happy new year, 2087!

Happy New Year, 2087! Keri Riley is 25, Tyler Jackson is 23, Janie Trudgen is 45, Pamela Collins is 38, Madison Riley is 62, Marc Hall is 42, Levi Bachman is 52, Bentley Booth is 24.

*Warnings: Grab a cup of tea, this one is long! Both in words and pictures! (If the pictures don't all load the first time, try refreshing the page. I don't know how it is on your end, but the pictures have been wonky for me when there's a lot of them.) 

** Also NSFW!


On New Year's Eve, Keri finally had a reason to wear this gown. It had been her mother's gown, although Madison never had a chance to wear it while it still fit. Then in time Madison felt too old for it, with its deep scooping back and bare arms, so she finally passed it over. Keri and her mother were never the same size at the same age, but where Madison filled out in curves, Keri filled out in muscle. So the gown fit.

"But don't get too bulky," her mother told her. "Men like their women a bit softer, you know. How will you ever find someone again if your arms are stronger than his?"

"Only date athletes?" Keri quipped. At least Tyler's arms were reliably stronger than hers. Maybe she could consider it, though. Another check to add to her long list of impossible traits a man should have: doting, but not smothering, independent, passionate, ambitious, likes his own space, won't nag for children, won't ask her to be a housewife, and has strong arms?

Keri was never under the impression that Tyler checked all of those boxes, although he certainly managed to check a few of them.

it's your day: December birthdays

first, some quickie notes: It appears that this is Danielle's blog debut? I don't know how that's possible, since I've been blogging about her on Tumblr for ages, lol! 

In other dimensions (TS3), Danielle was not conceived until April was 25, which made a lot more sense for April's story, considering the time it would have taken her to deal with some personal issues and feel ready to have a baby. But in TS4, Danielle was already in my game as a sim from the 2091 timeline, and has been paused as a baby FOREVER, and I didn’t want to keep her a baby any longer. 

So if it feels sudden to think that April and Beau had her so soon after college, then that’s why. We’ll just imagine that everything is fine and nobody is traumatized by it.

—

December 2086.

*briefly NSFW


This December, after a dreadfully long babyhood, little Dani Jackson is finally working on her wobbly first steps.

the wisest decision

December 14, 2086. Aliyah Sylvester is 26. Angelo Shaw is 24.


Aliyah had options, she was told. She had to admit that she sometimes wondered whether not keeping this baby would have been the wisest decision. It was unplanned, she was unprepared, and her relationship with the father? Well, she hadn't heard a peep from Angelo in the five weeks since she dropped the news.

She had more reasons not to have this baby than to have it, and yet, here she was having a fourteen week dating scan instead of an abortion. Maybe it would all make sense later.

Everything looked healthy, her doctor said. Her baby girl would be due June 2nd. She could keep working for as long as she felt comfortable. Although, as a restaurant manager, on her feet, walking, and carrying things for hours in a night, she should expect that the work would become very exhausting to her as the pregnancy grew.

thirteen years

* keep in mind that this story takes place five years *before* Harry's previous updates on this blog. 

December 7, 2086. Marlie Alonso is 30, Harry is 13. Daniel Levin is 32.


Marlie Alonso is on her very first date since that time some dude knocked her up with Harry at some high school party in 2072. She didn't remember that dude's name. Sometimes she thinks Harry loathes her for that mistake, but how could she fix that now? All she remembers is that it was a Halloween party, he was dressed up as a pirate and she was a sugar plum fairy, she was sixteen, drunk, naive, lonely, and he was a redhead.

She is still lonely, but she is no longer sixteen, drunk, or naive. She won't make that mistake twice. This one's name is Daniel.

little mods yard sale

Just cleaning out my closet. Here is a collection of little gameplay mods that do little things, made for my own game, tested in my own game. Sold as-is, no returns.

extended weekend

December 1, 2086. Lara is 33, Jack is 37, Patrick is 36, Ryanne is 15, Luca is 2, Piper is 32. 

1st quarter grades, fall 2086

Saturday, November 30th, 2086. 8:00 a.m.

Senior Skills Testing Exams and Graduation Advisory Sessions

Minimum skill points to graduate: 18.0

Minimum GPA: 68%

re-takes available: January 25, 2087

it's your day: Riley (and Patrick)

November 29, 2086. Riley Hathe and Patrick Nova are 36. (Chad is 35, Lara is 33, Liza is 17, Shaun is 9, Raine is 8, Skye is 4.)


