged with their dates, waved to him, gave up, and headed home without him.

In fact, he didn’t notice till the curfew police showed up to round up the stragglers and drag them home.

Veronica was a tornado. “We helped you go to prom, and you get dropped off by the cops! This is the kind of thanks we get!”

“I’m so sorry,” Hunter begged. “I just got to talking to this girl, and I lost track of time…”

Veronica’s face lit up. “You were talking to a girl? Well, that’s different!”

“You’re a nut, Mom, but I love you.”

“The feeling’s mutual.”

Forest, Hunter, and Sky all dragged themselves to bed at dawn, then slept late the next morning with excited romantic dreams dancing through their heads.

———

And this, believe it or not, is the LAST POST for Generation 4.

I was starting to wonder if I was going to get to play prom. It ran on the last day before the triplets aged up, and some glitch canceled it, so I had to restore from a previous save and do a Reset Homeworld. Turns out that’s a very useful option buried in the NRaas menus on City Hall. I think it was under MasterController.

As it was, the crowd in front of the school was such that I could barely get all three through the door before prom was over. Speaking of the bad routing behavior in this game. I really hope they work on that in Sims 4. I pretty much had to choose who would get actual time at the dance, and Hunter lost out. He was only there for about 10 sim-minutes, but he got his picture.

I’d kind of hoped that the prom would pair Hunter up with someone, but as it turned out he had this lightning flash from the attraction system on the day of the dance anyway. Eliana is a 10 out of 10, and he finds her “Devastatingly attractive.”

The next post will be birthdays. Woo.

4.54 Leisure

Mar13

Leisure Day dawned on Avalon.

Charles was up at dawn to catch the plumpest fish.

When he made it home with his catch, Veronica was waiting for him. “We are going to thumb our noses at old age,” she said.

“What do you have in mind?” Charles asked warily. Veronica was the one prone to midlife crisis.

She laughed. “Something wild and crazy, but you’ll like it,” she said. She loaded him up into the Vaguester, and off they zoomed.

“This is Tinkerbell’s Beautique,” Charles said.

“I knew you were a smart boy,” Veronica agreed.

The plan was to be inked together as a sort of romantic tribute to each other. Charles hadn’t gotten a tattoo in a long time, and Veronica was right — he liked the idea.

But a little help to dull the pain wouldn’t hurt.

It turned out that he and one of the tattoo artists had a lot in common.

Veronica had to haul him away to actually choose a design.

They settled on an Avalonian flying mouse. Veronica loved the imagery of a creature flying free.

Charles appreciated the fact that it was an endangered species.

When they were done, someone recognized Veronica from her lecture series on the spirit world.

It was nice to have a name for yourself.

Forest, Hunter, and Sky hooked up with their Crumplebottom cousins for a trip to the Little Cottage Park for the Summer Festival.

Jeanna was staying home to rest. “She’s pregnant,” Shanni confided in stunned excitement. “I can’t believe she wanted to have my baby. She never ceases to amaze me.”

Shanni might be elderly, but you wouldn’t know it to watch her behave. When Forest saw Ali walk into the park, he slipped away to talk to her, and Shanni took his place.

Every moment with her these days was worth enjoying.

You just never knew when it would be the last.

Forest was completely captivated by Ali. She was the most amazing creature he had ever owned.

The best part was that the spell hadn’t changed her at all. She was the same brilliant imagination and ambitious business mind. It was just that now, the sun rose and set in his eyes. He could talk to her for hours and never run out of things to talk about.

Sky saw them together, gazing into each other’s eyes, and she thought of Adam. As the water balloon fight broke up, she headed over, breathless and dripping, to join the conversation. “Hey there, Ali!” she quipped. “I’ve been seeing you around a lot recently, and I wanted to know your intentions toward my brother.”

Forest rolled his eyes. “Come ON, sis.”

“Well, I was really talking to Ali,” Sky said. “Ali? What’s up? How’s it going?”

Ali blinked and turned disdainful eyes on Sky. “Excuse me? I’m kind of busy here.”

“Nothing,” Sky said coldly. Wow, she really was a bitch. What did Adam see in her?

She stalked off and grabbed Hunter by the arm. “Come on,” she said. “We’re going roller skating.”

“*I*’m going to roller skate?” Hunter scoffed. “You have got to be kidding.”

Then he saw Miyuki Mai turn up with skates, and he changed his mind.

Ali had to head home, and Forest tried a bit of skating himself. He turned out to be better at it than either Sky or Hunter.

Charles and Veronica showed up, with freshly swollen tattoos to join in the last of the fun.

Hunter struggled a few times around the roller rink, and when he saw Miyuki take a break, he jumped at the chance to get off and talk to her. The excuse to take off the wheeled shoes of death was a great way to overcome his shyness.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hey,” Miyuki answered.

All right, Forest and Sky could do it. What did he have to lose? All she could says was no. And laugh in his face. But let’s be reasonable. Miyuki wasn’t the kind of girl to laugh in his face.

“I want you to know I really like you,” Hunter said. “Really. A lot. A whole lot.”

Dang it, get your foot out of your mouth already! “I mean — are you going to prom with anyone?”

“Wow, Hunter, you’re such a great guy,” Miyuki said. She didn’t look happy, though. She looked embarrassed.

“But you’re going with someone else?” Hunter prompted despondently.

“I wish I were going with you,” Miyuki said, “but i just don’t like you like that. I can’t. You see– I was going to ask Alice Bookabet, but she already has a date.”

“Oh,” Hunter said. “Oh! I see. Yeah, I guess it wouldn’t work out.” He didn’t know whether to feel good that she didn’t laugh at him or embarrassed that he didn’t catch the hint earlier that she only liked girls.

“You should go anyway,” Miyuki said. “You don’t have to have a date to go to the dance. I’m going to go without one. You never know what might happen.”

“Thanks,” Hunter said. “I’ll think about it.”

———-

It turns out that StoryProgression rolled Miyuki was gay, so poor Hunter’s crush was never going to work out.

I’m not sure why Charles’s new tattoo is not on the shot of him eating a snowcone. I could have sworn it was taken after his trip to the tattoo parlor.

Charles and Veronica both rolled wishes to get a tattoo at about the same time, so I thought it would be fun if they got matching ones as part of aging up.

I am very displeased with how the tattoo turned out on Charles, which I’ll probably fix with MasterController rather than making a plot item. It’s a really cute image, and it looks good on Veronica (need a pic), but apparently the tattoos only look good on that metal skintone at maximum opacity.

I haven’t seen anything in StoryProgression updates from Ariel in ages. I think she’s still seeing Puzzle, and now they’re living together. Apparently she doesn’t roll romantic wishes here either. But she REALLY has the hots for Charles. Heh.