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?"