Lots of birthdays in the Tinker/Neighbour household. Stephen and Wanda's third youngest daughter Rosmarie, who now lives with Melody and her husband Nextdoor since the death of the former two, became a teen with the family aspiration. Nextdoor himself grew old, and his and Melody's daughter Temperance became an adult. Nextdoor baked a cake and aside from the household (which includes Tankette Beaker) Nextdoor's and Melody's son Macchiato attended, as did Nextdoor's mum and brother, and Temperance's childhood friend Hector Nigmos.
The next day, Melody became an elder and Rosmarie's sister Tyra became a teen with the pleasure aspiration. This time, the six Tinker siblings not living in this household were invited, and Nextdoor baked a pie.
The day after this one, it'll be the youngest Tinker kid Irma's turn to become a teen.


Macchiato Neighbour visited the gym Svett och etikett (Sweat and etiquette) that I'd just built in Strangetown. After the huge and modern gym/swimming pool place I made in Strangetown's Downtown a while ago, I wanted to make something entirely different in scale and atmosphere. I wanted this one to feel like a place some people just threw together with things they found in their garages, or someone's basement.

After gaining the body points he'd wanted, Macchiato took a trip to Café Petite and then to Strangetown's tattoo shop where he got a dragon on his calf. In the store, he noticed his mum eyeing one of the tattoo boxes so he bought it for her as a birthday present.

Copernicus Smith invited his oldest twin sons Sugarpie and Honeybunch to hang out with him, his wife Jill and their twin sons Norfair and Brinstar. Copernicus also got to have some father-son bonding with Honeybunch over Copernicus' train set, just like he and his own father, Piel-Divina, had when he was younger. The next day was a Saturday, and Copernicus invited the teens over once again. I had Norfair and Brinstar go greet them once they arrived, and they autonomously got one big brother each to play catch with them. I hope Copernicus got to see it - if I were a father, I'd live for moments like that.


Outside the four boys, Piel-Divina also has something of a granddaughter in Supernova Spectre, since he and his late wife used to live in the Specter house along with Supernova and her fathers Nervous and Saturn. Eventually they moved to separate places, and it was hard meeting up on the regular seeing as Nervous and Piel-Divina became enemies while roommates. In any case, Supernova decided to invite P-D to her birthday party. As she went to greet him, P-D instead gently took her hands to dance with her, as if no time had passed at all since they last saw each other. He and Nervous stopped being enemies as their relationships had gone to neutral, though later in the evening they bickered a bit and Nervous is furious with P-D for whatever reason. Anyway, Supernova brought a friend, Houdini Beaker, home from school and invited Tyra Tinker walking by the lot so they also got to join the party as she grew up to a teen with the fortune aspiration. Tyra Tinker's presence might've been what inspired Supernova to get her hairstyle. The next day she went out on her own for the first time, to the Downtown gym/pool.

my college lot tester got it on with the townie cheerleader
her dormies got mixed reactions ayo good for them good for them

The Broke family is one of my favorite families, and they've been having a tough time of it in my megahood playthrough. I'm feeling bad for them.

First, there's Dustin, living by himself in the trailer park. He was very much in love with Angela Pleasant, but she was also seeing Tank Grunt--in fact, she was pretty much cheating on Tank with Dustin--and when she got pregnant with Tank's child, Dustin just didn't want to deal with that triangle anymore and stopped calling her. He had a fling with his work colleague, Dina Caliente, but she was married at the time. Then he met Desdemona Capp and quickly got engaged to her, but found out she was cheating on him and was also pregnant with another man's baby, so he broke up with her. When Dina got divorced, he started going out with her, and I think he married her because he couldn't really think of anything better for himself, even though she was much older than him and wouldn't be able to give him the children he wanted. And then Dina suddenly dropped dead from food poisoning. Now I think Dustin is filled with regrets. He regrets not telling Angela how much he loved her. He regrets never having children. He's grown apart from his family, although he's working on that. But still, he's approaching elderhood and is alone.

Brandi and Beau are very close (maybe too close) and still live together. There were two men who Brandi was very attracted to--John Burb and Lazlo Curious--but she refused to get involved with a married man (although they both tried hard to convince her), and so she remained single. Beau is completely hung up on his first love, Beatrice Monty, who is now very happily married to Hal Capp. She and Beau have remained friends, but she loves Hal and will always be faithful to him. So Beau just focuses on work and pines for Beatrice and never gives a thought to another woman.

Finally, there's Bobby, who only wanted to find someone to love and have a family. He found Phineaus Furley. Bobby was also very close to Brandi and Beau, but Phineaus made enemies out of both of them and moved Bobby away. I'm afraid that Phineaus is isolating Bobby. Even Dustin seems concerned and checks up on Bobby, even though they aren't close because they are so far apart in age.

I want to do something for Dustin at least. Maybe it is not too late for him to find happiness with Angela in their later years. After all this time, Tank has never stepped up and really committed to Angela or been much of a father. He has recently become friends with his daughter, but it was tough going because Evangeline was angry that he wasn't around during her childhood; Angela had to work hard to bring those two together. I wouldn't be surprised if Angela was getting fed up with Tank by now.

Sturlington, I really hope the Brokes get a break next time you play their households!

Orchard Isle has turned into a soap opera. Evelyn and Suzy went on a hike so Evie could get a rest from the babies. Michael was on baby duty and I was taking some screenshots of their lot, when he must have booty called Yara Fossum. They were in full action on the sofa when Suzy came into the living room and she and Michael are no longer best friends. Evie slapped him, then started a fight that she lost. I decided this means Michael should be moving out, doesn't look like Evelyn will want to patch things up. She was stone cold about it once he was gone, no wants to see his or Yara's ghosts, no flaming thought bubbles. Just wants for her three children and a want to get a pet. She adopted one of the big dogs, forgot what they called her, but she is now the center of attention in the household, even beating the twins.

Michael moved into Sutton Cottage right next to the orchard. He's spent his time running the business and rolling romance sim wants amd fears: Get engaged to Yara, Fear of getting engaged to Yara, Fall in love with Evelyn, Fear of getting engaged to Evelyn, Fall in love with Franka Lister, have 3 loves at once, invite Evelyn over. He didn't get to do any of it because I was tired and he needs to earn some money so he can pay proper child support.

