Out-takes chapter 18
Yes indeedy, it's time for me to waffle on about my latest chapter and share some of the pictures that didn't make it.
First of all I knew that this chapter would not be a happy one for you all to read (the next one won't be great either I'm afraid) but I feel I need to do this in order to do the storyline that's been in my head since last June justice. Sometimes I get an idea in my head that just needs to be told, and this is one of them I'm afraid. It's not easy for me to do at all, because Eddie and his family are just sweethearts and need to be happy, but do it I must.
Right onto out-takes.
Apart from Marielle the entire family dotes on Bertie (and Stuart). If I can't find one of the adults, the first place to look is the nursery.
To prove I'm not kidding about how little Marielle has to do with Bertie, here's a picture of William going to autonomously let Bertie out of his cot:
Beth is also about to head up the stairs to do the same:
Marielle is that purple blob playing Myshuno! she didn't even register that Bertie was awake. (Eddie's studying for his final promotion in the library).
I've been thinking about getting the family a dog for a little while now. I doubt I'll do very well at the whole petacy part of the challenge but hey, I can give it a shot. The Skinners have been bredding dogs ever since Arthur and Rover moved into the neighbourhood. I had to start again when I rebuilt, but the pet bin is getting filled up with their puppies. Sally is one such dog.
The wee little thing really did nearly get lost in the snow.
Beth and William may have gone down to 2 bolts when they aged, but they are still adorable and do a lot of things to make me squee.
Anthony & Alexandra (or A&A as I've started calling them to save key strokes) are another squee-worthy couple and everything that happened between them in the morning room was autonomous. As you can see they were being watched:
Gabe doesn't come out very often, but he does like to scare someone when he does;
Luckily Beth is a knowledge sim so quite enjoys it.
Something I didn't show at all this chapter were the businesses. They are still running them, but unless I have to shoot something in them they are going to take a back seat from now on.
I'm currently trying to get William to pass on all the wholsale perks. I can do without the others, but wholesale are really useful. It is taking forever, but he doesn't half pull some amusing faces when he talks.
I think they've only got one more to get through now.
One very annoying thing about playing businesses with AL installed is the damn evil witch turning up. So many times I've had to have Beth or someone spray the damn roaches.
So many times I had customers interrupt Beth to complain about the roaches she was spraying.
Oh and, Melissa broke the shower in the staff room. That didn't please Eddie.
*giggles* I love this sim.
I did actually have a good witch turn up too, and I have to say she put on a pretty light show.
Beth's Boutique is a business I'm not sure the family will keep. I'm going to eventually delete this downtown, and I really don't want to bin an owned business so they will sell it at some point. Whether I will move it or build a new one in Simdon is something I've not decided on yet.
Oh I just wanted to declare how much love I have for my car pool replacements:
Lookit, Eddie's going to work in a hanson cab, complete with David the footman!
I have some spam from Bertie's party to share too. I didn't mention it in the update but I'm going for the Happy Birthday master point with Bertie. I don't normally throw birthday parties for my sims, so it'll be interesting.
I was trying to take a picture of just Eddie and Bertie when Alexandra walked by just as I pressed c. It's actually a picture I love, because of the expression on her face, and the smile on her brother's.
Like the secret says, no one is immune to Stanley and his charms.
This was Marielle's expression throughout most of the party:
I did very nearly use this picture, but thought I had enough to make you all hate her already.
She did eventually pass out standing up, and bless, awesome Anthony was all worried about her.
I also forgot to share Bertie's stats. He's an Aries, 8,10,7,3,3. A naked hot-tubbing, neat, slightly grouchy Aries.
Pointless Eddie and Bertie picspam for you now:
D'awwww go on I dare you to tell me you're not a puddle of goo now.
This is a picture I really adore, and very nearly used instead of the ones of Beth playing with Bertie. In the end I liked the fact that you would all see her bonding with her grandson.
I ended up changing the arguments sligthly to what I had originally shot for this chapter. Partly it was because of space: I already knew that it would be a two-parter by this point in sorting the pictures because I still had most of A&A and Joe to put in as well as the pub scene which I knew would be long due to catching up with Theo and Stanley.
