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- Evergreen - Formerly boring name, exciting place
#76
16th Aug 2023 at 12:15 AM
Last edited by gummilutt : 7th May 2024 at 11:25 AM.
Last week I sat down to filter my screenshots of our relevant families to make it easier for myself to continue posting episodes, and oh boy is there a lot to get through. I'm a little conflicted on how to move forward with the story, I imagine any readers may have noticed the number of screenshots only increase as the story goes forward. I am not a consumer of stories myself so I do not know what the norm is, or what a person reading may want. When I play for myself, I screenshot constantly, wanting to capture every play session in detail so I can go back and relive it both for enjoyment, and to help myself get immersed again the next time that family comes up in the rotation. For example, the Sawyer family album is over four thousand screenshots as this point Lots of those are only interesting/relevant to me, but it is difficult to decide where to draw the line between keeping it consumable and still have you, the reader, immersed in the story and understanding changes that happen. One of the comments I received back then was that my Sims felt more real to the person than they are used to, and that is exactly what I am going for. I want the Sims to feel real, I want the story to feel natural and believable. A picture speaks a thousand words, the old saying goes, and we all know I am extremely long winded, so in a way I think sticking to pictures to convey the tone ends up shorter than if I tried to use text instead The point being, I hope you are willing to bear with me as the story gets heavier in terms of number of pictures I have done my best to trim it down, but I don't want to lose the nuance, so picture heavy it will be
Chapter 15 - The Sawyer family
While I imagine some are wondering how Siri and Isamu are getting on, we spent a long time away from the Sawyer family and there is much to catch up on. So today, we are once again going to stop by the trailers and check in with Sally Mae, Billy Bob and the kids.
See bonus content
Continue to chapter 16
Creations can be found on my on tumblr.
Chapter 15 - The Sawyer family
While I imagine some are wondering how Siri and Isamu are getting on, we spent a long time away from the Sawyer family and there is much to catch up on. So today, we are once again going to stop by the trailers and check in with Sally Mae, Billy Bob and the kids.
When we left the Sawyers, I spoke of the growing tension between Billy Bob and Sally Mae. But that is not the only tension in the household. As the family grows, and the kid get older, the lack of space is beginning to show. Peggy Sue and Lulu Belle are big girls now, and although the magic of Sims helps them sleep despite crying siblings, it does get a little tiresome to wake up every morning to two screaming toddlers, usually with a diaper adding its stink to further lower the mood.
And judging by Sally Mae's enormous belly, there's another set of twins that will be coming out any second now. How will they manage to cram two more kids in to this one small trailer?
It is no wonder Peggy Sue frequently needs a hug from the teddybear, to get through the awkwardness of her parents and living in such a tiny space with her many siblings.
I think Sally Mae is well aware that the kids are a bit cramped, and she does what she can to help, like take Anna Nicole outside to practice walking.
Billy Bob keeps up his ways, jealously guarding his territory. He chases away any men that pass by their trailers on the outskirts of town.
He remains distant with his family, reading the paper or watching his TV as Sally Mae constantly works around him, cleaning and taking care of the kids.
The trailers may be small but it still generates a lot of work to maintain. It's a non stop job keeping it all clean, cooking and taking care of the kids. All combined with pregnancy it ensures Sally Mae is bone weary most days. Here she is sneaking in a nap when she had a moment to sit down.
As much as he detests it, Billy Bob has to help out more with the kids as Sally Mae simply can't keep up any more. Once again he realizes there are benefits to the windows Sally Mae had insisted on having between their bedroom and the kids trailer. It ensures that whenever he offers to put the kids to bed, the last thing Sally Mae sees as she falls asleep is his figure on the other side keeping an eye on the kids. Very convenient for him.
Billy Bob even made breakfast one day when he had the day off from work. Only cereal, but who would have thought to find him cooking.
Sally Mae looks at him quite fondly as she sits down to eat it. He takes his bowl over to the other trailer to keep an eye on the little ones so she can eat in peace.
Though I don't think she quite trusts him to do the job well, because as soon as she finished eating she headed over to check on the kids. She picked a real adorable moment to walk in.
Anna Nicole had already eaten so Sally Mae entertained her with some peek-a-boo while Junior has his breakfast.
It doesn't seem Billy Bob's punishment of forcing them to run the obstacle course deterred Peggy Sue and Lulu Belle for very long, because the two of them snuck into their parents bedroom to jump on the bed. Quite daring of them, with Billy Bob home from work.
Lucky for them, he did not notice because he was busy outside helping Sally Mae in the garden. He has been in a slightly better mood lately, keeping her down with the constant request for woohoo makes him feel more in control and that makes it easier to stomach doing things like helping to garden.
All that bending over to tend weeds in the garden kicked things into motion, because not long after she started Sally Mae is in labour!
She always looks so very loving and tender as she gazes down on her new child! You'd think after 4 the feeling might lessen but it seems not, every one is as miraculous as the one before.
Even Billy Bob is looking at the newcomer with tender eyes as Sally Mae hands over baby 1 to him so she can get busy birthing baby 2.
Billy Bob even finds it within himself to cheer for the babies. One wonders if the dewy eyes and the cheering may have something to do with the fact that Sally Mae finally gave him another son, and this time, a son with Billy Bob's coloring. Unlike Billy Bob Junior who looks so much like his mother with his bright red hair.
Peggy Sue comes and says hi to her new baby sister. Lulu Belle looks a little less excited, and Sally Mae seems to notice. I'm guessing Lulu Belle is thinking of her parents trying to cram another two cribs into the cramped bedroom she already shares with three other siblings.
Billy Bob however is in a great mood, having finally gotten a worthy son, whom he named Joe Bob. He even sat down with the girls to eat, treating them to a lecture on life in which he tells them not to waste their time with home work and school. Girls don't need to know anything but how to cook and clean!
Outside Sally Mae has changed clothes now she's back to normal size, and is nursing her new daughter, which she named Tamie Lee. Billy Bob is still as thrilled as ever with his new baby boy.
Kids, kids, kids everywhere!
Excited to spend time with his newest Son Billy Bob brought Joe Bob with him to his trailer, to the camouflage play mat they have there. Sally Mae stops by to check everything is going okay.
Billy Bob even seems a little kinder towards Junior now, helping feed him for the night and put him to bed. It's probably easier for him to stomach the failure that is Junior, now that he has Joe Bob to put his hopes towards.
Billy Bob already ate with the girls, but when Sally Mae goes to grab a quick plate of dinner he comes with her and keeps her company as he eats, talking about old times when they'd go out on dates.
Sally Mae seems to wonder what has gotten into him, she looks quite confused as she asked why he's talking about that now.
Billy Bob only smiles, strokes her cheek and tells her to follow him.
Hang on, where did that trailer come from? There did not use to be a trailer on the other side of the yard
Billy Bob leads Sally Mae inside, to show her the surprise. A brand new trailer he has purchased and furnished, to give the older kids their own space away from the little ones where they can sleep in peace. Finally there is enough room for them to have a table and sofa and some toys of their own.
Sally Mae is overjoyed, hugging and kissing him as a thank you
Peggy Sue seems as excited as her mum, talking animatedly with her about the new trailer.
"Mom!! I won't smell dirty diapers when I wake up, I'm so happy!"
After Peggy Sue and Lulu head to bed on their brand new bedroom, Billy Bob and Sally Mae sit on the sofa outside to chat a bit. Billy Bob telling her all about how he knew they'd need more space now that they have even more kids.
Now at this point you might be wondering, what is going on? Is Billy Bob somehow turning into less of a crappy dude? He's been helping out more with the kids, letting Sally Mae rest, he cooked (!!) and now he's even showing he noticed the increasing crowdedness of the kid's trailer and the fact that his oldest daughters are getting tired of sharing space with their younger siblings. The simple answer is no, Billy Bob is not turning into a nicer more caring father and husband. But he's not stupid, he knows that Sally Mae cares deeply about her children, she will go to lengths to protect them that she does not go to for herself. She might put up with the broken furniture and the depressing environment for herself, but for her kids, she will start to ask questions, and make demands, just as she did when she learned he had gotten a bonus at work. She is no longer the young naive teenager he once courted, viewing Billy Bob as the cool older man with all the answers. She's a grown mom of six, and even if she's isolated from society and from other people, she is stronger in herself now than she was back then, because she has to be for the sake of her kids. As much as he tries to keep her down by making her bend to his whims regularly (read ever increasing amounts of woohoo) and by keeping her busy with housework, her strength grows. So he has to be careful, and keep up appearances of being a devoted father and husband. It's eating him up inside though, all this doing what his wife wants and spending his hard earned money on the kids instead of himself. So what's a guy to do, when he has a bone to pick with his wife that he does not dare pick with her?
He goes to a place where there are women he can speak his true thoughts to, of course. Welcome to Hot House, the seedy downtown location for all Sims wishing to get up to things you don't necessarily want known outside.
If you have enough money, all manner of things can be arranged.
Here Billy Bob can be himself, fully. I suspect he wishes he could act the same with Sally Mae when she does something he does not want, it'd feel so good to shove a hand in her face to say "stop". Not that he's actually going to say no to Jaqueline, he's just making sure she knows anything that happens will be on his initiative.
Billy Bob spent most of the night at Hot House, getting out his frustrations and quenching his thirst with a number of women willing to participate for a price. The small hours of the morning find him laying on a hammock, half asleep but feeling real pleased with himself.
I don't like the look in his eyes as he moves in to spoon Sally Mae in their bed back home.
He looks happy as he drifts off to sleep, not realizing that next to him Sally Mae is quite awake and probably wonders where he's been all night.
The next day Billy Bob kept mostly to himself, reading the paper as the news talking heads chatter away on the TV.
That night, as Billy and the girls were helping themselves to some leftovers and Sally Mae was over with the younger kids, an unexpected guest came knocking on the door. It would seem that a now divorced Stoffe would like to see how his old friend is doing, he hasn't seen or heard from her since the grocery store months earlier.
Billy Bob rushes outside to get rid of him, telling him to get lost immediately.
"You're not welcome. She doesn't want to see you. Go away, bugger off!"
Stoffe looks rather grim as he walks away. He really wanted to see Sally Mae, he could have used a friend right about now and he doesn't really have many of those. His social circle consists most of networking contacts and shallow acquaintances. True friends are hard to come by in the upper circles of society, and the cut-throat corporate world. But as much as he'd like to see her, he also doesn't want to cause trouble for her, and he can tell Billy Bob is spoiling for a fight.
All of this was fully visible from the window in the young kids trailer, but Sally Mae of course is not looking out the window. She's busy taking care of the toddlers. It's quite sad, as she would have loved to see Stoffe, she misses her old orphanage family and Stoffe was always the one she was closest with. He's been on her mind on and off ever since their chance encounter at the grocery store.
Billy Bob definitely does not want Stoffe anywhere near there, he never likes any men anywhere near his family but especially not one that actually knows Sally Mae and may open her eyes to the situation. As all abusers do, he wants her isolated from anyone whose word she might actually listen to. He is very worried that she might catch a glimpse of him down the road as Stoffe walks back towards Evergreen, so after chasing him away, Billy Bob goes over there to make sure Sally Mae does not get a chance to see anything he doesn't want her to see.
It's very convenient for him that he can earn some husband points by helping with the toddlers, while he's actually being an asshole. He's quite excited by it, the deception is spicy to him. And what better way to ensure she does not look out the window than to keep her attention on him by romancing her?
He keeps it up the rest of the evening, flirting, complimenting and professing his love for her. I think by the end of the night Sally Mae was rather tired of it all, standing there in her night gown just wanting to go to bed. She looks about to fall asleep standing, as Billy Bob continues to shower her in adoration.
But as ever she musters a smile for her husbands attentions. After all, he's only expressing his love for her, so even if she's maybe tired and not in the mood, surely it's a good thing that he's wooing her? Not something that should make her uncomfortable and tired... even if that is how she truly feels.
But Billy Bob gets his way in the end, he always does. Which is how next morning, Sally Mae finds herself once again rushing to the toilet. Uh oh...
She knows the signs. As she draws a rare bubble bath for herself, she does not look as pleased at the prospect as she might once have done. I think she would have preferred to remain pregnancy-free a while longer. She only just gave birth to twins and currently has two toddlers, and two babies to take care of. It's a lot.
I feel you Sally Mae, I'd be tired and achey too, lugging around kids all day long and once again doing it all with the added internal strain of growing more humans.
It is drawing towards autumn out by the trailers, the color of the light is changing and Sally Mae's vegetable garden is almost done for the season. The girls are quite enjoying it though, hopping around in rain puddles.
Sally Mae decides to be proactive about the situation, and prepare in advance for what is to come. She spent a whole day cooking meals to put away as leftovers for when her pregnancy progresses and it becomes even harder for her to keep up. Which was definitely wise, every other screenshot I have from this period shows her either throwing up or dry heaving where she stands, rubbing her neck or holding her stomach.
And now that the older kids have a fridge and a table over in their trailer, the pre-prepared food means they can eat whenever they want to without Sally Mae or Billy Bob needing to get involved. Probably not quite how Sally Mae would want it, but one Sim can only do so much!
Even the babies have to settle for pre-prepared food, there is no more nursing as Sally Mae simply does not have the time or the strength. She's not happy about it, she wants to nourish her kids herself but she feels about ready to split in two from how exhausted she is.
Luckily for Sally Mae, it was soon time for the toddlers to grow up to children which will make things a little easier for her.
She looks so pleased as she's helping Anna Nicole with the birthday candles. Those two always had a bit of a special bond.
Anna Nicole grew up into such a little cutie!
Then it was Juniors turn by the cake.
Not quite as cute as his sister, I'm not sure his genes did him any favors, but he looks pleased with himself and his new form
As they ate their slices of cake, Junior seems a little afraid or distasteful towards his dad. As I've said before, kids are intuitive, Junior realizes his dad does not much care for him.
It's even more so the case now that Billy Bob has his golden boy, Joe Bob.
And that is where I will leave off for today. Bit of a boring stopping point but that's all I had energy for, and perhaps not leaving off on a cliff hanger is a nice change of pace Anna Nicole and Junior have grown up, the third pair of twins has been born giving Joe Bob and Tamie Lee as additions to the family, and Sally Mae is pregnant a fourth time. Billy Bob has picked up a new hobby behind Sally Maes back, as a means to get back at her for making it necessary for him to play nice towards her and for his own enjoyment.
Next time, we will finally be checking in with Siri over in her cottage in the woods
And judging by Sally Mae's enormous belly, there's another set of twins that will be coming out any second now. How will they manage to cram two more kids in to this one small trailer?
It is no wonder Peggy Sue frequently needs a hug from the teddybear, to get through the awkwardness of her parents and living in such a tiny space with her many siblings.
I think Sally Mae is well aware that the kids are a bit cramped, and she does what she can to help, like take Anna Nicole outside to practice walking.
Billy Bob keeps up his ways, jealously guarding his territory. He chases away any men that pass by their trailers on the outskirts of town.
He remains distant with his family, reading the paper or watching his TV as Sally Mae constantly works around him, cleaning and taking care of the kids.
The trailers may be small but it still generates a lot of work to maintain. It's a non stop job keeping it all clean, cooking and taking care of the kids. All combined with pregnancy it ensures Sally Mae is bone weary most days. Here she is sneaking in a nap when she had a moment to sit down.
As much as he detests it, Billy Bob has to help out more with the kids as Sally Mae simply can't keep up any more. Once again he realizes there are benefits to the windows Sally Mae had insisted on having between their bedroom and the kids trailer. It ensures that whenever he offers to put the kids to bed, the last thing Sally Mae sees as she falls asleep is his figure on the other side keeping an eye on the kids. Very convenient for him.
Billy Bob even made breakfast one day when he had the day off from work. Only cereal, but who would have thought to find him cooking.
Sally Mae looks at him quite fondly as she sits down to eat it. He takes his bowl over to the other trailer to keep an eye on the little ones so she can eat in peace.
Though I don't think she quite trusts him to do the job well, because as soon as she finished eating she headed over to check on the kids. She picked a real adorable moment to walk in.
Anna Nicole had already eaten so Sally Mae entertained her with some peek-a-boo while Junior has his breakfast.
It doesn't seem Billy Bob's punishment of forcing them to run the obstacle course deterred Peggy Sue and Lulu Belle for very long, because the two of them snuck into their parents bedroom to jump on the bed. Quite daring of them, with Billy Bob home from work.
Lucky for them, he did not notice because he was busy outside helping Sally Mae in the garden. He has been in a slightly better mood lately, keeping her down with the constant request for woohoo makes him feel more in control and that makes it easier to stomach doing things like helping to garden.
All that bending over to tend weeds in the garden kicked things into motion, because not long after she started Sally Mae is in labour!
She always looks so very loving and tender as she gazes down on her new child! You'd think after 4 the feeling might lessen but it seems not, every one is as miraculous as the one before.
Even Billy Bob is looking at the newcomer with tender eyes as Sally Mae hands over baby 1 to him so she can get busy birthing baby 2.
Billy Bob even finds it within himself to cheer for the babies. One wonders if the dewy eyes and the cheering may have something to do with the fact that Sally Mae finally gave him another son, and this time, a son with Billy Bob's coloring. Unlike Billy Bob Junior who looks so much like his mother with his bright red hair.
Peggy Sue comes and says hi to her new baby sister. Lulu Belle looks a little less excited, and Sally Mae seems to notice. I'm guessing Lulu Belle is thinking of her parents trying to cram another two cribs into the cramped bedroom she already shares with three other siblings.
Billy Bob however is in a great mood, having finally gotten a worthy son, whom he named Joe Bob. He even sat down with the girls to eat, treating them to a lecture on life in which he tells them not to waste their time with home work and school. Girls don't need to know anything but how to cook and clean!
Outside Sally Mae has changed clothes now she's back to normal size, and is nursing her new daughter, which she named Tamie Lee. Billy Bob is still as thrilled as ever with his new baby boy.
Kids, kids, kids everywhere!
Excited to spend time with his newest Son Billy Bob brought Joe Bob with him to his trailer, to the camouflage play mat they have there. Sally Mae stops by to check everything is going okay.
Billy Bob even seems a little kinder towards Junior now, helping feed him for the night and put him to bed. It's probably easier for him to stomach the failure that is Junior, now that he has Joe Bob to put his hopes towards.
Billy Bob already ate with the girls, but when Sally Mae goes to grab a quick plate of dinner he comes with her and keeps her company as he eats, talking about old times when they'd go out on dates.
Sally Mae seems to wonder what has gotten into him, she looks quite confused as she asked why he's talking about that now.
Billy Bob only smiles, strokes her cheek and tells her to follow him.
Hang on, where did that trailer come from? There did not use to be a trailer on the other side of the yard
Billy Bob leads Sally Mae inside, to show her the surprise. A brand new trailer he has purchased and furnished, to give the older kids their own space away from the little ones where they can sleep in peace. Finally there is enough room for them to have a table and sofa and some toys of their own.
Sally Mae is overjoyed, hugging and kissing him as a thank you
Peggy Sue seems as excited as her mum, talking animatedly with her about the new trailer.
"Mom!! I won't smell dirty diapers when I wake up, I'm so happy!"
After Peggy Sue and Lulu head to bed on their brand new bedroom, Billy Bob and Sally Mae sit on the sofa outside to chat a bit. Billy Bob telling her all about how he knew they'd need more space now that they have even more kids.
Now at this point you might be wondering, what is going on? Is Billy Bob somehow turning into less of a crappy dude? He's been helping out more with the kids, letting Sally Mae rest, he cooked (!!) and now he's even showing he noticed the increasing crowdedness of the kid's trailer and the fact that his oldest daughters are getting tired of sharing space with their younger siblings. The simple answer is no, Billy Bob is not turning into a nicer more caring father and husband. But he's not stupid, he knows that Sally Mae cares deeply about her children, she will go to lengths to protect them that she does not go to for herself. She might put up with the broken furniture and the depressing environment for herself, but for her kids, she will start to ask questions, and make demands, just as she did when she learned he had gotten a bonus at work. She is no longer the young naive teenager he once courted, viewing Billy Bob as the cool older man with all the answers. She's a grown mom of six, and even if she's isolated from society and from other people, she is stronger in herself now than she was back then, because she has to be for the sake of her kids. As much as he tries to keep her down by making her bend to his whims regularly (read ever increasing amounts of woohoo) and by keeping her busy with housework, her strength grows. So he has to be careful, and keep up appearances of being a devoted father and husband. It's eating him up inside though, all this doing what his wife wants and spending his hard earned money on the kids instead of himself. So what's a guy to do, when he has a bone to pick with his wife that he does not dare pick with her?
He goes to a place where there are women he can speak his true thoughts to, of course. Welcome to Hot House, the seedy downtown location for all Sims wishing to get up to things you don't necessarily want known outside.
If you have enough money, all manner of things can be arranged.
Here Billy Bob can be himself, fully. I suspect he wishes he could act the same with Sally Mae when she does something he does not want, it'd feel so good to shove a hand in her face to say "stop". Not that he's actually going to say no to Jaqueline, he's just making sure she knows anything that happens will be on his initiative.
Billy Bob spent most of the night at Hot House, getting out his frustrations and quenching his thirst with a number of women willing to participate for a price. The small hours of the morning find him laying on a hammock, half asleep but feeling real pleased with himself.
I don't like the look in his eyes as he moves in to spoon Sally Mae in their bed back home.
He looks happy as he drifts off to sleep, not realizing that next to him Sally Mae is quite awake and probably wonders where he's been all night.
The next day Billy Bob kept mostly to himself, reading the paper as the news talking heads chatter away on the TV.
That night, as Billy and the girls were helping themselves to some leftovers and Sally Mae was over with the younger kids, an unexpected guest came knocking on the door. It would seem that a now divorced Stoffe would like to see how his old friend is doing, he hasn't seen or heard from her since the grocery store months earlier.
Billy Bob rushes outside to get rid of him, telling him to get lost immediately.
"You're not welcome. She doesn't want to see you. Go away, bugger off!"
Stoffe looks rather grim as he walks away. He really wanted to see Sally Mae, he could have used a friend right about now and he doesn't really have many of those. His social circle consists most of networking contacts and shallow acquaintances. True friends are hard to come by in the upper circles of society, and the cut-throat corporate world. But as much as he'd like to see her, he also doesn't want to cause trouble for her, and he can tell Billy Bob is spoiling for a fight.
All of this was fully visible from the window in the young kids trailer, but Sally Mae of course is not looking out the window. She's busy taking care of the toddlers. It's quite sad, as she would have loved to see Stoffe, she misses her old orphanage family and Stoffe was always the one she was closest with. He's been on her mind on and off ever since their chance encounter at the grocery store.
Billy Bob definitely does not want Stoffe anywhere near there, he never likes any men anywhere near his family but especially not one that actually knows Sally Mae and may open her eyes to the situation. As all abusers do, he wants her isolated from anyone whose word she might actually listen to. He is very worried that she might catch a glimpse of him down the road as Stoffe walks back towards Evergreen, so after chasing him away, Billy Bob goes over there to make sure Sally Mae does not get a chance to see anything he doesn't want her to see.
It's very convenient for him that he can earn some husband points by helping with the toddlers, while he's actually being an asshole. He's quite excited by it, the deception is spicy to him. And what better way to ensure she does not look out the window than to keep her attention on him by romancing her?
