Oh, certainly Buzz would be against it! Buzz is narrow-minded and ignorant. That would be the whole point of the storyline, wouldn't it?

"It's weird as I'm not used to it" is a reason to do something, in my book. But you have to go with what's comfortable and fun for you, not for me. But people IRL combine households to help each other out all the time. Maybe Jane and the kid move in temporarily, till Jane can get her act together financially and Jon can know his kids. A lot depends on what each person involved is like.

Don't think about what you want for a minute. The decisive person here is Jane. What does she want? How does she react to the children? What's her relationship with Jon like? With Fran? Who else does she know that would be a resource? What does she do? Put yourself into her head for a little while and it will all be much clearer. If you can't choose between A and B, it's often because you've been overlooking Option C.

I'm keeping the LTW - I've already thought of a few vague-ish ideas/plans for it, but I've got to see how it plays out.

@Feestrang: Have them all get into a polyamorous relationship!
.... Well ....

Here's another dilemma.

Nervous Subject was rescued from the Beakers' and ended up, exhausted and filthy, at the Curious' house. After he recovers, there's a few options he can take:
1. Stay at the Curious'.
2. Get into touch with his mother, Olive Specter, and move in with her. (Would he even know she's his mother?)
3. Get himself an apartment in the same building at the Singles household and Ajay Loner.
4. I'm open to other suggestions.

A lot depends, there, on what Nervous's deal is. You'll have to look at each of the characters and think in terms of backstory and present condition.

Does being the child of Grim give him psychic powers so that he knows who his mother is? If he doesn't, does he have vague baby memories that could lead him to her? Is there a paper trail?
Did Olive abandon Nervous? Was he kidnapped? Was he taken away by a legitimate authority and if so, how did he wind up at the Beaker place?
Between aspiration failure and his personality point spread, Nervous starts the game with some anti-social and dysfunctional behaviors which can be put down, in-game, to PTSD. So how severe is it? How much time will he need to spend in a secure environment before he can live on his own? What behaviors does he institute to control it? Is PTSD the only thing, or does he have some inherent condition on top of it? If he has special powers from Grim, are these interpreted by those around him as a mental disorder?
How do you want to play him? Micromanage him to manage his life better? Micromanage him to amplify the effects of his life to date? Free-range him entirely to see how he manages on his own? Ride with a loose rein to nudge him in a certain direction? Do you want to let Olive die and have Nerouvs inherit the house?
Has he met Olive and Ophelia? How has he reacted to them? Them to him?
Are you letting the Beakers get away scot-free or will you do a storyline that involves a criminal prosecution of them? Nervous would be the star witness as well as the victim in the case, which puts a whole new set of stressors on him. What do you need to do simulate that storyline, and how do the Beakers fight back? Alternatively, will Nervous want instead to pursue an extra-legal retaliation on them? Olive would be a helpful ally in such a case - unless she deliberately abandoned him to them, in which case she's a target of retaliation herself.

I know, that's all questions, not concrete suggestions. But if you find answers to even the majority of them I think you'll see most of the confusing options fall away and leave you with a clear road ahead. You only need to see a few steps down that road to choose it.

I love how much you think into storylines and stuff like this Peni! It has got me thinking about Nervous Subject in my game! I keep finding plot holes in my own storyline >.<

For my game Nervous doesn't have any psychic powers. However I already saved him from the Beakers and he is living with the Curious's (and in love with Pascal, the feeling is mutual) and the way I told it Olive had neglected him as a baby and a social worker took him, and the Beaker's adopted him for the sole purpose of using him as a test subject (they are cruel evil people) and they simply fooled the adoption agency into believing they'd be a nice family, they didn't know their plans for him. Olive regrets having lost him, her last link to her lover the Grim Reaper (she has to stop killing people before the authorities realize she's a murderer). She cares for very little and almost no one, but Nervous has a special place in her heart only for the fact if she can't have the Grim Reaper, at least she can have his son, right? Back when he was a baby she was still happily killing people and seeing her lover Grim, so she didn't much care for a loud stinky baby even if he was the Grim's, which I do believe upset the Grim dearly when she lost Nervous. They had a spat, but he also told her if she didn't stop killing people people would find out, and she doesn't want to go to jail.

