Gideon

All posts tagged Gideon

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.

CaitlinDepartmentHead

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.

CaitlynChristofHangOut

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

DeanneGardening4

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

ShonnaIvy

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.

ErinMedalofMindful

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.

ErinPrivateEye

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.

GideonTerrified

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.
BenIvyCreeping

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.

MinnieHuntShrewFail

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.

Williamashes

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.

LokiRosieMarried

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

SingularityDead

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.

ErinJamRandolph

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

ErinCopRogue1

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.

ErinCopRogue2

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?

JennikaMermaid

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.

KariGraveyardJob

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.

ErinCopRogue10

ErinCopRogue9

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.

ImogenBogusFortune

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.

HelenFryingPan

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!!

JiaoGenie

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!

DeanneJuliet2

RosieMarried

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.

BrandenLeaves

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.

CaitlinLeaves

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.

ErinFlatfoot

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.

William had an idea, and what an idea it was.

WilliamJam

As it turned out. It was the worst idea in his long unlife.

“I miss playing the guitar!” he told me. “Why don’t we make a family band?”

“I studied a bit of piano… at some point. I don’t rememeber when,” I said. “I could give it a try.”

Franklin decided to bang on the drums, and Gideon picked up the bass. We sounded awful, but not as awful as I thought we would! This felt pretty good!

“Hey Mom!” Gideon called. “You suck!”

That’s my boy. “You should listen to yourself!” I called back.

Then, of course, I got a phone call. It was a case.

“I have to go investigate an international black market fruit ring,” I told the family. “Don’t have too much fun without me.”

ErinSupermarket

I have contacts in dark places. I happened to know the name of the local fence in stolen apples. I arranged a clandestine meeting with her.

I left William in the basement, jamming with the kids. I was sure they were having a good time. I just hoped he had the good sense to take care of the important things.

WilliamMadlyThirsty

He’d never get so absorbed in his music that he forgot basic necessities, would he?

Or let the kids distract him from something important?

William’s a responsible guy.

William2Hours

He could handle himself. And the kids.

He’d done so dozens of times before.

Why did I have such a bad feeling about this?

Yeah.

The kids told me all about it later. How Helen sobbed for her father as badly as she did the broken dishwasher.

How all the kitties showed up

to bid farewell to their favorite playmate.

How William’s spirit threw himself to the floor to beg the Grim Reaper for more time with his family.

I’ve never seen William grovel for anything, so I’ll take that as a compliment. Maybe what he really wanted was one last woohoo.

At least Justin was spared the trauma. He slept through the whole thing.

Imogen was hanging out in the basement.

She headed to school without knowing she was the last person ever to talk to William, and it had been about the fight scene in “Asskicker League Issue #26.”

Grim’s kind of a cat person himself. After he rained despair and death on my household, he hung around to play with Mikhail.

And that’s how I found him when I got home from bringing the produce thieves to justice.

I’m going to skip the conversation I had with Grim. I’d just lost the best woohoo of my life. I’m not responsible for what I said.

I found Helen hanging out in the bathroom.

“Why are you not in school?” I demanded.

“Mom! Dad just died in front of me!”

“That’s no excuse! Get to school or your grounded!”

I escorted Helen to the door.

And made sure she headed to school.

And found Franklin hanging out by the door. I read him the same riot act. “Our personal tragedy is no excuse for skipping school!”

“But Mom! I really have to pee!”

“You should have thought of that earlier!”

Then I stopped yelling. I had an uncontrollable urge to catch raindrops on my tongue.

Franklin took the chance to grab his broken umbrella and dash out to school.

He was exhausted and desperate to pee, but he managed to make it school without embarrassing himself.

Then the house was silent, except for the toddler howling in his crib upstairs. Numbly, I took him out of bed and set him down on the floor to play.

He had no idea there was anything wrong.

Then I headed downstairs to drown my sorrows in a plate of waffles.

“What am I going to do without him?” I asked Bungle in despair. “No more painting at all hours.”

