Agnes Crumplebottom

When I started up Agnes' lot last play session, I found her here-- at the Windfall Motel, a place meant for homeless sims to have a place to eat and rest. It's the last place I expected her to be drawn to, but then things in her life have probably never gone the way she's expected.

Her sister, Cornelia Goth, gave her a call while she was here. Doesn't she look thrilled? "No, Cornelia, I don't see the sun getting ready to shine through the clouds. No, I don't want to talk about it."

Cornelia calls her often, usually at least once a day, to check up on her.

I can't blame Cornelia.



She lives alone in that large house and has so far shown little interest in getting to know any of her neighbors.



Agnes usually enjoys painting and has written a non-fiction book which did reasonably well. Her agent is now asking for something spicier, maybe a drama or a love story or both. But Agnes can feel her creativity slowly drying up in the same way as her small fortune left to her by her husband.

She felt the only thing to do was to take on a part time job at the book store.

That didn't last long. She was soon fired (my first sim ever to be fired-- what an honor), and so now she can't hide herself away in the bookstore anymore. It would just be too awkward.



Agnes has felt the need to go through some changes. I'm going to use that as an explination for her garb in the next part here. (She also wears pants sometimes with a sweater. Highly unusual for her.)


One night, she heard something from down stairs and saw something glowing in the front yard. She'd heard about it, but couldn't believe it. Her Darling had come back from the dead. She had no time to dress herself properly; she did not want to miss him.

"Darling, is that you?"

"I don't want you to see me like this!" He turned away from her as if to run, but he only stepped closer to his grave.

"No," she whispered. He'd only just appeared, and he seemed ready to leave her alone again. "Darling, why did you leave? Why did you leave me alone?"

He halted his progression towards his headstone. "I didn't leave," he said with a voice that softly echoed on the air. "I was taken before my time. By the Reaper. I only come out at night to check in on you, my dear."

"The Grim Reaper?" Agnes had read books on death which had taken her into the myths and the Grim Reaper. "There's a way to beat him, I know there is. I read it in a book once."

Her darling shook his head, "You and your books."

But he stayed and listened to her until the sun almost came up.

Dissonance

"Are you even listening to me?"

"Nah, I'm pretty tired."

He just couldn't be mad at her. For one, his problems with his latest love interest was definitely not her fault. And two, it was just impossible. The second he thought he was mad at her, she would give a smile or a hearty laugh with a raunchy joke.

It was a little weird that she slept in his bed. Nothing ever happened, accidental or otherwise. "I hate sleeping alone," she said. "You know me and Mom always shared a room. My room's too quiet."

It was rather inconvenient, but he said "no" to her as well as he held a grudge with her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Things with Cycl0n3 were going great. He even came over to the house when Kamil was at work.


He went to work in the afternoon and was gone usually until late. Varina couldn't stand the quiet house, so she invited Cycl0n3 over.


One thing lead to another, and they were soon giving her new (used) bed a good test. This was certainly something she could NOT do with Kamil in the house. Suddenly she was glad for his late night shift.


Things became weird the night he came home and caught her saying good-bye to Cycl0n3. Cycl0n3 was completely oblivious with his casual, "'ey, man. See ya later."

Varina was starving, so she made a stack of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Kamil sat at the counter reading his charisma book. He didn't say a word to her when she sat down next to him. For a short while, she imagined it would all be okay. Maybe she was making too much out of nothing. Why would Kamil care if she had someone over? He was always going out for drinks with his girls. And he was always talking about his girl problems with her. (Like that Patricia Wan-- she was nothing but trouble.)

"So what was that?"

"What?"

"I thought we agreed we wouldn't bring people home."

Anyone else overhearing the conversation wouldn't understand, but she knew exactly what he meant. He hadn't brought over any of his girls. Of course Varina was always home working on her paintings, so it was a rather nice courtesy he was extending her so she wouldn't have to hear anyone shouting his name and their deity of choice.

"Well, it was quiet. And you know I can't be in a house like this by myself."

There wasn't much more to say after that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Good night!" Varina hopped off the barstool, tossed her dish in the sink, and skittered off to her room before he could even attempt to come up with something to explain his behavior. He wasn't even sure what was going on with himself. Maybe it was all Patricia Wan's fault.

He raised a finger in the air after Varina had closed her door. There was plenty to say, but he really wasn't good at these things. Maybe Cycl0n3 was just using her. She shouldn't rush things with him. And why was this the first he was hearing or seeing about this guy? Shouldn't he be the first person that any love interest of Varina would meet for approval since he was her best friend and roommate?

He went to his room to grab his guitar then back to the living room to softly play. The rough strings brushing against his fingertips always helped focus him in a spot where the thoughts couldn't reach him. Maybe it was better this way. Things usually fell into place in his life. It was how things worked. But if things were being difficult, then clearly he was heading in the wrong direction. The next time he saw Patricia Wan, he would end it completely (after seeing if he could get a few simoleons off of her first). Then maybe he'd treat that cute new girl at work out to a few drinks or a movie.


