Krow - Week 9 - The Cwik Family
First, my apologies for taking so long to do this update. I've been working on Derelict Sims, which has eaten a bit of my simming/creative time. I mentioned this in the previous post, but I thought I should mention it again. Secondly, kind of a spoiler banner? Only not really, since things were headed this way since Week 8. Thirdly, the Cwik household is not a CAS household. It's founded by Brandon Cwik, who started out as a teen townie and moved in with Ivy Omega in Week 8. He moved out at that end of the week because the two were not suited for each other and I didn't see the point in forcing it. So essentially, Brandon's striking out on his own.
So, I picked a house for Brandon, moved him in, and forgot that the game is not paused when a sim moves in for the first time. I was off reading notes about the relationship between Tulio and Miguel in The Road to el Dorado (which I never did finish, lol). By the time I switched back to Brandon's house, it was 2pm game time (and almost 4pm here! :D). I haven't a clue who turned up in the Welcome Wagon.
This is the house he's moved into, as seen in a previous entry.
And this is Brandon himself. I do confess that I'm not a big fan of him - mostly because he just got in the way when I was playing Week 8, so I had a fair bit of resent for him.
As a sim, though, he's a Fortune Sim who wants to become City Planner. An architecture slot is available, so that's no problem! He comes with 3 cooking, 1 mechanical, 2 charisma, 2 body, 3 logic, 6 creativity and 1 cleaning point. He's got a bronze restock badge and a bronze sales badge. Concerning personality he's a Capricorn, with 1-point laziness but 8 points playful. He's 5-points nice, so he's not that bad a guy, really. I'm going to try and not hate him by default, so. XD
With most of the day gone, Brandon scrounged around for an available architecture job.
To my amusement, I noticed for the first time that there's a "Sims 3" icon on the desktop. See it on the left of the screen, the bottom-most icon? Kind of cute. This is Humble's computer, which would be why. I decided that his gift will be used to assist looking for a job, but nothing else. A computer for recreational or skilling purposes will have to be bought.
The search was negative (what a shock) so he moseyed off to call Candence, the girl from last week.
She wasn't home. XD Not having a good start, this lad.
Brandon. :|
He went to make a late lunch but the fridge was inaccessible? I worked out that it's because the routing requires the sim to stand to the far left of the item itself, rather than in the middle with a Maxis fridge. So, it got replaced.
Cadence finally conceded to coming over around 6pm. Brandon flirted with her a bit and then finally invited her to move in, which Cadence accepted.
Cadence Mendoza brought $3,534 with her into the household. She's a fortune sim too (which I think we knew already) and a test subject - a job open only to sims with maxed logic, so that had to go. Cadence has 1 cooking, 3 mechanical, 1 charisma, 2 body, 2 logic, 7 creativity and 2 cleaning, in addition to a bronze fishing and a bronze flower arrangement badge. She had a pretty nice collection of items in her inventory.
These things brought the family funds up by another $3,900, giving them $9,691. The next challenge is figuring out what kind of community lot to get them!
In case you were wondering, Brandon and Cadence aren't exactly all over each other.
They're far more concerned rolling wishes about buying useless items, and never really wish to be affectionate. I like to think of it as a pair of YA Sims who've got a beneficial relationship - mild committment and security, not something permanent. Quite fortune sim like, I suppose.
Cadence was sent to the mirror and the wardrobe, as all sims are.
I wonder if it's a bit too dressy considering her previous look (which was shirt/jeans/messy hair), but I don't mind it. The red probably goesn't go as nicely with her dark skin as I think it does, but I don't really care that much. :3 I like it. The necklace is separate and not part of the outfit, by the way.
Brandon approves, which is good, because he's going to get dressed up too. :P
Most of their canoodling is ACR, by the way. Because I like to colour code things, Brandon's token colour is ~green~, whilst Candence's is ~red~.