Hmm...now why would it take her this long to find Nervous again?

The way I told it on my Simblr at the time was that she called (and threatened someone there who caved out of fear) the adoption agency to find out who adopted him. She had called him, told him she was his mother and he came (snuck out while the Beakers were asleep I guess) as she wants to get to know him, and she threatened the Beakers (my Olive does a lot of threatening) to let him go live with his boyfriend Pascal Curious. I'm guessing Nervous just snuck out sometimes while the Beakers were asleep, but he was so messed up from what they had done to him and it was all he knew, and at least it was a roof and food, that he kept going back before they would wake up and until recently no one knew that the Beakers were being horrible to him. Pascal had initially stopped by the Beakers and became his friend, hence him sneaking out to go see his friend now turned lover.

Then why didn't Nervous tell anyone what they were doing to him? Has he told anyone? Why did Olive threaten the Beakers to let him leave and go to Pascal's? She must have figured out what they were doing to him, but how? Did the Reaper tell her and if so when? Why didn't she take him in or just develop a relationship with him while he stayed at the Beakers because she didn't know what they were doing to him?

He does have some PTSD from the Beakers in my mind but not entirely sure how that will play out, just have to see what happens with him and think how he'd react to a given situation. In my head he can't really hold down a job, it stresses him out, he worries too much, something always triggers him sooner or later and bosses generally don't care to try to help him or work with him.

I plan on giving him a happy life with Pascal. Sure he may have issues but I also see him as great with kids. He is always thinking about kids, and before he left I believe Circe was pregnant but Nervous escaped before the baby was born, so the Beakers currently have a baby girl named Alexis (who was born like a year ago but I took a long break from Sims and read a lot, she is still an infant). Nervous worried about the baby, he doesn't know if it's a girl or boy or what but he knows there has to be a baby because she was pregnant, so he worries as he loves kids and doesn't want any other kids to suffer like he did. He seems to want a family, always thinking about kids (pacifier thought bubbles) and I think he'd make a great dad, very attentive and there for the child, perhaps overly-protective and worried but very caring. Right now Pascal's alien baby is a toddler, girl named Star, and Vidcund is still pregnant from his abduction. Lazlo is still there as well.

So he has met Olive and Ophelia, Ophelia I believe would have warned him about Olive while she was in college, but how so? Vaguely or specific? Does Ophelia know Olive is a murderer or just that she's a creepy old lady, who is also now a vampire by the way (genie wish, Olive doesn't want to die. She loves the Grim but has a fear of death herself or the after-life anyway. Even Grim can't tell her what lies on the other side). Ophelia and him are already best friends. I can't remember exactly what the relationship between Olive and Nervous is but i'm sure it's positive at the moment.

The questions strewn throughout are stuff I didn't think about before. And it will take answers to those questions before I know how to proceed. I have a jail, and certainly Olive and the Beakers deserve to be in it but they'd have to be caught to go in it (Alexis can be taken away from them and given to Nervous maybe? Or adopted by someone else in the 'hood or put in a childcare home, I'd make it and get or make someone to run it).

Why do I never think things through?!

I am glad to be thinking of all this now though! I just have to figure it all out Sorry it's so long!

Edit: As i'm reading this over I am thinking about it all, and figuring stuff out. This is really helping seeing it all laid out and I wouldn't have thought of these things if not for this thread and i'm writing stuff all up in notepad

Edit again: Ok i've figured out a lot of stuff (been at this for hours I believe thinking of it all) and it'd be too long to put it all here but suffice it to say, no one knows what the Beakers have done to him, and I can't see how it wouldn't spill out of Nervous eventually in some way now that he is with the Curious's and in a loving relationship with Pascal. So that means the Beakers will have to be caught...but how exactly?

When Pascal and Nervous eventually tell the authorities what happened, can they prove it? I don't see it taking long before Nervous says something that tips Pascal off to what was really going on at the Beakers.
If they can prove it what is an appropriate punishment for what the Beakers have put Nervous through?

