diva, they called her "The Diva." She came from old money. She was a proud and classy woman. She was also very busy, with her partial celebrity status, her involvement in charities, small-time politics, and little bit of stage acting. The wholesome exterior was something of an illusion, because she wasn't a wholesome woman in her heart. She wasn't available to her family much. She was a fine woman, but not an affectionate woman, and she didn't raise her daughter to be a particularly soft or affectionate girl.
She wasn't a very fulfilling wife either, and she was nothing like the woman Cody Bradshaw would eventually fall for, maybe the opposite of classy, a simple working girl, his daughter's nanny actually.
Autumn was too much woman for Cody Bradshaw. And she didn't stand a minute for his infidelity. She threw what feelings she had quickly away, and she never looked back.
So it was a strange family Samantha Bradshaw grew up in. Her mother came and did as she pleased. She lived a fast-paced, celebrity lifestyle, and so it was declared Samantha would be best fit to live with her father, even given the infidelity. Samantha's mother never fought for her though, and Samantha was too young to question why, or what that meant.
It was a tense arrangement, and the two women would carry the bad blood between them for years, openly sharing the history of their situation with Samantha, that her step-mother was, indeed, a homewrecker. Autumn didn't care, as fine a family as the Bradshaws were, she was too far above them. She even felt herself above her own daughter sometimes.
In any case, when Samantha was eight, her little sister, Isabelle was born. She quickly became the pride of their little falsified family.
Her step-mother was kind to her and Samantha thrived in their family. But it was just that exactly,
their family.
Samantha never really felt she belonged anywhere. Her mother had convinced her she was above their scandal, while at the same time, her mother was too busy, self-centered, and famous to establish a family for them herself. Samantha was tossed aside, just as easily as her mother tossed her father aside.
Somehow in all this mess, Samantha managed to grow into a smart, sure, and calm young lady anyway.
While her baby sister would grow into a volatile little girl, bearing the burden of her father's continual failures, her mother's scandal, and her own shadowy conception.
But while Samantha was neither soft nor affectionate, she possessed an immense desire to be loved. She had a big heart, and she loved love stories. She set up her friends, and watched them find happiness. Some, like her good friends Chad and Riley, would go on to build their own families together.
Samantha fell in love herself. She fell for Jackson Phoenix in the wide open way most teenagers do - wide open and maybe naively so. But Samantha possessed that same sexual mystique her baby sister would later become known for, except Samantha did it with more class. There was one man for her - though teenage boys can sometimes confuse that sexual mystique for genuine love.
Samantha knew when her boyfriend fell in love with someone else. She knew love well, and she could see it all over his face. She wasn't so naive that she didn't see it happening. But then he asked her to marry him. She said yes out of wishful thinking. She hoped this
Nessa thing might just be a phase, a bad patch, maybe he just needed to get some wild youth out of his system. He wasn't supposed to fall in love with her.
But he did. He fell hard for a sweet girl named Nessa, who was not firm, or sure, or unaffectionate as Samantha was raised to be.
Samantha was more than a little distraught, the heartbreak bringing her to do desperate and pathetic things. Some might say she'd even gone a little crazy. She had a brief run-in with Maxwell Shaw, only to find out he was married (she should have noticed the ring), and had a newborn at home! She was beginning to lose all faith in men.
But Samantha wasn't crazy, she was just unloved. Can a perfectly good girl be completely unlovable? Can that be possible? Sure, she wasn't the prettiest girl out there, but she had her qualities. She had a spunk and love for life that made her a wonderful fun friend to have, so that's what she put her energy into.
Friendship as an outward mission, but on the inside, she was running away.
She didn't recognize it as running away at first, when she spent a summer with her family in the islands. She went to escape Jack, who seemed to be everywhere. They shared all the same friends, and they went to the same school. So she ran off that summer with her family, only to find she barely knew any of them. Or maybe it was more that she didn't want to know them.
She was nothing like her baby sister. Samantha was bright and proper, while Bella was demanding and boisterous and lived for attention.
Her sister was the prettier one, the more talented, the more adored, and the center of their father's world. She was also the very symbol of what ended the family she once had. But Samantha was so heart-broken, so dejected, that she hardly noticed her sister. It was maybe the greatest tragedy of their little family, that her little sister was the one person who would love her unconditionally and completely, who once looked up to her for everything she hoped she might be. Samantha never knew that while she was able.
Instead, she ran away, again and again, the last time on a trip to Japan with some girlfriends. She heard a story there, about a girl, nobody understood her and so she fled her village never to return. It felt like her destiny.
