Ouch about thunderstorms I hope you will not have long power cuts this time.
-- hehe, Damon filling in his dad Oh, those fan meetings.. ugh..sometimes those are funny tho I am not even sure does Melody even have fans yet Fred will forgive her, no worries And congrats for completing the aspiration !!
oh.. so sorry that Malcolm and Melody almost ruined their meal. But gladly Josh and Essa can focus only to each others
Oh.. intresting ending
hehe I feel like there will be lots of weddings and babies in this challenge soon
Next were kids by Roxanne ( @Hermitgirl ) and River ( @Kanindota ) .. they also have 3rd kid
Reena:
Rick
Robbie
My love, my love, my fearless love, I will not say goodbye..
Sea may rise, sky may fall, My love will never die..
My heart, my heart, My drowning heart, Oh all the tears I've cried
Oh I may weep forevermore, My love will never die..
Congrats to Jules for finishing the Jungle Explorer aspiration! Love the screenshots, such a beautiful world and Jules looks cool as a colorful skeleton. Cute baby bump, Congrats on having a boy! Do you have a name picked out yet? Just curious. What pregnant Sims can and can't do isn't very realistic eh? 🙄 Very cool how you set-up the nursery renovation with the drop clothes, mop and stuff, love it! Nice segue for the culinary career! Oh Wow, when did you age up Isla? She looks great! Guys and boobs, classic! LOL
Great job with the aspirations checklist! I'm still using the one I got from Mcrudd, but I really like your version. Cool! Imagine that took a long time to do.
Thanks about the lines in Middle English for Essa's gig, I had fun researching and writing that. I believe the clothes in the gigs are locked until your Sim does the gig and then they are available for your Sim in that save. Otherwise, I think they stay locked for everyone else. I'm not 100% sure about that though. The sets on the otherhand would be available in debug mode, yes. Some are available in the regular build/buy catalog though.
Yep, another aspiration, but it's been filled now as well. Understandable with your end of month plans. It's pretty much the same now for Essa. Everything is finished for the world, now I will start working on how next month's move will happen and other things for them.
You're welcome for the Scientist career feedback, I love it! Darts! Gah! Forgot all about that object. Thanks for the reminder we have that, I need to get Essa and Josh one now.
Ruby is a little stinker eh? So funny with the stink potion. Looks like everyone totally enjoyed themselves for Harvestfest. I've been canceling most holidays in my challenge save lately. They might celebrate some later, but they've been too busy at the moment.
Ugh, I hope Imgur gets everything sorted out so this doesn't keep happening to everybody. It's a pain in the derriere!
Woo, Sakura is getting a lot of royalties! Hmm, can't wait to find out what the gift for Sakura is. Great having a Sim with Handiness skill in the house eh? Josh does all the upgrades for Essa too. They both sometimes fix stuff, but lately I just replace anything that's broken since they're loaded. The apple pie looks delicious! Yay! Congrats to Wolfgang for finishing the Servo, Welcome to the world Rosie! So funny Sakura was concerned about it being a 'fembot.' Oh man, typical guy, they're never tired when it comes to gettin' a little lovin'. HAHA Enhance his skills! Just imagine if that were true in real life, ALL guys would be wearing one.
Oh gosh, I watched every episode of The Jetsons when I was a kid, it was one of my favorite cartoons! I wondered if maybe that was where her name came from. Very cool!
Congratulations on earning your Bachelors with Honors! Fantastic achievement! Have fun on your vacation celebration, you've earned it!
Essa can commiserate with Bryon completely about not feeling comfortable with her fame, definitely. I love their plans for the next part of their life together. Congrats to Bryon for completing both the Master Actor aspiration and Mansion Baron! So close with Friend of the World too! Wow, he's on a roll with aspirations!
Aww, I bet you were in a panic! Thankfully it turned out differently than what you thought was happening. Yes, that's true about the hosts. Clement was smiling the entire time when he hosted for one of my Sims in another save's award ceremony. Too funny about Judith. hehe I really like her. Thanks about Essa finishing the aspiration, I agree about that set, it's one of my favorites and her costume too. I had fun writing her lines in Middle English. All the research I did for it took some time, but it was worth it to me. I just wanted to try something different instead of writing, 'Shouting Forbidden words, Having a drink, Sword Fight' etc. Maybe should of written captions underneath in regular English, but at least I gave the list of words I used.
LOL Nancy's comment about Melody's stomach, she's hilarious! Love their house and the addition, beautiful! The Spice festival is my favorite! But I agree there isn't much to do. I mostly just send my Sims for the plants, spices and the spicy food contest. Annnd, of course Nancy and Geoffrey were at the Festival of Light. I should send Essa and Josh to that sometime, they never went yet. Aww, Malcom's parents are just excited to be grandparents, I get it and so does Melody. Aw, so sweet he gave her a rose on that bridge.
hehe Malcom is so cute trying to help Melody out with her cravings. Their garden looks amazing! Whoa, I forgot how many books to write and hours to play there is in those aspirations! At least it's somewhat of a challenge to complete those unlike some aspirations. Wow, Lily is still pretty as an elder. Hey Josh, looking sharp there Dude as an entertainer. He was telling jokes eh? I thought for sure he'd play the violin or guitar. He usually plays one or the other on the busking stations in CL in my custom template saves. He's Level 10 in all instruments actually.
HAHA! Essa looking so grumpy and Thorne fist pumping all happy, what a contrast! Hilarious! Hi Sandra! She's so pretty, unique and exotic looking, love her! Oh man, she looks grumpy too though. Good thing she explained it was Malcom and not Josh. So funny! Great looking lounge by the way. Is that your Orchid A GoGo? Bryon and Sakura's kids look just like them! Especially Aaron! Mini clone of Bryon! Love the blue hair for both of them.
Thanks about the power possibly going out, so far so good! Keep your fingers crossed! Loved seeing Damon as a bouncer too, made me smile. Ugh, that Meet and Greet was okay, but it was the other stuff I found tedious and a pain to complete, especially 'incite cheers' and the autonomous 'ask for selfie.' Melody and Malcom both have fans in my challenge save already, yep! Thanks for the Congrats about the aspiration, soooo glad that's over. Nah, they didn't ruin their meal, I found it funny and expected. hehe Yes, very interesting ending! Pretty sure everyone can guess what's hopefully going to happen. I left them alone and haven't checked so I don't even know myself yet.
Very nice looking kids for Roxanne and River! Especially Reena, Wow! Rick looks just like River! Very cool.
Aww man, so sorry to hear you and your family have been sick and all the other busy things going on in your life. Of course, I've always said real life and all it's responsibilities always come first! Welcome back though!
The kids were out of school for the day, the house was still a mess, but Marnie had no time to clean it right now. Her eldest son had his courtroom trial today, and she desperately wanted to be there to support him. Since there was no way to pay for babysitting, all the kids were getting drug along, and Marnie just PRAYED that they would behave.
Benji sat nervously next to his lawyer, who seemed to be almost as nervous as he was. Certainly this wasn’t his first courtroom trial… or was it?? The slick prosecutor sat at the table across from them, grinning from ear to ear, obviously at home in the courtroom, and ready for what came next.
The Malones sat behind Benji’s side of the courtroom, and Marnie threatened each and every one of them that if they misbehaved, they would most certainly pay for it later. (Behind them is Cade Yeagar, Shaylee’s old boyfriend.)
In his chambers, Judge Max Melvin took a deep breath and readied himself for the trial.
Out in the courtroom, the selected jurors sat in their seats: (from closest to farthest, randomly picked townies) Farhan Balderas (yes, Colin’s Dad), Akira Kibo, Jade Rosa, and a very pregnant Siobhan Fyres.
And on the other side of the courtroom: Mariah Andrews, Eric Lewis, Marisol Gerard, and Theodore Lemus.
Back in their holding cell, sat the Kleptos (without Benji), sitting in silence watched by a stony-faced cop. Also outside the courtroom was Scott Barrier, ready to testify.
Finally, things started to get underway. “ALL RISE!” And the judge walked in regally.
Benji, his lawyer (Nikolai Deolssantos) and the prosecutor, Michael Roman, all stood and listened to the judge quietly.
After opening arguments, the first witness called for the prosecution was Scott Barrier, the Chief of Police, the one who’d done most of the investigating in this case. He made his way to the witness box, sat down, and was sworn in.
The prosecutor started in on questioning him, and going through all the details of the case.
Benji tried to pay attention, but so much of the terms just went way over his head.
The Chief of Police seemed right at home in a courtroom, and the case against the Kleptos – Benji in particular – seemed rock-solid.
Michael Roman had not come cheap, either, because he was animated, knowledgeable, and even entertaining. He made the details of the case fall into place seemingly without effort.
After setting down the case details, Benji’s lawyer moved up to cross-examine. His inexperience was obvious. He asked a few questions, but didn’t seem to be able to put any doubt in anyone’s mind.
The trial crept along at a snail’s pace for Benji, with people from the alarm company being prominent witnesses, as well as Londyn Burt, who, after all, was the Kleptos’ connection to the alarm codes. Somehow, she seemed to have switched sides. Benji wondered what they’d said to her to get her to switch.
Finally, it was the defense’s turn. The first witness called was Shaylee. Benji cringed obviously with how very pregnant she was. How could he have missed this?
Upon being sworn in, Shaylee sat uncomfortably, and smiled towards Benji. Wait, no.. she was looking behind him? Benji twisted around and – for the first time, noticed his nemesis in the audience. Gritting his teeth, he tried to pay attention.
The court reporter typed away while Shaylee was introduced, and Nikolai started in on his questioning.
The more the questioning went on, the more nervous Benji got. Every answer seemed to tighten the noose around his neck further.
Shaylee seemed unconcerned, and – to Benji’s knowledge, she hadn’t even looked his way once. Shaylee related the details of the night, emphasizing that Benji had planned everything, and everyone else was just along for the ride. How was this “helping” the case, Benji wondered blackly.
By the time Nikolai returned to the table, Benji noticed even his lawyer was sweating this. The other Kleptos all testified “for” Benji, and the only real information that was shared was that Benji was at fault.
Even Rita, who had been the one to physically take the violin, seemed perfectly willing to point the finger at Benji.
The jury was dismissed to the deliberation room, and the only thing left for everyone else was to wait.
Inside the room, it was clear. Benji was the guilty party, everyone else was just “along for the ride”. Deliberations lasted only a half hour before they had a unanimous decision.
They filed back into the courtroom, all heading for their seats quietly.
The jury foreman – none other than Colin’s estranged Dad – stood up to read the verdict.
Guilty. Of Felony Larceny. Grand Theft. Whatever you call it, it sounded terrible. They had tried to argue that there was no intention of taking more than a few things, the violin wasn’t a target until Rita had taken it on the spur of the moment.. but their entire defense crumbled.
The first thing Benji did was throw his hands in the air.
Nikolai cringed, feeling horribly at fault. It had, indeed, been his first trial, one that the rest of the public defender’s office hadn’t wanted to touch with a ten foot pole.
Benji turned and yelled at his lawyer, swearing that he never wanted to see him again.
Sentencing was scheduled for the next day, and Marnie did not have a good feeling about it. In fact, she didn’t even plan to attend. It was clear her oldest was going to jail for quite a while. So much for hoping he could help her situation.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Bonus Shots of this mess in progress:
An overhead, out of character shot of what the screen looked like while working on these shots… I’m sure some of you are going to ask how in the world I managed to get this trial in pictures. I assure you, it was a LOT of work. almost 40 sims all under my control, and I built the courtroom. (It’s on my gallery in the Generic Municipal Center lot). I had MANY more pictures, but only chose the best ones. And I went for a general description, simply because I know very little about courtroom procedure, and what I do know – let’s just say it’s from the internet… so please, give me some latitude here. This is fiction, after all. I’m hoping these shots will also explain why this post took me two days to write!
@permanentrose Sorry about yesterday - and today for that matter, since I'm still one post behind. I'll catch up this weekend. The above post took more than 9 hours of playtime/staging/writing .. and that's not counting making sims, or venue. Just wasn't able to do all of it last night. hence why it was late. Everything is ok with me.
June - Day 25:"Light is to darkness, what love is to fear; in the presence of one, the other disappears!"
Notes
"Do you think we did it?"
"Oh yeah, we did it alright; here, the shower, the closet, the hot tub, that bush out back. If not, it wasn't for lack of trying!"
"Mmm, yeah, good point."
"Oh God Josh, I hope you're right. I want to have your baby, our baby so bad!"
"Maybe I should take a test now." "Uh, maybe wait a little while, we just...it's too soon."
"Yeah, I guess you're right." "Take a test tomorrow or the next day."
"Actually I should wait at least a week or two." "That long? Dang, alright. In the meanwhile...maybe we should do it as much as we can, you know, just to be sure."
"Oh Josh, you're such a horn dog...but you know I love that about you." "Ohhhh yeaaaaah!"
A couple weeks later, Josh sat out by the pool knitting a baby onesie and dreaming about holding their child, maybe a Son he could play catch with, teach how to treat a lady, fly a plane and... (Dangit, dropped another stitch. Maybe I better go do something else.)
Josh put the knitting away and ran out front to take a jog through the neighborhood.
Essa had been practicing her bowling skills, but felt a little hungry and stopped to go get a snack. On her way to the house, she suddenly felt nauseous.
(Oh man, I feel like I'm going to...)