He keeps it up the rest of the evening, flirting, complimenting and professing his love for her. I think by the end of the night Sally Mae was rather tired of it all, standing there in her night gown just wanting to go to bed. She looks about to fall asleep standing, as Billy Bob continues to shower her in adoration.
But as ever she musters a smile for her husbands attentions. After all, he's only expressing his love for her, so even if she's maybe tired and not in the mood, surely it's a good thing that he's wooing her? Not something that should make her uncomfortable and tired... even if that is how she truly feels.
But Billy Bob gets his way in the end, he always does. Which is how next morning, Sally Mae finds herself once again rushing to the toilet. Uh oh...
She knows the signs. As she draws a rare bubble bath for herself, she does not look as pleased at the prospect as she might once have done. I think she would have preferred to remain pregnancy-free a while longer. She only just gave birth to twins and currently has two toddlers, and two babies to take care of. It's a lot.
I feel you Sally Mae, I'd be tired and achey too, lugging around kids all day long and once again doing it all with the added internal strain of growing more humans.
It is drawing towards autumn out by the trailers, the color of the light is changing and Sally Mae's vegetable garden is almost done for the season. The girls are quite enjoying it though, hopping around in rain puddles.
Sally Mae decides to be proactive about the situation, and prepare in advance for what is to come. She spent a whole day cooking meals to put away as leftovers for when her pregnancy progresses and it becomes even harder for her to keep up. Which was definitely wise, every other screenshot I have from this period shows her either throwing up or dry heaving where she stands, rubbing her neck or holding her stomach.
And now that the older kids have a fridge and a table over in their trailer, the pre-prepared food means they can eat whenever they want to without Sally Mae or Billy Bob needing to get involved. Probably not quite how Sally Mae would want it, but one Sim can only do so much!
Even the babies have to settle for pre-prepared food, there is no more nursing as Sally Mae simply does not have the time or the strength. She's not happy about it, she wants to nourish her kids herself but she feels about ready to split in two from how exhausted she is.
Luckily for Sally Mae, it was soon time for the toddlers to grow up to children which will make things a little easier for her.
She looks so pleased as she's helping Anna Nicole with the birthday candles. Those two always had a bit of a special bond.
Anna Nicole grew up into such a little cutie!
Then it was Juniors turn by the cake.
Not quite as cute as his sister, I'm not sure his genes did him any favors, but he looks pleased with himself and his new form
As they ate their slices of cake, Junior seems a little afraid or distasteful towards his dad. As I've said before, kids are intuitive, Junior realizes his dad does not much care for him.
It's even more so the case now that Billy Bob has his golden boy, Joe Bob.
And that is where I will leave off for today. Bit of a boring stopping point but that's all I had energy for, and perhaps not leaving off on a cliff hanger is a nice change of pace Anna Nicole and Junior have grown up, the third pair of twins has been born giving Joe Bob and Tamie Lee as additions to the family, and Sally Mae is pregnant a fourth time. Billy Bob has picked up a new hobby behind Sally Maes back, as a means to get back at her for making it necessary for him to play nice towards her and for his own enjoyment.
Next time, we will finally be checking in with Siri over in her cottage in the woods
See bonus content
Continue to chapter 16
Creations can be found on my on tumblr.
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#77
3rd Sep 2023 at 11:25 PM
Last edited by gummilutt : 5th May 2024 at 7:07 AM.
I had a health crash in August so I haven't had enough creative juice to update here, I'd like to but I need more energy for this type of Sims doing. Temporary break I'm starting to get better so I am hoping I can post the next chapter soon. In the meantime, I thought I'd drop a picture from a play session about a month ago. It pertains to our stories, but the details will come many chapters forward. Still, it's a sweet image and it does not spoil anything so I thought it might be fun to share
Sigrid playing on a roundabout with two of the current residents of the orphanage
Story continues in chapter 16
Creations can be found on my on tumblr.
Sigrid playing on a roundabout with two of the current residents of the orphanage
Story continues in chapter 16
Creations can be found on my on tumblr.
#78
19th Sep 2023 at 9:40 PM
Posts: 443
Thanks: 92 in 1 Posts
Finally catch up this one
~~~~Call me Ellu ~~~
My love, my love, my fearless love, I will not say goodbye..
Sea may rise, sky may fall, My love will never die..
My heart, my heart, My drowning heart, Oh all the tears I've cried
Oh I may weep forevermore, My love will never die..
Sea may rise, sky may fall, My love will never die..
My heart, my heart, My drowning heart, Oh all the tears I've cried
Oh I may weep forevermore, My love will never die..
#79
19th Sep 2023 at 9:47 PM
Last edited by gummilutt : 7th May 2024 at 11:52 AM.
I haven't been feeling well unfortunately, body getting up to no good again But today I finally feel fit to post another update, and it really is long over-due. We haven't seen Siri and Isamu since 2019
Chapter 16 - Siri & Isamu Kim-Sjöström & the Sjöströms
When we left them, Siri had recently had a visit from her mother. Tom would never have agreed, due to the risk of bringing attention to the cottage and Siri being discovered, but as you may recall from this episode, it turns out that sending Siri away broke Tom's mind. These days he doesn't seem to know where he is, he constantly escapes Sigrids watchful eyes turning up in kids stores or the homes of families with children. He never used to show up as a walk by, or in the background on community lots, but now he somehow manages to defy the coding, inviting himself into houses of people who does not know, to sit in their nursery.
No idea when the next post might come given health stuff getting worse again, but I will try my best
Go to chapter 17
Creations can be found on my on tumblr.
Chapter 16 - Siri & Isamu Kim-Sjöström & the Sjöströms
When we left them, Siri had recently had a visit from her mother. Tom would never have agreed, due to the risk of bringing attention to the cottage and Siri being discovered, but as you may recall from this episode, it turns out that sending Siri away broke Tom's mind. These days he doesn't seem to know where he is, he constantly escapes Sigrids watchful eyes turning up in kids stores or the homes of families with children. He never used to show up as a walk by, or in the background on community lots, but now he somehow manages to defy the coding, inviting himself into houses of people who does not know, to sit in their nursery.
One of their neighbours in the elderly home has a bunch of dogs, and one of the dogs asked Tom to play fetch with him. Which Tom agreed to, but the facial expressions he made as he was tossing the branch were quite interesting. Ever since Siri went to the cottage, he has not been acting himself. He has fully lost his marbles.
Because of his deterioration and descent into confusion, Sigrid has taken over as the decision maker of the family, choosing to sell the house and move to an elderly home so there are more people to keep an eye on Tom. Not that it really helped, he still shows up in other homes constantly. He's so lost in his own bubble of confusion, drawn to pregnant women or children without understanding why. Here he is walking into the bedroom of Pernilla Löfgren, the roomie of Elna Sernman and Max Flex, who got whoopsie pregnant by Max. Tom barged right in one morning with Pernilla still in her underwear, he has no boundaries or notions of social etiquette these days.
He'll walk up to the pregnant person or child, and then just stand there staring at them with a smile on his face.
At this point the whole hood is familiar with the story of the poor old couple who lost their adopted daughter in a fire. They all know of Tom, the father who lost his mind to the grief, and now wonders the town in search of his dead daughter. Everyone feels quite sorry for them, and while it's a nuisance to have Tom showing up in their homes, they all treat him kindly when it happens. Elna caught a glimpse of him walk into Pernillas bedroom, and called out his name to get him out of Pernilla's hair so she could at least get dressed in peace.
He wouldn't go on his own, so Pernilla walked him out to where Elna waited.
Elna would like to see how he is, but he won't quite meet her eye. But she used her business know-how, perking him up like she would one of the customers at her business.
Then she picks up the phone to call Sigrid and let her know Tom is there, which is what everyone does when Tom shows up unannounced. You'll notice the moment Elna stopped interacting with Tom, he makes a beeline back for Pernilla who returned to her bedroom to get clothed.
It doesn't take long for Sigrid to show up to pick up Tom. Elna comes down to greet her, to my surprise choosing the kiss cheek greeting. I really do get the vibe that my Sims feel bad for them, and that they sort of are considered friends or family to everyone even though nobody really knows them. They know the story, and that's enough it seems.
Elna brings Sigrid upstairs to their apartment, where Pernilla has managed to lure Tom out to the living room. He would not stop following her around, his obsession with pregnant Sim ladies is impressive.
Sigrid always tells him off for running off behind her back, and for barging into peoples homes, but Tom doesn't really care.
Too busy still looking at Pernilla with that smile on his face
But he agrees to go with Sigrid back to the retirement home. Sigrid thanks Elna for calling her and gives her a hug.
Then they head out to go back to their home. Tom making me laugh as he's walking out, what with his choice to do the finger point thing at the two women before he leaves.
That's pretty much how Tom and Sigrid pass their days, he'll escape her watch and show up somewhere with young kids or pregnancies, until the home owners call Sigrid and she comes and picks him up. Over time it became clear to me that Tom truly believes that Siri is dead. It stopped being an act he put on, and it became real to him in his grief-induced psychosis. On some level there's a seed of him that knows she is out there, which is why he searches, but he doesn't understand what he is searching for because in his conscious mind, she is dead and gone.
It's very lonely for Sigrid, her daughter is locked away in the forest and her life companion has lost his mind. She's not used to being the one with the responsibility, having to make the decisions. She was raised traditionally, to be the homemaker, leaving the responsibility to the man of the house. It has worked well for her and Tom in their long marriage, she's never had a reason to doubt his judgement. That is, until their beloved daughter fell pregnant and he cooked up a mad scheme to hide her away. It's been eating at Sigrid, she wonders constantly if she really was right to trust him on this.
That is why she finally decided to break her promise and visit Siri last spring. She had to at least see for herself that Siri was doing alright. She can't visit often, because Tom does have a point that it risks discovery, but she figured nobody would find it odd if she went there once to check in on the power plant after the winter. That Tom did not come with her would not surprise anyone, given his current mental status that everyone knows about since he keeps showing up uninvited. Nor would anyone mention it to him, because why would they? Clearly he's no longer in any state to be involved with the business, it makes sense that Sigrid now handles it on her own.
Siri is unaware of any of this, she did not ask about her father on her mother's visit and Sigrid did not tell her. Nor did she tell her about her doubts, because it would be cruel to get Siri's hopes up of being able to leave. She needs to figure that out for herself, and let Siri tackle her own problems. So after her mothers brief visit, Siri returned to her normal which means doing her best to prepare for the next winter.
Last we saw of her, it was time for Isamu to grow up. I wish I hadn't cut the episode there given it took me so long to continue, but here we are finally, you get to see what Isamu grew up to look like
No surprise, he's still adorable! The hair was a little surprising to me, but I went and looked and the PT he got his genes from is a redhead, so the alien genes are strong it seems!
Siri gets started on potty training right away, she only has a limited supply of diapers so the sooner Isamu learns the better.
Then Isamu gets to go down for his midday nap, testing out the toddler bed for the first time.
Siri eats a slice of his cake while he sleeps. It's a very depressing scene, her kid is grown up and almost nobody even knows he exists. She celebrates all by herself, staring at the wall as she eats the cake to the sound of his snoozing.
Over the next few days Isamu got to explore the various toys his grandparents had stashed away in the cottage for him to enjoy when he got old enough. He loooooves the pop up clown box.
The dolls are strange, but he's figuring them out.
Before long he wants to know what's on the other side of the door, taking his chance to crawl out while Siri is hugging Sessan.
A concerned Siri chases after him immediately, concerned he might fall in to the pond or try to crawl off into the woods.
But he just wanted to check out the bumblebee rider. It's funny, I always felt like him and Siri somehow managed to communicate even though he was just a baby, like they could speak with their minds. And in this picture it really looks like he's asking her what she's worried about because he's fine, he's just having fun, relax mom!
Either way it seems Siri agrees that he's okay, so she heads over to harvest the last of the summer crops.
Isamu moves on to try his hand at some drawing. I love the toddler drawings, they are so cute! It'll be a nice addition to the walls inside.
Siri starts teaching Isamu to speak human language with words out loud, instead of the perceived telepathic communication I see them as having sometimes. She's so adorably happy every time he manages to say a word. I guess it's nice to hear another human's voice for a change.
They practice walking too, with Sessan running around them chasing imaginary flies after consuming cat nip. Sessan isn't quite sure what to think of Isamu yet, this whole crawling around thing is overrated in her book, she much preferred when he'd stay put in one spot wriggling.
Siri can encourage him to try walking all she wants, Isamu would rather look at the silly cat that is running around than try to walk.
As autumn drags on, the days enter a new sort of routine, with Isamu the toddler rather than Isamu the baby They bathe, they play, they cuddle. Isamu learns to master the potty
And that's about it for this time. Life for Siri is repetitive, with preparing food for the winter and taking care of herself, Isamu and Sessan. But now you have finally gotten to see Isamu as a toddler, starting to explore the world There's a lot more to cover with the other two, so this is the last we'll see of Siri and Isamu for a bit.
Because of his deterioration and descent into confusion, Sigrid has taken over as the decision maker of the family, choosing to sell the house and move to an elderly home so there are more people to keep an eye on Tom. Not that it really helped, he still shows up in other homes constantly. He's so lost in his own bubble of confusion, drawn to pregnant women or children without understanding why. Here he is walking into the bedroom of Pernilla Löfgren, the roomie of Elna Sernman and Max Flex, who got whoopsie pregnant by Max. Tom barged right in one morning with Pernilla still in her underwear, he has no boundaries or notions of social etiquette these days.
He'll walk up to the pregnant person or child, and then just stand there staring at them with a smile on his face.
At this point the whole hood is familiar with the story of the poor old couple who lost their adopted daughter in a fire. They all know of Tom, the father who lost his mind to the grief, and now wonders the town in search of his dead daughter. Everyone feels quite sorry for them, and while it's a nuisance to have Tom showing up in their homes, they all treat him kindly when it happens. Elna caught a glimpse of him walk into Pernillas bedroom, and called out his name to get him out of Pernilla's hair so she could at least get dressed in peace.
He wouldn't go on his own, so Pernilla walked him out to where Elna waited.
Elna would like to see how he is, but he won't quite meet her eye. But she used her business know-how, perking him up like she would one of the customers at her business.
Then she picks up the phone to call Sigrid and let her know Tom is there, which is what everyone does when Tom shows up unannounced. You'll notice the moment Elna stopped interacting with Tom, he makes a beeline back for Pernilla who returned to her bedroom to get clothed.
It doesn't take long for Sigrid to show up to pick up Tom. Elna comes down to greet her, to my surprise choosing the kiss cheek greeting. I really do get the vibe that my Sims feel bad for them, and that they sort of are considered friends or family to everyone even though nobody really knows them. They know the story, and that's enough it seems.
Elna brings Sigrid upstairs to their apartment, where Pernilla has managed to lure Tom out to the living room. He would not stop following her around, his obsession with pregnant Sim ladies is impressive.
Sigrid always tells him off for running off behind her back, and for barging into peoples homes, but Tom doesn't really care.
Too busy still looking at Pernilla with that smile on his face
But he agrees to go with Sigrid back to the retirement home. Sigrid thanks Elna for calling her and gives her a hug.
Then they head out to go back to their home. Tom making me laugh as he's walking out, what with his choice to do the finger point thing at the two women before he leaves.
That's pretty much how Tom and Sigrid pass their days, he'll escape her watch and show up somewhere with young kids or pregnancies, until the home owners call Sigrid and she comes and picks him up. Over time it became clear to me that Tom truly believes that Siri is dead. It stopped being an act he put on, and it became real to him in his grief-induced psychosis. On some level there's a seed of him that knows she is out there, which is why he searches, but he doesn't understand what he is searching for because in his conscious mind, she is dead and gone.
It's very lonely for Sigrid, her daughter is locked away in the forest and her life companion has lost his mind. She's not used to being the one with the responsibility, having to make the decisions. She was raised traditionally, to be the homemaker, leaving the responsibility to the man of the house. It has worked well for her and Tom in their long marriage, she's never had a reason to doubt his judgement. That is, until their beloved daughter fell pregnant and he cooked up a mad scheme to hide her away. It's been eating at Sigrid, she wonders constantly if she really was right to trust him on this.
That is why she finally decided to break her promise and visit Siri last spring. She had to at least see for herself that Siri was doing alright. She can't visit often, because Tom does have a point that it risks discovery, but she figured nobody would find it odd if she went there once to check in on the power plant after the winter. That Tom did not come with her would not surprise anyone, given his current mental status that everyone knows about since he keeps showing up uninvited. Nor would anyone mention it to him, because why would they? Clearly he's no longer in any state to be involved with the business, it makes sense that Sigrid now handles it on her own.
Siri is unaware of any of this, she did not ask about her father on her mother's visit and Sigrid did not tell her. Nor did she tell her about her doubts, because it would be cruel to get Siri's hopes up of being able to leave. She needs to figure that out for herself, and let Siri tackle her own problems. So after her mothers brief visit, Siri returned to her normal which means doing her best to prepare for the next winter.
Last we saw of her, it was time for Isamu to grow up. I wish I hadn't cut the episode there given it took me so long to continue, but here we are finally, you get to see what Isamu grew up to look like
No surprise, he's still adorable! The hair was a little surprising to me, but I went and looked and the PT he got his genes from is a redhead, so the alien genes are strong it seems!
Siri gets started on potty training right away, she only has a limited supply of diapers so the sooner Isamu learns the better.
Then Isamu gets to go down for his midday nap, testing out the toddler bed for the first time.
Siri eats a slice of his cake while he sleeps. It's a very depressing scene, her kid is grown up and almost nobody even knows he exists. She celebrates all by herself, staring at the wall as she eats the cake to the sound of his snoozing.
Over the next few days Isamu got to explore the various toys his grandparents had stashed away in the cottage for him to enjoy when he got old enough. He loooooves the pop up clown box.
The dolls are strange, but he's figuring them out.
Before long he wants to know what's on the other side of the door, taking his chance to crawl out while Siri is hugging Sessan.
A concerned Siri chases after him immediately, concerned he might fall in to the pond or try to crawl off into the woods.
But he just wanted to check out the bumblebee rider. It's funny, I always felt like him and Siri somehow managed to communicate even though he was just a baby, like they could speak with their minds. And in this picture it really looks like he's asking her what she's worried about because he's fine, he's just having fun, relax mom!
Either way it seems Siri agrees that he's okay, so she heads over to harvest the last of the summer crops.
Isamu moves on to try his hand at some drawing. I love the toddler drawings, they are so cute! It'll be a nice addition to the walls inside.
Siri starts teaching Isamu to speak human language with words out loud, instead of the perceived telepathic communication I see them as having sometimes. She's so adorably happy every time he manages to say a word. I guess it's nice to hear another human's voice for a change.
They practice walking too, with Sessan running around them chasing imaginary flies after consuming cat nip. Sessan isn't quite sure what to think of Isamu yet, this whole crawling around thing is overrated in her book, she much preferred when he'd stay put in one spot wriggling.
Siri can encourage him to try walking all she wants, Isamu would rather look at the silly cat that is running around than try to walk.
As autumn drags on, the days enter a new sort of routine, with Isamu the toddler rather than Isamu the baby They bathe, they play, they cuddle. Isamu learns to master the potty
And that's about it for this time. Life for Siri is repetitive, with preparing food for the winter and taking care of herself, Isamu and Sessan. But now you have finally gotten to see Isamu as a toddler, starting to explore the world There's a lot more to cover with the other two, so this is the last we'll see of Siri and Isamu for a bit.
No idea when the next post might come given health stuff getting worse again, but I will try my best
Go to chapter 17
Creations can be found on my on tumblr.
#80
8th Nov 2023 at 12:25 AM
Last edited by gummilutt : 7th Sep 2024 at 10:41 AM.
Life continues to get in the way, I've barely touched Sims in the last month, but I've been wanting to post another update and today I am finally finding a little bubble of calm in the chaos to sit down and get one posted. Today, we are going to check in with Stoffe.
Chapter 17 - Stoffe Andersson
I hope you have enjoyed!
Go on to chapter 18
Creations can be found on my on tumblr.
Chapter 17 - Stoffe Andersson
Our last check in with Stoffe ended with Vanessa asking for a divorce, and Stoffe wandering off in his underwear, his stubborn side provoked. He's been blamed by his wife and the insurance company for the fact that their house burned down, told by Lena that his worldview is lacking nuance, and finally rejected by Vanessa when he tried to repair things after everything that happened. And his mood was not improved when, after storming away from Rakel's house, he discovered that none of the landlords in Evergreen would rent to him. They'd all heard how his lack of care with the mansion's garden resulted in the entire house burning down, and putting the mansions nearby at risk as well. Who wants that kind of risky tenant in their precious property? None of them, that's who. So Stoffe finds himself in quite a tough spot, he's lost all of his money and he knows that he will be owing Vanessa a hefty alimony, and he has nowhere to live. Does he sell his car business so he can buy a house of his own to live in? Could he find someone wanting to sell their house to him if he did? How would he make money to pay the alimony and child support, without the business? Not to mention that he worked hard to establish himself in the car world, laying the foundations by running the city branch of the Sernman group, and eventually starting up his own business in Bluewater. With his marriage ended, and the mansion gone, the business is all he has left in terms of acclaim and accomplishment. No, Stoffe would not give up the one thing he has left, his means of rebuilding his fortune. If keeping the business means he's homeless, then so be it.
Lena would have let Stoffe stay at the orphanage, there were two spare bedrooms after the Eklund sisters went off to university, but Stoffe is too proud to ask. Crawl back there to once again let the state fund his survival, after he's a grown man with two university degrees? A business man, live in an orphanage at his age? Absolutely not, that takes a degree of humility that Stoffe does not have in this moment. So with no options remaining, he did what he could. He went scouting through the forests to find somewhere he could hide out from society while he slept, somewhere he could use as his base of operations as he works to rebuild his life.
And he did indeed find a location, a clearing on the north eastern side of town. Fun fact it is located a little to the north and west in the same forest that Siri's cottage is hidden in. Here he is arriving, checking out the trees that are now his shelter.
He doesn't have long to look around, because he has to head off to work. Thankfully his regular job is not in Evergreen. He works for Bridgepoint Solutions Corporation, which is located in a town a distance away. The news of the fire have not heard made it past local news, so they are unaware of the downfall of his private life. With everything that has happened Stoffe feels he needs all the influence and high-placed friends he can get, and business is where he feels most at home so he's grateful to have a job he can go to for 8 hours a day.
And what do you know, he soon got himself promoted to vice president of the company That is quite exciting! His private life might be falling apart, but his corporate one is booming.
Back in his clearing he sets up a tent to sleep in. It's really quite beautiful in the forest, flowers and greenery all around.
It might not be a toilet, but bushes work in a pinch.
With his salary from today he is able to go and buy himself some clothes, he'll need warmer things if he's going to be living outdoors for the foreseeable future.
It's a good thing he does still have the car businesses, he can go there and use the employee break rooms to make himself food. Here he is at the city center branch of the Sernman group car stores. Those of you with a long memory might recognize it, that break room is where Stoffe first started flirting with Vanessa when she worked for him at the business
He splurged on a tiny tv to mount on the wall, so he can watch some tv and relax, there aren't many sources of fun in his clearing in the woods.
But you have to sleep sometime and you aren't really allowed to sleep on commercial properties, so back to the clearing he heads to go get some sleep in his tent.
