The Simsmaid's Tale

emilyofspielburg

This is loosely based off of the TV series "The Handmaid's Tale", which is based off the book by author Margaret Atwood. I have not read the book yet but have watched three seasons of the series. My Sims 3 version takes place in Sunset Valley and features Thornton (commitment issues, frugal, can't stand art, dislikes children, ambitious) and Morgana Wolff (workaholic, good, artistic, family-oriented, charismatic) as the main characters of The Commander and Serena Joy and Jamie Jolina (genius, flirty, party animal, bookworm, virtuoso) as Offred. It would be awesome if other people also had their own Gilead and we could compare progress reports.

I hope you enjoy reading my Sims-made version of "The Simsmaid's Tale".

emilyofspielburg

The Simsmaid's Tale
Chapter 1

Morgana and Thornton Wolff had not lived in Sunset Valley very long. In fact, they had not even been married very long. Thornton was a Sim with commitment issues so he was always breaking up and getting back together with Morgana. This frustrated Morgana to no end! All she wanted was to get married, live in a big house, and start a family. To be surrounded by family, maybe even raise FIVE children...but Thornton was constantly saying how much he disliked children even though he liked woohooing.

Whenever she said, “Let's try for a baby,” he would look at her like she was a hungry cowplant and say, “Nah uh” and then leave very disinterested. Even when she wanted to try for a baby in the shower, he went so far as taking his clothes off in the bathroom before deciding it was not what he wanted and left her there also standing naked with shower running. The water hadn't even warmed up yet.

It's not like their woohooing wasn't successful; sometimes Morgana did get pregnant but she did not seem to stay pregnant for long. She would always be so upset, but Thornton would try to comfort her by saying, “Morgana, why would you want to have a baby and ruin your beautiful thin figure?” But those words did nothing to console her, it only left her more in tears.

The finally breaking point for them was when Morgana last tried for a baby. Thornton was tired so he didn't even notice and thought it was a regular woohoo, but she was very sad because even though she tried, she still did not get pregnant. She was a good Sim so she felt bad for trying to trick her boyfriend into getting her pregnant. She told Thornton that he was off the hook, that she would stop pressuring him, and that she wanted to break up for good. Thornton faced with the possibility of losing her did the only thing he felt he could do to keep her and make her happy, which was to marry her.

Thornton's mother was very upset about the new marriage even though her son and Morgana had been a couple for so long. She had always told her son to not be a heartbreaker like his father and to sow big oats before he settled down and got married. But that advice went out the window when Thornton met Morgana in college; him studying business and her, pre-med. Thornton, being a mama's boy, would try to do what his mom said so he did break up with Morgana and date other Sim girls, but those girls could never compare to her so he would apologize and they'd get back together, only to break up again and again.

This was the main reason why Morgana and his mother didn't always get along. In fact, when Morgana was upset with him, she would yell and say his mother was a llama. But his mom only wanted what was best for him, best for them now that she realized that her son had finally committed to someone. The only thing that Morgana and her new mother-in-law could agree on was the fact that they both wanted a baby/grandbaby. His mother was the one who suggested the young couple should make a change of scenery, move next to the ocean so Morgana could get some fresh air, relax a little.

It worked out because Morgana applied to Sacred Spleen Memorial Hospital and was accepted right away as a bed pan cleaner and Thornton had connections so he was able to keep the same position as a corporate drone and transfer to the Sunset Valley branch. But the best part of it all, the best part was the house: a beautiful mansion with its own private beach! This perfect home had the most beautiful view in all of Sunset Valley.

Every view in the house was beautiful since it had glass walls. But as Thornton's mother said, “Sims who live in glass houses should not throw rotten eggs.” Was she implying that Morgana was a rotten egg since she had trouble bearing children? Morgana didn't even want to know. She was only happy to be near the beach especially since her friend Pauline Wan had recently moved to Sunset Valley to live with her fiancé Hank.

That night, Sacred Spleen had its annual fundraising party for its donors and had invited all the new hires as well. Morgana was very, very happy to spend time with her new coworkers and to give her husband a tour of the new medical facilities where she would be working. But all her happiness disappeared when she noticed her boss, Jamie Jolina flirting with her husband. He spent a majority of the evening flirting and joking with Jamie that he didn't even notice how much effort Morgana had put into her appearance even though she had overdone it with makeup. She was very quiet on the car ride home.