The move out west for the Hathe and Phoenix families came quicker than any of them were ready for. Chad and Hayden had a meeting with their lawyer in Catalina to claim that legendary business grant, and to establish their new gaming start-up partnership. It was a good thing these two have been best buddies since they were sixteen—they were about to marry two entire family net worths into this business. They both had property to sell back home in Lakeside Heights, and they co-signed on a business loan to cover what the grant left over.

At least they were taking it seriously. Maybe more seriously than they'd ever taken anything in their lives, including their combined three marriages and six children.

life off-camera: Riley & Chad

Previously with the Hathe family (time in sim-years): Chad started his first arcade (8 years ago), Riley's shelter that Chad never really liked (4 years ago), Chad's rad vest and Liza's first date (3 years ago),  that time Riley was a little bit snippy with Stephanie (3 years ago).

I have been sitting on a story for two weeks now, going back and forth, trying to decide what to do with a particular nugget of Riley and Chad's history. It's a problematic nugget because it happened three years ago, right about the time the LH blog ended, actually. It's over and done with now, but that doesn't mean it's not still part of their lives. Even so, it will only amount to about a line or two of their next chapter. So I wanted to put this out here, because I figure people might read it and be like, "What?!? When did that happen?" lol!

As sims, this is a true story. It's true for them as characters, too, because you know how we sometimes exit without saving because we don't want to commit something to their "real" story. Well, that's not what happened here. I committed this event to their story both as sims and as characters.

postcards from the winning team

November 2086.

#1: strong enough to put hair on your chest


Nathan Lind was in Catalina this month for business, so he popped in to visit his sister and the kids. After much begging and pleading, and pleading and begging, Aurora finally agreed to let him take Zach to the Humor & Hijinks convention. She had worried it was too late on a school night and too adult for a little boy.

"Can I have some?" Zach pointed toward a glowing purple fountain.

"I think this is juice," Nate said. "Pretty sure, but you never know. Hey, how old are you now? Ten?"

"Almost nine," Zach said.

"Close enough!"

Copper Hill November, a seasonal texture pack

Please note: this mod comes AS-IS. Because of the way I work on my seasonal texture replacements as I play through the calendar year in my game, these monthly packs may never be 100% complete. For example, right now, northern districts in my game are about 80% done and southern districts are about 20% done. But it's time for me to move on to December, so I won't get a chance to work on this November set again until next sim-year.

At my pace, that could be another year in real life, too.

Also note, we can probably expect a seasons EP soon that will blow the whole thing out of the water.

But some people have expressed interest in partaking in the Copper Hill experience anyway (as I do in my own game, obviously), so here it is. I will likely share the other months, too, as I work through my sims' calendar year.

(click for bigger)

Copper Hill November represents the tail end of autumn in Windenburg. Fall colors are past peak and some of the trees are beginning to thin. You'll find lots of ruddy reds, muddy browns, and if you look closely, even some decay as the dying leaves begin to crumble.

the beginning and the end

November 14, 2086. Ryanne Phoenix and Sam Harris are 15.

previously: the bus stop // Ryanne is angry // girl talk // Ryanne hates Piper // the mistakes


"I'm bored," Ryanne said. "Wanna ride the ferry to Copper Island?"

"I'm not allowed," Sam said.

elections 2086

A quickie history on TS4 world building: 

In America of my imagined future, there are six districts. We are following three of them in this story—Mid-Atlantic (states bordering the Atlantic from about DC to South Carolina), Lakes (states bordering the Great Lakes, particularly Lake Superior and Lake Michigan), and Pacific (states bordering the Pacific, as you might guess). The districts we are not following are New England, Gulf, and Mountain. (You can sort of see on my map how my played towns are clustered in the south-west, north, and south-east.)

I set it up this way because of, in part, the way TS4 is designed with towns that are pre-designed and not editable. If they ship me a world that looks like South Carolina or Arizona, there is very little I can do to change that. So they are what they look like, and that's that. That was the main reason that my story was written at first between two regions—Fort Palmetto and Sierra Nova—working from the first two towns we had, Willow Creek and Oasis Springs. Then they shipped me Windenburg that looked like Europe and I had no freaking idea how to fit it into my story. I ended up knocking down some mountains and opening up the water, and now it's become Copper County, my third region. As best it can be without world editing tools, anyway.

