(Prosperity) Nevermore: Moving In
Prosperity pixel_trade style; all sims used here are from the pixel_trade community. Many thanks to the talented simmers who were willing to share their sims! Complete list at the end of this chapter. Spoiler: Renee Wormwood and Colin Davidson are elders, so don't read if you don't want to know what they'll look like!
Nestled between the coast and the mountains lies an idyllic village. Evermore was meant to be the Landgraab's greatest development to date. The cozy cottages in a fairy tale setting were meant to offer peace and tranquility at a remote location for a premium price. Unfortunately, the development was plagued with problems from the start. The remote location meant inflated building costs, with the transport of labor and the need to provide housing for the construction crew. Rumors that the area was once a mining town, and the ghosts of the minors still roamed spooked the crew, resulting in a high turnover rate in employees. And the troubles didn't end when the building of the first model homes did.
The sale of the factory on the outskirts of town fell through, meaning the loss of the only potential employer in a 60 mile radius. Now more than ever, few sims made the drive to even see the beautiful but vacant model homes, and none were willing to pay the exhorbanent price for the isolation of Evermore's location.
The final blow came when the real estate agents living in trailers on the edge of town disappeared one night. Malcom Landgraab himself had driven the distance to see just what his employees were doing wrong and he found the area completely vacant, a cold tv dinner still in the microwave. Evermore, or Nevermore as it was now referred to by those in the know, was Landgraab's most expensive project, and with no income coming in, things looked dire for the village.
When the government stepped in for failure to pay taxes, Malcom later described his feeling as "relief." Nevermore was off of his hands, and though it would take years to recover from the financial hit, he had never been happier to part company with a project.
The government offered the cottages for rock bottom prices, in addition to a promise to provide funds for the small community center for the first two seasons. As long as there were at least five students needing to attend school, buses would be provided to transport them to Strangetown, the nearest city, still an hours drive away. Even so, buyers were hard to come by. In the end, only six families took the government up on their offer, and each had their own reason to be willing to move their families to the middle of nowhere, to a housing development with an uncertain future. These are their stories.
The Brontes
(Nitta, Pixie, Wander, Zondek, Conner, and Dag)
Zondek couldn't believe how big their new house was. He thought they probably could have fit the entire apartment he had shared with his dad in the kitchen of the new house. But it was a lot more crowded than their apartment, so he figured space wise he was still in the same boat.
He thought living with his aunts and cousins would be really cool, but they didn't seem to feel the same way about him. He had only met his aunt Pixie a couple of times before, at his grandma's funeral and again at his grandpa's funeral. He thought she was very beautiful but she seemed very busy.
His cousins, Nitta and Wander, he had never met before, even though their dad, Conner, was at their apartment a lot. They lived with their mother, and only saw Uncle Conner a couple times a year, but their mother died. Uncle Conner had come over to their apartment very late, and told Zondek's father that he didn't how he would take care of them.
"Don't look at me," his dad had said, "I barely know what to do with Zon."
Then they started talking about this place, Nevermore, that Zondek's dad had read about in the paper, and also Aunt Pixie. They said something about her being an old maid, and Zondek said he thought Aunt Pixie helped make commercials, and they sent him to bed. Two days later his dad told him they were moving, and he was going to have a real family.
"They may just need some getting used to you, Zon," his dad had warned them. "You're just so different from the rest of us." And he couldn't really argue with that.
It especially seemed to bother them when he talked about his home planet. Whatever planet that may be. Dag, Zondek's dad, didn't seem to really know much about where he came from.
Zondek just hoped it wouldn't take too terribly long for them to get used to him, because he was really ready to have a friend. At least animals never seemed to mind him. Maybe now that they had a yard, they could get a dog.
When the lady from the school came to make sure they knew how the bus program would work, Zondek felt a surge of hopefulness.
Nicole Futa had eyes just like his!
