William

All posts tagged William

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.

#sims3challenge #sims3legacy #sims3story #thesims3

Good news from Caitlin! I’m an aunt again.

Well, I guess it is if you consider having a child with skeezer like Peanut to be good news.

William, as a vampire, is a master of stealth.

He can be right in front if you, and you don’t even see him.

Then WHOOSH! He appears and scares you.

Just one of the exciting things about living with a creature of the night.

A long time ago, I looked at renovating the basement. We didn’t have money to do much, but I did put a chess set and a light  down there. Franklin found it! He’s become passionate about logic.

I was so excited to see him use the chess set that I completed the renovation! We have a little bit more money now, since I finished a few more cases.

William shared his ancient wisdom with Imogen. She was much more receptive than Helen was.

Imogen gets along with anyone, even William. She’s the only one of our kids who actually gets along with there dad. He’s a hard man to love.

Helen washed the bathtub! I’m so proud of her.

AriWong called and asked if he could bring his kids came over for a playdate. It sounded like a good idea to me.

Wong and I got along great.

Maybe a little too well.

After we introduced ourselves, he said “OK! You have the kids! I’ll be back to pick them up!” Then he ran off. I guess he was really excited about the free child care.

I entertained Jennika Wong with my apple conjuring.

She didn’t look terribly impressed, but she said she liked me. I guess she just has bitchy resting face.

Then I said goodbye and headed to the spa for a ms. My pregnancy wasn’t showing much yet, but my back was killing me.

I had a tasty snack of conjured apple before going inside.

Back home, the Wong kids were more interested in talking to each other than playing with my kids.

That seemed to suit my kids just fine.

Except Gideon, who was terrified of the dominoes table for some reason.

Then Jennika played alone with our toys. Her brother Demitrius went upstairs to play video games with William.

Evening came, and Ari came back to pick up his kids.

But instead of leaving, he let Gideon persuade him to sit down for a game of dominoes. I guess Gideon got over his domino phobia.

After Gideon lost at dominoes, he headed upstairs.

And came right back down. “I’m not sure what happened,” he said.

“I have to use the bathroom bad,” Helen commented. So she headed upstairs.

And came right back down.

This was starting to get ominous.

Ari didn’t seem to mind being stuck in the basement. He picked up a guitar and started grooving.

“I have to pee,” Imogen said. “Let me try this.”

Nope.

At which point, by the magic of the simgods, the staircase underwent a striking transformation.

It didn’t save Helen from am embarrassing accident, however.

Franklin made it, though.

Then everyone gathered in the kitchen to celebrate.

It was the kittens birthday! First Micky.

Then Minnie.

Jennika wasn’t terribly impressed, though.

Imogen still needed to pee, so she headed to her bedroom.

Nova suggested she get something to eat.

Of course! Imogen found the cats inspiring.

So she ran outside.

It was raining, so she stopped to catch raindrops on her tongue.

At which point, nature took its course. But she was outside and wearing a skirt, so she could pretend nothing happened. Maybe that was the point?

Back down in the basement, the unthinkable happened.

Ari Wong’s time was up.

“No!” Jennika cried. “You can’t do this!”

“Wow,” Franklin said. “Nobody’s died in our basement before. That’s uncool.”

“Boring,” Imogen observed.

“I sense something terrible has happened,” Demitrius said suddenly.

“Just don’t get in the way of my soaps,” William said.

Ari begged for enough time to take his kids back home.

But it was not to be.

Grim was unimpressed by the whole basement rec room.

I arrived home, feeling refreshed, but a lot more pregnant. I had the strange sense that something terrible had happened. Maybe it was the huge puddle of pee on the floor that clued me off.

“Don’t go down there,” Franklin told me. “It’s not pretty.”

I started to clean up. That’s when I saw Grim.

“Out of my way,” Grim said in his otherworldly voice.

“Did you take one of my family?” I demanded.

“Not this time.”

“Then you can wait till I clean up this pee.”

When I was done, I stepped aside.

Grim wandered out into the darkness.

I mopped the pee up off the floor, sent the crying kids home to their mother, and dealt with the dead body in the basement. I was exhausted, and the baby was sitting on my bladder. All that time, William was upstairs sleeping the sleep of the dead. Literally.

By the time I was able to trudge upstairs, I was ready to learn to cook Ambrosia. That way, I could bring William back to life so I could kill him myself.

“YOU!” I shouted when I saw him. “You did this to me!”

Apparently, I got through to him, undead and all. “Whuh?” he said.

