Great idea to catch up and you're right, this is supposed to be fun not stressful. You sound like me with some things you want to do before DSV, but they need to be set-up. I have Fox's confession, which honestly I've been dragging my feet with that. Plus, something I had an idea for concerning defeating the Mother and of course, Cale's reunion with Sandy. Only 5 days to pull all that off too. o.O So why am I here? LOL Procrastination, thy name is Karen.
Awww man, bummer about Caleb getting culled. It happens. Which reminds me, if an urn is in your Sim's personal inventory, can ghosts get culled from there? Cale has had that Uni student sitting in his since they left Britechester.
Congrats on the promotion for Aaron! \o/ Yay! He looks so happy with his bees eh? And happy to be at the library. Especially after he met Melissa there.
And there's our boys at the lab looking stunning! Oh, uh, Hello Blue. She doesn't like Cale eh? I guess I can understand, but she needs to accept Cale now since he and Aster are engaged and they gave her a grandson to love, Leo. Hopefully once they officially get married she'll change her tune about him.
Oh I love Blue's role in the mystery and your lore for the plants! Oh boy she really, really doesn't like Cale. Glad she agreed to work with them though and yes Blue, Aster and Leo would be very upset with you if you killed Cale. o.O
Absolutely gorgeous screenshots after they've opened the door. I love the scenic beauty of StrangerVille so much! Did Aaron just get eaten by Phil in that one shot? I see that jar down there.
Aww, love the bonus pics of Cale with Aster and Leo! Thank you for those!
I love seeing screenshots of toddlers with pets, never had a toddler/pet in the same household myself, so thanks for showing those screenshots! By the way, who is the toddler and dog? I'm so glad you love Leo so much you show him a lot. So curious what he looks like as a teen/YA, but I love surprises so don't show me! hehe
Yes, I figured enough time had passed that he had to be a teen by now. It will be a big shock to Cale for sure. He basically missed all of Joe L.'s childhood since he disappeared the day after he aged up to a child.
Of course, I know you'd never let any of the vampire Sims you care about die, including Cale! Love that you used a scientific reason for Leo's name in two ways. Makes it even more sweet and meaningful.
Okay, I haven't updated my game yet for the new patch, I heard some Simmers have a serious lag issue now because of the patch. But now you've given me a good reason to stop dragging my feet and cross my fingers I don't get the lag. Love that house, it's gorgeous! I have a thing for Victorian builds. Thanks so much for the link!
Very cool how you set up your first try with the StrangerVille mystery and even though it's a bummer he almost died and didn't complete the mystery, I'm happy to hear because of that Aaron will be your first Sim to have completed it! \o/ Makes me so happy when I read that my challenge has helped other Simmers to discover and do things in the game for the first time. Makes it worthwhile that I shared it on here instead of just doing it myself and not posting about it. I have other challenges I made up I've played on my own and makes me wonder if I should post those too. Hmmm, maybe.
Very true about the genetics not mixing well for a variety of reasons. For instance, I only kept 40 of Cale's offspring, less than half because the rest looked really bad. o.O In my game Don Lothario makes good looking males & females, not so much in other Simmers games. Morgyn is a toss-up. His daughter, Morrigan? I'm fond of her because she's Essa's granddaughter, but I will admit Morgyn's genetics didn't really do her any favors. Her twin, Odin, on the otherhand is stunning in my opinion. But that might be because he looks more like his Mom? I have no idea.
Oh yeah, the game will give any Sim that has a Spellcaster bloodline a glimmerstone, and if they buy a cauldron? They'll get one too whether they have the bloodline or not. At least in my game that's happened. I guess the game figures, 'Oh! You bought a cauldron, that means you want to be a Spellcaster, here, have a Glimmerstone!' hehe Ooo, Leo as a hybrid? That would be very interesting! I wish I'd known about and used Mods at the beginning of this challenge last year. I would've made Essa a hybrid vampire/spellcaster. Ah well...
Aaron had a work task to be eaten by a cowplant? Cale never got that one, weird. What level did Aaron start with in his career? Maybe it was lower than Cale's for some reason?
Awww, man, I'm sorry! Yes, I saw Aster and her brother when perusing your downloads. Almost got them, but for reason I didn't because I think they were teens? I don't remember. But, duh, I could've just aged her up. I'll get them when I get that house. I am curious if they would have a similar looking child to Leo in my game. I smell a new save in the near future to find out! Ohhh Yeahhh! hehe We shall see soon now about Cale & Sandy's children! Yes, don't spoil the surprise with Leo as I said above.
I loved all those hugs and smiles as Cale met Venus & Kit. So heartwarming! Oh yeah, I'm not that fussed about my guys eating by the pool, I agree, the views are lovely indeed. I can't help myself giving my ladies that corset outfit, it's just so sexy! And of course they have to have the silk stockings with the seam in the back too!
Thanks! I love that shot too with the billboard, it spoke to me when I was looking for a scenic daily post pic.
hehe Yeah, the faces are hilarious with the vines discovery. They're so disgusted, as one would be. Funny how they shake/shiver in disgust too. hehe Ohhh, so that's why he's wearing the soccer shoes. Honestly, I like them better than the loafers.
Leo is a good boy! Kit is a naughty little alien. Ah well, makes sense since his Dad has the Evil trait. Speaking of which, I'm contemplating getting rid of that for Fox. He's not evil anymore. Same with Cale, he's not mean or hot headed unless he has full autonomy. Now that there's a toddler in the house which I need to take care of at times, when Cale has full autonomy as a result, the first thing he always wants to do is troll teh forums. Oh and the last time he had it, he wanted to destroy the dollhouse! Opps, I meant hit Blarfy. o.O I stopped him from doing it though. Sheesh!
I don't know, I might just let him keep those traits. I gave them to him purposely for an extra challenge for myself, but other than at the beginning of the challenge, it hasn't made much of a dent really in his personality. *shrugs* I guess I should let him have full autonomy more eh? o.O Er...nah...
Um, I apologize for the novel of a reply. o.O Again, please don't think you have to respond in kind, of course.
Today's Accomplishments:
The Curator
- Collect five crystals
- Collect five frogs
The day started out nice and sunny and we were able to hold our yoga lesson outside again.
At the lake, I took a little time to do some frog hunting and was able to catch at least four. Maybe I'll breed them into a tiny frog army later.
We then did some more swimming and diving.
As we splashed around, the sky started clouding over and soon bug fat raindrops began to fall.
At first we just ignored it, we were already wet anyways, but soon the wind picked up and we heard a rumble of thunder in the distance, so we packed up and skedaddled back to the spa.
Once there, I decided I may as well host a meditation for those who might be feeling uptight about the weather.
We then made ourselves some food and ate out on the balcony, watching the storm rage around us.
I then held an evening yoga class.
Finally, Carol, Kaori, and I finished off the night with our own meditation.
May - Day 26:"The worst feeling in the world is knowing you've been used and lied to by someone you trusted..."
Notes
"Fox! There you are! I remember, I remember my life after the fire before you found me now! It all came back to me when I was sleeping. I thought it was just a dream, but when I woke up, I remembered! Gah! I can't believe it!"
(Oh crap!)
(This is what you get for dragging your feet. You have to tell him now rather than later.)
"That's wonderful Cale, I'm glad, I knew you would eventually. But...okay, I have something to tell you I should've told you a long time ago. You might want to sit down for this, it...won't be easy to hear."
"Oh, okay, uh, what's up Buddy?"
"A few years ago I helped a student cheat by supplying her with the answers to tests."
"I felt sorry for her because she was being abused and assaulted by her Father when she didn't get good grades."
"We spent a lot of time together. She was so sweet, charming...and beautiful. I knew it was wrong, against all the rules of the university, but...I couldn't help it, I fell in love with her. We had a secret affair and would meet at my house every chance we could to be together."
"One night after we'd spent some time enjoying each other in bed, I left the room to use the bathroom. When I came back, I heard her talking to someone on her phone as I was about to open the bedroom door. It was another lover. They were laughing together about how she'd duped me into giving her test answers and more. She didn't love me Cale, she was just using me to get what she wanted."
"I pushed the door open and confronted her about it, told her I'd overheard her conversation and demanded an explanation. She laughed in my face about how easy it was to seduce me and called me pathetic. She got this coy look on her face and said she bet I still wanted her, that I couldn't get enough, all she had to do was kiss me and I'd do anything she wanted."
"She was standing in front of me very close by this time, touching my chest, pressing her naked body against mine and tried to put her arms around my neck to kiss me. I grabbed her arms to stop her and she went crazy, hitting me and calling me a loser, that she never loved me and other things I won't repeat. I'd finally had enough of her abuse and shoved her away from me to make her stop."
"I was so angry, I must've shoved her too hard because she fell to the floor and lay there completely still. She'd hit her head on one of my crystals from Sixam and I thought she'd only been knocked unconscious. But...then...she morphed into her real form, an alien. But not just any alien. I recognized her. She was the daughter of our Supreme Commander...and she was dead. Aliens will lose their disguise if they die when concealed. I'd killed her Cale. It was an accident, but I'd killed our leader's daughter!"
"Oh Gawd, Fox...I can't imagine how horrifying it must've felt to go through something like that. I'm so sorry Buddy."
"It gets worse because I panicked and did something I thought I had good reasons to do it and was the right thing to do at the time. I didn't want to expose Elara for the horrible alien she really was to our leader and embarrass her, or expose myself either for giving her the means to cheat and having an affair with a student. I wasn't thinking straight Cale, I think I was in shock. So...I...took her body to my cabin in the woods and buried her there."
"I thought no one would know and all the secrets and lies would be buried with her. However, Eros had come for a visit and saw what I was doing, he watched me bury her and then strolled over with a smirk on his face. He threatened to tell the Supreme Leader, saying if she found out what really happened and how rotten her precious little girl turned out to be, I'd be permanently banned from Sixam and a disgrace to all aliens. I'd also be a disgrace to the University and our Father's well respected name would be ruined."
"Eros made a deal with me. If I helped him with an alien Mind Control Project he was leading, for as long as he needed me, he would keep my secret. I agreed. I didn't think I had a choice. Eros began sending me humans he had programmed for the project to keep an eye on them and report back to him on their progress in the project. They were all the appropriate age to be students of the university so nothing would look suspicious. Unbeknownst to these humans, they were programmed to seduce and pollinate a number of other humans to install the Mind Control mechanism into the babies during the process."
"This mechanism could be activated at any time after the human reaches their teenage years by Eros or the other senior members of the project. When activated, all those with the Mind Control DNA would be under their control, an alien induced army to ultimately wipe out the human race. The humans doing this would have no idea since they were programmed to wipe the memories of those they had pollinated and their memory would be wiped of their encounters with them as well. Once the number of babies they had been programmed to conceive were born, a memory reactivator would release their lost memories and the data bank tattooed on their arms for easy access by the aliens tasked to look after them, would disappear."
"Cale...I didn't find you by accident passed out in front of my house, Eros dropped you there for me to find. I knew you were coming, you...were programmed by Eros...and...Venus for the Mind Control Project. You pollinated enough females to produce 100 babies and the 100th must've been born last night. That's why you got your memories back."
"What!?"
"YOU! YOU KNEW ALL THIS AND DIDN'T TELL ME? HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME? HOW!?" "I wanted to tell you, I was going to tell you, later today in fact. I began to hate myself for what I was allowing to happen, especially after you came to me. I began to care about you, I DO care about you, you and I became friends, best friends and I stopped reporting anything to Eros about you. I quit the program. I shouldn't have done it in the first place. I was a fool and a coward. I'm so sorry, I don't know what else to say."
"What else was I supposed to do? I kept telling myself that. I messed up by trying to protect the Leader from the truth, protect my Father's good name, the pollinator name and...myself."
"But none of it mattered. Eros didn't care about the project, he just hated humans and hated me because my Mother was a human and my Father left Eros' Mother for her, he loved her and she was pregnant with me. He used me and I let him. I am a loser and a fool, just like Elara sai-"
"Stop, just stop it Fox."
"This isn't about you, it's about me. You can have all the reasons in the world to try to justify what you did, but the fact remains, you used me. Me and all the other humans Eros programmed, all those women, all those babies. We meant nothing to you, nothing. Just a way to keep your secrets. Our very lives were taken away from us, our memories of those we love, like my Son, and...Sandy."
"Sandy! Oh man, it's been years. She's probably moved on by now, fell in love again, maybe even married. I've probably lost her because of you."
"I'm so sorry Cale, you're right there's no excuse."
"My Son was just a child, I missed his entire childhood, he's probably calling someone else Daddy now. My little Joe Birdy..."
"I just can't believe this, it's so messed up. All those women, how could I not know? I thought there was something wrong with me. What a joke! All those times I whined about not getting laid and you knew, YOU KNEW it wasn't true. I bet you got a good laugh out of that." "No, never, Cale. It made me feel horrible and guilty. So guilty and miserable."
"AHHHHH! FOX, YOU'RE MY BEST FRIEND! At least I thought you were, but best friends don't betray each other like this, they don't lie and hurt each other!" "I know, I hate myself Cale and I wouldn't blame you if you hated me too, I don't deserve to be your friend."
"I don't hate you Fox, I should, but I don't. I just don't like you very much right now."
"It hurts Fox. It hurts so much. You've been so good to me, you seemed like someone I could trust. I did trust you, with everything. I tried so hard to make you proud of me. I looked up to you. You were always there for me when I needed you. We were buddies...and now I find out it was all a lie. You made me love you Fox, I thought you loved me too, you said you did. But, how do you expect me to believe that, or anything you say anymore?"
"I do love you Cale, that's the truth. You made me love you too. It's the very reason I stopped helping Eros. I don't expect you to believe me, but it's true. I don't deserve it, but I hope you can forgive me...someday. Please? I don't want to lose you. I'll spend the rest of my life trying to make it up to you and make things right for everyone that I've hurt. If you want me to leave, I'll understand. But I hope we can get through this, somehow...together..."
"I don't want to lose you either. I should beat the crap out of you and maybe I still will, I'm just so dang angry right now and not just at you. I'm angry and confused with myself. How can I still love you after all this? It makes no sense, but it's true." "I don't know either, but I'm glad you do."
"I meant what I said. I'll spend the rest of my life trying to make it up to you and everyone else. I'll find a way to deactivate the Mind Control trigger, I promise. And anything else you want or need. I'll make this right Cale, no matter what it takes. Venus too. She already knows everything and wants to do all she can to make things right as well."
"There's no way you can fix it all Fox, it's just too much." "I know. But I can do my best to fix what I can."
"Is there anything more you haven't told me yet? Do you know any of the women that had my children? How do I find out?" "There is more, and I'll tell you everything you want to know if I know the answers myself. Eros didn't tell me a lot. He enjoyed just giving me orders and expected me to carry them out no questions asked. I do know a few who had your children, but not very many. Eros' daughter is responsible for two of them. Your Son, Joe L. and another Son, Neil. As for the rest? The records of them were wiped away when you got your memory back. But if you are determined to find them all, I'll help you search for them."
"Incredible, so that crazy therapist was right all along...Alright, I guess we have a lot of things to work out now. There's still the Mother to defeat too. But...I want, no, I NEED to go and see Sandy and my Son first. I just hope it's not too late...