TS4 is still being developed and they're still making new worlds for us. That's great, because we desperately need the space! But it means that my game is still constantly changing, so new areas come along all the time that I need to figure out what to do with. I have decided that three districts is well enough for me to keep track of (since each district needs its own schools, communities, leadership, and economy), while having some variety and space for my towns. The three areas that I chose are differentiated enough in climate and landscape that I think I should be able to find a good fit within for whatever kind of world they give us next. (The world from the new Pets EP will fit nicely in Wisconsin for me!)

We will imagine the other US states of 2086 are doing just fine and carrying on off-camera. Just, none of my sims will ever be allowed to move to Florida or Colorado or Maine, lol!

Anyway.

all's well that ends well

November 6, 2086. George and Blossom McCarthy have been married for three years.

* briefly NSFW


George and Blossom never had time to take a honeymoon when they married three years ago. On the weekend of their third anniversary, the idea of a babymoon sounded very appealing. George worried that he'd been ripped off when he bought a vacation package for this place, but once he stepped into the lobby, his worries subsided. It was a beautiful hotel. Blossom kicked off her sandals and made herself right at home.

They checked into their room, freshened up from the long trip, and went down to the lounge for dinner.

there you are

November 4, 2086. Justin Kim and Stephanie Nova are 26. Willow is 5, Lily is 4, Benji is three months old. (Ally Lind is 32, Bianca is 9, Julia is 7.)

* NSFW

the damage, part 2

November 2, 2086. Justin Kim and Stephanie Nova are 26. Willow is 5, Lily is 4, Benji is three months old.



Justin had been out of work now for over two months, and the most riveting part of his day was being judge and jury to sibling rivalries. They couldn't be sure whether it was because of the new baby or everything else the family had been through, but both girls had been acting out in different ways. Willow had become bombastic and sometimes prickly, challenging rules and boundaries with great ambition. She would dart out of the house without telling anyone, or run the hot water without being supervised, or open up the chat box on the computer and talk to strangers. Then Lily became ornery and ruthless about catching her sister's bad behavior. She followed Willow around, waiting to tattle on anything she did wrong.

Dresden College: fall 2086

October 2086. Josie Booth is 19, Ariel Beech is 18, Drake Cannon is 18. 


It's not exactly that I *want* to play more than one university. To be quite honest, it is kind of a chore, lol! But I find it unrealistic to have only one choice for higher learning for my sims.

So, to broaden their options, I would like to introduce Dresden Arts College, located in Old Town Ironwood. (Exterior of this building came with Windenburg, but I gutted it and redid the interior completely.)

Dresden Arts College is a small, quaint, quiet, and very specialized arts college. They get the same 3 sim-days of gameplay per quarter as SNU students, and they have excellent arts professors here. Tuition is a little cheaper at $900/quarter instead of $1200 at SNU because SNU still has the advantage of a large campus and a full range of majors, facilities, and opportunities. Admissions at Dresden are usually strict since it only accepts a maximum of 8 students rather than SNU’s 12, and it favors students who want to pursue arts, music, and humanities. Other students can study here if they are accepted, but it wouldn't make a lot of sense for them.

rootbeer float

October 14, 2086. Aliyah Sylvester is 26. Raymond is 59, Deirdre is 56, Andre is 21, Marcus is 18. 


The next week, Aliyah was in Arizona with her family. Her youngest brother had just turned eighteen. Their dad said, "Old enough to drink like a man, at home at least." Then he poured a round for the five of them.

Aliyah stopped him before he got to hers. "Uh, Dad, think you could make mine a rootbeer float?"

Deirdre Sylvester was no fool. In fact, she was the smartest woman Aliyah would ever know. Deirdre glanced down at Aliyah's swollen belly with suspicion. "Those root beer floats are very decadent," she said, looking quite certain that belly wasn't just full of rootbeer and ice cream.

population explosion: notes on residence in my TS4 world

I have a love/hate relationships with sim townies. For as long as I have played sims games, I have had this same dilemma: who gets to be part of my neighborhood, to have their stories lived and documented, and who has to stay in the background? In a perfect world, I would be able to use all of my own sims in every available role and assign them where I want them to go, and I would have the tools to make enough space for them all to live in. But y'all know these games are not perfect.