That night, Zondek dreamt that Nicole Futa came to tell them there had been a mistake, and he had been raised by the wrong family all these years. His real family was full of people that looked just like him and had never stopped looking for him. He felt guilty when he woke up, because even if his dad seemed a little confused by him sometimes, he was good to him and Zondek was pretty sure he loved him.
When the bus arrived the next morning, Zondek could hardly believe his eyes. He was definitely happy with their new home.
The Angelous
(Marcus, Colin, Katamari, Jocelyn, and Amber)
Amber Angelou had once been a famous actress, but she found the work too demanding. Her goal had been to work just long enough to save enough money to retire on. Along the way, she had picked up the habit of adopting children, and so far she had collected a daughter, Katamari, and toddlers Jocelyn and Marcus. Things were going along swimmingly until her business manager invested all of her money in real estate. With regret, he told she had gone bankrupt on some bad property development in the middle of nowhere. As usual, Amber couldn't be bothered by the details. She had been out of the public eye for so long that new work wasn't exactly flowing in her direction. Until a new opportunity opened up for her, her manager did manage to get her and her family set up in the sweetest little cottage in a nice, remote location where she wouldn't be bothered by paparazzi or fans. Since she could no longer afford a nanny, she made amends with her father and offered him the opportunity to get to know his grandchildren.
The house even came up with the sweetest little setup for a home bakery! Amber couldn't wait to learn to cook and fill it up with cakes and other pastries. How hard could it be?
As it turned out, a little harder than she had thought. Oh, well, she thought. It's only a matter of time before I can rehire my cook and she can make the cakes and pastries for my shop! She pictured herself in a darling little apron filling boxes with her face, and maybe the children's, on them.
Katamari knew that these new circumstances and the loss of their nanny meant that she and her younger siblings needed to stick together now more than ever. She tried to tell Jocelyn and Marcus this over their play table, but she was finding toddlers to be difficult to communicate with.
Marcus would find out soon enough what life with Amber in charge would be like.
Not that Amber wasn't concerned about those in her care. No, she was very worried about her cook, her nanny, her driver, and her personal assistant... and whether or not they'd be available to rehire when the time came.
She comforted herself the best way she knew. It may not have been the garden tub she was used to, but she would make do.
The Alcotts
(Leonardo and Heidi)
Heidi kept her expectations low, so there was no risk of disappointment when they arrived at Evermore. She had to admit, though, that for one brief moment, when the were driving through the center of town and she saw the cottages lining the street, that she thought their father had done something really nice for them.
And then she saw the trailers, and she knew for sure that she and Leonardo would be living in one of them.
When Leonardo saw that the trailer only had one bed, he asked Heidi where she thought Dad planned on sleeping when his business trip was done. Heidi didn't have the heart to tell them she didn't think they'd ever see Dad again. One day Leonardo would figure out that business trips didn't last a year or more, and he would figure it all out then. Heidi was just glad they would be away from Pleasantview, and that nasty Angela Pleasant and her stories that their dad had another family downtown, when it dawned on him.
Besides, she couldn't bring herself to break his heart when he was still so broken up about their mom dying.
Since their mom's death, Heidi had tried her best to be like a second mother to Leonardo. But sometimes he tested the limits of her sisterly love.
It was bad enough that their dad left them right after their mom's death, but if he was going to dump them out of sight somewhere, did it have to be somewhere so... dull? Heidi hadn't seen much of anything on their way in.
The only thing remotely interesting on the lot was the telescope, and Leonardo had been keeping it tied up. She was about to ask him if he wanted to check out the community center when one of the neighbors passed by.
Leonardo and Zondek hit it off, and were busy playing until dark. So no community lot, but at least she got a turn on the telescope. There wasn't much to see, just some birds by the coast and a bunch of houses much nicer than their own.
Leonardo couldn't sleep well that night. He didn't want to share the trailer's only bed with her sister - gross - but the bench that served as their couch wasn't exactly comfortable. He looked through the telescope, and wondered which planet his new friend Zondek was from.
