Let's try this again, shall we?

1. Well, the rebuild is over. (Thank goodness!) I was able to recreate some Sims almost
exactly, and some Sims look the same from most angles, but not all of them. And then
there were some Sims whose noses I just could not get right for the life of me. I ask you
in advance to please forgive me. Oh, and some of the pictures you will see were taken
before the rebuild. If you can tell me when the last pre-rebuild picture appears, I will give
you a cookie.
Although, like I said last time I rebuilt, when it comes to sharing cookies, I cheat.
But enough about me. Let’s get on with the story – Already in Progress…

2. You know how it is when you get up in the morning. You’re not really awake yet, and
while you’re taking care of your Bladder meter, you’re in a very Zen-like state.
Sometimes you even have to figure out if that hazy memory you have of watching the
Pope ride by on an elephant is just a dream or if it really happened.
That can take a while, some days.

3. And when you shower, you have your eyes closed. I mean, unless you actually like
getting soap in your eyes. But most people don’t.
But after your shower, you’re more awake and more in a noticing things-mood. Which is
a rather roundabout way of explaining why it took Matt so long to notice that a miracle
had occurred.

4. MATTHIAS: Wait a minute – What – ? (blinks at his reflection a few times, then,
reverently) Oh. My. Esme. (shrieks delightedly) Ty! Ty! It’s back! (takes off for the
bedroom at a run) My skin is back! Hobbes worked a miracle! A MIRACLE! A –
(breaks off) Ty?

5. TYRONE: For me? Aw, you shouldn’t have.
GRIM REAPER: A.. .ar. o. ..e .ervi.., M.. .ill...
TYRONE: Drinks, hula zombies, a lei, my bag already packed… This is just about
perfect.
GRIM REAPER: “.us. a.ou.”?
TYRONE: Well, I’m going to miss my husband.
MATTHIAS: Then don’t go! Please, Mr. Reaper, let me plead for him! I just have to
move the bed; can’t you wait?
GRIM REAPER: .orr.. I.. on a sch…l. .er..
TYRONE: Hey, Matt, Hobbes gave you your skin back, huh? That’s great. It’s a miracle!
MATTHIAS: I don’t want it back! Not if it means that you have to die!
TYRONE: Sorry, Matt. I love you…

6. Tyrone Miller, age… old. Rebuilds mess with records, y’know? Ty was my first natural
redhead, which came as a complete shock, since the recessive genes came from a
married-in dormie and a married-in townie, neither of whom expressed red. Tyrone was a
Knowledge Sim, with definite Family tendencies. He was attracted to unavailableness
rather than gender, so of course he ended up having three bolts with a monk. (Er, in a
manner of speaking. The Brothers aren’t actually monks, but most people can’t tell the
difference.) Ty shocked me again by being only my second natural male abduction in
four-plus years of playing.
Goodbye, Tyger. You will be much missed.

7. And not just by me.

8. Life, goes on, though, and the first year’s tuition was already paid, so Dante and
Charlotte went off to college.
You can read more about them next time, in the college chapter.
Eddie is too young for college yet, and he spent his time making friends. Eddie is Nice,
and so makes friends easily.

9. But maybe he shouldn’t agree to games of Punch-You-Punch-Me with the Mean ones.
Moving right along…

10. Sarah Jane has a new outfit. It’s still in her preferred color of green, but it doesn’t make
her look as washed out as the other one did.
I think it may be the same outfit Tim’s mother chose after she became an Elder, but never
mind.

11. And speaking of Tim, he accepted a guest lecturer position at Sim State for one semester.
He’s giving a class called “Consequentialism, Deontology, and the Aretaic Turn: Applied
Philosophy in Modern Life.”
I’d explain what it’s about, but I fell asleep during the first five minutes of the first
lecture, and it’s only sheer luck that I didn’t snore.