“No more hard pecs and firm sixpack against me…”

“Are you going to get around to fixing the dishwasher?” Bungle asked.

“I think you’re missing the big picture here!” I cried. “I’m a widow!”

“No you’re not, technically speaking,” Bungle pointed out. “You already divorced him.”

“I was hormonal,” I retorted. “I didn’t mean it. We were going to get remarried.”

I couldn’t bring myself to take down William’s easel yet.

 

Maybe his spirit would someday come to finish his painting.

———-

Untimely Deaths: 0 + 1 = 1

So, that happened.

When I saw it coming, I had to talk myself out of shutting down the game and loading from my last save. This is, after all, the great WTF of playing an idiot challenge.

William was within throwing distance of getting a Master of the Arts LTW. All I had to do was get him to play the guitar a bit more. I saw Somebodysangel of the Young Reverse ISBI get her idiots to play instruments by jamming with them and then canceling out to do other things. When William rolled the wish to jam with Erin, I thought it was a great idea. Erin even had a piano skill point lying around — maybe from playing xylophone as a toddler? Then I thought, “Hey! What about a family band?” So I got them all in on the action.

Then, for some reason only The Sims knows, William didn’t drop his queue when he got to a -40 thirst moodlet. He didn’t start complaining about thirst until he’d been sitting on the emergency -80 moodlet for a while. And even then, he might have made it to the fridge if Imogen hadn’t desperately needed to talk about comic books RIGHT THEN.

Erin was off the lot the whole time. She couldn’t help at all. He was the definitive ISBI victim.

Clearly, the Madly Thirsty moodlet didn’t actually last 24 sim-hours. I’m not sure what was up with the label. Everyone came home from Love Day using the Moodlet Mobile, so they had full needs in the middle of the night. I think they started jamming sometime after midnight. Erin headed back home from her case when it became clear that disaster was imminent, but she didn’t make it home in time. She arrived around 10AM, thus all the scolding for missing school. The time between the start of the jam and William’s death couldn’t have been more than 8 sim-hours. Maybe the moodlet was mislabeled because due to some kind of calculation glitch from William’s extended vampire lifespan? If I’d realized just how little time he had left, I’d’ve sent Erin home earlier.

Franklin did manage to make it to school without passing out or peeing himself, even with the scolding delay. I don’t think he even passed out on the way home, which is remarkable.

Goodbye, William. You were a truly awesome idiot spouse. Your great genes will live on.

I woke up feeling like a million bucks.

“I have big plans for today,” I told Bungle as I munched on the waffles thats someone had kindly left on the counter for me.

Like teaching Justin to poop on his own!

Isn’t he so adorable with his toy yeti?

Deanne called. She has a new girlfriend! It’s high time. She’s been mooning over the last one for ages. Maybe she’ll be a bit more fun to be around now. Also less likely to go to jail for stalking.

DeanneJuliet

Helen didn’t take the news so well. “Why can’t I have a girlfriend? Or a boyfriend? I don’t care which.”

The dishwasher broke. Again. Mistakes were made, but not by me.

I’ve had it with broken appliances, especially the kind that can kill you. I decided it was time to get out of the house.

Today is Love Day! We headed to the festival rather than dealing with the dishwasher.

Everyone immediately started having fun. Like Franklin, who got into a huge argument with his dad.

FranklinCharisma

Franklin really seems to have learned a lot from William about how to behave. He’s a real chip off the old block.

FranklinInsultingText

Imogen, ever the studious one, seemed to think that the Love Day Festival was just another place to study.

William hadn’t been there long before he started feeling woozy.

“I think I’m going to–” he started to say. Then he fell right over.

And passed out.

I guess it’s not such a good thing for vampires go out in the sunlight. I guess I read that in a book.

WilliamKnockedOut

A reporter from the local paper wrote an article about vampires passing out in the park. Justin cleaned out his noes.

After sunset, William woke up and yelled at the speaker system.

Dang it, I was determined we were going to get something good out of this Love Day if it killed me, and it just might.

“OK everyone!” I shouted. “We’re going to have a nice family picture!”