The next day he decides to visit the luxury gym north of the river. It's run by Rakel, Vanessa's friend (you may recognize it, that is where Billy Bob once hooked up with Rakel, before Sally Mae moved with him to the trailers), so it's a bit awkward for Stoffe but it's where all the high rollers go to work out, and it has better facilities than other gyms with a buffet, and a comprehensive changing room where Stoffe can have a hot shower and do his beard trimming and other grooming to hide the fact that he's living in the woods.
Stoffe always tries to keep in shape, he finds people respect you more if you do, and it's a great way to work out some of his frustrations with all the things that have happened to him recently. He also discovered that it's a lot easier to sleep in a tent on the ground if you are exhausted from working your muscles at the gym.
Though this gym is perhaps not ideal for actually coming to peace with his situation, because the view is sure to constantly remind him of how far he has fallen. It looks out over the rich side of town, in the distance he can see Rakel's mansion where Vanessa still resides, and to the right of it out of view from us is where Stoffe's and Vanessa's mansion used to be before it burned down.
All in all, it is not great for Stoffe's general mood, but as mentioned the facilities are excellent which makes it worth it. It's also the closest to his clearing, the other gyms are all on the other side of the river. Once he finishes his workout he heads upstairs to get a shower and make himself presentable.
Nobody would ever think he's homeless, in this dashing suit and his hair and beard on point.
With his housing and general needs more or less figured out, it's time to get to work on rebuilding his fortune. And that means sell cars, sell a lot of cars! He heads over to his dealership over in Bluewater Village, it has more cars on sale than the Sernman one. Once there, he gets right to it. He spots one of the hoods business reviewers, and he makes sure to make a good impression and give her everything she needs. A good review would really help him out right now.
Another advantage to his own dealership, the break room for employees is better stashed and more spacious than the small one over in Evergreen. He sneaks away to make himself a quick grilled cheese sandwich for dinner.
And then it's right back to car sales. I love this picture of him, it really captures that cheesy quality that one tends to associate with car salesmen. The excessive excitement, the overselling of the cars fabulousness, the charm dialed up to max. I don't think his customer looks all that convinced by the smiles and the finger pointing. Who need a lambo? Silly useless car
But he does manage to make some sales that day, making a start on rebuilding.
He definitely needs it, because after checking his email he found the decision by the court regarding the alimony he owes Vanessa. Because the fire was deemed to be his fault and the couple lost all their possessions due to it, the court has ruled that he owes Vanessa a full restoration of what she lost. His alimony is set to a whopping 700,000 simoleons, enough for Vanessa to purchase a new mansion, replace all her lost art, fine clothing and jewelry. And then there's the future child support on top.After the business closed for the night, we find him thinking angrily about his ex wife. I'd be pretty angry too, in his shoes.
He is living in the woods, and the court mandates him to send almost all his money to Vanessa until she has a mansion again! Infuriating! The court do let him keep enough for himself to live, but no landlord will accept him as a tenant and what he can keep is not enough to buy a place, so it looks like Stoffe is going to be living in the woods for a while to come unless he drops the act and admits to someone he needs help. Which he's unwilling to do at the moment. He's Stoffe for crying out loud! He made a fortune before he even turned 30 years old. He can solve his problems by himself, he doesn't need help from anyone.
I can't help but wonder what on earth the limousine driver must think, I imagine they see a lot of weird things but picking up the vice president of a corporation in the middle of nowhere by the side of the woods must be high on the list of oddities. But drivers know not to question, who are they to comment on the goings on of the tops of the business?
Back home from work, Stoffe is still fuming about the court's decision. Initially he was mostly sad about the divorce, now he's moved on to pure anger. He changed his last name back to Andersson, partly because Vanessa wanted him too, but also out of that same stubborn streak where he now wants to prove he doesn't need her name to get back to where he was.
But at his core, Stoffe is a gentle man, he's not really prone to anger. So while he's fuming, he can't keep it up for long. Sooner or later, his playful side comes back out. He's always been a little childish, no matter how old he gets or how fancy he likes to make himself out to be, there's still the little boy inside him, and there is one upside of being in the woods. There is nobody there to see you and think less of you because you are splashing in puddles as a grown man in a suit.
Though, rain storms aren't good weather to be outdoors in. Lightning in Evergreen is ferocious, as Stoffe experienced with his garden to his great regret. I felt quite bad for him when the lightning ignited one of the trees right by his tent. I mean jesus, let the man have his tent in peace! It's all he has, chill out nature gods!
Thankfully the rain put out this blaze before it got out of hand, but Stoffe realized he should probably take cover for now. He gets inside his tent, and I must say the view from inside is thoroughly depressing.
The storm raged on, Stoffe slept and by the small hours of the morning he crawled out to head to the gym before work. The nature gods were in no mood to chill because it almost seemed as if lightning was just waiting for him to show himself. As soon as he got outside, it struck!
I don't know if I've ever felt so sorry for a sim, as I did for Stoffe in that moment. What does the RNG gods have against this poor guy? He has lost his home, he has lost his wife, he's had the courts hand him a harsh ruling, he's homeless. And they decide to get him hit by lightning too, leading to this moment of him wetting himself half burned to a crisp in the middle of the woods at about 4am in the morning.
So what do you do, if you are Stoffe? You are in the middle of the woods, you do not have running water to get cleaned up. The clearing has a pond, but unfortunately Stoffe can't swim in it. He normally uses the luxury gym to take care of his showering and grooming needs, but that gym is run by Rakel. Is he really going to show up there at 4am in this state and risk anyone seeing him? After all lots of high rollers wake up stupidly early to exercise before work, can he really sneak upstairs without being spotted? I don't think so, and nor did Stoffe. He could go to Bluewater to his business there, but that's a long trip to be making in your underwear stinking of pee. In the end, he chose to head for the city central car business, because it's closer than Bluewater, and the business is closed so nobody should be there. It's in the center of Evergreen, but while it's more densely populated, the buildings also mean alleys you can hide in. He thinks he can make it there without getting spotted.
And make it there he did, but that is where his luck ran out. For some reason, Daniel too was awake in the wee hours of the morning, and doing an inspection round of all his businesses. As Stoffe arrives in his underwear, he finds Daniel standing by the door of the business. It really looks to me like Stoffe is saying "Aw man..." and throwing up his hand in despair, cursing his bad luck this day.
As you may remember, Daniel is the actual owner of this store, it's part of his car dealership group that has locations all over Evergreen. It used to be run by Daniel's son Joel, but Joel wanted out to have more time for his family, and Daniel let Stoffe take over after he got to know Stoffe when Stoffe worked at his newspaper as a teenager. Stoffe runs the store, but Daniel owns it, it's under his branding, and he is none too pleased to find the person he entrusted the store to showing up in this state.
"What the hell is wrong with you man, you look like you've been hit by lightning!"
To add insult to injury. while Daniel was working in newspaper when he and Stoffe met, he left the newspaper business to his daughter Elna a while ago, and has since focused his attentions on law. Not long ago, he got promoted to The Law in Evergreen. He oversees and is aware of all legal cases in town, even if they aren't directly in his courtroom. Which is how Daniel became one of the few people that is privvy to every detail about Stoffe's divorce, the house fire and the alimony ruling.
Daniel is usually a very kind, empathetic and understanding man. He's the type of guy to give an orphan wanting to prove himself a chance to freelance for the newspaper, even taking him on as a franchise representative in his college years. But in recent times Daniel has developed a bit of a blind spot, that unfortunately for Stoffe happens to be about in laws and divorce. Daniel's sudden career change from journalism to the field of law happened due to the very messy divorce of his daughter Moa.
Daniel's former son in law managed to dupe the whole family with a fake prenuptial agreement, taking a fortune off Moa in alimony (who had to borrow money from Daniel and her mother Maja to pay it) after she demanded a divorce due to his general shitty behavior, doing things like faking birth control to knock her up against her will. Moa is a very talented artist who worked hard to build up what she has in life, bringing far more to the union than her now ex husband Matte. That is why she sought to protect her assets with a prenuptial agreement, but unfortunately she let Matte handle it, and he made sure it wouldn't actually stand legally.
Daniel cares a lot about justice and what's right, and the fact that his daughter's ex husband was able to fool her, and fool Daniel himself, turned this otherwise kind man to a raging ball of fury. He vowed to ensure that no woman in Evergreen ever has to through anything remotely similar again. He changed careers, and started lobbying for new legislation to close loopholes and improve the legal protection for innocent parties in divorce. As The Law, he has successfully overhauled the system completely, which is in part why Stoffe found himself facing such a tough legal ruling.
Anyone that knows Stoffe could tell you he's nothing like Matte, but unfortunately there are a number of similarities to their stories. Vanessa got pregnant against her wishes, without malice like in Matte's case, but nevertheless their marriage featured an unwanted pregnancy. Stoffe is seemingly to blame for her losing all her money. One of the reasons Moa divorced Matte was his general sloppy nature and lack of care for their home, which once again, Stoffe to the outside world seems to have a similar disregard considering he let the garden get out of control. They even share the same haircolor!
Normally Daniel would have asked what was going on, would have given Stoffe a chance to explain himself. But in that moment seeing Stoffe looking such a hot mess, all Daniel could see was Matte and his stupid grin. Stoffe was giving the same irresponsible scoundrel vibe, and Daniel wasn't having any of it. How dare Stoffe put the business reputation at risk by showing up in this state! Daniel trusted him, believed in him, and this is how Stoffe repays him? Unacceptable! Surely there are no circumstances that would justify this behavior, that could excuse showing up looking like you rolled in ashes. Why wouldn't Stoffe get cleaned up at home before coming here?
If Stoffe was more mature, he might have realized that this was an opportunity for him to come clean, to ask for help. Daniel is known to be kind, he's shown it many times. If Stoffe explains he's homeless and that's why he arrives in this state he could definitely have gotten through to him no matter how upset Daniel might be. Daniel is The Law, he has the power to force a landlord to grant Stoffe housing, given that it's a court decision that limits Stoffe to renting in the first place.
But that would require Stoffe to actually let someone in, to let them see how bad things have gotten, to explain that he couldn't get cleaned up at home because he does not HAVE a home. And Stoffe can't bring himself to do that. He still believes that how people see you is the only thing that matters. Daniel is a really influential person, he's just the type of person whose admiration Stoffe craves. So instead of telling the truth, he bites down and holds it all inside. Puffing up his cheeks in indignation at the insult of being yelled at, for something that once again was outside of Stoffe's control. Not only is he blamed for a freak accident fire, now he's being yelled at for having the misfortune of getting hit by lightning. Grrr!
Stoffe keeps quiet and accepts the tirade, furious internally but seeing no other option but to swallow it all. After Daniel has had his say, they agree to meet later in the day to discuss this incident. Daniel departs for his home, and Stoffe climbs up to the break room in the attic.
I'm sure you've realized that a lot of what happens in the stories are designed that way by me, after all houses can't actually burn down in Sims, but in this case it was entirely the games decision to get Stoffe struck by lightning, and have Daniel standing by the business when he arrived. I am continually amazed by how the game seems to read my mind, and play into the stories I am creating, giving me new twists that I would not have come up with by myself. This game is truly magical!
While Stoffe does want to shower immediately, he's ravenously hungry and needs to get something in him before he has energy to get clean. He stares down his chop, while waiting for it to cook, urging it to hurry up!
This one time I can understand his lack of table manners, gobbling down his plate of pork chops.
Then it's time to get all that soot off him, and get his hair back to normal. A good shower, a comb and some hair gel can work wonders.
Once he's back to his normal self, Stoffe returns to his clearing in the woods to await the limousine for a day at work in his corporate job. That afternoon after returning to Evergreen, he heads to a local coffee shop, where he had agreed with Daniel they would meet up after work to discuss the incident that morning.
Stoffe is a little early, so he orders himself a cup of espresso and sits down to drink and chat. Alex does not seem to be a fan of what Stoffe is saying, which might have something to do with the fact that Alex is Daniel's half-brother.
Alex is not the only person present that makes Stoffe nervous. He suggested the coffee shop because it's neutral ground and he thought they could talk in relative anonymity there. But luck is still not on his side, because someone from his corporate world is also present at the coffee shop that evening. Do you remember Andreas Nilsson, from chapter 9? He's a business tycoon that invited Stoffe home from work when he first started in the corporate world, giving him advice on Vanessa's pregnancy situation as Andreas has personal experience of a difficult pregnancy through his long time girlfriend Isabelle and their son Tore.
It really is rotten luck for Stoffe that Andreas is there. His company Zenith Strategies is a big client of Bridgepoint Solutions, they handle all the marketing and sales for Zenith Strategies, who manage several major teams and sports arenas in the region. The fact that Stoffe gets on well with Andreas was part of what got him promoted to vice president for Bridgepoint Solutions. The very last thing Stoffe needs is for Andreas to hear about the incident from that morning, it's bad enough he'll lose that business without his corporate job being in jeopardy too!
He silently prays to the gods of nature that Daniel has not told his brother about the situation, or that if he has, that Alex will keep his thoughts or questions to himself as long as Andreas is within hearing shot. Thankfully for Stoffe, Andreas seems quite absorbed in browsing a magazine he's debating buying.
At this point it's too late to change the plans, so Stoffe has no other choice but to pray that his bad luck has run its course as he nervously waits for Daniel to show up for their meeting. Daniel shows up right on time, and Stoffe goes outside to greet him, hoping to keep out of earshot from Andreas in case Daniel decides to get straight to the point.
But Daniel has calmed down, at least he's not yelling anymore. Stoffe suggests they take seats at the back of the coffee shop, up on the dais where they'd have a tiny bit more privacy. The rest of the patrons all favor the sofas at the front, which should be enough distance away that they can't hear if their voices are kept low. But the longer they talk the more likely it is that something gets overheard, so Stoffe gets straight to it. It is not worth the risk of Andreas overhearing details just for the sake of possibly keeping the business, so he informs Daniel that he will relinquish the contract and hand the business back to the direct control of the Sernman Group.
Odds are Daniel would have demanded that outcome anyway, and even if Andreas had not been present, Stoffe could not have explained the circumstances behind the disastrous state he was in that morning. He would need to tell Daniel that he was unable to find anyone willing to house in, and that he had come to the store to get cleaned up because he is homeless and has nowhere else to go. Everything considered, Stofe would rather fold and try to protect his corporate reputation. He can at least try to salvage something from this disaster of a day.
He's not happy about it any of it though, even if he knows it was the only choice the could make. Daniel is tactful and affects not to notice his obvious reluctance and irritation.
Instead Daniel shows some of the kindness he's usually known for, accepting Stoffe's offer without further comment about the incident. He even provides him with an explanation he can give should anyone ask why he's no longer in charge of the business. It turns out that Joel has been wanting to get involved again as his wife is about to give birth to their third child, and him and Emma could use the extra income again. Daniel is quite excited about the upcoming birth of his 5th grandchild.
Daniel definitely intended to be kind, but I don't think Stoffe appreciated it. Daniel's talk of upcoming birth just ends up reminding him of the fact that he too is about to have a child and is just as desperate for income, what with child support soon due on top of the hefty alimony. Not to mention it's tough for Stoffe to hear about happy families, given that he never had one as a child, and his adult family just fell apart right as they were about to have a child.
But at least Stoffe was successful in handling the situation quickly, without Andreas being any the wiser to the details of Stoffes current private life strife. Considering the events of the day, that has to be considered a massive win. But he's not about to tempt fate and prolong this meeting, so once the details are settled he quickly excused himself and left the coffee shop. He ended up going to the luxury gym, this time choosing to have a swim in the pool to cool off his hot and angry thoughts.
After his cooling swim he made use of the change rooms, to change out of his suit to something warmer. It's the tail end of summer, and being outdoors in a tent all night is already starting to get cold, so he wants to be in something more warm than a business suit. Dressed for the night he wanders back to his clearing, to go to sleep in his tent. Praying to himself and the great nature gods that things take a turn for the better soon, because he's not sure how much bad luck he can handle.
And that is where I will end this episode. All in all, it's been a very tough summer for Stoffe. His whole world has been turned upside-down, and things keep happening that are outside of his control, but end up getting him in trouble anyway. Sometimes life seems that way, determined to keep piling on. But in my experience, things turn around for the better, one day.
Lena would have let Stoffe stay at the orphanage, there were two spare bedrooms after the Eklund sisters went off to university, but Stoffe is too proud to ask. Crawl back there to once again let the state fund his survival, after he's a grown man with two university degrees? A business man, live in an orphanage at his age? Absolutely not, that takes a degree of humility that Stoffe does not have in this moment. So with no options remaining, he did what he could. He went scouting through the forests to find somewhere he could hide out from society while he slept, somewhere he could use as his base of operations as he works to rebuild his life.
And he did indeed find a location, a clearing on the north eastern side of town. Fun fact it is located a little to the north and west in the same forest that Siri's cottage is hidden in. Here he is arriving, checking out the trees that are now his shelter.
He doesn't have long to look around, because he has to head off to work. Thankfully his regular job is not in Evergreen. He works for Bridgepoint Solutions Corporation, which is located in a town a distance away. The news of the fire have not heard made it past local news, so they are unaware of the downfall of his private life. With everything that has happened Stoffe feels he needs all the influence and high-placed friends he can get, and business is where he feels most at home so he's grateful to have a job he can go to for 8 hours a day.
And what do you know, he soon got himself promoted to vice president of the company That is quite exciting! His private life might be falling apart, but his corporate one is booming.
Back in his clearing he sets up a tent to sleep in. It's really quite beautiful in the forest, flowers and greenery all around.
It might not be a toilet, but bushes work in a pinch.
With his salary from today he is able to go and buy himself some clothes, he'll need warmer things if he's going to be living outdoors for the foreseeable future.
It's a good thing he does still have the car businesses, he can go there and use the employee break rooms to make himself food. Here he is at the city center branch of the Sernman group car stores. Those of you with a long memory might recognize it, that break room is where Stoffe first started flirting with Vanessa when she worked for him at the business
He splurged on a tiny tv to mount on the wall, so he can watch some tv and relax, there aren't many sources of fun in his clearing in the woods.
But you have to sleep sometime and you aren't really allowed to sleep on commercial properties, so back to the clearing he heads to go get some sleep in his tent.
The next day he decides to visit the luxury gym north of the river. It's run by Rakel, Vanessa's friend (you may recognize it, that is where Billy Bob once hooked up with Rakel, before Sally Mae moved with him to the trailers), so it's a bit awkward for Stoffe but it's where all the high rollers go to work out, and it has better facilities than other gyms with a buffet, and a comprehensive changing room where Stoffe can have a hot shower and do his beard trimming and other grooming to hide the fact that he's living in the woods.
Stoffe always tries to keep in shape, he finds people respect you more if you do, and it's a great way to work out some of his frustrations with all the things that have happened to him recently. He also discovered that it's a lot easier to sleep in a tent on the ground if you are exhausted from working your muscles at the gym.
Though this gym is perhaps not ideal for actually coming to peace with his situation, because the view is sure to constantly remind him of how far he has fallen. It looks out over the rich side of town, in the distance he can see Rakel's mansion where Vanessa still resides, and to the right of it out of view from us is where Stoffe's and Vanessa's mansion used to be before it burned down.
All in all, it is not great for Stoffe's general mood, but as mentioned the facilities are excellent which makes it worth it. It's also the closest to his clearing, the other gyms are all on the other side of the river. Once he finishes his workout he heads upstairs to get a shower and make himself presentable.
Nobody would ever think he's homeless, in this dashing suit and his hair and beard on point.
With his housing and general needs more or less figured out, it's time to get to work on rebuilding his fortune. And that means sell cars, sell a lot of cars! He heads over to his dealership over in Bluewater Village, it has more cars on sale than the Sernman one. Once there, he gets right to it. He spots one of the hoods business reviewers, and he makes sure to make a good impression and give her everything she needs. A good review would really help him out right now.
Another advantage to his own dealership, the break room for employees is better stashed and more spacious than the small one over in Evergreen. He sneaks away to make himself a quick grilled cheese sandwich for dinner.
And then it's right back to car sales. I love this picture of him, it really captures that cheesy quality that one tends to associate with car salesmen. The excessive excitement, the overselling of the cars fabulousness, the charm dialed up to max. I don't think his customer looks all that convinced by the smiles and the finger pointing. Who need a lambo? Silly useless car
But he does manage to make some sales that day, making a start on rebuilding.
He definitely needs it, because after checking his email he found the decision by the court regarding the alimony he owes Vanessa. Because the fire was deemed to be his fault and the couple lost all their possessions due to it, the court has ruled that he owes Vanessa a full restoration of what she lost. His alimony is set to a whopping 700,000 simoleons, enough for Vanessa to purchase a new mansion, replace all her lost art, fine clothing and jewelry. And then there's the future child support on top.After the business closed for the night, we find him thinking angrily about his ex wife. I'd be pretty angry too, in his shoes.
He is living in the woods, and the court mandates him to send almost all his money to Vanessa until she has a mansion again! Infuriating! The court do let him keep enough for himself to live, but no landlord will accept him as a tenant and what he can keep is not enough to buy a place, so it looks like Stoffe is going to be living in the woods for a while to come unless he drops the act and admits to someone he needs help. Which he's unwilling to do at the moment. He's Stoffe for crying out loud! He made a fortune before he even turned 30 years old. He can solve his problems by himself, he doesn't need help from anyone.
I can't help but wonder what on earth the limousine driver must think, I imagine they see a lot of weird things but picking up the vice president of a corporation in the middle of nowhere by the side of the woods must be high on the list of oddities. But drivers know not to question, who are they to comment on the goings on of the tops of the business?
Back home from work, Stoffe is still fuming about the court's decision. Initially he was mostly sad about the divorce, now he's moved on to pure anger. He changed his last name back to Andersson, partly because Vanessa wanted him too, but also out of that same stubborn streak where he now wants to prove he doesn't need her name to get back to where he was.
But at his core, Stoffe is a gentle man, he's not really prone to anger. So while he's fuming, he can't keep it up for long. Sooner or later, his playful side comes back out. He's always been a little childish, no matter how old he gets or how fancy he likes to make himself out to be, there's still the little boy inside him, and there is one upside of being in the woods. There is nobody there to see you and think less of you because you are splashing in puddles as a grown man in a suit.
Though, rain storms aren't good weather to be outdoors in. Lightning in Evergreen is ferocious, as Stoffe experienced with his garden to his great regret. I felt quite bad for him when the lightning ignited one of the trees right by his tent. I mean jesus, let the man have his tent in peace! It's all he has, chill out nature gods!
Thankfully the rain put out this blaze before it got out of hand, but Stoffe realized he should probably take cover for now. He gets inside his tent, and I must say the view from inside is thoroughly depressing.
The storm raged on, Stoffe slept and by the small hours of the morning he crawled out to head to the gym before work. The nature gods were in no mood to chill because it almost seemed as if lightning was just waiting for him to show himself. As soon as he got outside, it struck!
I don't know if I've ever felt so sorry for a sim, as I did for Stoffe in that moment. What does the RNG gods have against this poor guy? He has lost his home, he has lost his wife, he's had the courts hand him a harsh ruling, he's homeless. And they decide to get him hit by lightning too, leading to this moment of him wetting himself half burned to a crisp in the middle of the woods at about 4am in the morning.