*blarg bleh urrrp, blurg*
(Eww, gross. I need to rinse out my mouth and brush my teeth. Why am I sick? Hmm, I was out in the cold rain last week. Maybe I caught the flu or...)
*gasp*
(Wait a minute.)
(Oh man, I bet I'm pregnant! YES!)
(Don't be so hasty Essa, go take a test to be sure.)
(Yeah, I'll take a test. But I know I'm right! I'll go grab the mail first and then do that.)
(Hmm, what's this? Something from the studio lawyers? What would they be sending me?)
(Maybe papers to sign for my contract dissolution?)
(But wasn't Goldie handling all that? Let's see...)
"Oh God, NO, no, no, no, no, NOOOO! This can't be happening. Goldie you said it would be okay, you promised!"
(What are we going to do now? They froze my bank account and intend to seize the house in 3 days for breach of contract? 3 DAYS! They can't do that! Can they?)
(What if it's true? What if they can? How are we going to live? Where are we going to live? How can we figure that all out in 3 days? And, Oh God, what about the baby!?)
(You don't know there's a baby yet.)
(Yes, I do! I just...know.)
(I need to tell Josh. He'll know what to do. We'll figure it out.)
(And take a test!)
(Yes, I'll do that now and wait for Josh to get back.)
When Josh got back from his jog, he saw a paparazzi skulking around in the driveway in front of their house, snapping pictures and laughing to herself about some kind of exclusive story concerning Essa. There seemed to be more of these vultures every day. He'd had enough and he knew Essa had too. He had to do something, anything to send a message they weren't wanted around here. The Chillio spell seemed like just the thing.
"I'll do it again or maybe something worse if you come back. Don't try it. And tell your buddies too." Josh told the frozen pap as he ran by her. He went inside walking toward the bathroom to take a shower when Essa came down the stairs and stopped him. She said she had something important to tell him. He wasn't prepared at all for what she said next.
"What are we going to do Josh? How can they do this to me, to us?" "Gawd, I hate that studio. Nothing but money grubbing vultures."
"I don't think there's anything we can do Beautiful. You're an asset to them, nothing more and by quitting acting, they can't get anymore money out of you. They're suing you for estimated studio profits based on future movies you would've appeared in during the length of the contract."
"They already took more than enough from me out of my past movies, why can't they just let me go? Goldie said it wouldn't be a problem. Can't we sue them back or something? It's not right! I won't stand for this. Part of that money in our account is yours, you earned it, not me. You helped pay for this house too, it's not just my house." "It's in your name though Beautiful and so is the bank account. As far as they're concerned it's all yours and they have a right to take it. Since they froze the account, we couldn't even pay a lawyer if we wanted to, that's all our money."
"What about your investments? Won't you be getting another check soon?" "Yes, but it won't be enough. The stock market has been falling lately so I had my accountant sell everything...I put most of it in our, your account. I'll only get one more check and that's it."
"I should've put a fail safe in place and opened my own account. I'm so sorry Beautiful. We should've put my name on the house too. But it's too late now."
"Oh God Josh, we'll, we'll have to live on the street. I don't want to live on the street again, I won't! And our baby...our baby doesn't deserve that. Josh...I felt sick so I took a test. I'm pregnant. Oh my God, I'm pregnant and we'll be homeless...I think I'm going to be sick, again. Why does this keep happening to me, to us?"
"What!" Essa! You're pregnant? Oh Beautiful, you're going to have a baby, our baby! Hey, hey, come on, please don't. Don't cry. This is great news, it's what we wanted, a family. I love you so much."
"I love you too."
"But, how can we raise a baby...homeless, on the street? We can't, we can't, we CAN'T!" "Shhh, we won't. It's okay. We'll be alright. Don't worry. We've got through a lot more challenges than this, haven't we? We won't be homeless. I promise. Think about it, we're both Spellcasters for one thing, we have all our personal belongings, we have each other. You have your degree, you could sign with another studio even. I could join the military again, we have lots of options. We'll get through this together, just like we always have. Do you believe me?"
"Yes, always."
"Okay then, chin up and let me see that beautiful smile that brightens my world."
"Yeah, that's it, just like that."
"What would I ever do without you?" "You'd be just fine, but together we're better, we're unstoppable, right?"
"Right! As long as we have each other, and our baby. That's all that matters. We don't need a lot of money or a big house. Just you, me and..."
"Baby makes three."
"Or maybe four, five? Could be twins or triplets even."
"Oh man, bite your tongue buster!" *gigglesnort* "I'm just sayin'" Josh said with a laugh. "Seriously though, one or more, we'll love them all the same and be just fine. "
"Of course we will." "Could even be quads!"
Essa pulled back and punched his arm and then smirked. "Ow! Okay, I deserved that."
"Yep, okay, we need to make some plans, but I need a nap first. I'm exhausted." "I bet, four babies probably takes a lot out of a woman." "OW! Okay, okay, I'll stop." Josh said with a grin and took her hand. "I'll tuck you in."
"I'm just pregnant Josh, not an invalid or anything." "I know, indulge me. I want to pamper you."
"Aww, you're so sweet. I love you babe. Okay, you can pamper me. Let's go."
It's Wednesday in-game and Wolfgang has to work 11am - 6pm and Sakura has the day off.
The first thing that Wolfgang does the next morning is head into his workshop to check on Rosie and power her back up.
Rosie: "Creator.What.is.my.purpose?"
Wolfgang: "Good morning, Rosie" he said as he adjusted some knobs and gauges on her, "Rosie, Self-diagnose."
Obviously, Wolfgang had to do some strange contortions with those adjustments. Wow, Wolfgang, I didn't know you were double jointed. [Thought this was a funny glitch.]
Rosie: "Affirmative.Diagnosis.Complete.100%."
Wolfgang: "That's great Rosie," he said as he made some notes in a log.
Rose: "Creator,What.is.my.purpose?"
Wolfgang thought for a moment, "Rosie, "Explore and Learn" and "Guard Perimeter". He would just let Rosie wander around and then check her data at the end of the day. But first, he would unlock the door for her and she would take her first steps.
Wolfgang watched her for a moment, and then headed over to the punching bag and Rosie followed him and stood watching.
Wolfgang "Why, thank you, Rosie. I try to keep in shape." he replied smiling.
He noticed that one of Rosie's arms was malfunctioning, and brought her back into his workshop and made some further adjustments.
Rosie: "Creator.Question."
Wolfgang: "Yes, Rosie, what did you want to ask?"
Rosie: "Sakura.is.your.mate?"
Wolfgang: "My mate? Well, she is actually my fiancee."
Rosie: "Not.Mate?"
Wolfgang: "Not yet. She will soon be my wife. My life partner."
Rose: "Sakura.number.one."
Wolfgang: "Yes, she is going to be my number one."
Rosie: "Rosie.number.two.mate."
Wolfgang scratched his head, "Um. no. Sakura will be the only mate."
Rosie: "Sakura.is.mate.Only.mate.Affirmative," she said and left the workshop.
Wolfgang breathed a sigh of relief. It's a good thing that Sakura didn't hear that, or she would be thinking that Rosie was indeed that fembot from the movies. Wolfgang would ensure that he double-checked the programming code on Rosie's prime directives.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The mail carrier was delivering some mail and suddenly Rosie sensed her.
The mail carrier saw the robot coming towards her and was so surprised that she almost dropped the bag containing the mail.
Rosie: "Resistance.is.futile," she said and scanned the mail carrier.
Once the scanning was complete, the mail carrier explained that she was a mail carrier and just delivering the mail.
Rosie: "Affirmative.Sul.Suil.I.am.Rosie."
Mail Carrier: "Sul.Sul.I.am.Hana."
Well, it looks like Hana passed the security clearance test. I would hate to see what Rosie did if she hadn't.
Looks like Rosie might have made a friend. [Note: These are playful eyes, Rosie must have been telling a joke because in the notices it comes up that she has gained the comedy skill.]
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Meanwhile inside, Sakura hangs up the two abstract grilled cheese art pieces that she painted. [Note: Top one is a masterpiece and the second is excellent.[
Sakura then resumes working on a painting. Her idea of painting enough masterpieces for her wedding attendants isn't working too well. Then she gets an idea. She takes out all her paintings and displays them on the walls, trying to decide which pieces she would like to make a copy of for everyone.
She had also sold a few paintings on plopsy and just heard from one of the buyers. And as she gets her royalty report, she suddenly gets a pop-up notice that the [edit] Fabulously Wealthy Aspiration has been completed! Woot!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
While Sakura is recording another song in the other room, Wolfgang takes some time to work on a song for the wedding. And, yes, he has that skill-enhancing robo-arm on. I guess it didn't rust last night! lol
And when he's finished with the tune, he gets this whim! Yes! Oh my gosh! Wolfgang just can't wait! This made me smile in real life. Ahhh...
And Wolfgang gets a text from his phone quirk, but what a nice one. Gee, Wolfgang, your fans love you.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Rosie had been doing various activities by herself. Playing video games, programming, doing comedy, fitness, and playing chess. Wolfgang will be rather proud of her at how fast she is learning.
Rosie has been playing chess for quite a while, and Wolfgang has gone back to his workshop working on his daily task which is investigating equipment failures. The sky is getting dark and a storm is brewing. Wolfgang doesn't know if Rosie's sensors are detecting the storm and if she knows to go inside. He doesn't want her to get wet and have her circuitry frazzled. He gets an alert message that her durability is getting low and she needs a tune-up. He grabs his repairkit and heads out into the storm. There are lightning flashes all around. Just as he gets to the deck area, there is a tremendous bolt of lightning, and.....
NOOooooooooooo! Wolfgang is struck by lightning!
Three days before the wedding....don't you dare die!
Luckily Wolfgang is relatively unharmed, just a bit charred. And he's wearing his robo-arm again, which probably attracted that lightning.
Of course Rosie has already gone inside. She is now afraid of thunderstorms. Poor Rosie. She is deteriorating rapidly, and Wolfgang takes a moment to give her a tune-up.
Sakura runs out after recording her song (aptly named Thunder Shuffle), and rushes over to Wolfgang.
Sakura: "Oh gosh! Wolfgang I heard that thunder clap and saw that flash of lightning. Wolfgang...what if something would have happened to you?" she said and clung to him as she kissed him.
Wolfgang: "Oh yeah! That was some kiss! Maybe I should get struck by lightning more often. I feel rather...um...tingly now..." he said smiling as little sparks intermittently fly off of him.
Sakura laughed: "Oh Wolfgang, you're so...dirty! I think those clothes are ready for the trash."
Wolfgang: "So I'm dirty, huh? So, I should probably take a shower, right?"
Sakura: "Most definitely."
Wolfgang: "I might need help getting clean...you know...in all those hard to reach places..." he winked flirting with Sakura.
Sakura:"Well...I could help you with that if you want..." she said as they went into the bathroom together.
Wolfgang: "Oh, Sakura...oh yes...I want..."
Sakura: "Oh Wolfgang, I love you, dirt and all..."
Wolfgang: "That's what I was counting on....come 'ere'"
Wolfgang: "Maybe you'll call me Sparky after this..."
Of course, Wolfgang was doing this for purely experimental purposes. What the experiment is we're not entirely sure, but when you get struck by lighting and you take a woohoo shower, you just stay dirty. lol And yes, I think Wolfgang has "Sparky" as a new nickname. Sakura really does love Wolfgang, whether he's clean or dirty. So sweet!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Notes:
And after his day of work, Wolfgang gets a promotion to Expert Engineer. How fitting! lol
"Resistance is futile" is a term used by the Borg in the Star Trek television series.
@IllusoryThrall - Fantastic update for Day 24 - I know this took you a long time to build, manage and then actually play and write! lol Bravo! I felt like I was in a courtroom scene in real life. Kudos to you for all the work you did. It really turned out very well. I think it sounded great as far as what Benji was charged with...since he was rather confused about the whole thing. So sad that his whole group turned on him. They probably got a "deal" that they would get a light sentence if they confessed it was him. Poor Benji...and I think he suspects that Shaylee's baby might not be his.
*Updated my June 25th post above! It's probably full of plot holes, but it's the best I could come up with at the moment to get them to the next month's world. Should've planned better, but I've doing this entire challenge by the seat of my pants, so, I didn't. *shrugs* Comments coming soon... Hope y'all had a fantastic day/night!
@Karababy52 Hey, some drama doesn't have to be bad! Although I have to admit I'm very confused what actually happened. Might just be my lack of experience with Lawsuits and lawsuit vocabulary...
So they are suing Essa for something, so she has to pay a lot of money, in fact so much that she will lose the house and all their money and everything except her personal stuff (collections, photos, momorables, that kind of thing?) Ok why not, I can accept that... (As I said, I suspect this would be a lot more believeable if I knew what's going on.)
On another note: Yay for baby!
And sorry for not commenting a lot everyone... All my time has gone into background stuff such as building a new house (Ah I'm so excited for that! )
The day after Harvestfest in my game is a day off from work and school, so it was a good opportunity just to get some skilling done for the family.
Jules got herself up to level 9 in mixology. I do enjoy the animations that come with the mixology skill getting higher
Ruby finished her social aspiration, so she's now doing two custom kid aspirations I got from someone I'm doing another challenge with. One of the goals is to play video games for a certain number of hours and increase that skill, so Emmett played video games with her, and Ruby ended up winning. Beginners luck (I also meant to have Ruby and Emmett sit together, but Pickle stole her seat haha)
Ruby also worked on her knitting skill. Soon she should be at a high enough level to knit things for the baby
Emmett got his logic skill up to 10, which was his promotion task. We need to get this poor guy to the top of the business career so he can quit, he hates it so much haha.