12. Descartes has headed off to college, where he Grew Up into clothes that were… Well,
they’re awesome, of course, because Descartes is wearing them. But they’re maybe not
quite as awesome as his usual standard.
There will be a college chapter next time to provide your Recommended Daily
Allowance of Descartes, never fear.

13. This leaves his parents to their own devices.
SARAH JANE: So what do you want to do tonight?
TIMOTHY: I don’t know. What do you want to do?
SARAH JANE: I asked you first.
TIMOTHY: Well, I asked you second. So there.
SARAH JANE: Oh, fine. You know Descartes is out of the house now, right?
TIMOTHY: Right.
SARAH JANE: So that opens up a whole new range of… interesting possibilities,
doesn’t it?
TIMOTHY: Now that you mention it, yes, it does.
I’m sure you can figure out what they found to do. Moving right along…

14. SIMON: Are you having a good time with Sally, Oliver?
OLIVER: I dunno. She doesn’t do anything.
SIMON: She’s a baby. They usually don’t.
OLIVER: But she’s an alien. She’s supposed to have special powers. Like – like mind
reading. Or mind control. Or, or moving things with her mind, maybe. Or teleportation or
–
SIMON: Aliens are actually pretty ordinary, kiddo. And even if they weren’t, she’s still a
baby. Give her time.
OLIVER (disappointedly): I just think she should be able to do more than just poop in her
diaper and suck her thumb.

15. That changed, eventually.
LUCY: Hi, sweetie. How was your day?
OLIVER: Oh, it was great! Dad taught Sally how to talk, only she’s not very good at it
yet, but she keeps singing while she’s playing the xylophone only I don’t understand
what she’s singing. (confidentially) I think she’s singing in Japanese. I think she’s a child
progidy.
LUCY: You mean prodigy?
OLIVER: Yeah, like a genius. She’s going to be internationally famous. And I’m going
to be her manager.
LUCY (amused): Are you now?

16. I don’t know if Sally’s a prodigy or not, although she does spend a lot of time with her
toy xylophone. She also spends a lot of time with her Uncle Cillian.
Cillian desperately wants children – he’s locked the Want all by himself. Unfortunately,
Anne can’t have any kids, and Cillian does not consider adoption a viable option. Now, I
know there are some Simmers who would turn this situation in something worthy of a
soap opera. Cillian just spends a lot of time with his niece.
If he weren’t almost out of his fertile period, he’d be spending a lot of time with the
telescope, too.

17. Permaplat Jasmine can barely get near her daughter’s husband’s alien baby to make
Smart Milk for her. (Why not take advantage of the permaplat person in the house? It
happens rarely enough in my game.) Jasmine’s husband is gone, she’s topped her career,
her daughters are busy with their husbands, their husbands are busy with Sally, and
Oliver’s in school for a good portion of the day. What is she supposed to do all day?
Meet Rudy the Cockatoo. We’ll see how long I can keep him alive.

18. At the Littledragon (formerly Couderc) household, this has become a common sight.
Perry and Amy go on Dream Dates every day, and they often end up here.
Unfortunately, I’m sure you can guess why.

19. GRIM REAPER: M.. .itt..drag.n?
HARKON: Oh no you don’t. I finished a Dream Date with my wife not even three hours
ago, so if there are no hula zombies, don’t even think about it.

20. GRIM REAPER: .u.. .y li…e .oke, M.. Li…edrag... – .irl.?
(Hula music starts up)
GRIM REAPER: .ave a ..ink, .r. .ittl…ago.?
HARKON: Now that’s more like it!

21. Perry (Standin) Littledragon, age uncertain because of the rebuild. Perry was originally
created for the express purpose of having a picture taken, so that my Dungeons &
Dragons group would know what my character looked like. (I play cross-gender.) Perry
was not supposed to interact with anyone or in any way affect the ‘hood. That plan didn’t
last very long. Perry took a job raking leaves for his neighbors, including first girlfriend
Jasmine Scott (pictured). They eventually broke up amiably, and married siblings:
Perry’s wife’s brother became Jasmine’s husband. Jasmine was instrumental in pushing
the zero-Outgoing-points Perry to actually declare himself to Amethyst and remained a
good friend of the family. Perry lived a very happy life, although he would definitely
have preferred moar baybeez.
Goodbye, Perry. I’ll miss you.

