postcards from up north (mini updates)

January 2087.


#1: puppy love


Blossom and George are all bundled up and ready to head up north to visit her parents.




But more importantly, they're looking forward to meeting these two sweeties for the first time, too! Her parents have just adopted two little puppies. The brown and white speckled one is Sherlock, a Welsh Springer Spaniel. And the solid brown one is Ralphie, a Cocker Spaniel. Both male.



Blossom thinks she'll just carry this sweetheart around for the rest of her life. Or at least until her own baby is born, after which she'll probably need both hands again.


Sherlock is a little spunkier than Ralphie and has decided that he doesn't like George.


Great job, everyone! How about nobody let the pregnant lady sit down to eat?


Mayumi is very much looking forward to her first grandchild. She really tried to encourage Blossom to take up the earthy naming theme she started with "Blossom Moonbeam" and "Vale River," but unfortunately the baby's father gets a say, too. And George is not a hippie at all. He insists that their child will have a very sensible and traditional name.


#2: the buddies back home


Vale took some time to catch up with his old school buddy, Asher, and Asher's girlfriend, Poppy. Which is always a little bit awkward because Asher and Poppy are prone to start groping and kissing each other at a seconds notice and without any mind to who may be watching them. If it wasn't clear already, Vale may have the tiniest little bit of an awkard crush on his best buddy's girl. It's harmless, he feels, since she and Asher are 150% totally in love and hardly stop banging each other for long enough for anyone else to get a word in.

For example, just minutes after this picture was taken, they did it in the lighthouse stairwell. Vale heard the giggles and knew to just hang out at the top and take in the sunset for a little while longer, even though it was windy and cold and he hadn't brought a jacket.



An evening jog selfie.


After their visit, Poppy and Asher hop on the train back to Catalina with Vale to check out the city and see Vale's apartment. The spaces here are tiny, bright, loud, and crowded with instruments. Vale is happy to be back home and feels most alive among the noise of the city.



Poppy would love to move to the city some day, and Asher isn't opposed, but his sister just became a single mother to baby Clementine, and he doesn't want to skip town and leave them on their own so soon. They might revisit the idea when the baby is a little older.


#3: sibling rivalry, McCullough family

footnotes on the poor neglected McCullough family: last proper family update (forever ago!) was "headcount, September 2081" Although, you have heard from Robbie more recently in Liza and Fiona's stories. Since then, Robbie and Liza were said to have run off to spring break together in 2086 (TS3 era).


School projects are due for the kiddies in the spring, so it's crunch time for a lot of families. Brooke and Phin are both teachers, so they take academics very seriously. They look forward to geeking out over the crafting of these school projects, even if the children aren't as enthusiastic.

They all thought their home life would be filled with peace and quiet once Fiona left for college. But that isn't quite how it worked out for them.


Looks like Connor has inherited some of his big sister's "charms" and he got it in his mind that it would be "super fun" to ransack his brother's project.

(We will try to ignore the flower underwear and bunny slippers. It appears I didn't plan him any pajamas, lol!)


And whoa boy, he was in trouble for it!



Big brother Robbie, who is usually sweet, mild-tempered, and forgiving, was understandably pissed. He was almost finished with his project and now he would have to start over from scratch. Let us note also that this was the second time this year he'd have to start over from scratch. Connor also destroyed his first attempt back in November. With the deadline quickly approaching, Robbie is sick of starting over. As a junior in high school, he can't afford to fail this project grade.

The boys have always shared a bedroom, and never minded doing so before. But maybe it was time to finally give them both their own space. They didn't want to give Fiona's bedroom away so soon into her first year of college—she'll need a place to stay when she comes home for breaks—but they'll have to put Connor there for now until they figure something else out. They may even need to speak to a contractor about renovations, which they didn't want to do. They were hoping the boys could make it work until Robbie left home after next year, but that's not looking likely.


So Connor is exiled to Fiona's old room.


But, oops, looks like door locks are going to be necessary here. Robbie took a chance while Connor wasn't paying attention to enact his sweet sweet revenge.


"You needed to learn a lesson," Robbie insisted. "You need to understand how it feels to have all your hard work ruined."


So Connor learns that paybacks are a bitch.


And Robbie learns that revenge is only sweet for a moment and doesn't repair the damage that was done anyway.

While everyone is "sent to their rooms to think hard about their behavior," there is finally some peace and quiet in the McCullough house.


#4: sick day, Lind family


That feeling when your 4th grader brings home the flu going around school, her temperature just too high to send in to school. But just an hour later, of course, she feels perfectly fine. She's bouncing off the walls and playing every video game in the house, spreading her germs all over the baby who will likely get sick next.