They ended the evening with Jules practicing an archeology lecture on them. Maneula had asked if she could record a video lecture that she could send out to other's pursuing archeology as a hobby just like she had. And that finished up the second Jungle Adventure aspiration!
I also finished decorating the baby's room. There's some empty shelf space for little things that Ruby knits for him
--
Also a little note, I played this update before we made the decision to leave our sims as YAs for another month, so there's honestly a chance I might not even have Jules give birth by the end of this month, just gonna feel it out since I use MCCC to make custom pregnancy lengths anyway, don't want to rush now since I don't have to Either way, these decorations will get moved into the baby's room in their new house so they won't go to waste
I also started an Eco Lifestyle free trial that ends on July 2. I am only playing it actively in a brand new save - I disabled all features and will not be using any pack items or visiting Evergreen Harbor in this save, just so I don't cause any issues or lose any skills/items when I don't have access to the pack anymore. I did make a back up save though that I can revert to if anything does go wrong, crossing my fingers that I wouldn't have to revert back that far though and lose all that progress though.
--
I've been babysitting my niece and nephew since yesterday and will be watching them today as well, so I'll get to comments either in the evening or tomorrow
-Harvestfest - Love all the holidays that came with the seasons pack, although for Harvestfest, I usually take out the gnomes because they just cause too much grief. That Ruby...what a little prankster she is. Giving her cousin a stink "lemonade" potion! lol She will probably tell her friend, Kristine later on about it and they will die laughing together. It looks like everyone had a wonderful time. And that last shot at the bar, it looks like Dell and Sofia are kind of looking at their drinks wondering if somehow Ruby might have put some special "lemonade" in their drinks. I got a kick out of that shot. lol Got a laugh at how Josh handled that last paparazzi - freeze them! lol
Day 25 - All I can say is...Woot! Essa is preggers! And Josh is super happy about it. [I am surprised it took them this long! lol] So, the studio is suing Essa because she wants to break her contract? Oh my gosh! And they are going to lose everything and their bank accounts are frozen. Nasty! So much for being a great celeb with mega simoleons and a fancy, smancy house. Oh Essa...this is terrible news. But you and Josh will make it.
A quick question: So, in Evergreen Harbor, are you doing rags-to-riches again? Or, sort-of like reducing your funds for a very lowly house? Just curious.
Looking forward to seeing the house you built in an up-coming chapter. And wanting to see that little Ameilia age-up soon, so I can download her into my story! lol
Nice how Mia just switched sides and is now with the Resistance. So, the First Order won't suspect her, I guess. Cool that she gets to use a fighter jet...after she repairs it. lol I don't have this pack, so it's nice to see what goes on.
Oh my gosh, Melody's belly is so huge now! Funny how Malcolm is trying to figure out her cravings. lol Chocolate...no honey...lol Seeing Essa watching Josh in your save is funny. lol She is mad. I wonder why? Funny how Josh's wife Sandra says that the piano player behind Josh is terrible...and it's Malcolm! lol That was funny!
Roxanne and River's kids are cute, and their son, Rick, has a serious eyebrow thing going on. lol
I don't blame for Bryon for wanting to get out of the spotlight after his next gig. And Naoki is getting bored of being a scientist. Time for a change. I wonder what call Bryon will do to "transform" them to the next world. I love the pic of the kids playing chess. So cute.
Hi All - Just to let you know, this is a bit long, but worth the read. Enjoy!
June 21 - Del Sol Valley - Winterfest Eve - Traditions - Part 1
It was Thursday, Winterfest Eve, and the day that Wolfgang and Sakura were leaving for Windenburg for the holiday and the wedding. They were up very early and all set to leave and decided to take a photo together to mark the occasion. Wolfgang complimented Sakura on her outfit, and Sakura told Wolfgang that she had knitted it herself. [I saw that in @Karababy52 's story that Essa is wearing the same outfit, except she paired it with boots. Great taste in clothing there Essa! lol]
Before they left, Wolfgang shut Rosie down for another enhancement. Hopefully nothing would happen to Rosie while they were away. Wolfgang logged the skills that Rosie had learned on her first day and sent a copy of the report to his boss, who was very impressed with her progress. Soon she would be ready for the movie set. Rosie was also excited that Winterfest was coming and got a cute moodlet. [Note: When Servos are activated, they automatically have 3 skills in robotics.]
And, Sakura had to release another song for Maxis Music. She had made an extra one yesterday, and released "Blame It On The Rain." She got her royalty report and on Winterfest Eve, she earned $6,749 simoleons.
With everything packed, it was time to head off to Windenburg. And Wolfgang gives Sakura an autonomous "kiss for the road".
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
When they arrived in Windenburg, Wolfgang rented a car at the airport. Wolfgang and Sakura arrived at the Munch house, and the house was all decorated for the holiday. They headed inside, and Mila (Wolfgang's mother), comes to greet them.
And then, of course the excited yells of Lucas are heard, who immediately runs to Sakura.
Lucas: "Sakura! Sakura! Mom told me you were going to be my new sister. I didn't know we were adopting you!"
Sakura smiled at Lucas and Wolfgang explained that Sakura was going to be Lucas' sister-in-law and that she wasn't getting adopted.
Mila: "Wolfgang...that last bit is not really true, because we have already adopted Sakura as part of the family. In a non-legal sense of course. It's an expression. I want Sakura to feel that she is as much a part of this family as you, or Gunther or Lucas..."
Lucas: "See, Wolfgang...told ya!"
Mila took them to the living room, which was also the area where Gunther slept, and explained to them that she had had a home decorator come in and that she had made a few changes in the house.
Mila: "I didn't want anything too major, but I have always loved fireplaces and didn't know why this house didn't have one, so this is a natural gas unit. It looks just like a wood-burning fireplace, but is so much cleaner. And I had the couch and chair re-upholstered, just to freshen things up a bit. We temporarily moved the desk into the hallway near the window."
Wolfgang looked around the room, "Mom, this looks really good in here, and there is room for the tree. But, where is Gunther's bed?"
Mila: "Yes...that...well...you know...since you and Sakura were in Del Sol Valley, we sort of moved Gunther in with Lucas. I hope you're not upset."
Lucas gave Wolfgang a hug and whispered in his ear: "Gunther is sleeping in our room. And Wolfgang, he snores!"
They headed to Lucas' room and looked around.
Wolfgang looked confused: "So, if Gunther is sleeping in here, where are Sakura and I sleeping? Should I have brought a sleeping bag?" he asked as he gave Sakura an autonomous kiss on the cheek.
Mila sat on one of the beds, "Well, you know, Wolfgang, I had a bit of a discussion with Clara Bjergsen, and the topic of holiday sleeping arrangements came up. I mean you and Sakura are young adults now. It's hard for a mother to accept that her children are growing up, but I really didn't want to be one of those old-fashioned parents. And it's not like you're staying in a separate bedroom from Sakura in that house in Del Sol Valley. So, I came up with something rather progressive..."
They headed outside to the Games Room.
Wolfgang spoke to his Mom who was walking ahead: "Okay, I get it Mom, I'm sleeping on the couch in the same room as Sakura. That's not a problem. I'm fine with that."
They all entered the Games Room, and there, instead of the single cot they saw a double cot in its place.
Mila: "I thought that you could share this area together," she smiled and waved her hand towards the bed, "I got a good deal on it, and I mean you're getting married in two days...so...um...what do you think?"
Wolfgang and Sakura smiled at each other and Wolfgang gave his mother a hug, "Thanks Mom. You are the best progressive Mom ever."
Mila beamed at them both, a bit embarrassed, "Okay, now...go and get your suitcases from the car. Gunther can help you with your luggage. And then we all need to go and get the tree," Mila turned to Sakura, "It's a Winterfest tradition, and I am so happy that you are here to share it with us, Sakura. Oh this is going to be best Winterfest ever. I just know it!"
Mila went on to let Wolfgang know that after they decorated the tree, that the guys would be going to get their suits fitted. She told Sakura that Luna and Sofia would be coming over later to help with the wedding favors, and to see Sakura's dress. Then they would have their traditional Winterfest Eve Party. Sakura didn't realize how many Winterfest traditions there were.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
They drove to a tree farm in the country, and Sakura realized that it was a place the Munch family went to every year. There was a converted barn on site, which housed a gift shop. There was also an outdoor area set up for visits with Father Winter, although he wasn't there right now. But the main area was the trees. Miles and miles of trees...and some townie streaking. Oh gosh! Why? It's a freezing cold day in winter.
Wolfgang took an axe from the trunk and the nekkid townie ran the other way. Wolfgang laughed, and they all headed towards the tree farm.
Lucas: "Sakura, we have to pick the BIGGEST tree this year because this is your first Winterfest with us."
They wander the forest of trees and there are so many to choose from. Lucas tugs on Sakura's hand and leads her to a tree.
Lucas: "Sakura! This is the tree! This is the one! Isn't it great?"
Sakura admired the tree. It looked so pretty and she nodded her head, "I think you are right, Lucas...this is the one..."
Wolfgang: "So, have you picked out a tree yet?"
Sakura looked at Lucas and he smiled at her, "This is the one, Wolfgang!"
Wolfgang looked it over and nodded, "Nice choice." he said. Gunther and Mila came over as well, and suddenly they all burst into song and Lucas swung a little party noisemaker. Sakura just stood there staring at them, not sure what to do.
Lucas told her it was a family tradition they did when they chose the tree, "It's okay, Sakura. You'll know what to do next year..." Lucas told her.
Wolfgang: "Okay, stand back. Mr. Muscles has work to do..." he said as he swung the axe.
While Wolfgang chopped the tree, the others wandered around the lot. And look who also came to the Tree Farm. Essa! She must be doing some last minute Winterfest shopping.
With the tree tied to the roof of the car, they returned home.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Back home, Gunther and Wolfgang carried the tree inside and set it up in the living room. Mila had already put out the ornaments, garland and all the other items to decorate the tree. She put on some holiday music.
Gunther: "So, do you have Winterfest traditions in Mt. Komorebi, Sakura?"
Sakura: "Well, I am from a village outside of Mt. Komorebi, but many traditions are similar. One of the most spectacular events is the Festival of Lights, and the whole town celebrates with spectacular illuminations. It is beautiful to see set against the snow."
Lucas: "What do you eat for Winterfest, Sakura? Do you have to eat fruitcake? I don't like fruitcake too much..."
Sakura: "Actually, we eat a wonderful strawberry short cake with whipped cream and it is so good. In Mt. Komorebi, they call it Winterfest Cake."
Lucas: "Oh, that sounds so much better than fruit cake. We need to have that as a new tradition..."
Mila agreed and said it was good to have some new traditions.
Wolfgang and Sakura hung the popcorn and cranberry garland. Lucas and Mila helped to arrange the tree skirt. Gunther, as the eldest, put the tree topper on the tree. It was time to light the tree.
There were oohs and ahhs and Lucas declared that this was the best tree ever. Mila said she would make everyone some lunch, and Gunther went to help her. Lucas stayed behind just looking at the tree mesmerized.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Wolfgang and Sakura admired the tree together.
Wolfgang: "There is one more Winterfest tradition that I would like to share with you Sakura."
Sakura: "Oh my, another tradition? I will have to write these all down so I remember next year."
Wolfgang: "You won't have to write this one down," he said as he pulled some mistletoe from his pocket.
Wolfgang smiled at Sakura and kissed her sweetly on the lips, "A Winterfest tradition to kiss under the mistletoe. Merry Winterfest Eve, Sakura."
Sakura looked up at Wolfgang and held his hand in hers, "I think I like this tradition..."
Lucas ran from the room, "Mommmmm! Wolfgang and Sakura did a kissey-poo...!!!!"
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Notes:
It was lottery day yesterday, and Sakura had bought a lottery ticket. I forgot to cancel this holiday before it came up. I wasn't too concerned, though, because no sim I have ever played has won the lottery when they bought a lottery ticket. I figured this was harmless.
The draw was Winterfest Eve, and oh my gosh....Sakura won! So, because this was against the rules, I just took the screenshots I wanted and then exited without saving. When I played again, someone else had won. So, Sakura had her moment of fame...I think she was dreaming about winning the lottery, but, I didn't save. So, she is back to having to work for a living! lol Just thought I would share this, though, as I was rather excited.
Hehe, yes I like spice festival too, because of the food (as you know I will not allow them to get the plants ) , but it is great and sometimes only place to collect all the receipes But this time I was hoping for some teens of the other challengers sims have to show up, no luck Well Nancy was obsessed to belly rubbing, she did it like 7-8 times, I lost in count
Oh now I peaked, it gets even worse to poor Malcolm when he is at last level At least melody will not have to compose anything anymore. So i take it back, what I complained in the beginning, writing books is NOT too fast after all
In my game it is always pantless-Joey who is playing guitar in festivals. Before him it was always either sofia bjergsen or that Jang lady. I hope poor Joey can keep his fame spot Being in this challenge save is hard enough for him already
Thanks, it is original Orchid A GoGo , I just added some laps and effects so it would look a bit like a place where celebs would like to hangout at
-- ehhh..
here, the shower, the closet, the hot tub, that bush out back
Okay, at least they did try
Congrats for the baby!
Oh no, what a bummer. Pretty much nothing they can do about it now tho.