She never had more fun, never felt more accepted than on that trip, a group of single heartbroken women, not a man in sight. She wasn't a lesbian in the least, but she couldn't get along with men either. She didn't know what she was. Some horrible deformity of a human being, with her wide open heart and no one to love.
Samantha did come home briefly. She gathered some things. She said goodbye to her sister, and Riley Hathe. That was all anyone heard of her, before she left, for good, in search of her own happy ending.
*******
(possible footnotes: black sheep of the Bradshaw family)
notes: after the fact, I realize there's quite a bit of insight into Bella in this as well.
Samantha has been listed in Bella's bio in the database all along, and she's in the family trees, but I never really knew how to mention her, though she did get a brief mention in one of Bella's stories a while ago.
So the truth of it is, I had planned on writing a story based on Samantha and a couple other characters from my neighborhood (including the final descendant of one of my founding families (the Weston family), and the missing members of Leila Watts' family), but it didn't end up panning out. I had already removed their Sims from the neighborhood so they wouldn't end up conflicting with my story. So she's gone for good, never to return. (This was before I did the whole move-away thing - and I needed it to be much more permanent.)
From one draft, to the next, to the next, Samantha was the only character of the bunch who didn't end up making it into the current form of the story. I feel kind of badly about writing her off this story, and then writing her off of the other as well. It's like all those failed relationships she was written off of, lol!
She might be saying, "I was born in Lakeside Heights, and all I got was this lousy t-shirt!" ;)
***** ETA!!! *****
I got her extracted!!! And I'm working on her t-shirt, lol!
Poor Samantha! It'd be awesome if you still had the sim. Then we could download her clone, someone could make the shirt for her, and we could play the "Where's Samantha Bradshaw appear?" game.
ReplyDeleteIt's sad you still don't have the sim, but think of it this way: she did found a happier life somewhere else!
ReplyDeleteAlthough it would have been cool to see her appear in another hood, like Lunar said!
Lunar, I might possibly be able to clone her still - it was just a Sim-bin delete (this was before I knew better, lol!).
ReplyDeleteTanja, that's what we'll imagine anyway :)
I'll look into cloning her, and see if I can dig up her stats on aspiration and personality and such. Ha, I've never even uploaded a Sim before, I don't even know how to do it, lol!
Oh, sounds like Samantha might have a life elsewhere. Maybe you could do the same after each prequel of those sims that will never return. When FSBS hoods do a move-away, we do just that-send the sim to another hood.
ReplyDeleteI feel bad for Samantha, I'd expect her to just settle in the effort to get love. Do you remember her aspiration? I couldn't tell if it was family/popularity.
In a way, she reminded me of Jodie. Not sure if it's the coldness, or the search for love, or the hairstyle.
Thanks for posting the prequel, I love it!
This entry made me feel rather sad for her and wonder how she is doing now. Maybe she found love after all, or maybe she is somewhere very sad and lonely. Aah now i wonder and want to know, but it is never to be found out...oh dear!
ReplyDeleteApple, yes, family/popularity exactly, lol! Good guess :) She was a bit softer then Jodie, but they are quite similar, with their messed up family histories and all.
ReplyDeleteWould you mind walking me through how exactly you guys exchange your sims when you're doing FSBS swaps? I think I have a fun idea :)
Speechless, awww, well you guys have inspired me. I have what I think could be a fun little project for us all :)
I'm trying to get SimPe to quit crashing on me, and trying to get her clone extracted. I've got all her personality details written down, and maybe we'll have a little contest ;)
You guys will have her for twelve years (between the ages of 23 and 35), and then she'll move back to Lakeside Heights - and I'll pick my favorite of the stories to incorporate into her history, and what she did for the twelve years she was away. Does that sound like fun?
Right now I'm trying to figure out how to extract her sim to bodyshop. Aren't you supposed to use Sim Surgery tool to get her there? She's not showing up on my list (probably because I deleted her from the Sim bin?), but her character file is still in my neighborhood list. Hmmm...
If all fails though, I'll just recreate her in Bodyshop. She had some really extreme facial features anyway, so she would have made ugly babies, lol!
... I mean, if any of you are even interested in playing a segment of her story, lol! Let me know, if anybody thinks that might be interesting.
ReplyDeleteI think that would be a great idea, but unfortunatly I can't play that much, so I doubt that I can be a part of, although I would love to be a part of her story.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how to transport sims from one hood to the other properly either.
I would also like to let you know that I'm absolutely not creative with stories, most of my sims have those nice lifes, get married, go to work, have some kids....
Oh, and if she get's a family in that other hood, will that family move with her? Or how will that go?
