Names

As you may have noticed, apart from the heirs to the three original homes of the founding families I'm not going to be putting any particular effort into keeping the Bhalli, Darwin and King names the main ones in the 'hood. There's several reasons for this. First, and least importantly, it's more realistic. Second, it makes it easier for me to identify particular family lines, eg Darwin vs Pasang. Third, it means when the game doesn't recognise sims to be related and I'm not too squicked out to let them get together (or they refuse point-blank to let me not get them together) I don't get the issue of sims who are in love and only tangentially related having the same surname and thus freaking me out!

Round Ten - Bachman/Darwin - Money, Money, Money!

Tom Darwin, Allyn Bachman and their son Drake are getting ready to move into a new home after Tom's unexpected financial windfall. Will this change their relationship dynamic, especially as Drake doesn't act like his parents at all?

Allyn doesn't know to connect with Drake now he doesn't rely on her for every last thing. She and Tom have never exactly been academics, yet they've somehow spawned a little bookworm. Allyn barely understands what he's talking about over dinner, as he delves deep into world politics (a bit too deep for an elementary school kid). Where does he get all these ideas from?!

Round Ten - King - Teenage Angst

The King household is as crowded as ever, and now Nathaniel and Petal's eldest child Athena has reached her teenage years it isn't going to get any easier!

(Athena's POV)

I know all teenagers think their family is weird, but mine is super-weird. I mean, I've only just started high school, my life is difficult enough without my GRANDMA playing soccer in the back yard. I can just about handle it from mom, she's not wrinkly yet, but grandma?

Round Ten - Darwin - Aftermath

Harvey Darwin is trying to deal with being an elderly single father after the death of his girlfriend Esther Pasang. Thankfully he has his son and future daughter-in-law to help him look after Milo, but will he ever recover?

 

Miranda tried to reach out to Harvey, but it was difficult. He rebuffed all her kind words and she felt a little resentment. She was basically acting as Milo's mother after Esther's death, why couldn't he appreciate that?

Round Ten - Bhalli - Prankster

Jace and Solveig are trying for a new baby to complete their family. Their two daughters Vikki and Caroline are of school-age, but they're not the best friends sisters could be...

Solveig and Jace both worked jobs that occasionally demanded odd hours, and that sometimes meant that the girls were left to their own devices on Saturday mornings. Caroline knew she should have been doing the homework she was given on Friday, but Vikki had other ideas and dragged her to play video games. But Caroline wasn't the easy opponent she'd hoped for.

"Ugh! There's no way you can be beating me so often without cheating. I'm amazing at this and you're just a stupid kid. Go and play with your dolls or something!"

Quick Note: Haunted Houses

I've decided that I want ghosts around, even though they are extremely annoying... hey, if I'm going to have vampires, witches and maybe even zombies eventually, ghosts are nothing. Most graves, including almost everyone descended from the founding families, will get moved to the cemetery but in the case of deaths like Esther's I'm going to hide the urns somewhere in the house where they can't be interfered with. I will try and keep the number of "haunted houses" low - one per sub-neighbourhood (I forget the game term for that), and the ghosts won't become apparent unless they actually haunt someone to death or something.

Usually they'll happen via gameplay, but I have made one on purpose - I set fire to the Jacquards in Bluewater and hid their urns in the foundations of their fire-damaged house, thus bringing a whole curse-malarky in. It may become a plot-point if anyone ever moves in there, but then again, they may not... The supernatural abounds, apparently.

Round Nine - University - Part 2: This Conversation Is Over

Maya's best friends Liliana and Ashlee have hooked up at university - will they be "lesbian until graduation" or will it not even last that long?

To say Maya finds her current living situation a bit awkward is an understatement. She'd been entirely prepared for the situation of Ashlee and Liliana both getting boyfriends at university and her being the fifth wheel but she hadn't expected this. It's especially awkward when Liliana gets soppy and talks about what they're going to do when they graduate. Maya knows Ashlee better than her, even if she isn't in a relationship with her, and she knows Ashlee's not ready for commitment.