The Sendaks
(Morrow, Nathan, Bellatrix, Rika, and Zephyr)
The first thing you need to know about Rika Sendak is that she is not, absolutely not a slut, no matter what her stepmother may say. Rika was just generous with her heart, as one may guess by her three children with three different fathers, and she had been wronged time and time again. Not that her stepmother, a cold hearted woman who could never understand what Real Love is, could ever understand that. Rika's father was barely cold in the ground before Rita, her stepmother, had pulled her aside and offered her money to just, for god's sake, leave town and stop ruining the good Sendak name. "Funnel some of that affection into your children," Rita had advised, as though she knew anything at all about affection or good parenting.
Rika had to admit, though, that maybe it would be good to take a little break from men and give her children a little more attention. Men had done nothing but break her heart. And though she had always thought children needed a little less work because they were people that had to love you, Nathan had been a little more difficult to handle since becoming a teen.
Rita had offered her extra if she would take her half-sister, Zephyr, with her.
With the extra money, Rika had the money to move to a small community that was just getting started. She had been ready to leave Strangetown anyway; that place was getting overrun by humans, anyway. She and her family could populate Nevermore with more desirable genes. And, besides, she had hoped Zephyr would be helpful with the children.
Unfortunately, the children, especially Morrow, didn't care much for Zephyr.
Zephyr didn't plan on staying with them very long anyway. She had plans to buy the building across the street - a bar with a small bedroom upstairs. She just needed to figure out how to earn money out in the boondocks with no car.
A few of the neighbors dropped by the welcome them to town, and Zephyr immediately laid claim to Dag Bronte.
Once he got close enough to get a good look at her eyes, though, he paled and left quickly afterwards, muttering something about one spawn being enough for him.
The neighbors, or at least those that came to welcome them, seemed nice enough.
"You have three children, too? So do I!" Amber Angelou told her over lunch. "My psychic told me that three was my magic number, so I try to do everything in groups of three. Incidently, could I get another slice of bread?"
Zephyr wasn't the only Sendak with romance on the mind. Rika's son Nathan had been lovestruck by the paper girl as soon as he'd seen her.
He hoped his mom wouldn't embarrass him around her, like she sometimes did around his friends back in Strangetown.
Although Rika had at first been offended by her stepmother's payoff, now that they were in Nevermore Rika felt in her bones that this was the right place for them to be. It was beautiful here, for one thing, and Rika had a sneaking suspicion that great things would happen for her family here.
The Babbitts
(Bilbo and Lie)
Expenses had been tight for Bilbo and Lie, who were raised by their grandmother on her pension. It hadn't been easy for her to scrape together enough money to buy the property in Nevermore, but they had tightened their budgets and scrimped until they had enough. Myrna, their grandmother, believed that this would be a fresh start for them. Unfortunately, Myrna would never see Nevermore. The night before they were supposed to leave, she had passed away.
It wasn't easy for Bilbo to convince his cousin Lie they should still go to Nevermore. But he was known for his persistence, and he insisted that they had a better chance as two teens on their own, with a home of their own in a small community than they did in expensive Veronaville. He was determined to do his best to live a full life in respect to his grandmother. They had barely arrived when he was already introducing himself to the papergirl.
Seeing that Lie was settling in for a good, long mope in her trailer, Bilbo insisted that she come with him to the community center. "We need to check out grandma's investment," he told her. "Make sure everything she paid for is in order." That worked, and he got Lie out of the house before she was too down.
At the community center, Bilbo was excited to see there were a number of teens in town. And more than that, there were aliens! He made a beeline to Nathan Sendak to introduce himself.
But it was Heidi Alcott that really caught Bilbo's attention. He thought she was the prettiest girl he had ever seen. Unfortunately, their conversation didn't get off to the best start.
But once again, Bilbo was persistent and he seemed to win Heidi over. At the very least, she warmed to him a little.