Partly it was because, how many arguments did I really need in the chapter? Because of this the argument about how little Marielle did became part of the pub argument, and Eddie being locked out the bedroom got moved forward a day. In the game he was actually present for Stuart's birth, and was only sleeping in a separate bedroom from the following night.
Yes Marielle did hand Stuart straight to Eddie again.
I love having the boys together on a lot, and in fact I've often thought about plonking them together in another neighbourhood so that I can play them as one unit when I feel like it. They always manage to crack me up, and a lot of my inspiration as to how to write them comes from just watching the three of them together. Shooting the pub scene this time was different to others though, because I knew I had to look out for serious faces from all three of them. That's not always an easy thing to do when they insist on acting like this:
They did eventually co-operate though:
"Aw, come on Di, you know you love us really."
That I do, that I do.
Which is why doing this makes me miserable. I hate to have to have Eddie argue because everytime I do he does the "why me?" animation, but it's necessary.
As part of me merging two arguments, and wanting Eddie to be locked out of the bedroom, I actually used shots only from the last argument (the other one took place in their bedroom like the first argument had). As a result Marielle is not pregnant in it, but because I had shot just head and shoulders I dont think you notice it.
This was the shot I was originally going to use instead of the pictures of Bertie with Sally:
In the end I'm glad I changed my mind for several reasons. Firstly I think it's more powerful to have Bertie on his own with just his dog. Secondly, story wise William and Beth should be in bed at this time of night. Beth because she is exhausted, William because he wants to be there to hold and comfort her. Thirdly, if William knows how much Bertie is being upset by Eddie and Marielle, he has got to say something to Eddie, which opens the flood gates because Eddie would be devestated to think that 1) his son had heard that and 2) that he had upset his son. Fourthly because William and Beth are in bed Marielle should be looking after her son, and so should know he is up. Because of that she should make sure that he doesn't hear her shouting at Eddie and shouldn't storm off to her room and just lock herself in there.
It's a bit convoluted, and not necessarily spelt out in the chapter, but the reasons make sense to me.
Let's talk a bit now about Joe and his family and Aria.
This is all part of his long term punishment, and is a mixture of several people's ideas. It's going to run for ages yet, basically until his death, but this chapter was putting the foundations in place. I'm planning on keeping you all updated as the chapters go on, but I'm not sure if you'll see the next bit until after the main story line is over. I'm just not sure I'll have the space to include it.
I've spoken a bit about Maria and her attitude in my first response post at Boolprop, but I thought I'd just say that whilst I knew my readers wouldn't like what she had to say, I knew I had to have her say it. It wouldn't be right any other way.
In fact because I've already done research at various times in my life and for various reasons into the attitudes of the Victorian middle class and their morality, I was slightly surprised that so many people thought that Maria and Marcus would want to not only get to know their grandchildren, but have Christopher carry on the family name. I really had to remind myself that just because I spend a lot of my spare time trying to get into the mindset of a Victorian, doesnt mean you all do too. lol.
Anyway, this is the picture I really wanted to use for Joe entering the drawing room:
Unfortunately I encountered a small problem when I told Joe to sit next to his mother. They wouldn't talk to each other. All they did was stare at one another.
Also during this time, despite free will being turned off, Marcus got up and left the room. I got Joe and Maria to changed seats a couple of times, and success they started talking.
I do feel quite bad making such a minor character such a horrible character, especially since I hadn't inteded her to be like that until I started writing, Of course it makes perfect sense that she should be like this, but I really did just make her fit the role as I wrote chapter 15.3.
Filming Aria at the bar presented me with a few problems. First of all it's an original lot from the default Downtown that I redecorated and moved to Simdon, so the lighting is a bit dark.
I did want it a bit dark and moody, but this was too much so I had to clear the lighting file and start shooting again.
The other thing was the other sims around.
"You're as pretty as a picture."
"Oo pretty lady."