The next day Brandon went to work in Law Enforcement, since there were no jobs for Architecture yet. He left Cadence at home and I have no idea what to do with her. No jobs suited her, and business hasn't turned up yet. Her LTW is to top the entertainment career, which is when I realised that the only thing in the way there was 10 charisma points.
GO GO GO
Home from work, Brandon also concentrated on skill-building.
The rest of the evening was filled with skilling, eating and bumping uglies... which was all fairly mundane, so it seems that the next thing I took a shot of was Brandon going to work the next day, leaving Cadence alone once again.
:C Cadence.... mind you, I forgot I had that sprinkler there.
Oh, honey.
Poor Cadence had a horrible day. By the time the therapist arrived, she was red energy, red hunger, red fun and red hygiene. Food and a shower fixed some of that, but diary writing did nothing. She packed it in about 3pm.
Brandon was home then, with a promotion to Vice Squad, which would be nicer if it was his LT career track. He wasn't terribly enthused about it, but at least his stats were all bright green?
He took care of the mess that Cadence made, and then brushed up his mechanical in preparation for his eventual switch to Architecture.
What.
WHAT. :| Nooooo.
... Okay, so neither Brandon nor Cadence have had a particularly spectacular start. To compensate, I got them a dartboard to play with. Cadence was 100% red at that point, so it was one of the few ways that I could improve it.
It took about four hours, but Cadence eventually got her fun back to green.
Always with the eating! As an aside, I'm still not sure what type of community lot to give this pair. Maybe a park?
Pop two!
The baby is due late on Day 5/early hours of Day 6, I think. I'm kind of annoyed about this, sigh. I would have liked for her to at least be employed, first. Tch. :C Fortune sims do not make great stay-at-home parents. Saxo managed but he had the bar and could fulfill his monetary wants without too much hassle. Cadence will have to wait for maternity leave to be over before she can get her job, poor lass.
I think she looks amazing in white, though. :D
Meanwhile, Brandon went to work as Head of Construction Company, having finally found an available slot... I failed to get a shot of him to commemorate - you'll have to make do with one of him coming home, promotion in hand. He's now Architect's Apprentice. C:
They pottered around and eventually went to bed... for a couple of hours.
4am on Day 6, they welcomed little Benjamin into the family. Cadence went on birth control. 8| NO MORE.
Goodness, Brandon does show emotions afterall.
To make room for the crib, they sold the wardrobe in the bedroom, put the sofa in there, and a cot out where the sofa was.
At least the colour decor wasn't hard to pick out. YELLOW. EVERYTHING YELLOW. I'm not digging the blue stripes on the bottom of the cot, though. One thing I hate, absolutely, is blue = boy and pink = girl. NO. My children will grow up with green and yellow and purple and blue and pink and red and orange and white and rainbows everywhere and BY GOD THEY WILL LIKE IT. They'll play with whatever they want to play with, colour the world how they want - I don't do gender roles consciously, and I'm working hard to remove the subconscious impulse. /tangent
Both Cadence and Brandon stand like this at frequent intervals. It gives me the irrits.
Cadence changed over to a white shirt, since I think it's much nicer than the red.
Even if he was an accident, Brandon seems to think that his son is pretty cute.
Cadence is less enthused.
In the morning, Brandon spent some time building relationships in preparation for the coming week. Andrea Hogan was kind enough to tell him that next time he went to work, he'd be getting a promotion for being a nice person.
Most of Day 6 was skilling, in preparation for Week 10. I still don't like Brandon much. 8| I don't dislike him, I just have no interest in him as an individual. I think that'll change in Week 10 though... or at least I plan for it to.
Outside, I added a chessboard and a hydroponic garden (visible at the back).
These will both help with logic and creativity for Brandon, who needs those skills for his career. Cadence is okay with the mirror for the moment - she won't be able to start Entertainment yet anyway, so no need to rush.
I've come to the conclusion that Cadence is perhaps a bit more high-strung than I first thought. Her wants are always about buying more expensive things (a $1000 armchair, a $600 game, a $3000 TV, marry rich), and her fears are about throwing up, passing out and wetting herself. She's a fortune sim, so there's a certain materialistic quality irrespective of the individual, but she's got a certain 'maintain appearances' quality to her, no? Probably quite suitable, then, that she wants to be top of the Entertainment career.