I played Yara and her student friends as well, mostly to see what Yara actually wanted to do, but I had fun with the others. They've made friends, dated around, gained heaps of skill points and influenced coaches and cow mascots to clean the filthy bathrooms. Axel Magnell wanted a date with Yara and rolled a want to get engaged, but Yara had booty called Michael earlier, so I figured she wasn't ready for an engagement. She also wanted a date with Michael the day after, so she got it. I have put in YA pregnancy, but set the risk of pregnancy to low for her, because I figured she should get some chance of consequences if she was stupid. And she did. She is now expecting Michael's twins. Sigh, twins again! Must be something Michael has. I had her drop out of college because I got stressed taking care of her and the other students at the same time, and she's now living with Michael in Sutton Cottage.

I got inspired to put some community lots in my neighborhood, which I likely won't play because they are huge but really make Pleasantview look like a real town. So now there is a high school with a sports field, and a hospital plus urgent care clinic where all my medical Sims work (there are so many of them), a nice museum, and some government buildings for all my Sims working in law and politics. I also found some parking lots that make Downtown look more real, so I got rid of some of the more useless lots there and placed the parking lots instead. Veronaville is getting built up into a quaint village, agricultural center, and shopping district. Strangetown finally got its secret military base and science lab for research into alien technology.

I don't know--it gives me pleasure to look at my towns as more "real" and know there are lots where my Sims go to work even if I don't play them at work, if that makes sense.

I was frustrated by the main O'Rourke household and their chaos: twins aging up to screaming toddlers in dire need of fun and a diaper change, teenager who is lonely and wants a friend but can't make one because she has more fun hunting bugs and playing her new bass that her nan gave her. Dog who is a little neat freak but also not house trained yet meaning she is constantly dirty and very much suffers when she is, mum who desperately longs for skill points and fun but has to keep everyone fed and cared for. I admit I couldn't really cope, I just saved and left. But after a tea and cake break I actually managed to go in and get them back on their feet! Suzy had a dream date with Corin Ladulås and got a new job and the skill points for a promotion, so she's currently in platinum. The twins are changed and fed and starting to have fun with their toys - no skills yet, but at least they are not throwing tantrums. Evelyn has one more cooking point and was watching TV as I left them, so her fun meter is recovering.

I finished up the first round in which I've played each households for two days instead of three. It feels like this one flew by and still not like less was really happening than in the three day rotations; I'm definitely continuing with this.

Cappuchino Neighbour took his older brother Nextdoor along to an art gallery. A townie named Tora came up to Nextdoor and teased him, and I figured Cappuchino wouldn't let that stand so I had him go and yell at her. Next, he started autonomously talking to her before going back to look at the paintings, including one in the bathroom. Tora needed to use the loo and threw him out, then once she was done Cappuchino came back and told her a joke, upon which she attempted to hug him, which he refused. After that he threw her out because he needed the loo now, and once she was done he went to admire her, only she was too busy watching tv. Quite the bizarre relationship to forge in a matter of minutes. I checked the score and it was 2 for daily and -2 for long term. I guess that makes sense.

Savanna Larsen had a want to flirt with her roommate Jenny Larsen, which I had expected since they have strong chemistry but feels inappropriate as Jenny was recently married to Savanna's late sister Zelda. After fulfilling some other social wants with Jenny it rolled away. They went to the gym/pool the following day and Savanna hit it off with Chloe Curious while Jenny (somehow) got along with Crystal Vu. The next day, Savanna took Chloe on a date wearing a pajamas as one does.


Ville Stenbock, who is married to Savanna's brother Broadway, rolled a want to flirt with Batty Neighbour, owner of the Strangetown library. I had Ville befriend him a while ago so that he could gift the novels he and Broadway writes to Batty for him to put in the library, and since then they've managed to become bff's. Then the want rolled away and he just wanted to invite Batty over, so I did. The flirt-want came back when Batty arrived, but went away when I fulfilled other wishes related to Batty. Finally it came back a third time, and I thought that in that case, maybe I should. I didn't want to do anything too bad though, for Broadway's sake and since Ville is not that kind of person (and neither is Batty) - and Ville if anyone knows what it's like being cheated on. So I just had him catch Batty in the bathroom and flattered him. Of course, even though he in practice just talked to him in a flirty way the game still counts it as cheating, and I sort of regretted it right away. Ville rolled wants to kiss and make out with Batty, and I had him hurry to say goodbye.
After that he I left him and Brodway to their own devices and they kept on talking, kissing and generally being romantic. I take it as Ville wanting to make up for it, but I also want to think that he told Broadway about his and Batty's moment in the bathroom and that Broadway was fine with it (plus, the two of them had an open relationship that only became exclusive because they got married as elders). Anyway, nothing else will come of it since Ville died the next day.

Batty is himself engaged to a downtownie called Reine, and has had the want to get married locked for a while, but I decided to not get them married right now (if ever), and to unlock the want and let it roll away. Batty's permaplat anyway, so he's not really losing out. The main reason is that Reine and Batty's teenage son Froggy just aren't compatible as people. They don't dislike each other and their relation is ok, but most of their attempts to socialize fail and I don't wanna move anyone in that Froggy isn't friends or at least close to being friends with, which just won't happen without time and forcing on my part. Plus, Batty's and Froggy's household dynamics are so chill that I don't really care to disrupt them.


Link Larsen, Savanna's and Broadway's younger brother, went on a date with Tessa Ramirez. Their conversations don't tend to go well but they're very attracted to each other, so the date was a success.

Liana Caliente has been having romantic wants about Copernicus Smith, Batty's cousin and the father of Liana's children, but he's married to Jill Smith. So when Liana now seemed to be over him and rolled an innocent want of playing with him, I figured I shouldn't keep them from each other just because they've been involved with each other (and I've kept forgetting to remove their love flags) and invited him over. And the first thing that happens is Copernicus strokes her cheek. I had her tickle him, tell him a joke, say good-bye and then went to ask downtownie Dreven Dolk who she has three bolts with on a date at the Strangetown bar Wayfarer. It went well. As for Copernicus I'm glad he did something relatively harmless even if the game treats it as cheating all the same, with the possibility that he might not even have realized it was inappropriate.

