3.21 While We’re Doing Introductions

Sep6

I don’t think Zahra was ever introduced properly, and she’s the heiress. Smack me with a wet noodle. So, without further ado:

Zahra Sample
Traits: Brave, Can’t Stand Art, Genius, Good, No Sense of Humor
Likes: Chinese Music, Fish and Chips, Turquoise
Lifetime Wish: Become a Creature-Robot Crossbreeder

I wasn’t exaggerating when I described her as a geek with no social skills. Though I’m a bit grumpy about the Genius trait. I pushed her toward mad science because I thought Logic would be used there, but apparently it’s Fishing, Gardening, and Handiness. So I suppose if I used Midlife Crisis to tinker with her traits, I’d be breaking the rules of the legacy more than I am now.

And her husbands:

Cycl0n3 Sw0rd Sample
Traits: Absent Minded, Computer Whiz, Couch Potato, Inappropriate, Genius
Likes: Electronica Music, Mac ‘n’ Cheese, Black
Lifetime Wish: Chess Legend

Fabian Branch Sample
Traits: Computer Whiz, Excitable, Friendly, Genius, Hates the Outdoors
Likes: Latin Music, Autumn Salad, Pink
Lifetime Wish: Forensic Specialist: Dynamic DNA Profiler

See what I mean about Cycl0n3 and Fabian? Zahra’s taste in men is pretty clear. Fabian appears here in an outfit I didn’t keep very long. I think he’s adorable in his police uniform, but he’s a really difficult Sim to find any other flattering attire for.

And that pretty much covers Generation 3.

3.20 Shanni Becomes a Woman

Sep4

Adjo and Shanni’s birthday was fast approaching. Shanni kept good grades and would be graduating on the honor roll. (Yeah, Shanni’s always been a better student than Adjo, believe it or not.) But she was all-too-conscious that her twin had one thing she wanted terribly: someone to share it with.

She floated a family birthday to him, but he rejected it soundly. He had important plans with Toya. If she didn’t do something about it, Shanni would be aging up by herself.

She spent the last couple of days before graduation talking up guys, in search of a date for the important day.

But it didn’t go too well with VJ Alvi. Apparently, he wasn’t too thrilled with how things had gone with his brother.

Arrrgh! It wasn’t fair! How dare he reject her!

As the day approached, it was looking very much like Shanni would be ringing in her birthday alone. She couldn’t believe it. She worked so hard to be appealing to men, and here she was without someone who cared about her. Adjo, who always seemed to slouch through life, had what she wanted most in the world.

Then she remembered Mortimer Goth!

They’d hit it off so well when he came over to hang with Adjo, but nothing had really come of it. She grabbed the phone her birthday evening and gave him a ring. He was glad to come over.

He romanced her with stories of his family’s money, and Shanni hung on his every word. She imagined moonlit cruises in the Bahamas and sparkly, gem-incrusted gifts. It was good to have a boyfriend with money. Not that he was her boyfriend yet, exactly, but she was sure he would be soon.

Then it was time to celebrate her birthday.

“Oh,” Mortimer said. “I didn’t realize you were so much older than I am.”

“I really have to be, um, somewhere else right now. Sorry to bail so quick! I’ll call you.”

So Shanni aged up alone after all.

Also not a look she’s likely to keep.

When she’d dried her eyes from crying all night, she made a resolution to herself. She would never let a man make her feel like that again. Boys were for fun, and she’d have fun with them. The new adult Shanni was not going to be anyone’s booty call.

And here we have Shanni’s adult look:

Shanni Sample
Brave, Great Kisser, Neurotic, Mooch, Hopeless Romantic
Likes: Chinese Music, Key Lime Pie, Yellow (though red looks so good on her)
Lifetime Wish: Heartbreaker

3.19 Adjo Becomes a Man

Sep4

Adjo’s birthday was coming up. Becoming an adult was a frightening prospect. What did he want to be when he grew up? He was a mediocre student, and nothing had ever really jumped out at him in his studies.

He called Toya as soon as they got home from school.

“Wanna go on a date?”

“Sure! Where should we meet?”

“It’s a surprise. You’ll see.”

