Apocalypse Now - Ch 4

Most of what I have to say as the author for this one tells well inthe story, so I'll bow out except to say that Zion couldn't find work in culinary for 5 days so I switched him to medical. The decision was based on the children, as toddlers (the twins aspect was an unpleasant surprise) are so pathetic when they cry from being dirty. Oh, and none of the clothes I bought while at Uni transferred back in the dresser in her backpack. So everyon'e in default. Miles in pink footed animal jammies and Veronica in the brown footed ones. Back to Emerald.

Zion moved out for awhile. He wanted to go speak to his carpool about why they kept leaving him and he didn't want me involved in it. Of course, I didn't know that until he came back. But he did come back, and apparently whatever he said made a difference. He's working now, but has given up his dream of being a chef since foods spoil so quickly now. He's decided to work in medicine and find a way to keep everyone healthy since bathing is so difficult. I wish he didn't have to give up his dream, but I understand his decision.

The babies are growing up. I spend so much time worrying about Veronica and Miles. They smell awful. I worry that they'll get sick. I worry that they're unhappy. It's not that we're bad parents, we simply don't have the resources they need. Or that we need, for that matter. I've taken to bathing in the sink, as has Zion, but the kids are too big for that now that they're toddlers. I'm afraid the makeshift counters will crumble under their weight so I don't put them up there. I wash them with cloth, but there's only so much cloth and after a short time, it's pretty funky too. My poor babies. Whenever I think about them growing up I get excited. I think "Thank heavens!" for soon they'll be able to help out in the community, to make things right again. I hate to give them a purpose so early in life, but things are so bad...there's little choice. Don't get me wrong, parenthood hasn't been all bad. We love our kids and we get great enjoyment from playing with them. Bathing in the sink takes forever, so we aren't able to teach them their skills like we'd like to, and that makes us sad.

Veronica befriended a local stray. They're all strays, really. She gave him the end of her hot dog. I love that she's kind and she shares, but how can I explain to her that we barely have enough food for our family, let alone the neighborhood's dogs? I couldn't scold her for it, of course. But there's something about that dog that I don't trust. The radiation seems to have gotten to it. Maybe it was the way the light hit, but it's eyes seemed to glow. Come to think of it, there is no light after dark. So what was that?

Otherwise, things are pretty bad for me. I'm about to become and elder and will have to quit my job. It'll give me more time with the kids though. Our phone rings non-stop from all my college buddies trying to keep in touch. Seems this sort of thing happened all over and everyone's trying to recover. I miss dating and being with others. I can't really do with with Zion living here and I wouldn't do that to the kids. But still, I miss it. I'll never have 20 lovers at the same time. I've never had more than 5 that I made out with. But Zion has my heart and as long as he keeps treating me welland taking care of the kids with me, I can't complain too much. But sometimes, when no one's around, I pretend I'm on a date with Mr. Floor Mop and we dance and kiss... You think I'm crazy, maybe. Forget that last part.

Apocalypse Now - Ch 3

Back in her old neighborhood, it took 5 days before the paper offered Emerald a slacker job. It took over a week before she was promoted to top of her field. At that point, I had her call her college boyfriend to move in (but not marry as she had a rolled up a fear of marriage, being a romance sim) and try for baby right away. They were successful. I had one problem that was completely my fault and I reverted to my last save as I had the InTeenImator hack on and she miscarried - but it wouldn't have happened if I had turned my cheats off. Drat. I had saved after her first bump, so I didn't go back far. It's gotten really difficult, you'll see why at the end of this post. Also, something is wrong with her husband, Zion, who cannot go to work. I'm not sure what to do with him. For now he's Mr. Mom and if, after reloading the game, he cannot work (like a jump bug, but only for going to the carpool) he will be finding his own place and poor Emerald will have to try for baby with the professor, the only other male she can invite over. Yuck! I did use a few items of custom content, but only ones that were exactly equivalent to available non-CC items and counted the price as those of the regular items - the log sofa is a recolor of the park bench, the brick outdoor stove is a recolor of the cheapest grill, the bed and door are recolors of existing items. For some reason, the adult outfits did not save in the locker she had in her inventory. I wonder if all the outfits are gone? I used the Bomb Shelter. Back to Emerald.

I got home from university with my laundry sack, my backpack full of books, and my bed. My old 'hood was different somehow when I stepped out of the cab. I slept most of the way home, so I wasn't looking out the windows. But when I got there...everything was...gone. Just gone. There was nothing and no one for miles. How could this be. It was like, Bam!, something had destroyed my entire town and everyone in it. My parents...my friends...the neighbors I'd grown up with. Where was everything? As soon as I'd paid for my cab, it took off like zombies were after it. What in the world is going on?