I've been playing Pleasantview for the first time in ages, and Dina Caliente has been reflecting.

She had been following the principle that "all's fair in love and war". Yes, she was newly in an exclusive relationship with Mortimer Goth, but when he abandoned her after dinner to continue his current burst of enthusiasm for learning to play the piano (Apparently it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert at something. In Dina's opinion, when it comes to piano playing, Mortimer's going to need them all) and Don started flirting... well, was still in love with him, and it wasn't like anyone was there to see. But then a few days later she was at the local shops, and there were Don and Nina, on a date and all over each other. And he's a married man, and she'd just heard that Cassandra is pregnant - marriages can end, but a baby is a permanent tie - and he was publicly cheating. And she suddenly realised that she couldn't love a man who would do that.

Don's a bit disappointed, because he hadn't managed to sleep with Dina yet and now it looks like he never will. Dina is wondering whether the kindest thing to do is to tell Cassandra now, or keep quiet until she finds out for herself...

In Turpitudia, which I am still playing despite the proximate causes of my weird mood having been worked through - it takes time to recover! - Melody and Ivy moved into the house formerly occupied by Malcolm, which is now being rented from him thanks to a mod, and Melody dated former boyfriend Randy London until she got pregnant. Ivy embarked on a career writing science books for children and fed her the cheesecake she'd bought from the Jacquets. The resultant twins, Randolph and Scot, have duly been born, and they called Randy over to have a look at them. He seemed mostly bewildered. I want them to move back into the house I had the Tinkers in originally, but they've only got about half the money, despite Ivy plugging away at the writing and Melody making over $900 a day working in the family's store. However, a day with Melody, Harmony, and Rhapsody all working for there got them to a business level and a cash reward that I should be able to have the family donate enough money for the house and then everybody'll be where I want them. Harmony grew up with a Fortune aspiration and Threnody with a Popularity one, but I've given them both Romance secondaries so they can stand to live in the neighborhood at all. The second set of twins, that Wanda had with Chico, are children now, Wanda and Stephen's final child, Rhapsody, is a toddler, and Wanda's on track to grow up later today if I play. I can transfer the funds then.

Gilbert Jacquet kept buying toys and things, which I figured meant he wanted to have a kid so that the succession would be secure before Denise died. I gave him a Fortune secondary, so that's a plausible motive. He married Cecelia, who I believe was his employee at the old business back in Bluewater. She's Family and seems fairly mellow about her new Romance secondary. She had the (apparently inevitable) twins - I had no idea that twin perk was so powerful - and Dennis and Yves were the second and third boys born in the neighborhood, which should mean rich pickings for them in the future, though not quite as rich as the first boy, Wendell Tinker, whose teenhood will overlap both sets of Landgraab twins.

Jason Larson rolled a have-baby want. I have been expecting his sister-in-law Florence to roll a have baby want any time and have them all set up for him to help out with that, but she keeps not rolling them. Delores Landgraab had just had Chester's twins Charmaine and Chelsea (both blonde; I hadn't known Chester had a blond recessive, and thought since Delores is a redhead that the twins would be redheads too) and was too busy to date him, and he didn't know Cecelia Jacquet well enough to date her yet, but he and Kennedy had a telescope, so Jason stayed up late every night looking through it. No dice. So I had him call the adoption agency. He and Kennedy are now the parents of a redheaded little boy named Richard. It's a bit of a squeeze, but between Jason's romance novels and Kennedy's salon they should be able to add a third bedroom upstairs once he hits kid, and then they can have their den back.

Chester, who has been perfectly content living alone with his parrot Screamy, dating Lisa Ramirez, and occasionally cruising with his woohoobuddies Checo, Malcolm, and Jason, went out to use the telescope the day after Jason decided to adopt, and got abducted! He landed on his face in the street out front and immediately rolled the want to meet aliens again - I guess he had a lot of questions - but he was too exhausted and the want rolled away by the time he woke up again. He's probably not going to open his bookstore for a few days, but it looks as though his career as a sci-fi writer is about to enter a new phase. I'm not sure he should continue living alone. At least he shouldn't have twins...

The very next day, Malcolm autonomously went to use the telescope, and also got abducted! Just as well Jason didn't get Dolores pregnant, I guess. He's a lot less mellow about it than Chester. He'd stopped popping up on community lots to use the custom mattresses and shower for impersonal woohoo as much, and I'd though he was settling down, but during that first trimester he suddenly went on the prowl again. He's also worried about his fitness state. I smell a mid-life crisis coming online.

Lisa Ramirez grew up on a Sunday without any fanfare. She has also slowed her rate of casual woohoo and is concentrating more on skilling again. Checo and Chester really should be enough for anybody, at her age. Tessa wasn't due to grow up until Monday, but I figured the weekend must mean graduation, so once Lisa was all grown up and dressed (or rather, undressed; she's decided nudism is the thing for her in her old age) Tessa threw her party. The elder Tinkers, Melody and Ivy, and Tessa's dating pool of Meadow Thayer, Orlando Bertino, and Orlando Centowski all came and partied down. I told the game to grow up Meadow and the Orlandos, but Orlando Bertino was too busy chatting with Ivy, which was frustrating, because he was Tessa's only friend as a child and I Had a Plan. I have no idea what went wrong there. But Tessa invited Meadow to move in and bought a prime retail site across from an as-yet-undeveloped beach in the commercial district. She's opened a grocery store, with Castaway fruit-producing trees and a fishpond in a staff-only area out back, to sell fresh produce as well as produce from grocery bins (no freezers; Get Fresh is all locally-produced and picked/killed yesterday, if not this morning) as well as some fancy imported condiments and stuff from the deco section. Melody, it turns out, already has a bronze register badge and a gold (!) restocking badge. Once that was all set up with family money, I bought deco to match the amount Meadow brought with her, put furniture into Tessa's inventory, and moved them out into a two-bedroom house, where they had their first woohoo and put in a garden so they can have more at Get Fresh. They didn't get a welcome wagon for some reason, but Lisa and Chester wandered (or in Chester's case, waddled; he's popped by now) by and got invited in. Meadow wanted a pet so they now also have a white Persian named Princess.