He picked her up and took her to the French Bistro for a high end romantic dinner. She was surprised. No one had ever tried to do something so extravagant for her.

“Wow! I’m not even dressed right!”

“We can take a few minutes and change.”

“So, I want you to know that I’m going to wait for you,” Adjo said. “By the time you graduate, I’ll be making enough of a living for the two of us.”

Toya raised her eyebrow. “You know, Daddy….”

“It’s OK,” he said firmly. “I want to do this on my own.”

As she got off work, Layla caught sight of her son pouring his soul out to his girlfriend. She shook her head ruefully, but stayed out of sight. Toya was a sweet enough girl, but she hoped Adjo knew what he was getting into. It’s not like anyone could talk sense into a youngster in love. She’d moved across the world to be with Lancelot because he had honest eyes and big biceps.

They changed into their formal clothes in that magical Sims way we won’t discuss here.

Adjo headed toward the bistro, but turned back to gaze meaningfully at Toya. “Will you wait for me too?”

Toya beamed at him. “Of course I will silly.”

(Adjo ain’t got the style gene. I have no memory of laying out this outfit for him. But Toya surprisingly didn’t do too badly.)

Everything went perfectly.

Now he just had to make something of himself.

A piece of cake.

Um, right.

And not a bad age transition, all told, but here’s how he ended up:

Adjo Sample
Brave, Charismatic, Family Oriented, Friendly, Over Emotional
Likes: French Music, Key Lime Pie, Lilac
Lifetime Wish: Super Popular

3.18 Charles Ages Up

Sep2

Charles was growing into a fine little (transparent) man.

And he was still the most popular member of the Sample household.

Lancelot, who was usually a pretty sharp guy, showed some senility over his little grandbaby.

Layla once followed a rotten stink into Cycl0n3’s old room to discover that Lance had been making tons of baby food and then just leaving whatever Charles didn’t eat in there. Ewwwww.

Shanni found him frustrating sometimes.

I mean, why was this little guy, who crapped amazingly stinky diapers and woke them up in the middle of the night, getting more attention than she was?

But she did her best, and sometimes she really enjoyed his company.

The Samples took his ghostliness in stride, and he was completely sheltered from any idea that he might be different from anyone else. Even if he sometimes unnerved his family with his otherworldliness, they never let him know.

(I don’t know if this shot would be as creepy if he weren’t a ghost baby, but wow.)

But other than the few very unnerving moments, and well, his unnerving voice, he was a typical toddler.

At last his toddlerhood came to an end.

And he was ushered into childhood by his whole adoring family.

Including Grady Elfman, the maid on Kate’s days off, who grabbed a slice of cake right quick and disappeared into a corner where nobody could tell him to work.

Charles immediately unrolled a futon under his favorite old tree in the back yard. He said he preferred the whole of outdoors to an ordinary bedroom.

But he also picked up chess with his mother almost immediately.

He had no idea why she was so misty-eyed she could barely see the pieces.

(Sorry, guys. I took SO MANY cute ghost toddler pics, and I couldn’t resist throwing them all in. Sadly, without Generations, there’s very little for children to DO, so I won’t have a whole heck of a lot more to say about him until he becomes a teen — which is where I am now in gameplay, so even I don’t know what there will be to say about him then.)

3.17 Trials and Tribulations

Sep2

When she’d been carrying Charles, Zahra wouldn’t have known she was pregnant if she hadn’t been as big as a whale. Cycl0n3 had made himself far sicker in anticipation than she’d felt herself.

That made this pregnancy a big, unpleasant surprise.

Over and over, she found herself running to the bathroom. She was sick constantly.

And that wasn’t the worst of it.

“Two weeks? I can’t go back to work for two weeks? You have GOT to be kidding! Can’t I just show up? Even if you don’t pay me?”

It was so beyond unfair. Between her unasked-for two days of honeymoon leave and her unasked-for maternity leave, which stacked on top, this child was going to be, well, a child before Zahra was allowed back to work. Zahra was crushed and frustrated. If she wanted to reach her lifetime ambition and reach the top of her career track, she should stop having babies.

(There’s some real-life feminist commentary in here about career and family balance. And, seriously, WTF? Why won’t the game let a character on maternity leave go back to work voluntarily? If you’re very far up on the promotion ladder, four paid working days off translates to a LOT of Sim-calendar time. This is a serious women-only career hit.)