I ran into one of my parents' old friends from down the block. But he was, I dunno, different somehow. "Is that a growth on your lip?" He got fiercely angry with me and screamed at me "We didn't all come through the radiation as well as you, sweet pea!" Radiation? What could he mean? Radiation from what? But he was too angry to speak to me and although I apologized, he just kept yelling at me. I listened to find out what had happened, but then he looked afraid and ran off. I turned to the direction he'd been looking and saw zombies. OMG! I hid for shelter until I heard them moan and shamble past. The nearest building was what was left of my family home. It is in ruins,but the basement is intact and there is a sturdy stairwell leading down to it from the platform of a first floor. All the walls have been blown out. Whatever happened here must have been terrible. And my family...

There isn't much I can do except start to carry on. I scavenge around, never straying to far from home. Home...as if. I set my bed up in the basement, out of the eyes of the zombies and wolves and whatever else was out there. I set my laundry in a corner. It would be all the clothes available until...until what? No sense dwelling on the unknown. I drag a log to sit on to the platform of a first floor. Then I drag an old half-broken fridge and some makeshift counters in and find an old brick fireplace that is mostly in tact to use for cooking what I can find to eat. I feel so guilty for my selfish thoughts about my parents sending money, when all this time, they might have been...I can't even think about it. I busy myself finding a job. It has been tough going as all the slackers have the good jobs already. No one wants to work hard. Eventually, I find work and am promoted to the top of my career. I threw a party and some of the labor leaders came. They lifted the community restrictions about slave labor. Now sims got days off they deserved and could change jobs if they wanted to. I am a "local hero" and the other sims saw that they could do well also and started marrying and moving in together. I'm no hero, I'm just Emerald. But I don't mind bringing some hope. I sure could use some, too.

I call my college boyfriend, Zion, and ask him to move in. I want him to work in culinary, like he has talked about for years, but he can't get a job. The carpool kept leaving without him for some reason. I wonder if one of my old girlfriends of boyfriends is driving and that's why they leave him. I'll never know. We got pregnant right away. I don't mind being pregnant, but it has been a tough pregnancy. I suffer with not being able to bathe, always being hungry, and getting roughed up by the neighborhood "police", a bunch of criminals who come by once a week to anyone they find in the neighborhood and take some of their things. It's horrible, but what can we do?

I complain to Zion, full of tears. "Zion, how can we bring a baby into this horrible world? You don't have a job. I can barely stay awake after bathing in the sink as best as possible. We have no living family. This is no world to bring a baby into!" I break into racks of sobs. He consoles me, "Emerald, my darling, everything will be okay." "No, Zion, it won't. Look around you! We can only deny this reality for so long. What will we tell our child? Sorry, there's no food because the world seems to have come to an end? We don't even know what happened." He looks so sweet to me at this moment. "Emerald, you're hormonal, you're upset, and rightly so. Listen, we can only do the best we can do, right? So let's make sure you get your rest and let me take care of everything else until the baby comes. Besides, we can't really unpregnant you, can we?" "...no." "So let me rub your back and you read on the bed for awhile to help you calm down. It's not good for you or the baby to get this upset."

And he is right, of course. Soon, it was evident why my emotions were so out of control and my hygeine and rest and hunger kept flagging me down. I was carrying twins! Realize too, there was no medical care as there are no doctors that we've found. But, sims have been having babies since there have been sims, so we did what was natural. Luckily, they both seem healthy as do I, except for the pain of birthing twins on the dirt ground outside my house. We have a boy and a girl, Miles and Veronica. It's been extremely difficult so far raising them as infants. Zion is very creative and made cribs for them out of broken boards and pieces of mattress we found in our walks. I really hope Zion starts working soon. For now, he's a good dad and that's what we need most.

Apocalypse Now - Ch 2

While playing the second half of college, I focused on my founder having all the skills she needed to get through the Slacker career track as well as enough logic skill to hack her grades a little. All that dating wears her out and she needs her beauty sleep. Sometimes going to class would have cut into that and she'd have never forgiven me! With the time left over, I had her watch the dorm TV for cooking skill. As of the end of university, she has 10 friends, has made out with 5 people, and has her limit of 3 items in her inventory: diploma, double bed (the best one), and a dresser (the cheapest one) filled with clothes since that money she earned from grades will disappear when she leaves college. I bought one male and one female outfit for each age group, with the exception of young adult, which share the adult outfits. Back to Emerald.