Brandon's wants are not dissimilar (game, statue, holiday, car), but his fears are more grounded (they generally revolve around something happening with Cadence, like death or being rejected for flirting).
Anyway, back to skilling land.
Practising speech wakes the other sim up. I didn't know that. The more you know!
I chose to be nice and moved the mirror to the bathroom (no-one sleeps in there!) but Brandon snagged Cadence before she could go and practice in there.
They flirted for an hour or two before Brandon surrendered the game and went back to the land of sleeeeeep, whilst Cadence went and took care of Ben... whose name, incidentally, came about because I had been watching Treasure Planet. 8| I listen to/watch DVDs like people listen to music/CDs.
She laid Ben down and went to sleep again. Day 7 dawned with no witness.
I didn't have any plans to extend the house, initially. I figured one bedroom would be more than enough for a couple like Brandon and Cadence. But then Ben was conceived and given that he'll be a child in Week 10, it was prudent to do some reno post-haste. They started with $13,500 - which I had planned to put towards a community lot. :c When finished, they had $6,600 - so the reno cost about 7,000. Not bad, though I wish it weren't necessary. XD
This is the finished house.
The patio was moved down the side of the house, which worked out much better than I anticipated. A lounge was put in where it had been, which features a desk and a TV, and a row of bookcases. My solution to empty space is usually, "BOOKCASES!" :C
Next to it is the new bathroom, which is pretty much why I put the lounge/study in there too, even if they don't really need one. I didn't want to extend out the back with a single piddly room, you know? Anyway, the bathroom has the same layout as before. I'll probably add a bathtub once Ben is a toddler.
Ben's room is where the bathroom was, and the space that was the shower has been converted to a cupboard. It should lend itself to being a kid's bedroom quite nicely. Finally, the main bedroom got new wallpaper, 'cause it was a bit more yellow than the previous one.
I didn't change the kitchen, though it would be easy to improve and expand it. You could make it all open plan and move the kitchen to the back, taking up the space next to the bathroom. You could bring the lounge/study forward, where the table and chairs are, then move the table and chairs up to where the kitchen had been. You could probably include an island to eat from. All up, pretty simple... if you have the money. XD I may do these things next week, we'll see!
I wanted the family to buy a park, because it's high time there was one in Krow. Unfortunately, the one I want them to have will cost $16,000 to get. :C They need another $10,000 and Brandon doesn't go back to work until monday, let alone Cadence finally getting to her career (three charisma to go!). Sigh. :C Maybe someone else will buy it?
The dartboard was also moved into the main living space, it was the only place it fit adequately.
So, you might have noticed the pet equipment in some of the close-up shots of the new/refurbished rooms. They're getting a cat!
This is Sweets, who I'd rather call Bolt because it's yellow? A young male, Sweets is going to be supplementary income for the family so they can get a community lot next week.
Snow! 8D
guys
GUYS
I finished rotation 9! Finally. XD
Stats: Krow - Week 9
8 Households: Confetti, Cwik, Bruty, Hark-Crowley, Omega, Omega 2, Patchwork and Torrisi.
6 Household Businesses: Omega Bar, Patchwork Patterns, Jackalope Grocery, Rotor, Patchwork Bakery and a bookstore.
8 Community lots: 6 Businesses, 2 Public - "Little Red Restaurant", "Krow Cemetary".
11 Job slots: Architecture (occupied), Athletic (occupied), Business x 5 (2 occupied), Culinary, Law Enforcement x 2 (1 occupied), Slacker (occupied).
University Fund: $30, 816. (No contribution, Cwik's first week technically.)
Cadence and Ben Mendoaz raise the population to 36 Playables. With a multiplier of 3, the total population is 108.
That's it for Week 9 - next we'll be starting in Week 10, back with the Omega family.