That night, Bilbo was woken by howling and barking in the yard of his trailer. He went outside to chase the dog away, but it was already gone, leaving a deep hole in the yard.
Great, he thought, getting his shovel to fill the hole in. I wanted a good night's sleep before my first day at school tomorrow.
But as he started to fill the hole in, something caught his eye.
It was a tattered map to a hidden treasure on an island he had never heard of before. Hidden treasure... yeah, right. This was probably part of some kids' game. But for some reason, he held onto it instead of throwing it out.
And for some strange reason, that he couldn't have explained himself, he didn't tell Lie about his discovery the next morning at breakfast.
The Kincaids
(Frankie, Renee, Bernard, Phenelope, Brianna, and Winter)
Brianna was trying not to take the fact that it was raining on the day they moved in as a bad omen. But every step of this move, from the tenseness between her parents, to the way that they moved so fast they left most of their belongings behind, to the fact that their new home was in the middle of no-freaking-where, had just stunk.
Her grandma, Renee, had taken a similar view to the move, but that was before they arrived. Her opinion started to sway when she saw the greenhouse. What a soft touch.
But it was when Colin Angelou came to welcome them to the neighborhood, that Renee really fell in love with Nevermore.
"Oh, yes, it is just lovely here!" Brianna couldn't believe her ears. "We were all very excited about moving."
Her turnaround about the move wasn't the only thing that was fast.
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Notes:
I wanted every Sim used in this Legacy (aside from NPCs) to be from pixel_trade. That meant downloading a significant number of sims (over 44) and even though I made notes on each sim, some of them were difficult to differentiate, especially if they didn't have CC. So if you see one of your sims in here mislabeled, please let me know so I can fix it. I think I got them all right, though.
Whenever possible, I tried to keep the original aspiration and personality. If that information wasn't provided (and it didn't take many sims before I got sick of hunting for it), I rolled per prosperity rules.
My plan with this neighborhood is to take them through the steps of creating their own government and economy. No one is getting an outside job. I'm not sure yet how all that will work out, but as the citizens of Nevermore figure it out, so will I!
Nevermore's terrain is Plasticbox's beautiful Middleground terrain, and the cottage type homes are from his/her set of 10 mini starters. They're really tiny, too small for the really big families I ended up rolling, but I had already set up the hood and I love them anyway. All the houses and lots are from Plasticbox.
Original sims creators (original surname):
_simplyrandom: Pixie Bronte (Honeyblossom), Rika Sendak (Honeyblossom)
abbycat900:Phenelope Kincaid (Dale)
dothesmustle:Nathan Sendak (Peet), Heidi Alcott (Piper)
dragancor: Jocelyn Angelou (Latrodectus), Brianna Kincaid (Latrodectus)
gotaluvsims: Leonardo Alcott (Bellagio) I just love Leonardo! He is such a cutie, and the first kid I have EVER seen prank someone by shocking them. He did it to Heidi just as she was getting on the telescope (I think so he could have it for himself.)
haughtysims: Renee Kindcaid (Wormwood)
iliketoplaygod: Amber Angelou (Fusion), Marcus Angelou (Attwater), Nitta Bronte, Colin Angelou
katu-sims: Wander Bronte (Dork), Katamari Angelou (Dork), Bilbo Babbitt (Dork)
Oh, and katu-sims, even though Bilbo has never met Wander in my game, and they're brothers in your game, Bilbo thinks Wander is might fine:
I'm kind of at a loss about how that happened, since they haven't met, and Bilbo likes girls.
madame_ugly: Zephyr Sendak (Pleasure), Morrow Sendak, and Zondek Bronte
racetrackd: Frankie Kincaid (Dorsey), Winter Kincaid (Dorsey), and Conner Bronte (Dorsey)
scarredid: Lie Babbitt (Reenboog)
selzi: Bernard Kincaid (Stanley), Dag Bronte (Christensen)
simsforaranya: Bellatrix Sendak (Forest)
Thank you for all the sims! If I ever add townies (I need a plausible reason for them to be there), I'll be using more of what I've downloaded.