Hey, hi! And welcome back. So, like, here's an image of me getting my smustle on. University was so much fun. When my grades dipped from missing classes, I had someone write my term papers for me. And mostly I just dated and, um, made out, and, um, I dunno, smustled I guess. I met a lot of great people. I had my first and only whoohoo with Zion. Oh yeah, baby! Odd thing was, we used my bed from inventory and kind of, um, performed outside of the secret society house. Zion said it was tradition or something, but I think he was just being a jerk. Bad thing was, I had dated several of the people in the society and Zion ended up getting into fights with nearly everyone there. Oops! I went back to sleep.

Zion's kind of a wuss. Look at him making a "wah, I got hurt" face. Pffhh! But, he's the only male I have a red heart with, so I'm gonna keep him. He's not horrible looking although his face is rather wide. I guess everyone making crybaby faces looks kind of horrible. We'll just have to kick him up a notch and see what we can do. Can you imagine having to wakeup to that crybaby face every day? Yikes! OMG, no. So he'd better snap out of it or Bam! Zion's a family sim. He told me one day while we were on a date in my room. We had to stay in my room in the dorm so no one would get all, like, jealous and stuff. Lame. You know how hard it is to pillow fight in your room? Hard! Whatever.

Apparently I'm the only one who didn't major in "shrug" or whatever that class is supposed to be. Ugh, I tell you, my dorm mates were impossible. Between trying to keep my relationships secret from one another and keep them out of my room at all hours of the day and night, I barely had any time at all to make out!

Oh, and get this, I STILL haven't gotten any money from my parents! What kind of crap is that, huh? I know! Man, I am so mad at them. And to make things worse, as if that wasn't horrible enough, they don't even answer the phone when I call. I just get this wierd kind of a static. I know it's them though. How many days in a row could they really have trouble on their line without calling a service company? Not that many.

So anyway, I graduated simma comma loudly or whatever it's called. Thanks in part to the hacking system for secret society and to my dorm mates for being total doorknobs and agreeing to write my term papers for me. Suckers! Oh yeah, baby! I got my cap and gown with the plumbob tassle so my parents should be pretty happy, even though they didn't come to my graduation party. Tonight I take the train back to my hometown and unload all my laundry for my parents to do for me. I guess I have to start thinking about getting a job and whatever. But it's cool because I just want to party and date so I'm gonna be a certified Slacker. What else can you do with a liberal arts degree? Laters.

Apocalypse Now - Ch 1

Because I've apparently lost my mind, I'm taking a break from Sim Swapping and am going to play the apocalypse challenge. (Note: I'm not breaking from Swap just to do the challenge. I'm feeling a time-crunch with wedding planning and taking on a new role at work, but the challenge isn't time-sensitive like Swapping is.) The idea is unique and I like the option of playing in a whole new voice. However, I don't generally have the attention span to stick to a challenge or a legacy, so chances are high that I'll give up at some point after losing interest or accidentally blowing the challenge rules - and there sure are a lot of them! I'm not giving myself a time limit on this as I do have lots of other interests. ("Besides the Sims?" I heard you gasp) Yeah, a few. So without further ado, let's meet our founder.

Hey, Hi! So I'm Emerald. Emerald Legasi and some wierd things have been happening lately. Bam! wierd. Okay, first thing I guess you need to know about me is that I'm attending La Fiesta Tech. I'm a sophomore here and my major is philosophy because I thought it would be, like, easy, but it's kind of not, so that's a bummer. But, um, I like black hair like mine and blonde hair, well everything really. But I hate vampires, scary! I hate studying and love making out. I hope someday to have 20 simultaneous lovers. Wouldn't that be fantastic? I know! So, um, I mostly spend the day at class and hanging out at the dorm. I'm trying to make a lot of friends and pass my classes. What else? Oh, the wierdness! So once a week, as agreed upon, I email my 'rents and ask for money for, ya know, clothes and shoes and makeup and movie money and whatever and they write me a letter in the mail with a check in it. Bam! Sounds like a perfect system right? I know! So, for the past 3 weeks, they haven't sent me anything and I don't think I did anything different, so I dunno what their deal is. So, whatever, I'm, like, making due for now and trying to get my dates to pay for me instead of going Dutch or going with friends and that's working out okay, but I really want a pair of earrings I saw at the student union but I can't afford them so I'm kinda bummed about that.