But Orlando B's failure to grow up was bugging me, so once the guests left and they went to sleep, I saved, went to the neighborhood screen, turned on the testingcheats, got back in, bought a teleporter cat, summoned Orlando, moved him in, set him to birthday, and tried to grow him up. Alas, even though he'd moved in, I'd teleported him in so late that the game kept dropping the command to grow up and forcing him to leave! Frustrated, I quit to neighborhood without saving, got back in, waited until the sun came up, then repeated the procedure, and this time he moved in all right. He has no badges, but that's fixable, and until Meadow (and possibly Tessa) inevitably gets pregnant he can stand in the staff area of the store and fish to keep the DecraChill supplied. He's Romance, and living with two women he should have no difficulty keeping his aspiration up.

Wow, PeniGriffin, all those twins! Turpitudia doesn't sound like a holiday . Oh, and I think Chester Gieke is a dyed redhead - he's always had two blond alleles in my game anyway.

In the DeLaPole household things were so calm and quiet I can't really think of anything that happened. There was a lot of new friends made and lots of dream dates had. The three elders in the household get along splendidly, when Fergus is at work Imelda and Abigail smustle together and gossip - frequently about that time Fergus had an accident at his party. I thought Fergus and Imelda would spend lots of time on their own in their little bolthole on top of Boutique Fiorenza, but now when they go into town to take care of the store, Abigail ususally follows. She has a budding romance of her own, with Goopy Gils-Carbo.

Aiken Munch, formerly an Orchard Isle townie, bought Parrots Karaoke Buffet and became playable. He thinks Mortimer Goth is smoking hot and can't stand Nina Caliente. He's basically just had time to move in next to the Calientes and make his first appearance at the karaoke place.

Michael O'Rourke has been gardening away busily to make some money for child support. Yara has mostly been taking care of her own needs this round and not really done much apart from the last night, at three-ish in the morning, when she gave birth to her twins, Axel and Alva Fossum. Michael needed to give his oldest daughter some fresh produce and I thought she should meet her new brother and sister, so he invited her over. As luck (or bad luck) would have it, she walked through the door just in time to catch her father and Yara in action once again. At that point, I had other stuff to do, so I've saved at the most dramatic point.

I ended up restarting my megahood because I wanted to make some changes to my playstyle and some of my rules concerning teens, when they could go to college, and how college is played. Play has been slower but more satisfying this time, and I haven't had quite so much senseless death.

My teens are a bit more staggered going through college this time around, which I think works better. The oldest are from Strangetown. Johnny and Ophelia are together from the start in this playthrough, despite Ophelia switching to the Romance aspiration in college. Ophelia's romantic ambitions extend mainly to looking for adoration from other guys, which makes her a bit of a tease, but she and Johnny are very happy together. Just before they decided to get married, Olive "dropped by" to let Johnny know that Ophelia wouldn't be getting any of her money, and sure enough, she moved in with just 1,000 Simoleons. They didn't have a wedding since Johnny isn't really close to his family either and Ophelia is only friends with Nervous. They are rooming with best friend Ripp, and when I was playing them today, Johnny woke up to wander out on the front porch in his boxers and start making out with Ophelia first thing. I'm sure she will get pregnant soon despite rolling fears of it.

Ripp switched to Pleasure in college because, well, he's Ripp and it suits him so much. While he was there, he met Juliette Capp. Juliette broke up with Romeo in high school because he refused to go steady with her. In college, she was kicked out of the dorm at Sim State for fighting with Tybalt, then kicked out of the dorm at Academie le Tour for fighting with Mercutio. She was sent "abroad" for a year to settle down and also came back with the Pleasure aspiration. She and Ripp make a very chill couple. When she graduated, she lived at home for a very short time before Consort kicked her out for a whole host of reasons, including fighting with Tybalt and basically not being a good Capp who does whatever he says. Consort, by the way, became a Business Tycoon and reached permanent platinum, which makes him even more bossy and insufferable. So Juliette moved in with Ripp, Johnny, and Ophelia, and now she and Ripp are engaged. It's a crowded but fun house to play.

Angela was dating Tybalt early on in college, which made her parents very happy, but as soon as Dustin got there, she dropped Tybalt. She convinced her parents that Dustin has really changed, so they reluctantly threw the wedding party and let the couple move in to start their new pet training business together. But the tables have turned because the daughter who did marry into a wealthy family was Lilith. She married Mercutio Monty, and they are very cute together. Mercutio just adores her. Lilith is still estranged from her family, but Mercutio wants to be friends with them, so maybe he will be the one to mend the fences there. Mercutio is not going to be the heir--that will be Romeo, who switched to the Family aspiration in anticipation of taking over from Antonio--but he has a nice trust fund that enabled the couple to buy a house in Veronaville together.

Daniel and Mary-Sue have changed a lot over the years. Mary-Sue getting fired and catching Daniel cheating with Kaylynn was probably the best thing that could have happened, all things considered. Mary-Sue decided to focus more on her family than her career and also to pursue her dream of becoming a chef, and Daniel realized the affair was a mistake and switched to focusing on popularity. He has a job in law now and has mended things with Mary-Sue.

Not everyone is so happy, though. Cassandra realized too late that the man she really loved was Darren. By then, he had met Brandi, and even though he still had feelings for Cassandra, he had firmly moved on. Cassandra switched her aspiration to Knowledge and tried to bury herself in her work, but when Don stayed out all night with Dina, she snapped and let Don know that she had never really loved him. They broke up and Don moved out, I think to his relief.

Vacation locations aren't vacations if you live there, no...

The reason for all the twins is that birth control works perfectly. Men will father children on any woman they're close with who wants them to, but if the woman isn't actively wanting a baby, she's not Trying for Baby. Therefore, so far, the only non-Family sim who's gotten pregnant was Melody, and her wife Ivy bought cheesecake. Which looked like a strong hint to the player to me! And, unlike my regular play, I've been buying perks as fast as they're earned; first a Romance secondary for the neighborhood theme, then all the perks for the Primary aspiration - so, twins for the Family sims - then gradually the perks for the secondary, and eventually they'll also get the motive perks. Not the work ones, though, because nobody's getting a rabbithole job.

Making the place more vacation-like, I'm not making people freelance or open their businesses unless they have wants concerning them, or really need the money. Malcolm hardly ever rolls wants for his business - it's all Romance and hobby wants - and he and Delores have had enough money that I don't think he's gotten past level 2 yet; whereas the Ramirezes, for whom money was a little tight when they first moved in and who nowadays regularly roll wants for badges and so on, have taken Furnished Needs to level six!