Yet I have always fallen in love with my townie sims, the friends and ex-lovers of my born-in-game sims. Some of my very favorite sims started out as townies once. Every time someone gets dumped, I always feel so bad for them and want to follow their lives to happiness. You have to have a townie pool, but you can't play them all. It just goes on and on and on. Ex-lovers need new lovers and friends and family. I always feel like my townies need to have a family of their own. Only so many marry-in townies can be orphans before you get bored of writing the orphan story, lol!

it's your day: Aliyah

October 7, 2086. Aliyah Sylvester is 26. Angelo Shaw is 24, Devon is 14. Aldous is 15. 

* note: I know for us it’s been months since Aliyah took that pregnancy test, but in the story, it’s only been about a week or two. OMG how is that even possible!?!


For Aliyah's birthday dinner, Angelo was taking her to his mom's house.

"I wish I could take you somewhere awesome. Sorry, babe, I am broke as a joke. You know how my client stiffed me?"

Aliyah knew. It was all he'd been ranting and raving about for weeks.

"I can't believe that douchebag," he said. "I worked all summer on that case. I got nothing."

"I know it's not your fault," she said. "But you know I get an employee discount at work?"

return to dust, part 3

October 2086. Zach Harris is 8, Nathan Lind is 36, Keri Riley is 25, Dominique Beech is 27, Samir Peroit is 31, Amaya Hadley is 8. 


"Can we stay out a little longer? Can we please, Uncle Nate?"

How do you say no to that face? Zach looked up to Nathan with the kind of ravenous hope in his eyes that suggested he hadn't had any fun in precisely one year and fourteen days, which was likely true. Night was Nathan's favorite time in the city, too, when everything became so vibrant and exciting. So he said yes.

"What do you wanna do? See the street performers? Buy some sparklers?"

In the end, they decided to do it all.

return to dust, part 2

October 2086. Aurora Harris is 40, Zach is 9, Rebecca is 3. Meadow Lind is 71, Brady is 72. Clarice Miller is 40. 


The story of how Aurora ended up in California with the kids was a complicated story. If she had to summarize it, it would be that she ran and ran until she hit the ocean and could go no further, contemplating whether she should just keep walking out into the sea. No, she decided, she would not walk out into the sea. She had children to raise for fifteen more years. The sea could come for her later.

Of course, there were a few more steps between that moment and now.

Fall Festival at Coolidge House Country Inn

October 2086. 


Here is where the girls went while the boys were left home alone. Sharon asked Stephanie and Maria to bring their kids into work today—they have a very important job to do. They need to brainstorm ideas for the fall festival. Sharon doesn't have any kids of her own, so she needs to borrow her employees' children for this task.

when you grow up...

October 2086. Justin Kim is 26, Benji is 7 weeks old. 

obituary: Tad and Tosha Harris

Tad Harris: December 29, 2009 - February, 2084, age 74

Tosha Harris: January 26, 2010 - March, 2084, age 74

return to dust, part 1

October 2086. Lucy Harris is 20. Dallas Deppiesse is 21, Cassie is 14 months.


"Be careful," Dallas's parents always told Lucy when she took little Cassie out to practice her walking. "She looks very blue. We don't know these neighbors yet. We don't know what kind of people they are or what they'll think. People might be afraid."

gameplay notes on: lot decay, ghosts, and jail

on lot deterioration:

I guess all of these things in my monthly events posts—birthdays, anniversaries, health strikes, and home deterioration—fit a similar theme of aging. Which leads me to a new roll. For not having any ROS in my gameplay (as I so boldly proclaimed), I sure do have a lot of new ROS in my gameplay, lol!


I’m excited about adding the lot damage roll, which will happen every month along with the health strikes. I realized how unrealistic it is that our sims pass down these houses from generation to generation and they never age like the sims do. Also because we just got all of those neat decals with the vampires pack and lot traits and problems with the City Living pack. I want to have more of an excuse to be forced to use them!

In September, Tessa Morton was chosen for the first lot deterioration roll, which was to kill off three of her garden plants. Good thing she has so many!

obituary: Joel Harris

Commemorating the first anniversary of his death. 

Joel Harris: December 14, 2041 to September 19, 2085. He was 43 years old. 

it's your day: Rebecca

September 29, 2086. Aurora Harris is 40, Zach is 9. Meadow Lind is 71, Brady is 72. Happy 3rd birthday, Rebecca Harris.