It was a few hours later when a half asleep and partially terrified Varina climbed into his bed. "I had a nightmare," she said before she crawled in and fell asleep."

He was still vaguely aware of her in the early morning as the sun fell on his covers.

******************

The thing with Patricia Wan is that she was in a relationship with their boss, Hank Goddard. Well, I installed the Indie Stone story progression mod (which is now compatible with Awesome mod), and so while I was playing a pop up told me that she had gotten married. And Kamil wasn't even invited to the wedding!

Meanwhile, I've been watching their wants for clues. The picture where Kamil looks like he thought of something to say just a little too late, he was actually licking his finger and doing the "Hot" animation while thinking of Varina, but he didn't have any wants related to her. He did want to woohoo with Patricia though. His wants now are seeming to turn more towards a new person of interest who I know nothing about yet.

As for Varina, her wants are pretty cute. She hasn't had any romantic wants until she got the want to woohoo with Cycl0n3. Otherwise, she just wants to be his friend and talk to him alot.

Cyclone

"All right, so I've been thinking..." Varina says as she opens the fridge to pull out a stack of ready made waffles. Kamil doesn't say anything in protest. "I said that I've been thinking. This is the part where you should protest or even sneak off to your room." She glances back at Kamil who sits at the counter on the cheap bar stools they were lucky enough to get for cheap.

But he says seriously, "What about?"

Varina shrugs, surprised that he wants to hear her thoughts. "Ok, so I'm not liking this work thing. I'm doing pretty good at the painting. I think I'm just going to focus on that."

She's prepared for him to protest-- they don't have a lot of money. They don't even have a couch yet. "Can I see one? You haven't shown me any of your paintings, you know."


So after breakfast, once he's changed into his one fancy suit, she lets him see her most recent piece.

"It's pretty good, if I do say so myself-- and I do because I, like, will have to sell it and stuff."


Something is clearly wrong now. He leans in a little too close, closer than he ever has before. "It's really good."

"So you don't mind my quitting to devote proper time to it?"

"Nah. I'm due for a promotion. We'll be fine for a while."

"Uh... ok..." Something is definitely wrong.

He heads off to his room, and she just shakes her head. Boys! Or at the very least Kamil who suddenly seems to think he's interested in her-- the girl who's like his sister. Maybe she's reading too much into it, but she's known him for a while and seen his moves and that was definitely a move.


Since she's quit her job, and Kamil heads in to work, Varina has plenty of time to herself. So of course she wants to visit the art museum! It's on her way out that she runs into a surprise. (It's upity Mr. Sword from this post-- at the bottom of the post.)




"You must really like art. This is the second time I've run into you here."


Does he ever! They stand around talking about art and making funny faces until the sun sets. She finds out that he's single and a little absent minded.

"So how can I be sure that you don't have a girlfriend? What if you've, like, just forgotten about her?"

He grins cheesily at her, "Well, then I'll just blame you."

The sun finally does set and they're still there, standing on the sidewalk in front of the art museum before they finally say good night.




The next day, they meet for lunch. She hasn't said a word to Kamil yet. It all seems too soon for her to say anything; she doesn't want to jinx it. But there was that weirdness between her and Kamil. Maybe she was only imagining it, but still she feels she should tread carefully.

**********

Kamil totally hit on her. I was surprised. I don't think that's a side effect of the Awesome mod. That was pretty neat. So I sort of want to give them more time to hang around and see what happens.

Cycl0ne was a surprise. I think he's just stalking her now, but they really hit it off easy. Maybe it's just because she is rather charismatic (and darn cute with her blue self).

Toughen up

More than anything, Claire Ursine wants to be best friends with her daughter. But she's not quite sure what you do exactly.

Claire works hard to provide for the both of them. She is very careful at least to not let her young daughter know exactly what she does. Claire won't be going in for career day anytime soon.

She does what she can using her skills. Baking cookies is not her bag.


Where she gets the gifts from isn't important-- at least not to Claire and hopefully not to Kirsten either. But Claire is trying in the only way she knows how to reach out to her young daughter.

****************

Kirsten HATES mornings. She has to get her own self up.

She feeds her pet fish, Goldie, a gift from her mother. (It was kinda weird. It just was in her room one day. Kirsten still isn't sure if it's a boy or a girl, but goldie is a good name for either.)

She then feeds herself, usually cereal or toast and jam. Kirsten isn't allowed to use the stove, and her mother usually sleeps late due to late nights out. What she does is still a mystery to Kirsten, but it really doesn't bother her.

At school, Kirsten isn't exactly popular, but she has a few friends. She recently brought home Bella Bachelor, another kinda weird girl at school.


Both girls were excited. Without any parents around to bother them, they could do what they wanted.

They discussed their options. The beach is near-by, but Bella didn't want to get sand in her shoes. (Kirsten teased her about that for a good while.)

So they decided to play tag.