I've never played the Ramierezes before outside of my Uberhood Challenge, which doesn't really count, and I like them quite a lot. They easily have the most functional household in the neighborhood, which is not what you expect when the wife goes on casual sex romps and the husband is more reserved. They have their work-life balance well in hand, have lots of friends (not all of whom are also woohoo buddies); have an excellent relationship with Tessa, who spent her teen years mostly in platinum; and are devoted to each other in their own free-wheeling way. Tessa basically emptied out her room and the rec room when she moved. I'm wondering whether I should move Chester in for the duration of his gestation and getting the child to school age. It might drastically change the household dynamic, even with anti-jealousy potions - which is as good a reason as any to do it, honestly.

ACR is making young adult Benedick Monty have an affair with Coral Oldie. It's weirding me out a bit--does Coral remind him of his late grandmother?--but since she's reaching the end of her days and could use a little joy in her life, I'm not going to stop them.

The Montys and the Pleasants are making a lot of connections. Mary-Sue's new career as a chef is apparently in one of the Monty family restaurants, so she wants to befriend Bianca. Daniel invited Mercutio and Lilith over for dinner, and Lilith and Angela lost their enemy status. They also get to be pregnant together. Lilith still won't let Daniel hug her, though. I guess it will take more than one dinner and schmoozing her husband for Lilith to forget everything that happened when she was a teen and was pretty much banished from the family home to live with her grandparents.

I've spent most of my gametime in my second neighbourhood, Unnamed Area, where I play a very relaxed game, mostly just letting things happen. Julien Cooke and the Picasos were sharing an ugly mushroom house, but Julien fell in love with a hobby instructor and the Picasos were expecting their second child, so the Picasos got their own house now. Their son, Jesper, aged to child the same day his little sister Mattea was born. Time passes quickly in unnamed area, so they are now teenager and schoolchild and just got into private school. Jessica and Matthew are halfway through their careers but don't seem to take the careers so seriously, they mostly make best friends with people and go on outings. Julien Cooke and his hobby instructor wife (I keep forgetting her name) are jointly ruling Unnamed Area's cooking contest scene and their twin daughters Suzette and Madeleine just aged to schoolchildren.

I've focused on Unnamed Area, but I did want to see what happened when Suzy caught her dad and Yara in bed for the second time. The answer is: not much. She whined a bit, like they do, but she didn't lose any relationship score with them. Instead, she fed and cuddled her newborn half-siblings while their parents were woohooing. Carmen Suzanne O'Rourke is my new favourite sim!

When Dirk Dreamer was growing up, he resented his father for trying to be an artist at the expense of a regular income. Dirk had to work to save for college and ended up going behind most of his peers. He also has a talent and passion for painting like his father, but his greatest fear is that he will end up struggling with finances like him, so after graduating, he had two goals: to get a good job and to marry rich. He moved into a condo and found a job in Politics that he doesn't much like but it does pay well and has good prospects. And he met Bianca Monty. Theirs is not a great love, but Dirk likes her well enough, and for her part, Bianca was beginning to feel somewhat desperate that she might always be single. So they are now engaged. Will Dirk go through with a rather passionless marriage to an older woman just for the wealth it will bring? Is he that shallow? We'll see.

Dirk's roommate right now is Edwin Sharpe. Way back when Nervous first left the Beakers' and moved in with his mother, he wanted to fall in love. Since he was unlikely to go out and hit the bars, I let him use the wishing well in Strangetown to wish for romance, and Edwin was who he got. But it became clear pretty quickly after Edwin and Nervous married that Edwin was very unhappy in Strangetown. Olive absolutely hated him and picked on him all the time. He couldn't find a job in his dream career, and he couldn't persuade Nervous to leave his familiar surroundings and go where the job prospects might be better. They couldn't adopt because of their living circumstances, and although Edwin tried, he was never able to get abducted because of near-constant ghost harassment during the night. It all got to be too much, and even though he loved Nervous, he left him. He moved to Pleasantview, found a room to rent with Dirk, and got a job in his dream career of Medicine almost immediately. Of course, he still misses Nervous and thinks about him a lot, but he believes he made the right decision.

Sadly for Nervous, Olive died soon after Edwin left. So now he is alone in the Specter house. He is still very close to Ophelia and wants to be friends with Johnny, so he is thinking of asking them to move back to Strangetown now that Ophelia is pregnant, and he can help with the baby. He has also befriended Kent Capp, who now lives in Strangetown. Kent was kicked out of the Capp home after a big fight with Consort and Cornwall. He crashed on the Summerdream couch for a while, which is where he got abducted by aliens. He had heard about aliens visiting Strangetown, so he decided to move there to have the baby--now a child named Soleil--and be closer to people who had shared his experience.

Speaking of aliens... Lazlo Curious, with one logic point, on his first time stargazing, gets abducted immediately, while his brother Vidcund, who has maxed out logic and faithfully stargazes every night, is completely ignored. It's really not fair.

Sorry @UnfocusedBunny for being so slow to reply. Thanks for your suggestion. I am coming round to the same opinion. Andrew and Julian are still very much in love with each other, but somehow they want to include Jack in their relationship. . . . in their marriage in fact. So I suppose my task is now to try to give them what they want, within the constraints of The Sims 2. And, if possible, to do it without upsetting the love lives of the three hundred plus other Sims currently living in and around Veronaville.

To tell the truth I've been avoiding Andrew and Julian in my game for the last few weeks. I've mostly been playing new Sims out of CAS, and trying to stop them visiting places (like clubs for gay teens) where Andrew, Julian and Jack were liable to turn up. Of course it's odd that I'd try to avoid someone that I say is my best friend, but it's the sort of thing that happens when your friend is in a difficult situation (in this case largely of their own making) and you really don't know what to say to them. After reading, and eventually agreeing with UnfocusedBunny's view of things, I knew I wanted to give Andrew and Julian what they wanted, but I wasn't at all certain how to do it. The most obvious thing seemed to be to try to get a no-jealousy-at-all mod, but that would affect every Sim in my game. So I was looking for something less drastic, with very little idea of what I was actually looking for.