22. Perry did not live to see the arrival of his second grandchild, a seemingly pleasant little
girl. But alas, there was a terrible terrible problem with this child.
About four or five fulfilled Wants into her first day in the family, she rolled the Want to
become friends with herself. As I am sure you know, that is a sure sign of imminent and
inevitable ‘hood ‘splodiness.
But I just rebuilt this ‘hood! I haven’t played but five days out of the whole thing! (A
single rotation is 24 days total – three per each of eight households.) This is NOT FAIR!
So I sat down and figured out that I had done, or at least might have done, five things that
could potentially mess the ‘hood up big time. One of them was absolutely unavoidable,
one unfixable without another complete rebuild, and three didn’t have to be problems at
all as long as I restored from my nice clean immediately-post-rebuild backup and
remembered not to do anything stupid.

23. And after some cussing, I started over. Everything happened again: calling the agency,
dream dates, hula zombies, and a new family member.

24. This family member is named Amy – that’s the third Amy I’ve had in my game, if you’re
keeping track – and except for the facial template, she’s a clone of Samantha. Personality,
coloring, you name it and they match. Despite which, Sam started out with a -4/32
relationship with her new sister, which I’ve never seen before.
I fulfilled Amy’s every whim for two days straight and she didn’t roll any Wants to
become friends with herself, so I think I’m okay. She might be hopelessly spoiled,
though.

25. You know who isn’t hopelessly spoiled? Trixie. (No, I will never get the hang of segues.
And I’ve never claimed to be a good writer.)
TIRTHA: Oh, don’t mind me, Trixie. I’ll just clean up your plate for you.
TRIXIE: huff Thanks puff.
TIRTHA: Because, you know, you’re apparently constitutionally incapable of cleaning
up yourself.
TRIXIE: Up huff yours puff. I wanna huff promotion.
There’s actually an odd glitch in this household. Whoever sits in the dining chair nearest
the door becomes unable to Clean Up anything until the next time they have a meal.
Anyway, the point of this was to show that Trixie’s pretty driven. Let’s find out why.

26. TRIXIE: What’s wrong with me?
Nothing.
TRIXIE: Am I not pretty enough?
You’re very pretty. And you have beautiful eyes.
TRIXIE: Then why didn’t Kacper show up?
Um…
TRIXIE: And why, when I dial his number, doesn't it work? I have to dial it from
memory, because it vanished from my phone like it was never even there.
Um…
TRIXIE: Something’s going on, and I’m going to figure out what.

27. At a dance club.
TRIXIE: Shut it. (to bartender) Hi, I’ll take a Fuzzy Navel, please. And I’m looking for
someone. You must see a lot of folks come through here, right?
BARTENDER: Tons. But I don’t remember most of them.
TRIXIE: How about a redheaded dead guy in a cape? Goes by “Kacper”?
BARTENDER: Sorry, not ringing any bells. What’s he drink?
TRIXIE: …I don’t know.
BARTENDER: Can’t help you, then. But try asking Abhijeet over there. He knows
everybody.
TRIXIE: Thanks. (slides a twenty across the bar) Keep the change.