Nestled between the coast and the mountains lies an idyllic village. Evermore was meant to be the Landgraab's greatest development to date. The cozy cottages in a fairy tale setting were meant to offer peace and tranquility at a remote location for a premium price. Unfortunately, the development was plagued with problems from the start. The remote location meant inflated building costs, with the transport of labor and the need to provide housing for the construction crew. Rumors that the area was once a mining town, and the ghosts of the minors still roamed spooked the crew, resulting in a high turnover rate in employees. And the troubles didn't end when the building of the first model homes did.
The sale of the factory on the outskirts of town fell through, meaning the loss of the only potential employer in a 60 mile radius. Now more than ever, few sims made the drive to even see the beautiful but vacant model homes, and none were willing to pay the exhorbanent price for the isolation of Evermore's location.
The final blow came when the real estate agents living in trailers on the edge of town disappeared one night. Malcom Landgraab himself had driven the distance to see just what his employees were doing wrong and he found the area completely vacant, a cold tv dinner still in the microwave. Evermore, or Nevermore as it was now referred to by those in the know, was Landgraab's most expensive project, and with no income coming in, things looked dire for the village.
When the government stepped in for failure to pay taxes, Malcom later described his feeling as "relief." Nevermore was off of his hands, and though it would take years to recover from the financial hit, he had never been happier to part company with a project.
The government offered the cottages for rock bottom prices, in addition to a promise to provide funds for the small community center for the first two seasons. As long as there were at least five students needing to attend school, buses would be provided to transport them to Strangetown, the nearest city, still an hours drive away. Even so, buyers were hard to come by. In the end, only six families took the government up on their offer, and each had their own reason to be willing to move their families to the middle of nowhere, to a housing development with an uncertain future. These are their stories.
The Brontes
(Nitta, Pixie, Wander, Zondek, Conner, and Dag)
Zondek couldn't believe how big their new house was. He thought they probably could have fit the entire apartment he had shared with his dad in the kitchen of the new house. But it was a lot more crowded than their apartment, so he figured space wise he was still in the same boat.
He thought living with his aunts and cousins would be really cool, but they didn't seem to feel the same way about him. He had only met his aunt Pixie a couple of times before, at his grandma's funeral and again at his grandpa's funeral. He thought she was very beautiful but she seemed very busy.
His cousins, Nitta and Wander, he had never met before, even though their dad, Conner, was at their apartment a lot. They lived with their mother, and only saw Uncle Conner a couple times a year, but their mother died. Uncle Conner had come over to their apartment very late, and told Zondek's father that he didn't how he would take care of them.
"Don't look at me," his dad had said, "I barely know what to do with Zon."
Then they started talking about this place, Nevermore, that Zondek's dad had read about in the paper, and also Aunt Pixie. They said something about her being an old maid, and Zondek said he thought Aunt Pixie helped make commercials, and they sent him to bed. Two days later his dad told him they were moving, and he was going to have a real family.
"They may just need some getting used to you, Zon," his dad had warned them. "You're just so different from the rest of us." And he couldn't really argue with that.
It especially seemed to bother them when he talked about his home planet. Whatever planet that may be. Dag, Zondek's dad, didn't seem to really know much about where he came from.
Zondek just hoped it wouldn't take too terribly long for them to get used to him, because he was really ready to have a friend. At least animals never seemed to mind him. Maybe now that they had a yard, they could get a dog.
When the lady from the school came to make sure they knew how the bus program would work, Zondek felt a surge of hopefulness.
Nicole Futa had eyes just like his!
That night, Zondek dreamt that Nicole Futa came to tell them there had been a mistake, and he had been raised by the wrong family all these years. His real family was full of people that looked just like him and had never stopped looking for him. He felt guilty when he woke up, because even if his dad seemed a little confused by him sometimes, he was good to him and Zondek was pretty sure he loved him.