"Just going to stand by the bar and try to get into all your shots. Don't mind me Di."
Even Stanley got in on the act.
Mathias was there too,. but he stuck to the other side of the club. I did get a bit worried though, because he didn't look like himself.
I really can't explain what it is, but he does not look like himself at all. I dunno, maybe it's the lighting.
I absolutely love this picture of Aria and the look on her face.
Oh and I've just got to say, Aria has some great bar faces:
Thanks for lending her to me Jamie. I think you're going to enjoy watching what she does to Joe.
That's all the out-takes I've got for you today, but I did want to talk about a couple of other things.
I really did grin like an idiot when I saw the Stanley secret, and again when I saw Anthony and read the historical legacy secret too. It means a lot to me that I've caught people's imaginations with my little creations. Stanley's queue is going to get rather long, but I don't think he'll mind in the slightest.
I didn't feel like playing today really (I caught the power switch of my pc yesterday and lost a lot of play at one of the houses, and I need to replay it), so I finished the row of town houses I've been working on in Simdon. I don't normally share pictures of odd houses I build, but I'm really pleased with how these have turned out. I'm going to be putting clones of it in other areas of the city too.
Three houses mostly furnished (ie just need a few more pictures and ornaments around) with a small communual garden out the back.
Off each entrance hall is the dining room:
and the kitchen:
On the first floor (second floor to all you Americans ;)) is the drawing room:
(I love the quarter tile cheat that comes with M&G BTW. Couple it with a hack from MATY that makes most the mirrors movable using [ and ] and I can place tall mirrors over fireplaces without messing about with snapobjectstogrid false).
(Oh and these are the walls and ceilings I shared the other day).
There's also a small study:
Second (third) floor has the master bedroom:
And the master bathroom:
The top floor in the roof has another bathroom and, either one or two rooms for the children
Plans:
I really am pleased wiht them and think they are a nice size. They're not huge like A&A's turned out to be, (I made it to original plans, and boy is it massive), but it's not tiny like Evie's (downloaded) house is. I'm thinking about uploading it too.
Anyway I think that's enough from me tonight.
First of all I knew that this chapter would not be a happy one for you all to read (the next one won't be great either I'm afraid) but I feel I need to do this in order to do the storyline that's been in my head since last June justice. Sometimes I get an idea in my head that just needs to be told, and this is one of them I'm afraid. It's not easy for me to do at all, because Eddie and his family are just sweethearts and need to be happy, but do it I must.
Right onto out-takes.
Apart from Marielle the entire family dotes on Bertie (and Stuart). If I can't find one of the adults, the first place to look is the nursery.
To prove I'm not kidding about how little Marielle has to do with Bertie, here's a picture of William going to autonomously let Bertie out of his cot:
Beth is also about to head up the stairs to do the same:
Marielle is that purple blob playing Myshuno! she didn't even register that Bertie was awake. (Eddie's studying for his final promotion in the library).
I've been thinking about getting the family a dog for a little while now. I doubt I'll do very well at the whole petacy part of the challenge but hey, I can give it a shot. The Skinners have been bredding dogs ever since Arthur and Rover moved into the neighbourhood. I had to start again when I rebuilt, but the pet bin is getting filled up with their puppies. Sally is one such dog.
The wee little thing really did nearly get lost in the snow.
Beth and William may have gone down to 2 bolts when they aged, but they are still adorable and do a lot of things to make me squee.
Anthony & Alexandra (or A&A as I've started calling them to save key strokes) are another squee-worthy couple and everything that happened between them in the morning room was autonomous. As you can see they were being watched:
Gabe doesn't come out very often, but he does like to scare someone when he does;
Luckily Beth is a knowledge sim so quite enjoys it.
Something I didn't show at all this chapter were the businesses. They are still running them, but unless I have to shoot something in them they are going to take a back seat from now on.
I'm currently trying to get William to pass on all the wholsale perks. I can do without the others, but wholesale are really useful. It is taking forever, but he doesn't half pull some amusing faces when he talks.
I think they've only got one more to get through now.