So, of course, it started to hail. OUCH!

And Justin disappeared! After I ran around the park shouting his name, I discovered that he’d been returned home by a “helpful” friend.

I dispatched a babysitter to look after him while I got the rest of the family together to get home.

The babysitter just stood there at the front door. I think he was chatting with his girlfriend or something.

Justin amused himself inside.

Justin’s such an independent little squirt.

 

And full of surprises!

That con man of a babysitter was sure quick to collect his money when we got home. Thanks for nothing, kid.

BabysitterLeaves

I think even the cats had a more inspiring Love Day than we did.

Nova’s showing her age, but she’s still got a lot of spunk.

But at least we made it through the day in one piece. I have a nice picture to show for my efforts.

Even if Justin isn’t in it.

———-

Passing Out: 18 + 1 = 19

So…. should a vampire passing out from sun exposure count as passing out? I think I’m going to say yes. I actually didn’t realize they passed out from sun exposure. It seems like I’m always running into sparking, smoking vampires hanging out in the park. If they can pass out, that makes their sun aversion a bit more powerful.

Since the heir will probably be a vampire, I think I shall have to invest in the happiness reward that turns you into a sparkly Twilight vamp.

I think I will NOT take away points for the automatic babysitter being called, though. As far as I can tell, the game glitched and reset Justin. Maybe because they were out at the park at night? It wasn’t nearly 3am, which I think is when NRaas Overwatch sends abandoned toddlers home. The hail? I can only guess.

When we got home from Christof’s party, William and I got a little distracted.

But that’s all right. Justin proved that he was perfectly capable of taking care of himself.

He pushed open the the front door with no help at all

and headed straight to entertain himself.

I can tell that this kid and I are going to get along just fine.

I thought I heard an explosion while William and I were, ah, shaking the treehouse. If you know what I mean.

I thought our love was literally lighting things on fire, but it just turned out to be lawn gnomes. We totally need more lawn gnomes.

Imogen was back at work, keeping up her grades. I might have promised her we’d replace the cat-scratched furniture if she stayed on the honor roll.

Only when she was done did she take time to play video games with her sister. She the good habits I’m teaching my children?

Gideon and Franklin also bonded over homework. They both have big plans for the kind of money they’ll make when they graduate.

And here’s Micky being cute. Just because.

It was back to work for me. Bright at early, I was looking for new cases.

That led me to this psycho, who wanted me to find his missing lawn flamingo. What can I say? It’s a job.

At least the people love me. Or maybe they just enjoyed watching this guy embarrassing himself.

I started by asking the local burglar if she’d taken it. She was offended. She’d never waste her time on something that cheap. She has professional pride. I couldn’t blame her.

Then I got tough. “Was it you?” I demanded of Lucy, the local werewolf.

“What? Are you kidding? I hate lawn flamingos!”

But I found it. I always come through.

ErinCharitable

And it was worth it for the recognition.

ErinPromoted8

Back at home, William was bonding with Justin.

This kid just can’t get enough of his block table. He’s going to be a handy little fellow.

He also really enjoys war machine toys and pretending to blow things up. Perfect.

The teens went on a field trip to the cemetery, which they all enjoyed entirely too much.

FranklinSkull

When they got home, William and Gideon bonded over comic books.

And witchcraft.

After which, William called Gideon an idiot and threatened to beat the snot out of him. Isn’t everyone’s family like this?

Meanwhile, Franklin and Helen took care of their baby brother.

They got Justin fed, changed and into bed.

While William made sure that Imogen got the bedtime attention she needed.

And I stood in the rain, rifling through somebody’s mail. Sometimes I really question my choice of careers.

But this is who I am, and I’m feeling pretty good about it overall.

ErinCrisisOver

I’m a successful gumshoe, and I keep the best undead partner at home.

And I can zap appliances and turn them blue.

These two things combine together well.

Gideon decided he had better things to do than sleep.

He got it into his head to have a midnight cookout.

If I were going to teach myself to cook, I’d probably have started with something that didn’t involve open flame.