ReplyDeleteThat would be the fun part of the challenge, I think, that you'd have to decide exactly why she wanted to come back. And if she had a family, you'd have to decide if they were moving with her too.
ReplyDeleteHmmm, I wonder if maybe that couldn't work though? Because if more than one person wanted to try it, then I could only continue one story once she got back to LH, which means possibly a bunch of other people would have giant holes in their story, lol! Or is that just a hazard of participating in the challenge?
I think that would be the hazard of participating. There is no way you can use every story about Samantha! And the participants can not tell storyline right now, because that all depends on the happenings in the hoods.
ReplyDeleteIf the story of one isn't picked they can always continue with the sotry the Samantha (and her family) moved away. At least, that's what I would do.
Laura, here's a link to the step-by-step directions of extracting a sim and emailing her out.
ReplyDeletehttp://hinsides.no/simmerville/01sun/travel_instructions.html
You will want to read the "new dimensional" moving instructions (1st column) and the SimPE instructions (2nd column). I'll be happy to walk you through it via email or via comments-I wasn't sure if you wanted your comments to include the technical stuff.
It's really easy to extract sims with SimPE, however, I'm not sure about extracting once she's deleted. Since her character file still exists, it seems like you should be able to extract her. I wonder if you copy/paste her character file in an empty hood would she show up.
I like the idea about sending her out and then she could move back. You could always combine stories, ie use one player's story for years 0-2, another for years 4-5, make up your own for years 2-4. Heck, since Samantha was fond of "running away" then it would be plausible if she moved from hood to hood to hood. Heck, even her stay in LH at the end could be temporary before she moves to Abandia City and gets her happily ever after.
Wow, who knew Bella was once so angry? Well, you, I guess but didn't!
ReplyDeleteI did sort of think Samantha had some qualities in common with Jodie, but like you said, a little softer. Samantha seemed to really want to be loved but it just didn't work out for her. I think Jodie might want that too but she gives me a slightly different feeling.
I can never figure out how people do those Sim exchanges and avoid gaps in their stories, especially with everyone updating at different rates and being on different calendars. I would love to read an explanation as to how the FSBS blogs deal with that. Perhaps they're just not as anal-retentive as I am!
Tanja, yes, that works, I guess they just continue on with the idea that she moved back home.
ReplyDeleteApple, thanks for the link! Do most people just use the Sim Surgery way through SimPe? I thought it was a HUGE no-no to move played households between neighborhoods? I would be worried about all those traveling character files and such. Of course, then I guess you'd have to manually modify all the personality traits...
Oh, that's kind of a neat idea, a piggy-back story, lol! She could travel all over the world! We'd have to coordinate that though, and each person could follow on from where the last person left off - she'd just enter into your storyline whenever you get her, and leave whenever you're ready for her to go to the next person. It might be hard to find enough people to participate, and probably hard to coordinate too, but it would make an awesome story!
Ah ha, and I forgot to mention that she was an aspiring journalist after college! That makes for the perfect excuse to be traveling the world, even if she really is just "running away" from her emotional damages, lol!
Carla, to me, Jodie feels more afraid of ending up alone than she is really worried about being loved - it's slightly different, but ends up looking similar on the exterior I think.
I don't know how they do it either! But at least for this one, since Samantha has already been gone about ten years in my hood, we'd just consider whatever external story a flashback in terms of Lakeside Heights time, because you'd all get her at age 23 or so, even though in LH time, she's already 33.
But then, since I play SO much slower than almost everyone, lol, it actually works out. Everyone would have plenty of time to play her before she's due to turn 35 in my hood.
Laura, there's a HUGE secret amoung most FSBS hoods. Usually when the character returns home, we don't actually import the character. We just add their adventures to their history and keep playing. Basically there are a lot of clones. For example, Fiona Kent. She's been everywhere! But the Fiona in my game has only been to Apple Valley-oh and a few vacations. I just add her travels to the blog, or follow them in a fellow FSBS blog, and keep moving. My Fiona doesn't have any memories of her singing in Simmington Hills, or chatting with the mayor in Palatial Heights, but her character does. This allows connections across FSBS hoods but still maintains the integrity of your system without corruption.
ReplyDeleteCarla, it does take some coordination amoung FSBS players, but not as much as you think. We tend to go with the flow. I might have to do an explanation in my Behind the Scenes Blog.
Yay, check the ETA, people! I got her extracted! (It was a hassle though, I had to extract her facial structure and replace it over a place-holder Sim, since there didn't seem to be any way to clone a deleted Sim.) I'll have to go through and recreate her personality and family ties.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm working on her t-shirt! :) I have to figure out how to make the text clearer though.