Last night I decided to take the bull by the horns and see what I could do for them with the mods I already have in my game. First there's Pescado's Romance Mod, but I'd have to make them into Romance Sims, and adjust their personality points for that to help. Then there's Jenflower's Woohoo Teens which allows teens to share beds, and indeed woohoo with each other (which is only reasonable considering that Andrew and Julian are married!). It also lets teens in love with each other snuggle up together in bed, but it does nothing about jealousy. Quite a lot of my Sims have christianlov's Easy Bed, which has a No Jealousy option, but this only applies to interactions in the bed. Then there's the Sim Manipulator which has an option to turn jealousy on and off for individual Sims. This really should do the job, but I find my other mods sometimes interfere with it. Maybe it would work better if I moved it to my zzLoadLast folder. Finally there is Chris Hatch's Bouquet. The version I have also enables (or disables) vanilla Maxis Romantic interactions, depending on the settings chosen. It also interferes with Jenflower's Woohoo Teens mod; in my game teens are limited to vanilla teen romantic actions, unless I place a Bouquet on the lot, and select the "Teens act as Adults" option. But it does have a Jealousy option, and by default Jealousy is off. (It also has Autonomy settings [by default On], which I have to remember to turn off unless I actually want them to have an orgy!)

So, last night I decided to do something about it. I went to Jack's house (that he shares with Ravi) in Mendoza Lane. It was still exactly as I left it in my post of 30th July (includes picture) with Jack, Ravi, Julian and Tybalt (who was also visiting) all in the hot tub, and Andrew standing nearby, looking lustfully at Jack. Jack was giving Ravi a massage, while, quite unconcerned, Julian was chatting with Tybalt at the other side of the hot tub. It was early evening. (See picture attached to that post I just linked to above.) First I checked with the Sim Manipulator that Andrew and Julian both had jealousy turned off. For good measure, I turned Jack's jealousy off too (and indeed Ravi's as well). There was already a Chris Hatch bouquet on the lot. I checked that its settings were all correct: Jealousy off, Autonomy completely off, Acceptance Normal, Relationship Adjust on, Teens act as Adults, Pregnancy 0%. I then got Jack to get out of the hot tub. Of course, before he got anywhere near Andrew, Andrew's lustful wants had rolled away. But Andrew had made it quite clear what he wanted (they already had mutual Crush tags), so I got Jack to start flirting with him. I also made Andrew controllable, and got him to initiate some of the romantic interactions. I can't remember which way round it was, but as soon as one romantic interaction was accepted, they were instantly in love. (I don't, and won't, have No Instant Love because Romance Sims like Jack like instant love -- and, if I'm absolutely honest -- I think I rather like it too. Rather like Andrew and Julian, and quite a few other gay Sims in Veronaville, I fear I've fallen for Jack a bit too. Yes he's a rogue, but he's a very lovable rogue.)

Around this time Julian decided that he had to go home, but as it was still well before midnight, Jack 'phoned him up and invited him back. And, when he got back, Julian and Jack did much the same as Andrew and Jack had done, and they very quickly fell in love too. They all worked on their new relationships. Andrew got as far as smooching with Jack. Julian, being that little bit more liberated, went one further and made out with him. They both accepted Jack's invitation to sleepover. While all this was going on, Ravi worked on, and completed a more-than-life-size portrait of Jack, which he hung on the living room wall. (I wonder if Andrew and Julian would like a copy for their house.) If either Andrew or Julian had slept with Jack, then the other one would have had to share a bed with Ravi, as there are only two beds in the house. That's a can of worms that I really didn't want to open, so it was decided that Andrew and Julian would sleep together in the spare bedroom, while Jack and Ravi slept in the master bedroom, where they keep all their money trees.



So that's the first part done. The three lovebirds brought together without any tears. Now the next thing is to keep them together with as few sparks as possible. I'd rather not use a no-jealousy-at-all mod if there's an alternative. One that I think might help is cyjon's Less Jealousy which says, "[2] Threesomes - No jealousy if everyone involved is in love. Specifically, if sim A and B have a romantic interaction observed by Sim C, and Sim C is in love with both Sim A and Sim B then there will be no jealousy." That sounds ideal of Andrew, Julian and Jack. However, before that it says, "[1] Dates - Sims on dates will always become jealous regardless of relationship. If you go on a blind date, and the other person spends the evening flirting with the waiter, it's probably not going to go well." That I'm not so keen on. I love seeing Sims on dream dates, and I really don't want to see my Sims having a really bad date -- especially not Sims I love as much as Andrew, Julian and Jack. If the Dates thing does get priority over the Threesome feature, I wonder if I could learn enough about Simantics to to reverse that, or even take the Dates bit out altogether. After all I used to be able to earn a living as a programmer.

Another thing that has caught my eye @Peni Griffin , is you repeatedly mentioning these "anti-jealousy potions" when telling us about Turpitudia. I've never heard of them before, and I wonder if they might be just what need to keep Andrew and his friends happy, without upsetting all the other Veronavillians. If they're an AL witchcraft thing I probably can't use then, but, bearing in mind that my highest EP is OFB, could you tell me a bit more about them?

Sorry that this post is so long and rambling!

@AndrewGloria, I was thinking you needed those. They're here on MTS as part of an expanded range of "gypsy potions," but you can buy them out of the catalog. Here you go: https://modthesims.info/download.php?t=188471

I and a Widespot player have once or twice had a glitch where one of them randomly stopped working, but we've both used them extensively and only had the glitch a couple of times. It may be related to moving house or growing up. Or, it may not; I think we've only ever had it once each, which isn't a big enough sample to draw conclusions from. It should work fine for your boys. Good luck!

My glitch only happened a couple of days ago. Tessa Ramirez and Meadow Thayer had grown up and moved to their own place, where they invited Orlando Bertino to move in and grew him up, and Tessa and Orlando had fallen in love again. I'd thought Tessa'd given Orlando a potion when he was a teen, but he didn't show any when I checked, so I gave him one. But that was the very last thing on their first rotation, and they've had a business to get off the ground, and I haven't had a good chance to let Orlando and Tessa date and get to bed (he has a single in Meadow and Tessa's room and I let them sort themselves out at night).