Lovely pep talk he gave her , aww Giggles to all the teasing about 4 babies
yes, Sandra indeed had a thought bubble with Malcolm's face on it , when she was acting up
-- Haha, Wolfie is doing the similar performance while tuning Rosie what Josh did with Frank at @Karababy52 's game Ouch!! Poor Wolfie, glad he was alright after that lightning hit! Oh naturally Sakura will help in shower
-- Okay she is pretty good at that bartender stuff now And everyone else skilling too, productive day Lovely nursery Oh, Pickles (I did it again) is feeling better?
My love, my love, my fearless love, I will not say goodbye..
Sea may rise, sky may fall, My love will never die..
My heart, my heart, My drowning heart, Oh all the tears I've cried
Oh I may weep forevermore, My love will never die..
Day 17 , June. Malcolm: "Oh this place has changed.."
Melody: "Yeah, I hate that we wear red now, we are blending in to wallpaper.. "
Malcolm had to write his books..
... so melody did the chores.
She also cooked herself, what is maybe the best idea, she can add what ever she wants in it!
She also had an inspiration, AND SO DID I
I had som beef and pork left from yesterdays bbq (Midsummer fest eve) , some of fresh pineapple , couple of red onions and tomatoes were sitting in fridge too, so I made these (9 of those) , and grilled those. Yummy those were!
NOTE: no chocolate or honey added!
Off to Studios, somehow half of their autograph pics have disappeared o.O I hope they can get new ones, as time is going on and some of these are elders, like Judith.
What she did not expected , was that someone wanted HERS!! Anne did, daughter of Sakura and Bryon
Where are all celebs when I need them??? Only Carrie was there! Usually they are everywhere and always when you do NOT need them
Okay, back home to dress up for gala. Yes I did sent them back home, as when Gala is active , celebs come with formal (normal ones do, not looking at Veera) , but if they are there too early, celebs come in with their current outfit and left soon to come back with formal. (once again not counted Veera at Karababy's game)
Malcolm: "So , ready to go?"
Melody: "I am nervous.."
Malcolm: "No worries, babe. It'l be fine."
Melody: "You are sure.. or just saying?"
Malcolm "I mean it."
Malcolm: "Oh this place has changed.."
Melody: "Yeah, I hate that we wear red now, we are blending in to wallpaper.. "
Poor Joey.. Nancy did not let him in...
Octavia won first award.. not much present yet.
For crying out loud, Octavia, you were meant to give SHORT speech!
Could you two chat another time? PLEASE?
Essa was the next winner! From her leading role!
It's getting tense.. who is the next???
We will know soon...
YAAAAYYYY!!!!!!!
Veera: "Just don't talk too long, honey."
It went well
Melody: "Lovely, mom, but maybe another time!"
Jenny won.
Veera won, and once again made speech that long, that half the sims felt to sleep.
YAAYYY!!!!
My love, my love, my fearless love, I will not say goodbye..
Sea may rise, sky may fall, My love will never die..
My heart, my heart, My drowning heart, Oh all the tears I've cried
Oh I may weep forevermore, My love will never die..
After I deleted so many premades, I noticed I did delete too much. So means after I have assigned some already in to some roles, I had not enough left, to fill restaurants, cafes and several other NPC careers .
NOTE: I do use a mod to nuke all random created townies, as I do not want those
So I have been downloading sims lately.
Last night I tested who was showing up at hospital staff
So, Mia Patina is the one behing Hospital reception, I see @sassytxbrat , I hope you do not mind I made her to use different hair? I can change it , if you wish
Rest of the pics, under spoiler. @permanentrose , I know I told you I used your family in this save too, hoping they will fill some of the missing careers, but what I did not told you was I was lazy to set their CC again, so I used the ones in my main save, they are expecting in there So I used them to test the hospital staff
So indeed, when Carrie and Rose went to hospital, to my surprise it was @Karababy52 's JOSH who was the Doctor So Josh must be a doctor who has an entertainer side business, lol.
Indeed it was Mia who took them in.
All the regular..
WOW, twins!! That was surprise to me
Game named them Ida and Benjamin. I left those as they go well with Isla and Beatrix
Also this bartender was new dude
My love, my love, my fearless love, I will not say goodbye..
Sea may rise, sky may fall, My love will never die..
My heart, my heart, My drowning heart, Oh all the tears I've cried
Oh I may weep forevermore, My love will never die..
Oh so fun to see Damon as a bouncer. You have a lot of good sightings of your own sims and our sims these days! My game is just over run by townies lol. And there's Jules! I love seeing her with her old hair style in your game - I really did love that one Nice to see so many of your sims from over the last several months in your game too! Sweet moment with Adam too, and Seth asking him questions was super cute too. Seth is a very cute kid! Nice work finishing up the aspiration too! It's always a pain to do those tedious ones, but satisfying once you make it through. Yay!
Lovely restaurant too (I do want that pack one day for sure), and fun to see Melody and Malcolm, even if her fame was causing some chaos haha. And Damon and Molly are out to dinner too, so nice. I really just might need to delete a lot of sims to start seeing ones I care about more haha. I love the "give rose" animation too Sweet evening for those two!
And your next update - first of all, they are trying for a baby! OMG. And they were successful!!! So excited to see Josh and Essa's kids - they'll get a good set of genetics, and both Essa and Josh will make great parents. I guess we'll meet the baby(s) soon, since pregnancy is like 3-4ish days? I see Essa doesn't have a bump yet though and you didn't show the test, so are you making it a bit longer by waiting a few days for her to "officially" find out? That nausea is a sure sign though. I noticed Jules was nauseous before I even thought to have her take a test and saw she had the option to throw up and I just knew haha. Is throwing up on the ground an Eco feature? I'd never seen it happen before until I got this trial. (Sorry if I'm assuming too much about how you're handling this pregnancy, just making some observations and was curious about how you were gonna do it )
Okay, now to comment on the other part - if there's any plot holes, I'm not really noticing them, I think it's a good idea to have legal and financial problems give them a reason to move, and fast! I assume you're gonna try to do a somewhat rags to riches thing and use those eco features like gathering water and generating power with wind and such as part of that storyline, maybe dumpster diving too? I hear those dumpster diver challenges where you have to find all the things you use in your home are really fun. This is just me guessing though, I'm excited to see what you end up doing! Life will be exciting for Josh and Essa next month for sure, and their baby - or four LOL.
I do have a name picked for Jules and Emmett's baby, but I'll wait to announce that until he is actually born I aged up Isla a while ago actually, maybe like two months ago, along with Beatrix to a teen, but they just haven't shown up much. I do see Beatrix walking around in her scout uniform sometimes but I just haven't bothered to get a screenshot of her Also thanks for your comment about the set up for painting the baby's room, I was hoping someone would notice the little details I put into setting that up
Thanks for answering my questions about the sets and costumes! Good to know!
And I cancel holidays a lot too, I just happened to have time this go around and thought it would be nice for them to see some family too
River and Roxanne's kids look great! Rick definitely takes after his dad. I love seeing all the challenge sims kids And yay, fun update with all your new sims! I love seeing all my sims in your game, and so fun that Rose and Carrie could have more babies in your game - they're at a full house now with twins! Little Benjamin is gonna grow the only boy in that household haha. Even the pets are girls I assume they will be toddlers in your game soon, excited to see how much they look like their older sisters, since their sisters really only have Rose's genes. It will actually be cool to see kids with both their moms genes Fun that Josh got to deliver their babies too haha, and Mia checked them in. This is what I eventually want to see in my game, so thanks for answering all my questions about mods tonight so I can nuke my townies LOL.
Love that you and Melody both made kabobs. Yours look especially delicious
And there's Carrie in her weird outfit with her belly showing haha. But fun to see her - I do love that she can be a proper celebrity in your game.
Melody and Malcom look lovely for the gala! I love their red outfits. It's a great color for both of them. HAHAHA, laughed a bouncer Nancy though. And yay, Melody won. Loved Veera's face But then she gave her a nice hug. And felt the bump. LOL. HAHHA, love that Veera made an extra long speech after telling Melody not to do just that Yay, so many wins!
Nice daily shot. That's how the weather's been a lot around me lately haha, constant storms. Wolfgang's upgrade glitch made me laugh. Looks like he and Josh both like to keep upgrades interesting. I love the grilled cheese paintings, especially those abstract ones! I think they paint different ones at different levels of painting too. It's a fun little quirk from that aspiration for sure. Making copies of her paintings will be a lot easier than trying to make too many masterpieces for sure - such a sweet idea though, for Sakura to gift paintings to them Oh man, Wolfgang, don't scare us all like that!! Sakura does have death flowers in her inventory though, right? Better keep him away from the robotics table for while though after getting struck by lightening.
Did you change Sakura's hair color in those last screenshots? It looks more green-blue than usual, or maybe it's just the light. I was just curious. And lol, "Sparky" is a fun nickname
A winter wedding is going to be so beautiful! And the Munch house is so nicely decorated - I'm excited for Sakura to be joining their family. They all love and appreciate her so much Lucas really is so cute and funny. Nice of Mila to be a progressive parent too. My parents are still of the mindset that no one will be staying in the same bedroom under their roof unless they are married haha.
Lol, had to chuckle at your streaking townie, way to ruin a good screenshot Having them shop for a tree together and go to the place where the Munches traditionally go was a good idea. I can tell you put a lot of hard work into this update, and it did really pay off! It really sweet of them merging traditions as they start a life together too. Your story really is just so thought out and well done, I am always so impressed by the care and time you put into it Such a lovely mistletoe kiss too!
And oh my goodness, Sakura actually won the lottery! That has NEVER happened to me, none of my played households ever win either, it's always someone random haha. That's really cool. I understand you not wanting to save it though, I do remember seeing that in the rules and I don't let Jules buy a lottery ticket either for that reason, but even if I did, I would have just expected her not to win like you haha.
Also thanks for the comments on my story. I had to laugh at your thoughts about Ruby putting something in the bar drinks, wouldn't put it past her And I usually just ignore the gnomes in my game on Harvestfest - I keep forgetting to take them out of the actual holiday traditions. Not a fan of them honestly.
@IllusoryThrall That courtroom is impressive! Nice work! It looks fabulous. And I've been there with putting 30-40 sims in one household with MCCC, it's definitely a big task to get them all there, but once you get them all there, it's SO NICE that they all actually listen to you for the most part
@Ellupelluellu Mia is so cute, that is a terrific hair style for her. She gets a new one for July in my game. I think I will change it each month for the variety.
While Essa slept Josh called Goldie and had a talk with her. She was devastated, of course, that she hadn't been able to keep her promise. Unfortunately, the case was ironclad. Essa had broken the contract with the studio and they had a right to seek compensation. The only way out of it was for Essa to agree to continue appearing in movies made by the studio until the contract expired. That was not going to happen. Essa had no interest in working for the studio ever again, or perhaps any studio.
When Essa woke up he told her what Goldie had said and they shared their thoughts and ideas on what to do now, where to go, how to live. One thing was certain, they both wanted to be as far away from Del Sol Valley they could go with what little funds they had. Since DSV was on the west side of the map, they looked to the east. With a little research they found a small plot of land that was extremely cheap in a village called Evergreen Harbor. The couple transportalated there to investigate and loved the area.
It took almost all their money, but they decided to go ahead and buy it. They weren't too worried about their financial situation since Essa's garden was extremely profitable, Josh's interest check would be coming the next day, they both had a published book each with small royalties coming in and Plopsy to sell their knitted creations and paintings. Lastly, there was always busking if they were desperate. Both were confident the studio could not take their instruments or Essa's art supplies. They'd had all those things before moving here, right?
Well, they would find out tomorrow when the studio's representative came to observe and tell them what was exempt from the lawsuit while they packed up their personal belongings.
When they got back home, they went down to take care of the garden and were appalled at the condition the plants were in. They had been so caught up in what was going on, it had been neglected. Half the plants looked like they were dead or dying. They spent a couple hours pulling weeds, spraying for bugs and fertilizing before going to bed. Hopefully everything would survive. They needed that garden more than ever now.
"Are you okay? Do you need anything?"
"I'm good, still a little nauseous now and then, but I'll be fine."
"How are you doing? You've been pretty quiet." "I'm good, just been thinking a lot about everything. Something like this really makes a person think about what's important in life and what isn't."
"I'm glad we're leaving this place, leaving this kind of life behind. Leaving all this...stuff. This house was too big for us right from the beginning. All we did is buy more and more stuff to fill it up and half of it we never even use."
"It gives me a headache just thinking about it. All the energy we wasted, all the maintenance on...things, like that pool, the hot tub, all the appliances. Man, you know how big our bills were, almost ten grand, every week. And we paid it without a thought of what that money could have been better used for."
"I miss just living off the land, like we did when my parents were still around. We would fish and hunt, and had a big garden. My Mom taught us how to can and freeze what we grew too. We had a massive compost bin and used that to fertilize the garden and collected rain water to use for everything. It was great, a simple way to live, but it was honest, nothing went to waste. I miss that."
"We can do that, I'd love to live like that, simplify everything and...we could teach our children too like your parents did. Teach them how to survive in the wild, like your brother Joel too. I read once about getting wax from bees to make candles too, maybe we could get some bees." "I like that idea, yeah! I could even make our furniture. Dad taught all of us boys how to do that too."
"Your parents sound like they were wonderful people. I wish I could've met them." "Yeah, I do too. They would've loved you just as much as I do."
"Alright, I'm too tired to finish this, let's go to bed. It's a big day tomorrow." "Sounds good."