I apologize for it, but the story mode part of my post for May 26th will have to wait until later today. It took a very long time to get the screenshots I wanted to tell Fox's story, and though I know his story, it will still take time and care to write it in the way I want to. I don't want to just quickly slap it together, that's not my style. Anyway, I just finished editing and organizing the screenshots and it's very late for me here. I hope y'all understand. Comments/replies will need to wait too. I hope y'all had a wonderful day/night!
I believe this update is going to cover even more than my last update did so it's probably going to be even longer, I am sorry
I have so much I want to get through before I have to disappear for finals LOL
***
Blue met with him the morning after he'd opened the door with the keycard, and mentioned that he'd probably need a hazmat suit to get through the mist.
"Great," he muttered. "Where the hell am I going to find one of those?"
Turned out, the answer to that question was Erwin.
Sigrid, the scientist he'd met at the library previously, agreed to help him with creating a spore filter for the hazmat suit once he'd name dropped Blue and mentioned that he was working with her.
She'd need spore clusters to analyse in order to craft it. And to get the spore clusters...
"You'll need an infection scanner," she said. Helpful.
"So where can I get one of those?"
Apparently, one could get an infection scanner at the bar. Well, not the bar itself. But from the military personnel who frequented the bar.
Aaron had never been one to just go up to someone and randomly introduce himself, but he approached an officer anyway. There were plenty of them to choose from.
The man introduced himself as Officer Cecil Rapp.
"So, what's been going on with that lab?" Aaron asked lamely.
"Someone broke in," Cecil said, shaking his head. "They released spores - we're using our Infection Scanners to find them."
"An infection scanner, huh?"
Cecil nodded excitedly, then seemed to abruptly remember that he wasn't supposed to be discussing things with civilians. "It's really cool, and can do all these- I mean- hey, that's classified!"
"I could really use the help, Cecil... I'm a scientist, you see... Well, a botanist. But still a scientist. And I really need that infection scanner."
Cecil looked at him skeptically. "Convince me," he said, and Aaron inwardly groaned.
"Uhh..." he said, and then he had a ridiculous idea. "You see these guns? I climbed Mount Komorebi with these guns..."
"Oh?" Cecil asked, and Aaron wondered if he was actually impressed for a moment, when the officer grinned and said, "Drop and give me 50."
Eww, press-ups.
"Okay, you got me, wow!" Cecil said after what felt like an age.
"Here." He handed Aaron a small device. "You can use it to reveal spore clusters that are otherwise invisible to the naked eye." Then as he prepared to leave the bar, he turned and said, "You ever considered joining the military? You make that bomber jacket look great. And that was an impressive display of strength. Don't tell anybody you got that from me though."
Aaron blinked. "Thank you?" But Cecil was already gone.
Aaron headed outside with the scanner and tried it out across from the bar. He frowned when no spores appeared. And then it dawned on him that it should probably be used where the spore concentration was highest. Back at the lab.
He pulled out his Foxbury ball to lose himself in the mindless and repetitive art of juggling and thought about what he'd gotten himself into.
It was back to the desert and the lab, where he scanned the area and came up with some spore clusters.
It was heading into the late afternoon, and he headed home since he didn't want Hunter to worry about where he was.
At home he changed clothes and played with Yoshi.
Hunter stared out at the massive cloud circulating over the desert and shuddered.
Aaron called him inside, saying that the NYE TV was on.
Another year together ended, and a new one began.
"Wait," Hunter muttered. "It was our anniversary and I- I forgot-"
"Shh, it's okay."
"Besides..." Aaron continued. "We can still celebrate..."
***
Aaron found he had enough spore clusters to get the infection profile data that Sigrid required, and donned his lab coat ready to go back to the lab and carefully avoid the misty hallway.
He went back to the library to tell Sigrid the good news, and she told him she'd send him the spore filter in the mail.
When the filter arrived in the mail, he put it on the suit and headed through the hallway...
***
"WHAT THE FUUUUUU-"
He stared up at the massive plant in complete and utter disbelief.
"Crap."
***
When he finally picked his jaw up off the floor and got the hell out of there, he sat at one of the picnic tables in front of the library and simply stared at the cloud.
This was turning into a much bigger mess than he'd ever anticipated.
~~~
I have extra pics that didn't fit with the story flow of the post but I want to post them anyway
May or may not get time to do full comments/replies later today or tonight (writing up today's update took way too long lol) but I just wanted to comment on some posts from page 75
May 23: Wow, Cale's genealogy is IMPRESSIVE!!! Massive congrats to you and Cale for 101 babies!
May 24: Okay all of Cale's kids that you kept are gorgeous of course but WOW Chris and Colton are beautiful!!!
Thank you SO much for letting Cale make babies with Clarissa, they are so hot And they're both vampires like their mama? That's even more perfect! I can't believe Clarissa gave Cale twins though!
From the others, I love Roxanne, Elisabeth, Shawn ( ), Kaylee (those eyes!) and Skye (I love that Skye inherited Maralyn's skintone!)
Oh also on Neil - I think he is a hybrid, yes. He'll have a few alien interactions available to him, and a hidden trait called 'OccultAlienPart'. I assume Cale was already human when he was born so Neil will be a regular alien-human hybrid.
That eye issue is weird... Sounds similar to Caleb Vatore's genetic eye issues. And strange with the weight thing too.
~~~
I don't have time to reply to all of your comments to me from page 75, but I'll reply to this bit:
'Phoenix Labs?' Hmmm, wonder what that means that was so shocking to Aaron
It'll become clear after they defeat the Mother (and a lot of exposition happens because I have ambitious story ideas LOL).
hint: I have a certain sim with the surname Phoenix, who is descended from aliens...
~~~
May 25: Okay don't judge me but reading this update actually made me tear up a little? Like even though we as the readers know what Cale's gone through, he didn't remember up until that point and seeing all those screenshots with that filter just struck a nerve with me for some reason! *sniff*
Or maybe that was just the romantic screenshots with Sandy and the ones with little toddler Joe because they made me tear up when you originally posted them HAHA.
"I remember!" AAAAHHHHHHHHH
Anyways I am a mess now so thanks for that
was the hair removal a prank of how dare you date a vampire? xD or an accidental side effect because of shock from the news perhaps? xD Oh what! i didn't know cale was going to be a vampire. did i miss that? xD
Dumb game glitch with Aaron losing his whole face LOL. Cale lost his freckles, and Aaron lost every bit of CC that made him, him
Well Cale couldn't stay a spellcaster while his partner is a vampire according to the lore, could he? Oh actually I did mention to Kara that Cale was going to be a vampire since I decided he and Aster were endgame in my save, but I never mentioned it in my actual posts themselves so that's fine haha. So no you didn't miss anything
*Updated my May 26th post above, finally! Whew! What a day! I've been writing this all day. Well, after I finally got all the screenshots uploaded. Imgur wouldn't upload anything for me, I had to resort to Google Photos. Plus, on top of that, Hubby's been busy working on his hot rod in the garage and needed my help with different things all day, I'm his garage girl. Anyway, it's finally done! I hope it all makes sense. I tried, it was tough though, especially trying to write something so emotional when you're in the zone and keep getting interrupted. I apologize for whining about this, it was just a very intense update. Today's update might end up being just a daily post pic. I don't know if I have it in me to write another emotionally charged post without a break.
I'll get started on comments/replies now. I hope y'all had a fabulous day/night!
Whoa! Absolutely LOVE your daily post pic! So pretty and yet sinister with the bat! I'm assuming that's Hunter. 🦇
Erwin to the rescue again with a suit! Oh, good job dropping Blue's name to get what you need Aaron! At least he didn't have to do what Cale did. o.O Oh my, Cecil is gorgeous! But then all your Sims are gorgeous. hehe That look he's serving when he asks Aaron to convince him. *fans self* Good job showing your physical strength Aaron. I agree with Cecil, you do look impressive in that bomber jacket!
hehe Of course he takes a break to play with his soccer ball, AND at the lab too I see. Did it land on his head? Sure looks like it might've. Aww, playing with Yoshi! Aww, man, Happy Anniversary you two! Here's hoping you're together another three years and more! Gawd, what is it about a man in a uniform or suit? So sexy for some reason. Aaron looks scrumptious in the lab doing the profile for the spore filter. 😍
Oh Wow, he went down there all by himself! Poor guy, what a shock that must've been. Yep, crap is right Aaron, this is bigger than you'd ever imagined. Gorgeous shot of the crater cloud. Love how you caught the lightening in it. Aaron sure loves his bees! Appears they love him too! What level is he now with the Flower Arranging? Just curious. That shot of Phil with his tempting cake is amazing! I don't like those beasts, but I have to admit that screenshot is impressive. Nice pause and set-up!
Thanks about Cale's babies! I'm SO glad that's over now. Whew! 👶
I agree so, so much! They're such hunks! Thank you for making Clarissa, she's beautiful. I'm so happy they're vampires as well. 🧛♂️ It's interesting how one looks like Clarissa and the other a bit more like Cale. I was very surprised she gave him twins too. She helped him finish the challenge faster for one thing, but more beefcake to enjoy as well. 💪
I would agree with your choices of the best looking, I have a few other personal favorites too. You think Neil is a hybrid? I hope so! You're right, Cale was a normal human when Aurora got herself pregnant with him. I'd already removed Cale's Spellcaster status.
I'd heard about Caleb's eye issue but have never had any of my Sims have children with him to see it for myself. Those issues with the babies were very interesting. I'd probably not known about them if I didn't have so many offspring to check out. hehe So there's one good thing, besides all the great kids to thank for this side challenge. Ohhhh, so that's what Phoenix Labs is about. Can't wait to find out the details! I have ambitious plans for what's left of this month too. Whether I actually go through with it remains to be seen. o.O
It's okay, I'm not going to judge you for that since I teared up myself looking for screenshots I wanted to use for it. Makes me sad how much he's missed of his Son's life and time with Sandy. The romantic ones got to me too and Joe Birdy! Gah! Sorry you're a mess now, but I won't lie, makes me smile to think my little story affected you like that. Reading comments like that makes it all worth while and is very motivating! Thank you!
*Going to (hopefully?) make another post later tonight and do comments soon, just wanted to get another one out while I had time Like I said before, I have so much to get through and so little time to get through it even though I've already played it lol. I also have a really hard time deciding which screenshots to post and which to scrap because I take way too many and love them all
May 20 - 23
Also not going to focus so much on story in this one just for my own sanity haha. Or might have some dialogue here and there, who knows LOL
~~~
Aaron spent some time drinking and playing darts at the bar, because that's definitely something you do while a giant plant living underneath an abandoned lab threatens to start an actual apocalypse
Eww, these vines!
I actually have no idea if he's ever played darts in his life, but here goes!
Not gonna lie, he looks great while playing
I spotted my (very minor) makeover of Ted Roswell while Aaron was at the library:
And it looks like what's going on here has attracted the attention of spellcasters too...
Hello again, Audax. You know, I probably would have had a little story bit attached to these screenshots but honestly I can't be bothered and Aaron didn't go out and say hi to him anyway even though Audax literally saved Aaron's life and all that but whatever, right? lol
Turns out, just like they can growl at the paranormal stuff, dogs growl at the vines too!
I just liked these screenshots a lot so I'm posting them
Hunter's father called with that 'hey honey, it's Dad' thing, and I had Hunter decline the invitation to visit because I needed to focus on Aaron...
The sad thing was, Hunter's investigator gig that night was in San Myshuno so he totally could have gone and visited his parents, whoops...
But I loved that the gig was at the house of Aster's parents, Regan and Blue.
You know Blue, if you're this freaked out about ghosts (and not even actual ghosts) then maybe it's not the best idea for you to be helping Aaron defeat the Mother
And I guess it's time for an official introduction to Aster's teen brother, Stellan.
And yep, that's him. LOL
~~~
Now back into the stuff that actually has to do with the mystery, Aaron made his first experimental vaccine (and the second, I think. I believe he needed more stuff to make the third). Also I just need to say - those red flashing outlines are so immersion breaking when they're in screenshots! I hate it! Is it even possible to turn them off?
Back to the bar to find an (un)willing possessed participant to test the vaccine on, but first let's make a triumphant return to the very beginning of this challenge and eat some free bar chips! Those chips were such a lifesaver
First victim is of course Ted
HAHA ages ago Aaron stole a violin from the Magic Realm I think and just like his darn ball he pulls it out at the absolute worst times
Another victim for the second experimental vaccine. And oh, it's the first zombie Aaron ever saw!
Gosh I love the lab lot when it's at this stage of the mystery, looks so cool!
Getting more bizarre fruit to stock up on vaccines...
~~~
Love Day rolled around yet again, and so it's been a whole sim year since Hunter proposed.
And so off to the bar for a date! Also I apparently have a thing for men in buttoned shirts now...
They did a group dance and...
Hunter finally landed a backflip again, after all those fails in Windenburg! What an achievement!
May 8: Yay, DJ has a droid now! Love that sims can have droids with JTB
And love that the droid is doing all the hard work of picking those locks
Awesome that he gets to fly again too!
May 9: Go DJ! He and Poe are making some great progress in Batuu.
May 20: Ooh, look at how confident Dylan is in that daily pic!
HAHA oh dear, of course he had to swipe a book while at 'work'
Oh wow, congrats for completing The Curator aspiration!
He looks amazing in that robe and mask.
Did not expect Dennis to be a member though
The lore for the secret society is fascinating! Not surprised that those sprites have a dark side
But I'm sure everything will work out for Dylan in the end... eventually...
May 21: Congrats on your promotion Adam!
Nice that Mila and Moira came to visit their children
Hello Aaron!
Oh wow, Dylan is on a roll with completing aspirations! That reward trait could come in very handy!
HAHA poor DJ
Yay, well done to Dylan and his team for that soccer win!
Oh, Dylan! A ghost? An ELDER ghost? o.O
May 24: Oh no, poor Krista! I feel bad for laughing at that daily pic of her sprawled on the ground
Her garden is developing very nicely! She'll be making a tonne of money from that in no time
Oh, awesome that she met Kiyoshi and Robin at the gym! Making friends already!
You'll get the hang of rock climbing soon, Krista
Oh by the way, I have Krista in Mount Komorebi in my game, and she's living in my challenge sim's old house Hoping he'll meet her some time but she hasn't shown up anywhere yet.
May 24: OMG Carol catching herself on fire! Sheesh! Glad she could put herself out though!
"As if one burn wasn't enough for her" This girl is reckless, isn't she HAHA
Then of course she hits herself in the head! Serves her right
Kaori getting in on the fire action too is hilarious, she's setting a very bad example for Carol LOL
May 25: Aww, lovely daily pic of Adam and Kaori snuggling while sitting at the pool
Carol's going to totally take over Adam's job at this point She definitely is her father's daughter
OMG that praying mantis (I think) that Carol is catching is so cute
LOL of course a random ghost shows up, poor Kaori getting scared
Mar 8: Ooh, yay I love these recap posts because it's fun to revisit Velma's relationships and connections with all of her friends
I love how you incorporate details from everyone else's stories.
I think Morgan is an absolutely gorgeous sim too! Come on Velma, get with the program
"I’m just going to say that Hunter popped over to babysit again because he’s awesome like that" - Yes, yes he is
"What's wrong with Dylan's butt DJ?" HAHAHA
"I just find him extremely attractive" Ahahaha so do I
Aww bummer about the panel showing Aaron as only Velma's acquaintance, how dumb!
I love Hunter being the default babysitter so much, though I suppose if you're integrating some of my lore that's going to be a problem when Velma gets to Glimmerbrook... Poor Hunter.