Well, Orlando is Romance and during his townie teenhood he was constantly calling older women on the phone and making friends with them, most notably Dolores Landgraab and Denise Jacquet. Since the twins were born it's been a little hard to keep Denise's aspiration up, because there's just so much to do. I haven't been able to get them to the bakery much (and they have over $100K simoleons, so it's not like they need the money; I mostly open it for aspiration purposes and so other sims can have baked goods on hand) and for some reason the Jacquets crash worse than the other households, almost every time they leave the lot, which is a pain in the neck and discourages me from sending them out. But they ran out of groceries, so I sent Denise to the Kwiki Mart - a 1 x 3 lot that doesn't crash as much as larger ones do - to buy some and see if rerolling wants and random encounters would give her a shot at an aspiration booth. Orlando walked onto the lot, and that's when I found out they triple bolt. I asked myself, Would Denise be down with educating someone ridiculously younger than her? And in this neighborhood, yeah, she would and it wouldn't even be that problematic. So she asked him out, they fell in love, they slow danced, the lot turned white, and the game crashed. Also, she didn't have groceries. So next time I loaded the game, I had her ask him out, and they went to Surfside Spa, and were almost to the hot tub (with mutual engagement wants, which, no, Denise, if you want a sugar baby you're gonna have to convince me) when the game crashed again. So, screw it, I invited household on him, because Cecelia and Gilbert's aspirations were pretty low, too, I wasn't about to send anybody anywhere (even for groceries; they've got a garden, Gilbert can stock some eggplant) that night, and having Meadow and Tessa around would give the rest of the family people to interact with while Denise was giving woohoo lessons. But the moment she flirted with Orlando and got him in love with her, Tessa went ballistic, and when I checked her potion stats, she showed "no potions taken." Which hacked me off - what does this game have against this hookup? So I saved and Gilbert asked everybody to leave.

Tessa now has safely imbibed a new potion and set the effects to static so it should last indefinitely, she and Meadow have gotten engaged, and Orlando has fallen all over himself apologizing. Tessa's still furious, but they're friends again. Denise keeps kicking their trash can, but they've got a garden to stock Tessa's grocery store from, so, free fertilizer. I'm not sure whether it's the age difference or the sugar baby possibility that's got her so angry, and it may take me awhile to find out, as I think I'm almost ready to return to Widespot, but they're on track again. People do fight, after all.

Thanks Peni! I'll try that potion. I've downloaded the Anti-Jealousy one and the Main Controller, so my Sims might buy them from the Gypsy Matchmaker. I remember a few years ago Andrew wanting to buy a love potion from her. I've no idea why he wanted it, as Julian already loved him as much as is Sim-humanly possible. Maybe his scientific mind wanted to see what it was made of. Well, now I can let him call the matchmaker and we'll see what she's made of. It makes far more sense for him to buy an anti-jealousy potion from her than a love potion. And I can't see anything wrong with fulfilling a Sim's want some five years after he had it. (Sims' wants can tell you things about a Sim even if the want does "roll away".

As for glitches, and it stopping working, I've had similar glitches with the Romance Mod. Occasionally it goes wrong and a nice, outgoing, playful Romance Sim gets jealous when they see a boyfriend/girlfriend doing something exciting with somebody else. It's happened a few times in New Desconia which is effectively a no-jealousy 'hood. I've always been able to get them to kiss and make up and repair the relationship. Actually I rather like the glitch. It's kind of realistic. I had a real life friend who tried to have an "open relationship" and found it very hard. Jealousy is very unpleasant, but it's very much part of the human psyche. It gets to you whether you like it or not. It's very hard to love someone and not get jealous when you see them being romantic with somebody else. I'm kind of impressed with Andrew and Julian (and Jack) for doing something so brave. I know I couldn't do it.

[EDIT] I posted this, Peni, before I read your edit to the last post. Thanks for telling us more about it. I'm sorry you're having so many crashes. My game has been fairly stable since I reverted to a backup a few months ago. I suppose I'm lucky. As you know, our Veronaville is nearly ten years old now. ("our" means it belongs to my Sims as well as to me! )

There's been a wedding in Orchard Isle. Or rather, in Pleasantview, which acts as a shopping disttrict for Orchard Isle. And come to think of it, there's actually been two weddings. Aiken Munch was an island townie who became playable to run the karaoke club and his second day there he greeted another townie guy called Arild TreSellock, with whom he turned out to have three bolts. Arild was very forward for being a knowledge sim and Aiken responded in kind, so the day after there was an engament and the day after that, a wedding. Cassandra Goth is besties with Aiken, so she was there, and she seemed to enjoy it so much I got all soft and allowed her to have her own wedding with Don Lothario. I haven't played with any of the premades in Pleasantview yet, so the wedding could have gone either way, but Don went through with it this time. No lullabies, but they have adopted a cat called Laurentina. The Goths are not my focus, so I just left them after that and went back to Arild and Aiken. They're a lovely couple, always spontaneously giving eachother backrubs and congratulating eachother on things. Arild is an artist and has gone up to halfway through his career when I left them, and Aiken mostly runs Parrots Karaoke Buffet, which isn't too profitable yet but probably will be in the long run.

Both sets of Landgraab twins were set to grow up yesterday - Mallory and Melora to teen, Charmaine and Chelsea to child. I decided against throwing a party, even though the older girls are friends with both sets of Tinker twins, because no one rolled a want for one and Melora came home from school exhausted. (It's harder to keep a kid's energy cycles on track when you're reluctant to make community lot visits because of the damn crashing.) So I let her go to bed and Delores invited Chester's household over so he and the second set of twins, which he fathered, would have a shot at bonding. Chelsea toddled off to bed, too, so when six o'clock came Charmaine and Mallory grew up. Mallory, who spent all her child time painting, swimming, and building sand castles, got a Knowledge primary and took herself out to the telescope as soon as it got dark, and I left her to it while I made sure the guests and pregnant Malcolm got supper etc. I noticed that Melora was waking up so I positioned myself to witness and was all set when she got out of bed, started wobbling, and a cut scene took over as Mallory got abducted! Way to steal your twin's thunder, Mal!