“I’m through with you!” I said. “I’m done with the messes you make. I’m done with your mean jokes. And most of all, I’m done with your… your…

“your impossible fertility!”

“Babe, you can’t be serious!” William pleaded. “I know you’re tired, and this baby is a big surprise. Just rest. Everything will feel better in the morning.”

“I’ll rest when you get out of this house,” I said. “We’re through.”

“Baby, please!” William said.

“Baby is exactly the wrong thing to say at this moment,” I told him.

William was a broken man. He trudged down the stairs and stood sobbing at the bottom.

Then he tried to move out.

But he couldn’t bring himself to leave. He stood staring at the door for most of the night.

———-

Self-Peeing: 11 + 2 = 13

I was wondering when we’d get a fail. We got two. One of them was because of the glitched staircase, but Imogen definitely earned hers. In fact, the game gave her an extra 15 minutes to get to toilet twice.

That was annoying. I’m pretty sure those stairs worked when I added the basement. There are a bunch of glitches associated with stacking staircases, but those should have worked. There are some forum posts that indicate that sacked staircases completely broke with Island Paradise.

So, I suppose we need a few words of explanation for Erin and William’s little spat. Erin had a midlife crisis. She had it before I stopped playing months ago to focus on the Samples, so I’d completely forgotten until, out of the blue, she rolled a wish to divorce William. I always ignore the random divorce wishes between happily married couples, but this is an ISBI, so….

#sims3challenge #sims3legacy #sims3story #thesims3

The morning began with Gideon raging against the dishwasher he broke because it was still broken.

Meanwhile, William decided to share the wisdom from his long undead life with Helen.

Helen wasn’t terribly impressed. Kids just don’t appreciate the mature perspective.

Imogen had an emergency. Could she make it to the bathroom in time??

Whew! Just barely.

The kittens were adorable. (Micky)

As usual. (Minnie)

At least Mikhail wasn’t disgusted by the bathtub. I certainly was.

Franklin finally found some art in the house that he likes!

The bookshelf.

I don’t get it.

“Someone should do something about this messy house!” Helen told Imogen. “You ought to clean it up.”

“OK!” Imogen said. Helen went back to playing.

Why doesn’t anyone clean up when *I* ask them to? Maybe Helen could teach me the trick.

William finished another painting. Quite impressionistic. I think it’s a forest on a hill. Or a pinecone stuck in the sand. Or Godzilla climbing out of the sea.

Where was I during this heartwarming family Sunday?

I was out in the snow, staking out the graveyard.


The suspect approached from the road. He never suspected he was being watched. I’m just that good.

Then his partner in crime.

They whispered something to each other. I strained to hear, but my powers of disguise don’t make my hearing supernatural.

Then suspect 1 left the scene, while suspect 2 started building a snow fort. What does it all mean??

Let’s cut to the chase: What it meant was that two weirdos were making fake ectoplasm out of corn starch and pretending to be ghosts.

The thing that ticks me off: the science department couldn’t tell the difference between corn starch and real ectoplasm? Where did they get their degrees from? A cooking school?

Well, that’s why they pay me the big bucks.

Back at home, Franklin’s prom date, Linn, rang the doorbell.

Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but I think she should have put on some clothes. In the snow, for heaven’s sake.

“Do you think I should dress up a little more?” Gideon wondered.

Franklin was still grounded for staying out after curfew at the bowling alley. William got really hardass on him and refused to let him go to prom. So he sneaked out.

Gideon and Linn held the limo for him.

He just barely made it before they gave up on him.

It’s less clear why he felt he needed to sneak into the school.

When I got home, William was out doing some “serious art.”

So I was the one who had to stay up and read Franklin the riot act for sneaking out.

“But Mom!” he protested, “I got to kiss a girl!”

“You did?” I exclaimed. “Well that makes everything different!”

I sent Franklin and Gideon to bed. I was starting to feel just how exhausting the day had been.

“There’s a huge pile of trash in the middle of the floor,” I said to Bungle. “Why is that?”

“I don’t know!” Bungle said. “Why does anything happen around here? Go to bed. There’s time to clean tomorrow.”

WAIT! I ALMOST FORGOT I WAS PREGNANT!

———-

The only way to have a good prom is to go with a date. Otherwise, you just get humiliated by your crush and get into fights. If Franklin isn’t the heir, I’ll see if I can get Linn to move out with him.

So I wanted to do a PSA about the NRaas mod suite here. I am a huge fan of of NRaas. I thought it would be dead when Twallan decided to leave, but Chain_Reaction and Icarus_Allsorts have taken up the torch and carrying it with style.