Oh my goodness look at Morgan trying to freeze to death sitting by the pool Silly girl!
Very fun party screenshots!
Ah Cale holding Daphne, so adorable!
Page 75: Thank you about Clarissa, and yes if the nail polish had been a thing when I first made her I would have definitely given her some! Oh I'm planning on giving Aaron black nail polish at some point too! I like to go into CAS with him and 'draft' what I might dress him in for future months, and I have tried him with the nails and of course he suits them.
The alien story was Remember Me Until Tomorrow, right? By Cement. I was following that too! I submitted a human sim for it
I have a rule now that even when it doesn't make sense at all, my aliens will never age beyond YA. I very rarely have my aliens actually wear their disguises which is why having Blue wearing hers when she met Cale and Aaron at the lab was such a big deal. Although actually, in Blue's case, her not aging does make sense since she's a scientist and has probably developed some anti-aging serum or whatever LOL. Or has a constant supply of potions of youth And also I wouldn't want her to die and leave Regan all alone That's just my explanation story-wise so it makes sense in my own head of course.
Well yeah of course I had to name it Phil!
I have no idea how Aaron is so good at everything HAHA. But I mean he is on his way to becoming a sort of super sim so it makes sense
I haven't done anything to Cale, like I've said! He's just THAT good looking naturally
~~~ Page 76: I have no idea about ghost culling if the urn is in the personal inventory. Oh wait... I just remembered I put Caleb in the family household inventory because Adonis was constantly mourning him and it was getting annoying, and he must have gotten culled while he was in there because the game wouldn't know to give me the notification that his spirit is fading. Then when I brought him out in StrangerVille, I clicked on his urn and there was no option to call forth the ghost, so I checked in Lilith's household and he was completely gone from her relationship panel. Then I realised he'd been culled and I was super bummed.
I gave him an epitaph:
So I assume that the ghost in Cale's inventory has probably been culled by now. I might be wrong though! But personal inventory versus household inventory, I'm not sure if there's a difference.
Yup, Aaron definitely does love his bees! I think he's got a really good relationship with them now
Blue... she's like the *really* overprotective dad with the shotgun lol I mean, I alluded to her disliking Cale way back before Leo was even born and even though Leo is a toddler now I think she still feels that way. But yeah they'll have a reconciliation after this whole business with the Mother is all done and dusted.
Even more lore on the plants and who created them coming later, and I've figured out how I can tie it into the transition to Del Sol Valley. I hope it doesn't sound too stupid LOL
Jar? I think it's part of the sprinkler, Aaron didn't get eaten until his job asked him to lol
Of course I had to post those pics of Cale and his family!
That toddler is Theseus Straud, the son of Rowan Straud (Adonis and Galatea's son from Maggie's legacy-bachelor) and my sim Phoebe, who won Rowan's bachelor challenge
Also gosh I'm only just remembering how handsome Rowan is and it's just like wow
The adult dog is Rowan's Australian cattle dog, Cooper, who is the puppy's father. The puppy's mother is Phoebe's husky, Nova. The puppy is named Artemis
I've updated to the most recent patch and I don't think I've had any bad lag so far.
No worries! It is a very nice house!
Yeah Aaron is going to be a lot of firsts for me this year!
This challenge is honestly so much fun and deciding to join in for this year is probably one of the best decisions I've ever made, so thank you for creating it!
Yeah sometimes even combined with a sim as hot as Cale, townie genetics can be... not great o.O My sims do not have children with game generated randoms, not even in my 100 baby challenges! Apart from three of the babies born when I was using Morgan as my matriarch. The only time I will allow it is if I've heavily edited the townie
I don't think Don has had many children in my saves so I can't really speak for his genetics. However, he was the father of two of Elle's children in her 100 baby challenge and I think they looked mostly like her so were absolutely fine of course HAHA
Oh yeah Morgyn's never had kids in my game. I did have plans to use him as a donor in Elle's 100 baby challenge though just to see what would happen, but that challenge is going absolutely nowhere.
Oooh, okay that explains it then. I just thought the game was being dumb Huh, it gives them one even if they just buy a cauldron? Never knew that!
Yeah I'm just thinking my lore over and trying to find out if there's a place for Leo to be a hybrid and what it'd mean for the story. I mean, it's my lore and I can do whatever I want with it but it's not fully developed right now and I'll have to see how things go. I definitely think it would be fun for Leo to be a hybrid but it's just whether or not it makes sense.
Aaron got the same degree as Cale (distinguished with honours) so he started at the same career level. I think the game recognised that Aaron had grown a cowplant on his home lot, and so pulled it from the list of possible tasks. His work from home task the next day was to drink the essence, so that sequence of tasks clearly isn't random (it'd probably always be 'eaten by cowplant' -> 'drink cowplant essence' if get eaten was randomly pulled first). Since Cale doesn't have a cowplant, he'd never get that task because the game knows it would be impossible to complete. He hasn't grown one on his home lot and it would be unreasonable for the game to give it to him. And besides, Aaron got that task after he got promoted to PhD of Pollen.
I think the ones I have on the gallery are both YA, but it's no biggie!
Haha now I have to figure out the right timeline to actually age Leo up... And of course he has to be a child before he can be a teen, boring!
Wait what, Fox is evil??? o.O I never realised that at all!
Oh, so Cale likes to hit Blarfy in your game too? Hahaha I'm not surprised since that's basically his favourite pastime in my game:
I actually had no idea how much he hated Blarffy until I checked his relationships, LOL
Oh also don't ask me why he doesn't like Timothy either haha
I think changing Cale's traits makes sense in the context of your story since he's definitely grown a lot as a person (I mean, sim) over the course of this challenge. We love some good character development
Or don't, it's your game of course!
Whoops I just wrote a novel, I'm sorry Which is why I'll comment on your May 26 and May 27 posts as well as reply to this post tomorrow
So, Bryon and Naoki have been 'living' aka were on a looong vacation with the family for like almost half a year, but they noticed that for example Randi (Bryon's mom) and Maria (Naoki's mom) started missing their homes. I mean, they're not the youngest anymore, you know? It was a nice, long vacation, but it was enough. Not for Bryon and Naoki, though. The family talked, and they came to the conclusion that Randi would take in Audrey, Alex and Noël (Bryon and Naoki's kids) for the time being, so that Bryon and Naoki could turn their vacation into a hiking with just the two of them before returning home and continue their normal lives again.
--
Adult - Granite Falls (July, day 19) This is not a goodbye. This is a 'see you soon' and a 'get home safe'. Naoki and I are going on our adventure, together, just the two of us. I'll miss our families, a lot. I'll miss our kids, our home, but it'll be so worth it.
Aaron was frustrated. He'd developed two formulas for a vaccine against the infection, had tested them out and had no success. But then again. He'd never created a vaccine before.
So he did what he loved the most, to work through what was getting him down and into a better headspace. He painted.
Phil, a scientific marvel, his tempting cake tongue in full view.
Hunter, petting the beast.
Aaron almost couldn't believe his eyes when his employer assigned him the task of... getting eaten by a cowplant when he filed a request to continue working from home. He'd been eaten enough times already by those cowplants at the Magic Realm! Plus, how did they know he even had a cowplant?
"Better be paid well for this," he grumbled. Maybe it would have been worth it to actually go into work for once... Nah. He still remembered his first day on the job and how excruciatingly boring it had been. From what he could remember, being eaten by a cowplant was uncomfortable, but definitely not boring.
"Okay, Phil..." he muttered when he noticed that Phil's tongue was out. The beast was hungry. "Here goes..."
He grabbed the cake and tried to pretend it was the most appetizing thing ever.
*GULP*
"Ugh..." Why???!!!
Yoshi barked in apparent concern.
"Thanks, boy," Aaron sighed wearily. "I'm fine."
***
Aaron headed over to Cale's place to discuss his worries about creating the vaccine.
They looked over the formula Aaron had devised and made adjustments as Cale suggested them, leaving Aaron facepalming and wondering how he didn't catch it in the first place.
"Thank you for your help, Cale."
"Don't mention it. We're working together to defeat this."
Aaron had told Cale about the plant in the basement of the lab, and the vampire had immediately gone out to look at it himself and agreed that it needed to be destroyed.
***
Cale had only gone out intending to hunt and come right back, choosing a random passerby in the dead of the night, drinking deeply, and then flying away so no-one would see him.
Simple, right?
Wrong.
~
"Cale? CALE!" Aster waved a frantic hand in front of her unresponsive fiance's face, hoping he'd come to his senses. He looked... horrifying. Like a freaking monster.
"What in the name of the Watcher is wrong with- Oh, s***!"
"€ΜβŘΔĆ€ ŦĦ€ ΜØŦĦ€Ř ŞĦ€ ŴIŁŁ βŘIŇG ¥ØU P€ΔĆ€"
"Cale-!" He only cackled madly in response and threw his head back.
"ŁØØK ŦØ ŦĦ€ ŞK¥ IŦ Ŵ€ŁĆØΜ€Ş UŞ ΔŁŁ"
She stared at him, thinking back to what he and Aaron had been discussing during the day. A vaccine.
And even though it was 2am, she decided to call him, hoping like mad that he'd made the adjustments to the formula and had it working.
She definitely wasn't expecting him to actually be awake.
"Aaron. Please tell me you've got the right formula for the vaccine-"
"I was going to go back to the lab and make it tomor- I mean, today," he replied. His breathing was heavy, as if he had been exerting himself, and she suddenly realised why he was awake.
"I- did I interrupt something?" she asked, and he drew in a deep breath.
"No, we just finished, actually..."
"Please don't say anything else." She heard him briefly snort, and then sigh.
"Why... why were you asking about the vaccine?"
"Because Cale is... he's... oh hell..."
"He's infected?" Aaron whispered, his voice filled with horror.
"Yes! He's yelling s*** about the Mother and running around with his head flopping back like his neck's been snapped!" She tried to pull herself together, there was no use getting hysterical, but she absolutely hated seeing the man she loved like this. "I- I think he drank from one of them... and then he got it!"
"Okay, okay," Aaron said quickly. "I'll... um... No, it'll look too suspicious if I go out there now... plus it's, you know, 2am..."
"I don't care if you're about to pass out-"
"That's what you get for calling me at 2am! I think... I think he'll be normal after a while," Aaron sounded extremely weary and tired, and she suddenly felt bad for springing this on him.
"Please, when you do get a vaccine that works..."
"I will give it to Cale, yes. Why would you even need to ask?"
She could have sobbed in relief.
And when Cale 'awoke' at 4am and asked her why she looked so upset, she actually did sob, and he instantly took her in his arms, having no memory of the previous two hours but only knowing that something had deeply, truly upset his future wife and that she needed comfort.
But there was a strange, fuzzy feeling in his head whenever he looked at those ugly plants that dotted the landscape, and an odd urge to expand his garden.
"Bad plasma?" he asked softly, and she only looked at him and muttered, "You could say that."
SATURDAY- Part 1
It was Saturday morning and everyone was up and doing things again. Cale was off to work.
And Cale got a promotion! Woot! He is now a Landscaper and makes $59/simoleons/hr.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
And, DJ has been busy writing books. Look at the royalties he is receiving now. He is almost Level 7 in Writing.
In fact, DJ is doing so well, he is now a Notable Newcomer!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
And then there was a knock on the door...
Dylan went to answer it, and standing there was Paolo. Dylan tried to act surprised to see him.
Dylan: "Paolo! Sul Sul! Um...I...er...didn't know you were in town. What are you doing here?"
Paolo: "Hey Dylan! Long time no see. Oh, I'm just taking a course here for my job. Going to be here for 2 weeks."
Dylan: "So...how did you know where I lived?"
Paolo: "Well, I...er...saw Wolfgang the other night and found out you were living here."
Dylan: "Oh, that's cool. So, do you want to come in and hang out?"
Paolo: "Actually, bro, I'm here to see Morgan. I was going to take her out for a coffee before she had her Debate Showdown."
Dylan looked at Paolo, and decided to play it cool, "You're here to see Morgan? Yeah, okay...I'll let her know you're here..."
And just then Morgan came out the door.
Morgan: "Paolo...er...what are you doing here?" she asked glancing nervously at Dylan.
Paolo: "Well, I was hoping you were free to have coffee before your Debate Showdown. I...er...needed to talk to you..."
Morgan laughed nervously, "A coffee? Yeah, sure...a coffee sounds great..."
Dylan: "I didn't know you two knew each other that well...but I guess living in Windenburg, you would..." he said looking at them both.
Paolo: "Yeah, actually Morgan and I went to high school together..." he started to say and then saw Morgan look frantically at him.
Dylan: "Well, it's always good to meet one of Morgan's "old friends" from high school," he said looking pointedly at Morgan, "Anyway, have a great time catching up. I...er...have some studying to do inside. See you around Paolo...and um...good luck on the Debate Showdown, Morgan..."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
As Morgan and Paolo walked off together, Paolo looked closely at Morgan, "He doesn't know that I was your boyfriend, does he?"
Morgan: "No...I...I haven't had the chance to tell him. Everything happened so suddenly seeing you again..."
Paolo: "Yeah, I get it. Look, thanks for going for a coffee with me. I just wanted to apologize for just leaving like I did the other night. This really weird thing happened to me..."
Dylan stood on the sidewalk a moment longer and saw Morgan and Paolo hug.
Dylan was seething inside, but tried to control his emotions. He remembered what had happened at Pepper's Pub the other night, and didn't want the sprites reading his emotions again.
Dylan thinking, "It's just coffee, right? With a friend, right? And Paolo is her friend, right? Oh dang, no...Paolo's something more...dang I just know it...I feel I'm somehow losing her...but I just don't know how to fix it..."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
And once Morgan and Paolo had left, Dylan saw a female sim walking on the bridge...and before he knew it...the curse took over and Pari Nair was his girlfriend.
And it seems that BigFoot was watching them kiss. None other than Geoffrey Landgraab.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Dylan went home afterwards and saw Wolfgang sitting at the kitchen table. He sat down opposite him.
Wolfgang: "Hey bro, you're looking a bit glum this morning..."
Dylan: "My life stinks..."
Wolfgang: "Oh right....you have an A+ GPA and you're a soccer star...oh yeah...your life is so bad..."
Dylan: "Okay, let me re-phrase that...my love life stinks..."
Wolfgang: "Okay, I can relate to that. So, you want to talk about it?"
Dylan: "I don't know...everything seems so complicated..."
Wolfgang: "Okay...well, I'm here for you bro if you need to talk. So, um...who was at the door?"
Dylan frowned, "Paolo...here to pick up Morgan. They're going for a coffee together..."
Wolfgang: "Paolo dropped by again?"
Dylan: "What do you mean again? He was here before?"
Wolfgang: "Um...yeah...the other night. He just dropped in to see..."
Dylan interrupted, "...Morgan... He dropped by to see Morgan, didn't he?"
Wolfgang: "Well, yeah...sort of...but we chatted for a bit, too. We all knew each other in high school..."
Dylan:"Yeah so about that. What's the deal with Morgan and Paolo? I mean I haven't seen them hang around before..."
Wolfgang: "Er...yeah...they haven't...not since Morgan's first year of high school...he was older....and he graduated...and he moved on..."
Dylan looked at Wolfgang, "Bro, we're best buds, right? So, what is it you're not telling me about Morgan and Paolo? Do they have a history together, or something?"
Wolfgang looked nervous, "Hey Dylan...wow...I didn't see the time...I have really got to get practicing some SimScufffle... Bad showing last night for our team..."
