The Bates Family Legacy [7.3]
Happy New Year, everyone!
It's weird to think that 2012 is over; it sort of felt like it went by in the blink of an eye. (How cliche.)
Anyway, I hope you're all having a restful winter break (if you are actually on a winter break), and that you had a good NYE. After I finished the book challenge, I spent all of New Year's Day simming, and spent enough time with the Bates to put together a new update. So here it is!
Last time: Soraya and Corrine had simultaneous pregnancies, which I somehow forgot about until they were happening! Seth was a DJ, and a good one at that, but a big wuss and fainted again at the sight of a ghost. It's a good thing I'm planning to move him and Soraya out at some point, because he wouldn't last long in the Bates house. Soraya and Corrine gave birth at the same time; Soraya had a girl, Evelyn, and Corrine had a boy, Keenan (possible heir to the Bates family throne). Bryce totally lost his shit during the birth, and Seth fainted (aforementioned ghost) and missed it entirely. Soraya went back to work immediately after giving birth, and got two gigs - one at the park, and one at the coffee house. At the time I reported that she didn't get the coffee house gig, but obviously I'm a candidate for early-onset Alzheimers, because she did (which I found out when I returned to the game). Corrine used the tinkering table and almost died due to ass-on-fire, but thankfully her mother saved her.
Let's head under the cut for some more Bates family fun (this time, with a side heaping of scandal).
When I returned to the game for the first time since the last chapter, there was a notification about a simfest starting at the park. Since Soraya was already at Verde Park at the time, performing for tips, I decided to have her perform in the simfest - it could only help her career (even if she was doing it for free).
Seth's ex-girlfriend was also there. Call me paranoid, but every time that Soraya and Seth's ex-girlfriend are anywhere near each other, I get really worried.
There were only a couple of other sims who registered for the simfest, and Soraya was supposed to be the last competitor. But just as her turn was announced, the game seemed to glitch and wouldn't let me get her on the stage to perform. Just as I finally got her up there to start her set, the proprietor went up to announce that the competition was over, because Soraya had forfeited her position by not performing quickly enough. So she had to stand on the stage while the proprietor announced the winner.
She was not pleased.
However, she did get to perform at the coffee house later that night, and that made up for it.
She pretty much rocked it.
Some audience members compared her singing face to Lea Michele.
Meanwhile, back at the house, Keenan and Evelyn were ready to age up into childhood.
Keenan is definitely a Bates through and through. I thought he might grow up to resemble Bryce a bit more, but he definitely looks more like Corrine, Quinn, Josh, and Terry.
Anyway, I got to choose his third trait, and I went with Dog Person. I want to introduce pets into the Bates household at some point, because I have the expansion pack but rarely use it, so I figure this'll give me a reason to.
Evelyn has much a much more blended look than Keenan; she's got a decent mix of Seth and Soraya in her features, and even though her nose looks a little scrunched up, it's growing on me. I chose Equestrian as her second trait for the same reason as I chose Dog Person for Keenan. (Though I don't plan to bring any horses into the house - she can do that herself when she and her parents leave.)
Anyway, Soraya went back to the park to perform for tips the next day, and drew a decent gathering of people. It always seems to be the same group, which leads me to wonder if they all jus live at the park.
With having Soraya in the singing profession, I learned a funny thing about gigs. (Not funny so much as annoying, really.) If your sim performs earlier or later than their scheduled gig time, or finishes too early or too late, the gig isn't counted as finished, and it sits in the cue, for your sim to come back and complete the next week at the same time. Soraya had that problem with her coffee shop gig. But there's an upside to this problem: during the week that Soraya was waiting for her gig to open up again, she was able to jump onto the stage and sing whenever she wanted. I definitely took advantage of that a few times.
This wasn't a particularly successful concert, but it's the job experience that counts.
Her nighttime concert at the park, however, was much more successful - and she pulled in quite a crowd!
Here are some cute pictures of sims dancing at the concert:
That woman is definitely dancing backwards.
I don't get you, Soraya. The reviews were excellent, the concert-goers were happy, but you're still depressed?!
In other news, Layla's an elder now. From what I can see, she's a very dignified, stately-looking elder woman, and she and Aidan are an adorable old couple.
After her concert, Soraya ran over to the proprietor and auditioned for another gig. For the amount of time she spends at the park/auditioning for him, the two of them should be best friends.
A cool thing: family members of athletes can go to the games for free. So on their first full day of childhood, after I sent them to skill lessons around town, I let Keenan and Evelyn go see the game that Quinn was playing in.
Speaking of Quinn, she and Youssef are probably the strongest couple ever. They can go for days with little affection, just doing their own thing, and then pick right back up where they left off. Their relationship never declines, ever.
After a weekend of freedom, it was time for Keenan and Evelyn's first day of school. (A side note: this is such a cool, sleek-looking school!)
Guys, this isn't the kind of first impression you want to make.
Anyway, they smartened up, changed outfits, and went to school. A proud day for all.
Soraya's at the point in her career where she can sell her CDs, which i just so cool! I didn't know singers could do that!
Hello, handsome, where have you been all my life?
(I've got a thing for aviators, if you couldn't tell.)
Soraya had another concert, which wasn't a big crowd-drawer, but her husband and daughter did come to watch her, and I thought that was nice.
Awww. (And isn't it lovely how their work outfits match?)
Keenan's getting his first taste of life as a grown up, with responsibilities like homework.