It went sort of how you might expect.

But I only heard about it when I went out on the back patio and found the charred cinder that used the grill. Gideon handled the problem by himself. I slept through the whole incident.

Helen got tired of waiting for the hot dogs and conjured an apple for a snack.

She probably should have checked to see what kind of apple it was first.

HelenSlumber

Gideon wasn’t going to give up. Since now it was almost dawn, he decided to make breakfast instead.

I think at that point, he was hallucinating from lack of sleep.

Helen gave up on Gideon and went to bed. On William’s coffin.

Gideon was now by himself. The waffles came out fine, though!

They were so nice that Mum’s ghost dropped by for breakfast.

Waffles and coffee.

A great way to start the morning. Even if you’re dead.

At this point, Gideon looked around and noticed that everyone else was sleeping, even the cats. Maybe that’s what most living beings were doing at dawn.

Maybe it would be a good idea to head to bed too.

Minnie thought it was such a good idea that she had stolen his bed. She didn’t appreciate it when he kicked her off.

But, he managed to get into bed without passing out from exhaustion.

Now the only one awake was Justin, who somebody let out of his crib. He was busy educating himself as usual.

———-

Fires in Home: 3 + 1 = 4

Man, Justin is just extra cute in all those classic toddler animations. I don’t know what it is about his face.

I feel like I should have had funnier commentary. This was a hilarious segment to play through. I can’t believe Gideon managed to get to bed without either failing or burning down the house. And he put out his own fire! He didn’t even skip a beat. No freaking out. He just grabbed the fire extinguisher and put it out. He’s not Brave or Daredevil. I didn’t think he was even capable of that. Gideon is a Snob and a Savvy Sculptor, even though I haven’t been able to get him to do any sculpting. The Snob trait would make him pretty entertaining if he became heir.

I think I’m kept to the rule that autonomous eating of poisoned apples does not count as passing out, just as being Bored to Death doesn’t. I could see it going either way, but I didn’t count it when Hetal did this last generation.

And…. Erin’s !@#$ Midlife Crisis. First of all, she completed FOUR wishes. I watched them all go. I promised everything I could and did them all, including divorcing her husband, in an attempt to get a better moodlet than “Barely Fulfilled.” That’s the moodlet I’ve gotten for every single Midlife Crisis since Generations came out. I give up.

With my personal life all tidied up, I was ready to get back on the job. Out astride my vacuum, flying Mock 2 with the wind in my hair. I felt like a real woman again.

Digging through the trash of my suspect.

I had my guy. Sicko ghost impersonator. I raced by to the graveyard to complete my case.

ErinGraveDigger

With that complete, I had one more task to complete at the graveyard.

Ari Wong was finally laid to rest.

It felt so good to have the dead guy out of my house.

Back home, the older kids were at school, and William was back to being housedad.

He does cut quite a figure holding a baby, I must say. It almost makes me want to make another one. ALMOST.

While I’m out bringing in the big bucks, William keeps Justin engaged with an endless stream of age-appropriate educational activities.

The devotion he shows to that kid amazes me.

He also still finds some time to paint. His work has started to bring in some much-needed extra income. I have to say that I’m impressed. I could never put paint to canvass the way he does. Then again, my canvass is the human mind.

Caitlin’s second honeymoon with Peanut is over. At least that’s what I hear.

CaitlinWilliam

City Hall called. They wanted me to appear at the courthouse as soon as possible.

Who was I to refuse? I didn’t even stop to take a shower.

ErinMedal

It turned out that they wanted to honor me with a medal for my great service to the city. Now I wish I’d cleaned up a little bit.

I did take a bit of time to fix my hair, though. I thought it looked better down for my photograph with the mayor.

After the award ceremony, I hoofed it to the gym.

I was a famous gumshoe now, and famous gumshoes should have bulging muscles. I wanted to look the part for my next big picture in the papers.

Meanwhile, the older kids got home from school. I can’t believe how responsible and studious they are these days.

Clearly my work ethic has rubbed off on them.