Dylan: "Wolfgang...you're avoiding the question. So what about Morgan and Paolo...?"
Wolfgang: "Geez, Dylan...maybe this is a question that you should ask Morgan. I don't think I should be the one to tell you..."
Dylan looked distraught: "Tell me what? That she's crushing on him? That, like, they're going out now? What? Just tell me, I can take it..."
Wolfgang: "Fine, but when she tells you, don't tell her I told you..."
Dylan: "Okay, I promise...now what the plumbob is going on?"
Wolfgang took a deep breath, "Paolo is Morgan's ex-boyfriend. They were a couple in high school. She was a junior, he was a senior. It was pretty serious. Then, Paolo graduated and he dumped her. She took it really hard. Paolo never made contact with her after the break-up...well, that is... until a few days ago. Now, Paolo seems to be around all the time again..."
Dylan: "Oh my plumbobs! Paolo is her ex-boyfriend....dang it! I knew something was up...he's trying to get her back...and she's falling for it. Dang!" he said between shouting forbidden words.
Wolfgang: "Dylan...hold up...that doesn't mean anything has changed between the two of you...she cares for you, bro...a lot..."
Dylan seemed to calm down for a moment. Dylan then took a deep breath and shook his head, "Look, thanks for telling me bro...but I...I can't give her what she wants...not the way I am...not...not like this..."
Dylan got up from the table and headed upstairs. When he came back, Dylan had changed and announced that he was going out, and left the house.
Wolfgang sat there thinking, "Oh geez...why didn't Morgan just tell Dylan about Paolo...and what the heck was Paolo coming over this morning for? I thought that Morgan told me that she and Paolo were done...Geez...Dylan is right...his love life does stink..."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Dylan headed to the sprite ceremonial grounds and when he got there, he went to the altar and began speaking to them.
Dylan: "Sprites...I know you can hear me. I am losing the one I care about...please release me. There is another sim who is trying to take her away from me...I don't know how much more I can endure. Please, I beg you...release me from this curse. I know it was one of you who did this. I just don't know why... She is the only one I want to be with...she is my true love. But, I can't make her happy if I am cursed. I can't show her how much I love her. Please...please...release me from this curse..."
Dylan removed a rare object from his pocket and placed it on the altar. But, this time, instead of the sprites giving him a positive moodlet, they became angry and started pestering him.
Dylan: "I gave you the best item I had. What more can I give you? Why are you displeased?"
And then it's as if he heard the sprites whispering to him, taunting him as they flew by and attacked him, "...never let you go..." they seemed to hiss at him.
Dylan looked around. Had he heard right? The sprites weren't going to release him? Why not?
Dylan shouted at the sprites flying around him: "Why won't you release me? I told you...she's the one..." and then Dylan stopped short. Oh my gosh! What if...what if Morgan doesn't feel that I'm her true love? The realization suddenly saddened him.
Dylan: "Sprites...if I kiss her and she does not feel that I am her true love, then let her have the happy life that she deserves...without me. Let her find happiness with someone else who will love her forever. She deserves that. As for me, I will come back here and serve you until the end of my days, because then, I will have no other purpose in life. I will have lost the one I truly love. So do with me as you wish then..."
And Dylan heard them clearly this time whispering to him, "...kiss more sims..." and then he headed off to where they told him to go.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
When Dylan left the clearing, a curious ghost had come out of the woods and stared after him.
The ghost's name was Esther Mudget, founder of the Order of Enchantment. The one who had disappeared all those years ago.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Notes:
I have played ahead, but am just slow on getting all the updates written. This notification came before the update, so maybe this is fixed now. But, seriously, Dylan keeps getting notices saying congrats on his new girlfriend Kaori on different days! lol I think his friends can't keep up with all his girlfriends. Are they trying to tell Dylan something? Maybe it's the game telling Dylan to go back to Kaori.
Even though the Secret Society has a founder named Esther Mudget, there is no pre-made sim, and so, for story purposes, I created her. I tried to have her wardrobe reflect the 1920s (sort of).
I'm not sure what others are seeing, but for me your pictures are showing up as lines of text and numbers. Maybe because you're using a new image site? Just thought you'd like to know.
@RememberJoy o.O Oh no! I hope that's not the case for everyone, is it? Please let me know! You're right, I had to use Google Photos because Imgur wouldn't let me upload anything yesterday. I can see the photos so I assumed everyone else could as well. I wondered why the awesomes/likes were low, perhaps that's why?
I took a long time creating that post with poses and the text, so it will make me extremely sad if it's not showing up. I'll try Imgur again and replace the photos if it's working today if no one can see the current photos. Thanks so much for letting me know, I appreciate it!
*Everyone - I don't know why Imgur was being so ornery yesterday, but today it's lightening fast! \o/ I went ahead and replaced all the Google Photos in my May 26th update to Imgur photos now. I hope everyone can see them now. Thank you so much to @RememberJoy for giving me a heads-up on the Google Photos not appearing correctly for her. *Hugs*
EDIT: I also updated the daily post pic for May 27th as well.
Today's Accomplishments:
Outdoor Enthusiast
- Identify all unidentified plants
- Achieve level 10 in herbalism
- Sleep for 5 nights in tent
- Collect 15 insects
- Complete Outdoor Enthusuast
The Curator
- Breed 5 frogs
We'd decided to camp out at the national park so we could do some early morning fishing.
I was the first to get up, so I went on a jog to help wake myself up.
I discovered some new herbs I hadn't seen before and quickly identified them as Fireleaf and Poison Fireleaf.
Of course I had to eat both for scientific purposes, and I can definitely say I don't recommend it.
I also was able to find some interesting insects out and about, including a dragon dragonfly which looked pretty awesome.
I decided to get a head start on the fishing, as it seemed the girls were sleeping in a bit.
I was able to catch a nice mess of fish, so I brought them back and cooked them up for breakfast.
By now Carol and Kaori were up, so we sat down and enjoyed a nice breakfast of freshly fried fish.
When we finished, Carol and Kaori went to go do some of their own fishing, and I opted to go on another nature hike to see what I could find.
That afternoon, we met back up at the lake and we had a good time splashing about and cooling off.
As the sun began to set, we returned to camp for a good night's sleep.
Cale left early the next morning to go home to Sandy and Joe L. He walked up the pathway to the house and stopped in his tracks when he saw Sandy watering plants in the greenhouse. He stood just watching her, thanking the creator she was still here.
Sandy hadn't noticed Cale standing there yet as she focused on taking care of Cale's beloved garden. She had been determined to keep it alive until the day he returned.
She sensed something was different and looked up. She dropped the watering can, ignoring the water pooling around her feet, not believing her eyes. (Is it really him? Or am I dreaming again?)
Cale smiled, seeing her looking at him and Sandy gasped. (It IS him! He's come home!)
"CALE!!" Sandy screamed and rushed out of the greenhouse toward the man she'd waited 7 years to see again.
Seeing Sandy running for the door, Cale ran up to the porch to greet her, his heart beating like a timpani drum!
"CALE! Oh My GAWD! You're home! You're finally home!!" Sandy yelled as she tackled Cale knocking him backwards and almost off his feet.
"Whoa! Now that's what I call a welcome home!" "Cale! Cale! Cale! I never gave up hope. I just KNEW you'd come back to me!"
"Sandy, oh Gawd, Sandy, it feels so good to hold you again. I love you so much!"
"I missed you so much, oh Cale, I can't believe you're really here. I love you, I never stopped. Hold me, just hold me, don't let go! Please, don't let go."
"I won't, I'd hold you like this forever if I could. I'm so glad you're still here. I was worried you might've moved, or..." "This is your home, our home, I would've stayed until my dying day waiting for you."
"You're incredible Sandy, after all this time, you never gave up on me. I was so scared you'd be with someone else now."
"There's never been anyone but you Cale, you were my first love and you'll be my last. I told you I'd love you forever and I meant it."
"How'd you get away from the aliens?"
"You knew it was aliens that took me away? How is that possible?"
"The day after Joe's birthday I came outside to check on Joe and saw you passed out. I looked over at Joe and saw a man standing next to him. I told him to get away from Joe and tried to get my wand out, but he used some kind of alien mind power on me and knocked me out too. When Joe and I woke up, you were gone."
"I don't remember any of that. The last thing I remembered when I woke up was running away from my burning house when I was a teen. They took away my memories Sandy. I didn't get them back until last night. I came to you as fast as I could. I would've transportalated, but they took away my Spellcaster powers too."
"I know. L. tried using her Sage powers to find you, but she couldn't see where you were and she tried to contact you with her mind, but she could never reach you. All she knew was that you were alive. It gave us hope that you'd be able to get away and come back. Josh and Joel even built a rocket ship together and flew to Sixam to search for you. Nobody there knew anything, or they wouldn't tell them if they did."
"They did all that to try to find me? That's amazing!"
"Of course they did. They love you Cale, just like I do and Joe L., Jon, Essa, Simeon, Morgyn, all your friends. Everyone! We've all been searching for you."
"Oh Sandy, my sweet, sweet Sandy, you have no idea how that makes me feel. I didn't even know you and the others even existed, and look at all you did for me."
"We love you Cale, it's as simple as that. They're all going to be so happy once they find out you're home. Back where you belong."
"Back where I belong, in your arms, you feel so good. You haven't changed a bit, the same sweet girl I fell in love with." "So, how did you get away from the aliens? What happened? Why did they keep you? Where were you? Oh, it doesn't matter right now, just hold me Cale."
"Let's go inside, I'll tell you everything. You're probably going to be shocked by a lot of it, but I hope you'll understand none of it was my choice and I didn't even know what I was doing anyway." "Okay, we have a lot of catching up to do, there are things I need to tell you too."
"I can imagine there is, a lot must've happened for you the past 7 years too." "Not really, mostly just searching and waiting for you to come home, but...well, let's go inside. And then later, we can, you know, celebrate." Sandy said with a smile.
"Ohhh Yeahhh, we have a lot of celebrating to do. Gawd, I know I keep saying it, but I love you Sandy." "I've waited 7 years to hear those words from you again, I'll never get tired of hearing them, ever..."
I will occasionally have issues using imgur. The site will just be like nah I don't want to work today. So it happens. Annoying. But it happens. And than it'll work again later when it feels like it.
I haven't gotten to play again to finish Velma's new house. I wasn't sure if the pronoun update broke mods and I haven't had the chance to check yet.
*Updated my May 28th post above! Yay! I tried a couple things and Voila! Imgur started working again. I don't know if Imgur was having problems, if it was the AdBlocker I turned off, or the fact Hubby went to bed and wasn't watching videos anymore, but I'm just glad I could get my screenshots loaded! Also, I have a couple new lighting Mods I tried out with this update. Some of you may use them too, they're both by Lotharihoe called Out of The Dark and Into the Light.
There isn't many inside screenshots in this update to see the effects very much of OOTD, but I think you can clearly see a difference outside with ITTL. It was early morning so naturally the light would be a warm color with the sunrise. I think it looks absolutely gorgeous! I love that the blue cast is gone so everything looks more natural too and my Sims blend in better with their background instead of standing out like a beacon. hehe Finally whites look white instead of gray for another thing too. What do you think? Anybody else use these lighting Mods? Just curious...
Anyway, I'll get started on comments/replies next! Hope y'all had a wonderful day/night!
Another gorgeous daily post pic! You took the words right out of my mouth about how good Aaron looks playing darts! As Cale would say, Ohhh Yeahhh! Whoa! Ted looks great and so does that shot with all the colors. Guessing he'd just nurtured that plant, or someone did. hehe
And there's another Hottie! Which reminds me, I have Audax in my game now, but the younger one I think. He looks nothing like yours. Hmm, I wonder if I could make him look similar. Worth a try anyway.
Good Yoshi! Growling at the vines! Too bad they can't rip them out with their teeth or something. Probably taste bad though. o.O WOW! I can see why you love those screenshots so much, they're exquisite! The sky looks so much more colorful in your game than mine. Do you have a lighting Mod perchance? Of course, maybe mine is too and I've just been too busy focused on other things to notice all that much. hehe
Aww, bummer about Hunter not visiting his parents when he could've. Oh well, I always thought that pop-up was a little too preachy in my opinion. *shrugs* HAHA! Uh yeah, calm down Blue dear. Aster has a very good-looking brother! Hi Stellan! Love the ears and pink hair.
Yes! I hate those red lines too! There actually is a Mod to get rid of those by Lotharihoe called 'No Call-to-Actions.' I saw it last night when I was looking for lighting Mods. Here's a link:
hehe Well you see he was just fiddling a lullaby for Ted. How kind of him eh? Agreed about the lighting during the mystery, absolutely gorgeous and so scary, but cool.
Aww, look at those two lovebirds celebrating, lots of kisses going on there. Yay! Congrats to Hunter for landing a flip! Good job Dude!
I figured you would've given Clarissa nails, yep! Some guys just seem to suit black nails more than others. I can see both Aaron and Hunter wearing it. I think all of my guys would look good with them, except maybe one, Nik, but only because he's a very proper old school vampire. Don't get me wrong, he'd look good with them, but they just don't suit his personality. hehe Maybe in dark mode though.
Yes! That's the story! I loved it! He hasn't updated it in a long time though. I understand where you're coming from with the aliens and wanting them to stay YA. That's one of the reasons Josh and Essa are vampires now, because I didn't want them to die. o.O I just love them too much, so they'll stay YAs forever.
It does make sense, yes! Another perk of this challenge is they DO become somewhat Super Sims in the process. Okay, well it must be the defaults you have or something then, default eyes or skin maybe? Something is different. I'm biased of course since he's my Sim, but I think he's gorgeous too. Makes me happy that you find him attractive as well.
Hmm, well I have never, ever gone over my maximum for Sims in a save. I came close with Cale's because of all the babies, but I fixed that in a hurry. Sooo, maybe Cale's ghost is okay and didn't get culled. I'll have to check next time I play. Thanks for the heads-up about that.
Yay! So glad to hear Blue will like Cale more after they defeat the Mother. Gah! DSV! Yep, coming up so dang fast now, next Wednesday. I have so much to do before then. o.O Can't wait to find out how you've tied the mystery and DSV together. My thought for Cale was pretty much the same as last year with Essa. Unless I think of something else, which I doubt.
Oh, okay. See? I don't know all that much about the beasts so I thought it was a jar of essence sitting there. HAHA! Opps.
Rowan! Gah! Phoebe! Oh yeah, I read those chapters, LOVED THEM! Maggie is such a funny writer for one thing. Oh man Artemis is such an adorable puppy! So cute tilting her head to the side. hehe I've updated now too and no lag, however I have that creepy thing where the Sims don't stop when you pause, their heads and body keep moving for a few seconds. I hate it! Makes getting screenshots kind of tough at times. The Devs know about it though so hopefully it'll be fixed in a patch soon.
Thank you so much for saying that about the challenge! I've learned a lot myself because of it and have been having a blast! I'll admit a little stressful at times, but that's my own fault for trying to write a full-blown story when I said I wouldn't. Ah well, such is life, I'm having fun, that's all that matters.