So what do you do, if you are Stoffe? You are in the middle of the woods, you do not have running water to get cleaned up. The clearing has a pond, but unfortunately Stoffe can't swim in it. He normally uses the luxury gym to take care of his showering and grooming needs, but that gym is run by Rakel. Is he really going to show up there at 4am in this state and risk anyone seeing him? After all lots of high rollers wake up stupidly early to exercise before work, can he really sneak upstairs without being spotted? I don't think so, and nor did Stoffe. He could go to Bluewater to his business there, but that's a long trip to be making in your underwear stinking of pee. In the end, he chose to head for the city central car business, because it's closer than Bluewater, and the business is closed so nobody should be there. It's in the center of Evergreen, but while it's more densely populated, the buildings also mean alleys you can hide in. He thinks he can make it there without getting spotted.
And make it there he did, but that is where his luck ran out. For some reason, Daniel too was awake in the wee hours of the morning, and doing an inspection round of all his businesses. As Stoffe arrives in his underwear, he finds Daniel standing by the door of the business. It really looks to me like Stoffe is saying "Aw man..." and throwing up his hand in despair, cursing his bad luck this day.
As you may remember, Daniel is the actual owner of this store, it's part of his car dealership group that has locations all over Evergreen. It used to be run by Daniel's son Joel, but Joel wanted out to have more time for his family, and Daniel let Stoffe take over after he got to know Stoffe when Stoffe worked at his newspaper as a teenager. Stoffe runs the store, but Daniel owns it, it's under his branding, and he is none too pleased to find the person he entrusted the store to showing up in this state.
"What the hell is wrong with you man, you look like you've been hit by lightning!"
To add insult to injury. while Daniel was working in newspaper when he and Stoffe met, he left the newspaper business to his daughter Elna a while ago, and has since focused his attentions on law. Not long ago, he got promoted to The Law in Evergreen. He oversees and is aware of all legal cases in town, even if they aren't directly in his courtroom. Which is how Daniel became one of the few people that is privvy to every detail about Stoffe's divorce, the house fire and the alimony ruling.
Daniel is usually a very kind, empathetic and understanding man. He's the type of guy to give an orphan wanting to prove himself a chance to freelance for the newspaper, even taking him on as a franchise representative in his college years. But in recent times Daniel has developed a bit of a blind spot, that unfortunately for Stoffe happens to be about in laws and divorce. Daniel's sudden career change from journalism to the field of law happened due to the very messy divorce of his daughter Moa.
Daniel's former son in law managed to dupe the whole family with a fake prenuptial agreement, taking a fortune off Moa in alimony (who had to borrow money from Daniel and her mother Maja to pay it) after she demanded a divorce due to his general shitty behavior, doing things like faking birth control to knock her up against her will. Moa is a very talented artist who worked hard to build up what she has in life, bringing far more to the union than her now ex husband Matte. That is why she sought to protect her assets with a prenuptial agreement, but unfortunately she let Matte handle it, and he made sure it wouldn't actually stand legally.
Daniel cares a lot about justice and what's right, and the fact that his daughter's ex husband was able to fool her, and fool Daniel himself, turned this otherwise kind man to a raging ball of fury. He vowed to ensure that no woman in Evergreen ever has to through anything remotely similar again. He changed careers, and started lobbying for new legislation to close loopholes and improve the legal protection for innocent parties in divorce. As The Law, he has successfully overhauled the system completely, which is in part why Stoffe found himself facing such a tough legal ruling.
Anyone that knows Stoffe could tell you he's nothing like Matte, but unfortunately there are a number of similarities to their stories. Vanessa got pregnant against her wishes, without malice like in Matte's case, but nevertheless their marriage featured an unwanted pregnancy. Stoffe is seemingly to blame for her losing all her money. One of the reasons Moa divorced Matte was his general sloppy nature and lack of care for their home, which once again, Stoffe to the outside world seems to have a similar disregard considering he let the garden get out of control. They even share the same haircolor!
Normally Daniel would have asked what was going on, would have given Stoffe a chance to explain himself. But in that moment seeing Stoffe looking such a hot mess, all Daniel could see was Matte and his stupid grin. Stoffe was giving the same irresponsible scoundrel vibe, and Daniel wasn't having any of it. How dare Stoffe put the business reputation at risk by showing up in this state! Daniel trusted him, believed in him, and this is how Stoffe repays him? Unacceptable! Surely there are no circumstances that would justify this behavior, that could excuse showing up looking like you rolled in ashes. Why wouldn't Stoffe get cleaned up at home before coming here?
If Stoffe was more mature, he might have realized that this was an opportunity for him to come clean, to ask for help. Daniel is known to be kind, he's shown it many times. If Stoffe explains he's homeless and that's why he arrives in this state he could definitely have gotten through to him no matter how upset Daniel might be. Daniel is The Law, he has the power to force a landlord to grant Stoffe housing, given that it's a court decision that limits Stoffe to renting in the first place.
But that would require Stoffe to actually let someone in, to let them see how bad things have gotten, to explain that he couldn't get cleaned up at home because he does not HAVE a home. And Stoffe can't bring himself to do that. He still believes that how people see you is the only thing that matters. Daniel is a really influential person, he's just the type of person whose admiration Stoffe craves. So instead of telling the truth, he bites down and holds it all inside. Puffing up his cheeks in indignation at the insult of being yelled at, for something that once again was outside of Stoffe's control. Not only is he blamed for a freak accident fire, now he's being yelled at for having the misfortune of getting hit by lightning. Grrr!
Stoffe keeps quiet and accepts the tirade, furious internally but seeing no other option but to swallow it all. After Daniel has had his say, they agree to meet later in the day to discuss this incident. Daniel departs for his home, and Stoffe climbs up to the break room in the attic.
I'm sure you've realized that a lot of what happens in the stories are designed that way by me, after all houses can't actually burn down in Sims, but in this case it was entirely the games decision to get Stoffe struck by lightning, and have Daniel standing by the business when he arrived. I am continually amazed by how the game seems to read my mind, and play into the stories I am creating, giving me new twists that I would not have come up with by myself. This game is truly magical!
While Stoffe does want to shower immediately, he's ravenously hungry and needs to get something in him before he has energy to get clean. He stares down his chop, while waiting for it to cook, urging it to hurry up!
This one time I can understand his lack of table manners, gobbling down his plate of pork chops.
Then it's time to get all that soot off him, and get his hair back to normal. A good shower, a comb and some hair gel can work wonders.
Once he's back to his normal self, Stoffe returns to his clearing in the woods to await the limousine for a day at work in his corporate job. That afternoon after returning to Evergreen, he heads to a local coffee shop, where he had agreed with Daniel they would meet up after work to discuss the incident that morning.
Stoffe is a little early, so he orders himself a cup of espresso and sits down to drink and chat. Alex does not seem to be a fan of what Stoffe is saying, which might have something to do with the fact that Alex is Daniel's half-brother.
Alex is not the only person present that makes Stoffe nervous. He suggested the coffee shop because it's neutral ground and he thought they could talk in relative anonymity there. But luck is still not on his side, because someone from his corporate world is also present at the coffee shop that evening. Do you remember Andreas Nilsson, from chapter 9? He's a business tycoon that invited Stoffe home from work when he first started in the corporate world, giving him advice on Vanessa's pregnancy situation as Andreas has personal experience of a difficult pregnancy through his long time girlfriend Isabelle and their son Tore.
It really is rotten luck for Stoffe that Andreas is there. His company Zenith Strategies is a big client of Bridgepoint Solutions, they handle all the marketing and sales for Zenith Strategies, who manage several major teams and sports arenas in the region. The fact that Stoffe gets on well with Andreas was part of what got him promoted to vice president for Bridgepoint Solutions. The very last thing Stoffe needs is for Andreas to hear about the incident from that morning, it's bad enough he'll lose that business without his corporate job being in jeopardy too!
He silently prays to the gods of nature that Daniel has not told his brother about the situation, or that if he has, that Alex will keep his thoughts or questions to himself as long as Andreas is within hearing shot. Thankfully for Stoffe, Andreas seems quite absorbed in browsing a magazine he's debating buying.
At this point it's too late to change the plans, so Stoffe has no other choice but to pray that his bad luck has run its course as he nervously waits for Daniel to show up for their meeting. Daniel shows up right on time, and Stoffe goes outside to greet him, hoping to keep out of earshot from Andreas in case Daniel decides to get straight to the point.
But Daniel has calmed down, at least he's not yelling anymore. Stoffe suggests they take seats at the back of the coffee shop, up on the dais where they'd have a tiny bit more privacy. The rest of the patrons all favor the sofas at the front, which should be enough distance away that they can't hear if their voices are kept low. But the longer they talk the more likely it is that something gets overheard, so Stoffe gets straight to it. It is not worth the risk of Andreas overhearing details just for the sake of possibly keeping the business, so he informs Daniel that he will relinquish the contract and hand the business back to the direct control of the Sernman Group.
Odds are Daniel would have demanded that outcome anyway, and even if Andreas had not been present, Stoffe could not have explained the circumstances behind the disastrous state he was in that morning. He would need to tell Daniel that he was unable to find anyone willing to house in, and that he had come to the store to get cleaned up because he is homeless and has nowhere else to go. Everything considered, Stofe would rather fold and try to protect his corporate reputation. He can at least try to salvage something from this disaster of a day.
He's not happy about it any of it though, even if he knows it was the only choice the could make. Daniel is tactful and affects not to notice his obvious reluctance and irritation.
Instead Daniel shows some of the kindness he's usually known for, accepting Stoffe's offer without further comment about the incident. He even provides him with an explanation he can give should anyone ask why he's no longer in charge of the business. It turns out that Joel has been wanting to get involved again as his wife is about to give birth to their third child, and him and Emma could use the extra income again. Daniel is quite excited about the upcoming birth of his 5th grandchild.
Daniel definitely intended to be kind, but I don't think Stoffe appreciated it. Daniel's talk of upcoming birth just ends up reminding him of the fact that he too is about to have a child and is just as desperate for income, what with child support soon due on top of the hefty alimony. Not to mention it's tough for Stoffe to hear about happy families, given that he never had one as a child, and his adult family just fell apart right as they were about to have a child.
But at least Stoffe was successful in handling the situation quickly, without Andreas being any the wiser to the details of Stoffes current private life strife. Considering the events of the day, that has to be considered a massive win. But he's not about to tempt fate and prolong this meeting, so once the details are settled he quickly excused himself and left the coffee shop. He ended up going to the luxury gym, this time choosing to have a swim in the pool to cool off his hot and angry thoughts.
After his cooling swim he made use of the change rooms, to change out of his suit to something warmer. It's the tail end of summer, and being outdoors in a tent all night is already starting to get cold, so he wants to be in something more warm than a business suit. Dressed for the night he wanders back to his clearing, to go to sleep in his tent. Praying to himself and the great nature gods that things take a turn for the better soon, because he's not sure how much bad luck he can handle.
And that is where I will end this episode. All in all, it's been a very tough summer for Stoffe. His whole world has been turned upside-down, and things keep happening that are outside of his control, but end up getting him in trouble anyway. Sometimes life seems that way, determined to keep piling on. But in my experience, things turn around for the better, one day.
I hope you have enjoyed!
Go on to chapter 18
Creations can be found on my on tumblr.
#81
20th Nov 2023 at 2:24 PM
Last edited by gummilutt : 30th Jun 2024 at 10:55 PM.
Quick next episode for once (EDIT: Well it was when I first started writing this post, then it took a week to finish ) You've seen what Stoffe has been up to since the divorce, but what has Vanessa been up to? Ever since she came into view, it was as Stoffe's love interest. Now she has ended their marriage by her own choice, right before she's about to have a baby. What'll become of her now? We know the court's ruling regarding alimony, but what will Vanessa do? It's time to answer some of those questions
Chapter 18 - Vanessa van Derbirth
If anyone is reading and feels up to giving input, I'd be interested to know to what extent you want backstory/surrounding information of other households that we come across in the main story. For example, we have heard a brief excerpts about Moa Sernman's past, and in this episode we are introduced to her sister. I love talking about all my Sims, so I'd love to do a brief post sharing the main points of the stories of these side characters so the points where they overlap make sense to you as well, but I'm not sure how interesting it is to someone that is reading. Do you like the brief summaries I have done so far, is it too much, too little or just enough?
Continue reading in chapter 19
Creations can be found on my on tumblr.
Chapter 18 - Vanessa van Derbirth
I thought we'd begin with a short recap of Vanessa. Her family is mostly unknown, they are not from Evergreen and live far away. Vanessa chose to come to university near Evergreen, not with the goal of getting a degree necessarily, but to find a wealthy husband who would keep her in comfort for all her days (can you tell I love Hamilton?). What we do know of her family is that they are an old one, a modern day nobility of sorts, the type of people who were prominent and their name carries weight in the fancier circles of town, but I don't believe they are wealthy now. They are the type that was, once, but they squandered their wealth and now only live off the influence associated with their name. Why else would Vanessa go somewhere far away, to find her future elsewhere? What she brought with her was her name, and her upbringing.
She was raised in the traditional way for a family of her type, taught the responsibilities of the wife of an influential rich man, how to dress and look the part, what sort of activities are appropriate for a woman of status. She was told it was her job to aid her husband's success from the shadow, befriending women of other famous men to help build those connections and support his ambitions, because at the end of the day, her success depends on her husband's success. This gave Vanessa a very business-minded view of relationships, everything is an exchange of services, you do something for me and I do something for you. Love isn't something that was really taught to her, her parents weren't in love, it was simply an exchange of benefits for two parties. She had no siblings, one heir is enough in those circles. Stoffe fit her criteria, and he was fit and conventionally attractive, which is what Vanessa was brought up to search for. And he seemed to share her view of marriage, happy for it to be fairly transactional, not needing to be in love before marrying. She gave him her family name, and he gave her the comfort she wanted.
Vanessa thought she was settled, ready to simply enjoy the rest of her life. And then her whole world got turned upside down, when her husband who seemed destined for greatness, suddenly failed his most basic duty towards her, of keeping her safe. She got mugged in public, their vacation home was burglarized, and then their home burned down to the ground. All if happening while Vanessa was unexpectedly pregnant, and trying to figure out how to view being with child at such a young age. She certainly had not planned to have children already, if anything she would have elected to have children late in life. For the first time, Vanessa found herself having to re-examine her values in regards to her marriage. Somewhat to her surprise, she found herself developing something of a bond with her coming child, and feeling an overwhelming need to protect it. She was frustrated by her husband's reaction to their circumstances, and the way he tried to just throw more jewelry at her. The jewelry hadn't saved her the first time around, what good would it do now? The more she thought about it, the more she dreaded raising a child alongside Stoffe. Doing it on her own wasn't appealing either, but the things she had been taught marriage provides she was not getting, so what was the point in continuing? Mostly Vanessa felt confused, and unsure, and as people often do in those situations, she lashed out at the person she felt was to blame for it all which was Stoffe. We rejoin Vanessa in the moments after she ended their marriage.
Having just told Stoffe to get lost, Vanessa calmly sits down to have breakfast with her friend. Through the window, we see Stoffe storming off in his underwear. Rakel is trying to pretend like nothing has happened, as the well born so often do, attempting to engage Vanessa in conversation about fresh produce. Nature has an almost religious standing to Evergreenians, they offer their prayers to the Gods of Nature, and the Great Light above that blesses plants with sunlight to grow and give energy to them. Anything grown by the sun and the gods of nature, is surely good for you. All pregnant ladies will be told repeatedly to eat locally grown greenery to stay strong and healthy. The women of the Ladies who Lunch (as I've dubbed Vanessa's group of wealthy female friends) often discuss food, what to serve guests at a party, the latest fad in appetizers, and they are currently eating, so trying to talk about food is an easy "lets ignore the situation"-topic for Rakel to reach for.
But as we saw in the episode of the divorce, Vanessa is finding it harder and harder to keep to her upbringing of shoving it all deep down inside and acting like everything is fine. The manners drilled in to her by her parents and childhood tutors make her inclined to try, but her thoughts are all on Stoffe.
Rakel moves on to another usual banger of a topic, clothing. The underwear of her latest cougar conquest, perhaps? But Vanessa's feelings boil over, and the tears come out. It can't be easy for her, going through this turbulent time with pregnancy hormones all over the place.
After breakfast Rakel suggests that Vanessa relax by painting for a bit. Vanessa was taught an appreciation of the arts from an early age, both art in the form of paintings or sculptures and the art of classical music. Those are the hobbies she has focused on as suitable activities for her to fill the hours of her life. In Vanessa's own mansion she had a music room, and easels to paint. Rakel has a painting room in her mansion too, though she has no interest, her sport of choice is men. But she is a good friend, and although she does not wish to speak of the topic, she will sit there quietly to keep her friend company as she paints.
The divorce continues to weigh heavy on Vanessa's mind, alternating between that and Stoffe himself, and tearing up here and there.
Towards the afternoon Rakel suggest they go get some sun and fresh air in the backyard, another thing lauded for its health benefits in Evergreen. The Great Light above will bless you with its rays, if you let it soak you properly. They hang out in the lounge chairs in the back patio, giving the sun a chance to work its magic as they chat. Vanessa talks about the upcoming birth, and what she wants to do for a nursery.
Rakel doesn't really know anything about babies, having never had any and certainly not wishing to have any. She snipped her fallopian tubes decades ago! But she tries to be supportive, telling Vanessa that she's sure she'll be able to grow something good out of all this.
It's summer, and after a while all that soaking up the sun gets you heated up, so they decide to have a refreshing swim in the pool. I can't help but think that Rakel is stunting on Vanessa a little bit, getting all fancy with her jump and showing off her slender perfectly poised body. Whereas Vanessa had to settle for getting in by the ladder.
But the water is refreshing, and floating on her back and closing her eyes Vanessa can almost forget she's pregnant and alone.
It takes its toll though, all that worrying and lack of sleep the night before. By dinner, Vanessa falls asleep in her bowl right there at the dinner table.
Rakel looks rather dismayed, good well-bred women don't pass out in their plates while a guest in someone else's home. If you need to collapse, you do it in the privacy of your own home, says Rakel.
After waking up Vanessa excuses herself from the table, saying she needs an early night she retreats to her guest room to sleep.
Until her pregnancy bladder rudely awakens her to inform her that it is fit to burst, only giving her time to get up out of bed before she wets herself on the floor. Embarrassing!
It's a good thing that Rakel has a butler to take care of messes, though I don't imagine a pee puddle was on his list of things he expected to clean this day.
Vanessa isn't too keen to face the butler, so she sneaked off to get clean again in a nice soothing bubble bath.
It was probably wise to get away as the butler doesn't seem to think too highly of this house guest of his mistress'.
But you can't sweat it too much. After all butlers see all kinds of private matters in the families they serve, and being employed by Rakel I am sure it's not the first body fluid he has cleaned up So after some more sleep Vanessa gets up for the day, and gets dressed.
The mission for today is shopping, shopping and shopping. Stoffe has already sent the first payment of Vanessa's alimony, and it's time to make a serious start at rebuilding her wardrobe. She needs both maternity wear for the rest of the pregnancy, and pretty clothes for when she's back to her normal size.
A nice comfortable cute summer dress for today, to replace the unstylish sweats.
Some new jewelry, since all she had left is what she brought with her to Twikki which wasn't much.
They have a bite to eat at the restaurant at Sunnyside mall, to replenish their energy for further shopping. While munching down a lunch of shrimp and filet mignon Vanessa tells Rakel all about the horrors of her trip to the tropical paradise.
Hours later a fruitful day of shopping is complete, and Vanessa looks quite pleased with herself as she gets in the car to return back to Rakel's mansion.
For once, Rakel decides to cook dinner for the two of them instead of letting the butler handle it. She doesn't cook often, but she can, as she knows most men are impressed by a home cooked meal every now and then. If her body alone won't convince a man to sleep with her, a well cooked meal might just do the trick.
The things she can cook are typical dude food though, so pork chops is what's on the menu. Vanessa doesn't seem to mind, chowing down with gusto. Over dinner, Rakel tries to show interest and talks about baby toys and such. She actually has a nursery in her home despite her self-induced sterility. The guest room she put Vanessa up in is next to the nursery, and she tells her friend she is welcome to stay and have her baby there if she'd like to. Say what you will about Rakel, but she is a good friend when she decides to accept the role. You can tell Vanessa isn't sold on the idea though.
She is not inclined to stay with Rakel until Stoffe has sent her enough to buy a new mansion. She loves her friend, but in these circles accepting hospitality, even from a friend, means you owe them something down the line and Vanessa does not care to keep adding to that social debt. Now that she has a starting amount of funds, it's time for her to look for her own space. So the next morning she gets dressed comfortably.
Then she goes down to tell Rakel what she's decided, thanking her for her hospitality and for her support. Rakel accepts her decision, after all it's easier to prowl on men without a screaming baby in the house to scare them off. A hug, and a wave later, Vanessa is waddling off to the taxi that is waiting to take her where she wants to go.
And where might she be headed? She can't afford a mansion, and a small house or cottage holds no appeal to her. After her recent experiences of being mugged and burglarized in the same day, Vanessa would feel unsafe living in a house by herself. She wants to be somewhere where there's always people around, so that hopefully thieves don't dare strike. And she thinks she found just the spot! During yesterday's excursion to Sunnyside she happened to notice a sign across the street about a vacant apartment, in the City Apartments complex. With the mall right on the other side of the road, and some shops in the front of the Apartment building itself, she'll never really be alone. The proximity to shops will also be great once she's had the baby and is managing life as a single mother. Anything she needs can be found right outside her door, she'll be able to nip out while the baby sleeps to get food or clothes, and still be within hearing distance of the baby monitor. Score! (The lot is my expanded version of MogHughson's British style High Street)
The wallpaper is hideous, in her opinion, but any true housewife knows that with a little money and effort any space can be greatly improved.
Sold! It's small, and not very flashy, but the location is perfect and after all it's only temporary. This is the first time that Vanessa is handling paperwork herself, her parents helped her get into college and after that Stoffe handled everything. But there's no time like now to start learning to be your own independent grown up lady.
The wallpaper had to go right quick! Already the space is feeling more like home. She puts up some curtains, and a desk so she can access her bank to withdraw more money to get started on the rest.
She of course has to have a piano, to keep practicing her musical pursuits. I'm not so sure about the placement, but it was the only place a piano might fit without blocking a window, and who knows, perhaps when they are greeted by a great white piano as soon as they enter it'll manage to convince some guests that this is a fancy establishment after all
She makes immediate use of the proximity to shops. She finds the clothing store in the apartment complex quite agreeable, much fancier and nicer than the H&M across the street at the Sunnyside Mall. She's got a lot of work to do, restoring her wardrobe to its former pre-house fire glory.
An easel also a prioritized item. Art is one of Vanessa's passions in life, she would love to be able to produce something half-decent herself one day. Plus it's a very suitable hobby for a highborn lady like herself so it's something she can participate in without fear of judgement from her peers.
Cooking however is not something Vanessa enjoys, and it is not something she has ever had to learn either. Stoffe would buy food or cook for her in their first home, and once they moved to the mansion the butler was always there to cook for her. She has no butler now, so takeout it is. Everything is strangely exhilarating to Vanessa, this whole taking care of yourself thing feels quite empowering. Even something as simply and mundane as going out to greet the delivery girl is a new exciting experience for her.