One very annoying thing about playing businesses with AL installed is the damn evil witch turning up. So many times I've had to have Beth or someone spray the damn roaches.
So many times I had customers interrupt Beth to complain about the roaches she was spraying.
Oh and, Melissa broke the shower in the staff room. That didn't please Eddie.
*giggles* I love this sim.
I did actually have a good witch turn up too, and I have to say she put on a pretty light show.
Beth's Boutique is a business I'm not sure the family will keep. I'm going to eventually delete this downtown, and I really don't want to bin an owned business so they will sell it at some point. Whether I will move it or build a new one in Simdon is something I've not decided on yet.
Oh I just wanted to declare how much love I have for my car pool replacements:
Lookit, Eddie's going to work in a hanson cab, complete with David the footman!
I have some spam from Bertie's party to share too. I didn't mention it in the update but I'm going for the Happy Birthday master point with Bertie. I don't normally throw birthday parties for my sims, so it'll be interesting.
I was trying to take a picture of just Eddie and Bertie when Alexandra walked by just as I pressed c. It's actually a picture I love, because of the expression on her face, and the smile on her brother's.
Like the secret says, no one is immune to Stanley and his charms.
This was Marielle's expression throughout most of the party:
I did very nearly use this picture, but thought I had enough to make you all hate her already.
She did eventually pass out standing up, and bless, awesome Anthony was all worried about her.
I also forgot to share Bertie's stats. He's an Aries, 8,10,7,3,3. A naked hot-tubbing, neat, slightly grouchy Aries.
Pointless Eddie and Bertie picspam for you now:
D'awwww go on I dare you to tell me you're not a puddle of goo now.
This is a picture I really adore, and very nearly used instead of the ones of Beth playing with Bertie. In the end I liked the fact that you would all see her bonding with her grandson.
I ended up changing the arguments sligthly to what I had originally shot for this chapter. Partly it was because of space: I already knew that it would be a two-parter by this point in sorting the pictures because I still had most of A&A and Joe to put in as well as the pub scene which I knew would be long due to catching up with Theo and Stanley.
Partly it was because, how many arguments did I really need in the chapter? Because of this the argument about how little Marielle did became part of the pub argument, and Eddie being locked out the bedroom got moved forward a day. In the game he was actually present for Stuart's birth, and was only sleeping in a separate bedroom from the following night.
Yes Marielle did hand Stuart straight to Eddie again.
I love having the boys together on a lot, and in fact I've often thought about plonking them together in another neighbourhood so that I can play them as one unit when I feel like it. They always manage to crack me up, and a lot of my inspiration as to how to write them comes from just watching the three of them together. Shooting the pub scene this time was different to others though, because I knew I had to look out for serious faces from all three of them. That's not always an easy thing to do when they insist on acting like this:
They did eventually co-operate though:
"Aw, come on Di, you know you love us really."
That I do, that I do.
Which is why doing this makes me miserable. I hate to have to have Eddie argue because everytime I do he does the "why me?" animation, but it's necessary.
As part of me merging two arguments, and wanting Eddie to be locked out of the bedroom, I actually used shots only from the last argument (the other one took place in their bedroom like the first argument had). As a result Marielle is not pregnant in it, but because I had shot just head and shoulders I dont think you notice it.
This was the shot I was originally going to use instead of the pictures of Bertie with Sally:
In the end I'm glad I changed my mind for several reasons. Firstly I think it's more powerful to have Bertie on his own with just his dog. Secondly, story wise William and Beth should be in bed at this time of night. Beth because she is exhausted, William because he wants to be there to hold and comfort her. Thirdly, if William knows how much Bertie is being upset by Eddie and Marielle, he has got to say something to Eddie, which opens the flood gates because Eddie would be devestated to think that 1) his son had heard that and 2) that he had upset his son. Fourthly because William and Beth are in bed Marielle should be looking after her son, and so should know he is up. Because of that she should make sure that he doesn't hear her shouting at Eddie and shouldn't storm off to her room and just lock herself in there.