The next morning when Josh went to check on the garden, his heart dropped. Everything was dead, all of it! He took care of all the dead plants so Essa wouldn't have to see the devastation and cringed at the thought of telling her. The majority of their income was gone. He knew they'd get along without it, but it would be rough going for awhile. They'd have to plant another garden as soon as they moved.
"Beautiful, I have some bad news. I don't know how to tell you this, but...the garden is gone. All the plants died."
"Oh God, I think I'm going to be sick. We had that garden since the beginning, in Mt. Komorebi. I loved that garden...what are we going to do now?"
"Hey, it'll be alright, we'll just plant a new one. We both love gardening, we're good at it. We'll have another one growing in no time. Maybe even plant some things we've never had before."
"That's true, like we could grow soybeans!" "Soybeans? Okay, that's an idea, but why did you think of soybeans right away?"
"Wax. We could use soybean wax to make candles. I read about it in the same article about the bees." "Heyyy, great idea!"
The couple spent the rest of the day with the studio's rep. walking through the house with them answering their questions on what they could and could not take with them. Thankfully Essa could keep her easel, art supplies and paintings, all her magic items, Josh could keep his instruments, and both the console and the computer he'd won at GeekCon, plus all of their photos, memorabilia, Essa's Starlight Accolade award, clothes, and various other small items. Everything else had to stay in the house and would be sold in an auction for the studio.
After the rep left, the couple went outside on the back patio to take a break before packing up their belongings. One last cloudgaze here in the Pinnacles seemed like a good way to relax, something simple.
They spent the rest of the afternoon into the evening packing up their stuff and transportalating some of it to the plot of land in Evergreen Harbor so it wouldn't be too taxing on Essa using her magic to get it all there at once. Josh had not learned how to transportalate large objects yet. Both exhausted, they went to bed.
"Whoa! Look at you! You're always gorgeous, but Wow Beautiful, I always knew you were a natural beauty. You take my breath away!"
"Thanks Babe, you always say the sweetest things that make me feel good about myself. I've been wearing tons of make-up for so long, I thought I'd go mostly natural for a change."
"It's a great look for you Beautiful. Nothing to cover your beauty. You don't need all that stuff. Are you ready to go?"
"Wellll, almost, but, I have one more thing I'd like for us to do before we go."
(* Note - I could NOT believe it, but Essa autonomously asked Josh to woohoo! The first time either one has ever done that! Yay! \o/)
(And in the shower no less, not the bed like I expected. These two sure love their shower woo hoo eh?)
"WOW! Beautiful, what got into you? That was amazing!"
"I think it's the pregnancy hormones or something, I'm always, uh, wanting to woo hoo. I can't enough!" "Oh really? I love the sound of that!"
One last kiss before they leave...
"I can't wait to live off-the-grid with you and raise our children to live the same way. I love you so much Josh." "I'm so glad you're into this, I didn't know if you would be."
"Josh, you've always supported me in anything I've ever wanted to do. It's about time we did something you wanted to do. Well, we both want this. I fell in love with idea the moment you started talking about it." "Good, I just want you to be happy, always."
"I am, how could I not be? I have you and our baby, that's all I need."
"Alright, let's get this show on the road!"
"Transportia Evergreenio" (Never gets old watching her do this. It's so HOT, she's so HOT!)
"HUZZA!"
LOVELY update, all that winter fest fun at Munch household So weet And WOW for the lottery winning!!
My love, my love, my fearless love, I will not say goodbye..
Sea may rise, sky may fall, My love will never die..
My heart, my heart, My drowning heart, Oh all the tears I've cried
Oh I may weep forevermore, My love will never die..
Jules is finally off to her first day of work! I still think it's pretty funny that she's a pregnant mixologist haha
Her shift is 6pm - 2am (oof, so rough, especially for a pregnant lady) so here we have Emmett cooking Ruby some dinner, and he's really not happy about cooking (I think I did allow for it to be one of his dislikes) but I would like to get his cooking level to be a bit more functional since he is only a level 2 lol.
I mean, it was edible, so that's a good sign at least
First day of work, and Jules came home miserable with a moodlet that said she needs a vacation. Girl, I just sent you on vacation
The next day, while Emmett was at work and Ruby was at school, Jules decided to walk around the area and get some fresh air, meeting several new people, including the mail carrier whom she had never given a proper greeting to before. (I was inspired by @Skeilah and did a bit of work on the Friend of the World aspiration)
There was also a random tombstone on the lot across the street. Of course I had to check that out. No one we know and already culled though.
Soon, it was time for her to head to work, so I checked in with Pickle, who seems to be intent on communicating with the toilet.
And he looked perplexed when the toilet did not respond
After school, Ruby invited her friend, Zane, over and beat him while playing video games. She's a natural
The weather had taken a turn for the worse when Jules got home, but she got a promotion on her second day! She looks pretty ambivalent about it though haha
When I got her hired, I'm pretty sure it said something about hiring a mixologist, which is why I included that bit in my story, but she's definitely cooking now haha. I guess since these careers are intertwined you get a little bit of both. The hours are a bit better now though at least!
I've been switching autonomy on and off depending on what I'm doing with them, and I must have still had it on since Jules went upstairs and swept Emmett into a passionate kiss all on her own.
"Whoa, what was that all about?"
"I just got a promotion!" Jules told him.
"That's great, babe! I'm so proud of you." He offered her a massage after that, because it had been a long few days working the 6pm-2am shift while also pregnant.
When he had finished, Jules turned to look at Emmett with a suggestive look on her face. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
Hhahahaha, nope, not THAT It's 3am and this girl is exhausted and pregnant, this is exactly what I'd be thinking too
Comments
June 25
Week 8 Saturday
@Karababy52 ,
-- hehe, Damon filling in his dad
oh.. so sorry that Malcolm and Melody almost ruined their meal. But gladly Josh and Essa can focus only to each others
Oh.. intresting ending
@permanentrose ,
@SoulGal7 ,
Next were kids by Roxanne ( @Hermitgirl ) and River ( @Kanindota ) .. they also have 3rd kid
Reena:
Rick
Robbie
Sea may rise, sky may fall, My love will never die..
My heart, my heart, My drowning heart, Oh all the tears I've cried
Oh I may weep forevermore, My love will never die..
Great job with the aspirations checklist! I'm still using the one I got from Mcrudd, but I really like your version. Cool! Imagine that took a long time to do.
Thanks about the lines in Middle English for Essa's gig, I had fun researching and writing that. I believe the clothes in the gigs are locked until your Sim does the gig and then they are available for your Sim in that save. Otherwise, I think they stay locked for everyone else. I'm not 100% sure about that though. The sets on the otherhand would be available in debug mode, yes. Some are available in the regular build/buy catalog though.
Yep, another aspiration, but it's been filled now as well.
You're welcome for the Scientist career feedback, I love it! Darts! Gah! Forgot all about that object. Thanks for the reminder we have that, I need to get Essa and Josh one now.
Ruby is a little stinker eh?
Ugh, I hope Imgur gets everything sorted out so this doesn't keep happening to everybody. It's a pain in the derriere!
@SoulGal7
Oh gosh, I watched every episode of The Jetsons when I was a kid, it was one of my favorite cartoons! I wondered if maybe that was where her name came from. Very cool!
@Skeilah
Essa can commiserate with Bryon completely about not feeling comfortable with her fame, definitely. I love their plans for the next part of their life together.
@Ellupelluellu
LOL Nancy's comment about Melody's stomach, she's hilarious! Love their house and the addition, beautiful! The Spice festival is my favorite! But I agree there isn't much to do. I mostly just send my Sims for the plants, spices and the spicy food contest. Annnd, of course Nancy and Geoffrey were at the Festival of Light. I should send Essa and Josh to that sometime, they never went yet. Aww, Malcom's parents are just excited to be grandparents, I get it and so does Melody. Aw, so sweet he gave her a rose on that bridge.
hehe Malcom is so cute trying to help Melody out with her cravings. Their garden looks amazing! Whoa, I forgot how many books to write and hours to play there is in those aspirations! At least it's somewhat of a challenge to complete those unlike some aspirations. Wow, Lily is still pretty as an elder. Hey Josh, looking sharp there Dude as an entertainer. He was telling jokes eh? I thought for sure he'd play the violin or guitar. He usually plays one or the other on the busking stations in CL in my custom template saves. He's Level 10 in all instruments actually.
HAHA! Essa looking so grumpy and Thorne fist pumping all happy, what a contrast! Hilarious! Hi Sandra! She's so pretty, unique and exotic looking, love her! Oh man, she looks grumpy too though. Good thing she explained it was Malcom and not Josh. So funny!
Thanks about the power possibly going out, so far so good! Keep your fingers crossed!
Very nice looking kids for Roxanne and River! Especially Reena, Wow! Rick looks just like River! Very cool.
@DivieOwl
Benji sat nervously next to his lawyer, who seemed to be almost as nervous as he was. Certainly this wasn’t his first courtroom trial… or was it?? The slick prosecutor sat at the table across from them, grinning from ear to ear, obviously at home in the courtroom, and ready for what came next.
The Malones sat behind Benji’s side of the courtroom, and Marnie threatened each and every one of them that if they misbehaved, they would most certainly pay for it later. (Behind them is Cade Yeagar, Shaylee’s old boyfriend.)
In his chambers, Judge Max Melvin took a deep breath and readied himself for the trial.
Out in the courtroom, the selected jurors sat in their seats: (from closest to farthest, randomly picked townies) Farhan Balderas (yes, Colin’s Dad), Akira Kibo, Jade Rosa, and a very pregnant Siobhan Fyres.
And on the other side of the courtroom: Mariah Andrews, Eric Lewis, Marisol Gerard, and Theodore Lemus.
Back in their holding cell, sat the Kleptos (without Benji), sitting in silence watched by a stony-faced cop. Also outside the courtroom was Scott Barrier, ready to testify.
Finally, things started to get underway. “ALL RISE!” And the judge walked in regally.
Benji, his lawyer (Nikolai Deolssantos) and the prosecutor, Michael Roman, all stood and listened to the judge quietly.
After opening arguments, the first witness called for the prosecution was Scott Barrier, the Chief of Police, the one who’d done most of the investigating in this case. He made his way to the witness box, sat down, and was sworn in.
The prosecutor started in on questioning him, and going through all the details of the case.
Benji tried to pay attention, but so much of the terms just went way over his head.
The Chief of Police seemed right at home in a courtroom, and the case against the Kleptos – Benji in particular – seemed rock-solid.
Michael Roman had not come cheap, either, because he was animated, knowledgeable, and even entertaining. He made the details of the case fall into place seemingly without effort.
After setting down the case details, Benji’s lawyer moved up to cross-examine. His inexperience was obvious. He asked a few questions, but didn’t seem to be able to put any doubt in anyone’s mind.
The trial crept along at a snail’s pace for Benji, with people from the alarm company being prominent witnesses, as well as Londyn Burt, who, after all, was the Kleptos’ connection to the alarm codes. Somehow, she seemed to have switched sides. Benji wondered what they’d said to her to get her to switch.
Finally, it was the defense’s turn. The first witness called was Shaylee. Benji cringed obviously with how very pregnant she was. How could he have missed this?
Upon being sworn in, Shaylee sat uncomfortably, and smiled towards Benji. Wait, no.. she was looking behind him? Benji twisted around and – for the first time, noticed his nemesis in the audience. Gritting his teeth, he tried to pay attention.
The court reporter typed away while Shaylee was introduced, and Nikolai started in on his questioning.
The more the questioning went on, the more nervous Benji got. Every answer seemed to tighten the noose around his neck further.
Shaylee seemed unconcerned, and – to Benji’s knowledge, she hadn’t even looked his way once. Shaylee related the details of the night, emphasizing that Benji had planned everything, and everyone else was just along for the ride. How was this “helping” the case, Benji wondered blackly.
By the time Nikolai returned to the table, Benji noticed even his lawyer was sweating this. The other Kleptos all testified “for” Benji, and the only real information that was shared was that Benji was at fault.
Even Rita, who had been the one to physically take the violin, seemed perfectly willing to point the finger at Benji.
The jury was dismissed to the deliberation room, and the only thing left for everyone else was to wait.
Inside the room, it was clear. Benji was the guilty party, everyone else was just “along for the ride”. Deliberations lasted only a half hour before they had a unanimous decision.
They filed back into the courtroom, all heading for their seats quietly.
The jury foreman – none other than Colin’s estranged Dad – stood up to read the verdict.
Guilty. Of Felony Larceny. Grand Theft. Whatever you call it, it sounded terrible. They had tried to argue that there was no intention of taking more than a few things, the violin wasn’t a target until Rita had taken it on the spur of the moment.. but their entire defense crumbled.
The first thing Benji did was throw his hands in the air.
Nikolai cringed, feeling horribly at fault. It had, indeed, been his first trial, one that the rest of the public defender’s office hadn’t wanted to touch with a ten foot pole.
Benji turned and yelled at his lawyer, swearing that he never wanted to see him again.
Sentencing was scheduled for the next day, and Marnie did not have a good feeling about it. In fact, she didn’t even plan to attend. It was clear her oldest was going to jail for quite a while. So much for hoping he could help her situation.
An overhead, out of character shot of what the screen looked like while working on these shots…
I’m sure some of you are going to ask how in the world I managed to get this trial in pictures. I assure you, it was a LOT of work. almost 40 sims all under my control, and I built the courtroom. (It’s on my gallery in the Generic Municipal Center lot). I had MANY more pictures, but only chose the best ones. And I went for a general description, simply because I know very little about courtroom procedure, and what I do know – let’s just say it’s from the internet… so please, give me some latitude here. This is fiction, after all. I’m hoping these shots will also explain why this post took me two days to write!
