I am the proud kid sister of a corporate climber! Caitlin called to tell me she’s been promoted into middle management. I think that’s pretty high. She was really excited about it anyway.

She still hangs out with her twin a lot, which I think is sweet. I’m not sure they were that close when they actually lived together.

Deanne has given up on girls for a while and is focusing on her garden. It seems to be working out better for her.

And Caitlin’s youngest daughter is a child! I can’t believe time has passed so quickly.

Yup. She’s definitely a Wonderland.

As for me, I’m just THE new security consultant for City Hall. After I exposed the Mayor’s corruption, they fell all over themselves to get me on the payroll.

They even made up a new award, just so they could give me a medal.

It’s a nice fashion accessory, if I do say so myself.

I got out of my consultation with the city cabinet late, and I needed to do some research,

so I headed over to the library.

It has a pretty extensive collection of financial records.

I found evidence of embezzlement! That got me a promotion and a hefty finder’s fee.

I was so busy, I decided not to head home to watch over the kids at dinnertime. I mean, how bad could it be?

They’re smart kids, and I provide them a great example of personal responsibility.  I’m sure they can get themselves to bed.

Well, that’s what I thought, anyway. I found out later that they stayed up all night.

When I got home, Imogen was looking for her energy at the bottom of a coffee mug. “Who needs sleep when you have caffeine?” she said.

Franklin was even too tired to complain about the art.

“I’m not sure I can go to school today,” Gideon said. “I’m not feeling so well.”

I wasn’t terribly sympathetic. “I bet you aren’t,” I said. “You’re going anyway.”

So they all grabbed their brooms and trooped off to school.

Where I hear the the school day was delayed by a rampaging werewolf.

I was just finishing breakfast when Franklin walked in the door.

“What the heck are you doing here?” I cried. “You’re supposed to be at school!”

“I thought you’d be out on a case by now!” he said. “I just wanted to grab a bite to eat!”

He headed to the fridge to grab a pack of blood, but he didn’t make it.

He could have slept in his own bed, but I guess the kitchen tile will do when you’re a pigheaded teenager.

When he picked himself up off the floor, I handed him his broom.

“I have to go back to school, huh,” he said.

“You got it in one guess,” I replied. “And I’m going to follow you there to make sure you go in.”

This time, Franklin made it in, just in time to fall asleep in math class.

So what did I see standing outside in the schoolyard?

“Giddiyup little horsey!” Gideon cried. “Oh, Mom, I didn’t see you there.”

“What in Simworld are you doing??” I shouted. “Are you crazy?”

“Yeah, Mom!” he said. “I got it from you!”

Then he ran away from me…

…and flew all the way home.

“All, right then,” I said, “I’ll drive you to school.”

So I escorted him into the van.

Wait, what?

“I think school just let out,” Gideon explained.

Why do I bother??

After school, Imogen headed to the campus coffee shop to load up on more caffeine. I think she’d been up more than 24 hours at this point, but she was going strong.

Justin passed out from exhaustion as soon as he stepped out of the school.

His cousin Ben, Caitlin’s older kid, stopped to make sure he was all right. Then, instead of helping, he just stood there and leered for a while.

Clearly my sister is raising her kids right. 

 

 

 

Once Justin picked himself up and headed home, it was Franklin’s turn.

“Aiee! Not the sunlight!” he wailed.

So at least he passed out in the shade.

At home, Justin went up to his bedroom and stood staring at his bed as if trying to figure out what to do with it.

But figured it out before I came up there to shove him bodily into bed.

Franklin didn’t seem so conflicted.

All these vampire kids prefer William’s old tomb.

Whew. Now that’s over. I hope.

———-

Passing out: 19 + 3 = 22

Well, that was a traumatic first game session back on the ISBI. After staying up all night, both older boys queue dropped their go-to-school action from fatigue and went home. Erin tried to drive Franklin back in the Motive Mobile, but he pushed back to school by himself while she was executing her action, so she ended up driving to school by herself and finding Gideon — who then went home, and lather rise repeat.

I’m not counting Gideon passing out from seeing a werewolf transform. That’s not about needs. Apparently, that happens in the school entrance line EVERY DAY. Is there some reason the town teen wolves feel the need to transform while going to school every day? Also I think that puddle at school is from students peeing themselves in terror…. ew.

On the positive side, Erin topped her career! Sadly, that doesn’t get her a LTW. It’s still cool, though, and it should help with her pension when she retires. This family is not exactly rolling in the money.

Two more posts before the passing of the torch!

 

The next day dawned bright and sunny. It was just the right day for the huntress Minnie Wonderland to show her apprentice Goofy how it’s done.