Until this challenge I never had my Sims have children with game generated townies either, with one exception, the Drifter Challenge. But just like you, I edited the bejeezers out of the guy so he looked nothing like he did originally. hehe
It gave mine Glimmerstones for buying a cauldron, yes. However, they did live in Glimmerbrook. I don't know if that makes a difference or not. *shrugs*
Of course, it has to make sense to you anyway. Nothing really makes that much sense in this game otherwise, but I know what you're saying. Okay, that explains why Cale didn't have to get eaten by a beast. Good! Glad I don't like those things so poor Cale didn't need to go through with that. hehe
Why does Leo have to be a child before he can be a teen? Do the genetics get messed up if you age a toddler straight up to a teen or older? If so, uh oh, that's exactly what I did with all of Cale's offspring. o.O
Fox was Evil, but I removed the trait and replaced it with uh...I don't remember now. LOL! But anyway, you wouldn't know because the only 'evil' thing he ever did was cackle now and then. Well, besides the other things he did in my head canon for him. Poor Blarfy, who is Timothy? If you already said I apologize for not remembering.
I haven't decided yet if I'll change Cale's traits, but I probably will. He has changed, he's matured, somewhat, at least for story purposes and he rarely shows his hot-headed, mean side anyway.
Cale! Gah! Okay, can't wait to find out how he got possessed. hehe
Love the two paintings Aaron did of Phil and Hunter. Great job Aaron! Ew! Ew! Ew! Gross! So gross! Bleh! Poor Aaron, that looks so, so disgusting! hehe
So glad these two are working together to defeat the Mother. Bravo Cale figuring out what needed to be tweaked for the vaccine! That's my guy! *proud Mama alert*
OMG! Cale! Gah! That's temporary, right? At least I hope it is. o.O Oh! Well, of course, he can just be vaccinated by Aaron! Crisis averted. hehe Cale looks terrifying when possessed. o.O Especially in this screenshot:
HAHAHA! Oh dear, Um, Aster, you did interrupt! Hilarious that Aaron actually told her though. Aww poor Aster freaking out. Guess I can't blame her though. He'll be fine Aster, just watch! Uh yeah, VERY bad plasma Cale. hehe
Um, sorry for another novel. o.O I really, really need to learn shorthand. hehe
Nice to see you in the thread posting again for Bryon! Missed them! I can so see he and Naoki taking off on a 'walk-about' for awhile. Very cool Randi will take care of their kids for them while they are gone.
Cale got a raise! Good for you dear! Proud of you! Good job DJ too, all those royalties and fame on top of it! \o/
Uh oh, here comes Paolo the Player. Ugh... Oh boy, that was tense. Of course Dylan figured out Paolo wants to be more than just friends. Poor guy has it so rough right now. Oh geez that Bigfoot costume is hilarious! And it was Geoffrey Landgraab? Huh, that's weird. I hope he wasn't uh, roleplaying with Nancy or something and forgot to take it off. o.o
Oh man, Wolfgang told Dylan about Paolo. It had to happen at some point.
Dang, he displeased the Sprites! Those things sure are devious. Great, they sent him to kiss more Sims. Poor guy. Ah, what's this? The founder of the society's ghost, very cool! Can't wait to find out what if anything she'll do to help Dylan or maybe make things worse. o.O
Ugh, I get glitches like that all the time. Just last night when Cale was visiting Sandy, she 'called' him asking to go out on a date with her. Uh, they were sitting and making out on the bed at the time. Sheesh! Silly game! *rolls eyes*
Okay, thanks for letting me know it's not just me that has problems with Imgur. That's a relief even if it is a bummer for both of us. As far as I can tell, there were very few Mods affected by the patch. I'd still take a look at Luth's thread though just to be sure.
@Karababy52
Will properly comment and reply to that novel later, but for now...
And there's another Hottie! Which reminds me, I have Audax in my game now, but the younger one I think. He looks nothing like yours. Hmm, I wonder if I could make him look similar. Worth a try anyway
I didn't change his base features when I made him over to put in Aaron's save, just a lot of CC and a beard can make a big difference
I think he uses this heterochromia set, but you might need this one too. Get both and whichever one is correct should be automatically applied when you download him anyway
*You would have downloaded these skin details for Aaron (so you will already have these files and don't need to download them again), but Audax uses them too so I figured I'd just post them here as well
- eyebags
- lip mask
And I think that should be all the CC he has, apart from his body hair and eyelashes which you already have Give me some time to fix up his outfits and put the adult, CC version of him up and then you can grab him, delete the young version, or rename one and make them father and son or whatever you want
Whichever you prefer!
Comments
Awww man, bummer about Caleb getting culled. It happens. Which reminds me, if an urn is in your Sim's personal inventory, can ghosts get culled from there? Cale has had that Uni student sitting in his since they left Britechester.
Congrats on the promotion for Aaron! \o/ Yay! He looks so happy with his bees eh? And happy to be at the library. Especially after he met Melissa there.
And there's our boys at the lab looking stunning! Oh, uh, Hello Blue. She doesn't like Cale eh? I guess I can understand, but she needs to accept Cale now since he and Aster are engaged and they gave her a grandson to love, Leo. Hopefully once they officially get married she'll change her tune about him.
Oh I love Blue's role in the mystery and your lore for the plants! Oh boy she really, really doesn't like Cale. Glad she agreed to work with them though and yes Blue, Aster and Leo would be very upset with you if you killed Cale. o.O
Absolutely gorgeous screenshots after they've opened the door. I love the scenic beauty of StrangerVille so much! Did Aaron just get eaten by Phil in that one shot? I see that jar down there.
Aww, love the bonus pics of Cale with Aster and Leo! Thank you for those!
I love seeing screenshots of toddlers with pets, never had a toddler/pet in the same household myself, so thanks for showing those screenshots! By the way, who is the toddler and dog? I'm so glad you love Leo so much you show him a lot. So curious what he looks like as a teen/YA, but I love surprises so don't show me! hehe
Yes, I figured enough time had passed that he had to be a teen by now. It will be a big shock to Cale for sure. He basically missed all of Joe L.'s childhood since he disappeared the day after he aged up to a child.
Of course, I know you'd never let any of the vampire Sims you care about die, including Cale! Love that you used a scientific reason for Leo's name in two ways. Makes it even more sweet and meaningful.
Okay, I haven't updated my game yet for the new patch, I heard some Simmers have a serious lag issue now because of the patch. But now you've given me a good reason to stop dragging my feet and cross my fingers I don't get the lag. Love that house, it's gorgeous! I have a thing for Victorian builds. Thanks so much for the link!
Very cool how you set up your first try with the StrangerVille mystery and even though it's a bummer he almost died and didn't complete the mystery, I'm happy to hear because of that Aaron will be your first Sim to have completed it! \o/ Makes me so happy when I read that my challenge has helped other Simmers to discover and do things in the game for the first time. Makes it worthwhile that I shared it on here instead of just doing it myself and not posting about it. I have other challenges I made up I've played on my own and makes me wonder if I should post those too. Hmmm, maybe.
Very true about the genetics not mixing well for a variety of reasons. For instance, I only kept 40 of Cale's offspring, less than half because the rest looked really bad. o.O In my game Don Lothario makes good looking males & females, not so much in other Simmers games. Morgyn is a toss-up. His daughter, Morrigan? I'm fond of her because she's Essa's granddaughter, but I will admit Morgyn's genetics didn't really do her any favors. Her twin, Odin, on the otherhand is stunning in my opinion. But that might be because he looks more like his Mom? I have no idea.
Oh yeah, the game will give any Sim that has a Spellcaster bloodline a glimmerstone, and if they buy a cauldron? They'll get one too whether they have the bloodline or not. At least in my game that's happened. I guess the game figures, 'Oh! You bought a cauldron, that means you want to be a Spellcaster, here, have a Glimmerstone!' hehe Ooo, Leo as a hybrid? That would be very interesting! I wish I'd known about and used Mods at the beginning of this challenge last year. I would've made Essa a hybrid vampire/spellcaster. Ah well...
Aaron had a work task to be eaten by a cowplant? Cale never got that one, weird. What level did Aaron start with in his career? Maybe it was lower than Cale's for some reason?
Awww, man, I'm sorry! Yes, I saw Aster and her brother when perusing your downloads. Almost got them, but for reason I didn't because I think they were teens? I don't remember. But, duh, I could've just aged her up. I'll get them when I get that house. I am curious if they would have a similar looking child to Leo in my game. I smell a new save in the near future to find out! Ohhh Yeahhh! hehe We shall see soon now about Cale & Sandy's children! Yes, don't spoil the surprise with Leo as I said above.
I loved all those hugs and smiles as Cale met Venus & Kit. So heartwarming! Oh yeah, I'm not that fussed about my guys eating by the pool, I agree, the views are lovely indeed.
Thanks! I love that shot too with the billboard, it spoke to me when I was looking for a scenic daily post pic.
hehe Yeah, the faces are hilarious with the vines discovery. They're so disgusted, as one would be. Funny how they shake/shiver in disgust too. hehe Ohhh, so that's why he's wearing the soccer shoes. Honestly, I like them better than the loafers.
Leo is a good boy! Kit is a naughty little alien.
I don't know, I might just let him keep those traits. I gave them to him purposely for an extra challenge for myself, but other than at the beginning of the challenge, it hasn't made much of a dent really in his personality. *shrugs* I guess I should let him have full autonomy more eh? o.O Er...nah...
Um, I apologize for the novel of a reply. o.O Again, please don't think you have to respond in kind, of course.
Today's Accomplishments:
The Curator
- Collect five crystals
- Collect five frogs
At the lake, I took a little time to do some frog hunting and was able to catch at least four. Maybe I'll breed them into a tiny frog army later.
We then did some more swimming and diving.
As we splashed around, the sky started clouding over and soon bug fat raindrops began to fall.
At first we just ignored it, we were already wet anyways, but soon the wind picked up and we heard a rumble of thunder in the distance, so we packed up and skedaddled back to the spa.
Once there, I decided I may as well host a meditation for those who might be feeling uptight about the weather.
We then made ourselves some food and ate out on the balcony, watching the storm rage around us.
I then held an evening yoga class.
Finally, Carol, Kaori, and I finished off the night with our own meditation.
Notes
"Fox! There you are! I remember, I remember my life after the fire before you found me now! It all came back to me when I was sleeping. I thought it was just a dream, but when I woke up, I remembered! Gah! I can't believe it!"
(Oh crap!)
(This is what you get for dragging your feet. You have to tell him now rather than later.)
"That's wonderful Cale, I'm glad, I knew you would eventually. But...okay, I have something to tell you I should've told you a long time ago. You might want to sit down for this, it...won't be easy to hear."
"Oh, okay, uh, what's up Buddy?"
"A few years ago I helped a student cheat by supplying her with the answers to tests."
"I felt sorry for her because she was being abused and assaulted by her Father when she didn't get good grades."
"We spent a lot of time together. She was so sweet, charming...and beautiful. I knew it was wrong, against all the rules of the university, but...I couldn't help it, I fell in love with her. We had a secret affair and would meet at my house every chance we could to be together."
"One night after we'd spent some time enjoying each other in bed, I left the room to use the bathroom. When I came back, I heard her talking to someone on her phone as I was about to open the bedroom door. It was another lover. They were laughing together about how she'd duped me into giving her test answers and more. She didn't love me Cale, she was just using me to get what she wanted."
"I pushed the door open and confronted her about it, told her I'd overheard her conversation and demanded an explanation. She laughed in my face about how easy it was to seduce me and called me pathetic. She got this coy look on her face and said she bet I still wanted her, that I couldn't get enough, all she had to do was kiss me and I'd do anything she wanted."
"She was standing in front of me very close by this time, touching my chest, pressing her naked body against mine and tried to put her arms around my neck to kiss me. I grabbed her arms to stop her and she went crazy, hitting me and calling me a loser, that she never loved me and other things I won't repeat. I'd finally had enough of her abuse and shoved her away from me to make her stop."
"I was so angry, I must've shoved her too hard because she fell to the floor and lay there completely still. She'd hit her head on one of my crystals from Sixam and I thought she'd only been knocked unconscious. But...then...she morphed into her real form, an alien. But not just any alien. I recognized her. She was the daughter of our Supreme Commander...and she was dead. Aliens will lose their disguise if they die when concealed. I'd killed her Cale. It was an accident, but I'd killed our leader's daughter!"
"Oh Gawd, Fox...I can't imagine how horrifying it must've felt to go through something like that. I'm so sorry Buddy."
"It gets worse because I panicked and did something I thought I had good reasons to do it and was the right thing to do at the time. I didn't want to expose Elara for the horrible alien she really was to our leader and embarrass her, or expose myself either for giving her the means to cheat and having an affair with a student. I wasn't thinking straight Cale, I think I was in shock. So...I...took her body to my cabin in the woods and buried her there."
"I thought no one would know and all the secrets and lies would be buried with her. However, Eros had come for a visit and saw what I was doing, he watched me bury her and then strolled over with a smirk on his face. He threatened to tell the Supreme Leader, saying if she found out what really happened and how rotten her precious little girl turned out to be, I'd be permanently banned from Sixam and a disgrace to all aliens. I'd also be a disgrace to the University and our Father's well respected name would be ruined."
"Eros made a deal with me. If I helped him with an alien Mind Control Project he was leading, for as long as he needed me, he would keep my secret. I agreed. I didn't think I had a choice. Eros began sending me humans he had programmed for the project to keep an eye on them and report back to him on their progress in the project. They were all the appropriate age to be students of the university so nothing would look suspicious. Unbeknownst to these humans, they were programmed to seduce and pollinate a number of other humans to install the Mind Control mechanism into the babies during the process."
"This mechanism could be activated at any time after the human reaches their teenage years by Eros or the other senior members of the project. When activated, all those with the Mind Control DNA would be under their control, an alien induced army to ultimately wipe out the human race. The humans doing this would have no idea since they were programmed to wipe the memories of those they had pollinated and their memory would be wiped of their encounters with them as well. Once the number of babies they had been programmed to conceive were born, a memory reactivator would release their lost memories and the data bank tattooed on their arms for easy access by the aliens tasked to look after them, would disappear."
"Cale...I didn't find you by accident passed out in front of my house, Eros dropped you there for me to find. I knew you were coming, you...were programmed by Eros...and...Venus for the Mind Control Project. You pollinated enough females to produce 100 babies and the 100th must've been born last night. That's why you got your memories back."
"What!?"
"YOU! YOU KNEW ALL THIS AND DIDN'T TELL ME? HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME? HOW!?"
"I wanted to tell you, I was going to tell you, later today in fact. I began to hate myself for what I was allowing to happen, especially after you came to me. I began to care about you, I DO care about you, you and I became friends, best friends and I stopped reporting anything to Eros about you. I quit the program. I shouldn't have done it in the first place. I was a fool and a coward. I'm so sorry, I don't know what else to say."
"What else was I supposed to do? I kept telling myself that. I messed up by trying to protect the Leader from the truth, protect my Father's good name, the pollinator name and...myself."
"But none of it mattered. Eros didn't care about the project, he just hated humans and hated me because my Mother was a human and my Father left Eros' Mother for her, he loved her and she was pregnant with me. He used me and I let him. I am a loser and a fool, just like Elara sai-"
"Stop, just stop it Fox."
"This isn't about you, it's about me. You can have all the reasons in the world to try to justify what you did, but the fact remains, you used me. Me and all the other humans Eros programmed, all those women, all those babies. We meant nothing to you, nothing. Just a way to keep your secrets. Our very lives were taken away from us, our memories of those we love, like my Son, and...Sandy."
"Sandy! Oh man, it's been years. She's probably moved on by now, fell in love again, maybe even married. I've probably lost her because of you."