A year later, Aurora still had nightmares about the explosions. She saw some of them with her own eyes, large enough, close enough, that they looked like big orange stars, wanna-be suns. Pop, they would go, and people would gasp because they knew it had been a ship full of human lives. Almost everyone knew someone up there, a brother, a daughter, a husband. And all they could do was to stand underneath them in terror. Helpless.

There was a choice—try to fight back even though our troops were too weak and too primitive to stand a chance against the alien technology, knowing that we wouldn't win on our own, or else don't fight and let them suffocate the planet. Of course, we fought.

That was how he died.

Aurora didn’t see his exact explosion, probably. The command center was able to pinpoint the last known location of his ship and the moment they lost contact. He was entering the atmosphere somewhere above Mongolia. She couldn’t have possibly seen that from Michigan. The explosion she saw was someone else’s brother or daughter or husband. There were so many.

Most of the bodies could never be recovered. They had splintered into dust. So they sent the families an urn full of moon dust instead, along with their loved one’s personal belongings from base, and a folded flag.

where we left off with the Lind/Harris family

This week, I am revisiting some old old stories (some that are eight years old, OMG!) on Tumblr from the Lind/Harris family, because this family will be featured heavily in the coming chapters. For those who don't frequent Tumblr, I'll just link directly to the relevant updates in case you want to refresh your memory.

I never blogged about these sims while I was playing TS3, so nothing was changed or missed between their TS2 lives and where they will pick up in TS4. It's like they just took a long eight-year nap but only progressed about two years in time, lol! So these posts will be a little refresher for me, for everyone, and a summary for those who may not have read TS2 Lakeside Heights.  

postcards from Copper County

September 2086.


Even though Stephanie has only been on maternity leave for two months, Sharon is itching to get her back to work again. Slow to start, she promised. "Can I just borrow you for a couple of meetings?"

Sharon renovated part of the second floor to make a dedicated meeting room so that she wouldn't need to clutter the dining room with magazines and calendars every time she meets with a new client.

Today, they entertain Adam Thompson from the Great Lakes Historical Preservation Society.

(He's Justin's boss, Stephanie notes—or soon to be ex-boss, as the story goes—and feels a bit awkward about it. They have never met before, but she recognizes his name and title right away. Justin talks about him all the time! She decides not to put him or Justin or Sharon on the spot by making that connection right now. Instead, she just sits there quietly until asked a question about the butternut squash bisque, feeling nervous and weird—about the meeting, not the soup. The bisque is excellent!)

Adam hopes to contract Sharon and her fine kitchen staff to supply food for the gift shop cafe he plans to open in Ironwood Bay. Sharon is excited about the deal. This would be the first time she supplied catering to a retail setting. Adam promised that her business would be well advertised in the store.

five in the bed and the little one said...

September 2086. Stephanie Nova and Justin Kim are 26. Willow is 5, Lily is 4, Benji is six weeks old.

the damage, part 1

September 2086. Stephanie Nova and Justin Kim are 26. Willow is 5, Lily is 4, Benji is six weeks old.


After a few weeks, Justin returned to see his doctor for a checkup. His ribs were healing as expected and the pain had gone away almost completely. The pain in his ribs had gone, at least. On a couple of occasions, however, he'd been hammered with a sudden and excruciating headache, worse than he'd ever experienced before. He was outside in the bright sunshine when it happened and he felt like throwing up and dying all at once.

"It sounds like you've had your first migraine," his doctor said.

the life of Evie

"I loved you," he said. 

"What?"

"Yeah, I did. I didn't know it then, but afterwards, I figured it out. I did love you."

"You don't have to say that," she said.

"Well, I think I was supposed to say it before, so like, backdated, or something."

"A backdated 'I love you?'" She laughed at him. "Well, I can't say I've ever had one of those before."

the preggy report

September 2086. Blossom McCarthy is 27, George is 32. 


"Blossom McCarthy? I can take you back now."

first day jitters

September 2086. Willow Nova is 5, Stephanie is 26. Jessica Pendleton is 24. 


If you would have asked Stephanie a few years ago, she never would have guessed that she'd now be one of those Instagram moms who post pictures of carefully crafted school lunches for her children, made with love and fresh organic produce from her own garden. Surprise, surprise. Perhaps there were a lot of things never would have guessed about how her life would turn out from a few years back.