I think Nervous had his memory wiped, perhaps numerous times so he doesn't know Olive his his mother or really what was done to him.

Learning there is an actual prison mod is making my head hurt trying to figure it out, i'm sure I could do it but your solution makes everything so much easier and is less work, i'm going to be lazy lol and has given me an idea. (Also thank you for saving me from a headache lol)

No jail, for any Sims. Though i'm keeping fines for offenses, so my Sims still have the same laws. And i'm going to think up other punishments if needed (losing children, losing jobs, forced aspiration failure etc. capital punishment if severe enough like murder maybe...) so much easier for me!

As for Nervous since he's already with Pascal and Olive has told him he's her mother there's no stopping him from knowing that and Olive would've made sure of it but it's exactly like the Beakers to wipe his memory before he left, so he doesn't know what happened to him, but it's still there somewhere in his subconscious or whatever making him the way he is, with the ptsd symptoms he can't explain.

Good thing their daughter Alexis is very mean (Saw in SimPE) as it looks like she won't be saved from the Beakers. I can see them being proud to have her carry on the Beaker name. Oh dear, Strangetown might wanna watch out!

Now i'm debating on having them adopt as i've put some toddlers in the adoption pool, some demons (cc skins/horns) and other creepy ones, like ghouls, so who knows what they end up with! Having Loki get abducted or having them have another child so they can have their "evil Beaker" pride and joy child and another test subject hopefully. Adoption or abduction might make more sense to get another test subject. Of course they don't have to settle for just one of those options lol. And making them evil witches, definitely Circe anyway!

Adoption, another biological baby or abduction? Doesn't have to be just 1 either lol

Giving me lots of ideas there. I doubt the Beakers will get hit with anything - Nervous would be too, well, nervous to press charges, they turned the 'evidence' into a swimming pool (they might get smacked with a fine for only having one ladder though), and Vidcund's testimony probably wouldn't be accepted considering the feud between their families.

After a LOT of fucking around with Don Lothario and risky woohoo being set too high, Cocoa Brookland, a new CAS sim out of thre introduced to the hood, is pregnant.

...Okay, she's given birth already, and Cocoa and her sister are struggling to raise the child without informing Don of his actions and making him take responsibility. Sure, he may ask of the weird black-haired child who looks (and acts) suspiciously like him in the Brookland's home, but Cocoa will probably just ignore the questioning. So that begs the question: Do the sisters co-raising the literal spawn of Satan continue raising the toddler alone or make Don take responsibility? We also have an issue, and that this is my story hood. A pregnancy with the new girl wasn't a planned part of the story, especially since Don was eventually going to be forced to be settle down with one of his numerous women after nothing other than a pregnancy.

One one hand, Don finding out about his child could make an interesting subplot to the Caliente-oriented story, on the other, it completely screws up the plot that was going to happen.

Have them get into a polyamorous relationship!

More seriously: What would Don do if he found out? Pay a large sum in exchange for her silence, or help raise the child?

Rather than Cocoa tell him, perhaps there's a third party who might inform him...

Like Candi who Don's currently trying to romance. Goddammit, Don, you can't balance 5 relationships without SOMEONE finding out. He's going after TWO different sets of twins.

How motivated are Cocoa and sister to keeping the secret? Does sister know?

Cocoa could find several other men to date who are potentially fathers, who would have at least some superficial resemblance to Don, so that if he found out about the child he'd figure, oh, well, must be that other guy's kid since she didn't come after me for support. Alternatively, if sister is not in Don's datebook, they could claim the child is sister's and raise him or her to call Cocoa aunt and Cocoa's sister mom.

More importantly, why are you not using birth control in your story neighborhood and turning risky off?

If she's anything like me, to see what would happen.

It's fun.

Anyways, Cocoa is more concerned for Don's life, more than anything. Being a Romance sim herself, she understands the need for not having children get in your way. She's the type of person to be perfectly willing to be a person's secondary choice (Emulated by no jealousy in ACR). Sister (named Candi) is a Family sim, willing to play out her sister's plans involving the baby as long as it doesn't involve putting him in danger. However, keeping Don in the dark has put some unforeseen consequences, like him becoming completely and utterly obessed with Candi. He will not stop calling her. His wants all involved Candi. I can't handle this shit.

