We're All Mad Here

Age has hit mom swiftly, but she still tries to contribute to the family funds.

I appreciate her methods. They’re…. creative.

Mom’s Private Investigation business has really been on the rocks recently, and §19 pay the rent and feed a household of six sims.

I had to think of some way to make money, and fast. Getting a regular job is just out of the question, though. I am not going to reduce myself to becoming a wage slave for The Man. I have standards.

The rain kept the sun off my skin, so I was able to go out earlier in the afternoon to look for some source of income. Perhaps it was the remnants of the sunlight glinting on the ground that gave me inspiration.

Aurora Skies is a treasure trove of minerals. Sims have all sorts of uses for minerals. Both art and science. I’d be doing society a favor by collecting and distributing the minerals I find.

Well, by “Distributing,” I mean, “Selling for as much money as I can get.”

With that goal in mind, I headed at vampire speed to the consignment store. I got there right before it closed. I’m lucky they keep late hours.

“You won’t mind if I use your gem cutter, would you?” I asked the proprietress. “I didn’t think so. Thanks!”

“Yeah right,” the proprietress said.

It’s great that the Consignment Store keeps a gem cutter. My family would never let me run this thing while they’re asleep.

“Would you stop that racket?” the proprietress shouted.

What was she expecting, anyway?

Perfect.

With a collection of profitable gems on consignment, I headed home to sleep the sleep of the dead.

While I slept, my family did family stuff.

Helen got a call from her classmate Evan Clark, who asked her out on a date.

Evan’s a pretty interesting guy. He says he was some kind of science experiment conducted by his parents. I guess that’s as reasonable an explanation as any.

The date started out well. Evan told Helen that he thought she was beautiful, and he’d always had a crush on her in school.

Then he started yelling at her for not passing him notes in English class.

Helen is now screening his calls.

Mom’s good friend Yuri Apple-Svard invited Mom to a pool party with her husband Stefan and Jakob Ingberg.

When she arrived, the Apple-Svards had decided to ditch their own party, but Jakob was still around.

“Come on in,” he called. “The water’s fine!”

“This is a nice pool!” Mom said.

“I know!” Jakob said. “I always come over here so that I don’t have to install a pool at my place. Pardon me. I have to go to the bathroom.”

Mom swam around while she waited for Jakob.

“Wow,” she thought. “I hope he didn’t fall in.”

It started to get dark. Mom suddenly realized that she’d been swimming for hours. She was exhausted. Even worse, her skin was all pruny.

But how to get out of the pool? She knew there was a ladder around somewhere. Where could it be?

With her last gasp of strength, she grabbed the deck and pulled herself out of the water. To heck with ladders anyway.

She wandered into the Apple-Svard house, looking for Jakob or Yuri, but the place was deserted.

Someone had recently eaten dinner and then left. So strange.

I was just up and looking for breakfast when my phone rang.

“Mom, is that you? What are you doing out so late?”

“Franklin!” Mom said. “This party is a bust! Come and pick me up!”

---

No fails.

Holy crap, Erin! Don’t scare me like that!

Here we have our second mate candidate for Franklin: Evan Clark, a plantsim. This adds to Jiao Hatfield, who is a genie. The Wonderlands have a grand tradition of pansexuality, so all YA, Adult, or Teen sims are candidates (i.e. teens can be aged up).

Evan is a stock sim from Aurora Skies who was a toddler when the Wonderlands moved in. I assigned supernatural status to a bunch of random sims, and apparently he was one of them. I love his face.