Both of the older girls have the Eyebrows, but Melora's the one who works them. She's grouchy and serious and altogether a worthy successor to the Landgraab family legacy, which her father has rather neglected in hedonistic pursuits, so I made her Fortune. Perhaps she'll actually get Electronic Boogaloo properly off the ground. But all she did last night was go out on her own to the Kwiki Mart and buy child/teen clothes - and run into Chloe Gonzaga, who is always at the Kwiki Mart and who grew up alongside her. So I bought enough teen clothes for her, too, got her flirted (two bolts!), and Melora's sisters are just going to have to settle for what she thought proper to choose for them. Mallory came back all right, but wanting more logic points. They both have their Romance secondaries and been designated pansexual by the gender preference kite, but there's no hurry about getting them anti-jealousy potions.

So, the last couple of times I played Bianca Monty in the megahood, she glitched out when I tried to get her married. I thought this time that I would incorporate the bug into my story and have Dirk back out of the marriage at the last moment. But this time, it worked perfectly! Dirk got his want to marry a rich Sim, and Bianca got her want to get married. I think they are going to be a good couple even though there is an age difference. They have two bolts together, Dirk has been fairly focused on her (well, he did get the want to flirt with Lilith after attending her son's birthday, but that went away again), and they are trying for baby. They also bought a sweet little house in the country and Dirk is painting again. Maybe this will be one of those couples who surprise me.

Also, Nervous and Kent are fast. They went on one date, Nervous was Kent's first everything, and they are already engaged. I think this will be a better match than Nervous and Edwin. Kent will probably be able to tolerate the Specter house and the ghosts better, and Nervous will enjoy helping to raise Kent's alien daughter.

In other wedding news, Puck Summerdream had three bolts with Erin Beaker. There's also an age difference there, but Puck loves nothing more than to be around Erin. When she'd invite him over, he'd hang around the Beakers' for days until he was totally annoying Loki with his stinkiness and and eating all their food. Puck and Erin just got married and are still living at his parents' house, but they may have to find their own place now that Oberon has also been abducted by aliens and is expecting.

Lina Darong invited Simon Crumplebottom and his wife to her house. Upon greeting, Simon lectured her for such a messy yard (newspapers), proceeded to go inside and lecture her on the dirty dishes. Poor Lina was like a deer in headlights. But it didn't stop there. Oh, no. Simon Crumplebottom, feeling that Lina was not quite absorbing the wisdom he had to offer, thought he needed to tell someone else. And poor Sef - minding his own business in his bathroom, in his own home - was not even safe. Simon barged in like he owned the place, and lectured him, too, on the dirty dishes.
Indeed, I believe Simon has quite the personality for the cutthroat political career I have him going down, lol.

I've been stuck installing new CC needed for starting up in my Pleasantview paythough as I downloaded tond of new historical CC prefect for playing the founding of Pleasantview at the turn of the 17th century as an Early Amercan colonial settlement.

Brandi (Broke) Dreamer has had a job in Law Enforcement ever since Bobby was a child and never advanced past Security Guard level 1. Darren quit his hated job when he married Brandi and went back to painting full time, but he never made a very good living at it. Money has always been tight for them. Brandi just got fired, they don't have enough money to pay the bills, and although her boys have all gone to college, she and Darren have a young child together. Darren has also just become an elder. Dirk has married into the wealthy Monty family, and he and Bianca have a very nice three-story house in Veronaville. After a long talk with Brandi, Darren swallowed his pride, invited Dirk and Bianca to dinner, and proposed that he and Brandi sell the old Dreamer house and move in with them. Neither Brandi nor Bianca is particularly wild about this development, but there really is no alternative, and families have to stick together. At least Dirk will now get a chance to know his much younger half-brother, Dylan.

In the Goth household, Alexander brought home his new legal secretary, Jill Smith, for dinner, and they really hit it off. So much so that he asked her out on a date the next day, and she accepted. Well, Jill has been seeing Buck Grunt regularly since high school (except for her first year in college, when she went a little wild on her own and got put on academic probation), but she was impressed by Alexander's mansion and how well he was put together. At the restaurant, they ran into Buck, who was not happy to see Jill out with someone else. Jill looked at Buck in his shorts and tee shirt, and then at Alexander in his expensive suit, about to treat her to a lobster dinner, and it was really no contest for her. Cassandra, by the way, is still pining over Darren, so she has retreated into the world of books and seems determined to remain single.

I'm not sure what Buck will do now. He's living back at home for the time being, but he did get a good job in business, so he could move out on his own or find a roommate. The house is pretty crowded and tense. General Buzz is newly married to an alien, Stella Terrano--Buzz always seems to be very attracted to aliens--so Buck has a baby brother. Tank lives there too, and is desperately in love with his father's wife. He keeps his feelings under control by spending all his free time on his dad's punching bag or with his goofy dog, Midnight (which Tank acquired by accident when I had Dustin and Angela shopping at the pet store, but Midnight is really the best thing that has ever happened to him). I think Buck might want to get out of Strangetown and see what the wider world is like.

Winterfest was approaching in Orchard Isle, so Fergus and Imelda have been working their shows off at Boutique Fiorenza. By cynically using a visit from the man in red as a commercial boost they sold out the last of their stock and got the business up to level nine. Imelda gets bored quickly and has to be entertained a bit, and Abigail (who came along by glitch this time) is very taken up by her passionate affair with Goopy and is more than a little distracted, but Fergus is a sales machine. In the picture, Melissa Fancey (to the right) still thinks she can get out of buying a ridiculously expensive Art Deco lamp, but Fergus knows she can't - in fact, she walked with two more lamps and a mantelpiece clock for good measure.

After all the hard work, they relaxed with an early winterfest party during which Abigail and Goopy behaved scandalously in the hot tub while young Suzy was watching. Poor girl, she gets to see everything! Otherwise, the party went well, Yara chose to stay home with the twins but Michael partied and seemed very happy to spend time with his mother and his oldest daughter. Fergus and Mortimer Goth hung out at the bar on the outside deck and Mortimer stayed all night and had to be rescued next morning, blue all over like a smurf. The De La Poles exchanged gifts and toasted and are now looking forward to new years at Evelyn's.

Unnamed Area is growing. julien Cooke grew to an elder and decided to give up his celebrity chef job and start a small, simple restautant at home. He gets help from his teen daughter Madeleine, who is quick on her feet and has nine cooking points.