Krow - Week 1 - The Omega Family
Welcome to Krow - and Krow's first occupant. Six / Aqua - Xenon Omega (Saxo for short) is a Fortune sim with a LTW of becoming Criminal Mastermind. He's an Aries, possibly has alien blood in him and he started his wonderful new life with a lousy 4,000 simoleons.
That afforded him a tiny $1600 block of land and a brick shack of love:
No lights, no windows... scarcely any plumbing, and certainly no decor. Tally-ho! Six / Aqua - Xenon Omega (Saxo for short) is unethusiastic about this:
He is one of 3 founders that will be contributing to the origins of Krow. Traditionally, in a BACC you start with one until you get community lots up and going... but I want to play this as an unwinding/side project, therefore I want it to stay interesting. Manufacturing a community lot for EVERY new family at the start is going to get very boring very quickly. For other rules/changes specific to Krow, see this entry here.
I neglected to get a shot of the welcome wagon, largely because they were never kind enough to STAND CLOSE TO EACH OTHER, but they were all very huggy:
Everyone got earthy hugs from everyone else. Maybe they were just really excited for getting new blood in the area or something. :|
After they disappeared, Saxo got down to the very important business of extreme, endless digging. I wish it gave you body points and I could have sworn that it did, but apparently not. I also could have sworn I took a photo of Saxo toiling away, but apparently not. We've all seen photos of sims digging though, so loan me the use of your imagination. ;D
On the first day we retrieved two rocks, two bones, and the Takemizu secret map. This earned enough money for a fridge and sink, giving the shack a little bit of lived-in feel.
After whinging at me about the crappy environment, re-filling the holes and dumping the newspaper, Saxo surprisingly got hit by lightning. The appropriate solution was, of course, a spongebath out in the open.
Clearly, he's not shy.
Following the mass stat decay that happens after being struck by lightning were many, many, many instant meals.
And then MOAR DIGGING!
... And a visit by the neighbourhood werewolf, which I also found surprising. It's not a woody neighbourhood and the lot certainly doesn't have landscaping. Maybe the holes count, or something? Saxo attempted to be friendly, but Jax was having none of it and trotted off somewhere around 2am. Saxo yielded a Twikkii Island secret map and some more bones, then turned in to sleep.
Day 2 dawned with more digging, in pyjamas because Saxo felt like it.
The concerned stare of the local paper boy was an added bonus.
The mailman visited as well, requiring $10 in bills. Day two as a whole was uneventful - digging yielded 3 rocks, 2 bones, and another Takemizu map. I used the money to give a one-tile deep extension across the back of the house, because the footprint of the original shack was a fraction too small for any practical use/rearrangement of furniture. I added a shower and a counter, opening the opportunity for preparing meals. This may have allowed him to gain enough skill points to reduce the chance of a cooking fire, though, so ... something to keep in mind for the future. NEEDS FIRES.
Day 3 started with YET MORE DIGGING, of which there are also no photos because a sim digging is not a new thing. It also came with the first walk-by townie with CC hair! (I spawned an extra set of townies within the game, without editing or changing the pre-existing ones.)
Saxo immediately went to investigate.
Now, I have a thing about Maxis eyes. I know I could just download defaults and be done with them, but I have... well, a lot of different eye types in my game, natural and unnatural and all sorts. I don't want to add any more. I like custom eyes, I hate Maxis eyes. You can guarantee that all townies/spouses in this BACC will have custom eyes in one form or another.
So to see a townie with custom hair = CUSTOM EYES WHOO.
And they are really pretty eyes.
You can't really tell from the picture, but they're a dark orangey kind of colour. When I saw them, all I could think was Saxo's skin and that townie's eyes = PRETTY. Thus, a goal was born.