Fabian was overwhelmed and delighted at the prospect of being a father so soon.

And he did the best he could to make it easier on Zahra.

But she felt like crap, and most of the time she couldn’t even handle being touched. Their sex life was a memory.

At least she could take her frustration out on the house and build a few skills that would help her when she finally got back to work.

Fabian, meanwhile, stayed out of Zahra’s way. And he started really paying a lot of attention to the maid, Kate Pistachio. After a couple of days of watching her as she moved around, cleaning their house, he approached her and asked her to meet him downtown.

Um, Fabian, does your WIFE know you’re doing this? The one who’s pregnant with your child?

They talked long into the evening. Fabian really turned up the charm, and soon Kate was telling him her life story.

Which he wrote down for his police report. Turned out their house was being cleaned by a Kleptomaniac with a list of customer complaints as long as your arm. He let her know he’d be watching her. In the nicest way possible.

Whew.

Simfail: Bloopers!

Sep1

I’m creating a new tag “Simfail,” for my ranting about Sims technical glitches and laughing at the absurdity this game generates. I’ve gone back and relabeled all my past game glitch ranting.

Included in the new tag will be bloopers, inspired by Redhead Creations and her Cagley legacy blog, where she always includes a few outtakes. I’m still going to include absurd things in the posts where they apply, but some stuff is just too absurd to be woven into any story.

So, without further ado:

Adjo has a preview of what life will be like for his nephew Charles

A quiet evening at home. With no furniture.

(It’s kind of bizarre that Sims 3 renders people when you look through the window, but not anything else. I think that might be a setting I could change, but then again, I’m not sure my computer could take the extra work, which is probably why it does that to begin with.)

3.16 Meet the Family

Sep1

Fabian Branch Sample began his first day of married life by making breakfast.

Mac ‘n’ cheese. Well, it was a great breakfast when he was a bachelor.

Zahra, not the most inspired of communicators, pretty much broke the news to her family by letting them watch the new state of affairs. They were surprised but supportive.

“So, dear, it looks like you got married last night.”

“Yeah. It seemed like the thing to do.”

“He seems like a nice man, dear, but he doesn’t bring in much of a salary. Do you think we can afford it?”

“MOM!”

(Fabian did bring in about 1100 simonleons, which I think is the lowest amount any spouse has brought into the family so far. Law enforcement clearly does not pay.)

The men were even lower key.

“You gonna make my daughter happy?”

“Yup.”

“Thought so.”

(The men spontaneously bonding in their underwear was pretty awesome.)

Fabian and Adjo were already pals for reasons only the Sims game was tracking. I have to guess it’s mostly because they’re both people people, so they could hardly bump into each other in any context without becoming friends. Shanni didn’t have a lot of use for men that she wasn’t staking a claim on, and Fabian really wasn’t her type anyway, but they coexisted all right.

He pledged to help with Charles, but mostly what he did was take over other household responsibilities so that Zahra could spend more time with him.

He also convinced her that subtle pink accents in their bedroom was not only manly, but tasteful. Zahra, who didn’t pay much attention to aesthetics anyway, let him have his way.

(Yes, his favorite color is pink. I notice you can see him telling her this on their park date when they were teens. Fabian is such a Sensitive New Age Guy. I have vivid memories of adding pink accents to their bedroom and even photographing it, and I can neither find the photographs nor evidence of the pink in later photos. Did I do this on a version of the game that crashed on me? The world may never know. I’m at least two weeks beyond this, Sim-time, and I’ll have re-redecorate their bedroom.)

Things got back to routine in the Sample household, and in due course, Zahra and Fabian had happy news to report.

3.15 Loving Life

Sep1

Fabian worked long hours, but he spent as much time as he could at the Sample house, talking to Zahra. They filled the air with talk about computers, new discoveries at the science institute, and stars a million light years away. He was a beat cop now, but his dream was to get back behind a computer keyboard and become a forensics expert. Zahra should have realized that he’d never have moved this far away from science without a plan.

But it didn’t take a rocket scientist, or more effectively, a social engineer to figure out what he wanted.