ImogenHonorRoll

I’ve gotten some reports of the cats causing trouble around town.

They really ticked off somebody’s toddler.

MinnieInappropriate

While I was finishing up at the gym, I got a call from my brother Christof.

ChristofRookie

He was throwing a party to celebrate his new promotion! He was now in the major league of… some sport.

Of course we were going to go celebrate with him. In fact, we were going to make a joint party to celebrate our life events too. I got baby Justin ready to go. I couldn’t wait to introduce him to his uncle.

We all piled into a cab. Maybe the Motive Mobile was out for repairs or something.

I got a little confused about where the door was. Apparently some people have doors in their house just for cars! Who knew?

The smaller door was for people. I’d keep that in mind for next time.

I took a look around Christof’s place and headed upstairs.

To set my screaming baby Christof’s crib. His kid was much too old for it anyway.

Downstairs, Christof wasted no time getting his groove on.

Christof’s immediate family was gathering: his husband Randolph and teenage daughter Kari. Kari is the spitting image of Mama. She’d be proud.

Another guest was Christof’s friend Loki Beaker. “Come on and dance!” Christof shouted at him. “I’m alone over here!”

Loki got to dancing around the time we were ready to celebrate Helen’s birthday!

My little girl was becoming a teenager.

She looked just like me! And I mean JUST like me.

Randolph Wonderland-Holton was pretty impressed by the find food at this party. My, he’s really showing his age these days.

Imogen preferred to eat in front of the television.

Then I went upstairs to get the baby and put him on the floor.

One more birthday!

Little Justin had a lot of his father in him, but he has Mama’s gray eyes.

Then Helen and Imogen helped to clean up. Such responsible girls!

Imogen even did the dishes.

Meanwhile, Christof freaked out. “Augh! I can’t believe I’m a major-leaguer!”

William laughed at him.

Randolph grabbed his husband.”Come here,” he said. “Let me calm you down.”

“Oh, baby,” Christof murmured. “You really know how to turn me on.”

“Is it just me, or is it getting hot in here?” William asked. “I think we ought to do something about it.”

I gave William the naughty eye. “Great minds think alike,” I said. “Come on upstairs. I know the perfect place.”

As soon as things started to get interesting, Christof showed up. “You are NOT going to woohoo in my bed!” he cried.

Too late!

“You better clean those sheets, you hear me!”

“Mmm,” I said. “Whatever you say, brother.”

But we got out of cleaning because Randolph kicked us out.

ErinLeave

WilliamLeave

Some folks just don’t know how to be good hosts.

———-

Honor Roll: 2 + 1 = 3

Woo. WordPress has many wonderful features, but its WYSIWYG editor is not one of them. I’m still figuring out how NOT to insert unwanted empty paragraphs all over the place. It doesn’t seem to handle the Enter key around images well at all. Advice is welcome.

This was my first Late Night party invitation since I took out GoHere. It worked great. It’s nice to have those things working properly again.

However, it turns out you actually can’t bring a birthday cake to someone else’s house and then activate it. I used DebugEnabler to open buy mode for their house and buy the cake from there. Just in the interest of full disclosure.

And hey, I didn’t make them woohoo in Christof and Randolph’s bed. That was entirely autonomous by William. In fact, Christof was actually trying to get into the bed to woohoo with Randolph. I couldn’t stop laughing.

Helen is an exact clone of Erin, but with William’s colors. She’s disqualified as heir. Bah.

Justin is both a Vampire and a Witch. He looks to have William’s skin and hair, but Hetal’s gray eyes. He’s not a clone of Erin, but that’s the best I can tell. We’ll see what he looks like when he ages. up.

It was a rough day at school for the girls. Both of them stayed up all night the night before.

Helen had a headache.

But it was all worth it. Apparently Helen does better at school when she’s exhausted.

HelenHonorRoll

Imogen asked the school bus to stop early.

Because she needed to pass out.

On the lawn of the house next door to our apartment.

The taxi couldn’t find our apartment. I had to yell at the driver to let me out on the sidewalk before he drove away.