The next day she continues her efforts to turn her small apartment to a home fit for a woman of importance, and a place she enjoys being in. And for her, that requires fine artwork. She does not have many walls, but those walls must impress! And in Evergreen, that means you head to Galleri de Arte. This tasteful establishment is run by Moa Sernman herself, the renowned and much admired artist that has been making big waves in the art world over the past decade. Her taste is well respected, so anyone that needs art for their home heads to her gallery where you can buy more commercialized artwork, or arrange a private session to buy some of Moa's own exquisite work.
This is the first time Vanessa visits the art gallery, so she leaps at the chance to make her introductions to the artist herself. They hit it off immediately, over their love of fine art and the joys of painting.
As they chat they realize they have more things in common than just a love of art. They have both gone through difficult divorces. You may have recognized the name Moa Sernman, from the last chapter on Stoffe. Moa is the daughter of Daniel whose messy divorce lead to his career change and legislative agenda. In fact, Vanessa can in part thank Moa for the very generous alimony she is set to receive. In her case it was Moa that had to pay up, but they still bond over finding themselves pregnant earlier than they wanted to be, and deciding to parent alone rather than deal with a partner you don't feel is helpful to the situation.
Vanessa gets quite carried away in their conversation. Moa has a way of getting people to open up to her, people feel comfortable talking to her. She comes across very genuine, and somehow Vanessa finds herself telling Moa about her recent thoughts on how she was raised, and how she sometimes feels like a marionette doll being moved and manipulated by the expectations well bred society has on her.
Moa had already heard a little about the situation from her father, he was quite excited to get to show her some of the changes he's managed to implement to protect others going through divorces with one innocent party and one, as Daniel would put it, "useless untrustworthy piece of shit" party. Though as she listened to Vanessa talk Moa got the impression that Vanessa is, for lack of a kinder phrase, a little spoiled. Which isn't all that strange considering the environment in which she was raised.
The Sernman kids could have easily ended up the same way, but thanks to their mother's down to earth nature and her father's left-leaning views and interest in equality, the family avoided becoming snobbish despite their growing wealth and influence. They have managed to avoid getting ensnared in that empty world and the ridiculous ideals of the lofty side of town that Vanessa describes. They mingle professionally, but outside of work they enjoy normal lives without the obsession with money and appearances.
Moa could guess that Vanessa is rather short on true friends. The type of friend she can actually talk to about how she's truly feeling as she figures out being divorced and becoming a single parent. Moa would not have gotten through her divorce without her family by her side, and Vanessa doesn't have a family around to help her. So when she learns that Vanessa now resides in City Apartments, she encourages her to introduce herself to her upstairs neighbours, which just so happens to be Moa's twin sister Elna. Moa figures it might do Vanessa a world of good to befriend someone outside of her usual circle of snooty upnosed people on the north side of town.
Elna would be perfect, because she mingles a great deal professionally due to her position as head of the newspaper emporium their father started, but outside of work she lives a very relaxed life of parties and friends. She's always down to get to know new people, and would probably be happy to take Vanessa under her wings. Moa hopes her sisters influence can combat some of that bratty spoiled energy she senses in Vanessa.
Vanessa is not sure about it, but she decides to introduce herself at least. So when she returns back after her art shopping spree she stops by the apartment next to hers to knock on the door. Elna resides in the biggest apartment available, it has an entrance and a garage on the ground floor, but then stairs lead to the apartment itself on the floor above.
Elna received a call from her sister after Vanessa left, so she was expecting the visit. She lets Vanessa in and they chat for a bit. Elna was a drama major at university, it seems Vanessa is trying to make a good impression by talking about things Elna enjoys.
Eventually Elna invites her upstairs to meet the rest of the household. Vanessa seems to hit it off with Max, Elna's long time boyfriend and the athletic soccer star of the Evergreen soccer team. Vanessa seems to have university on her mind, as she's talking to Max about the undeclared major they all start off with. It makes sense that it would be, as she will be required to resume her degree or drop out after the birth.
Vanessa is invited to make herself at home, sitting down to watch the game with Max, and Elna's and Max's roommate Pernilla. Max compliments Vanessa on her violin playing, which they've heard through the floor. They get pretty rowdy too so they don't mind Vanessa's practice sessions.
After hanging out for a bit Vanessa heads back down to her own home. There's something about the set of her shoulders that looks a little sad as she's leaving the hustle and bustle of their apartment to go back to her own quiet one.
Vanessa's life soon settles into a new routine, in her new home. Bit by bit she adds to the furniture, getting ready for the baby. Here she is talking on the phone with one of the members of her ladies who lunch group. She's not comfortable letting them visit her yet, but she stays in touch.
She's not quite used to this whole being the adult of the house though, her first set of bills she forgot to pay promptly. Stoffe always took care of those things, she's never had to be the one to keep on top of the finances.
Her apartment is small, but she made sure to get an exercise bike so she can keep in shape. Pregnant yes, out of shape no! Can't say I share her enthusiasm, lucky for me I don't have to care what people think
The whole cooking thing is still beyond her. She did give the kitchen a makeover so it's more in her style, but so far it's all show. She might not need to work out as much if she ate something other than takeout, but at least fruit juice is healthy
She kept visiting her upstairs neighbours, knocking on the door once a day to hang out and chat.
Eventually they told her to just come on up if the door is unlocked, she's welcome anytime she wants. I think they could all tell that she doesn't have many people in her life, and they are a friendly bunch that always have friends over anyway. Whenever she'd come by, she'd find them there enjoying themselves in some way.
Rather to her surprise, Vanessa finds she really enjoys their company. The apartment has zero style, but there's an atmosphere to it that she's never really known before. It's a home, that someone lives in, not a declaration of wealth. They have pictures of family and each other on the walls, and the furniture is about comfort and having a good time together, not about looking some type of way. They don't conduct themselves in a dignified manner standing around being important, they lounge and joke and just have fun. Even though she's only known them a short while, she finds herself able to relax and drop her guard while she's there. She can let herself just be.
University kept being a topic that Vanessa would talk about, in a way I think she envies Elna her university experience. Vanessa went to find a husband, Elna went to have a good time. She spent her years on campus socializing, making friends, throwing parties, having flings. Perhaps Vanessa is wondering what that would have been like, and going to visit Elna has become a sort of surrogate campus life for her.
After a while, Elna started to rub off a little on Vanessa. She was taught that having picture frames on the walls is tacky and low class, but she found herself wishing she had something to put on her walls like her new friend. Elna has pictures of her as a kid with her siblings, of her parents wedding, of her out on the town with Max. Vanessa is going to be a mother any day now, and she's been thinking a lot about her own upbringing. The more she hears about Elna's childhood, the more she feels she wants her kid to get to grow up happier than she did. After all, it's not like anyone that matters is seeing her apartment anyway, so perhaps it would not be too tacky to have a few pictures on the walls, especially if she puts them up in the bedroom. So as summer rolls over to autumn, the delivery man shows up with an order of framed pictures for her.
You might have been surprised to see she chose a picture of her and Stoffe cuddling on the sofa, amongst other things. A lot has happened on the legal side of things, more rules have been issued in the on-going legal proceedings between the two of them. Because Stoffe is considered responsible for the fire, he is deemed an irresponsible party that would be unfit to parent at this time. He could have fought it with a home inspection, but he declined. Furthermore, due to situations once again relating back to Moa Sernman and her divorce, Daniel pushed for legislation that protects mothers from having to meet with ex partners that they have reasonable cause to be uncomfortable being around.
Which is how Stoffe found himself with no custody, and a no contact ban issued against him on account of Vanessa alleging she would be triggered by seeing him, which you will learn more about in chapter 20. Stoffe's only contact with his child, will be through a state-elected representative that will visit Vanessa's home on his behalf, and report back to him how his child is getting on. Vanessa is relieved that she won't have to see him, but as she spends time with Elna and learns more about her family, she finds herself wanting her child to at least know what their father looks like. Which is why she decided to have some pictures of her and Stoffe together, that she can show to the baby and say "See, this is your daddy!".
As the birth draws nearer, Vanessa even decided it might be time to learn to cook. The apartment is far too small for a butler to make sense, paying for one would just delay getting back to a proper house, and who knows how long it'll take for Stoffe to pay her the full amount. She can live on takeout, her child cannot, so it's time to learn.
To her surprise, she finds there's a degree of satisfaction in cooking and cleaning up after. She does have a maid, but she does not yet want the maid to see her sloppy first attempts at cooking, so she cleans up herself. Who knew taking care of yourself could feel so satisfying?
It's lucky for Vanessa that she did make friends with her upstairs neighbours, as singing at the top of your voice while playing the piano is usually not a good move in apartments, but Elna and Max do not mind so Vanessa pass many an hour by the piano, playing and singing.
Playing the piano is where she is, when one afternoon labour finally kicks in. All alone, nobody there to comfort her or cheer her on as she wails out her pain.
But not alone for much longer! Soon she greets her new baby girl with slightly disbelieving but dewy eyes. Meet Lily Rose van Derbirth!
Vanessa looks so happy, as she gives baby girl her first ever bath to wash off some of the birth gunk.
Labour wore out Vanessa completely, so after the bath she tucks baby in on a cosleeper pad, and gets ready to go to bed herself. She could not seem to take her eyes off her new baby daughter, whatever she was doing her eyes remained glued on on Lily Rose.
Even in her sleep, she seemed to instinctively lean towards her new companion. Lily Rose was not sleepy at all, she remained awake studying her mommy with her big grey eyes, but she remained calm letting her get some well-earned rest. Very thoughtful baby! Stoffe and Vanessa both have the same eyes, so I can't say whose gene got used there, but she has her mother's hair and skin. It'll be interesting to see if she perhaps displays more of Stoffe as she grows older
That is where we'll leave Vanessa and the new baby Lily Rose for now. I hope you have enjoyed seeing this glimpse into the new life of Vanessa, post-divorce, trying to find her way on her own for the first time in her life. Stoffe's circumstances are different, but in a way, they are living through the exact same struggle. They are both young adults (in the non-game meaning of the term), that have had their entire world view put into question, and are now trying to figure out what to believe in when what they held firm proved to perhaps not be as solid as they thought. Both of them put a great deal of belief in the appearance of things, of money and influence being the only thing that matters. They both thought that the main thing that matters in life is to be wealthy and to be admired by certain people, but then even though they seemingly had reached that, their life still managed to crumble around them. So clearly it was not all that mattered, which begs the question, what does? Stay tuned for future updates on how they both get on, as they try to figure out the answer to that question
She was raised in the traditional way for a family of her type, taught the responsibilities of the wife of an influential rich man, how to dress and look the part, what sort of activities are appropriate for a woman of status. She was told it was her job to aid her husband's success from the shadow, befriending women of other famous men to help build those connections and support his ambitions, because at the end of the day, her success depends on her husband's success. This gave Vanessa a very business-minded view of relationships, everything is an exchange of services, you do something for me and I do something for you. Love isn't something that was really taught to her, her parents weren't in love, it was simply an exchange of benefits for two parties. She had no siblings, one heir is enough in those circles. Stoffe fit her criteria, and he was fit and conventionally attractive, which is what Vanessa was brought up to search for. And he seemed to share her view of marriage, happy for it to be fairly transactional, not needing to be in love before marrying. She gave him her family name, and he gave her the comfort she wanted.
Vanessa thought she was settled, ready to simply enjoy the rest of her life. And then her whole world got turned upside down, when her husband who seemed destined for greatness, suddenly failed his most basic duty towards her, of keeping her safe. She got mugged in public, their vacation home was burglarized, and then their home burned down to the ground. All if happening while Vanessa was unexpectedly pregnant, and trying to figure out how to view being with child at such a young age. She certainly had not planned to have children already, if anything she would have elected to have children late in life. For the first time, Vanessa found herself having to re-examine her values in regards to her marriage. Somewhat to her surprise, she found herself developing something of a bond with her coming child, and feeling an overwhelming need to protect it. She was frustrated by her husband's reaction to their circumstances, and the way he tried to just throw more jewelry at her. The jewelry hadn't saved her the first time around, what good would it do now? The more she thought about it, the more she dreaded raising a child alongside Stoffe. Doing it on her own wasn't appealing either, but the things she had been taught marriage provides she was not getting, so what was the point in continuing? Mostly Vanessa felt confused, and unsure, and as people often do in those situations, she lashed out at the person she felt was to blame for it all which was Stoffe. We rejoin Vanessa in the moments after she ended their marriage.
Having just told Stoffe to get lost, Vanessa calmly sits down to have breakfast with her friend. Through the window, we see Stoffe storming off in his underwear. Rakel is trying to pretend like nothing has happened, as the well born so often do, attempting to engage Vanessa in conversation about fresh produce. Nature has an almost religious standing to Evergreenians, they offer their prayers to the Gods of Nature, and the Great Light above that blesses plants with sunlight to grow and give energy to them. Anything grown by the sun and the gods of nature, is surely good for you. All pregnant ladies will be told repeatedly to eat locally grown greenery to stay strong and healthy. The women of the Ladies who Lunch (as I've dubbed Vanessa's group of wealthy female friends) often discuss food, what to serve guests at a party, the latest fad in appetizers, and they are currently eating, so trying to talk about food is an easy "lets ignore the situation"-topic for Rakel to reach for.
But as we saw in the episode of the divorce, Vanessa is finding it harder and harder to keep to her upbringing of shoving it all deep down inside and acting like everything is fine. The manners drilled in to her by her parents and childhood tutors make her inclined to try, but her thoughts are all on Stoffe.
Rakel moves on to another usual banger of a topic, clothing. The underwear of her latest cougar conquest, perhaps? But Vanessa's feelings boil over, and the tears come out. It can't be easy for her, going through this turbulent time with pregnancy hormones all over the place.
After breakfast Rakel suggests that Vanessa relax by painting for a bit. Vanessa was taught an appreciation of the arts from an early age, both art in the form of paintings or sculptures and the art of classical music. Those are the hobbies she has focused on as suitable activities for her to fill the hours of her life. In Vanessa's own mansion she had a music room, and easels to paint. Rakel has a painting room in her mansion too, though she has no interest, her sport of choice is men. But she is a good friend, and although she does not wish to speak of the topic, she will sit there quietly to keep her friend company as she paints.
The divorce continues to weigh heavy on Vanessa's mind, alternating between that and Stoffe himself, and tearing up here and there.
Towards the afternoon Rakel suggest they go get some sun and fresh air in the backyard, another thing lauded for its health benefits in Evergreen. The Great Light above will bless you with its rays, if you let it soak you properly. They hang out in the lounge chairs in the back patio, giving the sun a chance to work its magic as they chat. Vanessa talks about the upcoming birth, and what she wants to do for a nursery.
Rakel doesn't really know anything about babies, having never had any and certainly not wishing to have any. She snipped her fallopian tubes decades ago! But she tries to be supportive, telling Vanessa that she's sure she'll be able to grow something good out of all this.
It's summer, and after a while all that soaking up the sun gets you heated up, so they decide to have a refreshing swim in the pool. I can't help but think that Rakel is stunting on Vanessa a little bit, getting all fancy with her jump and showing off her slender perfectly poised body. Whereas Vanessa had to settle for getting in by the ladder.
But the water is refreshing, and floating on her back and closing her eyes Vanessa can almost forget she's pregnant and alone.
It takes its toll though, all that worrying and lack of sleep the night before. By dinner, Vanessa falls asleep in her bowl right there at the dinner table.
Rakel looks rather dismayed, good well-bred women don't pass out in their plates while a guest in someone else's home. If you need to collapse, you do it in the privacy of your own home, says Rakel.
After waking up Vanessa excuses herself from the table, saying she needs an early night she retreats to her guest room to sleep.
Until her pregnancy bladder rudely awakens her to inform her that it is fit to burst, only giving her time to get up out of bed before she wets herself on the floor. Embarrassing!
It's a good thing that Rakel has a butler to take care of messes, though I don't imagine a pee puddle was on his list of things he expected to clean this day.
Vanessa isn't too keen to face the butler, so she sneaked off to get clean again in a nice soothing bubble bath.
It was probably wise to get away as the butler doesn't seem to think too highly of this house guest of his mistress'.
But you can't sweat it too much. After all butlers see all kinds of private matters in the families they serve, and being employed by Rakel I am sure it's not the first body fluid he has cleaned up So after some more sleep Vanessa gets up for the day, and gets dressed.
The mission for today is shopping, shopping and shopping. Stoffe has already sent the first payment of Vanessa's alimony, and it's time to make a serious start at rebuilding her wardrobe. She needs both maternity wear for the rest of the pregnancy, and pretty clothes for when she's back to her normal size.
A nice comfortable cute summer dress for today, to replace the unstylish sweats.
Some new jewelry, since all she had left is what she brought with her to Twikki which wasn't much.
They have a bite to eat at the restaurant at Sunnyside mall, to replenish their energy for further shopping. While munching down a lunch of shrimp and filet mignon Vanessa tells Rakel all about the horrors of her trip to the tropical paradise.
Hours later a fruitful day of shopping is complete, and Vanessa looks quite pleased with herself as she gets in the car to return back to Rakel's mansion.
For once, Rakel decides to cook dinner for the two of them instead of letting the butler handle it. She doesn't cook often, but she can, as she knows most men are impressed by a home cooked meal every now and then. If her body alone won't convince a man to sleep with her, a well cooked meal might just do the trick.
The things she can cook are typical dude food though, so pork chops is what's on the menu. Vanessa doesn't seem to mind, chowing down with gusto. Over dinner, Rakel tries to show interest and talks about baby toys and such. She actually has a nursery in her home despite her self-induced sterility. The guest room she put Vanessa up in is next to the nursery, and she tells her friend she is welcome to stay and have her baby there if she'd like to. Say what you will about Rakel, but she is a good friend when she decides to accept the role. You can tell Vanessa isn't sold on the idea though.
She is not inclined to stay with Rakel until Stoffe has sent her enough to buy a new mansion. She loves her friend, but in these circles accepting hospitality, even from a friend, means you owe them something down the line and Vanessa does not care to keep adding to that social debt. Now that she has a starting amount of funds, it's time for her to look for her own space. So the next morning she gets dressed comfortably.
Then she goes down to tell Rakel what she's decided, thanking her for her hospitality and for her support. Rakel accepts her decision, after all it's easier to prowl on men without a screaming baby in the house to scare them off. A hug, and a wave later, Vanessa is waddling off to the taxi that is waiting to take her where she wants to go.
And where might she be headed? She can't afford a mansion, and a small house or cottage holds no appeal to her. After her recent experiences of being mugged and burglarized in the same day, Vanessa would feel unsafe living in a house by herself. She wants to be somewhere where there's always people around, so that hopefully thieves don't dare strike. And she thinks she found just the spot! During yesterday's excursion to Sunnyside she happened to notice a sign across the street about a vacant apartment, in the City Apartments complex. With the mall right on the other side of the road, and some shops in the front of the Apartment building itself, she'll never really be alone. The proximity to shops will also be great once she's had the baby and is managing life as a single mother. Anything she needs can be found right outside her door, she'll be able to nip out while the baby sleeps to get food or clothes, and still be within hearing distance of the baby monitor. Score! (The lot is my expanded version of MogHughson's British style High Street)
The wallpaper is hideous, in her opinion, but any true housewife knows that with a little money and effort any space can be greatly improved.
Sold! It's small, and not very flashy, but the location is perfect and after all it's only temporary. This is the first time that Vanessa is handling paperwork herself, her parents helped her get into college and after that Stoffe handled everything. But there's no time like now to start learning to be your own independent grown up lady.
The wallpaper had to go right quick! Already the space is feeling more like home. She puts up some curtains, and a desk so she can access her bank to withdraw more money to get started on the rest.
She of course has to have a piano, to keep practicing her musical pursuits. I'm not so sure about the placement, but it was the only place a piano might fit without blocking a window, and who knows, perhaps when they are greeted by a great white piano as soon as they enter it'll manage to convince some guests that this is a fancy establishment after all
She makes immediate use of the proximity to shops. She finds the clothing store in the apartment complex quite agreeable, much fancier and nicer than the H&M across the street at the Sunnyside Mall. She's got a lot of work to do, restoring her wardrobe to its former pre-house fire glory.
An easel also a prioritized item. Art is one of Vanessa's passions in life, she would love to be able to produce something half-decent herself one day. Plus it's a very suitable hobby for a highborn lady like herself so it's something she can participate in without fear of judgement from her peers.
Cooking however is not something Vanessa enjoys, and it is not something she has ever had to learn either. Stoffe would buy food or cook for her in their first home, and once they moved to the mansion the butler was always there to cook for her. She has no butler now, so takeout it is. Everything is strangely exhilarating to Vanessa, this whole taking care of yourself thing feels quite empowering. Even something as simply and mundane as going out to greet the delivery girl is a new exciting experience for her.
The next day she continues her efforts to turn her small apartment to a home fit for a woman of importance, and a place she enjoys being in. And for her, that requires fine artwork. She does not have many walls, but those walls must impress! And in Evergreen, that means you head to Galleri de Arte. This tasteful establishment is run by Moa Sernman herself, the renowned and much admired artist that has been making big waves in the art world over the past decade. Her taste is well respected, so anyone that needs art for their home heads to her gallery where you can buy more commercialized artwork, or arrange a private session to buy some of Moa's own exquisite work.
This is the first time Vanessa visits the art gallery, so she leaps at the chance to make her introductions to the artist herself. They hit it off immediately, over their love of fine art and the joys of painting.
As they chat they realize they have more things in common than just a love of art. They have both gone through difficult divorces. You may have recognized the name Moa Sernman, from the last chapter on Stoffe. Moa is the daughter of Daniel whose messy divorce lead to his career change and legislative agenda. In fact, Vanessa can in part thank Moa for the very generous alimony she is set to receive. In her case it was Moa that had to pay up, but they still bond over finding themselves pregnant earlier than they wanted to be, and deciding to parent alone rather than deal with a partner you don't feel is helpful to the situation.
Vanessa gets quite carried away in their conversation. Moa has a way of getting people to open up to her, people feel comfortable talking to her. She comes across very genuine, and somehow Vanessa finds herself telling Moa about her recent thoughts on how she was raised, and how she sometimes feels like a marionette doll being moved and manipulated by the expectations well bred society has on her.
Moa had already heard a little about the situation from her father, he was quite excited to get to show her some of the changes he's managed to implement to protect others going through divorces with one innocent party and one, as Daniel would put it, "useless untrustworthy piece of shit" party. Though as she listened to Vanessa talk Moa got the impression that Vanessa is, for lack of a kinder phrase, a little spoiled. Which isn't all that strange considering the environment in which she was raised.
The Sernman kids could have easily ended up the same way, but thanks to their mother's down to earth nature and her father's left-leaning views and interest in equality, the family avoided becoming snobbish despite their growing wealth and influence. They have managed to avoid getting ensnared in that empty world and the ridiculous ideals of the lofty side of town that Vanessa describes. They mingle professionally, but outside of work they enjoy normal lives without the obsession with money and appearances.
Moa could guess that Vanessa is rather short on true friends. The type of friend she can actually talk to about how she's truly feeling as she figures out being divorced and becoming a single parent. Moa would not have gotten through her divorce without her family by her side, and Vanessa doesn't have a family around to help her. So when she learns that Vanessa now resides in City Apartments, she encourages her to introduce herself to her upstairs neighbours, which just so happens to be Moa's twin sister Elna. Moa figures it might do Vanessa a world of good to befriend someone outside of her usual circle of snooty upnosed people on the north side of town.