"I'm so sorry Cale, you're right there's no excuse."
"My Son was just a child, I missed his entire childhood, he's probably calling someone else Daddy now. My little Joe Birdy..."
"I just can't believe this, it's so messed up. All those women, how could I not know? I thought there was something wrong with me. What a joke! All those times I whined about not getting laid and you knew, YOU KNEW it wasn't true. I bet you got a good laugh out of that."
"No, never, Cale. It made me feel horrible and guilty. So guilty and miserable."
"AHHHHH! FOX, YOU'RE MY BEST FRIEND! At least I thought you were, but best friends don't betray each other like this, they don't lie and hurt each other!"
"I know, I hate myself Cale and I wouldn't blame you if you hated me too, I don't deserve to be your friend."
"I don't hate you Fox, I should, but I don't. I just don't like you very much right now."
"It hurts Fox. It hurts so much. You've been so good to me, you seemed like someone I could trust. I did trust you, with everything. I tried so hard to make you proud of me. I looked up to you. You were always there for me when I needed you. We were buddies...and now I find out it was all a lie. You made me love you Fox, I thought you loved me too, you said you did. But, how do you expect me to believe that, or anything you say anymore?"
"I do love you Cale, that's the truth. You made me love you too. It's the very reason I stopped helping Eros. I don't expect you to believe me, but it's true. I don't deserve it, but I hope you can forgive me...someday. Please? I don't want to lose you. I'll spend the rest of my life trying to make it up to you and make things right for everyone that I've hurt. If you want me to leave, I'll understand. But I hope we can get through this, somehow...together..."
"I don't want to lose you either. I should beat the crap out of you and maybe I still will, I'm just so dang angry right now and not just at you. I'm angry and confused with myself. How can I still love you after all this? It makes no sense, but it's true."
"I don't know either, but I'm glad you do."
"I meant what I said. I'll spend the rest of my life trying to make it up to you and everyone else. I'll find a way to deactivate the Mind Control trigger, I promise. And anything else you want or need. I'll make this right Cale, no matter what it takes. Venus too. She already knows everything and wants to do all she can to make things right as well."
"There's no way you can fix it all Fox, it's just too much."
"I know. But I can do my best to fix what I can."
"Is there anything more you haven't told me yet? Do you know any of the women that had my children? How do I find out?"
"There is more, and I'll tell you everything you want to know if I know the answers myself. Eros didn't tell me a lot. He enjoyed just giving me orders and expected me to carry them out no questions asked. I do know a few who had your children, but not very many. Eros' daughter is responsible for two of them. Your Son, Joe L. and another Son, Neil. As for the rest? The records of them were wiped away when you got your memory back. But if you are determined to find them all, I'll help you search for them."
"Incredible, so that crazy therapist was right all along...Alright, I guess we have a lot of things to work out now. There's still the Mother to defeat too. But...I want, no, I NEED to go and see Sandy and my Son first. I just hope it's not too late...
I have so much I want to get through before I have to disappear for finals LOL
Blue met with him the morning after he'd opened the door with the keycard, and mentioned that he'd probably need a hazmat suit to get through the mist.
"Great," he muttered. "Where the hell am I going to find one of those?"
Turned out, the answer to that question was Erwin.
Sigrid, the scientist he'd met at the library previously, agreed to help him with creating a spore filter for the hazmat suit once he'd name dropped Blue and mentioned that he was working with her.
She'd need spore clusters to analyse in order to craft it. And to get the spore clusters...
"You'll need an infection scanner," she said. Helpful.
"So where can I get one of those?"
Apparently, one could get an infection scanner at the bar. Well, not the bar itself. But from the military personnel who frequented the bar.
Aaron had never been one to just go up to someone and randomly introduce himself, but he approached an officer anyway. There were plenty of them to choose from.
The man introduced himself as Officer Cecil Rapp.
"So, what's been going on with that lab?" Aaron asked lamely.
"Someone broke in," Cecil said, shaking his head. "They released spores - we're using our Infection Scanners to find them."
"An infection scanner, huh?"
Cecil nodded excitedly, then seemed to abruptly remember that he wasn't supposed to be discussing things with civilians. "It's really cool, and can do all these- I mean- hey, that's classified!"
"I could really use the help, Cecil... I'm a scientist, you see... Well, a botanist. But still a scientist. And I really need that infection scanner."
Cecil looked at him skeptically. "Convince me," he said, and Aaron inwardly groaned.
"Uhh..." he said, and then he had a ridiculous idea. "You see these guns? I climbed Mount Komorebi with these guns..."
"Oh?" Cecil asked, and Aaron wondered if he was actually impressed for a moment, when the officer grinned and said, "Drop and give me 50."
Eww, press-ups.
"Okay, you got me, wow!" Cecil said after what felt like an age.
"Here." He handed Aaron a small device. "You can use it to reveal spore clusters that are otherwise invisible to the naked eye." Then as he prepared to leave the bar, he turned and said, "You ever considered joining the military? You make that bomber jacket look great. And that was an impressive display of strength. Don't tell anybody you got that from me though."
Aaron blinked. "Thank you?" But Cecil was already gone.
Aaron headed outside with the scanner and tried it out across from the bar. He frowned when no spores appeared. And then it dawned on him that it should probably be used where the spore concentration was highest. Back at the lab.
He pulled out his Foxbury ball to lose himself in the mindless and repetitive art of juggling and thought about what he'd gotten himself into.
It was back to the desert and the lab, where he scanned the area and came up with some spore clusters.
It was heading into the late afternoon, and he headed home since he didn't want Hunter to worry about where he was.
At home he changed clothes and played with Yoshi.
Hunter stared out at the massive cloud circulating over the desert and shuddered.
Aaron called him inside, saying that the NYE TV was on.
Another year together ended, and a new one began.
"Wait," Hunter muttered. "It was our anniversary and I- I forgot-"
"Shh, it's okay."
"Besides..." Aaron continued. "We can still celebrate..."
Aaron found he had enough spore clusters to get the infection profile data that Sigrid required, and donned his lab coat ready to go back to the lab and carefully avoid the misty hallway.
He went back to the library to tell Sigrid the good news, and she told him she'd send him the spore filter in the mail.
When the filter arrived in the mail, he put it on the suit and headed through the hallway...
"WHAT THE FUUUUUU-"
He stared up at the massive plant in complete and utter disbelief.
"Crap."
When he finally picked his jaw up off the floor and got the hell out of there, he sat at one of the picnic tables in front of the library and simply stared at the cloud.
This was turning into a much bigger mess than he'd ever anticipated.
I have extra pics that didn't fit with the story flow of the post but I want to post them anyway
@Karababy52
May 24: Okay all of Cale's kids that you kept are gorgeous of course but WOW Chris and Colton are beautiful!!!
Thank you SO much for letting Cale make babies with Clarissa, they are so hot
From the others, I love Roxanne, Elisabeth, Shawn (
Oh also on Neil - I think he is a hybrid, yes. He'll have a few alien interactions available to him, and a hidden trait called 'OccultAlienPart'. I assume Cale was already human when he was born so Neil will be a regular alien-human hybrid.
That eye issue is weird... Sounds similar to Caleb Vatore's genetic eye issues. And strange with the weight thing too.
~~~
I don't have time to reply to all of your comments to me from page 75, but I'll reply to this bit:
It'll become clear after they defeat the Mother (and a lot of exposition happens because I have ambitious story ideas LOL).
~~~
May 25: Okay don't judge me but reading this update actually made me tear up a little? Like even though we as the readers know what Cale's gone through, he didn't remember up until that point and seeing all those screenshots with that filter just struck a nerve with me for some reason! *sniff*
Or maybe that was just the romantic screenshots with Sandy and the ones with little toddler Joe because they made me tear up when you originally posted them HAHA.
"I remember!"
Anyways I am a mess now so thanks for that
@Shadami
Dumb game glitch with Aaron losing his whole face LOL. Cale lost his freckles, and Aaron lost every bit of CC that made him, him
Well Cale couldn't stay a spellcaster while his partner is a vampire according to the lore, could he? Oh actually I did mention to Kara that Cale was going to be a vampire since I decided he and Aster were endgame in my save, but I never mentioned it in my actual posts themselves so that's fine haha. So no you didn't miss anything
I'll get started on comments/replies now. I hope y'all had a fabulous day/night!
Erwin to the rescue again with a suit!
hehe Of course he takes a break to play with his soccer ball, AND at the lab too I see.
Oh Wow, he went down there all by himself! Poor guy, what a shock that must've been. Yep, crap is right Aaron, this is bigger than you'd ever imagined. Gorgeous shot of the crater cloud. Love how you caught the lightening in it. Aaron sure loves his bees! Appears they love him too! What level is he now with the Flower Arranging? Just curious. That shot of Phil with his tempting cake is amazing! I don't like those beasts, but I have to admit that screenshot is impressive. Nice pause and set-up!
Thanks about Cale's babies!
I agree so, so much! They're such hunks! Thank you for making Clarissa, she's beautiful. I'm so happy they're vampires as well. 🧛♂️ It's interesting how one looks like Clarissa and the other a bit more like Cale. I was very surprised she gave him twins too. She helped him finish the challenge faster for one thing, but more beefcake to enjoy as well. 💪
I would agree with your choices of the best looking, I have a few other personal favorites too. You think Neil is a hybrid? I hope so! You're right, Cale was a normal human when Aurora got herself pregnant with him. I'd already removed Cale's Spellcaster status.
I'd heard about Caleb's eye issue but have never had any of my Sims have children with him to see it for myself. Those issues with the babies were very interesting. I'd probably not known about them if I didn't have so many offspring to check out. hehe So there's one good thing, besides all the great kids to thank for this side challenge. Ohhhh, so that's what Phoenix Labs is about. Can't wait to find out the details! I have ambitious plans for what's left of this month too. Whether I actually go through with it remains to be seen. o.O
It's okay, I'm not going to judge you for that since I teared up myself looking for screenshots I wanted to use for it. Makes me sad how much he's missed of his Son's life and time with Sandy. The romantic ones got to me too and Joe Birdy! Gah! Sorry you're a mess now, but I won't lie, makes me smile to think my little story affected you like that.
Notes
Only a daily post pic for today. Tomorrow will be a sweet, sweet Homecoming for Cale! Hope y'all had a wonderful day/night!
Aaron spent some time drinking and playing darts at the bar, because that's definitely something you do while a giant plant living underneath an abandoned lab threatens to start an actual apocalypse
Eww, these vines!
I actually have no idea if he's ever played darts in his life, but here goes!
Not gonna lie, he looks great while playing
I spotted my (very minor) makeover of Ted Roswell while Aaron was at the library:
And it looks like what's going on here has attracted the attention of spellcasters too...
Hello again, Audax. You know, I probably would have had a little story bit attached to these screenshots but honestly I can't be bothered and Aaron didn't go out and say hi to him anyway
Turns out, just like they can growl at the paranormal stuff, dogs growl at the vines too!
I just liked these screenshots a lot so I'm posting them
Hunter's father called with that 'hey honey, it's Dad' thing, and I had Hunter decline the invitation to visit because I needed to focus on Aaron...
The sad thing was, Hunter's investigator gig that night was in San Myshuno so he totally could have gone and visited his parents, whoops...
You know Blue, if you're this freaked out about ghosts (and not even actual ghosts) then maybe it's not the best idea for you to be helping Aaron defeat the Mother
And I guess it's time for an official introduction to Aster's teen brother, Stellan.
And yep, that's him. LOL
Now back into the stuff that actually has to do with the mystery, Aaron made his first experimental vaccine (and the second, I think. I believe he needed more stuff to make the third). Also I just need to say - those red flashing outlines are so immersion breaking when they're in screenshots! I hate it! Is it even possible to turn them off?
Back to the bar to find an (un)willing possessed participant to test the vaccine on, but first let's make a triumphant return to the very beginning of this challenge and eat some free bar chips! Those chips were such a lifesaver
First victim is of course Ted
HAHA ages ago Aaron stole a violin from the Magic Realm I think and just like his darn ball he pulls it out at the absolute worst times
Another victim for the second experimental vaccine. And oh, it's the first zombie Aaron ever saw!
Gosh I love the lab lot when it's at this stage of the mystery, looks so cool!
Getting more bizarre fruit to stock up on vaccines...
Love Day rolled around yet again, and so it's been a whole sim year since Hunter proposed.
And so off to the bar for a date! Also I apparently have a thing for men in buttoned shirts now...
They did a group dance and...
Hunter finally landed a backflip again, after all those fails in Windenburg! What an achievement!
And love that the droid is doing all the hard work of picking those locks
Awesome that he gets to fly again too!
May 9: Go DJ! He and Poe are making some great progress in Batuu.
@SoulGal7
HAHA oh dear, of course he had to swipe a book while at 'work'
Oh wow, congrats for completing The Curator aspiration!
He looks amazing in that robe and mask.
Did not expect Dennis to be a member though
The lore for the secret society is fascinating! Not surprised that those sprites have a dark side
But I'm sure everything will work out for Dylan in the end... eventually...
May 21: Congrats on your promotion Adam!
Nice that Mila and Moira came to visit their children
Hello Aaron!
Oh wow, Dylan is on a roll with completing aspirations! That reward trait could come in very handy!
HAHA poor DJ
Yay, well done to Dylan and his team for that soccer win!
Oh, Dylan! A ghost? An ELDER ghost? o.O
@DramaticJedi5
Her garden is developing very nicely! She'll be making a tonne of money from that in no time
Oh, awesome that she met Kiyoshi and Robin at the gym! Making friends already!
You'll get the hang of rock climbing soon, Krista
Oh by the way, I have Krista in Mount Komorebi in my game, and she's living in my challenge sim's old house
@RememberJoy
"As if one burn wasn't enough for her"
Then of course she hits herself in the head! Serves her right
Kaori getting in on the fire action too is hilarious, she's setting a very bad example for Carol LOL
May 25: Aww, lovely daily pic of Adam and Kaori snuggling while sitting at the pool
Carol's going to totally take over Adam's job at this point
OMG that praying mantis (I think) that Carol is catching is so cute
LOL of course a random ghost shows up, poor Kaori getting scared
@Shadami
I love how you incorporate details from everyone else's stories.
I think Morgan is an absolutely gorgeous sim too! Come on Velma, get with the program
"I’m just going to say that Hunter popped over to babysit again because he’s awesome like that" - Yes, yes he is
"What's wrong with Dylan's butt DJ?" HAHAHA
"I just find him extremely attractive" Ahahaha so do I
Aww bummer about the panel showing Aaron as only Velma's acquaintance, how dumb!
I love Hunter being the default babysitter so much, though I suppose if you're integrating some of my lore that's going to be a problem when Velma gets to Glimmerbrook... Poor Hunter.
Oh my goodness look at Morgan trying to freeze to death sitting by the pool
Very fun party screenshots!
Ah Cale holding Daphne, so adorable!
@Karababy52
The alien story was Remember Me Until Tomorrow, right? By Cement. I was following that too! I submitted a human sim for it
I have a rule now that even when it doesn't make sense at all, my aliens will never age beyond YA. I very rarely have my aliens actually wear their disguises which is why having Blue wearing hers when she met Cale and Aaron at the lab was such a big deal. Although actually, in Blue's case, her not aging does make sense since she's a scientist and has probably developed some anti-aging serum or whatever LOL. Or has a constant supply of potions of youth
Well yeah of course I had to name it Phil!