He does not like it.
Evelyn's had quite a few LTW possibilities show up in her queue, but when I saw Animal Rescuer, I decided that'd be the one. If I remember correctly, she has to adopt a certain amount of animals into her home. I thought it'd be perfect for a sim who wasn't sticking around to actually do it in my household. (While I want to have Bates family pets, I don't want more than, like, two.)
YEEEEEEEAH!!!
SORAYA:"Bitch, you best be getting off my stage before I cut you."
I'm starting to see the "grumpy" part of Evelyn coming out. I guess she just had to grow into it.
After her latest promotion, Soraya was able to audition for gigs at "live venues" - that usually means pubs and karaoke bars, basically where the gig is inside and not outside, in a park, for free.
She auditioned for this guy and he kept the stuffed animal, but still declined her. What a jerk.
Oh, this was fun. One morning I went into the game and Bryce was totally missing, and wasn't even in the house either, but he was still showing in the family portrait. So I had a heart attack, and then managed to fix it by going out to edit town.
(Pro-tip: if your sim goes missing like that, go out to edit town and click on the family. Click "split family," and then move the offending sim onto your clipboard, and then move him right back into the house. Voila.)
I think Bryce's weird disappearance can be chalked up to the ice cream truck. It only shows up at night, and just camps out in front of the Bates' house for hours at a time. Suspicious.
When Bryce got back, he spent some quality time with Keenan, running around and playing tag.
(I don't know about your feelings on the subject, but Keenan strikes me as the sort of uptight, fussy child who wouldn't play tag. I guess I was wrong.)
Just as Soraya and Seth were preparing for ~intimate relations~, the entire ghost population showed up in their room. Seth did not react well.
After that, the intimate relations did not happen.
I'd just like to take a moment to point out how gorgeous Quinn and Youssef are. Especially Youssef. Yum.
Corrine had a long-standing wish to go to France, and Quinn had a few opportunities there, so after I sorted out the Bryce business, and took care of a few other things, I finally sent mother and daughter off to a quasi-vacation.
While Quinn was working on her opportunities, I decided I'd send Corrine off to do some exploring and adventuring.
Her first "adventure" task was to ask out a girl on behalf of some stupid guy who's afraid to. So she went over to Manon Godard's house to ask her out for Jules Fournier. Before she could do that, the two women became sort of friends.
(And I actually started to ship Corrine and Manon. Or, as I like to call them, Corrinon.)
Quinn finished off her opportunities surprisingly quickly, with almost three full days left in France, so it was all about adventuring for her as well. But before she got started on that, she wanted to enjoy some frogs legs, which, it turns out, are her favourite food (remember, Charlotte Dubois, a France native, was her mother).
That did not go quite as planned.
Quinn's first adventuring task was to ask this woman on a date for Jules Fournier - the same guy that got Corrine to ask Manon out for him!! What a slime-bag!
At the same time, Corrine was knee-deep in another adventuring challenge: nectar-making!
Nice.
Quinn's next task was a much more adventure-y one: it was the trail of tasks that lead the sim into the Landgraab house-tomb, the first of which is to retrieve the groundskeeper's journal.
While Quinn was breaking into the groundskeeper's house, Corrine went back over to visit Manon, since they got along well. But I was in for a surprise when, after Manon had let Corrine into the house, she came onto her!
Sims are pretty much straight unless you direct them otherwise (discounting when a game hack's installed, of course). So you can imagine my surprise when Manon, who wasn't played by me, used a pick-up line on Corrine, totally of her own accord. I started to think the game was reading my mind - especially when Corrine didn't respond negatively.
So...I decided to go with it.
BEFORE YOU JUDGE ME, JUST LOOK AT THEM! LOOK AT HOW CUTE THEY ARE!
LOOK
AT
THEM!
The next task in Quinn's quest was to get a key from - you guessed it - Manon. That brought her over to the house at a rather inopportune moment.
QUINN: "I don't know what to do now."
It was around this time that Corrine got a "naughty" reputation. I think the game was a little delayed in its analysis.
The next part of Quinn's quest was to get into the Landgraab house to find some documents. Since it's such a trap-ridden, dangerous tomb, I thought it would be smart to bring Corrine along - just to have another person present.
I was wrong: it wasn't a smart decision.
After the mother-daughter electrocution, Corrine went back to the base camp to shower, and Quinn continued through her task, which involved shoving statues around to music.
I know this looks painful, but the arrow is just a guide, not a skewer.
Instead of showering at the base-camp, Corrine went back to Manon's house and showered there. With Manon, obviously.
At that time, Corrine and Quinn's vacation was about three hours away from completion, and I knew that I couldn't let Corrine return to Starlight Shores with an active romantic relationship with Manon.
So I got her to shut it down, and ask for them to be "just friends."
Their break-up was made extra awkward by the fact that Manon's apparently the kind of exhibitionist sim who doesn't put her clothes on after getting out of the shower.
After ending her relationship with Manon, Corrine went back to the base camp to meet up with Quinn, who'd just finished her quest. Manon followed her over, looking too beautiful for words.
Definitely uncomfortable.
In their last moments in France, Corrine and Quinn played a game of chess, with Manon sitting in the living room, sulking.
You know the old saying: what happens in France, stays in France. I won't tell Bryce if you won't!
This is where I'll leave you for now. Hopefully I can produce another chapter before I have to return to school, and life gets hectic again. :)
- Kelsey