Elna would be perfect, because she mingles a great deal professionally due to her position as head of the newspaper emporium their father started, but outside of work she lives a very relaxed life of parties and friends. She's always down to get to know new people, and would probably be happy to take Vanessa under her wings. Moa hopes her sisters influence can combat some of that bratty spoiled energy she senses in Vanessa.
Vanessa is not sure about it, but she decides to introduce herself at least. So when she returns back after her art shopping spree she stops by the apartment next to hers to knock on the door. Elna resides in the biggest apartment available, it has an entrance and a garage on the ground floor, but then stairs lead to the apartment itself on the floor above.
Elna received a call from her sister after Vanessa left, so she was expecting the visit. She lets Vanessa in and they chat for a bit. Elna was a drama major at university, it seems Vanessa is trying to make a good impression by talking about things Elna enjoys.
Eventually Elna invites her upstairs to meet the rest of the household. Vanessa seems to hit it off with Max, Elna's long time boyfriend and the athletic soccer star of the Evergreen soccer team. Vanessa seems to have university on her mind, as she's talking to Max about the undeclared major they all start off with. It makes sense that it would be, as she will be required to resume her degree or drop out after the birth.
Vanessa is invited to make herself at home, sitting down to watch the game with Max, and Elna's and Max's roommate Pernilla. Max compliments Vanessa on her violin playing, which they've heard through the floor. They get pretty rowdy too so they don't mind Vanessa's practice sessions.
After hanging out for a bit Vanessa heads back down to her own home. There's something about the set of her shoulders that looks a little sad as she's leaving the hustle and bustle of their apartment to go back to her own quiet one.
Vanessa's life soon settles into a new routine, in her new home. Bit by bit she adds to the furniture, getting ready for the baby. Here she is talking on the phone with one of the members of her ladies who lunch group. She's not comfortable letting them visit her yet, but she stays in touch.
She's not quite used to this whole being the adult of the house though, her first set of bills she forgot to pay promptly. Stoffe always took care of those things, she's never had to be the one to keep on top of the finances.
Her apartment is small, but she made sure to get an exercise bike so she can keep in shape. Pregnant yes, out of shape no! Can't say I share her enthusiasm, lucky for me I don't have to care what people think
The whole cooking thing is still beyond her. She did give the kitchen a makeover so it's more in her style, but so far it's all show. She might not need to work out as much if she ate something other than takeout, but at least fruit juice is healthy
She kept visiting her upstairs neighbours, knocking on the door once a day to hang out and chat.
Eventually they told her to just come on up if the door is unlocked, she's welcome anytime she wants. I think they could all tell that she doesn't have many people in her life, and they are a friendly bunch that always have friends over anyway. Whenever she'd come by, she'd find them there enjoying themselves in some way.
Rather to her surprise, Vanessa finds she really enjoys their company. The apartment has zero style, but there's an atmosphere to it that she's never really known before. It's a home, that someone lives in, not a declaration of wealth. They have pictures of family and each other on the walls, and the furniture is about comfort and having a good time together, not about looking some type of way. They don't conduct themselves in a dignified manner standing around being important, they lounge and joke and just have fun. Even though she's only known them a short while, she finds herself able to relax and drop her guard while she's there. She can let herself just be.
University kept being a topic that Vanessa would talk about, in a way I think she envies Elna her university experience. Vanessa went to find a husband, Elna went to have a good time. She spent her years on campus socializing, making friends, throwing parties, having flings. Perhaps Vanessa is wondering what that would have been like, and going to visit Elna has become a sort of surrogate campus life for her.
After a while, Elna started to rub off a little on Vanessa. She was taught that having picture frames on the walls is tacky and low class, but she found herself wishing she had something to put on her walls like her new friend. Elna has pictures of her as a kid with her siblings, of her parents wedding, of her out on the town with Max. Vanessa is going to be a mother any day now, and she's been thinking a lot about her own upbringing. The more she hears about Elna's childhood, the more she feels she wants her kid to get to grow up happier than she did. After all, it's not like anyone that matters is seeing her apartment anyway, so perhaps it would not be too tacky to have a few pictures on the walls, especially if she puts them up in the bedroom. So as summer rolls over to autumn, the delivery man shows up with an order of framed pictures for her.
You might have been surprised to see she chose a picture of her and Stoffe cuddling on the sofa, amongst other things. A lot has happened on the legal side of things, more rules have been issued in the on-going legal proceedings between the two of them. Because Stoffe is considered responsible for the fire, he is deemed an irresponsible party that would be unfit to parent at this time. He could have fought it with a home inspection, but he declined. Furthermore, due to situations once again relating back to Moa Sernman and her divorce, Daniel pushed for legislation that protects mothers from having to meet with ex partners that they have reasonable cause to be uncomfortable being around.
Which is how Stoffe found himself with no custody, and a no contact ban issued against him on account of Vanessa alleging she would be triggered by seeing him, which you will learn more about in chapter 20. Stoffe's only contact with his child, will be through a state-elected representative that will visit Vanessa's home on his behalf, and report back to him how his child is getting on. Vanessa is relieved that she won't have to see him, but as she spends time with Elna and learns more about her family, she finds herself wanting her child to at least know what their father looks like. Which is why she decided to have some pictures of her and Stoffe together, that she can show to the baby and say "See, this is your daddy!".
As the birth draws nearer, Vanessa even decided it might be time to learn to cook. The apartment is far too small for a butler to make sense, paying for one would just delay getting back to a proper house, and who knows how long it'll take for Stoffe to pay her the full amount. She can live on takeout, her child cannot, so it's time to learn.
To her surprise, she finds there's a degree of satisfaction in cooking and cleaning up after. She does have a maid, but she does not yet want the maid to see her sloppy first attempts at cooking, so she cleans up herself. Who knew taking care of yourself could feel so satisfying?
It's lucky for Vanessa that she did make friends with her upstairs neighbours, as singing at the top of your voice while playing the piano is usually not a good move in apartments, but Elna and Max do not mind so Vanessa pass many an hour by the piano, playing and singing.
Playing the piano is where she is, when one afternoon labour finally kicks in. All alone, nobody there to comfort her or cheer her on as she wails out her pain.
But not alone for much longer! Soon she greets her new baby girl with slightly disbelieving but dewy eyes. Meet Lily Rose van Derbirth!
Vanessa looks so happy, as she gives baby girl her first ever bath to wash off some of the birth gunk.
Labour wore out Vanessa completely, so after the bath she tucks baby in on a cosleeper pad, and gets ready to go to bed herself. She could not seem to take her eyes off her new baby daughter, whatever she was doing her eyes remained glued on on Lily Rose.
Even in her sleep, she seemed to instinctively lean towards her new companion. Lily Rose was not sleepy at all, she remained awake studying her mommy with her big grey eyes, but she remained calm letting her get some well-earned rest. Very thoughtful baby! Stoffe and Vanessa both have the same eyes, so I can't say whose gene got used there, but she has her mother's hair and skin. It'll be interesting to see if she perhaps displays more of Stoffe as she grows older
That is where we'll leave Vanessa and the new baby Lily Rose for now. I hope you have enjoyed seeing this glimpse into the new life of Vanessa, post-divorce, trying to find her way on her own for the first time in her life. Stoffe's circumstances are different, but in a way, they are living through the exact same struggle. They are both young adults (in the non-game meaning of the term), that have had their entire world view put into question, and are now trying to figure out what to believe in when what they held firm proved to perhaps not be as solid as they thought. Both of them put a great deal of belief in the appearance of things, of money and influence being the only thing that matters. They both thought that the main thing that matters in life is to be wealthy and to be admired by certain people, but then even though they seemingly had reached that, their life still managed to crumble around them. So clearly it was not all that mattered, which begs the question, what does? Stay tuned for future updates on how they both get on, as they try to figure out the answer to that question
If anyone is reading and feels up to giving input, I'd be interested to know to what extent you want backstory/surrounding information of other households that we come across in the main story. For example, we have heard a brief excerpts about Moa Sernman's past, and in this episode we are introduced to her sister. I love talking about all my Sims, so I'd love to do a brief post sharing the main points of the stories of these side characters so the points where they overlap make sense to you as well, but I'm not sure how interesting it is to someone that is reading. Do you like the brief summaries I have done so far, is it too much, too little or just enough?
Continue reading in chapter 19
Creations can be found on my on tumblr.
Test Subject
#82
7th Jan 2024 at 2:29 AM
Posts: 27
Thanks: 94 in 4 Posts
@gummilutt
Hi there, I made an account here yesterday and was exploring the website and found this thread/group and just wanted to say something a little interesting
I don't think your hood name is boring at all! I've been on and off calling most of my custom/empty hoods "Simsville" with an "s" for almost twenty years!
Simville! I think it's really neat that at least one other person had the same idea! Alright, take care!
Hi there, I made an account here yesterday and was exploring the website and found this thread/group and just wanted to say something a little interesting
I don't think your hood name is boring at all! I've been on and off calling most of my custom/empty hoods "Simsville" with an "s" for almost twenty years!
Simville! I think it's really neat that at least one other person had the same idea! Alright, take care!
#83
15th Feb 2024 at 12:27 PM
Last edited by gummilutt : 7th May 2024 at 4:28 PM.
Time for another update. A lot longer passed than I would wish, I love this story and I want to finish it but health does what health wants and I've been short-stacked on energy as I usually am in winter. But here we are, once again, taking a trip to Evergreen and one of the families therein. And today, we are stopping back in with the Sawyers!
Chapter 19 - The Sawyer family
Reminder that this story is a little dark, and deals with topics like abuse, so although I keep it PG13 as per the site rules, if you are sensitive to that type of story, you may want to skip the Sawyers for now
Go to chapter 20
Creations can be found on my on tumblr.
Chapter 19 - The Sawyer family
Reminder that this story is a little dark, and deals with topics like abuse, so although I keep it PG13 as per the site rules, if you are sensitive to that type of story, you may want to skip the Sawyers for now
In our last visit, the dynamics in the family had changed a little. Sally Mae is pregnant yet again, and she has started making more demands on her husband in defense of the kids. She is so overwhelmed she can't cope on her own and Billy Bob has to either step up or risk pushing her past the point where she'll take it. He let her go on an outing with the oldest girls to get them some clothes, thanks to a work bonus, and he's been helping out more at home. It's made easier on him by the arrival of his son Joe Bob, who takes on his daddy's hair and eye genes, but deep down it infuriates Billy Bob that he should have to adapt in any way to Sally Mae. She's supposed to adapt to him, pleasing him and giving him everything he needs. Initially he got back at her by demanding she perform her wifely duties more regularly, having woohoo daily or even multiple times a day, but now that she is pregnant once again he has to ease up on that too. Which is how he found himself becoming a regular at the Hot House downtown where he can pay for subservience and doesn't have to pretend. He scored some big husband points by purchasing a third trailer for the grown up kids to live in, away from their younger loud siblings, and putting down money to make it a little nicer than their previous trailers. But having 6 kids to care for, three trailers to clean, and yet another pregnancy draining her reserves is proving very difficult for Sally Mae.
As we join the family in their little slice of desolation, we find Sally Mae sound asleep even though it's 7am and she's usually the first person to wake up.
The older kids are very responsible for their age, and can take care of themselves in a pinch. Thanks to Sally Mae's prep they have breakfast food ready in the fridge which Anna Nicole took out for her and her siblings, so they could eat and then they headed off to school.
Billy Bob headed off for work too, leaving Sally Mae behind to sleep. The owner of the modern bachelor pad across the river probably isn't thrilled that the Sawyer lot is part of their view
Sally Mae slept through them leaving, and slept, and slept. Billy Bob had kept her up late last night with his urges, and she slept right through her internal clock and woke up quite late. Now she's desperately worried about the little ones that were left in their cribs all morning and part of the afternoon.
Thankfully they are study little babies, and they didn't seem any the worse for wear despite being alone for so long.
Soon the older kids were dropped off by the school bus, and one of them brought a friend with them! Little Tyrell Kansal. Who apparently is a hot-blooded little guy showing up in shorts in winter. Brrr! Or perhaps it is because his mother does not pay enough attention to what he's wearing, and forgets to check if he has outerwear with him to school
Billy Bob also arrives back home not long after, and sees Tyrell in the distance (you can maybe see him, he sort of blends into the leaves of the apple tree, he's right by the compost bin). Now you might wonder, is Billy Bob going to chase Tyrell away? He's usually not keen on any sort of outside male presence in his family, of any age.
That is why the kids don't really bring home anyone from school, because they know their dad is not cool with visitors. But today Tyrell convinced them that their dad wouldn't mind him and they risked it. And so far it seems Tyrell was right, as Billy Bob ignores him.
Sally Mae is still with the babies in their trailer, so Lulu Belle takes out a plate of food for everyone to partake.
Over in the babies trailer Sally Mae is really feeling that she too could do with a plate of food. She dashed off to check on them as soon as she woke up and she hasn't had time to go eat something, so she's not had a bite since the day before and she's ravenous.
Outside it has begun to snow heavily, and the ground is soon covered in a thick layer of the white stuff. The kids head outside to make use of this with a fun snowball fight.
Billy Bob didn't even come inside to say hi when returning home from work, instead opting to stay outside and work his muscles on the obstacle course.
Lulu Belle decided to build a snowman, and I was a bit alarmed by her choice of decorations. Apparently our girl has a mean streak! Or perhaps living in this environment is getting to her, and it's her interpretation of her dad
Sally Mae finds time to make a warm pot of spaghetti for the kids to warm up after their play in the snow, I think she too fancied something hot rather than more leftovers.
When Billy Bob finally comes inside that night, Sally Mae is pissed. She's worn down to the bone, and he doesn't even come say hi when he's back from work, doesn't involve himself in the kids and just runs his stupid obstacle course all evening. What does he think this is, some kind of vacation? Sally Mae tells him in no short terms that it's not a vacation so he can go right ahead and think again.
He can't shout back at her, so what does he do? He turns around and marches straight out the door and off into the distance. As he's walking he reminisces back to the early days when they weren't yet married, when she was too spellbound and smitten to even dream of shouting at him.
He heads to the store, and buys some clothes for her and the kids to appease her. Taking a page out of Stoffe's playbook are we Billy Bob? It hasn't been working great for him, just so you know.
And then he heads to the Hot House, to work out his aggression and frustrations there, so he can keep himself from taking it too far with Sally Mae. He could not have put up with his life without this outlet for himself, that's for sure.
That night once he came back home, they both kept to their separate sides of the bed. Both still angry with the other.
The next day Sally Mae was feeling guilty about barely seeing the kids the day before, so she makes sure to make time for them first thing the next morning, going over to their trailer to say good morning and check in before they head off for school.
Junior seems to sense that mommy is having a rough go of it and could do with a hug from her little boy. He's a very sweet sensitive little man.
The shower is broken, yet again. With 2 adults and 4 children taking constant showers the plumbing breaks with mind-numbing regularity. They don't have money for a repairman, and Billy Bob has never shown an interest in helping so it always come down to Sally Mae to get it sorted.
Billy Bob has gone off to work again, and after the shower fixing Sally Mae finds herself spent. This pregnancy turned out to be the straw that broke the camels back, her body is worn out from all the new humans it has grown over the years, and working round the clock day in and day out. So she heads back to bed to take a nap. She doesn't want the little ones to be all alone without supervision again so she brings them to the bedroom to sleep next to her so that she'll wake if they do.
She's awoken by Junior, who is excited to show off his latest report card where he managed to get top grades. She's a good mom, proud of all her kids and wanting to be there, but she definitely wishes Junior had chosen a different day to get a good grade.
She manages a cheer, then tells Junior that mommy isn't feeling well. And she really does look unwell, barely able to stand on her own two legs for that brief moment. Her arms and legs are all thinned out, you can tell she's barely eating and the new pregnancy is sucking up all the nutrients leaving her with nothing much to nourish herself.
When Billy Bob comes home from work an hour later, he finds her fast asleep with the two babies awake but calm next to her. He's angry, because he was going to make a thing of coming in to say hi to her today and present her with the gift, and his ungrateful wife isn't even awake to notice him! He's positively fuming as he leaves the gift box next to the bed so at least she'll see it the moment she wakes up.
He settles in to keep stewing, reading his newspaper, until he notices Lulu Belle next to him chowing down on some leftover spaghetti from yesterday. No daughter of his is going to be allowed to put on the pounds, he's in tip top shape and his kids should be too, in his opinion. So he marches her off towards the obstacle course to run til he says she can stop. Right as they exit Sally Mae, who has finally woken up, comes out with Tamie Lee in her arms.
As usual Peggy Sue gets roped in alongside her twin sister. Billy Bob doesn't abide by quitters, and he keeps them working, in the snow, until late before letting them traipse off to bed.
Sally Mae has stayed in the main trailer, taking care of the two babies. When Billy Bob comes in, she's settled them in the danglemasters and is giving herself time to eat something.
When Billy Bob comes in he quietly picks up Joe Bob and gets him fed, then heads out to put him in his crib for the night, making a new milestone in his relationship with his baby son. He's not best friends with any of them, but Joe Bob gets there. First one to interest him enough to build up a relationship.
He comes back and tells Sally Mae to hand over Tamie Lee as well and he'll settle her in, so Sally Mae can go have an early night since she's so so tired.
The next morning, he keeps it up. He wakes up before Sally Mae, going and getting the twins to feed them while she gets to sit down and have breakfast right away, for once.
After breakfast Sally Mae gets started on the chores, she hasn't had a chance to clean at all in the the last two days. Suddenly Billy Bob starts playing with the babies. What is going on?
And to make it even weirder, he went and made their bed. First "cleaning" chore he's ever done.
Sally Mae went over to the kids trailer to keep them company as they ate breakfast, but she gets called back to the grown up trailer by Billy Bob who made some kind of phonecall.
Who did he call and why you might ask? Why is he taking care of the babies, even doing a minor cleaning chore? What's he got up his sleeve now? Believe it or not, he arranged a playdate for the kids. He's called Tyrell's mom and invited her and her son over to spend the day with them.
Those of you with good memories (and good back of head recognition) may recognize her from a past episode. Jaqueline Kansal, the mother of Tyrell, and sometime host at the Hot House Here Billy Bob is, introducing his wife to Jaqueline.
Sally Mae doesn't know what to think of what was happening, Billy Bob had never invited anyone over before. And arranging a playdate for the kids? What? Since when does he care? It's well timed though, because it's saturday and the kids will be home all day. Billy Bob tells her he wanted to do something fun for the kids that keeps them busy, and he further explained that Jaqueline is great with kids and can help him keep an eye on them so Sally Mae can get even more rest and hopefully have energy for another surprise he's planning the next day. As they work together to settle the babies in before Sally Mae goes to take a nap, he even splurges on calling for a pizza to be delivered.
While Billy Bob keeps the older kids busy with the pizza, Sally Mae seems to be dreaming of spring and the planting she'll be able to do. She doesn't get much time for herself, her little vegetable garden is the thing she does that's sort of about her, even if the veggies also help feed the family. Meanwhile Jaqueline brought Tamie Lee over for a bath.
Which is the first thing Sally Mae sees when she wakes up, somewhat horrified to see a total stranger on the other side of the windows giving her daughter a bath.
But by the time she's dressed and emerges out to the main room of the trailer, Jaqueline is there ready to hand over a newly bathed baby girl to Sally Mae, who does look quite pleased at having her baby back, nice and clean. Billy Bob is once again giving Billy Bob his bottle.
The trailers are usually some degree of chaos, because of all the kids, but this is a type of chaos that is totally unfamiliar to Sally Mae and she doesn't look quite sure what to make of it. Strangers, the smell of pizza, Billy Bob giving Lulu Belle a dance on his toes.
She seems almost relieved when she can turn her back on it all for a moment to wash up plates from breakfast.
The kids seem to have picked up on the fact that their father is in a charitable mood today, which Peggy Sue takes advantage of and goes to show Tyrell how bouncy her parents bed is.
Meanwhile Sally Mae has time to give Lulu Belle help with her homework, for the first time in a good while. Jaqueline and Billy Bob told her to take her time, they got the babies covered so Sally Mae can focus her attention on the older kids that evening.
Peggy Sue wants to talk to the belly and her upcoming new siblings. Given that Sally Mae has had three sets of twins by now, and this is the most tired she's ever been during a pregnancy, everyone fully expects another pair to drop, or even more than 2 perhaps.
Sally Mae even gets to kiss her precious kids goodnight, for once. And you for once get a clear view of the one thing Sally Mae ever spent on for herself. A pretty ring of an apple blossom, her favorite scent. It was a bit of an extravagant purchase for her, she usually funnels all her money towards the kids. But this one time in her life she splurged on herself, using money she made by digging in the yard for things to pawn.
Then she too heads to sleep after a very strange, but for once somewhat relaxing day for her. Billy Bob wanders off after everyone else has gone to bed, heading to the orchard in Bluewater to pick some apples as a gift for Sally Mae. She's been unable to make pepper punch to perk her up, because she ran out of apples. She absolutely relies on the pick me up effect of this juice to get through the day, and not being able to make it anymore is largely why she's been sleeping so much. She can't really manage without it, there's just so much to be done and the pregnancy drains her energy so heavily. Billy Bob figures she'll be nice and grateful to him if he gets her the apples she needs to make it again.
Once he's done apple-picking, he heads to his real destination for the night, which I'm sure you have guessed is Hot House. But he's not just there to partake in the usual offerings, he's arranged to meet up with someone. And who else but Jaqueline?
They arranged the whole thing, a few nights back when Billy Bob came there. He spoke to Jaqueline about his growing frustration with his wife and having to play the nice husband to her. Jaqueline suggested this little scheme, as a way for Billy Bob to get back at his wife without her realizing it. Bringing Jaqueline home, letting her take care of Sally Mae's beloved kids, while secretly sleeping with Billy Bob behind Sally Mae's back. It was a great way for Billy Bob to get back at Sally Mae, in a way she would not know about but he could enjoy secretly.
Jaqueline, you may be surprised to learn, is actually married, but has an open relationship and sometimes comes to the Hot House with her husband to spice things up. She is not part of the staff, she's just a woman that enjoys her kicks and she finds Billy Bob extremely attractive. The fact that he's rude to her is just more spice. And Billy Bob thoroughly enjoys what she has to offer, both bodily, and the fact that she's got a selfish and cruel twist to her just like he does. He doesn't have to pretend with her, he can act as he wishes he could to Sally Mae and know she'll accept it as part of a kink. He's thrilled by the fact that she helped him come up with a way to insult Sally Mae, without her being any the wiser. In a way he's managing to turn his role as a good husband, which he feels compelled to maintain to prevent Sally Mae from questioning her existence, into acts of domination that he can feel good about. It helps him feel less frustrated and angry because it puts him back in control, and that is exciting to him. And as Billy Bob heads into the Hot House with Jaqueline in tow to celebrate this new scheme of theirs, we leave the Sawyers for today.
As we join the family in their little slice of desolation, we find Sally Mae sound asleep even though it's 7am and she's usually the first person to wake up.
The older kids are very responsible for their age, and can take care of themselves in a pinch. Thanks to Sally Mae's prep they have breakfast food ready in the fridge which Anna Nicole took out for her and her siblings, so they could eat and then they headed off to school.