She began by showing her kitten brother the prey.

Goofy watched with breathless admiration as she crouched, silently, then leapt into action.

I don’t think Goofy was all that impressed.

Inside the house, we finally settled into life without our father and partner. We set William’s urn in the living room, where we could all feel the presence of his spirit from the Netherworld.

Then we got out the broom and dustpan and cleaned up the rest of him.

The family called with good news and bad news. My niece Rosie tied the knot. I’m not sure why they didn’t invite us. I’m sure there was a good reason.

And my brother Branden had to lay our beloved old cat to rest. She lived a long life. Rest in peace.

I could tell that my next case was going to be a long, hard one. Just talking to my client made me want to starve myself to death.

This case was big — the kind of case that makes or breaks careers. I intended for it to make mine.

But it wasn’t going to be easy. This was about corruption at the very top of the Aurora Skies’ food chain. Corruption never sleeps, and neither would I.

I began with an all night stakeout at the park.

The dark silence of a long stakeout can really get to you. After a while you see, or think you see, some pretty strange stuff.

Fortunately, I’m an old pro. Nothing gets to me.

I can lurk in the shadows for as long as it takes, silent and unseen, until the moment to pounce.

I hope the kids can manage all right without me.

They’re growing up, but they’ve been through a lot with the loss of their father. I hate to think of them up late worrying about their other parent.

In the morning, Christof showed up with Randolph and their daughter Kari for a day at the park. He waved from across the path and shouted, “Hey sis! What are you up to?”

“Hush!” I hissed. “I’m invisible over here!”

After all these hours of stakeout, he could totally have blown my cover! But I was in luck. My quarry finally arrived to seal the deal.

It was Jennika Wong, the sweet little girl who used to play at our house and watch her father die in our basement. Now she was grown up and facing a life of crime. Tragic.

Wait, are those scales??

What kind of creature is she?

After Jennika and her contact left, I poked around the spot where she had been standing, looking for clues.

Christof’s daughter Kari totally ruined the mood by shouting at me from her Sim Gnubb game. “Hey, Aunt Erin? Are you doing detective stuff? That’s awesome!”

I can focus much better when my extended family doesn’t follow me to work.

Kari’s doing all right for herself these days. She started a career in looking at dead people.

Christof was the next one to break my concentration. “Hey sis! Great to see you out and about. Want to shoot some hoops?”

I tried to brush him off in a friendly way. “I’d love to, but I can’t. Today I have to get someone arrested.”

Then I saw poor Randolph in an argument with

 

My old friend Melanie Worthington was finally able to provide me the lead I needed. I’m including a picture of her here because she provided valuable testamony, not because I think her wings are gorgeous. Honest.

I met up with my client, Detective Cassidy Wrede, to report my suspicions. This was no small police corruption ring. This was a conspiracy that reached all the way to the top.

“The top?” Cassidy asked nervously. “How high is the top?”

“Erica Berge,” I sad. “The Vice President of the Free World.”

Cassidy looked like she was going to be sick.

“This is above my pay grade,” I told her. “You need more than one gumshoe to bring down something this big.”

“One gumshoe is all I have,” Cassidy pleaded. “I can’t bring in anyone else. If we don’t root out the conspiracy, my job or even,” she gulped, “my life could be in danger.”

What can I say? I’m a sucker for a cop in distress.

“All right,” I said. “If we do this, we do it my way.”

“What’s your way?” Cassidy asked.

“A sting,” I told her.

Cassidy suddenly pushed me out of the way. “Look out!”

I jumped back as an enormous black stallion brought its hooves down where I had been standing.

“That was close,” I panted. “I never would have thought they’d use wild horses to take us out. We have to wrap this case up before innocent people get hurt.”

I called my kids to tell them that I wouldn’t be home tonight. “You’ll have to find your own dinner,” I told them. “Everything’s fine. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

“That’s fine,” Imogen told me. “There’s plenty of birthday cake in the fridge. Justin! Get down off the furniture!”

I hope they’ll be all right. I never lose track of the sacrifices I make to serve the city in its time of need.

The game was on.

The Vice President of the Free World had a weakness, and I was just the person to ferret it out.

That weakness turned out to be named Oskar Olsen. He was her personal assistant. According to rumors around the capital, he was just a little bit gullible. It was a small advantage, but it was what we had.

I drove to Olsen’s house at sunset.

He met me at his front steps.

 

“I’m from the government employee incentives department,” I told him. “I’m here to tell you’ve won the hardest-working secretary award for Aurora Skies!”

