head over feet

June 2088. Vicky Garth is 23. Vale Akiyama is 27. Melissa Fortney is 21.

previously: Vale and Vicky prepare for a hot summer of music // with a monumental oops on her hands, Melissa makes a difficult decision to free up her future.

soundtrack: "Head Over Feet," by Alanis Morissette.

With dreams of freedom and sunshine and festival summer in her head, Melissa never imagined she’d be tempted by a summer job offer.

That is, until it turned out that her boss at Halston House Studios is actually best friends with Vale Akiyama, and Vale needed a roadie and media manager for his tour this summer.

Do you mean to say that Melissa isn’t just going to some festivals this summer…? She’s going to ALL the festivals this summer? And she’ll be paid to do it?

“Can you film in varying lighting conditions and weather elements? Can you edit videos and navigate social media platforms? Can you carry thirty—okay, fifty pounds of musical equipment?”

Hell fucking yes I can! Melissa thinks. Well, she’s never tried to lift fifty pounds before, but how hard can it be?

“Totally! When do we start?”

what you deserve (SNU & DAC, spring 2088)

Sierra Nova University and Dresden Arts College

Spring, 2088

*** warnings: abortion vs. pro-lifers


It was weird, Melissa now realized, how little she actually worried about the possibility of this happening. Melissa was a good girl, mostly. Daydreamy and whimsical, sure, but always headed in the right direction. She didn’t sleep around that much. She took her birth control pills. She asked her partners to wear condoms, too. And still?

It seemed wrong. It seemed unfair. It seemed like her pills had a manufacturing error or an incompatibility with some rogue herbal tea. It seemed like it should be absolutely anything but the biggest mistake of her life. 

Because, oops? Just like that? Oops, there went her plans. Like, oops, she dropped her phone in the toilet. That’s an oops. This was more than an oops. 

postcards from your next major crisis

February & March 2088.

*** content warnings: miscarriage, blood

#1: Cora Lawrence is doing just fine, thank you very much


Her life is complete, Cora tells herself. She doesn’t need a man. Especially not one like Luis-Fucking-Talbot. She is twenty-seven years old. Her biological clock is set to silent mode and folded away in her sock drawer. She owns prime real estate in downtown Sierra Nova and an investment portfolio that would impress most people twice her age. She buys fancy coffee and drinks it in silence after doing an hour of yoga at sunrise. This is going to be an incredible day, and Luis Fucking Talbot can go screw half his college campus if he wants to. Cora is filling her cup with zen, and it tastes just fine.

He probably has loads of STDs anyway.

postcards from your Valentine

February 2088.

* briefly NSFW

Here’s what a few special couples are doing on this romantic day.

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Vale & Vicky, together 6 weeks – officially moving in together


“So it looks like your neighbor didn’t water the plants then,” he said.

postcards from your wildest dreams

January 2088

#1: welcome baby Eris

The Deppiesse family welcomes another little girl, Eris Lenore, to the family. This little one seems to have inherited almost everything from her beautiful mother, Lucy. 

gameplay: Eris’s birth roll, and it looks like she’s destined to inherit a couple of unfortunate traits! She might not be the little sweetheart that Cassie is. Sounds like a fun sisterly dynamic to write about, lol! 

another little side note: Eris was actually born years ago in my game, before the timeline rewind. I went back far enough that Cassie hadn’t even been born yet, and so Eris had to wait a long time in limbo to become part of the story again. She’s just been hanging out off-camera as a toddler this whole time, the same actual sim who was born all that time ago. Note that we have not actually seen Lucy in story since her honeymoon, so fake pregnancy happened off-camera, too. 

For the record: Dallas and Lucy don’t have any other secret babies hanging out off camera. Only on-camera babies from now on, lol!

walk of shame on new year’s morning

January 2088. Melissa Fortney is 20. Hudson Lawrence is 28.

previously: Melissa is weird, but in a cute way // Hudson is just weird

*briefly NSFW

Melissa has been intrigued by sex since she was thirteen years old and it was all any of her older friends could talk about. Who was having it, who wasn’t having it, who dreamed of having it. Until she met Hudson, she just assumed all men simply wanted it as quickly and easily as possible. Angelo Shaw wanted it before he’d even entered puberty. The Parisian boys she studied with in her second year of uni wanted it and weren’t bashful about letting her know. Even her first, sweet, gentle boyfriend, Elijah, wanted it (for sure!) before they parted ways for college. 