Willow hovered behind her in the kitchen, bouncing and giggling with anticipation. "Can I have a cookie in my lunch?"

"Of course," Stephanie said. "But promise me that you'll eat your fruit first."

"I promise!"

a short break

I am off to scorch my pasty epidermis with UV radiation. Sound fun?

I had hoped to get another story up before I went, but, ha ha, that didn't happen. But at least that means I should have one or two things very close to ready when I get back next week.

If you've read everything here and need something more to read, *shameless plug incoming* The Fish and the Bird is now available in all ebook formats AND paperback. It is one of my favorite things I've ever written and has all of my top requirements for a great story: a love triangle, dead relatives, sassy best friends, maybe the most heart-stopping first kiss scene that I've ever written, rage, angst, regret, redemption, and all bundled up with a happy ending. So I hope you'll check it out. If you like anything I write here on this blog, I know that you'll love it.

Enjoy the spring! Don't forget to wear your sunscreen!

Travel picspam on Instagram.

one day, somewhere in the big wide universe...

September 2086. Cassie Deppiesse is 13 months old, Dallas is 21, Lucy is 20.


One day, somewhere in the big wide universe, aka their new home in South Carolina, the little blue baby who saved the world became a regular toddler.

As regular as a third-generation alien-hybrid toddler can be, anyway.

download: the Old Nova Family Home

Owned and loved by the Nova family for over sixty years, this classic family home has been given a fresh coat of paint and put on the market for a new family to grow into.

2086-2088

* timeline spanning September 2086 through August 2088

end of round 2084, stats

I know this round wasn't a *real* round, but I have been playing some other families in between story posts, and a lot has changed since I did my last and only other round summary (which is mostly irrelevant at this point, since I've added and changed so much). But, as I play forward, I know I will want something like this as a benchmark to collect links and dates and stats for my own records.


stats for round 2084: February 2084 through September 2086

an author's note on timelines and in betweens

So, that was just the NaNoWriMo that lasted seventeen months!

Drown #14: we go on, part 3

September 2086. Stephanie and Justin are 26. Willow is 5, Lily is 4, Benji is 3 weeks old. George McCarthy is 32.


Stephanie was terrified when Cynthia suggested that they take the girls out for the day. "Willow needs the distraction. She needs to feel like things are normal again."

But was that wise? Jeremiah could be anywhere. That was how this all happened. They let their guard down for just a moment and he showed up and tried to destroy everything.

"But you can’t lock yourself inside a hospital for the rest of your life," Cynthia said.

"I guess you're right," Stephanie agreed.

So the girls went out with their grandparents and they had a nice day.

Drown #14: we go on, part 2

September 2086. Stephanie and Justin are 26. Willow is 5, Lily is 4, Benji is 3 weeks old. Robert is 52. Jeremy is 70. Bryson is 64.  


Stephanie spent hours going through a cycle of hope and disappointment and hope again. She called out to his nurses, "I think he blinked!" But it wasn’t a blink so much as a muscle spasm of the eyeball or maybe even a burst of REM dreaming. Then she thought she saw him move his finger. A twitch. The nurse wouldn’t say yes or no, just, "It could be." Then she went on with her work. Stephanie wasn't sure whether she was hearing grunts or exhales or perhaps just a tummy rumble.

"Do you think he's hungry? How can he be getting enough nutrients through that little tube for this many days?"

She was driving herself a little bit crazy.

Her mother demanded that she step outside to watch the sunset. "Come get some air with me, sweetheart. If it was a blink, then he’ll still be doing it when you get back."

Drown #14: we go on, part 1

September 2086. Stephanie Nova and Justin Kim are 26. Cynthia Kim is 50, Robert Kim is 52. Keri Riley is 25. Alice Nova is 65. Willow is 5, Lily is 4. 


I don't want to hear it. This isn't happening. 

"Swelling on his brain due to repeated blows..."

Remember when we were kids, when we used to camp out behind my house in the summer?

"... induced the coma to give his brain a chance to rest..."

You said if we slept with our backs to each other we could see in all the directions and the monsters could never get us.

gameplay notes on injury damage

notes for inflicting gameplay upon story characters: 

This is sort of like the reverse of writing a story based on gameplay—here, I want to inflict gameplay upon my sims for something that happened in the story. Because otherwise, you know they'd walk around all smiley and happy and sim-like, even though something terrible just happened. TS4 sims don't have memories like TS2 sims do, so once their bad moodlets wear off, they completely forget that anything bad ever happened to them. No matter what it was.