I might have just let him stop at a restaurant, but my adorable baby son was screaming.

I did manage to get home and put the kid to bed in his new crib. He was exhausted and full of milk, so he went to sleep immediately.

I had some peace and quiet! I made myself some veggie rolls. I forgot they were my favorite food. They’d never tasted so good.

I felt like a new woman. When William walked into the room, I jumped up.

“Look,” I said, “mistakes were made. Unfortunate things were said. Why don’t we start over?”

William looked like he’d been struck. “I can’t believe I’m hearing this!” he said.

“You divorced me, you crazy witch!”

“You don’t have to be so mean about it,” I said.

“Look,” I added. “Maybe we can start this conversation with a fresh perspective. How does this thing work again?”

“Don’t you point that thing at me,” William said.

Too late. I pushed the button.

“Wow!” William said. “I see rainbows. Groovy.”

“I can’t believe how good I feel,” he said. “I don’t know what you just zapped me with, but it was amazing.”

“Now do you think we can start over?” I asked.

William screwed up his face, seemingly caught in a battle between two feelings. I held my breath.

“Wow,” he said at last. “They’re beautiful. And all sparky, with happy rainbow soap bubbles all over. Thank you!”

“I missed you,” I said. “I’m sorry I was a crazed hormonal bitch. Please forgive me.”

William looked deeply into my eyes. “I forgive you,” he whispered.

“But if you ever do that again, I will rip your arms off.”

“Done,” I said.

“You’re so sexy when you’re scary,” I said. “Why don’t we head upstairs where it’s more private?”

“Do you think it would be gauche if we had another big wedding?” William asked.

“Come upstairs and we’ll discuss it…. in detail,” I said.

“Sure,” William said. “It really stinks down here.”

“It would smell better if someone besides me did any cleaning around here,” I said.

So we celebrated our renewed relationship the best kind of way.

Though we probably should have checked who was in the room first.

I’m pretty sure Franklin didn’t see anything, though. He was technically dead at the time.

“That was amazing,” I said.

“You know I’ve still got the magic,” William agreed.

“You two are so cute!” Bungle said in my ear. “Is it time to talk about our feelings?”

“I think I need to go to bed now,” I said pointedly.

While I was sleeping off stress, childbirth, and woohoo, William was sweet and cleaned up the bathroom.

It wasn’t much use, though, since the broken faucet just spilled water all over the floor again.

Micky and Daisy got into an epic battle for dominance of the household.

Micky won.

But Daisy lost with style.

Franklin looked over the nursery decorations.

And found the wanting. Of course.

And William proved what a good father he really is.

Franklin wasn’t too bad at caring for his baby brother either. He wasn’t so much with the cuddles, but he made sure the baby was actually fed.

The kids ate dinner outside again. It was the only way to avoid the stench in the dining room.

“You know,” Helen suggested, “We could actually clean up.”

“That’s a crazy idea,” Gideon said. “Let’s do it.”

Voila! Much less stink.

Afterward, Helen did her homework, vampire style.

Gideon contemplated his surroundings.

Imogen got into an argument with the wall.

Which she won.

I woke up after a wonderful beauty rest and made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for everyone to take to school.

With a little bit of that special something.

Ba-da-bing!

Magnifique!

Then I fixed the bathtub. For one beautiful moment, every appliance and fixture in the house worked.

Life. I got this.

———-

Honor Roll: 1 + 1 = 2

Passing Out: 18 + 1 = 19

It was so awesome that Helen made honor roll, and then Imogen canceled her out.

I was never terribly into Erin and William being divorced. I let it to as long as I found it entertaining, and then I got them back together.

#sims3challenge #sims3legacy #sims3story #thesims3

While I was cleaning up the pee on the floor, I got a call from Caitlin. She wanted me to know just how much having baby Shonna brought her and Peanut back together.

It was pretty smug really. Everyone knows that Peanut is a scumbag. I’m pretty sure the baby didn’t change that.So, back to my life.