Okay, OMG, so, like, look who lives in my dorm? She's in the secret society. OMG it would be soooo cool if I could get invited to join. Wow! I'm hanging out with her as much as I can. Fortunately we both like to play chess. I am not a geek, I just like chess. I know what you're thinking and shut up! It does not make me a geek. I just happened to have learned how to play from my uncle and I'm not too bad at it. But I totally let her win if I see a way. I've won a few times, but that's bound to happen I guess.

You may have noticed my tattoos. Bam! My parents totally hate them, but I totally love them! I think they're super cool and as long as they're not on my hands or face I don't think my parents should say anything about it.

Oh, and get this, this boy lives in my dorm too. He's okay I guess. He dresses like he's from Star Trek or something, but I'll get him something from the student union once my family starts sending me money again so he looks all normal and stuff. But anyway, he was talking to me while I was, like, studying so I don't fail my class and stuff and he was like "I love making out" and I was all "I love making out too" so, like, Bam! we have a lot in common. I didn't kiss him or anything because he just moved in to the dorm and is only a freshman, but maybe when I'm a junior and he's a sophomore we can see who's better at making out, like with a contest or something. That'd be a riot! Okay, so I need to email my parents again and remind them to send me some money. They must have just forgot.

Okay, look at this! This guy keeps coming around the dorms spraying some kind of green goo all over the ground. Bam! People seem to believe he's the bug killer man, but why would his spray container have a radioactive symbol on it? I ask you that! Everybody says it's cool though and no one seems to have gotten sick or anything, but still...I dunno.

I've been working really hard at studying, which I hate, but I think I want to be a party planner - and never have to study again!!! So I'm working on the slacker track and so far have almost all the skills I'll need at the top of my field. I've also been dating a lot, of course. Oh, and I never study for college anymore. I found a better way. I made best friends with one of my professors and am good friends with the other one. They just kind of look the other way when my papers are not quite right and I invite them to my dorm to hang out. Bam! They get to feel young and I get to not study. Win win.

You know I've been dating a lot. This blonde is Zion. I have him earmarked to help me bear my children, should I have any. I love his blonde hair and his cool name. I called him over one day knowing he was in the secret society like Linda is, and Bam!, my sometimes boyfriend Chandler showed up, put me in handcuffs, and put me in the back of a limo. Now, Chandler and I have had role play dates before, so I thought it was going to be a wild night, but then he took me to the secret society and initiated me! Bam! Just like that. Turns out my best friend Diane and my dormmate friend Houston are also members of the society and I didn't even know. Bam! on me, huh? I'm so happy! Anyhow, I still haven't heard from my 'rents, but I've gotta run. I'll keep you posted. Laters.

General Update

Since many of the families I've played in Sim Swap have retired, I've moved them to the three various neighborhoods in the game, mixing it up a bit and putting a Mikata family (I had played them at three different stages in their "life" rotation) in each neighborhood.

I'm having a significant problem with my CC interfering with Pets and don't know how to fix it except rename the downloads folder. Bleh. So much good CC going to waste and no instant grocery deliveries. I'll have to look for what hacks I have and see if I can get them updated for pets and see if that'll fix it. Mainly, I have Inteenimater and Monique's computer. I also have the Babysitter piece. Maybe that's it. Anyone know?

Today I moved a Maxis created family, Cyd Rosewood (Rosemont?) and his dog Porthos into a house in Strangetown. Porthos already knew a few commands and the play dead made me laugh out loud. Cyd taught him to shake, which wasn't quite as amusing, but is still cute. Cyd got a job as a criminal to fulfill his LTW and romanced townie Florence who he later married and had boy Titus with. Florence is working in science toward her LTW but I may have to get her pregnant again as ever since she got pregnant she does the waddle walk all the time now. Strange. It's cute when they're bumped, but not in their street clothes. Toddler Titus cuddled Porthos who didn't look like he liked it, but then Porthos turned right around and independently cuddled again. I plan to have Tidus get Porthos a job as I haven't had any pets go to work yet.

Did you know: when your Sim plays an instrument, their dog will howl along? Too funny!

Cyd wants desperately to be a werewolf. He's met the wolf a few times but I don't know how to get him to turn yet. I did try having Cyd scold the wolf (seemed like a very bad idea indeed) after the wolf demolished the only sitting chair in the house (no money cheats) and knocked over the trash.

Cyd also taught little Titus to walk...in the middle of the street. He scooped him up into his arms in a congratulatory fashion just before Florence's ride arrived to take her to work. He's not winning Father of the Year.