I now stream the Sims 4 on Twitch!
My Discord Server - A place to discuss my challenges, or the Sims in general
I now stream the Sims 4 on Twitch!
My Discord Server - A place to discuss my challenges, or the Sims in general
Notes
"Do you think we did it?"
"Oh yeah, we did it alright; here, the shower, the closet, the hot tub, that bush out back. If not, it wasn't for lack of trying!"
"Mmm, yeah, good point."
"Oh God Josh, I hope you're right. I want to have your baby, our baby so bad!"
"Maybe I should take a test now."
"Uh, maybe wait a little while, we just...it's too soon."
"Yeah, I guess you're right."
"Take a test tomorrow or the next day."
"Actually I should wait at least a week or two."
"That long? Dang, alright. In the meanwhile...maybe we should do it as much as we can, you know, just to be sure."
"Oh Josh, you're such a horn dog...but you know I love that about you."
"Ohhhh yeaaaaah!"
A couple weeks later, Josh sat out by the pool knitting a baby onesie and dreaming about holding their child, maybe a Son he could play catch with, teach how to treat a lady, fly a plane and...
(Dangit, dropped another stitch. Maybe I better go do something else.)
Josh put the knitting away and ran out front to take a jog through the neighborhood.
Essa had been practicing her bowling skills, but felt a little hungry and stopped to go get a snack. On her way to the house, she suddenly felt nauseous.
(Oh man, I feel like I'm going to...)
*blarg bleh urrrp, blurg*
(Eww, gross. I need to rinse out my mouth and brush my teeth. Why am I sick? Hmm, I was out in the cold rain last week. Maybe I caught the flu or...)
*gasp*
(Wait a minute.)
(Oh man, I bet I'm pregnant! YES!)
(Don't be so hasty Essa, go take a test to be sure.)
(Yeah, I'll take a test. But I know I'm right! I'll go grab the mail first and then do that.)
(Hmm, what's this? Something from the studio lawyers? What would they be sending me?)
(Maybe papers to sign for my contract dissolution?)
(But wasn't Goldie handling all that? Let's see...)
"Oh God, NO, no, no, no, no, NOOOO! This can't be happening. Goldie you said it would be okay, you promised!"
(What are we going to do now? They froze my bank account and intend to seize the house in 3 days for breach of contract? 3 DAYS! They can't do that! Can they?)
(What if it's true? What if they can? How are we going to live? Where are we going to live? How can we figure that all out in 3 days? And, Oh God, what about the baby!?)
(You don't know there's a baby yet.)
(Yes, I do! I just...know.)
(I need to tell Josh. He'll know what to do. We'll figure it out.)
(And take a test!)
(Yes, I'll do that now and wait for Josh to get back.)
When Josh got back from his jog, he saw a paparazzi skulking around in the driveway in front of their house, snapping pictures and laughing to herself about some kind of exclusive story concerning Essa. There seemed to be more of these vultures every day. He'd had enough and he knew Essa had too. He had to do something, anything to send a message they weren't wanted around here. The Chillio spell seemed like just the thing.
"I'll do it again or maybe something worse if you come back. Don't try it. And tell your buddies too." Josh told the frozen pap as he ran by her. He went inside walking toward the bathroom to take a shower when Essa came down the stairs and stopped him. She said she had something important to tell him. He wasn't prepared at all for what she said next.
"What are we going to do Josh? How can they do this to me, to us?"
"Gawd, I hate that studio. Nothing but money grubbing vultures."
"I don't think there's anything we can do Beautiful. You're an asset to them, nothing more and by quitting acting, they can't get anymore money out of you. They're suing you for estimated studio profits based on future movies you would've appeared in during the length of the contract."
"They already took more than enough from me out of my past movies, why can't they just let me go? Goldie said it wouldn't be a problem. Can't we sue them back or something? It's not right! I won't stand for this. Part of that money in our account is yours, you earned it, not me. You helped pay for this house too, it's not just my house."
"It's in your name though Beautiful and so is the bank account. As far as they're concerned it's all yours and they have a right to take it. Since they froze the account, we couldn't even pay a lawyer if we wanted to, that's all our money."
"What about your investments? Won't you be getting another check soon?"
"Yes, but it won't be enough. The stock market has been falling lately so I had my accountant sell everything...I put most of it in our, your account. I'll only get one more check and that's it."
"I should've put a fail safe in place and opened my own account. I'm so sorry Beautiful. We should've put my name on the house too. But it's too late now."
"Oh God Josh, we'll, we'll have to live on the street. I don't want to live on the street again, I won't! And our baby...our baby doesn't deserve that. Josh...I felt sick so I took a test. I'm pregnant. Oh my God, I'm pregnant and we'll be homeless...I think I'm going to be sick, again. Why does this keep happening to me, to us?"
"What!" Essa! You're pregnant? Oh Beautiful, you're going to have a baby, our baby! Hey, hey, come on, please don't. Don't cry. This is great news, it's what we wanted, a family. I love you so much."
"I love you too."
"But, how can we raise a baby...homeless, on the street? We can't, we can't, we CAN'T!"
"Shhh, we won't. It's okay. We'll be alright. Don't worry. We've got through a lot more challenges than this, haven't we? We won't be homeless. I promise. Think about it, we're both Spellcasters for one thing, we have all our personal belongings, we have each other. You have your degree, you could sign with another studio even. I could join the military again, we have lots of options. We'll get through this together, just like we always have. Do you believe me?"
"Yes, always."
"Okay then, chin up and let me see that beautiful smile that brightens my world."
"Yeah, that's it, just like that."
"What would I ever do without you?"
"You'd be just fine, but together we're better, we're unstoppable, right?"
"Right! As long as we have each other, and our baby. That's all that matters. We don't need a lot of money or a big house. Just you, me and..."
"Baby makes three."
"Or maybe four, five? Could be twins or triplets even."
"Oh man, bite your tongue buster!" *gigglesnort*
"I'm just sayin'" Josh said with a laugh. "Seriously though, one or more, we'll love them all the same and be just fine. "
"Of course we will."
"Could even be quads!"
Essa pulled back and punched his arm and then smirked.
"Ow! Okay, I deserved that."
"Yep, okay, we need to make some plans, but I need a nap first. I'm exhausted."
"I bet, four babies probably takes a lot out of a woman."
"OW! Okay, okay, I'll stop." Josh said with a grin and took her hand. "I'll tuck you in."
"I'm just pregnant Josh, not an invalid or anything."
"I know, indulge me. I want to pamper you."
"Aww, you're so sweet. I love you babe. Okay, you can pamper me. Let's go."
The first thing that Wolfgang does the next morning is head into his workshop to check on Rosie and power her back up.
Rosie: "Creator.What.is.my.purpose?"
Wolfgang: "Good morning, Rosie" he said as he adjusted some knobs and gauges on her, "Rosie, Self-diagnose."
Obviously, Wolfgang had to do some strange contortions with those adjustments. Wow, Wolfgang, I didn't know you were double jointed. [Thought this was a funny glitch.]
Rosie: "Affirmative.Diagnosis.Complete.100%."
Wolfgang: "That's great Rosie," he said as he made some notes in a log.
Rose: "Creator,What.is.my.purpose?"
Wolfgang thought for a moment, "Rosie, "Explore and Learn" and "Guard Perimeter". He would just let Rosie wander around and then check her data at the end of the day. But first, he would unlock the door for her and she would take her first steps.
Wolfgang watched her for a moment, and then headed over to the punching bag and Rosie followed him and stood watching.
Rosie: "Creator.You.have.HUGE.musculus.biceps.brachii (biceps)"
Wolfgang "Why, thank you, Rosie. I try to keep in shape." he replied smiling.
He noticed that one of Rosie's arms was malfunctioning, and brought her back into his workshop and made some further adjustments.
Rosie: "Creator.Question."
Wolfgang: "Yes, Rosie, what did you want to ask?"
Rosie: "Sakura.is.your.mate?"
Wolfgang: "My mate? Well, she is actually my fiancee."
Rosie: "Not.Mate?"
Wolfgang: "Not yet. She will soon be my wife. My life partner."
Rose: "Sakura.number.one."
Wolfgang: "Yes, she is going to be my number one."
Rosie: "Rosie.number.two.mate."
Wolfgang scratched his head, "Um. no. Sakura will be the only mate."
Rosie: "Sakura.is.mate.Only.mate.Affirmative," she said and left the workshop.
Wolfgang breathed a sigh of relief. It's a good thing that Sakura didn't hear that, or she would be thinking that Rosie was indeed that fembot from the movies. Wolfgang would ensure that he double-checked the programming code on Rosie's prime directives.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The mail carrier was delivering some mail and suddenly Rosie sensed her.
Rosie: "Intruder.Alert! Intruder.Alert! Warning.Warning!"
The mail carrier saw the robot coming towards her and was so surprised that she almost dropped the bag containing the mail.
Rosie: "Resistance.is.futile," she said and scanned the mail carrier.
Once the scanning was complete, the mail carrier explained that she was a mail carrier and just delivering the mail.
Rosie: "Affirmative.Sul.Suil.I.am.Rosie."
Mail Carrier: "Sul.Sul.I.am.Hana."
Well, it looks like Hana passed the security clearance test. I would hate to see what Rosie did if she hadn't.
Looks like Rosie might have made a friend. [Note: These are playful eyes, Rosie must have been telling a joke because in the notices it comes up that she has gained the comedy skill.]
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Meanwhile inside, Sakura hangs up the two abstract grilled cheese art pieces that she painted. [Note: Top one is a masterpiece and the second is excellent.[
Sakura then resumes working on a painting. Her idea of painting enough masterpieces for her wedding attendants isn't working too well. Then she gets an idea. She takes out all her paintings and displays them on the walls, trying to decide which pieces she would like to make a copy of for everyone.
She had also sold a few paintings on plopsy and just heard from one of the buyers. And as she gets her royalty report, she suddenly gets a pop-up notice that the [edit] Fabulously Wealthy Aspiration has been completed! Woot!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
While Sakura is recording another song in the other room, Wolfgang takes some time to work on a song for the wedding. And, yes, he has that skill-enhancing robo-arm on. I guess it didn't rust last night! lol
And when he's finished with the tune, he gets this whim! Yes! Oh my gosh! Wolfgang just can't wait! This made me smile in real life. Ahhh...
And Wolfgang gets a text from his phone quirk, but what a nice one. Gee, Wolfgang, your fans love you.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Rosie had been doing various activities by herself. Playing video games, programming, doing comedy, fitness, and playing chess. Wolfgang will be rather proud of her at how fast she is learning.
Rosie has been playing chess for quite a while, and Wolfgang has gone back to his workshop working on his daily task which is investigating equipment failures. The sky is getting dark and a storm is brewing. Wolfgang doesn't know if Rosie's sensors are detecting the storm and if she knows to go inside. He doesn't want her to get wet and have her circuitry frazzled. He gets an alert message that her durability is getting low and she needs a tune-up. He grabs his repairkit and heads out into the storm. There are lightning flashes all around. Just as he gets to the deck area, there is a tremendous bolt of lightning, and.....
NOOooooooooooo! Wolfgang is struck by lightning!
Three days before the wedding....don't you dare die!
Luckily Wolfgang is relatively unharmed, just a bit charred. And he's wearing his robo-arm again, which probably attracted that lightning.
Of course Rosie has already gone inside. She is now afraid of thunderstorms. Poor Rosie. She is deteriorating rapidly, and Wolfgang takes a moment to give her a tune-up.
Sakura runs out after recording her song (aptly named Thunder Shuffle), and rushes over to Wolfgang.
Sakura: "Oh gosh! Wolfgang I heard that thunder clap and saw that flash of lightning. Wolfgang...what if something would have happened to you?" she said and clung to him as she kissed him.
Wolfgang: "Oh yeah! That was some kiss! Maybe I should get struck by lightning more often. I feel rather...um...tingly now..." he said smiling as little sparks intermittently fly off of him.
Sakura laughed: "Oh Wolfgang, you're so...dirty! I think those clothes are ready for the trash."
Wolfgang: "So I'm dirty, huh? So, I should probably take a shower, right?"
Sakura: "Most definitely."
Wolfgang: "I might need help getting clean...you know...in all those hard to reach places..." he winked flirting with Sakura.
Sakura:"Well...I could help you with that if you want..." she said as they went into the bathroom together.
Wolfgang: "Oh, Sakura...oh yes...I want..."
Sakura: "Oh Wolfgang, I love you, dirt and all..."
Wolfgang: "That's what I was counting on....come 'ere'"
Wolfgang: "Maybe you'll call me Sparky after this..."
Of course, Wolfgang was doing this for purely experimental purposes. What the experiment is we're not entirely sure, but when you get struck by lighting and you take a woohoo shower, you just stay dirty. lol And yes, I think Wolfgang has "Sparky" as a new nickname. Sakura really does love Wolfgang, whether he's clean or dirty. So sweet!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Notes:
And after his day of work, Wolfgang gets a promotion to Expert Engineer. How fitting! lol
"Resistance is futile" is a term used by the Borg in the Star Trek television series.