I slept the most restful sleep I’ve had since I learned I was pregnant. Then I got up before dawn to write up my stakeout report. I couldn’t believe how productive I was without the constant woohoo with that hot, shirtless, finely muscled… wait, what?

“Do you think you might have been a little bit, um, hasty?” Bungle asked.

“Quiet,” I snapped. “I know what I’m doing.”

I went downstairs to fix the dishwasher. Everybody knows that it’s safer to fix electrical appliances while you’re pregnant, and I might as well make the best of it.

“Don’t stare at me either,” I snapped at Bungle.

“Actually, I think I’m gonna hurl,” Bungle said. “It stinks down here!”

Everyone’s a critic.

I could hear William outside, crying over the garbage.

I was not moved. Not moved, I tell you.

Branden called out and waved as he flew by.

He’s a high-profile doctor these days. I’m proud of my big brother.

While I was working in the kitchen and William was out crying, the girls were up early to play in the treehouse.

I think they were talking about us.

Then Imogen came in to get ready for school, and she broke the bathtub. Of course. My work is never done.

Nova started howling. We all raced into the bathroom to see if she was all right.

She had kittens! Oh dear. More kittens.

OK, I can’t be grumpy all the time. They really are adorable.

Here’s Daisy.


And Goofy.

“All right then!” I declared. “Off to school!”

“You really suck, Mom,” Imogen said as she ran out the door. She was gone by the time I could react. Was that because of William or something else? I get no respect.

William came back in after the children left. “Look,” he said, “I don’t know what happened between us, but I have nowhere else to go.”

Must stay firm. Must not let those puppy dog eyes in that incredibly hot body manipulate me. “I have to leave for a stakeout anyway,” I said. “You can stay. It’s kind of your house too.”

So he got out a canvass and expressed his feelings with paint.

While I was was gone, he had an adoring army of felines to keep him company.

That probably made me feel better.

It probably didn’t help that Minnie clawed him when he tried to cuddle her.

Here’s a poorly-justified cat spam interlude.

Minnie.

Nova, getting up there in age.

Minnie again.

Minnie, Daisy, and Micky from left to right.

Daisy.

I got home from my stakeout.

Mum was haunting the computer to play Football Fever, so I just went to bed early.

It’s probably just as well. I hear that things got crowded later.

I woke up at dawn feeling like a railroad spike was stabbing through my gut.

“The baby is coming!” I panted to Bungle.

“I can’t leave the house,” Bungle said. “I can’t help!”

I couldn’t ask William to help me. I’d just kicked him out of our marriage. So I was on my own.

I took myself to the hospital.

I was there a long time. By myself.

William showed up to find out the news. Branden was just leaving the delivery room.

“Is she all right?” he demanded.

“She’s fine,” he said. “It’s a boy.”

A beautiful baby boy. I named him Justin.

Now that the painful part was over and I was looking into the eyes of my new, and final (!) son, everything felt better.

It couldn’t be that I was too hard on William, was it? Maybe hormones talking?

William was still waiting when I was discharged. It was good to see him.

“Hey,” I said. “I’m glad you’re here.”

“I’m just here to see the baby,” William said. “He looks great.”

“What did you just do with your arm?” I demanded. “Is that even possible.”

“Can we talk?” I said. “I might have been a bit hasty when I, you know, broke us up.”

“Oh, now you think so?” he said.

He pulled around the Motive Mobile.

“Oh wow!” I said. “That’s just what I need! You are so thoughtful.”

“You kidding?” William said. “This is for me. You can find your own way home.”

He drove off and left me, holding his screaming baby, standing at the curb.

I guess it’s time to take a cab home.

———–

Births: 9 + 1 = 10

They both wished for a boy, so I helped it along with some apples Erin conjured herself. If they hadn’t, though, I would probably have pushed for a boy because Justin is too good a J-name to miss.

I think I’m officially declaring that if I can push baby gender to the names I want to use, I’m just going to do it ;-).

I think Daisy might be my favorite cat for the next cat generation! Her coat is so simple, yet I think all her ancestors are represented.