“What's wrong?” asked Thornton, even though he knew exactly what was wrong.

“How could you embarrass me like that at my new workplace?” Morgana sobbed. “Flirting with my boss like that right in front of everybody.”

“Morgana, can I help it if Jamie is a flirty girl and I am a very attractive man? She probably likes to party too. That girl looks like a wild one!”

Morgana stared at her husband, she didn't know what to say. He could be so disgusting sometimes!

When they got home, Thornton grabbed a blanket and slept on the lounge chair in front of the house. He knew the drill.

The next morning, Thornton woke up to the smell of burnt waffles. For all his wife's brilliance, she never did learn how to cook even though his mother had suggested she take cooking classes so many times. Between med school and trying to get pregnant, Morgana could never find the time or patience to learn. Her specialty was autumn salad, she could make a MEAN autumn salad. Thornton was grateful that was what she mainly cooked because at least she couldn't burn down the house. Fire insurance didn't pay that much, he reasoned from a business standpoint. Besides he could only eat so much burnt mac and cheese so autumn salad and leftover autumn salad it was.

The only time Morgana attempted to cook anything other than autumn salad was when it was breakfast time, if they had ran out of autumn salad from the night before, or if they had had a fight. Cooking with the stove was her way of saying sorry and that she would try harder, even if he was the one who was wrong because after all, she was a good Sim and loved her husband.

“Did you sleep okay, sweetie?” asked Morgana. “I hope it wasn't too cold outside last night.”

“No, no, it was fine.”

“Look, I'm sorry if I got jealous. Jamie is a pretty, not to mention smart. I understand why you would find her interesting. I didn't mean to get jealous.”

Thornton sighed and continued to reassure his wife by saying, “Jamie is only a friend. You are my wife, I am with you. I only have eyes for you.”

“I'm glad, I don't like it when we fight. How about we have dinner with Pauline and Hank tonight?”

Thornton sneered, “You mean your music groupie friend and that traffic cop fiancé of hers?! Like that marriage is even going to happen! You tell me I have commitment issues but have you look at those two?! They are both heartbreakers! Besides I saw the way he kept looking at you! We have nothing in common with those people!”

“I find them to be very charming and down-to-earth,” said Morgana. “Besides you were the one who wanted to get married. You could at least make the effort to pretend to like my friends and spend time with other married couples. Who knows, maybe our children and their children can be friends one day.”

“There you go again about the babies,” yelled Thornton. “You know I said I do not want children!”

“You did not say you did not want children. You said that you would think about!”

“Well I thought about it and the answer is still NO,” said Thornton as he left the room, pulling out his phone.

“Where are you going?” asked Morgana. “We are not done with this conversation.”

“I'm done fighting, I'm going to speak with my friend.”

“But you don't have any friends here” Morgana quietly reminded him.

“Yes, I do have a friend here. Her name is Jamie Jolina,” said Thornton, matter-of-factly.

He put his phone back in his pocket and paced around before taking his phone out again and called Jamie, “Hi, can you come over? I could sure use a friend right now.”

Even though they had just met the day before, Jamie being Jamie said, “Sure, I'll be there in a few minutes.”

While he waited, he pulled out the business card his mother had given him and Morgana. She had told them to look up this scientist she knew when they got to town. “He works with people like you,” she had said.

The business card that Thornton's mother gave him read:

Gobias Koffi
Fertilizer Analyst
NEVER NUDE
Landgraab Industries Science Facility

What a very strange man, who puts that they are never nude on their business card?

“Gobias Koffi. What can I do you for?”

“Hello, I am Thornton Wolff. I believe you know my mother. She said I should speak to you. You are a fertilizer analyst. We could use some landscaping completed around here. What exactly is it that you can do for me?”

“Well, I am actually a fertilization analyst. I specialize in child cloning and bringing back recently deceased loved ones from the past.”

“Decreased loved ones? Like zombies??,” inquired Thornton.

“No, no, more like living ghosts. Zombies are a bit too supernatural for me. At least, not in this Simtime.”