Oskar was overjoyed. “Really?” he squealed. “I knew all that overtime would pay off!”

At that point, my brother Branden’s fiancée Shaun Ivy showed up with her whole extended family.

As they pushed their way into the house, I grabbed Shaun’s arm and held her back. “What are you doing here?” I demanded.

“Oskar makes great nachos,” Shaun said. “We dropped by to eat and watch football. But wait a minute. What are YOU doing here. Are you two going on a date? I know it’s kind of soon, but you’d be so cute together!”

Me and Oskar Olsen?

Ewww.

“I’m here on a totally professional capacity,” I said quickly. And that was true, after all. It was my job to lie about why I was here. “I just need to borrow Oskar for a short award ceremony down at the courthouse.”

“What do I need to do?” Oskar asked eagerly.

“Call your boss Ms. Berge and ask her to meet us at the courthouse. Then we can complete the paperwork and present you with a big fat check!”

“Wow, the Vice President?” Oskar squeaked. “All, right! I’ll do it!”

He called his boss, and she agreed to meet us at the courthouse. It was like butter.

I hoped Detective Wrede could make good on her end of the plan.

As I held the door to my van open for Oskar Olsen, I thought again of my kids.

This was so unfair to them, leaving them alone and anxious with no adults.

I hope while they’re home and lonely,

they can remember that I’m doing this all to make the world a better place for them.

Oskar and I arrived at the courthouse.

 

Where I distracted him with a quick enchantment.

Vice Present Berge was there on schedule, along with the Second Gentleman.

“Is Oskar here?” Erica Berge asked. “He said it was important!”

“It is, Madam Vice President,” I said. “Very important. I need to talk to you in your office.”

And that was it. Erica Berge started to suspect something, but it was too late. She couldn’t get out of escorting me to her office now.

Meanwhile, Detective Wrede lured her corrupt colleagues in the back door.

We all showed up at Vice President Berge’s office at the same time. In the moment of shock, our suspects threw all sorts of accusations at each other that I won’t repeat hear. I don’t need to. We caught it all on tape.

Cassidy Wrede had the unexpected honor of handcuffing the Vice President of the Free World and reading her her rights.

I’m glad I’m just a gumshoe.

Though, I have to say, Erica Berge might have been a crooked politician, but she sure was hot.

———-

And this is it! The last post before the heir poll!

This was the Cop Gone Bad case — the longest, most confusing, and most glitch-infested case in the Private Eye career, I think. I try not to give a blow-by-blow of all Erin’s cases, but there was so much entertaining byplay while she hacked her way through this one over the course of about 36 sim-hours.

She did the stakeout five times, literally all night. The first time, one of the sims showed up, but the other one didn’t make it. Then I did the action over and over again, and each time it completed without anyone showing up. The glitch didn’t seem that different from the bug that I thought I fixed by removing GoHere. This turned out to be something different, though. It looks like if the game summons two inactives to complete a stakeout action and only one of them gets there before the stakeout times out, the whole opportunity gets into an unrecoverable state. I had to reset Erin for the stakeout to start over and send two people to whisper to each other.

Erin’s barely more than halfway through her lifetime wish of 35 completed cases. That’s a lot of cases. However, she’s just pixels of job performance away from topping out her career. There is that.

I was kind of hoping we’d get to see more of Justin before the heir poll, but it was not to be. This is about as far as I can play without knowing who the heir is. So on we go! Heir poll time!!

Poll up as soon as I can assemble it. Probably tomorrow.

I got home as the sun was rising over the waterfall behind our house.

First thing I set out to do when the kids woke up was push the magic button to make their glum funk go away.

Everyone lined up. We were so sick of feeling like crap.

It was so good to see Franklin back to his old self. He even critiqued himself in the mirror.

And approved!

I swung Justin in the air. “Come on kiddo. I promised everyone some fun today, and we’re going to have it.”

I strapped my little vampire baby into his stroller,

And we all piled into the van.

It was off to the new amusement park of Aurora Skies. If we couldn’t have fun here, we just couldn’t have fun. Which actually was a possibility.

While the teens stood around at the entrance, trying to figure out what to do next,

I took carried Justin off behind a rollercoaster.

We sat down together in the grass,

and I taught him his last words. “Microscope” is an important word for a toddler, you know?

Franklin’s brain almost exploded at all the art to critique. He went from awning to awning, assessing their artistic value.

Imogen found the café and turned on the jukebox.

She’s always happiest when she’s dancing.

Gideon hid in the men’s room and practiced asking girls out for dates.

Helen found the game room and started

After Justin and I were done with his vocabulary lesson, we went for a stroll around the park.