Billy Bob headed off for work too, leaving Sally Mae behind to sleep. The owner of the modern bachelor pad across the river probably isn't thrilled that the Sawyer lot is part of their view
Sally Mae slept through them leaving, and slept, and slept. Billy Bob had kept her up late last night with his urges, and she slept right through her internal clock and woke up quite late. Now she's desperately worried about the little ones that were left in their cribs all morning and part of the afternoon.
Thankfully they are study little babies, and they didn't seem any the worse for wear despite being alone for so long.
Soon the older kids were dropped off by the school bus, and one of them brought a friend with them! Little Tyrell Kansal. Who apparently is a hot-blooded little guy showing up in shorts in winter. Brrr! Or perhaps it is because his mother does not pay enough attention to what he's wearing, and forgets to check if he has outerwear with him to school
Billy Bob also arrives back home not long after, and sees Tyrell in the distance (you can maybe see him, he sort of blends into the leaves of the apple tree, he's right by the compost bin). Now you might wonder, is Billy Bob going to chase Tyrell away? He's usually not keen on any sort of outside male presence in his family, of any age.
That is why the kids don't really bring home anyone from school, because they know their dad is not cool with visitors. But today Tyrell convinced them that their dad wouldn't mind him and they risked it. And so far it seems Tyrell was right, as Billy Bob ignores him.
Sally Mae is still with the babies in their trailer, so Lulu Belle takes out a plate of food for everyone to partake.
Over in the babies trailer Sally Mae is really feeling that she too could do with a plate of food. She dashed off to check on them as soon as she woke up and she hasn't had time to go eat something, so she's not had a bite since the day before and she's ravenous.
Outside it has begun to snow heavily, and the ground is soon covered in a thick layer of the white stuff. The kids head outside to make use of this with a fun snowball fight.
Billy Bob didn't even come inside to say hi when returning home from work, instead opting to stay outside and work his muscles on the obstacle course.
Lulu Belle decided to build a snowman, and I was a bit alarmed by her choice of decorations. Apparently our girl has a mean streak! Or perhaps living in this environment is getting to her, and it's her interpretation of her dad
Sally Mae finds time to make a warm pot of spaghetti for the kids to warm up after their play in the snow, I think she too fancied something hot rather than more leftovers.
When Billy Bob finally comes inside that night, Sally Mae is pissed. She's worn down to the bone, and he doesn't even come say hi when he's back from work, doesn't involve himself in the kids and just runs his stupid obstacle course all evening. What does he think this is, some kind of vacation? Sally Mae tells him in no short terms that it's not a vacation so he can go right ahead and think again.
He can't shout back at her, so what does he do? He turns around and marches straight out the door and off into the distance. As he's walking he reminisces back to the early days when they weren't yet married, when she was too spellbound and smitten to even dream of shouting at him.
He heads to the store, and buys some clothes for her and the kids to appease her. Taking a page out of Stoffe's playbook are we Billy Bob? It hasn't been working great for him, just so you know.
And then he heads to the Hot House, to work out his aggression and frustrations there, so he can keep himself from taking it too far with Sally Mae. He could not have put up with his life without this outlet for himself, that's for sure.
That night once he came back home, they both kept to their separate sides of the bed. Both still angry with the other.
The next day Sally Mae was feeling guilty about barely seeing the kids the day before, so she makes sure to make time for them first thing the next morning, going over to their trailer to say good morning and check in before they head off for school.
Junior seems to sense that mommy is having a rough go of it and could do with a hug from her little boy. He's a very sweet sensitive little man.
The shower is broken, yet again. With 2 adults and 4 children taking constant showers the plumbing breaks with mind-numbing regularity. They don't have money for a repairman, and Billy Bob has never shown an interest in helping so it always come down to Sally Mae to get it sorted.
Billy Bob has gone off to work again, and after the shower fixing Sally Mae finds herself spent. This pregnancy turned out to be the straw that broke the camels back, her body is worn out from all the new humans it has grown over the years, and working round the clock day in and day out. So she heads back to bed to take a nap. She doesn't want the little ones to be all alone without supervision again so she brings them to the bedroom to sleep next to her so that she'll wake if they do.
She's awoken by Junior, who is excited to show off his latest report card where he managed to get top grades. She's a good mom, proud of all her kids and wanting to be there, but she definitely wishes Junior had chosen a different day to get a good grade.
She manages a cheer, then tells Junior that mommy isn't feeling well. And she really does look unwell, barely able to stand on her own two legs for that brief moment. Her arms and legs are all thinned out, you can tell she's barely eating and the new pregnancy is sucking up all the nutrients leaving her with nothing much to nourish herself.
When Billy Bob comes home from work an hour later, he finds her fast asleep with the two babies awake but calm next to her. He's angry, because he was going to make a thing of coming in to say hi to her today and present her with the gift, and his ungrateful wife isn't even awake to notice him! He's positively fuming as he leaves the gift box next to the bed so at least she'll see it the moment she wakes up.
He settles in to keep stewing, reading his newspaper, until he notices Lulu Belle next to him chowing down on some leftover spaghetti from yesterday. No daughter of his is going to be allowed to put on the pounds, he's in tip top shape and his kids should be too, in his opinion. So he marches her off towards the obstacle course to run til he says she can stop. Right as they exit Sally Mae, who has finally woken up, comes out with Tamie Lee in her arms.
As usual Peggy Sue gets roped in alongside her twin sister. Billy Bob doesn't abide by quitters, and he keeps them working, in the snow, until late before letting them traipse off to bed.
Sally Mae has stayed in the main trailer, taking care of the two babies. When Billy Bob comes in, she's settled them in the danglemasters and is giving herself time to eat something.
When Billy Bob comes in he quietly picks up Joe Bob and gets him fed, then heads out to put him in his crib for the night, making a new milestone in his relationship with his baby son. He's not best friends with any of them, but Joe Bob gets there. First one to interest him enough to build up a relationship.
He comes back and tells Sally Mae to hand over Tamie Lee as well and he'll settle her in, so Sally Mae can go have an early night since she's so so tired.
The next morning, he keeps it up. He wakes up before Sally Mae, going and getting the twins to feed them while she gets to sit down and have breakfast right away, for once.
After breakfast Sally Mae gets started on the chores, she hasn't had a chance to clean at all in the the last two days. Suddenly Billy Bob starts playing with the babies. What is going on?
And to make it even weirder, he went and made their bed. First "cleaning" chore he's ever done.
Sally Mae went over to the kids trailer to keep them company as they ate breakfast, but she gets called back to the grown up trailer by Billy Bob who made some kind of phonecall.
Who did he call and why you might ask? Why is he taking care of the babies, even doing a minor cleaning chore? What's he got up his sleeve now? Believe it or not, he arranged a playdate for the kids. He's called Tyrell's mom and invited her and her son over to spend the day with them.
Those of you with good memories (and good back of head recognition) may recognize her from a past episode. Jaqueline Kansal, the mother of Tyrell, and sometime host at the Hot House Here Billy Bob is, introducing his wife to Jaqueline.
Sally Mae doesn't know what to think of what was happening, Billy Bob had never invited anyone over before. And arranging a playdate for the kids? What? Since when does he care? It's well timed though, because it's saturday and the kids will be home all day. Billy Bob tells her he wanted to do something fun for the kids that keeps them busy, and he further explained that Jaqueline is great with kids and can help him keep an eye on them so Sally Mae can get even more rest and hopefully have energy for another surprise he's planning the next day. As they work together to settle the babies in before Sally Mae goes to take a nap, he even splurges on calling for a pizza to be delivered.
While Billy Bob keeps the older kids busy with the pizza, Sally Mae seems to be dreaming of spring and the planting she'll be able to do. She doesn't get much time for herself, her little vegetable garden is the thing she does that's sort of about her, even if the veggies also help feed the family. Meanwhile Jaqueline brought Tamie Lee over for a bath.
Which is the first thing Sally Mae sees when she wakes up, somewhat horrified to see a total stranger on the other side of the windows giving her daughter a bath.
But by the time she's dressed and emerges out to the main room of the trailer, Jaqueline is there ready to hand over a newly bathed baby girl to Sally Mae, who does look quite pleased at having her baby back, nice and clean. Billy Bob is once again giving Billy Bob his bottle.
The trailers are usually some degree of chaos, because of all the kids, but this is a type of chaos that is totally unfamiliar to Sally Mae and she doesn't look quite sure what to make of it. Strangers, the smell of pizza, Billy Bob giving Lulu Belle a dance on his toes.
She seems almost relieved when she can turn her back on it all for a moment to wash up plates from breakfast.
The kids seem to have picked up on the fact that their father is in a charitable mood today, which Peggy Sue takes advantage of and goes to show Tyrell how bouncy her parents bed is.
Meanwhile Sally Mae has time to give Lulu Belle help with her homework, for the first time in a good while. Jaqueline and Billy Bob told her to take her time, they got the babies covered so Sally Mae can focus her attention on the older kids that evening.
Peggy Sue wants to talk to the belly and her upcoming new siblings. Given that Sally Mae has had three sets of twins by now, and this is the most tired she's ever been during a pregnancy, everyone fully expects another pair to drop, or even more than 2 perhaps.
Sally Mae even gets to kiss her precious kids goodnight, for once. And you for once get a clear view of the one thing Sally Mae ever spent on for herself. A pretty ring of an apple blossom, her favorite scent. It was a bit of an extravagant purchase for her, she usually funnels all her money towards the kids. But this one time in her life she splurged on herself, using money she made by digging in the yard for things to pawn.
Then she too heads to sleep after a very strange, but for once somewhat relaxing day for her. Billy Bob wanders off after everyone else has gone to bed, heading to the orchard in Bluewater to pick some apples as a gift for Sally Mae. She's been unable to make pepper punch to perk her up, because she ran out of apples. She absolutely relies on the pick me up effect of this juice to get through the day, and not being able to make it anymore is largely why she's been sleeping so much. She can't really manage without it, there's just so much to be done and the pregnancy drains her energy so heavily. Billy Bob figures she'll be nice and grateful to him if he gets her the apples she needs to make it again.
Once he's done apple-picking, he heads to his real destination for the night, which I'm sure you have guessed is Hot House. But he's not just there to partake in the usual offerings, he's arranged to meet up with someone. And who else but Jaqueline?
They arranged the whole thing, a few nights back when Billy Bob came there. He spoke to Jaqueline about his growing frustration with his wife and having to play the nice husband to her. Jaqueline suggested this little scheme, as a way for Billy Bob to get back at his wife without her realizing it. Bringing Jaqueline home, letting her take care of Sally Mae's beloved kids, while secretly sleeping with Billy Bob behind Sally Mae's back. It was a great way for Billy Bob to get back at Sally Mae, in a way she would not know about but he could enjoy secretly.
Jaqueline, you may be surprised to learn, is actually married, but has an open relationship and sometimes comes to the Hot House with her husband to spice things up. She is not part of the staff, she's just a woman that enjoys her kicks and she finds Billy Bob extremely attractive. The fact that he's rude to her is just more spice. And Billy Bob thoroughly enjoys what she has to offer, both bodily, and the fact that she's got a selfish and cruel twist to her just like he does. He doesn't have to pretend with her, he can act as he wishes he could to Sally Mae and know she'll accept it as part of a kink. He's thrilled by the fact that she helped him come up with a way to insult Sally Mae, without her being any the wiser. In a way he's managing to turn his role as a good husband, which he feels compelled to maintain to prevent Sally Mae from questioning her existence, into acts of domination that he can feel good about. It helps him feel less frustrated and angry because it puts him back in control, and that is exciting to him. And as Billy Bob heads into the Hot House with Jaqueline in tow to celebrate this new scheme of theirs, we leave the Sawyers for today.
Go to chapter 20
Creations can be found on my on tumblr.
#84
15th Feb 2024 at 12:29 PM
Quote: Originally posted by danbot
@gummilutt Hi there, I made an account here yesterday and was exploring the website and found this thread/group and just wanted to say something a little interesting I don't think your hood name is boring at all! I've been on and off calling most of my custom/empty hoods "Simsville" with an "s" for almost twenty years! Simville! I think it's really neat that at least one other person had the same idea! Alright, take care! |
Very sweet of you to come tell me that you too have a similar name for your hood I think it's probably a fairly common name, along with things like Simtown or Sim City. Easy name to come up with, and to the point descriptive. It's a little cliche, but it's what's inside the hood that matters to me, not the name
Creations can be found on my on tumblr.
#85
22nd Feb 2024 at 4:55 PM
Last edited by gummilutt : 7th Sep 2024 at 2:23 PM.
For once, an update not too long after the last one was posted Lets check back in with Stoffe, and see how he's getting on.
Chapter 20 - Stoffe Andersson
Read bonus content on hood lore
Creations can be found on my on tumblr.
Chapter 20 - Stoffe Andersson
In our recent episode, Stoffe's streak of bad luck continued. He's homeless, living in a clearing in the forest unbeknownst to everyone as Stoffe is too proud to ask for help or let anyone know how far he's fallen. He got handed a massive alimony ruling that means that unless he's willing to swallow his pride and admit the situation to someone, he's going to continue living in the woods for a long time until he's paid off the alimony he owes Vanessa.
To add insult to injury he got hit by lightning in a raging storm, and it resulted in him losing his franchise contract with the Sernman Group at the city central car dealership. He still has his own car store in Bluewater, and his job as vice president of Bridgepoint Solutions Co, but losing the contract was a big blow to Stoffe's self esteem. It upsets him that he looked a fool in the eyes of Daniel who chairs the family collective, he was very proud to have earned the trust of this mogul, and to have been given a chance to run the city branch for them. He greatly admires the work Daniel has done in building up such an empire for himself and his family, and he hates the thought that Daniel now thinks negatively of him.
His entire world view is being questioned and shaken up, he had achieved a fortune, he had a wife from a prestigious family, all the things he thought as a child would make him happy. But was he happy? Was his marriage with Vanessa actually solid? If it had been, would she have divorced him the way she did the moment things got difficult? Those are the thoughts Stoffe can't keep out of his mind as the rain keeps him locked up in his tent in the forest for hours on end, day after day.
As the days go on, he spends more and more time at the gym. Aside from the fact that it offer facilities he can use to hide his homelessness, it also gives him an outlet for all his frustration with how his life has gone. Rakel's gym is closest to the clearing and has the best facilities, but because she is Vanessa's closest friend and witnessed their marriage falling apart it's not an entirely comfortable feeling for Stoffe to go there. So sometimes he changes it up and visits the other gyms in the area. One day while he's running on the treadmill in the small gym in Sunnyside Mall in the city center of Evergreen, Vanessa and Rakel show up, also visiting the mall.
Rakel often checks out who is visiting the other gyms, to verify that her clients are loyal to her gym. She is none too pleased about finding Stoffe working out there. She gives him a piece of her mind, chewing him up for being disloyal to her gym. She argues that it is unbecoming for him to be working out with the poor people.
At first Stoffe decides to just leave the mall, looking quite melancholy as he quietly slips past Vanessa to head out of the mall.
But just as he's about to get outside, he changes his mind, turns around and walks back towards Vanessa.
He doesn't know how he feels about her, and interacting with her at all is making it worse, but that is his child she's carrying and he decided he should take this opportunity to speak to her tummy.
Vanessa however is not having any of that, and recoils from him which makes Stoffe upset. Surely she doesn't think he'd harm her or something?
All he wanted was to interact with his unborn child, and this how she reacts. He's done a lot of swallowing his emotions and saying nothing, but this time he can't help himself. Before he knows it, he's shouting at her. "I just wanted to greet the baby and you act like I'm contagious. What have I ever done to hurt you?!"
"Don't touch me! You did hurt me, you jerk! You think losing my home and possessions is harmless? How dare you!"
Stoffe doesn't have a comeback to that, and he realizes that he should have stuck with his first choice and just left. Getting seen in public screaming at his very visibly pregnant ex-wife is not a good look, and one that comes back to bite him later. As you know from Vanessa's perspective (although this took place before she left Rakel's house) she ended up getting awarded fully custody of their daughter, and this incident was part of the reason. Because there were witnesses that could verify that Stoffe tried to touch her, and it made her uncomfortable, and then he yelled at her. She has that pregnant lady empathy card, it doesn't look good to be trying to touch her or yell at her. So in the end as you know the courts granted Vanessa custody, and placed a visitation ban on Stoffe so that Vanessa does not have to worry about interacting with her ex husband since it is triggering for her. It's all very sad, Stoffe has no ill intentions towards anyone, least of all the mother of his child. However angry he may be with her, he does love his child and and wants his child to have both his parents since he knows what it's like to not have that. But the legal system cares little about your intentions, so for now, Stoffe will have to love his daughter through a representative.
Since he got driven away from the gym at the mall and he wasn't in the mood to go to Rakel's place right after she yelled at him, Stoffe decided to just run around town instead. Which is how he found himself on the street outside of Andreas' and Isabelle's house on the north side of town.
Isabelle was outside tending to her fruit trees, and spotted him. They hadn't met since Andreas brought him home from work back in Episode 9, but out of all of Andreas friends/visitors Stoffe is the only one that Isabelle actually liked. As you may recall they have a toddler son named Tore, who was born prematurely due to Isabelle being at risk of dying from how sick the pregnancy made her. She feels she is partly to blame for the health struggles Tore still has from his early arrival in this world, and that makes her fiercely protective of him.
Most of Andreas friends are typical bros, that don't necessarily take naturally to the concept of being quiet and not disturbing the baby, so him and Isabelle agreed that he meets those friends elsewhere and not at the house. But she knows her boyfriend is a very social man and that he wishes he could still have people over, so she was thrilled to come across an acquaintance of his that wasn't your typical bro. Stoffe was gentle in his interactions with Tore, and helpful towards her and Andreas so their evening went more smoothly. She'd been telling Andreas he should invite Stoffe again, but he hasn't had a chance to yet. So when Isabelle spotted Stoffe jogging past she waved him down and went to say hi, inviting him to stay a while and see Andreas and Tore again.
Tore had just woken up from his nap and Andreas was coming downstairs with him to feed him his afternoon meal. Stoffe was still upset about Vanessa rejecting him, so it felt good to have someone seem excited to see him. He was grateful for the invitation, but seeing Andreas was busy with Tore he figured he should give Andreas some space.
So instead he went back outside, and asked Isabelle if she would like some help tending to her vegetable garden. As you know Evergreen has great faith in the health benefits and restorative properties of fresh produce, so once they moved to the house Isabelle immediately started a vegetable garden to ensure Tore had constant access to good greens. Stoffe hasn't the first idea about gardening, but he figured he could probably handle watering them and Isabelle agreed, so while she tended to the weeds he walked around with the watering can giving them all a nice splash of water. More plus points in Isabelle's book!
After they finished tending the garden Andreas called them inside to come eat the pancakes he had made for lunch. I don't think pancakes are food, they are dessert, but Andreas agrees with my mother that they are excellent lunch material. Isabelle looked so adorably happy to have Stoffe back in the house, the one house guest she could tolerate that could give Andreas some of his social youth back. Tore had fun playing with his Jack-in-the-box as Stoffe and Andreas discussed the latest soccer match, and making plans to perhaps attend a game together.
Stoffe is once again proving he's a very helpful house guest, getting up to clean up Tore's bowl and the lunch plates. It's very sweet of him, giving Andreas and Isabelle a moment to sit and talk for a change. Tore had crawled off to play with other toys just out of frame.
Andreas and Isabelle had prior plans to run some errands that afternoon, but they told Stoffe he's very welcome to stay in their home while they are out, if he wants to. Stoffe appreciates the offer since their house is a lot more fun than a clearing in the woods, and so he graciously accepts, thanking them for being so welcoming to him. Unfortunately for Stoffe, as Andreas and Isabelle head outside to greet Andreas mother who has come over to babysit, they also spot Daniel Sernman walking by.
And unfortunately for Stoffe, Daniel also gets that same invitation, because he is a family friend. Andreas' sister is Emma, who is married to Daniel's son Joel. The two sets of parents are close, so of course Daniel is invited to hang out and keep grandma company as she babysits. Had Andreas known about the awkwardness between Daniel and Stoffe he would not have invited him, but he doesn't because Stoffe has taken pains to hide his personal life from his corporate job. Nobody knows Daniel is the presiding judge in Stoffe's divorce proceedings, nor do they know the true story of why the contract with Sernman Group ended. Daniel hasn't been spreading word either, as he feels it reflects badly on the business. He prefers to simply state that Joel wanted to come out of retirement and that is why they went their separate ways, which Andreas easily accepts as he knows his sister's family could use the money.
Stoffe did not catch this interaction, because he was in the backyard having a grand old time with the trampoline there. He truly is a kid at heart, made so happy by bouncing up and down and letting his body flail around like a kid would.
He was less amused when he came back inside and found Daniel and Andreas mother Maja watching TV together. But he couldn't very well turn around and go back outside now he'd come inside, so he sat down with them and tried his best at making conversation, though you can tell he's clenching his teeth and is very uncomfortable about it. They all seem a bit tense and like they can all feel the atmosphere isn't great.
Stoffe decides to excuse himself and goes outside to grab a glass of wine from Andreas supply. He doesn't drink much, but if he ever needed one, it would be in this situation. Unfortunately Daniel follows him out there, and as they stand awkwardly in silence Stoffe can't help but start to sweat and turn stinky. It's uncomfortable being watched by those steely grey eyes, Daniel can really stare daggers at you if he wants to.
So Stoffe decides it's time to call it quits, and after asking Andreas mother to pass along his thanks for the hospitality to her son when he returns, he heads off.
Despite his earlier unwillingness to visit Rakel's gym again, it's on the way to the clearing, so he goes there anyway to have a shower and change his clothes. When he makes it back to the clearing it's still early evening so catches up on the news of the day. He's procured a lawn chair and an outdoor table so he has somewhere to sit outside, the tents get pretty cramped after a while. He'll endure it when it's raining, but if it's not, he'd rather be in the open air. A swarm of fireflies keep him company, lighting up the paper for him in the falling darkness.
The day has given Stoffe a lot to think about. It started unpleasant with running into Vanessa and getting in a fight with her, and he could have gladly skipped the Daniel-part at the end, but for the first time in a long time he felt welcome. Ever since returning from Twikki it had been a lot of rude awakenings for him, and doors slamming shut. He didn't expect Vanessa to divorce him, and he certainly had no idea divorce would be so harsh and cold.
He had thought he had made progress in becoming part of the upper echelon of Evergreen, being recognized as one of them. Sure he was still very young, but his rapid ascent to wealth had impressed a lot of people and given him a lot of contacts, and his marriage to Vanessa had helped lend him a degree of authenticity. He lost that in the divorce, but by now he had established himself, he figured it wouldn't be that much of a blow to lose the name. But to his surprise, his connections in Evergreen were shutting their doors to him, seeming happy to pretend they never knew him. He hadn't noticed a big difference among the customers at his business or from his employees, but all those contacts he had made at endless company events, networking and mingling, the ones whose approval and admiration he so deeply craved, they suddenly seemed to think he had a bad smell and was contagious to boot. Rakel he had counted on, given that she was Vanessa's closest friend. But every single one he reached out to responded with hostility and hanging up the phone.