Let's just say they never got very far. Kirsten was rather annoyed. As soon as they get older and Bella gets more reasonable, these two could have some great fun. But Bella needs to toughen up first!

Kirsten and Claire cross paths in the evening while Kirsten sits down to some canned soup.

"How was your day?" Claire asks while trying to hide Kirsten's new surprise behind her back.

"Good," Kirsten says.





Ok, I'm thinking my next step would be to create my own town with sims I actually care about running around, with some extras in the library for the game to draw from.

It's neat when my sims read the paper and there are sims I know in the headlines. I think it's really cool. Don't know if I'll ever get around to re-building anything, but it would be a fun project I think. Maybe I'll work on it when I get bored or something.

Varina Jupiter and Kamil Eloy

Meet Varina and Kamil.

They've just moved into Sunset Valley on a whim to follow their dreams. They've known each other since they were little and have always bonded over art. (I think there's some story about Varina dumping paint on him in the second grade, but Kamil really doesn't like to talk about it.)



Varina is blue. I suppose you could tell that, but she wasn't always. Her parents were sort of odd and artsy. It's probably where Varina gets it from. She believes that true art comes from stuggle and hardship and more struggle-- ok, not really. Really, she likes to have fun and she's sort of childish at times. But she is struggling.


So here's Kamil. He's going to be famous.

If not for his music, then probably for his skills. He's rather charming, and so far in his first day in Sunset valley, he's had three girls swooning (though one was a teen so she really won't count for a few more years) and met one over drinks. Kamil is generally lucky-- things just aways seem to go his way.


Varina tried to convince Kamil that they needed to just get a cheap house and they could move later once he moved up in his career. But Kamil would have none of that. "It's all part of the image!" Of course, Kamil won't be able to bring his lady friends home for a while.

So their first day was spent trying to make money so they could at least buy beds.

Kamil did what he does best. He started making friends. He's got this way with people, and so before you know it, even the most frugal sim is handing him money willingly.

Varina started by gathering precious stones. She found a few good ones, and so she was able to get enough money to buy them both beds.


It wasn't long before Varina actually managed to sell her first painting, so she treated Kamil out to some fried chicken at the local diner where the most recent incident happened.

Kamil was hanging out front minding his own business.


He says now that he sort of suspected something, but I'm sure that he had no clue. He was too busy day dreaming.

"AHHH!" It's probably not fair to say he screams like a girl, but he does.



Other random picture:

Varina went to the art museum. She didn't look impressed.

But while I was getting that shot...

THIS guy suddenly walked into the camera. Is it just me, or is that a smug smile?

Claire Ursine

Claire called to me. A lonely angler living by the ocean, how could I not pop in on her?

She starts out larger, and I didn't snap a picture of her surprisingly. I started her on the treadmill right way because she had the want to work out until fatigued and I wanted to see how long it would take her to lose the weight.

Not long at all.

Oh you look fine Claire! Don't make that face. Though we should talk about that hat...



Claire works at the Outstanding Citizen Corp. It's a job she likes. People have always been looking down their noses at her since she was little. And her little bit of payback is to work her way up to master thief. She hates people, but it's okay because they hate her too.



When she left the warehouse, the cops were onto her, and they gave chase.

Ok, so what really ended up happening, I got a pop up that they were after her, and then she RAN to the car. It seems she knew that they couldn't hold her. The food is good anyway, plus she likes the solitude of being locked up for a night. She spent the night working out, but she was sick to her stomach the whole night. Maybe it was something she ate before entering the slammer. The evil cook at the warehouse is always trying new agents on anyone who mistakenly trusts him.

No, it turns out it was that one time on that one mission in the back seat with the look out. It had been a spur of the moment what-the-hell kind of thing. This was her take apparently.

I loved watching her stomach grow gradually over the course of the three days.

So that one day, when she was sitting down to burnt waffles, she felt a pain. The time and come, so she calmly called a taxi and went to the hospital. (Come to think of it, she probably really shouldn't have. She's a criminal! What if someone had recognized her?)


She came out with Kirsten.

So will she change her life for this little girl? Or will she continue down the same path? Claire had wanted a boy. Boys are supposed to be tough, but this little girl, swaddled in the delicate pink blankets the hospital gave her, has her worried. Could this innocent little thing be her heir?

Did Claire ever look so sweet and innocent like this? She must not have, because her earliest memories are of her father yelling at her and smacking her around. This girl she only wanted to protect and keep safe in the only way she knew how.

*********************

So I installed Awesome Mod and customized it. Sims can still randomly die from things that are not game play related, but they won't lose inventory (YAAAAAY!), they won't move, and they won't have babies with only one parent.

Now I can have fun visiting many different families and really getting involved. That bug from the last post was a real downer and I didn't want to play after I discovered that.

I've lengenthed their lives to 190 days now, instead of 90. That way I can keep story progression on, visit multiple families, and not loose too much time in their lives. I don't mind missing some days, but 90 days was too short for them to really accomplish anything.