And Melissa—if it wasn’t unbecoming to say of a young lady—really wanted it, too. 

But Hudson Lawrence was a mystery. Where other women had grown impatient with this gentlemanly lumberjack, Melissa was undeterred.

happy new year, 2088!

Happy New Year, 2088! Vicky Garth is 23, Vale Akiyama is 27. Shaina Halston is 29, Asher is 27, Poppy Grimes is 25.

previously: sweeties got sick // Melissa met Hudson // who are Asher and Poppy?

The performer’s lounge at the Subterranean Flare was calm, while a frenzy of party goers gathered downstairs. In twenty minutes, Vale would go on stage to begin his New Year’s Eve show, and he wouldn’t finish until long after midnight. “But hang around close by at midnight,” he asked Vicky, “and I’ll try to sneak you a kiss.”

A consolation prize, she thought. Vicky had a VIP ticket to the hottest party of the night. Shame she wouldn’t get to spend it with her boyfriend.

“It better be a great kiss,” she said. 

While she and Vale would technically be in the same room together, Vicky was preparing herself to spend the evening alone. She had hoped that April and Beau might come out, but they couldn’t make the trip happen on such short notice. Tyler and Maya might show up, they said, but Vicky wasn’t great friends with them either. George and Blossom, Blair and Amy, Vale’s parents, her old roommate, her plants, everybody she knew was back out east. The only other person Vicky knew in this entire half of the country was Summer-fucking-Phoenix. Suddenly, Vicky felt very alone out here.

postcards from the worst office holiday party ever

December 2087. Erin Close is 43. Vale Akiyama is 27. Cora Lawrence is 26. Luis Talbot is 24. Amelia Bradshaw is 32. Tyler Jackson is 24. Hudson Lawrence is 28. Melissa Fortney is 20. 

The markets have been dismal this year, and Erin hoped that this year’s Close Mutual office holiday party would lift everyone’s spirits. 

The party was held at her partner's nightclub, The Subterranean Flare, but decked out with lots of holiday decor. She also rented what she thought was the snazziest ensemble for the DJ to wear—a red sequined jacket with a pair of shiny white leather pants that hugged his tight butt in a spectacular way. 

postcards from a bug on the wall

July 2087.

In Fort Palmetto, half of the high school class gathers at the Collins residence to celebrate Jacob Collins' 15th birthday. The shady yard and chilly pool make the perfect place to ride out this mid-summer heat wave.  

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!"

Melissa

June 2088 — age 21

Melissa Renee Fortney, "Mel"

story tag

simblr tag

born: February 21, 2067 — Pisces

toddler trait: inquisitive

child aspiration: social, not achieved

aspiration 1: nature, outdoor enthusiast

aspiration 2: creativity, writing

traits: loves the outdoors, childish, cheerful, active, bookworm, observant (shy, curious)

MBTI: 

religion: 

politics: 

loves: night photography, fireflies, people watching, art films, journal stickers, travel

hates: adulting, losing touch with old friends

education: 

- Sierra Nova University, currently attending (junior, Literature & Filmmaking)

- Champs Les Sims, 3 semesters

- Lake City High School, class of 2085

career: 

- Summer 2088, roadie & media manager, Vale Akiyama's Crushing Tour

career history: 

- 2087-2088: internship, media production, Halston House Productions

- 2086-2088: part-time barista, Close Mutual Investments

skilled at: writing 4, logic 4, photography 4, painting 3, programming 3, media production 2

wanted to be when she was a child: a National Geographic Wildlife Photographer

orientation: straight

IFS: 2

romance: 

- single

romantic history: 

- Hudson Lawrence, dating December 2087, broke up April 2088

- unnamed boyfriend in Paris

- Elijah Roberts, April 2083 to March 2084

- Blair Schehl, February 2081 to August 2081

- unrequited crush on Beau Jackson

parents: Sheldon and Alana Fortney 

siblings: none

children: --

grandchildren: -- 

friendships: Lucy Deppiesse, Sarah Harris, Raquel Herrera

enemies: 

DNA: 

weight: 

fitness: 

health history: 

- April 2088: abortion, first trimester

legal history: 

- age 14-18, full legal custody with her dad following her parents' divorce

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