Even the Mayor and his family, who had been so proud of Stoffe previously as the great new star of the town that was going to bring job opportunities and up the prestige of Evergreen. What Stoffe didn't realize is that nothing makes you more undesirable than losing your wealth. You aren't anyone unless you got the money to back that up. They may have had some degree of sympathy if it was a market crash, since that would have impacted them all, but in their opinion Stoffe had only himself to blame for his folly. He even risked damaging their nearby mansions with his recklessness! What if the fire had spread? And for the Mayor specifically it was a potential PR-disaster, his big star turned into some kind of.. of... fire hazardist! Or arsonist or something. What are people going to think? Does he not realize how badly this reflects on the Mayor? The last thing Mayor Bloonberg wants to do is remind people of his previous approval of Stoffe, he wouldn't touch him with a ten foot pole right now!
And that is exactly what Stoffe, in his idolization of the big mansions and flashy people north of the river, failed to realize. To a kid with nothing in the orphanage, living in a mansion and being rich and admired might seem like the greatest thing in the world, but that world is cut-throat and cold. If your usefulness drops, then what's the point? The connections made are very rarely genuine, and are more business transactions than real human connections. And at his core, that is not who Stoffe is. He's business savvy, but he's not selfish, nor cruel. He's the type of dude to give the butler a vacation when he's going to be out of town, because if he's going to rest and enjoy himself, why shouldn't the butler get to do the same? That is not how people of that world think. They don't care about the lives of anyone else, or their happiness or enjoyment. Self-interest is their guiding star. They are happy to exchange business cards and be your friend when it's beneficial. They were all happy to embrace Stoffe because his drive and ambition seemed destined to take him far and by getting in early they were sure to be viewed more favorably down the road if Stoffe became the big cheese. And then his fortunes took a total nosedive, the investment didn't pan out so they cut him loose and went on with their lives. That's how they operate.
Lena had been trying to gently open Stoffe's eyes to this, during their conversation in the park after he argued with Vanessa. She moves in these circles to scrounge up donations to the orphanage, she's well aware of how they operate. She berates herself a little for not challenging Stoffe's world view more when he was a teen, but she doesn't like to get in the way of the choices made by her charges. After all, maybe he would succeed and not necessarily have to deal with the negative aspects of that world. And some mistakes you have to make in order to learn from them. An adult telling you how the world works is rarely as effective as experiencing it yourself, and sometimes people just don't want to hear your advice even if you know you are right.
Stoffe has to figure this one out for himself, all she can do is drop hints and let him work it out for himself. She told him money is not a cure all, and that he has to get to the root of the problem, though at the time Stoffe didn't really pick up on what she was trying to say. He still tried to solve Vanessa being mad at him by buying her more things, thinking once again that expensive things would somehow make everything okay. It didn't work. He found himself signing divorce papers, getting the cold shoulder from people, and suddenly living in a tent. The people he thought would support him, didn't. The circumstances were forcibly opening Stoffe's eyes to the fact that maybe, just maybe, his view of the world had some problems.
And then while he's out jogging, someone he'd only met once briefly shines up seeing him and dashes over to say hi and invites him to please come in and stay awhile. Nobody had been reaching out to him, to see how he was doing. It felt so good to see a friendly smile, to feel welcome, to feel like someone was actually happy to see him. The more he thought it, the kinder it seemed that they would invite him to stay even though they had a prior engagement they had to go to, letting him hang out with Andreas mother. He wasn't sure what to think at this point, and as he headed to his tent to get some sleep his head was full of questions and a general sense of confusion.
To add insult to injury he got hit by lightning in a raging storm, and it resulted in him losing his franchise contract with the Sernman Group at the city central car dealership. He still has his own car store in Bluewater, and his job as vice president of Bridgepoint Solutions Co, but losing the contract was a big blow to Stoffe's self esteem. It upsets him that he looked a fool in the eyes of Daniel who chairs the family collective, he was very proud to have earned the trust of this mogul, and to have been given a chance to run the city branch for them. He greatly admires the work Daniel has done in building up such an empire for himself and his family, and he hates the thought that Daniel now thinks negatively of him.
His entire world view is being questioned and shaken up, he had achieved a fortune, he had a wife from a prestigious family, all the things he thought as a child would make him happy. But was he happy? Was his marriage with Vanessa actually solid? If it had been, would she have divorced him the way she did the moment things got difficult? Those are the thoughts Stoffe can't keep out of his mind as the rain keeps him locked up in his tent in the forest for hours on end, day after day.
As the days go on, he spends more and more time at the gym. Aside from the fact that it offer facilities he can use to hide his homelessness, it also gives him an outlet for all his frustration with how his life has gone. Rakel's gym is closest to the clearing and has the best facilities, but because she is Vanessa's closest friend and witnessed their marriage falling apart it's not an entirely comfortable feeling for Stoffe to go there. So sometimes he changes it up and visits the other gyms in the area. One day while he's running on the treadmill in the small gym in Sunnyside Mall in the city center of Evergreen, Vanessa and Rakel show up, also visiting the mall.
Rakel often checks out who is visiting the other gyms, to verify that her clients are loyal to her gym. She is none too pleased about finding Stoffe working out there. She gives him a piece of her mind, chewing him up for being disloyal to her gym. She argues that it is unbecoming for him to be working out with the poor people.
At first Stoffe decides to just leave the mall, looking quite melancholy as he quietly slips past Vanessa to head out of the mall.
But just as he's about to get outside, he changes his mind, turns around and walks back towards Vanessa.
He doesn't know how he feels about her, and interacting with her at all is making it worse, but that is his child she's carrying and he decided he should take this opportunity to speak to her tummy.
Vanessa however is not having any of that, and recoils from him which makes Stoffe upset. Surely she doesn't think he'd harm her or something?
All he wanted was to interact with his unborn child, and this how she reacts. He's done a lot of swallowing his emotions and saying nothing, but this time he can't help himself. Before he knows it, he's shouting at her. "I just wanted to greet the baby and you act like I'm contagious. What have I ever done to hurt you?!"
"Don't touch me! You did hurt me, you jerk! You think losing my home and possessions is harmless? How dare you!"
Stoffe doesn't have a comeback to that, and he realizes that he should have stuck with his first choice and just left. Getting seen in public screaming at his very visibly pregnant ex-wife is not a good look, and one that comes back to bite him later. As you know from Vanessa's perspective (although this took place before she left Rakel's house) she ended up getting awarded fully custody of their daughter, and this incident was part of the reason. Because there were witnesses that could verify that Stoffe tried to touch her, and it made her uncomfortable, and then he yelled at her. She has that pregnant lady empathy card, it doesn't look good to be trying to touch her or yell at her. So in the end as you know the courts granted Vanessa custody, and placed a visitation ban on Stoffe so that Vanessa does not have to worry about interacting with her ex husband since it is triggering for her. It's all very sad, Stoffe has no ill intentions towards anyone, least of all the mother of his child. However angry he may be with her, he does love his child and and wants his child to have both his parents since he knows what it's like to not have that. But the legal system cares little about your intentions, so for now, Stoffe will have to love his daughter through a representative.
Since he got driven away from the gym at the mall and he wasn't in the mood to go to Rakel's place right after she yelled at him, Stoffe decided to just run around town instead. Which is how he found himself on the street outside of Andreas' and Isabelle's house on the north side of town.
Isabelle was outside tending to her fruit trees, and spotted him. They hadn't met since Andreas brought him home from work back in Episode 9, but out of all of Andreas friends/visitors Stoffe is the only one that Isabelle actually liked. As you may recall they have a toddler son named Tore, who was born prematurely due to Isabelle being at risk of dying from how sick the pregnancy made her. She feels she is partly to blame for the health struggles Tore still has from his early arrival in this world, and that makes her fiercely protective of him.
Most of Andreas friends are typical bros, that don't necessarily take naturally to the concept of being quiet and not disturbing the baby, so him and Isabelle agreed that he meets those friends elsewhere and not at the house. But she knows her boyfriend is a very social man and that he wishes he could still have people over, so she was thrilled to come across an acquaintance of his that wasn't your typical bro. Stoffe was gentle in his interactions with Tore, and helpful towards her and Andreas so their evening went more smoothly. She'd been telling Andreas he should invite Stoffe again, but he hasn't had a chance to yet. So when Isabelle spotted Stoffe jogging past she waved him down and went to say hi, inviting him to stay a while and see Andreas and Tore again.
Tore had just woken up from his nap and Andreas was coming downstairs with him to feed him his afternoon meal. Stoffe was still upset about Vanessa rejecting him, so it felt good to have someone seem excited to see him. He was grateful for the invitation, but seeing Andreas was busy with Tore he figured he should give Andreas some space.
So instead he went back outside, and asked Isabelle if she would like some help tending to her vegetable garden. As you know Evergreen has great faith in the health benefits and restorative properties of fresh produce, so once they moved to the house Isabelle immediately started a vegetable garden to ensure Tore had constant access to good greens. Stoffe hasn't the first idea about gardening, but he figured he could probably handle watering them and Isabelle agreed, so while she tended to the weeds he walked around with the watering can giving them all a nice splash of water. More plus points in Isabelle's book!
After they finished tending the garden Andreas called them inside to come eat the pancakes he had made for lunch. I don't think pancakes are food, they are dessert, but Andreas agrees with my mother that they are excellent lunch material. Isabelle looked so adorably happy to have Stoffe back in the house, the one house guest she could tolerate that could give Andreas some of his social youth back. Tore had fun playing with his Jack-in-the-box as Stoffe and Andreas discussed the latest soccer match, and making plans to perhaps attend a game together.
Stoffe is once again proving he's a very helpful house guest, getting up to clean up Tore's bowl and the lunch plates. It's very sweet of him, giving Andreas and Isabelle a moment to sit and talk for a change. Tore had crawled off to play with other toys just out of frame.
Andreas and Isabelle had prior plans to run some errands that afternoon, but they told Stoffe he's very welcome to stay in their home while they are out, if he wants to. Stoffe appreciates the offer since their house is a lot more fun than a clearing in the woods, and so he graciously accepts, thanking them for being so welcoming to him. Unfortunately for Stoffe, as Andreas and Isabelle head outside to greet Andreas mother who has come over to babysit, they also spot Daniel Sernman walking by.
And unfortunately for Stoffe, Daniel also gets that same invitation, because he is a family friend. Andreas' sister is Emma, who is married to Daniel's son Joel. The two sets of parents are close, so of course Daniel is invited to hang out and keep grandma company as she babysits. Had Andreas known about the awkwardness between Daniel and Stoffe he would not have invited him, but he doesn't because Stoffe has taken pains to hide his personal life from his corporate job. Nobody knows Daniel is the presiding judge in Stoffe's divorce proceedings, nor do they know the true story of why the contract with Sernman Group ended. Daniel hasn't been spreading word either, as he feels it reflects badly on the business. He prefers to simply state that Joel wanted to come out of retirement and that is why they went their separate ways, which Andreas easily accepts as he knows his sister's family could use the money.
Stoffe did not catch this interaction, because he was in the backyard having a grand old time with the trampoline there. He truly is a kid at heart, made so happy by bouncing up and down and letting his body flail around like a kid would.
He was less amused when he came back inside and found Daniel and Andreas mother Maja watching TV together. But he couldn't very well turn around and go back outside now he'd come inside, so he sat down with them and tried his best at making conversation, though you can tell he's clenching his teeth and is very uncomfortable about it. They all seem a bit tense and like they can all feel the atmosphere isn't great.
Stoffe decides to excuse himself and goes outside to grab a glass of wine from Andreas supply. He doesn't drink much, but if he ever needed one, it would be in this situation. Unfortunately Daniel follows him out there, and as they stand awkwardly in silence Stoffe can't help but start to sweat and turn stinky. It's uncomfortable being watched by those steely grey eyes, Daniel can really stare daggers at you if he wants to.
So Stoffe decides it's time to call it quits, and after asking Andreas mother to pass along his thanks for the hospitality to her son when he returns, he heads off.
Despite his earlier unwillingness to visit Rakel's gym again, it's on the way to the clearing, so he goes there anyway to have a shower and change his clothes. When he makes it back to the clearing it's still early evening so catches up on the news of the day. He's procured a lawn chair and an outdoor table so he has somewhere to sit outside, the tents get pretty cramped after a while. He'll endure it when it's raining, but if it's not, he'd rather be in the open air. A swarm of fireflies keep him company, lighting up the paper for him in the falling darkness.
The day has given Stoffe a lot to think about. It started unpleasant with running into Vanessa and getting in a fight with her, and he could have gladly skipped the Daniel-part at the end, but for the first time in a long time he felt welcome. Ever since returning from Twikki it had been a lot of rude awakenings for him, and doors slamming shut. He didn't expect Vanessa to divorce him, and he certainly had no idea divorce would be so harsh and cold.
He had thought he had made progress in becoming part of the upper echelon of Evergreen, being recognized as one of them. Sure he was still very young, but his rapid ascent to wealth had impressed a lot of people and given him a lot of contacts, and his marriage to Vanessa had helped lend him a degree of authenticity. He lost that in the divorce, but by now he had established himself, he figured it wouldn't be that much of a blow to lose the name. But to his surprise, his connections in Evergreen were shutting their doors to him, seeming happy to pretend they never knew him. He hadn't noticed a big difference among the customers at his business or from his employees, but all those contacts he had made at endless company events, networking and mingling, the ones whose approval and admiration he so deeply craved, they suddenly seemed to think he had a bad smell and was contagious to boot. Rakel he had counted on, given that she was Vanessa's closest friend. But every single one he reached out to responded with hostility and hanging up the phone.
Even the Mayor and his family, who had been so proud of Stoffe previously as the great new star of the town that was going to bring job opportunities and up the prestige of Evergreen. What Stoffe didn't realize is that nothing makes you more undesirable than losing your wealth. You aren't anyone unless you got the money to back that up. They may have had some degree of sympathy if it was a market crash, since that would have impacted them all, but in their opinion Stoffe had only himself to blame for his folly. He even risked damaging their nearby mansions with his recklessness! What if the fire had spread? And for the Mayor specifically it was a potential PR-disaster, his big star turned into some kind of.. of... fire hazardist! Or arsonist or something. What are people going to think? Does he not realize how badly this reflects on the Mayor? The last thing Mayor Bloonberg wants to do is remind people of his previous approval of Stoffe, he wouldn't touch him with a ten foot pole right now!
And that is exactly what Stoffe, in his idolization of the big mansions and flashy people north of the river, failed to realize. To a kid with nothing in the orphanage, living in a mansion and being rich and admired might seem like the greatest thing in the world, but that world is cut-throat and cold. If your usefulness drops, then what's the point? The connections made are very rarely genuine, and are more business transactions than real human connections. And at his core, that is not who Stoffe is. He's business savvy, but he's not selfish, nor cruel. He's the type of dude to give the butler a vacation when he's going to be out of town, because if he's going to rest and enjoy himself, why shouldn't the butler get to do the same? That is not how people of that world think. They don't care about the lives of anyone else, or their happiness or enjoyment. Self-interest is their guiding star. They are happy to exchange business cards and be your friend when it's beneficial. They were all happy to embrace Stoffe because his drive and ambition seemed destined to take him far and by getting in early they were sure to be viewed more favorably down the road if Stoffe became the big cheese. And then his fortunes took a total nosedive, the investment didn't pan out so they cut him loose and went on with their lives. That's how they operate.
Lena had been trying to gently open Stoffe's eyes to this, during their conversation in the park after he argued with Vanessa. She moves in these circles to scrounge up donations to the orphanage, she's well aware of how they operate. She berates herself a little for not challenging Stoffe's world view more when he was a teen, but she doesn't like to get in the way of the choices made by her charges. After all, maybe he would succeed and not necessarily have to deal with the negative aspects of that world. And some mistakes you have to make in order to learn from them. An adult telling you how the world works is rarely as effective as experiencing it yourself, and sometimes people just don't want to hear your advice even if you know you are right.
Stoffe has to figure this one out for himself, all she can do is drop hints and let him work it out for himself. She told him money is not a cure all, and that he has to get to the root of the problem, though at the time Stoffe didn't really pick up on what she was trying to say. He still tried to solve Vanessa being mad at him by buying her more things, thinking once again that expensive things would somehow make everything okay. It didn't work. He found himself signing divorce papers, getting the cold shoulder from people, and suddenly living in a tent. The people he thought would support him, didn't. The circumstances were forcibly opening Stoffe's eyes to the fact that maybe, just maybe, his view of the world had some problems.
And then while he's out jogging, someone he'd only met once briefly shines up seeing him and dashes over to say hi and invites him to please come in and stay awhile. Nobody had been reaching out to him, to see how he was doing. It felt so good to see a friendly smile, to feel welcome, to feel like someone was actually happy to see him. The more he thought it, the kinder it seemed that they would invite him to stay even though they had a prior engagement they had to go to, letting him hang out with Andreas mother. He wasn't sure what to think at this point, and as he headed to his tent to get some sleep his head was full of questions and a general sense of confusion.
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Creations can be found on my on tumblr.
#86
28th Mar 2024 at 11:06 AM
I am aware I haven't updated this in a month, and I'm sorry about that. It's because I am doing some major developing and planning, that will benefit this in the end. I had been stuck on how to continue in my own game play for a while and I've finally figured it out. I've also been getting inspired by Charmful and working on my hood in general. I will resume posting this story when I have some chapters lined up so I can try to post with a regular schedule. I have over 20 ready picture-wise, but they need writing to go along and as this story gets more complicated I am trying to shift over to more text to better convey the nuances. So apologies for drought, hopefully you will feel it's worth it in the end
Creations can be found on my on tumblr.
Creations can be found on my on tumblr.
#87
2nd May 2024 at 8:48 PM
Rebranding and hood developments
One of the things I've been working on, is making my hood a little more unique. It's having a 2024 glow-up and I'm really excited about it As I mentioned in the last post I've been getting inspired by Charmful and her hood Kashmire, and I decided that after 10 years of being called Simville, it was high time I actually gave it a proper name. Thanks to some talks with Chat-GPT, Charmful and various others over on CCS discord, I have a new name and expanded lore on the location which I'm excited about! So today I wanted to share some of that lore that I posted over on FB, and also let anyone interested know that if you enjoy my hood you can now learn about more of the Sims in it over on FB. I do it through albums on my Sims profile, which you can find here. The quality so far is pretty low, like at the start of this story, because I'm starting from the beginning and back then I used in game camera. Some of the things that happened back then will become relevant as this story goes on, so if you ever wanted background information for the Sims we come across that aren't Siri, Stoffe or Sally Mae, I would recommend checking it out
Evergreen - Old town, new name
Welcome to Evergreen! A small town, divided in two by the Twinklebrook river, where over the years nature lovers have gathered thanks to the geolocation's proclivity to sunlight. The valley the town is located in got it's name from this natural phenomenon, and is known around the area as the Sunlight Valley. The sunlight also gave name to the river, by the constant twinkling of the surface.
Evergreen is located in the greater region of the Aurora shores. Located fairly north on the globe, it can get harsh winters, but despite this has a rich green and blue nature that is treasured by all who live there. If you are lucky, you may catch the breathtaking aurora lights on clear nights.
The southern side of Evergreen has a bustling downtown area, most of the properties are taken up by numerous businesses. The Sunnyside Mall covers most of your needs, but entrepreneurial individuals have added additional options over the years so that whatever you need, you are sure to find it downtown.
The other half of southside Evergreen is mostly residential. It also features City Hall, the town hospital and the spiritual cemetary where most inhabitants choose to be buried when their time comes.
The farm keeps the hood well supplied with eco-friendly grown crops, though most households will grow some of their own on top, for the sheer joy of gardening and knowing the tomato you bit in to was grown in your very own garden. There is a strong belief that fresh produce is good for your health, and pregnant women are bombarded with recommendations to consume lots and lots of juice. And to get outdoors in the fresh air, because everyone knows there's nothing better for you than fresh air!
The northern side has a small business center near the bridge, for the convenience of those who live on the north side should they not want to make it all the way downtown.
Thanks to the cheaper cost of land on the north side, houses here tend to be larger, and a number of apartment complexes has been built over the years. Should those living on this side not want to make it all the way downtown, there is a small cluster of businesses near the bridge that can cover some of their day to day needs.
The eastern half of northern Evergreen is where the rich and influential have decided to make their mark. Sweeping grounds and impressive mansions house the Mayor and his family, and the minister of education among others. They appreciate the quiet of this side of town, and take measures to ensure it is kept. They did allow a small ice skating rink to be built, and a couple of parks, but attendees will be expected to keep their noise levels to a minimum.
Because of the quaint nature of the town, sailboats often pass by to take in the views. Though the bridges are a bit of a pain for them, but the lighthouses ensure they are forewarned and do not crash.
Credits: Lordcrumps for the awesome water-overlay making the Twinklebrook river look it's very best! Found in his Veronaville remake (get it here)
Even though downtown is bustling, it still has a great deal of trees and greenery. Just because it's urban, doesn't mean it has to be grungy and depressing! So says the Evergreenians at least.
In the western outskirts of town there is a pedestrian bridge, that will take you to City Council's latest addition to town, a hiking trail along the river. They hope this trail will encourage the inhabitants to make frequent use of the nature they are all blessed to have around them. Fresh air, river views, and trees. Everything you need! So get out there people, take the twinkling bridge and start hiking!
Credits: Lordcrumps who came up with the idea of giving the river twinkle-something as a name, and so kindly found and converted this lovely bridge for me Every twinkleriver needs a twinklebridge, and thanks to Lordcrumps, Evergreen has one!
The hiking trail features beautiful water views to the right, with the northern side of the city visible in the distance, and luscious vivid green nature to the left.
City Council had power lines dug down so that the path could be lit up, ensuring that anyone hoping to catch a rare nocturnal beetle can see where they step. Or perhaps you prefer a cooling morning jog a summer day at dawn. Whatever it is, you can see where you are going. Thanks City Council!
The hiking trail leads to a long stretch of beautiful flowery meadows. A small stream lets out in to the Twinklebrook river, that you can cross by means of a small wooden bridge. By the end of the meadows you will find an old wishing well, and a gazebo for summer night dances. Conveniently placed benches provide a lovely spot to sit with your date, taking in the scenery. Be sure to stop by City Hall on your way past City Hall, and thank Mayor Bloonberg for providing easy access to this beautiful stretch of Evergreen nature.
Credits: Lordcrumps 4t2 Gazebo set, it's frigging gorgeous!
Thanks to a skybox, a horizon box, Lordcrump's water overlay, and some creative input from Charmful Evergreen has had quite the makeover in 2024 and I'm so happy with it Finally my beloved hood has a proper name, and looks as quaint and pretty as I envisioned it in my head. The hiking trail was super fun to build, and will provide lovely scenery for future story scenes.
Still not sure when I will keep posting new updates, but I promise it's for the good of the story in the long run, I'm hard at work figuring out the direction and making story sets I need. I also feel my time spent posting the other Sims to FB albums is going to benefit the story, as you'll have more of a frame of reference for characters like Andreas Nilsson who has become highly involved in Stoffe's life and Elna Sernman who is becoming a close friend of Vanessa's. Some of the ways they influence Stoffe and Vanessa will make more sense if you know their backgrounds and personalities more. Not to mention that they too have interesting lives that you might enjoy reading about, if you enjoy reading about Sims
Creations can be found on my on tumblr.
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