When the bus arrived the next morning, Zondek could hardly believe his eyes. He was definitely happy with their new home.
The Angelous
(Marcus, Colin, Katamari, Jocelyn, and Amber)
Amber Angelou had once been a famous actress, but she found the work too demanding. Her goal had been to work just long enough to save enough money to retire on. Along the way, she had picked up the habit of adopting children, and so far she had collected a daughter, Katamari, and toddlers Jocelyn and Marcus. Things were going along swimmingly until her business manager invested all of her money in real estate. With regret, he told she had gone bankrupt on some bad property development in the middle of nowhere. As usual, Amber couldn't be bothered by the details. She had been out of the public eye for so long that new work wasn't exactly flowing in her direction. Until a new opportunity opened up for her, her manager did manage to get her and her family set up in the sweetest little cottage in a nice, remote location where she wouldn't be bothered by paparazzi or fans. Since she could no longer afford a nanny, she made amends with her father and offered him the opportunity to get to know his grandchildren.
The house even came up with the sweetest little setup for a home bakery! Amber couldn't wait to learn to cook and fill it up with cakes and other pastries. How hard could it be?
As it turned out, a little harder than she had thought. Oh, well, she thought. It's only a matter of time before I can rehire my cook and she can make the cakes and pastries for my shop! She pictured herself in a darling little apron filling boxes with her face, and maybe the children's, on them.
Katamari knew that these new circumstances and the loss of their nanny meant that she and her younger siblings needed to stick together now more than ever. She tried to tell Jocelyn and Marcus this over their play table, but she was finding toddlers to be difficult to communicate with.
Marcus would find out soon enough what life with Amber in charge would be like.
Not that Amber wasn't concerned about those in her care. No, she was very worried about her cook, her nanny, her driver, and her personal assistant... and whether or not they'd be available to rehire when the time came.
She comforted herself the best way she knew. It may not have been the garden tub she was used to, but she would make do.
The Alcotts
(Leonardo and Heidi)
Heidi kept her expectations low, so there was no risk of disappointment when they arrived at Evermore. She had to admit, though, that for one brief moment, when the were driving through the center of town and she saw the cottages lining the street, that she thought their father had done something really nice for them.
And then she saw the trailers, and she knew for sure that she and Leonardo would be living in one of them.
When Leonardo saw that the trailer only had one bed, he asked Heidi where she thought Dad planned on sleeping when his business trip was done. Heidi didn't have the heart to tell them she didn't think they'd ever see Dad again. One day Leonardo would figure out that business trips didn't last a year or more, and he would figure it all out then. Heidi was just glad they would be away from Pleasantview, and that nasty Angela Pleasant and her stories that their dad had another family downtown, when it dawned on him.
Besides, she couldn't bring herself to break his heart when he was still so broken up about their mom dying.
Since their mom's death, Heidi had tried her best to be like a second mother to Leonardo. But sometimes he tested the limits of her sisterly love.
It was bad enough that their dad left them right after their mom's death, but if he was going to dump them out of sight somewhere, did it have to be somewhere so... dull? Heidi hadn't seen much of anything on their way in.
The only thing remotely interesting on the lot was the telescope, and Leonardo had been keeping it tied up. She was about to ask him if he wanted to check out the community center when one of the neighbors passed by.
Leonardo and Zondek hit it off, and were busy playing until dark. So no community lot, but at least she got a turn on the telescope. There wasn't much to see, just some birds by the coast and a bunch of houses much nicer than their own.
Leonardo couldn't sleep well that night. He didn't want to share the trailer's only bed with her sister - gross - but the bench that served as their couch wasn't exactly comfortable. He looked through the telescope, and wondered which planet his new friend Zondek was from.