Fabian had a gift for gab. He knew just what to say and how to say it, and he was even better at NOT saying things in a way that made them perfectly understood. Zahra’s husband was not just dead. He was dead twice over. She could let her life end here too, or she could start building something new. He’d rather if she was going to start something new, she did it with him.

But did she want something new with anyone? Zahra had spent her whole life loving Cycl0n3. She’d never expected to find herself single.

Things started to get out of hand.

Then they got really out of hand.

Was this what she really wanted? It certainly felt good.

Zahra spent a lot of time alone, thinking about what she wanted her life to be, and eventually things fell into place. It really was about choosing life over death. She wanted to love life again. And Fabian’s devotion had always been unwavering. If there was anyone in her life she could trust, it was him.

Zahra hated parties and crowds, fancy dresses and pretty jewelry. When she knew what she wanted, she invited Fabian to meet her alone at the beach at dusk.

There, she asked him to start a new life with her.

“I thought you’d never ask,” he said with a twinkle in his eyes.

And so, still frightened, Zahra stepped into the unknown.

(Woo. I’d always thought that Fabian would make a good alternate mate for Zahra, but when I got a look at his traits, he’s like her perfect man. He’s just like Cycl0n3, except with Charisma and social skills.)

3.14 It’s All About Love

Aug29

Adjo was ready to graduate from high school, and he barely had any romantic history. There’d been a brief thing with Kalylynn Langerak, and this flirtation with Darlene Bunch that never got past naughty glances in English class.

His heart just wasn’t it. Who wanted to be second fiddle to Shanni all the time? He wanted one great love. He wanted it to be the real thing. And he’d always known who he wanted that person to be.

He called Toya Ursine and invited her over.

He poured his soul out to her. “Everything I’ve done, everyone I’ve met, I’ve always known I wanted to be doing it with you.”

Toya was visibly moved, but she shook herself free of the spell.

“You’re a great boy, really,” she said. “But I think you might have the wrong idea about me. You know, my dad really isn’t a very nice person….”

That was the Understatement that Ate Cleveland. Rachel Ursine’s second husband Harvey was the lord of the Sunset Valley underworld. In a town not very well known for it’s gangs, he was the ganglord.

“He didn’t do anything to you?” Adjo demanded, breathless.

“Oh, no!” Toya cried. “Nothing like that. It’s just, well, I don’t want you to get mixed up in anything.”

“I know who I want to be with,” Adjo said boldly. “Nothing about your family is going to change that. No risk is going to scare me off. I love whom I love.”

“You… love me?” Toya gasped.

“I always have,” Adjo confessed.

This time, she wasn’t so quick to push him away.

“Oh, what the hell,” she murmured, almost to herself. “You only live once.”

(Adjo never did stop collecting romantic wishes about Toya. All I needed was to be a bit more persistent the first time, but this makes for more fun story anyway :). )

3.13 Who’s It All About?

Aug27

Adjo and Mortimer Goth really hit it off at school, and Adjo invited him over after school to check out some video games.

The Goth family was a bit of legend in Sunset Valley, and Shanni’s eyes got wide when Adjo told her who was on his way over. “Goth?” she demanded. “Do you know how much money they have?”

Adjo honestly didn’t know. Less that the Landgraabs, more than the Samples. Something like that.

Shanni was there waiting for the two boys when they arrived home.

And she only had eyes for Mortimer. She asked him about his family and his opinions of their classmates. She hung on his every word.

Pretty soon, they only had eyes for each other.

Shanni didn’t even need to bother with meaningful glances in her brother’s direction. Adjo knew a lost cause when he saw one, and there was no point in getting between Shanni and her prey. He grabbed his guitar and went out.

Leaving Shanni to her important work.

Why did she keep doing this, Adjo asked himself. Shanni was more than just beautiful. She was smart and witty. She had a great sense of color and art. He’d even seen a few of her closely-guarded manuscripts, and she wasn’t a bad writer either. But she seemed to value herself only when she was grabbing the attention of some new guy.

Adjo wished she would find someone who really meant something to her and settle down. True love was worth working on. It wasn’t something to throw around.

Adjo set down his guitar. He knew what he had to do.