So anyway, even if nobody wants to do the collaborated story thing, maybe she might decide to come back to LH some day anyway. For now she's in Abandia with a prisoner token.
Apple, ah-ha, yes, that sounds like a safer idea than swapping actual Sims with memories and all :)
I'd love to join in this! I don't have a sims blog, but I've been seriously considering blogging my favorite neighbourhood for a while now (if anyone is still interested in a new Sims 2 blog - and even if they're not, just for me to have a record of my sims' lives :) ). This could be a fun way to give it a try, with one story, then see how it goes from there...
ReplyDeleteBTW - slightly OT but I noticed you mentioned it - how is the prisoner token thing supposed to work? Do you just put the token in the inventory of the sim - I did this with someone on vacation but she still kept autonomously visiting family members in the middle of (base hood) winter in her beach clothes!
What a sad story! I remember checking in here a ton when you were heading towards this update, oh so long ago! I'm glad you decided to finish it. Though I feel sad for her, she just didn't seem to fit in anywhere, and that has to be lonely.
ReplyDeleteI like her tee shirt! funny! And your idea is pretty nifty! I'm apt to join in on the fun!
Yay, I'm glad some of you are interested in joining in :) I'll work on getting her uploaded and getting together all of her character stats this week. Does anyone have a favorite (free!) sharing/file hosting site they recommend?
ReplyDeleteBlackcat, I'd love to see you start a blog! I'll be stuck with the Sims 2 for at least another year or two here, and plenty of other people are sticking with it. But besides that even, plenty of S3 players read S2 blogs still, and likewise with S2 players reading S3 blogs. We're a big happy family :)
maisie, I think I was hoping none of you would remember for a while, lol! I just got burnt out on all those prequels back then, and wanted to move on.
Blackcat, sorry, missed your question - yes, that's exactly how the prisoner token works, you put it in the inventory, then it zaps the Sim off any lot they show up as a visitor on, even residential lots. It works really well!
ReplyDeleteI love the T-shirt! I can't wait to introduce Samantha in my hood!
ReplyDelete@Blackcat, it's like Laura said, plenty of simmer are sticking with Sims 2, so just start your blog!!
All, so I'm just kind of curious, for those of you who might want to participate, which direction are we leaning towards?
ReplyDeleteOption #1: The piggy-back story - would require more coordination, and a bigger challenge for those following the events of several other stories, which includes me at the end, lol! But it could be hella cool! (Those who don't want to participate in the official piggy-back could still play Samantha unofficially.)
This way, each person could commit to a couple/few years of her life, rather than all twelve. And maybe slightly less commitment, because if you're done with her, you just write her off your story and pass her on to the next person.
Or option #2: Everybody does their own thing. You get more creative freedom this way, less pressure about "doing your part" - though I do kind of need at least one person to follow through, lol! Hazards of this one, only one story gets to be part of her official story in the end.
So, what are you guys thinking???
Also, I hate to exclude Sims 3 players, so if someone wanted to make her likeness in Sims 3 and play her story that way, I'd be fine with that too! A story is a story, right? :)
I use media share
ReplyDeleteI like option #1. Coordinating wouldn't be that hard, we've (FSBS hoods) have done it lots of times in terms of tours to other hoods. For this option, I would suggest that once you have all the participants, divide the number of years equally and randomly assign them. You could also have a timeline associated with the years, so that the next participant can start their story.
ie year 0-2, Player A, Jan 1-Jan 15th/ year 2-4, Player B, Jan 20-Feb 5/ etc.
The time bewteen switches gives you time to upload Sam's story so the next participant knows where Sam is coming from (ir, broken relationship, left children behind, etc)
Another way to do it, is to have a free file sharing program. So if Sam does get married during her adventures, the spouse can be upload (along with a text document of their stats) and the next participant can download her spouse as well, same thing applies for any children she may have. This would require a few more days/weeks bewteen scheduling to allow time for the uploads of characters and stories.
Another option: If you put the stipulations that she can't get married/have babies, then players can play at the same time and you can link the stories without fear of "hey, what happened to husband #3?" This is a combination or Option #1 and Option #2. Participants still chose which years to play her and all participants play Sam at the same time. That way, only an ending deadline is neccessary (ie June 30th). You could receive all the stories and then complie them.
Sorry, for the long comment ^_^
This is exciting! I LOVE Apple's new option. With that, she can be free to roam looking for herself.