So they are suing Essa for something, so she has to pay a lot of money, in fact so much that she will lose the house and all their money and everything except her personal stuff (collections, photos, momorables, that kind of thing?) Ok why not, I can accept that... (As I said, I suspect this would be a lot more believeable if I knew what's going on.)
On another note: Yay for baby!
And sorry for not commenting a lot everyone...
time zone: Berlin, Germany - EA Gallery ID: Noctuara
Jules got herself up to level 9 in mixology. I do enjoy the animations that come with the mixology skill getting higher
Ruby finished her social aspiration, so she's now doing two custom kid aspirations I got from someone I'm doing another challenge with. One of the goals is to play video games for a certain number of hours and increase that skill, so Emmett played video games with her, and Ruby ended up winning. Beginners luck
Ruby also worked on her knitting skill. Soon she should be at a high enough level to knit things for the baby
Emmett got his logic skill up to 10, which was his promotion task. We need to get this poor guy to the top of the business career so he can quit, he hates it so much haha.
They ended the evening with Jules practicing an archeology lecture on them. Maneula had asked if she could record a video lecture that she could send out to other's pursuing archeology as a hobby just like she had. And that finished up the second Jungle Adventure aspiration!
I also finished decorating the baby's room. There's some empty shelf space for little things that Ruby knits for him
--
Also a little note, I played this update before we made the decision to leave our sims as YAs for another month, so there's honestly a chance I might not even have Jules give birth by the end of this month, just gonna feel it out since I use MCCC to make custom pregnancy lengths anyway, don't want to rush now since I don't have to
I also started an Eco Lifestyle free trial that ends on July 2. I am only playing it actively in a brand new save - I disabled all features and will not be using any pack items or visiting Evergreen Harbor in this save, just so I don't cause any issues or lose any skills/items when I don't have access to the pack anymore. I did make a back up save though that I can revert to if anything does go wrong, crossing my fingers that I wouldn't have to revert back that far though and lose all that progress though.
--
I've been babysitting my niece and nephew since yesterday and will be watching them today as well, so I'll get to comments either in the evening or tomorrow
@Karakbaby52 -
A quick question: So, in Evergreen Harbor, are you doing rags-to-riches again? Or, sort-of like reducing your funds for a very lowly house? Just curious.
@miss_eulenauge -
@sassytxbrat -
Roxanne and River's kids are cute, and their son, Rick, has a serious eyebrow thing going on. lol
@Skeilah -
June 26
Week 9 Sunday
June 21 - Del Sol Valley - Winterfest Eve - Traditions - Part 1
Before they left, Wolfgang shut Rosie down for another enhancement. Hopefully nothing would happen to Rosie while they were away. Wolfgang logged the skills that Rosie had learned on her first day and sent a copy of the report to his boss, who was very impressed with her progress. Soon she would be ready for the movie set. Rosie was also excited that Winterfest was coming and got a cute moodlet. [Note: When Servos are activated, they automatically have 3 skills in robotics.]
And, Sakura had to release another song for Maxis Music. She had made an extra one yesterday, and released "Blame It On The Rain." She got her royalty report and on Winterfest Eve, she earned $6,749 simoleons.
With everything packed, it was time to head off to Windenburg. And Wolfgang gives Sakura an autonomous "kiss for the road".
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
When they arrived in Windenburg, Wolfgang rented a car at the airport. Wolfgang and Sakura arrived at the Munch house, and the house was all decorated for the holiday. They headed inside, and Mila (Wolfgang's mother), comes to greet them.
And then, of course the excited yells of Lucas are heard, who immediately runs to Sakura.
Lucas: "Sakura! Sakura! Mom told me you were going to be my new sister. I didn't know we were adopting you!"
Sakura smiled at Lucas and Wolfgang explained that Sakura was going to be Lucas' sister-in-law and that she wasn't getting adopted.
Mila: "Wolfgang...that last bit is not really true, because we have already adopted Sakura as part of the family. In a non-legal sense of course. It's an expression. I want Sakura to feel that she is as much a part of this family as you, or Gunther or Lucas..."
Lucas: "See, Wolfgang...told ya!"
Mila took them to the living room, which was also the area where Gunther slept, and explained to them that she had had a home decorator come in and that she had made a few changes in the house.
Mila: "I didn't want anything too major, but I have always loved fireplaces and didn't know why this house didn't have one, so this is a natural gas unit. It looks just like a wood-burning fireplace, but is so much cleaner. And I had the couch and chair re-upholstered, just to freshen things up a bit. We temporarily moved the desk into the hallway near the window."
Wolfgang looked around the room, "Mom, this looks really good in here, and there is room for the tree. But, where is Gunther's bed?"
Mila: "Yes...that...well...you know...since you and Sakura were in Del Sol Valley, we sort of moved Gunther in with Lucas. I hope you're not upset."
Lucas gave Wolfgang a hug and whispered in his ear: "Gunther is sleeping in our room. And Wolfgang, he snores!"
They headed to Lucas' room and looked around.
Wolfgang looked confused: "So, if Gunther is sleeping in here, where are Sakura and I sleeping? Should I have brought a sleeping bag?" he asked as he gave Sakura an autonomous kiss on the cheek.
Mila sat on one of the beds, "Well, you know, Wolfgang, I had a bit of a discussion with Clara Bjergsen, and the topic of holiday sleeping arrangements came up. I mean you and Sakura are young adults now. It's hard for a mother to accept that her children are growing up, but I really didn't want to be one of those old-fashioned parents. And it's not like you're staying in a separate bedroom from Sakura in that house in Del Sol Valley. So, I came up with something rather progressive..."
They headed outside to the Games Room.
Wolfgang spoke to his Mom who was walking ahead: "Okay, I get it Mom, I'm sleeping on the couch in the same room as Sakura. That's not a problem. I'm fine with that."
They all entered the Games Room, and there, instead of the single cot they saw a double cot in its place.
Mila: "I thought that you could share this area together," she smiled and waved her hand towards the bed, "I got a good deal on it, and I mean you're getting married in two days...so...um...what do you think?"
Wolfgang and Sakura smiled at each other and Wolfgang gave his mother a hug, "Thanks Mom. You are the best progressive Mom ever."
Mila beamed at them both, a bit embarrassed, "Okay, now...go and get your suitcases from the car. Gunther can help you with your luggage. And then we all need to go and get the tree," Mila turned to Sakura, "It's a Winterfest tradition, and I am so happy that you are here to share it with us, Sakura. Oh this is going to be best Winterfest ever. I just know it!"
Mila went on to let Wolfgang know that after they decorated the tree, that the guys would be going to get their suits fitted. She told Sakura that Luna and Sofia would be coming over later to help with the wedding favors, and to see Sakura's dress. Then they would have their traditional Winterfest Eve Party. Sakura didn't realize how many Winterfest traditions there were.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
They drove to a tree farm in the country, and Sakura realized that it was a place the Munch family went to every year. There was a converted barn on site, which housed a gift shop. There was also an outdoor area set up for visits with Father Winter, although he wasn't there right now. But the main area was the trees. Miles and miles of trees...and some townie streaking. Oh gosh! Why? It's a freezing cold day in winter.
Wolfgang took an axe from the trunk and the nekkid townie ran the other way. Wolfgang laughed, and they all headed towards the tree farm.
Lucas: "Sakura, we have to pick the BIGGEST tree this year because this is your first Winterfest with us."
They wander the forest of trees and there are so many to choose from. Lucas tugs on Sakura's hand and leads her to a tree.
Lucas: "Sakura! This is the tree! This is the one! Isn't it great?"
Sakura admired the tree. It looked so pretty and she nodded her head, "I think you are right, Lucas...this is the one..."
Wolfgang: "So, have you picked out a tree yet?"
Sakura looked at Lucas and he smiled at her, "This is the one, Wolfgang!"
Wolfgang looked it over and nodded, "Nice choice." he said. Gunther and Mila came over as well, and suddenly they all burst into song and Lucas swung a little party noisemaker. Sakura just stood there staring at them, not sure what to do.
Lucas told her it was a family tradition they did when they chose the tree, "It's okay, Sakura. You'll know what to do next year..." Lucas told her.
Wolfgang: "Okay, stand back. Mr. Muscles has work to do..." he said as he swung the axe.
While Wolfgang chopped the tree, the others wandered around the lot. And look who also came to the Tree Farm. Essa! She must be doing some last minute Winterfest shopping.
With the tree tied to the roof of the car, they returned home.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Back home, Gunther and Wolfgang carried the tree inside and set it up in the living room. Mila had already put out the ornaments, garland and all the other items to decorate the tree. She put on some holiday music.
Gunther: "So, do you have Winterfest traditions in Mt. Komorebi, Sakura?"
Sakura: "Well, I am from a village outside of Mt. Komorebi, but many traditions are similar. One of the most spectacular events is the Festival of Lights, and the whole town celebrates with spectacular illuminations. It is beautiful to see set against the snow."
Lucas: "What do you eat for Winterfest, Sakura? Do you have to eat fruitcake? I don't like fruitcake too much..."
Sakura: "Actually, we eat a wonderful strawberry short cake with whipped cream and it is so good. In Mt. Komorebi, they call it Winterfest Cake."
Lucas: "Oh, that sounds so much better than fruit cake. We need to have that as a new tradition..."
Mila agreed and said it was good to have some new traditions.
Wolfgang and Sakura hung the popcorn and cranberry garland. Lucas and Mila helped to arrange the tree skirt. Gunther, as the eldest, put the tree topper on the tree. It was time to light the tree.
There were oohs and ahhs and Lucas declared that this was the best tree ever. Mila said she would make everyone some lunch, and Gunther went to help her. Lucas stayed behind just looking at the tree mesmerized.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Wolfgang and Sakura admired the tree together.
Wolfgang: "There is one more Winterfest tradition that I would like to share with you Sakura."
Sakura: "Oh my, another tradition? I will have to write these all down so I remember next year."
Wolfgang: "You won't have to write this one down," he said as he pulled some mistletoe from his pocket.
Wolfgang smiled at Sakura and kissed her sweetly on the lips, "A Winterfest tradition to kiss under the mistletoe. Merry Winterfest Eve, Sakura."
Sakura looked up at Wolfgang and held his hand in hers, "I think I like this tradition..."
Lucas ran from the room, "Mommmmm! Wolfgang and Sakura did a kissey-poo...!!!!"
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Notes:
It was lottery day yesterday, and Sakura had bought a lottery ticket. I forgot to cancel this holiday before it came up. I wasn't too concerned, though, because no sim I have ever played has won the lottery when they bought a lottery ticket. I figured this was harmless.
The draw was Winterfest Eve, and oh my gosh....Sakura won! So, because this was against the rules, I just took the screenshots I wanted and then exited without saving. When I played again, someone else had won. So, Sakura had her moment of fame...I think she was dreaming about winning the lottery, but, I didn't save. So, she is back to having to work for a living! lol Just thought I would share this, though, as I was rather excited.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Blame It On The Rain, is a Milli Vanilli song, 1989.
How To Celebrate Christmas in Japan is a link I looked at to find out some traditions there.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Many thanks to this simmer for creating this wonderful build. It is a retail lot and was used as is. It was perfect.
@Karababy52 ,
Oh now I peaked, it gets even worse to poor Malcolm when he is at last level
In my game it is always pantless-Joey who is playing guitar in festivals. Before him it was always either sofia bjergsen or that Jang lady. I hope poor Joey can keep his fame spot
Thanks, it is original Orchid A GoGo , I just added some laps and effects so it would look a bit like a place where celebs would like to hangout at
-- ehhh.. Okay, at least they did try
Congrats for the baby!
Oh no, what a bummer. Pretty much nothing they can do about it now tho.
Lovely pep talk he gave her , aww
@SoulGal7 ,
-- Haha, Wolfie is doing the similar performance while tuning Rosie what Josh did with Frank at @Karababy52 's game
@permanentrose ,
Sea may rise, sky may fall, My love will never die..
My heart, my heart, My drowning heart, Oh all the tears I've cried
Oh I may weep forevermore, My love will never die..
Melody Connors, and the blonde one.
Day 17 , June.
Malcolm: "Oh this place has changed.."
Melody: "Yeah, I hate that we wear red now, we are blending in to wallpaper.. "
Malcolm had to write his books..
... so melody did the chores.
She also cooked herself, what is maybe the best idea, she can add what ever she wants in it!
She also had an inspiration, AND SO DID I
I had som beef and pork left from yesterdays bbq (Midsummer fest eve) , some of fresh pineapple , couple of red onions and tomatoes were sitting in fridge too, so I made these (9 of those) , and grilled those. Yummy those were!
NOTE: no chocolate or honey added!
Off to Studios, somehow half of their autograph pics have disappeared o.O I hope they can get new ones, as time is going on and some of these are elders, like Judith.
What she did not expected , was that someone wanted HERS!! Anne did, daughter of Sakura and Bryon
Where are all celebs when I need them??? Only Carrie was there! Usually they are everywhere and always when you do NOT need them
Okay, back home to dress up for gala. Yes I did sent them back home, as when Gala is active , celebs come with formal (normal ones do, not looking at Veera) , but if they are there too early, celebs come in with their current outfit and left soon to come back with formal. (once again not counted Veera at Karababy's game)
Malcolm: "So , ready to go?"
Melody: "I am nervous.."
Malcolm: "No worries, babe. It'l be fine."
Melody: "You are sure.. or just saying?"
Malcolm "I mean it."
Malcolm: "Oh this place has changed.."
Melody: "Yeah, I hate that we wear red now, we are blending in to wallpaper.. "
Poor Joey.. Nancy did not let him in...