The Sendaks
(Morrow, Nathan, Bellatrix, Rika, and Zephyr)
The first thing you need to know about Rika Sendak is that she is not, absolutely not a slut, no matter what her stepmother may say. Rika was just generous with her heart, as one may guess by her three children with three different fathers, and she had been wronged time and time again. Not that her stepmother, a cold hearted woman who could never understand what Real Love is, could ever understand that. Rika's father was barely cold in the ground before Rita, her stepmother, had pulled her aside and offered her money to just, for god's sake, leave town and stop ruining the good Sendak name. "Funnel some of that affection into your children," Rita had advised, as though she knew anything at all about affection or good parenting.
Rika had to admit, though, that maybe it would be good to take a little break from men and give her children a little more attention. Men had done nothing but break her heart. And though she had always thought children needed a little less work because they were people that had to love you, Nathan had been a little more difficult to handle since becoming a teen.
Rita had offered her extra if she would take her half-sister, Zephyr, with her.
With the extra money, Rika had the money to move to a small community that was just getting started. She had been ready to leave Strangetown anyway; that place was getting overrun by humans, anyway. She and her family could populate Nevermore with more desirable genes. And, besides, she had hoped Zephyr would be helpful with the children.
Unfortunately, the children, especially Morrow, didn't care much for Zephyr.
Zephyr didn't plan on staying with them very long anyway. She had plans to buy the building across the street - a bar with a small bedroom upstairs. She just needed to figure out how to earn money out in the boondocks with no car.
A few of the neighbors dropped by the welcome them to town, and Zephyr immediately laid claim to Dag Bronte.
Once he got close enough to get a good look at her eyes, though, he paled and left quickly afterwards, muttering something about one spawn being enough for him.
The neighbors, or at least those that came to welcome them, seemed nice enough.
"You have three children, too? So do I!" Amber Angelou told her over lunch. "My psychic told me that three was my magic number, so I try to do everything in groups of three. Incidently, could I get another slice of bread?"
Zephyr wasn't the only Sendak with romance on the mind. Rika's son Nathan had been lovestruck by the paper girl as soon as he'd seen her.
He hoped his mom wouldn't embarrass him around her, like she sometimes did around his friends back in Strangetown.
Although Rika had at first been offended by her stepmother's payoff, now that they were in Nevermore Rika felt in her bones that this was the right place for them to be. It was beautiful here, for one thing, and Rika had a sneaking suspicion that great things would happen for her family here.
The Babbitts
(Bilbo and Lie)
Expenses had been tight for Bilbo and Lie, who were raised by their grandmother on her pension. It hadn't been easy for her to scrape together enough money to buy the property in Nevermore, but they had tightened their budgets and scrimped until they had enough. Myrna, their grandmother, believed that this would be a fresh start for them. Unfortunately, Myrna would never see Nevermore. The night before they were supposed to leave, she had passed away.
It wasn't easy for Bilbo to convince his cousin Lie they should still go to Nevermore. But he was known for his persistence, and he insisted that they had a better chance as two teens on their own, with a home of their own in a small community than they did in expensive Veronaville. He was determined to do his best to live a full life in respect to his grandmother. They had barely arrived when he was already introducing himself to the papergirl.
Seeing that Lie was settling in for a good, long mope in her trailer, Bilbo insisted that she come with him to the community center. "We need to check out grandma's investment," he told her. "Make sure everything she paid for is in order." That worked, and he got Lie out of the house before she was too down.
At the community center, Bilbo was excited to see there were a number of teens in town. And more than that, there were aliens! He made a beeline to Nathan Sendak to introduce himself.
But it was Heidi Alcott that really caught Bilbo's attention. He thought she was the prettiest girl he had ever seen. Unfortunately, their conversation didn't get off to the best start.
But once again, Bilbo was persistent and he seemed to win Heidi over. At the very least, she warmed to him a little.
That night, Bilbo was woken by howling and barking in the yard of his trailer. He went outside to chase the dog away, but it was already gone, leaving a deep hole in the yard.