BUT, I found a couple of bugs in NRaas GoHere that have a huge effect on my gameplay. As far as I can tell, GoHere is midway in a big enhancement that got bogged down. It could be quite a while before it sees a new release. GoHere is such an innocuous-seeming mod that I never thought it could be the cause of my problems.

Erin spent a good two days repeating her graveyard stakeout, which wouldn’t complete despite inactive sims arriving on the lot and sharing a secret with each other in front of her. Over and over again. Then they’d hang around on the lot, Erin would do a NEW stakeout, and two new inactive sims would be summoned. The lot would be full of inactives, and Erin still couldn’t advance to the next step of her case. I finally did a full mod-exclusion test and discovered that GoHere was the culprit.

I removed it, and then suddenly Late Night inactive parties worked too. Those haven’t worked for me in what feels like years. My actives would get invited to parties, accept the invitation, and then the Attend Party action would do nothing. Usually there was nobody even home at the home lot of the sim throwing the party. Seasons inactive parties worked fine; it was just the Late Night celebrity-style stuff that broke.

GoHere’s primary feature is allowing the “Go Here” command to stack. Otherwise, if you tell a sim to do something after you’ve told them to go somewhere, the movement action would disappear. This was causing me a lot of annoyance at some point, and now I can’t remember why. I thought GoHere was the greatest thing since sliced bread. I’ve been playing with it for years, and I’ve long since forgotten what was so awesome about being able to queue Go Here commands. I’m sure that I’ll remember now that I’m playing without it.

[Later: Oh, now I remember one reason. It’s a big deal when you’re doing stuff like playing music or other actions that sims do wherever they happen to be standing. If you want your musician sim to stand in a specific spot to play the guitar (maybe not in the doorway?) it’s annoying without GoHere because you have to give the sim the Go Here command, then watch them while they go there, and then given them the command to play guitar the moment that they arrive at the place you want.]

TL;DR: NRaas GoHere has some bugs that break some Ambitions job opportunities and Late Night parties thrown by inactives. It might be a while before it gets fixed. It might be worth taking that mod out if you use it.

#sims3challenge #sims3legacy #sims3story #thesims3

Eventually I managed to show everyone where the cake was.

We all ate ours outside in the snow because all the seats inside were taken.

Then I headed upstairs. You had to go to the second floor to get away from the stink of the kitchen. I really ought to do something about that.

Franklin decided he wanted to try his dad’s big vampire bed.

William wasn’t happy about that at all.

“I can’t get to bed!” he complained. “Where am I supposed to sleep?”

I filled out my stakeout report with Bungle looking over my shoulder as usual.

Then I headed to bed. As soon as I started to lie down, though, I felt terrible.

I jumped to my feet it felt like I was going to–

I barely made it to the bathroom in time.

I came back to bed to find William back. “I think I’m coming down with something,” I told him.

“Whatever,” William said. “Franklin’s still in my bed! Where am I supposed to sleep?”

“You’re a big boy,” I said. “You figured it out.”

So he slunk downstairs and crawled into Franklin’s bed.

Nova and Mikhail have been very cuddly as of late. They’re so cute when they play together.



Micky the kitten went bounding out into the snow.

Franklin went to bed early, and he got up earlier than everyone else. He was a good boy and did his homework.

Then he broke the toilet.

Gideon and Imogen talked about their future career plans over a breakfast of leftover birthday cake.

“Do you know how much you can make for an ice sculpture?” Gideon said. “I could be making a fortune this time of year.”

Then he actually cleaned up the dishes. And broke the dishwasher.

Bungle was waiting for me when I woke up. I’m pretty sure he just stands there and watches me while I sleep.

“Today is Saturday!” he crowed. “What are you going to for fun?”

“I have to work,” I said. “I always have to work.”

The kids had some fun. Gideon spent the afternoon in the hot tub.

Imogen played with snow-covered kittens.

I built a snowman. OK, sometimes I don’t have to work. 

Then I headed to the hospital to check out my gross goo sample from the graveyard.

First, I went to see my brother Dr. Branden to get myself checked out. I was still feeling queasy, and I really hoped that good didn’t give me some strange disease. He took some blood samples to test.

Just as I was leaving, Branden called. He already had results from my blood tests.

It turned out I was pregnant!

Wait, what! Another baby? Dang it, William!

———-

I had totally forgotten how much fun it was to play these guys! I just step back, and the hilarity spins itself. I whirled through 4 or 5 posts worth of stuff this week while I should have been doing more responsible things. I’m going to see if I can play them until THEIR heir poll before I return to the Samples.