Franklin challenged Imogen to a basketball dunk-out.

Beside them, Helen was still wrapped up in blasting aliens.

Justin and I were still walking.

Franklin beat Imogen. That surprised me when I heard about it. Imogen’s a way more physical kid than he is. He prefers to stand around and look at things. He was a pretty good sport about it, though.

Justin and I finally made it up to the boardwalk.

Ah, this is what I was looking for.

It was time for Justin’s birthday.

All his big brothers and sisters gathered round to cheer. No more toddlers in the house! For real this time.

Justin was just as eager as we were. He leaned down to blow out the candles himself.

Here he goes!

That’s my little boy.

Huh. He looks a lot like William. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? I need to think about it.

Then again, he has my eyes. I like that.

The kids abandoned the picnic benches I’d picked out and all went to eat cake in the cafe. Humph.

The proprietress of the cafe, a woman named Jiao, seemed to enjoy watching everyone hanging out. I think she would have preferred it if we didn’t bring our own food, though.

I was left with a whole lot of extra slices of cake and a random bystander who wanted to mooch.

I hope she appreciated the cake anyway.

I gave it my own personal touch, shall we say.

The cake moocher wasn’t terribly conversational. She finished eating and gave me a quick goodbye before hurrying off.

Turns out she saw Imogen at the fortune telling station, and she wanted to see if she could get a free fortune.

Imogen gave her a great one.

Whatever Imogen said, the lady was delighted to hear it.

She was so impressed that she just had to open a book and start reading right then.

Justin finished up his cake and made a beeline to the playground.

Franklin and Helen decided that now would be a great time to do their homework.

My phone rang while I was cleaning up the party plates. It was Randolph, my brother Christof’s husband. I think these days, I’m closer to him than I am to my brothers and sisters.

“Thanks for caring,” I told him. “I think I’m going to be all right.”

Night had fallen. Franklin lingered by the cafe, watching the proprietress.

She really was unique. Perhaps beautiful? Could it be…

Ewww.

Not at all.

Good thing she never noticed he was watching her.

Helen tried her hand at telling her own fortune.

She wasn’t thrilled with the results.

I wasn’t going to leave without trying out the roller coaster. Seemed like I ought to be able to get *one* of my creature of the night children to be brave enough to go with me. I finally guilted Franklin into it.

 

 

We’re upside down!

Wait? Where’s the track?

I can see for miles!

That’s a long way down….

Wahoo!

Not again!

Eeeeee!

Glub glub…!

*Splutter* Were we supposed to be underwater??

That is NOT a shark! Right?

Right??

Wow. I didn’t expect the ride would actually go under the water. They spare no thrill on these rides! Woo!

While they waited for us, Helen made some ice cream.

 

Everyone at the park crowded in to get some.

Especially some town girl who wearing no pants, who thought Imogen was really interesting.

Imogen tried to ignore her.

But she just stood there, in front of the ice cream maker, staring.

And giggling.

This was about the time I ought to get all the kids out of the park. It was approaching midnight, and clearly the weirdos were out in force.

Justin wouldn’t hear of it, though. I was going to have to haul him bodily off the playground.

So instead, I just went home without them.

Good thing too. When I got home, I found a naked guy in the hot tub!

Get a load of that!

Bwahaha! He’s so wet and pruny!

Naked guy! Just the thing to cheer me up!

I speed dialed the kids. “You have got to come home and see this!”

THAT got them to come home.

———

So, Justin is a child! I have one more post, and then heir poll! He managed to get two skills in all the melodrama. Erin potty trained him, and the playpen gave him most of his talking skill. Erin finished it up at the amusement park. I didn’t realize until now that the playpen fills hunger and sleep motives. That seems completely unreasonable. I’ve downloaded a mod to stop that.

Justin didn’t do too badly with two skills, though. He rolled Schmoozer. He’s now an Insane, Hydrophobic Schmoozer. Genetically, he’s all right. Not the perfect afterthought kid that Erin was, but he’s not a clone either. William is dominant, but the eye shape and eyebrows at the very least are Erin’s. He has Hetal’s gray eyes, and I think he might actually have Allison’s skintone. If you remove the vampire pallor, his skin is really rosy.

This post was mostly pic-spam from the Boardwalk venue. I picked it up a while back, but Avalon, where the Samples live, doesn’t have a lot this large. This was my first chance to play with it, and I just couldn’t stop taking pictures.

The roller coaster has great animations, but the little car goes through at about walking speed. Sooo slow. Better for pictures than gameplay, I think.

