Building from the Breadlines | Prologue
Because I wanted to do a prosperity challenge.
Onwards!
As the night drew to a close, a group of simselves sat in front of a fire, gazing absent-mindedly at the other, the only obvious drive in the room belonging to the blazing open hearth, intent on devouring the logs within and filling the house with an intoxicatingly sweet scent. Thai stretched, then looked over from Ani-Mei to Pony, who he had forcefully dressed in garb befitting the era of the neighbourhood they were currently in.
Thai rose from his place and stirred the fire, building up its impetuous anger to dissolve the flames, and brighten the room up further. The power had gone out, but he wasn’t surprised. The Wall Street crash and the Great Depression combined had resulted in this whole area depending on either generators or fireplaces. The simselves had no generators, but they didn’t mind all that much. The fireplace added a nice atmosphere to the room as night darkened and the moon suspended itself in the sky, gazing curtly down on the world before it.
“Guys… I want to do a challenge again.” Thai uttered. Pony put a finger to her lips and her brows knitted.
“What’s to say you won’t just kill this founder, too? Or will even complete it? What’s your completion:attempt ration again? 0:∞?”
“Yes, but I have a good feeling, this time!” Thai replied defensively, shifting back onto his feet and gazing into the flames half-heartedly. Truly, he was probably just bored. But god knows he’d try his best to complete it, even if it killed him. As his challenges actually had multiple times before. But regardless!
“You’ve been quiet, Ani-Mei.”
“Just thinking. I mean, me and Pony already have a bunch of challenges going. It seems almost as if it’s unfair to us if you don’t! But at the same time, gosh, if you don’t complete this one, think how many readers you’d let down!”
Thai went silent, then sat in his seat with a frown. “Fair enough, I suppose, but it’s not like no-one else fails as constantly as I do!”
“Yes,” Pony butted in, “but you seem to have finetuned it to an art.”
“Thanks for the encouragement, guys.” Thai muttered, sitting down with a huff.
“What about a prosperity challenge?” The fire seemed to have stopped, it’s previous vicious drive turned into ashes. Thai looked over at Ani-Mei or Pony to go re-light the damned thing, but when neither of them made any movement, he grumbled something inaudibly and rose once more to light up some new logs.
“A prosperity challenge? You realise what era you’ve stuck us in in this neighbourhood, right?”
“Perfectly well. It’s what inspired me in the first place.”
“Bit more challenging, though. How many restrictions would there be?”
“Probably similar to an apocalypse challenge… just with less fridge replacement, and possibly a whole heap of awkward things such as job searching limited to one job, and then being forced to leave the job at a high promotion because of the crash… and then there’s the whole breadline stuff to factor in. Also I’m not up to making a bunch of CAS sims… they’d have to be from the local neighbourhood.
There’s a Hooverville about a mile away, right? What if I set up the prosperity lots ‘just around the corner’, to reference what Hoover said to a group of businessmen this year. No-one believed the man, of course. But when he said ‘prosperity is just around the corner’… well.
Seems like we could start them off easy enough. It’s not like the depression is affecting us too much as simselves. Unlimited access to the very roots of the game. Stick with the 20,000 simoleans policy. Stick them on a lot. Let them build a house.
Can’t be that hard.”
Ani-Mei sighed. “Well, I suppose so. But you’re really throwing yourself a curveball here, Thai. Sure, easy enough on our part. We get to stand to the sides and watch as you try and make an economy ruined by exponential growth (oh, the irony) get that exponential growth all over again. And what happens in the next few years? I mean, hello, World War Tw-“
“Spoilers!”
“Fine. You sure you’re up to it, though? I mean, it’s not going to be a usual Prosperity challenge.”
“Well to be fair, not many usual people stick themselves in the middle of the Great Depression.”
“Touché.”
“If you’re really doing this, I want to go to the Hooverville with you. I think it’d be pretty cool to see how they react. They’ll either think you their saviour, think you’ve gone absolutely mad, or want to lynch you on the spot! Possibly all three. Yeah. Seeing you lynched would be pretty sweet…” Pony pondered aloud.
“Wouldn’t you be lynched, too?” Thai said, with a slight grimace.
“Hah, you wish!" Pony adjusted the red flower in her hair and smiled at Thai mischeviously. “I could easily make it look like I was against you the whole time.”
“You really suck sometimes, Pony, you know?” Thai drawled, sombre at the thought of that happening. He’d had enough of death, thank you very much. Come to think of it, that’s totally another reason he wanted to start the prosperity. Stop people starving. Yeah. Not to fill the hole in his heart left behind by the Boxes, or the Larssons, or the Midsummers, or his two apocalypse attempts, or his one attempt at an asylum… or that bachelor challenge… or that BACC that he never bothered to publish…
“Ahem.” Ani-Mei said, attracting Thai’s attention and breaking his mental soliloquy of failed challenge attempts.
“Sorry about that.”
“Regardless of how many times you’ve failed, I’d be interesting to see just how it goes down this time. I’ll tag along too, thanks. And I’m with Pony if you get lynched.”
“I’m sure they’re perfectly reasonable people!” Retorted the male.
“Hunger does strange things to a person…”
Thai grunted then sat back down.
“We could go do it now. It’s not like there’s anything stopping us.”
"I don’t mind, either.” Pony shrugged.
Ani-Mei flailed her arms. “No preparation? Nothing? Just, walk down to Hooverville and introduce the concept to them?”
“Not exactly…” Thai said.