And over in Veronaville, I played the Ohana family (from when they were just created) and decided they needed some kind of big dog. Makaha (dad) phoned up and had one delivered from the pound. Abbey the chow is a well behaved dog for the most part, but isn't fully trained not to destroy the furniture so she gets scolded more often then I'd like. The kids, Meli and Lana, enjoy her, as I knew they would. Oh, and Leilana (mom) wanted very much to have another baby, so she's pregnant, but hasn't gotten her bump yet. I let her roll up the want for 5 days before I relented and let them try once. This photo is of the welcome wagon (Karen Anderson and Rodney, Karen's ex boyfriend and baby's daddy) having lunch with Leilani. Rodney says "This chili gives me gas!" Later, Karen had the same problem. Something about playing in speed 3 while Sims dive I think.

With the Downloads folder renamed (D_Downloads) it works fine. My fiance suggested I not keep moving the folder in and out, especially since it's so large (over a gig, yikes!) because it'll cause too much fragmentation on my drive. Good call. I'll have to check that simply renaming it doesn't leave the CC in the lots for upload for Swap. At this point, I'm not able to access any CC except for recolors of some objects (cribs, etc) and I can see the CC on characters in the game hasn't gone away (custom hair and clothes on some visitors to the lot). Not sure what that means exactly, but okay.

Blogspot isn't in the mood to upload the photos for this entry. I'll try again tomorrow.

Pleasantville

Being frustrated with Strangetown - and what did I expect from Strangetown anyhow? - I moved over to Pleasantville and decided that Don Lothario, local man about town, needed a puppy to help him meet women at the local dog park. He found an adorable beagle and named her Smootches. I'm sure he has his own motives for that name. He grew her into an adult dog and housebroke her after quite a few floor piddles. Here he is rubbing her belly, which she seems to enjoy. I must say that the trick is proving to be a charm as he has had an additional 3 successful whoohoo relationships since he got her. The first thing Don taught Smootches was to stay off Sim beds. He said Sim beds are for Sim whoohoo and were no place for a puppy. That's good advice in his house.

In order to get Don's lot to work, I had to remove my downloads folder. There must be some conflict between a hack in there (although I only use a couple like Inteenimator) and the game running. However, the game ran fine with the downloads folder in when I installed it. Nothing changed on my computer between the night I installed the game and the next day. Odd. Otherwise, my game has all the patches. If you know what causes this problem (jump bugs) please let me know by leaving a comment below.

Strangetown

With the introduction of the Pets expansion, I created a female, Adrianna, and a grey and black tiger striped cat for her named Anderson. The game installed fine (after I'd backed up my files, of course) and Adrianna and Anderson played finger wiggle and other things to try out the new expansion.

The next day, I loaded the game up and Adrianna had the dreaded jump bug. I left her lot and installed Eric Banna, which I found on the Exchange awhile back, and had him attempt to adopt a dog from the pet store. However, he was also afflicted with the jump bug and ended up not being able to enter his car or a cab. I restarted the game several times and had no luck. I did, however, get an interesting picture of Anderson who fell through the floor. Poor kitty.

Veronaville

Romeo, through the use of Inteenimator and only one try for baby, impregnated Juliette. All the while, when asked what he wanted, it was to flirt with or kiss or something to her cousin, Hermia. Since he was such a, well, a Romeo, I had him impregnate Hermia too. Then Juliette dumped him - although she never knew of his infidelity. Juliette had baby girl Romance and Hermia had baby boy Romero. Then the three Capp kids (Juliette, Hermia, and Tybalt) went off college leaving poor old Consort to watch the babies.

Juliette has been romancing Antonio, another Monty. He's a single dad with two schoolaged kids who is recently widowed. Juliette moved in with him after she finished school, taking baby daughter Romance with her, of course. I think Antonio is also the uncle of Romeo.

Ah, but more happened at university. Hermia got engaged to Puck Summerdream. And, surprise of surprises, Tybalt got engaged to his once-mortal enemy, Mercucio. Meanwhile, Consort Capp, the widow, has been romancing the married Isabella Monty.

Fairiefire823

I'm Fairiefire823 on The Exchange and generally I'm Fairiefire most places in cyberspace. I'm also Semele or Semele Pojo in my online games, among other places in cyber space.

For more on me and my real life, please see my wedding blog or my website (under heavy construction). As for this blog, this is just a quick way to keep track of what's going on in my Sims 2 game.