I have no idea how Aaron is so good at everything HAHA. But I mean he is on his way to becoming a sort of super sim so it makes sense
I haven't done anything to Cale, like I've said! He's just THAT good looking naturally
~~~
Page 76: I have no idea about ghost culling if the urn is in the personal inventory. Oh wait... I just remembered I put Caleb in the family household inventory because Adonis was constantly mourning him and it was getting annoying, and he must have gotten culled while he was in there because the game wouldn't know to give me the notification that his spirit is fading. Then when I brought him out in StrangerVille, I clicked on his urn and there was no option to call forth the ghost, so I checked in Lilith's household and he was completely gone from her relationship panel. Then I realised he'd been culled and I was super bummed.
I gave him an epitaph:
So I assume that the ghost in Cale's inventory has probably been culled by now. I might be wrong though! But personal inventory versus household inventory, I'm not sure if there's a difference.
Yup, Aaron definitely does love his bees! I think he's got a really good relationship with them now
Blue... she's like the *really* overprotective dad with the shotgun lol I mean, I alluded to her disliking Cale way back before Leo was even born and even though Leo is a toddler now I think she still feels that way. But yeah they'll have a reconciliation after this whole business with the Mother is all done and dusted.
Even more lore on the plants and who created them coming later, and I've figured out how I can tie it into the transition to Del Sol Valley. I hope it doesn't sound too stupid LOL
Jar? I think it's part of the sprinkler, Aaron didn't get eaten until his job asked him to lol
Of course I had to post those pics of Cale and his family!
That toddler is Theseus Straud, the son of Rowan Straud (Adonis and Galatea's son from Maggie's legacy-bachelor) and my sim Phoebe, who won Rowan's bachelor challenge
The adult dog is Rowan's Australian cattle dog, Cooper, who is the puppy's father. The puppy's mother is Phoebe's husky, Nova. The puppy is named Artemis
I've updated to the most recent patch and I don't think I've had any bad lag so far.
No worries! It is a very nice house!
Yeah Aaron is going to be a lot of firsts for me this year!
This challenge is honestly so much fun and deciding to join in for this year is probably one of the best decisions I've ever made, so thank you for creating it!
Yeah sometimes even combined with a sim as hot as Cale, townie genetics can be... not great o.O My sims do not have children with game generated randoms, not even in my 100 baby challenges! Apart from three of the babies born when I was using Morgan as my matriarch. The only time I will allow it is if I've heavily edited the townie
I don't think Don has had many children in my saves so I can't really speak for his genetics. However, he was the father of two of Elle's children in her 100 baby challenge and I think they looked mostly like her so were absolutely fine of course HAHA
Oh yeah Morgyn's never had kids in my game. I did have plans to use him as a donor in Elle's 100 baby challenge though just to see what would happen, but that challenge is going absolutely nowhere.
Oooh, okay that explains it then. I just thought the game was being dumb
Yeah I'm just thinking my lore over and trying to find out if there's a place for Leo to be a hybrid and what it'd mean for the story. I mean, it's my lore and I can do whatever I want with it but it's not fully developed right now and I'll have to see how things go. I definitely think it would be fun for Leo to be a hybrid but it's just whether or not it makes sense.
Aaron got the same degree as Cale (distinguished with honours) so he started at the same career level. I think the game recognised that Aaron had grown a cowplant on his home lot, and so pulled it from the list of possible tasks. His work from home task the next day was to drink the essence, so that sequence of tasks clearly isn't random (it'd probably always be 'eaten by cowplant' -> 'drink cowplant essence' if get eaten was randomly pulled first). Since Cale doesn't have a cowplant, he'd never get that task because the game knows it would be impossible to complete. He hasn't grown one on his home lot and it would be unreasonable for the game to give it to him. And besides, Aaron got that task after he got promoted to PhD of Pollen.
I think the ones I have on the gallery are both YA, but it's no biggie!
Haha now I have to figure out the right timeline to actually age Leo up... And of course he has to be a child before he can be a teen, boring!
Wait what, Fox is evil??? o.O I never realised that at all!
Oh, so Cale likes to hit Blarfy in your game too? Hahaha I'm not surprised since that's basically his favourite pastime in my game:
Oh also don't ask me why he doesn't like Timothy either haha
Or don't, it's your game of course!
Whoops I just wrote a novel, I'm sorry
So, Bryon and Naoki have been 'living' aka were on a looong vacation with the family for like almost half a year, but they noticed that for example Randi (Bryon's mom) and Maria (Naoki's mom) started missing their homes. I mean, they're not the youngest anymore, you know? It was a nice, long vacation, but it was enough. Not for Bryon and Naoki, though. The family talked, and they came to the conclusion that Randi would take in Audrey, Alex and Noël (Bryon and Naoki's kids) for the time being, so that Bryon and Naoki could turn their vacation into a hiking with just the two of them before returning home and continue their normal lives again.
--
(July, day 19)
This is not a goodbye. This is a 'see you soon' and a 'get home safe'. Naoki and I are going on our adventure, together, just the two of us. I'll miss our families, a lot. I'll miss our kids, our home, but it'll be so worth it.
So he did what he loved the most, to work through what was getting him down and into a better headspace. He painted.
Phil, a scientific marvel, his tempting cake tongue in full view.
Hunter, petting the beast.
Aaron almost couldn't believe his eyes when his employer assigned him the task of... getting eaten by a cowplant when he filed a request to continue working from home. He'd been eaten enough times already by those cowplants at the Magic Realm! Plus, how did they know he even had a cowplant?
"Better be paid well for this," he grumbled. Maybe it would have been worth it to actually go into work for once... Nah. He still remembered his first day on the job and how excruciatingly boring it had been. From what he could remember, being eaten by a cowplant was uncomfortable, but definitely not boring.
"Okay, Phil..." he muttered when he noticed that Phil's tongue was out. The beast was hungry. "Here goes..."
He grabbed the cake and tried to pretend it was the most appetizing thing ever.
*GULP*
"Ugh..." Why???!!!
Yoshi barked in apparent concern.
"Thanks, boy," Aaron sighed wearily. "I'm fine."
Aaron headed over to Cale's place to discuss his worries about creating the vaccine.
They looked over the formula Aaron had devised and made adjustments as Cale suggested them, leaving Aaron facepalming and wondering how he didn't catch it in the first place.
"Thank you for your help, Cale."
"Don't mention it. We're working together to defeat this."
Aaron had told Cale about the plant in the basement of the lab, and the vampire had immediately gone out to look at it himself and agreed that it needed to be destroyed.
Cale had only gone out intending to hunt and come right back, choosing a random passerby in the dead of the night, drinking deeply, and then flying away so no-one would see him.
Simple, right?
Wrong.
"Cale? CALE!" Aster waved a frantic hand in front of her unresponsive fiance's face, hoping he'd come to his senses. He looked... horrifying. Like a freaking monster.
"What in the name of the Watcher is wrong with- Oh, s***!"
"€ΜβŘΔĆ€ ŦĦ€ ΜØŦĦ€Ř ŞĦ€ ŴIŁŁ βŘIŇG ¥ØU P€ΔĆ€"
"Cale-!" He only cackled madly in response and threw his head back.
"ŁØØK ŦØ ŦĦ€ ŞK¥ IŦ Ŵ€ŁĆØΜ€Ş UŞ ΔŁŁ"
She stared at him, thinking back to what he and Aaron had been discussing during the day. A vaccine.
And even though it was 2am, she decided to call him, hoping like mad that he'd made the adjustments to the formula and had it working.
She definitely wasn't expecting him to actually be awake.
"Aaron. Please tell me you've got the right formula for the vaccine-"
"I was going to go back to the lab and make it tomor- I mean, today," he replied. His breathing was heavy, as if he had been exerting himself, and she suddenly realised why he was awake.
"I- did I interrupt something?" she asked, and he drew in a deep breath.
"No, we just finished, actually..."
"Please don't say anything else." She heard him briefly snort, and then sigh.
"Why... why were you asking about the vaccine?"
"Because Cale is... he's... oh hell..."
"He's infected?" Aaron whispered, his voice filled with horror.
"Yes! He's yelling s*** about the Mother and running around with his head flopping back like his neck's been snapped!" She tried to pull herself together, there was no use getting hysterical, but she absolutely hated seeing the man she loved like this. "I- I think he drank from one of them... and then he got it!"
"Okay, okay," Aaron said quickly. "I'll... um... No, it'll look too suspicious if I go out there now... plus it's, you know, 2am..."
"I don't care if you're about to pass out-"
"That's what you get for calling me at 2am! I think... I think he'll be normal after a while," Aaron sounded extremely weary and tired, and she suddenly felt bad for springing this on him.
"Please, when you do get a vaccine that works..."
"I will give it to Cale, yes. Why would you even need to ask?"
She could have sobbed in relief.
And when Cale 'awoke' at 4am and asked her why she looked so upset, she actually did sob, and he instantly took her in his arms, having no memory of the previous two hours but only knowing that something had deeply, truly upset his future wife and that she needed comfort.
But there was a strange, fuzzy feeling in his head whenever he looked at those ugly plants that dotted the landscape, and an odd urge to expand his garden.
"Bad plasma?" he asked softly, and she only looked at him and muttered, "You could say that."
It was Saturday morning and everyone was up and doing things again. Cale was off to work.
And Cale got a promotion! Woot! He is now a Landscaper and makes $59/simoleons/hr.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
And, DJ has been busy writing books. Look at the royalties he is receiving now. He is almost Level 7 in Writing.
In fact, DJ is doing so well, he is now a Notable Newcomer!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
And then there was a knock on the door...
Dylan went to answer it, and standing there was Paolo. Dylan tried to act surprised to see him.
Dylan: "Paolo! Sul Sul! Um...I...er...didn't know you were in town. What are you doing here?"
Paolo: "Hey Dylan! Long time no see. Oh, I'm just taking a course here for my job. Going to be here for 2 weeks."
Dylan: "So...how did you know where I lived?"
Paolo: "Well, I...er...saw Wolfgang the other night and found out you were living here."
Dylan: "Oh, that's cool. So, do you want to come in and hang out?"
Paolo: "Actually, bro, I'm here to see Morgan. I was going to take her out for a coffee before she had her Debate Showdown."
Dylan looked at Paolo, and decided to play it cool, "You're here to see Morgan? Yeah, okay...I'll let her know you're here..."
And just then Morgan came out the door.
Morgan: "Paolo...er...what are you doing here?" she asked glancing nervously at Dylan.
Paolo: "Well, I was hoping you were free to have coffee before your Debate Showdown. I...er...needed to talk to you..."
Morgan laughed nervously, "A coffee? Yeah, sure...a coffee sounds great..."
Dylan: "I didn't know you two knew each other that well...but I guess living in Windenburg, you would..." he said looking at them both.
Paolo: "Yeah, actually Morgan and I went to high school together..." he started to say and then saw Morgan look frantically at him.
Dylan: "Well, it's always good to meet one of Morgan's "old friends" from high school," he said looking pointedly at Morgan, "Anyway, have a great time catching up. I...er...have some studying to do inside. See you around Paolo...and um...good luck on the Debate Showdown, Morgan..."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
As Morgan and Paolo walked off together, Paolo looked closely at Morgan, "He doesn't know that I was your boyfriend, does he?"
Morgan: "No...I...I haven't had the chance to tell him. Everything happened so suddenly seeing you again..."
Paolo: "Yeah, I get it. Look, thanks for going for a coffee with me. I just wanted to apologize for just leaving like I did the other night. This really weird thing happened to me..."
Dylan stood on the sidewalk a moment longer and saw Morgan and Paolo hug.
Dylan was seething inside, but tried to control his emotions. He remembered what had happened at Pepper's Pub the other night, and didn't want the sprites reading his emotions again.
Dylan thinking, "It's just coffee, right? With a friend, right? And Paolo is her friend, right? Oh dang, no...Paolo's something more...dang I just know it...I feel I'm somehow losing her...but I just don't know how to fix it..."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
And once Morgan and Paolo had left, Dylan saw a female sim walking on the bridge...and before he knew it...the curse took over and Pari Nair was his girlfriend.
And it seems that BigFoot was watching them kiss. None other than Geoffrey Landgraab.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Dylan went home afterwards and saw Wolfgang sitting at the kitchen table. He sat down opposite him.
Wolfgang: "Hey bro, you're looking a bit glum this morning..."
Dylan: "My life stinks..."
Wolfgang: "Oh right....you have an A+ GPA and you're a soccer star...oh yeah...your life is so bad..."
Dylan: "Okay, let me re-phrase that...my love life stinks..."
Wolfgang: "Okay, I can relate to that. So, you want to talk about it?"
Dylan: "I don't know...everything seems so complicated..."
Wolfgang: "Okay...well, I'm here for you bro if you need to talk. So, um...who was at the door?"
Dylan frowned, "Paolo...here to pick up Morgan. They're going for a coffee together..."
Wolfgang: "Paolo dropped by again?"
Dylan: "What do you mean again? He was here before?"
Wolfgang: "Um...yeah...the other night. He just dropped in to see..."
Dylan interrupted, "...Morgan... He dropped by to see Morgan, didn't he?"
Wolfgang: "Well, yeah...sort of...but we chatted for a bit, too. We all knew each other in high school..."
Dylan:"Yeah so about that. What's the deal with Morgan and Paolo? I mean I haven't seen them hang around before..."
Wolfgang: "Er...yeah...they haven't...not since Morgan's first year of high school...he was older....and he graduated...and he moved on..."
Dylan looked at Wolfgang, "Bro, we're best buds, right? So, what is it you're not telling me about Morgan and Paolo? Do they have a history together, or something?"
Wolfgang looked nervous, "Hey Dylan...wow...I didn't see the time...I have really got to get practicing some SimScufffle... Bad showing last night for our team..."
Dylan: "Wolfgang...you're avoiding the question. So what about Morgan and Paolo...?"
Wolfgang: "Geez, Dylan...maybe this is a question that you should ask Morgan. I don't think I should be the one to tell you..."
Dylan looked distraught: "Tell me what? That she's crushing on him? That, like, they're going out now? What? Just tell me, I can take it..."
Wolfgang: "Fine, but when she tells you, don't tell her I told you..."
Dylan: "Okay, I promise...now what the plumbob is going on?"
Wolfgang took a deep breath, "Paolo is Morgan's ex-boyfriend. They were a couple in high school. She was a junior, he was a senior. It was pretty serious. Then, Paolo graduated and he dumped her. She took it really hard. Paolo never made contact with her after the break-up...well, that is... until a few days ago. Now, Paolo seems to be around all the time again..."
Dylan: "Oh my plumbobs! Paolo is her ex-boyfriend....dang it! I knew something was up...he's trying to get her back...and she's falling for it. Dang!" he said between shouting forbidden words.
Wolfgang: "Dylan...hold up...that doesn't mean anything has changed between the two of you...she cares for you, bro...a lot..."
Dylan seemed to calm down for a moment. Dylan then took a deep breath and shook his head, "Look, thanks for telling me bro...but I...I can't give her what she wants...not the way I am...not...not like this..."
Dylan got up from the table and headed upstairs. When he came back, Dylan had changed and announced that he was going out, and left the house.
Wolfgang sat there thinking, "Oh geez...why didn't Morgan just tell Dylan about Paolo...and what the heck was Paolo coming over this morning for? I thought that Morgan told me that she and Paolo were done...Geez...Dylan is right...his love life does stink..."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Dylan headed to the sprite ceremonial grounds and when he got there, he went to the altar and began speaking to them.