Ani-Mei calmed her arms down, “good. We should plan what we’re going to sa-“
“We’d be driving.” Thai grinned. Pony surpressed a chuckle, and Ani-Mei frowned.
“…well, I suppose it’s your game. If you want to be stupid in i-“
“Well then good! Let’s get down there!” Thai smiled blithely, exposing his teeth and gums with no hesitation at all. With one last glance at the now avidly burning fire, Thai went to put the thing out.
The group had parked in a part just off of the main areas of Hooverville, and then decided to explore the town by foot. The car would probably be stolen, but Thai couldn’t care less. He had a challenge now. They could steal Pony and Ani-Mei too, for all it mattered! A challenge!
They found a tiny area separated from everywhere else. Wondering why, the group ventured up to it, but then realised that they had a generator, but only enough to provide these few lights. If they were any closer, they’d have risked the generators being taken. There was a total of six houses, and even though it was way past midnight, the small shanty town was still up and lively as it would have been in the morning. Time mattered little to these people, the simselves supposed.
When they had wondered in, they had been noticed by two little girls. Both looked somewhat clean, surprisingly, but if one looked closer they would notice all the little dirt stains and nicks and tears in their clothing. They really looked rather ragged from certain angles.
“Are you lost?” The girls said, casting a glance at the two women, still decked out in relative finery.
“Nope. Meant to come here. An offer of work for your parents, and if you’re lucky, chocolate for you guys!”
“Chocolate?” Said one of them, surprised ridiculously. Chocolate! Damn, that was a luxury. The children, easily bribed with tales of sweets, ran off to the camp fire in the centre of town, and gathered everyone’s attention.
They found themselves on a podium, set up for prospective employers to get a better glance. These people were all desperate for work to this ridiculous point, supposed Thai.
When he began speaking, he doubted anyone was listening, but when he spoke of housing for all of them, and 20,000 simoleans to start off their new lives, he definitely got their attention. Yes, the money was worth so much less, now, but in this world, housing, food and central heating were luxuries not to be faulted, nor argued against.
“It’s a pretty simple concept, really.” Thai said. Public speaking was a personal favourite activity of his, heck, he rather enjoyed the adrenaline rush.
“You guys get houses, you live and have children, you deal with challenges, you’ll get played until the fifth generation of your children are born and boom! By this time, your children and you yourselves, ladies and gentlemen, will have improved the economy.”
Thai did not mention that by this time, things would likely get much worse for their fifth generation ancestors, but all those between one and five should be comfortable, at least! He had no idea what he’d do when they got to this end, but he supposed something will have come up.
He spoke on, and Ani-Mei and Pony assisted occasionally, if only to break the drawl of Thai’s voice.
“Basically, you have babies until gen 5 and all will be well. Seem like a plan?”
Mumbling arose from the crowd, no-one spoke anything, but many people seemed to be considering it. Being paid to have sex and live in a good house really didn’t seem like a bad deal at all, considering that things were pretty, for want of a better word, shitty over here in Hooverville.
"
Thai, Pony and Ani-Mei stepped down, and suddenly all were swamped with questions. One old lady had gone to Thai, and others were discussing between themselves in hushed tones and slang the British raised Thai did not understand.
"
“What’s to say you’re not tricking us? God knows that others have tried.” The old woman said to him, intent on exposing an ulterior motive.
“What’s to say I’m not just a really, really nice simself, though?” Thai said, still on an adrenaline high from the speech.
“Simself, eh?” The woman said. “Figured as much. Too well spoken to be a townie, too shiny to be a pre-made and too rich to be a played sim.” She smirked. “I figure that if you’re a simself, you’re after a challenge?”
“No point in denying that.”
“So yes?”
“Sure.”
“Your two lady friends. They simselves too?”
“Of course.”
“Then I believe we have a deal. Never trust a man on his own. Especially a young one. Too rich, too stinky, can’t cook to save their lives and are far too ambitious. Needs some superiors. Female ones make it all the better.”
“…wait, what?”
“Don’t mind me, darling. Just gotta say my own few words up on the podium, now.”
“They’re simselves. They’re well dressed. They came to us. I think we should just go with it.” Spoke the old woman. Thai presumed she had somehow established a place as a de facto leader, or something. Either that, or she was just a really cocky old bint.
The group murmured some hesitant agreements.
“When can we start?” The question was to the simselves.
“…now?”
-----
With that, the families moved to the lots set up by Thai, and with the final family, the group returned to where they had parked the car, only to see it had been taken apart. Thai didn’t mind, but Pony and Ani-Mei seemed unhappy.
“We can’t walk home! I won’t, anyway! Not in these heels!”
“…take them off?” Thai suggested unhelpfully.
“It doesn’t work like that.” Pony said in exhaustion. “Just call a taxi, someone.”
“Fine.” Thai said, wondering off to find a phone.
“Thank god.” Ani-Mei muttered as she shifted into the chassis.
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A/N - THE HOUSEHOLDS:
The Mayfield Family.
(Everyone’s favourite cocky elder).
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THE HERNANDEZ FAMILY
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THE COX FAMILY
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THE TSE FAMILY
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THE BOW FAMILY
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THE SUNDAY FAMILY
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A/N: And that’s it. That’s my prologue, and yes, this story will be written narratively, so I’m going to somehow have to craft neighbourhood-wide multi-generational plots! I’m excited, actually.
Already got a few little plotbunnies brewing…
That’s it for now.
Happy simming!
- Thai