Octavia won first award.. not much present yet.
For crying out loud, Octavia, you were meant to give SHORT speech!
Could you two chat another time? PLEASE?
Essa was the next winner! From her leading role!
It's getting tense.. who is the next???
We will know soon...
YAAAAYYYY!!!!!!!
Veera: "Just don't talk too long, honey."
It went well
Melody: "Lovely, mom, but maybe another time!"
Jenny won.
Veera won, and once again made speech that long, that half the sims felt to sleep.
YAAYYY!!!!
Sea may rise, sky may fall, My love will never die..
My heart, my heart, My drowning heart, Oh all the tears I've cried
Oh I may weep forevermore, My love will never die..
Random ramblings.
After I deleted so many premades, I noticed I did delete too much. So means after I have assigned some already in to some roles, I had not enough left, to fill restaurants, cafes and several other NPC careers .
NOTE: I do use a mod to nuke all random created townies, as I do not want those
So I have been downloading sims lately.
Last night I tested who was showing up at hospital staff
So, Mia Patina is the one behing Hospital reception, I see
@sassytxbrat , I hope you do not mind I made her to use different hair? I can change it , if you wish
Rest of the pics, under spoiler.
@permanentrose , I know I told you I used your family in this save too, hoping they will fill some of the missing careers, but what I did not told you was I was lazy to set their CC again, so I used the ones in my main save, they are expecting in there
So indeed, when Carrie and Rose went to hospital, to my surprise it was @Karababy52 's JOSH who was the Doctor
Indeed it was Mia who took them in.
All the regular..
WOW, twins!! That was surprise to me
Game named them Ida and Benjamin. I left those as they go well with Isla and Beatrix
Also this bartender was new dude
Sea may rise, sky may fall, My love will never die..
My heart, my heart, My drowning heart, Oh all the tears I've cried
Oh I may weep forevermore, My love will never die..
Lovely restaurant too (I do want that pack one day for sure), and fun to see Melody and Malcolm, even if her fame was causing some chaos haha. And Damon and Molly are out to dinner too, so nice. I really just might need to delete a lot of sims to start seeing ones I care about more haha. I love the "give rose" animation too
And your next update - first of all, they are trying for a baby! OMG. And they were successful!!! So excited to see Josh and Essa's kids - they'll get a good set of genetics, and both Essa and Josh will make great parents. I guess we'll meet the baby(s) soon, since pregnancy is like 3-4ish days? I see Essa doesn't have a bump yet though and you didn't show the test, so are you making it a bit longer by waiting a few days for her to "officially" find out? That nausea is a sure sign though. I noticed Jules was nauseous before I even thought to have her take a test and saw she had the option to throw up and I just knew haha. Is throwing up on the ground an Eco feature? I'd never seen it happen before until I got this trial. (Sorry if I'm assuming too much about how you're handling this pregnancy, just making some observations and was curious about how you were gonna do it
Okay, now to comment on the other part - if there's any plot holes, I'm not really noticing them, I think it's a good idea to have legal and financial problems give them a reason to move, and fast! I assume you're gonna try to do a somewhat rags to riches thing and use those eco features like gathering water and generating power with wind and such as part of that storyline, maybe dumpster diving too? I hear those dumpster diver challenges where you have to find all the things you use in your home are really fun. This is just me guessing though, I'm excited to see what you end up doing! Life will be exciting for Josh and Essa next month for sure, and their baby - or four LOL.
I do have a name picked for Jules and Emmett's baby, but I'll wait to announce that until he is actually born
Thanks for answering my questions about the sets and costumes! Good to know!
And I cancel holidays a lot too, I just happened to have time this go around and thought it would be nice for them to see some family too
@Ellupelluellu
Love that you and Melody both made kabobs. Yours look especially delicious
And there's Carrie in her weird outfit with her belly showing haha. But fun to see her - I do love that she can be a proper celebrity in your game.
Melody and Malcom look lovely for the gala! I love their red outfits. It's a great color for both of them. HAHAHA, laughed a bouncer Nancy though. And yay, Melody won. Loved Veera's face
@SoulGal7
Did you change Sakura's hair color in those last screenshots? It looks more green-blue than usual, or maybe it's just the light. I was just curious. And lol, "Sparky" is a fun nickname
A winter wedding is going to be so beautiful! And the Munch house is so nicely decorated - I'm excited for Sakura to be joining their family. They all love and appreciate her so much
Lol, had to chuckle at your streaking townie, way to ruin a good screenshot
And oh my goodness, Sakura actually won the lottery! That has NEVER happened to me, none of my played households ever win either, it's always someone random haha. That's really cool. I understand you not wanting to save it though, I do remember seeing that in the rules and I don't let Jules buy a lottery ticket either for that reason, but even if I did, I would have just expected her not to win like you haha.
Also thanks for the comments on my story. I had to laugh at your thoughts about Ruby putting something in the bar drinks, wouldn't put it past her
@IllusoryThrall That courtroom is impressive! Nice work! It looks fabulous. And I've been there with putting 30-40 sims in one household with MCCC, it's definitely a big task to get them all there, but once you get them all there, it's SO NICE that they all actually listen to you for the most part
Notes
While Essa slept Josh called Goldie and had a talk with her. She was devastated, of course, that she hadn't been able to keep her promise. Unfortunately, the case was ironclad. Essa had broken the contract with the studio and they had a right to seek compensation. The only way out of it was for Essa to agree to continue appearing in movies made by the studio until the contract expired. That was not going to happen. Essa had no interest in working for the studio ever again, or perhaps any studio.
When Essa woke up he told her what Goldie had said and they shared their thoughts and ideas on what to do now, where to go, how to live. One thing was certain, they both wanted to be as far away from Del Sol Valley they could go with what little funds they had. Since DSV was on the west side of the map, they looked to the east. With a little research they found a small plot of land that was extremely cheap in a village called Evergreen Harbor. The couple transportalated there to investigate and loved the area.
It took almost all their money, but they decided to go ahead and buy it. They weren't too worried about their financial situation since Essa's garden was extremely profitable, Josh's interest check would be coming the next day, they both had a published book each with small royalties coming in and Plopsy to sell their knitted creations and paintings. Lastly, there was always busking if they were desperate. Both were confident the studio could not take their instruments or Essa's art supplies. They'd had all those things before moving here, right?
Well, they would find out tomorrow when the studio's representative came to observe and tell them what was exempt from the lawsuit while they packed up their personal belongings.
When they got back home, they went down to take care of the garden and were appalled at the condition the plants were in. They had been so caught up in what was going on, it had been neglected. Half the plants looked like they were dead or dying. They spent a couple hours pulling weeds, spraying for bugs and fertilizing before going to bed. Hopefully everything would survive. They needed that garden more than ever now.
"Are you okay? Do you need anything?"
"I'm good, still a little nauseous now and then, but I'll be fine."
"How are you doing? You've been pretty quiet."
"I'm good, just been thinking a lot about everything. Something like this really makes a person think about what's important in life and what isn't."
"I'm glad we're leaving this place, leaving this kind of life behind. Leaving all this...stuff. This house was too big for us right from the beginning. All we did is buy more and more stuff to fill it up and half of it we never even use."
"It gives me a headache just thinking about it. All the energy we wasted, all the maintenance on...things, like that pool, the hot tub, all the appliances. Man, you know how big our bills were, almost ten grand, every week. And we paid it without a thought of what that money could have been better used for."
"I miss just living off the land, like we did when my parents were still around. We would fish and hunt, and had a big garden. My Mom taught us how to can and freeze what we grew too. We had a massive compost bin and used that to fertilize the garden and collected rain water to use for everything. It was great, a simple way to live, but it was honest, nothing went to waste. I miss that."
"We can do that, I'd love to live like that, simplify everything and...we could teach our children too like your parents did. Teach them how to survive in the wild, like your brother Joel too. I read once about getting wax from bees to make candles too, maybe we could get some bees."
"I like that idea, yeah! I could even make our furniture. Dad taught all of us boys how to do that too."
"Your parents sound like they were wonderful people. I wish I could've met them."
"Yeah, I do too. They would've loved you just as much as I do."
"Alright, I'm too tired to finish this, let's go to bed. It's a big day tomorrow."
"Sounds good."
The next morning when Josh went to check on the garden, his heart dropped. Everything was dead, all of it! He took care of all the dead plants so Essa wouldn't have to see the devastation and cringed at the thought of telling her. The majority of their income was gone. He knew they'd get along without it, but it would be rough going for awhile. They'd have to plant another garden as soon as they moved.
"Beautiful, I have some bad news. I don't know how to tell you this, but...the garden is gone. All the plants died."
"Oh God, I think I'm going to be sick. We had that garden since the beginning, in Mt. Komorebi. I loved that garden...what are we going to do now?"
"Hey, it'll be alright, we'll just plant a new one. We both love gardening, we're good at it. We'll have another one growing in no time. Maybe even plant some things we've never had before."
"That's true, like we could grow soybeans!"
"Soybeans? Okay, that's an idea, but why did you think of soybeans right away?"
"Wax. We could use soybean wax to make candles. I read about it in the same article about the bees."
"Heyyy, great idea!"
The couple spent the rest of the day with the studio's rep. walking through the house with them answering their questions on what they could and could not take with them. Thankfully Essa could keep her easel, art supplies and paintings, all her magic items, Josh could keep his instruments, and both the console and the computer he'd won at GeekCon, plus all of their photos, memorabilia, Essa's Starlight Accolade award, clothes, and various other small items. Everything else had to stay in the house and would be sold in an auction for the studio.
After the rep left, the couple went outside on the back patio to take a break before packing up their belongings. One last cloudgaze here in the Pinnacles seemed like a good way to relax, something simple.
They spent the rest of the afternoon into the evening packing up their stuff and transportalating some of it to the plot of land in Evergreen Harbor so it wouldn't be too taxing on Essa using her magic to get it all there at once. Josh had not learned how to transportalate large objects yet. Both exhausted, they went to bed.
"Whoa! Look at you! You're always gorgeous, but Wow Beautiful, I always knew you were a natural beauty. You take my breath away!"
"Thanks Babe, you always say the sweetest things that make me feel good about myself. I've been wearing tons of make-up for so long, I thought I'd go mostly natural for a change."
"It's a great look for you Beautiful. Nothing to cover your beauty. You don't need all that stuff. Are you ready to go?"
"Wellll, almost, but, I have one more thing I'd like for us to do before we go."
(* Note - I could NOT believe it, but Essa autonomously asked Josh to woohoo! The first time either one has ever done that! Yay! \o/)
(And in the shower no less, not the bed like I expected. These two sure love their shower woo hoo eh?)
"WOW! Beautiful, what got into you? That was amazing!"
"I think it's the pregnancy hormones or something, I'm always, uh, wanting to woo hoo. I can't enough!"
"Oh really? I love the sound of that!"
One last kiss before they leave...
"I can't wait to live off-the-grid with you and raise our children to live the same way. I love you so much Josh."
"I'm so glad you're into this, I didn't know if you would be."
"Josh, you've always supported me in anything I've ever wanted to do. It's about time we did something you wanted to do. Well, we both want this. I fell in love with idea the moment you started talking about it."
"Good, I just want you to be happy, always."
"I am, how could I not be? I have you and our baby, that's all I need."
"Alright, let's get this show on the road!"
"Transportia Evergreenio"
(Never gets old watching her do this. It's so HOT, she's so HOT!)
"HUZZA!"
Sea may rise, sky may fall, My love will never die..
My heart, my heart, My drowning heart, Oh all the tears I've cried
Oh I may weep forevermore, My love will never die..
Her shift is 6pm - 2am (oof, so rough, especially for a pregnant lady) so here we have Emmett cooking Ruby some dinner, and he's really not happy about cooking (I think I did allow for it to be one of his dislikes) but I would like to get his cooking level to be a bit more functional since he is only a level 2 lol.
I mean, it was edible, so that's a good sign at least
First day of work, and Jules came home miserable with a moodlet that said she needs a vacation. Girl, I just sent you on vacation
The next day, while Emmett was at work and Ruby was at school, Jules decided to walk around the area and get some fresh air, meeting several new people, including the mail carrier whom she had never given a proper greeting to before. (I was inspired by @Skeilah and did a bit of work on the Friend of the World aspiration)
There was also a random tombstone on the lot across the street. Of course I had to check that out. No one we know and already culled though.
Soon, it was time for her to head to work, so I checked in with Pickle, who seems to be intent on communicating with the toilet.
And he looked perplexed when the toilet did not respond
After school, Ruby invited her friend, Zane, over and beat him while playing video games. She's a natural
The weather had taken a turn for the worse when Jules got home, but she got a promotion on her second day! She looks pretty ambivalent about it though haha
When I got her hired, I'm pretty sure it said something about hiring a mixologist, which is why I included that bit in my story, but she's definitely cooking now haha. I guess since these careers are intertwined you get a little bit of both. The hours are a bit better now though at least!
I've been switching autonomy on and off depending on what I'm doing with them, and I must have still had it on since Jules went upstairs and swept Emmett into a passionate kiss all on her own.
"Whoa, what was that all about?"
"I just got a promotion!" Jules told him.
"That's great, babe! I'm so proud of you." He offered her a massage after that, because it had been a long few days working the 6pm-2am shift while also pregnant.
When he had finished, Jules turned to look at Emmett with a suggestive look on her face. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
Hhahahaha, nope, not THAT