Meanwhile, she's passed the flu on to her mother, too. And Ally doesn't feel just fine an hour later. She feels like literal death.


#5: bar crawl, Dresden Arts College:


Ariel's one joy at at this boring arts college is her Saturday nights. They don't have classes in the morning, so she can usually convince Josie and Drake to come out to the single tiny dive bar in town and get drunk with her. She prefers the nightclub out on Copper Island, but that's a bigger ordeal and takes a lot more convincing to get these two squares to change out of their pajamas and come out to party.

Her parents hope that she'll stick it out through the spring, then they can talk about a transfer if she's still unhappy.

"But please remember," her parents chide, "you're there to study, not just to party. Maybe a livelier college would be a bad idea?"

Ariel is still waiting on one of those epic island dance parties she heard about, but she figures those aren't likely to happen in the winter anyway.


Drake has been thinking a lot about Josie since he turned her down last fall. He couldn't explain his reasons then, and he can't explain them now, but he wonders if maybe it had been a mistake. He liked spending time with Josie. She was so much less annoying than Ariel, and since these two college girls were the only two college girls he knew, that said a lot. He always enjoyed the moments when Ariel had something else to do.


And tonight, she was on the prowl, much to Drake's pleasure. She caught sight of Cute Guy #1, so she left them alone to see if she could land a date.


So Drake asked Josie, "Might we take a quiet stroll outside, just the two of us? Maybe we can see if the sky is clear. Did you know that the sky is clearer in the winter without any warm haze in the atmosphere?"

Flirting in public was awkward, and bars were not exactly Drake's. People here were loud and drunk and making out with each other in odd corners. He hoped maybe Josie wasn't enjoying it either. He hoped maybe they were on the same page and that she'd want to get away.

But no, it seemed they were not on the same page.

"Drake," she said with a revolted look that made him cringe. "Why didn't you want that two months ago? I just don't get you. I don't get you at all!"


Drake went up the to bar to grab something strong to drink, and Josie told Ariel everything.

“He asked you to do what?!?”

“Take a stroll with him," Josie said. "In the moonlight.”

“Oh my god, he is such a grandpa!”

The girls both giggled. "Aw, we shouldn't say that. That's not nice," Josie said, giggling some more.



It was impossible for Drake to come back from such awkwardness, even if he didn't strongly suspect the two of them had been talking about him. There was a couple making out in the corner, and Drake could hear the slopping of their saliva. Half the bar patrons were watching the "performance," and the other half were being hissed at by a cranky bartender. Now this awful bar had become even more insufferable.

"I think I'm going to head back," Drake said. "Anyone?"

Truth be told, Josie looked like she was having a fine amount of fun with her friend. They were both tipsy and giggling and neither looked ready to end the evening just yet.


Then Ariel went off to dance with Cute Guy #2. Josie could hear from several yards away his proclamation to her about how the best things in life were fun and easy, and something about did Ariel want to see his van? So Josie decided she should stick around.

"She’s pretty drunk," Josie told Drake. "I should stay and make sure she gets home safely. There are some real weirdos here tonight. But hey, we'll talk in the morning, okay?"

"Sure, Josie," Drake said. "See you in the morning."



Josie managed to steer Ariel away from Creepy Guy with the Van, which led her to Cute Guy #3.


His name was Colton. He likes books, he said.

"Hey, I like books too!" Ariel said, even though she really didn't like books at all, but, you know, she had to read them all the time because she was in college. But hey, a guy who liked books? That was meeting the parents kind of material!

She was sure she could convince him later to shave off that terrible mustache.


But it was nearly closing time and the bartender gave the last call.

"Girl, I'm beat," Josie said. "Can you get his number?"

Third time was a charm. Ariel got Colton's digits and he promised to call her soon. Maybe this college wasn't so terrible after all. Ariel would give it until summertime at least. She heard the summer parties here on the island were epic!

—

gameplay notes: true story, this night was just a disaster. Drake actually had all kinds of flirt wants for Josie (odd for him, and odd for an "unflirty" sim, but hey!), and they were doing okay until he chose an "awkward hug" on her, which she rejected. Then to kill the night even more, Wicked Whims made a townie couple do the nasty, buck nekkid, doggy-style over a chair. (Sorry, there was no way to take classy pics of this, lol!) Half the room was cheering them on, and Drake, of course, was mortified and creeped out. Then the bartender revealed herself to be a vampire, and she kept hissing and freaking everyone out. 

I'm honestly surprised that Ariel came out of it all with a date! She was completely unphased, eye on the prize, lol!