ReplyDeleteI definitely want my mitts on her, but mostly as an unofficial capacity since I don't play TS2 regularly now. If you do option #1, I can't guarantee I'd be able to play her on time.
Apple, that's a good idea about uploading and sharing any husbands/boyfriends/children she acquires along the way ;) Unless of course, the author decides that she leaves them behind, lol!
ReplyDeleteHmmm, I really, really don't want to put any stipulations like limiting husbands or children though. I want it to be left WIDE open :) I mean, if you decide that you don't like the husband she comes with by the time your turn comes around, you could always have her divorce him... or knock him off, lol!
OMG, this is going to be the best story EVER! LOL!
And there should be plenty of time for everyone to take a turn with her. She won't turn 35 in Lakeside Heights for another two years (LH time), and that'll be 8-12 months for me, I'm sure, since I play/write so damn slow, lol!
Either way, I'll keep a master list here of all of her stories around the world so everybody can follow along :)
I'll look into Media Share.
Lunar, this is exciting! I hope it works out, lol! Just keep in mind though, if we do option 1, you can play her for as little time as you want. Maybe she only stops by your hood for a couple weeks or something :)
I don't think it's essential that everyone plays her for exactly the same amount of time. I'm sure we can manage to fill in the gaps, or maybe she ends up staying in another place for a little longer?
But that's one of the perks of using option #1, I think - that everybody gets included in the official story :)
First I was more for option #2, but after reading all the comments about option #1, I'm more and more intersted in that option.
ReplyDeleteBut the sharing and moving sims, I will need to read, because I have absolutely no idea how to do that correctly!
Thanks for the token advice!
ReplyDeleteI also like option #1, its kind of more interactive, and also a challenge to keep the continuity going as the next person can't plan too far ahead without knowing how the previous story turns out.
I just had another thought, though - for the sake of continuity, we're going to have to be careful if some of us have the same characters - ie the Maxis ones. I guess its not so much of a problem if they are descendants of the original sims (I have Centowski, Phoenix and Nova families in my hood too, among other familiar names), there are families with the same name all over the place and the physical resemblance would be 'diluted' over the generations... but when the actual same sim is still around, that could be a bit strange :) Guess I'll have to keep Samantha away from the people who are in your hood as well.
Thanks for the support on the blog - I'm seriously considering it not, and this could be a really good way to start - introduce my sims through the eyes of a stranger who everyone else knows a bit.
Actually, blackcat, that could be funny. Like deja vu. She might just wonder if she's seen that character before, or hints that they look familiar.
ReplyDeleteOooh, #1 is sounding better all the time. LOL at her shirt! That is looking awesome!
Great prequel! It's so cool seeing Bella before she became... The Bella. And lol that her mom was THE diva.
ReplyDeleteI'm down for the Samantha Bradshaw story!
Which also leads me to... like blackcat, I've wanted to start a sims 2 blog for quite some time. (blackcat I will definately read yours) and I've been meaning to really read everyone elses blogs too, so I can join the family!
I've actually been making preperations for one and I was going to start it in the new year. I actually wanted to ask your permission to borrow a few ideas, too. So I am definately down with option #1.
I can't wait to get Samantha in my game!
Tanja, you and me both! I can't believe I've been playing this game as long as I have and never uploaded a single file to share, lol!
ReplyDeleteBlackcat, yes, I'm sure we'll run into some similar characters! We can just pretend the Novas and Phoenixes and Centowskis are like the Smiths in real life - you know, there's a bunch in every town, same names, but none are really related. We all give them different makeovers anyway.
And I love your idea of introducing your characters through Samantha! How fun! I can't wait to read it! :)
Lunar, lol, deja vu! :)
The shirt is still kind of blurry up close, and I can't figure out how to make it look clearer. But then, looking at other clothing I have in my game, a lot of them look blurry up close, so... who knows? I'll probably just stick with it as is.
bbop, that's Sam's mom who was THE Diva, Bella's mom was the mistress/nanny, lol! I suppose that's how Bella grew up as super-classy as she did ;) *note: sarcasm*
Yay, new blogs! I'll certainly be reading all the Samantha stories! :)
Hey, there's one more reason for us to all vote for option #1 - there will only be one Sam story going on at a time, otherwise we could be reading bunches of them all at once, lol!
Oh dear, the moment I look away million trillion new posts appear everyone's blogs. Think I got an all night reading ahead. You guys are ever so quick updating.
ReplyDeleteWoah you got some awesome project going on there, cant wait to read more about Sam.
Speechless, lol, I blame it on New Year, everybody's off work with nothing better to do but blog :)
ReplyDelete