28. TRIXIE: Hi. Do you know a redheaded dead guy in a cape? Goes by “Kacper”?
ABHIJEET PHILLIPS: Kacper, Kacper… Nope. Sorry.
TRIXIE: (snorts derisively) And the bartender said you knew everybody. (mostly to
herself) What happened to him? People don’t just vanish off the face of the earth.
ABHIJEET: Are you sure you’re not remembering someone from a past life?
TRIXIE: Pardon?
ABHIJEET: A past life. I remember mine. Like, there was this one time I got myself
turned into a vampire for love. After I remembered that, I spent a week looking for Kate.
(helpfully) That was the woman I loved.*
TRIXIE: There’s no such thing as past lives. And anyway, I saw him three weeks ago. Or
four. Maybe five and a half. Okay, I’m not sure when. But I’ve seen him. Recently.
ABHIJEET (knowingly): Ah-huh.
Let’s go check in now with the last family on the list, that of Mifune Sanders, Goopy
GilsCarbo devotee.
You will want to go put on sunglasses before you look at the next picture.
*A reference to Romancing the Apocalypse by lorinsv60, which can be found in the “Apocalypse Stories”
forum over at Boolprop. Highly recommended.

29. I did warn you. It’s your own fault you didn’t go put on sunglasses like I told you.
Just be glad I didn’t include a shot with the antlers. (On the wall over the bed, if you must
know.)

30. Louise’s room is not necessarily all that much better.
SAMANTHA: Come on, Lou. Like this. Sat-a-gee, sat-a-gee, huhn, huhn, clap, Thrillah!
LOUISE: Um… Maybe we should stop. I keep getting lost.
SAMANTHA: That’s why we’re practicing, right? So let’s try it again, from the top. Sat-
a-gee, sat-a-gee…
Louise is practicing everything she thinks she’ll need for college.

31. Literally.
LOUISE: Hi Dad. What are you having? That looks good.
MIFUNE: You think so?
LOUISE: Yeah. You and Mom have those every day, don’t you? You must like them a
lot. I’ve always wondered how they were.
MIFUNE: (pours her a drink) Go on, then. Have a taste.
LOUISE (dubiously): Okay. (makes a face) Blech. That is disgusting! People really drink
that voluntarily?
MIFUNE: All the time in college. You should learn to drink responsibly before you
leave.
LOUISE: Is that legal? I mean, I’m underage.
MIFUNE: I can give my daughter a drink in my own home. Just don’t go getting
plastered.
LOUISE: No worries! That stuff is nasty. I can’t believe I ever thought it looked like fun.

32. (Incidentally, Samantha’s been doing the same kind of preparation for college. Normally,
I’d use Ricky Cormier for this kind of aspiration fodder, but since I rebuilt with an empty
‘hood, he no longer exists. Which means that this luckless, random townie boy whose
name I didn’t even bother to write down gets to be aspiration fodder instead.)

33. Myrna is not interested in learning grown up college skills. She’d rather teach the dog
new tricks.
MYRNA: Come here, Venus! Come here, girl! Good girl! Good doggie!

34. She’d also like to talk to a Certain Someone, but that’s proving quite difficult.
MYRNA: Really? Do you know when he will be available, then?
MYRNA: Well, could you take a message for me?
MYRNA: Just tell him Myrna called. Myrna Sanders. My number is 239-555-1240.
MYRNA: Okay. Thanks. (hangs up with a sigh, then, to herself) He’s never going to be
home when I call, is he?
Who is “he”? Why is he never home? The answers probably definitely won’t be revealed
in the next chapter, but I hope you’ll join me anyway.

35. Saying that Trixie has beautiful eyes wasn’t just a throwaway compliment. I made them
myself and gave her my alien eyes during the rebuild instead of giving her the Eaxis ones.
I think they look pretty similar, if you don’t look too closely, and they’ll be passed on
independent of skintone.
Yes, I know there’s a hack out there that uncouples the two, but I believe I may have
mentioned that I have a teeny weeny phobia about hacks, downloads, and custom
content? At any rate, I don’t use it.
Until next time, Happy Simming!
**********
The Grim Reaper’s lines, in order:
All part of the service, Mr. Miller.
“Just about”?
Sorry. I’m on a schedule here.
Mr. Littledragon?
Just my little joke, Mr. Littledragon. – Girls?
Have a drink, Mr. Littledragon?