Dylan: "Sprites...I know you can hear me. I am losing the one I care about...please release me. There is another sim who is trying to take her away from me...I don't know how much more I can endure. Please, I beg you...release me from this curse. I know it was one of you who did this. I just don't know why... She is the only one I want to be with...she is my true love. But, I can't make her happy if I am cursed. I can't show her how much I love her. Please...please...release me from this curse..."
Dylan removed a rare object from his pocket and placed it on the altar. But, this time, instead of the sprites giving him a positive moodlet, they became angry and started pestering him.
Dylan: "I gave you the best item I had. What more can I give you? Why are you displeased?"
And then it's as if he heard the sprites whispering to him, taunting him as they flew by and attacked him, "...never let you go..." they seemed to hiss at him.
Dylan looked around. Had he heard right? The sprites weren't going to release him? Why not?
Dylan shouted at the sprites flying around him: "Why won't you release me? I told you...she's the one..." and then Dylan stopped short. Oh my gosh! What if...what if Morgan doesn't feel that I'm her true love? The realization suddenly saddened him.
Dylan: "Sprites...if I kiss her and she does not feel that I am her true love, then let her have the happy life that she deserves...without me. Let her find happiness with someone else who will love her forever. She deserves that. As for me, I will come back here and serve you until the end of my days, because then, I will have no other purpose in life. I will have lost the one I truly love. So do with me as you wish then..."
And Dylan heard them clearly this time whispering to him, "...kiss more sims..." and then he headed off to where they told him to go.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
When Dylan left the clearing, a curious ghost had come out of the woods and stared after him.
The ghost's name was Esther Mudget, founder of the Order of Enchantment. The one who had disappeared all those years ago.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Notes:
I have played ahead, but am just slow on getting all the updates written. This notification came before the update, so maybe this is fixed now. But, seriously, Dylan keeps getting notices saying congrats on his new girlfriend Kaori on different days! lol I think his friends can't keep up with all his girlfriends. Are they trying to tell Dylan something? Maybe it's the game telling Dylan to go back to Kaori.
Even though the Secret Society has a founder named Esther Mudget, there is no pre-made sim, and so, for story purposes, I created her. I tried to have her wardrobe reflect the 1920s (sort of).
I'm not sure what others are seeing, but for me your pictures are showing up as lines of text and numbers. Maybe because you're using a new image site? Just thought you'd like to know.
I took a long time creating that post with poses and the text, so it will make me extremely sad if it's not showing up. I'll try Imgur again and replace the photos if it's working today if no one can see the current photos. Thanks so much for letting me know, I appreciate it!
EDIT: I also updated the daily post pic for May 27th as well.
Yay, I can see your pictures now! Thanks for updating them, really enjoying your story.
Today's Accomplishments:
Outdoor Enthusiast
- Identify all unidentified plants
- Achieve level 10 in herbalism
- Sleep for 5 nights in tent
- Collect 15 insects
- Complete Outdoor Enthusuast
The Curator
- Breed 5 frogs
I was the first to get up, so I went on a jog to help wake myself up.
I discovered some new herbs I hadn't seen before and quickly identified them as Fireleaf and Poison Fireleaf.
Of course I had to eat both for scientific purposes, and I can definitely say I don't recommend it.
I also was able to find some interesting insects out and about, including a dragon dragonfly which looked pretty awesome.
I decided to get a head start on the fishing, as it seemed the girls were sleeping in a bit.
I was able to catch a nice mess of fish, so I brought them back and cooked them up for breakfast.
By now Carol and Kaori were up, so we sat down and enjoyed a nice breakfast of freshly fried fish.
When we finished, Carol and Kaori went to go do some of their own fishing, and I opted to go on another nature hike to see what I could find.
That afternoon, we met back up at the lake and we had a good time splashing about and cooling off.
As the sun began to set, we returned to camp for a good night's sleep.
Notes
Cale left early the next morning to go home to Sandy and Joe L. He walked up the pathway to the house and stopped in his tracks when he saw Sandy watering plants in the greenhouse. He stood just watching her, thanking the creator she was still here.
Sandy hadn't noticed Cale standing there yet as she focused on taking care of Cale's beloved garden. She had been determined to keep it alive until the day he returned.
She sensed something was different and looked up. She dropped the watering can, ignoring the water pooling around her feet, not believing her eyes.
(Is it really him? Or am I dreaming again?)
Cale smiled, seeing her looking at him and Sandy gasped.
(It IS him! He's come home!)
"CALE!!" Sandy screamed and rushed out of the greenhouse toward the man she'd waited 7 years to see again.
Seeing Sandy running for the door, Cale ran up to the porch to greet her, his heart beating like a timpani drum!
"CALE! Oh My GAWD! You're home! You're finally home!!" Sandy yelled as she tackled Cale knocking him backwards and almost off his feet.
"Whoa! Now that's what I call a welcome home!"
"Cale! Cale! Cale! I never gave up hope. I just KNEW you'd come back to me!"
"Sandy, oh Gawd, Sandy, it feels so good to hold you again. I love you so much!"
"I missed you so much, oh Cale, I can't believe you're really here. I love you, I never stopped. Hold me, just hold me, don't let go! Please, don't let go."
"I won't, I'd hold you like this forever if I could. I'm so glad you're still here. I was worried you might've moved, or..."
"This is your home, our home, I would've stayed until my dying day waiting for you."
"You're incredible Sandy, after all this time, you never gave up on me. I was so scared you'd be with someone else now."
"There's never been anyone but you Cale, you were my first love and you'll be my last. I told you I'd love you forever and I meant it."
"How'd you get away from the aliens?"
"You knew it was aliens that took me away? How is that possible?"
"The day after Joe's birthday I came outside to check on Joe and saw you passed out. I looked over at Joe and saw a man standing next to him. I told him to get away from Joe and tried to get my wand out, but he used some kind of alien mind power on me and knocked me out too. When Joe and I woke up, you were gone."
"I don't remember any of that. The last thing I remembered when I woke up was running away from my burning house when I was a teen. They took away my memories Sandy. I didn't get them back until last night. I came to you as fast as I could. I would've transportalated, but they took away my Spellcaster powers too."
"I know. L. tried using her Sage powers to find you, but she couldn't see where you were and she tried to contact you with her mind, but she could never reach you. All she knew was that you were alive. It gave us hope that you'd be able to get away and come back. Josh and Joel even built a rocket ship together and flew to Sixam to search for you. Nobody there knew anything, or they wouldn't tell them if they did."
"They did all that to try to find me? That's amazing!"
"Of course they did. They love you Cale, just like I do and Joe L., Jon, Essa, Simeon, Morgyn, all your friends. Everyone! We've all been searching for you."
"Oh Sandy, my sweet, sweet Sandy, you have no idea how that makes me feel. I didn't even know you and the others even existed, and look at all you did for me."
"We love you Cale, it's as simple as that. They're all going to be so happy once they find out you're home. Back where you belong."
"Back where I belong, in your arms, you feel so good. You haven't changed a bit, the same sweet girl I fell in love with."
"So, how did you get away from the aliens? What happened? Why did they keep you? Where were you? Oh, it doesn't matter right now, just hold me Cale."
"Let's go inside, I'll tell you everything. You're probably going to be shocked by a lot of it, but I hope you'll understand none of it was my choice and I didn't even know what I was doing anyway."
"Okay, we have a lot of catching up to do, there are things I need to tell you too."
"I can imagine there is, a lot must've happened for you the past 7 years too."
"Not really, mostly just searching and waiting for you to come home, but...well, let's go inside. And then later, we can, you know, celebrate." Sandy said with a smile.
"Ohhh Yeahhh, we have a lot of celebrating to do. Gawd, I know I keep saying it, but I love you Sandy."
"I've waited 7 years to hear those words from you again, I'll never get tired of hearing them, ever..."
I haven't gotten to play again to finish Velma's new house. I wasn't sure if the pronoun update broke mods and I haven't had the chance to check yet.
Year Long Community Challenge
There isn't many inside screenshots in this update to see the effects very much of OOTD, but I think you can clearly see a difference outside with ITTL. It was early morning so naturally the light would be a warm color with the sunrise. I think it looks absolutely gorgeous! I love that the blue cast is gone so everything looks more natural too and my Sims blend in better with their background instead of standing out like a beacon. hehe Finally whites look white instead of gray for another thing too. What do you think? Anybody else use these lighting Mods? Just curious...
Anyway, I'll get started on comments/replies next! Hope y'all had a wonderful day/night!
And there's another Hottie! Which reminds me, I have Audax in my game now, but the younger one I think. He looks nothing like yours. Hmm, I wonder if I could make him look similar. Worth a try anyway.
Good Yoshi! Growling at the vines! Too bad they can't rip them out with their teeth or something. Probably taste bad though. o.O WOW! I can see why you love those screenshots so much, they're exquisite! The sky looks so much more colorful in your game than mine. Do you have a lighting Mod perchance? Of course, maybe mine is too and I've just been too busy focused on other things to notice all that much. hehe
Aww, bummer about Hunter not visiting his parents when he could've. Oh well, I always thought that pop-up was a little too preachy in my opinion. *shrugs* HAHA! Uh yeah, calm down Blue dear. Aster has a very good-looking brother! Hi Stellan! Love the ears and pink hair.
Yes! I hate those red lines too! There actually is a Mod to get rid of those by Lotharihoe called 'No Call-to-Actions.' I saw it last night when I was looking for lighting Mods. Here's a link:
No Call-to-Actions
hehe Well you see he was just fiddling a lullaby for Ted. How kind of him eh? Agreed about the lighting during the mystery, absolutely gorgeous and so scary, but cool.
Aww, look at those two lovebirds celebrating, lots of kisses going on there. Yay! Congrats to Hunter for landing a flip! Good job Dude!
I figured you would've given Clarissa nails, yep! Some guys just seem to suit black nails more than others. I can see both Aaron and Hunter wearing it. I think all of my guys would look good with them, except maybe one, Nik, but only because he's a very proper old school vampire. Don't get me wrong, he'd look good with them, but they just don't suit his personality. hehe Maybe in dark mode though.
Yes! That's the story! I loved it! He hasn't updated it in a long time though. I understand where you're coming from with the aliens and wanting them to stay YA. That's one of the reasons Josh and Essa are vampires now, because I didn't want them to die. o.O I just love them too much, so they'll stay YAs forever.
It does make sense, yes! Another perk of this challenge is they DO become somewhat Super Sims in the process.
Hmm, well I have never, ever gone over my maximum for Sims in a save. I came close with Cale's because of all the babies, but I fixed that in a hurry. Sooo, maybe Cale's ghost is okay and didn't get culled. I'll have to check next time I play. Thanks for the heads-up about that.
Yay! So glad to hear Blue will like Cale more after they defeat the Mother.
Oh, okay. See? I don't know all that much about the beasts so I thought it was a jar of essence sitting there. HAHA! Opps.
Rowan! Gah! Phoebe! Oh yeah, I read those chapters, LOVED THEM! Maggie is such a funny writer for one thing. Oh man Artemis is such an adorable puppy! So cute tilting her head to the side. hehe I've updated now too and no lag, however I have that creepy thing where the Sims don't stop when you pause, their heads and body keep moving for a few seconds. I hate it! Makes getting screenshots kind of tough at times. The Devs know about it though so hopefully it'll be fixed in a patch soon.
Thank you so much for saying that about the challenge! I've learned a lot myself because of it and have been having a blast! I'll admit a little stressful at times, but that's my own fault for trying to write a full-blown story when I said I wouldn't. Ah well, such is life, I'm having fun, that's all that matters.
Until this challenge I never had my Sims have children with game generated townies either, with one exception, the Drifter Challenge. But just like you, I edited the bejeezers out of the guy so he looked nothing like he did originally. hehe
It gave mine Glimmerstones for buying a cauldron, yes. However, they did live in Glimmerbrook. I don't know if that makes a difference or not. *shrugs*
Of course, it has to make sense to you anyway. Nothing really makes that much sense in this game otherwise, but I know what you're saying.
Why does Leo have to be a child before he can be a teen? Do the genetics get messed up if you age a toddler straight up to a teen or older? If so, uh oh, that's exactly what I did with all of Cale's offspring. o.O
Fox was Evil, but I removed the trait and replaced it with uh...I don't remember now. LOL! But anyway, you wouldn't know because the only 'evil' thing he ever did was cackle now and then. Well, besides the other things he did in my head canon for him.
I haven't decided yet if I'll change Cale's traits, but I probably will. He has changed, he's matured, somewhat, at least for story purposes and he rarely shows his hot-headed, mean side anyway.
Cale! Gah! Okay, can't wait to find out how he got possessed. hehe
Love the two paintings Aaron did of Phil and Hunter. Great job Aaron! Ew! Ew! Ew! Gross! So gross! Bleh! Poor Aaron, that looks so, so disgusting! hehe
So glad these two are working together to defeat the Mother. Bravo Cale figuring out what needed to be tweaked for the vaccine! That's my guy! *proud Mama alert*
OMG! Cale! Gah! That's temporary, right? At least I hope it is. o.O Oh! Well, of course, he can just be vaccinated by Aaron! Crisis averted. hehe Cale looks terrifying when possessed. o.O Especially in this screenshot:
HAHAHA! Oh dear, Um, Aster, you did interrupt! Hilarious that Aaron actually told her though. Aww poor Aster freaking out. Guess I can't blame her though. He'll be fine Aster, just watch!
Um, sorry for another novel. o.O I really, really need to learn shorthand. hehe
@Skeilah
Nice to see you in the thread posting again for Bryon! Missed them!
@SoulGal7
Uh oh, here comes Paolo the Player. Ugh... Oh boy, that was tense. Of course Dylan figured out Paolo wants to be more than just friends. Poor guy has it so rough right now.
Oh man, Wolfgang told Dylan about Paolo. It had to happen at some point.
Dang, he displeased the Sprites! Those things sure are devious. Great, they sent him to kiss more Sims. Poor guy. Ah, what's this? The founder of the society's ghost, very cool! Can't wait to find out what if anything she'll do to help Dylan or maybe make things worse. o.O
Ugh, I get glitches like that all the time. Just last night when Cale was visiting Sandy, she 'called' him asking to go out on a date with her. Uh, they were sitting and making out on the bed at the time. Sheesh! Silly game! *rolls eyes*
@Rememberjoy
Thank you so much for letting me know my screenshots are showing up now. Whew! I hope I don't continue to have problems. o.O
@Shadami
Okay, thanks for letting me know it's not just me that has problems with Imgur. That's a relief even if it is a bummer for both of us. As far as I can tell, there were very few Mods affected by the patch. I'd still take a look at Luth's thread though just to be sure.
Will properly comment and reply to that novel later, but for now...
- hair
- tattoos
I think he uses this heterochromia set, but you might need this one too. Get both and whichever one is correct should be automatically applied when you download him anyway
*You would have downloaded these skin details for Aaron (so you will already have these files and don't need to download them again), but Audax uses them too so I figured I'd just post them here as well
- eyebags
- lip mask
And I think that should be all the CC he has, apart from his body hair and eyelashes which you already have
Give me some time to fix up his outfits and put the adult, CC version of him up and then you can grab him, delete the young version, or rename one and make them father and son or whatever you want
Whichever you prefer!
The CC version is on the gallery now