It's a bit convoluted, and not necessarily spelt out in the chapter, but the reasons make sense to me.
Let's talk a bit now about Joe and his family and Aria.
This is all part of his long term punishment, and is a mixture of several people's ideas. It's going to run for ages yet, basically until his death, but this chapter was putting the foundations in place. I'm planning on keeping you all updated as the chapters go on, but I'm not sure if you'll see the next bit until after the main story line is over. I'm just not sure I'll have the space to include it.
I've spoken a bit about Maria and her attitude in my first response post at Boolprop, but I thought I'd just say that whilst I knew my readers wouldn't like what she had to say, I knew I had to have her say it. It wouldn't be right any other way.
In fact because I've already done research at various times in my life and for various reasons into the attitudes of the Victorian middle class and their morality, I was slightly surprised that so many people thought that Maria and Marcus would want to not only get to know their grandchildren, but have Christopher carry on the family name. I really had to remind myself that just because I spend a lot of my spare time trying to get into the mindset of a Victorian, doesnt mean you all do too. lol.
Anyway, this is the picture I really wanted to use for Joe entering the drawing room:
Unfortunately I encountered a small problem when I told Joe to sit next to his mother. They wouldn't talk to each other. All they did was stare at one another.
Also during this time, despite free will being turned off, Marcus got up and left the room. I got Joe and Maria to changed seats a couple of times, and success they started talking.
I do feel quite bad making such a minor character such a horrible character, especially since I hadn't inteded her to be like that until I started writing, Of course it makes perfect sense that she should be like this, but I really did just make her fit the role as I wrote chapter 15.3.
Filming Aria at the bar presented me with a few problems. First of all it's an original lot from the default Downtown that I redecorated and moved to Simdon, so the lighting is a bit dark.
I did want it a bit dark and moody, but this was too much so I had to clear the lighting file and start shooting again.
The other thing was the other sims around.
"You're as pretty as a picture."
"Oo pretty lady."
"Just going to stand by the bar and try to get into all your shots. Don't mind me Di."
Even Stanley got in on the act.
Mathias was there too,. but he stuck to the other side of the club. I did get a bit worried though, because he didn't look like himself.
I really can't explain what it is, but he does not look like himself at all. I dunno, maybe it's the lighting.
I absolutely love this picture of Aria and the look on her face.
Oh and I've just got to say, Aria has some great bar faces:
Thanks for lending her to me Jamie. I think you're going to enjoy watching what she does to Joe.
That's all the out-takes I've got for you today, but I did want to talk about a couple of other things.
I really did grin like an idiot when I saw the Stanley secret, and again when I saw Anthony and read the historical legacy secret too. It means a lot to me that I've caught people's imaginations with my little creations. Stanley's queue is going to get rather long, but I don't think he'll mind in the slightest.
I didn't feel like playing today really (I caught the power switch of my pc yesterday and lost a lot of play at one of the houses, and I need to replay it), so I finished the row of town houses I've been working on in Simdon. I don't normally share pictures of odd houses I build, but I'm really pleased with how these have turned out. I'm going to be putting clones of it in other areas of the city too.
Three houses mostly furnished (ie just need a few more pictures and ornaments around) with a small communual garden out the back.
Off each entrance hall is the dining room:
and the kitchen:
On the first floor (second floor to all you Americans ;)) is the drawing room:
(I love the quarter tile cheat that comes with M&G BTW. Couple it with a hack from MATY that makes most the mirrors movable using [ and ] and I can place tall mirrors over fireplaces without messing about with snapobjectstogrid false).
(Oh and these are the walls and ceilings I shared the other day).
There's also a small study:
Second (third) floor has the master bedroom:
And the master bathroom:
The top floor in the roof has another bathroom and, either one or two rooms for the children
Plans:
I really am pleased wiht them and think they are a nice size. They're not huge like A&A's turned out to be, (I made it to original plans, and boy is it massive), but it's not tiny like Evie's (downloaded) house is. I'm thinking about uploading it too.
Anyway I think that's enough from me tonight.