And the moodlets are ridiculously short, most of the time. This brand new mod looks promising to help them last a little bit longer.

In game, the fight moodlet only lasts four hours, so that was kind of useless to me. I did let Justin and Jeremiah actually brawl in game, and yes, Justin loses every time against Jeremiah, lol! It must have to do with either their traits (Jeremiah's are much meaner) or their muscle strength (Jeremiah is stronger), because I think they're about matched on their fitness skill.

Anyway, this was more than just a little brawl, so I'll use several mods and cheats to inflict some lingering physical and psychological damages for these sims. (I am a cruel, cruel pixel-god, lol!)

Drown #13: the story we tell, part 6

August 2086. Jeremiah Day is 29. Angelo Shaw is 24. Aliyah Sylvester is 25. Hudson Lawrence is 27.

*** NSFW



Jeremiah drove all through the night to Chicago. He had this all planned out, knowing that once he had Willow, he would be a fugitive for kidnapping. Instead, he didn't have Willow and was a fugitive for other reasons.

He ditched the cheap red van in the parking lot of a supermarket where nobody would notice it for weeks. The vehicle was worth nothing to him.

Then he took a bus to the train station.

download: Sierra Nova University, Dorms & Campus

These lots are probably among the least interesting things I've ever built since they are just a remodel of the lots that were already there. But anyway, somebody asked for them, so here they are!

Sorry, nighttime pics because I need my game to stay in nighttime for a scene I need to do.

In my game, they live in this neighborhood in Oasis Springs. 

The campus lot is 50x50, $296,309, zoned as a library. 

The dorm lot is 40x30, $180,015, zoned residential. 

Drown #13: the story we tell, part 5.5

August 2086. Justin Kim is 26. Willow Nova is 5. Jeremiah Day is 29. 

* content advisory for Drown #13: the story we tell, parts 5.4-5.5: violence/gore


The little voice inside Willow’s watch said, "Keep talking to me, Willow. Can you crouch down on the floor and cover your face?"

"I can't. Justin needs help," Willow said.

"We're coming to help. We'll be there in three minutes. We can count together. Do you like to count? But first, I need you to stay safe. Can you get away from the glass?"

Willow couldn't do that. She saw was Justin’s arm fall limp to the ground, and in the pit of her stomach she felt a panic rise up inside her. She knew she wasn’t allowed to touch the door locks, but there was no question about it. She had to unlock that door. She got out of the car and burst across the concrete.

Drown #13: the story we tell, part 5.4

August 2086. Justin Kim is 26. Willow Nova is 5. Jeremiah Day is 29. 

* content advisory for Drown #13: the story we tell, parts 5.4-5.5: violence/gore

Justin stopped for coffee somewhere halfway home, in the wilderness north of Milwaukee, where the speedway ended and he had to drive manual. The day had been long, and he needed to wake up.

"Willow?"

Drown #13: the story we tell, part 5.3

August 2086. Stephanie Nova and Justin Kim are 26. Willow is 5. 




Justin bought a cannoli at the cafe, but he didn’t have the appetite to eat it. He took a seat on the patio, overlooking the town square. He watched the door to the community center and his eyesight was just good enough to make out the rough shape of people coming and going. He could tell only as much as whether they were men or women or children, but he was certain that none of them had looked like Jeremiah so far.

He stopped just short of bringing binoculars because that would have been paranoid.

Drown #13: the story we tell, part 5.2

August 2086. Justin Kim is 26. Willow Nova is 5.


Willow skipped to the car, singing, "Off we go into the wild blue yonder..." Then she stopped. "Hey, Justin? What's a yonder?"

"Uh, it's a sky, I guess."

Drown #13: the story we tell, part 5.1

August 2086. Stephanie Nova and Justin Kim are 26. Willow is 5, Lily is 4, Benji is 9 days old. 



At less than two weeks postpartum, Stephanie was advised against any attempt to make the four-hour car ride to Lakeside Heights herself. But someone had to bring Willow down to meet Jeremiah for his visitation. Stephanie was still bleeding and tender from the labor, and she was sure the baby wouldn't have loved the trip, either. Stephanie's parents had volunteered, but she knew that Justin had to be the one to do it.