Great, he thought, getting his shovel to fill the hole in. I wanted a good night's sleep before my first day at school tomorrow.
But as he started to fill the hole in, something caught his eye.
It was a tattered map to a hidden treasure on an island he had never heard of before. Hidden treasure... yeah, right. This was probably part of some kids' game. But for some reason, he held onto it instead of throwing it out.
And for some strange reason, that he couldn't have explained himself, he didn't tell Lie about his discovery the next morning at breakfast.
The Kincaids
(Frankie, Renee, Bernard, Phenelope, Brianna, and Winter)
Brianna was trying not to take the fact that it was raining on the day they moved in as a bad omen. But every step of this move, from the tenseness between her parents, to the way that they moved so fast they left most of their belongings behind, to the fact that their new home was in the middle of no-freaking-where, had just stunk.
Her grandma, Renee, had taken a similar view to the move, but that was before they arrived. Her opinion started to sway when she saw the greenhouse. What a soft touch.
But it was when Colin Angelou came to welcome them to the neighborhood, that Renee really fell in love with Nevermore.
"Oh, yes, it is just lovely here!" Brianna couldn't believe her ears. "We were all very excited about moving."
Her turnaround about the move wasn't the only thing that was fast.
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Notes:
I wanted every Sim used in this Legacy (aside from NPCs) to be from pixel_trade. That meant downloading a significant number of sims (over 44) and even though I made notes on each sim, some of them were difficult to differentiate, especially if they didn't have CC. So if you see one of your sims in here mislabeled, please let me know so I can fix it. I think I got them all right, though.
Whenever possible, I tried to keep the original aspiration and personality. If that information wasn't provided (and it didn't take many sims before I got sick of hunting for it), I rolled per prosperity rules.
My plan with this neighborhood is to take them through the steps of creating their own government and economy. No one is getting an outside job. I'm not sure yet how all that will work out, but as the citizens of Nevermore figure it out, so will I!
Nevermore's terrain is Plasticbox's beautiful Middleground terrain, and the cottage type homes are from his/her set of 10 mini starters. They're really tiny, too small for the really big families I ended up rolling, but I had already set up the hood and I love them anyway. All the houses and lots are from Plasticbox.
Original sims creators (original surname):
_simplyrandom: Pixie Bronte (Honeyblossom), Rika Sendak (Honeyblossom)
abbycat900:Phenelope Kincaid (Dale)
dothesmustle:Nathan Sendak (Peet), Heidi Alcott (Piper)
dragancor: Jocelyn Angelou (Latrodectus), Brianna Kincaid (Latrodectus)
gotaluvsims: Leonardo Alcott (Bellagio) I just love Leonardo! He is such a cutie, and the first kid I have EVER seen prank someone by shocking them. He did it to Heidi just as she was getting on the telescope (I think so he could have it for himself.)
haughtysims: Renee Kindcaid (Wormwood)
iliketoplaygod: Amber Angelou (Fusion), Marcus Angelou (Attwater), Nitta Bronte, Colin Angelou
katu-sims: Wander Bronte (Dork), Katamari Angelou (Dork), Bilbo Babbitt (Dork)
Oh, and katu-sims, even though Bilbo has never met Wander in my game, and they're brothers in your game, Bilbo thinks Wander is might fine:
I'm kind of at a loss about how that happened, since they haven't met, and Bilbo likes girls.
madame_ugly: Zephyr Sendak (Pleasure), Morrow Sendak, and Zondek Bronte
racetrackd: Frankie Kincaid (Dorsey), Winter Kincaid (Dorsey), and Conner Bronte (Dorsey)
scarredid: Lie Babbitt (Reenboog)
selzi: Bernard Kincaid (Stanley), Dag Bronte (Christensen)
simsforaranya: Bellatrix Sendak (Forest)
Thank you for all the sims! If I ever add townies (I need a plausible reason for them to be there), I'll be using more of what I've downloaded.