I'd play that as him becoming aware that something's up with her.

Don came over to the Brookland's house at the welcome party, and he could have sworn there was nothing there for babies, but when he came back later, there was a toddler on the ground playing with a stupid rabbit.



Candi's incredibly concerned with the nonstop calling. I'm pretty sure Cocoa would be, if she let her know. Candi's determined on not letting this come out, even if Don called her over to his house under the guise of 'getting to know each other better'.



Well, shit. He's balancing 5 relationships now.

And I'd imagine that the baby is being raised with Candi as the mother, as Cocoa really just isn't responsible.

(Sorry for double post)

The child is a child now, and I'm forming a story plan involving a teenaged Kars (yeah, that's his name) finally figuring out who his father is and deciding to make fashion choices that reflect that. Eventually, kids at school begin to talk, and spread rumors. The Pleasant twins are talking, among other things. The rumors get bad. Kars, a Romance sim like both of his parents, is even ACTING way too much like Don, and he doesn't even know the man. Eventually, Don catches on by the gossip train and... well...
That's why I came to this thread. What happens next? Does Don finally meet his son?

He inevitably will. Don't plan so far ahead - give the sims some room.

I'm planning ahead because if I don't, then it'll get bad. By bad, I mean that good situations will happen. I micromanage to make sure good things don't happen as much. (That sounds weird) Kars might become a ladykiller, or maybe he'll be go on the road to nowhere. They have room in some aspects, but in others they're set in stone.

As the parent of an actual teen male ballet dancer, I've just gotta say that Tank'll be able to kick his dad's butt if necessary. After, of course, he kicks him in the nose simultaneously with gracefully catching a ballerina, all in rhythm with the music.

Ballet teens, boys and girls, take tough to a whole new level.

Can I just say that I love this thread?

I also love this thread tbh

I find that (think I stole this from Peni, actually) Nervous is too close in age to Loki and Circe to have been adopted/fostered by them. Instead, he was taken by Loki's parents, and grew up, sort of, together with Loki and Erin. That other bedroom with the double bed, that had two single beds when Loki and Erin were kids, and after their parents died and Loki and Circe got married, Erin got the double bed. But she fled anyway when she figured she could get away with it. (I know *how* Erin escaped, what I don't know is where she got her moral compass from.)

If we were playing D&D, I'd play Loki and Circe as Lawful Evil. They aren't doing anything Wrong in the eyes of the law, and by their lights they're Good because they follow the Law. (But a really good villain always thinks he's the hero, after all.) They feel their ends justify their means (I expect they're working with the sort of magic-tech stuff that aspiration rewards are made of) and they're following the Law, so they are justified in everything they do. If they knew *what* Nervous is, rather than simply knowing he's not quite a normal sim or alien hybred, they be shocked, and probably scared. I think they're more fascinated with and afraid of Death than anything else, though Aliens come in a close second.

"See? Here's our test subject's legal guardian's signature right here. Surely you aren't implying we'd do anything against his best interests, or without proper permissions!"

If I have a chance, I like to have Nervous flee to Erin, rather than Pascal or Olive. Erin ought to be a familiar and kind face from his childhood.

Thought I should post here. Nervous decided to stay with the Curious brothers for now, acting as a live-in nanny. He's a bit claustrophobic from being trapped in a cell so he sleeps on a hammock on the roof.

Another dilemma: Johnny Smith and Ophelia Nigmos will be moving out to college; both plan on going to La Fiesta. Several options for housing:

a) The Oasis Dormitory has Klara Von????, William Williamson, Blossom Moonbeam, and Stella Terrano. It only has one free spot, though.
b) The Lyla Grunt Memorial Dormitory has several free spots....but also Tank Grunt.
c) Or perhaps they could pool their money and rent a house together.

Thoughts?

Obviously you need to get a bigger households hack and move them into the Oasis Dorm.