It was fun to just follow everyone around with a camera.

Unfortunately, the game didn’t really push anyone else to the park. Not sure why. I’ll have to check the visitors allowed settings. The two folks wandering around were both role sims. This was the proprietress of the Showtime stage I added, which I may or may not keep.

Look at this! I’m pretty sure she was bred from Charles! Either that or Charles’s immaculate Chinese love child Charlotte, who I saved to the bin to load into the hometown when I found her on vacation. She’s clearly Charles, even if you don’t look at the skin. But that silver skintone should NOT be installed in this game. I may have to do another clean folder install to get rid of stuff that got accidentally installed with sims Sims3Packs. Argh.

Still, pretty cool to see a bit of Charles in the Wonderland game!

And then there’s Jiao Hatfield. Isn’t she amazing? Isn’t her name so delightfully Sims?

I have no idea what the china doll skintone is. It looks like it goes from powder white all the way to powder white. Is that also some unintentional CC?

Whatever it is, I love it. She really looks like a china doll. And I actually think she might have been bred from one of my simselves. Wow. Not so distinct as Charles up there, but eyes and face shape look familiar.

And… she’s a genie!!

I’ve saved her to the bin. She WILL marry into this ISBI. The question is only when.

It was Imogen’s birthday, and none of us were really in the mood.

We tried to throw her a party and invite all our family. A lot of them couldn’t make it. It turned out that Deanne and her daughter Rosie were out on a double date.

They both got engaged!

Branden showed up, but he was in a pretty bad mood.

While he was waiting for us to answer the door, he got into a huge fight with the mailbox.

When I walked out to invite him inside, he was storming off in a huff.

I don’t want it to sound like I’m taking sides here, but I have a pretty mild-mannered mailbox. I’m pretty sure it didn’t start this fight. Branden has his own issues.

When the zombie showed up at the door, I thought we’d better get this party started before things got any worse.

I went to get the cake. Meanwhile, Caitlin decided she had something better to do.

My family really knows how to be supportive, let me tell you.

Gideon took one look at the cake and took off running to the bathroom.

To throw up.

I don’t know what was up with him. Honestly, I think it might have been grief.

Helen was upstairs, watching TV and trying not to think about her father.

By the time Imogen was able to blow out her candles, all the party guests had left.

But I was there for her.

Here we go!

That’s my littlest girl! I think she’s pretty amazing if I do say so myself.

Franklin was also there to show support. He tried to put on a happy face for his baby sister. He wasn’t very convincing, but at least he tried.

The memory of William hung heavily over the table while we ate our cake and tried to be cheerful.

Then Gideon showed up and started sobbing.

“OK, guys,” I said. “Why don’t we just go to bed. Tomorrow will be more fun, I promise.”

Little Goofy took this suggestion to heart. He curled up right where he was — in the middle of the puddle of water from the broken dishwasher — and went to sleep.

Micky was more skeptical.

The kids all said goodnight. Imogen tried to be patient while Gideon got over another fit of crying for his dad.

“Dad is dead, and Minnie stole your bed!” Gideon sobbed.

“Hey, that rhymes!”

“Whoa. Head rush.”

Franklin just bypassed the problem by stealing William’s bed.

That caused a big scene with Helen. “I wanted to sleep in Dad’s bed!” she complained. “Why did you get it?”

“Oh, Dad, I miss you so much!”

where was Justin during all this depression? Playing in his playpen, mostly.

I guess Helen won out on the bed dispute. When I woke up in the middle of the night, she was the one sleeping in my room.

I was sick of all this gloom. Would William have wanted us to torture ourselves over his loss?

 

Actually, yes. He probably would. Well, I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction.

I had a case to complete.

I got up, got dressed, and stormed past the ghost of Mama.

A late-night stakeout of the grocery store was just what I needed to head off another produce heist.

Oh, William. Even fame and fortune isn’t the same when I can’t celebrate with great woohoo.

All right. Enough of this. I’m done.

I’ve said goodbye to William. I’m ready to get on with life.

If the poster over my desk bears a certain resemblance, well, that’s just a coincidence. Really.

———-

Woo. That grief moodlet is vicious. After a day of wrestling with it, I just had to give up. Hooray for the Moodlet Manager.

I think Imogen looks pretty awesome. Woot for a good genetic combination.

I’m really not sure what caused Gideon’s nausea. The teen puking animation is particularly icky — the kids just shove their face all the way into the toilet bowl. Heh.

I’m also not clear on what caused Branden and Caitlin to storm off from Imogen’s birthday party. It looks like there was some argument or inappropriate action that I didn’t capture.