Erin and William both wished for another kid. I pondered it, but I was not pleased with the genetic diversity of the kids I had, so I let them go for it. This gives us an afterthought kid like we had last generation that is only going to be a child by poll-time. Last time, she was by far the best genetic combination. We’ll see what we get this time.

I don’t usually do outtakes because anything goes with the Wonderlands, but I couldn’t figure out a way to use these pictures. Here, some random vampire outside can’t go where she wants to go because the potty chair in the apartment is in the way.

Look at that face! One of her parents must have been an alien!

#sims3challenge #sims3legacy #sims3story #thesims3

I got a call from Caitlin. She and her estranged husband Peanut seem to have dealt with their marital problems in a way I didn’t expect.

I really don’t get my sister.w

Franklin hasn’t stopped critiquing all the art in the house.

He wanders around at all hours and lets us know what parts of my decorating he doesn’t like. His opinion has been noted and duly forgotten. He can change the art when he’s ready to pay for it.

At least he takes responsibility for the younger kids.

Gideon is pretty much done with the family drama.
He sleeps in the treehouse most nights.

I don’t mind having fewer kids in the house. It gives me a chance to focus on the important things in life. Why else to I keep this guy around, after all?

“Hee!” Bungle said. “You’re being naughty again!”

“I’m going to pull the stuffing out of you if you’re not out of this room in five minutes,” I hissed at Bungle.

“Is that a new kind of come on?” William asked. “If it is, I’m into it.”

William is good for one other thing — his art is getting better. I really liked this one.

We even gave it a name.

And hung it on the wall.

If Franklin doesn’t like it, he can stick it in his ear.

Here’s a break for very cute kittens who are not, at this moment, peeing on the carpet.

Here’s Minnie!

And Micky!

They have wonderful beds, but the seem to prefer to sleep outside in the snow.

Franklin decided to go to the bowling alley after school with his friends one day.

He started out having normal fun like a normal kid.

But of course, he got distracted by the art.

Which he didn’t like. I’m sure you’re surprised.

He lost track of time AND his friends. The next thing we knew, the cops were bringing him home.

William told me about the whole thing later. I had my head stuck in a trash can at the time.

What? It was a job! Being a detective isn’t exactly glamorous.

When Franklin got out of the cop car, Helen made sure he knew that he was really going to get it.

And he did. William ripped him a new one.

I think he likes the discipline part of fatherhood entirely too much.

The next day was my birthday. I took a break from my cases to have a little “me” time. Well, I guess it was, “me and the friend inside my head time.”

Bungle and I had fun.

Then it was time to get older!

Woo!

I aged up with style

If I do say so myself. Hardly a wrinkle!

After which it was Bungle’s turn.

He looked exactly the same. Since he’s a figment of my imagination, I shouldn’t have been surprised.

When we were done celebrating my birthday, William caught my eye. “Ar you thinking what I’m thinking?” he asked huskily.

“Of course,” I said, and I grabbed him.

“I was thinking about cleaning up the dirty dishes,” William admitted, “but this is better.”

“I’m going to ring in this birthday properly,” I told him. “Get your clothes off.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

We headed out to the hot tub,

where I pulled him under the water.

Hooray for birthdays.

My next case took me to the graveyard. Here in Aurora Falls, the cemetery is suspiciously lacking in creepiness.

So of course, there had to be a really creepy mystery going on.

I checked out the mausoleum.

Which turned out to be incredibly gross.

Meanwhile, William waited for Franklin to come home from school in order to give him a hard time.

I guess he feels he had to toughen up his sissy of an art student.

Imogen did her homework like a good Party Animal.

I got home and it was party time! We didn’t invite anyone, but we did get Gideon a cake. I totally didn’t forget his birthday, and don’t let anyone tell you I did.

Gideon became a teen with his own unique sense of style.

Gideon grabbed his slice of cake and ate out in the snowy back yard. That worked well for all of us because he smelled worse than the dirty dishes on the dining table.

The rest of us stood around the cake, complaining about how hungry we were and wondering what to do.

Just a typical family gathering, really.

———-

Hi there! It’s been a while, but I’m back to playing the Wonderlands!

So…. is Gideon a face clone or not? That is the question. His whole face seems to be inherited from Erin except for his jawline, which is William’s. I think. Maybe the whole head shape? He doesn’t have William’s cheekbones, which would be more interesting.

I guess we can give him another look when he ages to adulthood.