Fortunately, they really hit it off. When it came to saying goodbye (so that there could be MORE DIGGING), this was his autonomously chosen method:
Turns out that they are two-bolters, which I didn't realise for a few days. I should have checked it earlier, they were crushes before I even realised it. Her name is Rose Taylor, by the way, and I suspect her aspiration is Fortune as well. When asked, one of her wants was to earn $100. At one point they had an opportunity to network, and Rose gave him a product to test -- a nice big wall-mounted flatscreen TV.
The digging for day 3 returned a chickenfeed charlie sculpture of fun, Hidden Burrow map, and a bone. Filling in the holes brought Saxo +3 cleaning skill points. I also bought a phone, so Saxo could start corresponding with other Townies and be available if Rose called.
Day 4... more digging! I initially considered running a community lot that would sell whatever Saxo dug up/earned/was given by the game... but I figured that I'd worry about a community lot next week, after the other two founders were similarly established in the game. The morning dig earned two rocks, Convex Stoneware, and a bone.
A stray turned up, allowing me to entertain the idea of having a pet be the main income earner. The only requirement for the Showbiz Career for pets is that the pet knows all tricks. This isn't hard, so I think it'll be a definite avenue of exploration.
Fortunately, Saxo got along with this dog much better than Jax-the-wolf. Unfortunately, the dog hasn't returned yet. Maybe next rotation.
Saxo got another $10 in bills, which was promptly paid. I sold all the junk he had accrued in his inventory (except for Humble's computer... I'm ignoring them until I decide what to do with them). Saxo finally got a stove, albeit a crappy one, but that was all. House extensions are only supposed to take place on the 7th day/at the end of the rotation, although I decided this after the initial extension on day 2. It obviously can't be retroactive without a lot of hassle. Anyway, I decided to save all Saxo's new earnings for that.
That evening, Saxo hit his first water pipe.
It was frantically filled. Amidst bitching over how uncomfortable he was, Saxo turned in for the night.
Day 5 began with my remembering that the household doesn't have a maid. I love maids, they're so useful. :c Saxo cleaned everything in sight, before attempting to invite Rose over. She wasn't home at the time, alas. A second attempt later on in the day turned out to be successful.
That townie did not want to know.
During their greeting/flirting/falling in love process, a REALLY pretty townie wandered by.
JUST LOOK AT HER. ;_; Her eyes are a really pretty, deep blue. I like her genetics a lot. I hope she shows up again for someone else. :D
Rose stayed well into the evening. In the name of being ~civilised~ I built the pair a nice little eating spot outside.
Rose and Saxo were having too much fun inside to notice.
They get along really well though, so Saxo asked her for a committed relationship.
Rose agreed. :D
After she left, Saxo decided that life in Krow wasn't so bad after all, and went to bed.
Day 6 kicked off with pre-dawn digging.
The change of seasons (from autumn to winter) brought about a change in clothing for Saxo. It also seemed to bring about a change in luck -- day 6 yielded a lot of bones, a rock, a map for Takemizu, a map for Twikkii Island, one for Three Lakes and two treasure chests. After selling all this Saxo had funds of 20,908 and a hideously red comfort bar that ended with him going to bed early.
Overnight, it snowed for the first time.
Pictures like this make me adore my graphics card. I never could have dreamed of this from my old laptop. I'm too much of a softie to make Saxo dig in the winter, so he got to do his own thing for a while.
He decided to build a snowman.
It didn't turn out how I hoped. ):
With ~20k in the bank, and given it was the 7th day, I finally upgraded the house a bit. I didn't do a lot, so the total renovation only cost 6,000 - including walls, covering, floor, furniture, lights, doors and windows. I like to stay thematic, so I spent about... a minute and a half building walls/placing furniture/etc, and ten minutes picking out the doors, windows, flooring and wall cover.
But, I like the overall effect.
Saxo spent the rest of Day 7 inside where he could be warm and enjoy his new windows. He sat on the shoddy couch and read about Fire Safety, in preparation for the weeks to come.
With Omega's Week 1 at an end, next is the Patchwork Family.