“Child cloning then but I don't want my wife to have a child,” explained Thornton.

“There are other methods to having a child,” said Gobias, cryptically. “Let me send you some reading material and we will talk again later.”

Thornton received a message on his phone with an attachment. He opened it and read what it had to say. Just as he had finished reading the document, Jamie arrived.

“You just couldn't get enough of me last night, could you?” she said as she walked over to him.

Thornton laughed, “I just needed to see a friendly face and yours is one of the few faces I know.”

“Haha right! This is a beautiful home. I know Morgana is just a bed pan cleaner, but how much are we paying her if she can afford a place like this?!”

“Yes, this place is beautiful but Morgana says it's not very practical to have a massive 1 bedroom mansion if we are going to have kids. But you know I don't really want to have kids.”

Jamie laughed, “Yeah, kids are a bummer. They get in the way of your partying.”

“Partying sounds fun, more fun than marriage.”

Just then Morgana came out of the house, right in time to hear what Thornton had just said.

“Thornton, I can't believe you are embarrassing me again!”

“Morgana, please, not in front of our guest. Maybe you need to calm down. Why don't you go to the art gallery? I'm going to go out with Jamie.”

As Thornton and Jamie drove off laughing, Morgana fumed and called Pauline and explained everything that had happened.

“Can you believe that he just drove off with her?”

Pauline said not to worry about it and that perhaps visiting the art gallery would do her some good and maybe even taking a painting class would calm her nerves so that's what Morgana did. She went to the art gallery and then went to the school to take a painting class. 400 Simoleons down the drain but it was worth it to get her mind off of things.

“So, what do you do around here for fun?” Thornton asked Jamie. He was still new and did not know the lay of the land yet.

“Well there's not much of a nightlife here but there is the Little Corsican Bistro. You look like a man that appreciates the finer things in life.”

Indeed, he did and like that, Jamie asked Thornton out on a date.

When they arrived at the bistro, the maître d' asked if they had reservations to which Thornton replied, “Do you know who I am?? Do you know who my mother is?!”

The maître d' had no clue who Thornton or his mother was so Jamie slipped him 20 Simoleons when Thornton went off to call his mother and asked if they could have the special table that the hospital always had on reserve, to which he obliged.

“So Jamie, you work at the hospital, what is it that you do?”

“I'm a trauma surgeon, graduated top of my class because I'm a genius,” laughed Jamie. “My dream is to make it all the way to the top and become a world renowned surgeon.”

Thornton loved that, not only was Jamie pretty and smart but she was also very ambitious, like himself.

They finished their meal and the server asked if they would like some dessert and they were having such a lovely time together that Thornton said, “Yes, please bring the cart around.”

However, the busboy was new and tripped, knocking an entire cart of desserts all over Jamie but Jamie didn't want it to spoil their evening so she began to tell the busboy that it was okay. Thornton was annoyed because that is exactly what Morgana would do, apologize when anything went wrong. She was so good that she would probably rush over to the fallen busboy and treat his fall-related injuries while covered in flaming baked Alaska. So he raise his caterpillar eyebrow at Jamie and challenged her by saying, “Are you just going to let that happen?”

Jamie took a deep breath and yelled at the busboy to make her date happy. The restaurant gave them their meal on the house and paid them 200 Simoleons to cover any dry-cleaning expenses. This pleased Thornton to no end because he was a frugal Sim and loved that he saved money by getting a free meal, not that he was paying since Jamie asked him out but he loved when anyone saved money.



“Let's not end this wonderful evening,” he said as he took Jamie's arm. “Let's go on a stroll through town.”

They continued to flirt and laugh as they walked. When they stopped walking, they were in front of city hall. Thornton said, “I've never been here before, how about we go inside?” so they did the classic city hall tour and took a photo.

As they exited city hall, Thornton watched the night breeze brush through Jamie's hair. He found her so extremely irresistible that he found himself kissing her. Jamie felt like she was floating on air, she was so light-headed by their first kiss together. Thornton had made his decision. His mother had been right about Gobias helping them out.

He lovingly stroked Jamie's face as he announced, “You are now Ofthornton.”