SBP: master list of stories

Who is Samantha Bradshaw?

Samantha Bradshaw went missing ten years ago, and none of her family or friends have seen her since. Where did she go, and what was she doing there? The Samantha Bradshaw Project will seek out her adventures, from one place to the next. Stories will be added as her whereabouts are confirmed. Find out more?

***

So, where in the world is Samantha Bradshaw?

birth to age 22: Lakeside Heights
prequel stories #4
prequel stories #5
The Samantha Bradshaw Project

age 23
1. Tierra de Legado (Lunar Fox): 3 months
Just arrived
Dinner and a show
Back where we started
Down that road
Spilling Over

(LH present: a conversation with Autumn Phillipine)

2. Kayton (Billy/bbop): 6 months
Natural Curiosity
Pleasantly Surprised, Part 1
Beginning to Feel
The Ladies Who Lunch
Autumn Breezes
Spooked
Dead Wrong, Part 2
Silent Night
(after her departure, You Never Really Know)

age 24-25
3. Richmond (Blackcat): 18 mo.
Welcome to Richmond
Pearls of Wisdom
Friday
Storybook Families
Personal Matters
Facing the Changes
Growing Up, Part Two
Different Roads, Part One
Different Roads, Part Two
Different Roads, Part Three

(LH present: a conversation with Maxwell Shaw)

The Important Part
Something Else
Happy Holidays
Happy New Year, Part One
Happy New Year, Part Two
Happy New Year, Part Three
One Single Choice
Forsaking All Others, Part One
Forsaking All Others, Part Two
The Only Right Thing, Part One
The Only Right Thing, Part Two
Healer, Part One


age 25-26
4. SimsVille (Tanja): 18 mo.
Now What?
A Second Option
On Your Own, or Not Just Yet
Exciting
On a Rollercoaster
The Story of Her Life, a Little Bit Different

age 27-28
5. Richmond, revisit (Blackcat): ~6 months
???

6. Riverdale: 6 mo.
???

age 29-32
7. Sullivan (Carla): 3 years
???

age 33
8. Apple Valley (Starrsim): 6 mo.
???

9. Millwood (Maisie): 6 mo.
???

age 34-35
10. Pine Hollow (Shana): 2 years
???

age 36
11. Lakeside Heights (home): ???
???


Extras:

Sam's Mementos:
Tierra de Legado: booth pictures of Sam and Sam
Kayton: the swallow necklace from Jeff
Richmond: Sam's photos for Cory
SimsVille: her friend Niels


Behind the scenes chatter on the Samantha Bradshaw Project at Valley Sun Sims.

The Samantha Bradshaw Project

Flashback - Lake City, August 2073.

The night was so warm and humid even the hallway dripped sweat from a cold metal pipe above her head. In front of the building, some young men stood dribbling a basketball to madness in the late hours of the evening. Samantha knocked on the door to her best friend's apartment in the South End of Lake City.

Riley answered the door and waved her in.

"Hey," Chad said. "How was the trip?"

"It was great," Samantha said. "Really, clarifying."

Inside the single room apartment, their baby slept in the living room, her crib wedged tightly into a corner. Chad watched some football game, the sound on low, barely a whisper. He sat in a ragged garage sale Lazyboy in pajama pants.

"Don't put clothes on for your company or anything," Samantha said.

"Oh, don't worry, I won't," he said, flashing a cheesy grin in the dim fading light.

The girls went outside to talk, sitting down on the concrete, watching the neighborhood walk by. Samantha was just home from a vacation, but she wouldn't be here for long. She had just graduated from college, and her journalism degree left her wide open with possibilities and staying here was the least appealing of them.

They talked long into the evening like they used to back in high school, when their plans were simple and idyllic and full of promise. Their lives had taken them in different directions entirely since then, motherhood versus college, and that was only the start of it.

"Back from Japan, and already you're leaving again?" Riley sighed heavy into her knee. "God, I'm so jealous. Don't get yourself pregnant - that'll stop you really fast."

"You kind of need to be sleeping with someone for that," Samantha said.

Samantha laughed, not making fun, but out of solidarity. "You remember all those ideas we used to have about how our lives would turn out," Samantha said. "Nobody's life ever turns out the way they think it will."

"Yeah," Riley said.

Neither of them got what they thought they wanted. Unlike her friends, she had actually seen children in her future, but then, she saw Jack as sort of a contingent of that future, and that had hardly worked out as planned.

"I don't know when I'll be back," Samantha said.

Riley turned to her. "Do you know where you're going?"

Samantha shook her head. "Maybe I'll know when I get there."

There were dozens of people she wouldn't be saying goodbye to that night. Her mother who rejected her again and again, or that asshole Max, for being married and being such an unbelievable sleazebag.

And she wouldn't say goodbye to Jack - the thought of it was simply unfathomable. She'd never wanted to say goodbye in the first place. Even a year after the fact and the thought of him sent her heart aching all over again. It felt too good being away, away from those streets they walked together, away from the places where they grew up. The running away, further and further, felt like healing.

She went home to collect her things, what few things she had. It wasn't that she didn't have money, but just that the past few years, she'd never felt permanent enough to collect anything in the way of stuff. Who needs stuff? It's just more to move when things get messy, when it's time to go somewhere else again.

She felt queasy as she felt her way through dark hallways, not wanting to turn on any lights to wake her family. There was a churning in the pit of her stomach, and she wasn't sure why. Maybe because of everything she was about to leave behind, but would any of them even miss her? Maybe it was just nerves, like the first day of high school if high school was meant to represent her entire life. She didn't understand it, but somehow she knew this was going to be bigger than any vacation she'd taken before.

She peeked into their bedrooms, all of them asleep, her father snoring like a storm. And finally, peaceful only in her sleep, the magmatic presence that was her little sister, Bella. The world could adore her if they wanted to, but Samantha had her own life to make. She wouldn't wake her to say goodbye. She only whispered, quietly, "Bye, sis."

*******

Samantha Bradshaw, born May of 2050 in Lakeside Heights, MI. Last seen by her friend Riley Hathe on August 18, 2073, at the age of 23 years old. She has black hair and brown eyes, 5' 9" tall, athletic build, and weighs 145 pounds.

Samantha went missing ten years ago, and none of her family or friends have seen her since. It's your job to tell us what she's been doing for this time. Where did she go, and what was she doing there? Did she get married and have some kids? Did she become a street junkie? Give her any adventure you like, and then tell us about it.

The Samantha Bradshaw Project will seek out her adventures, from one place to the next. And there are only three rules:

#1, she must honor her character, and her own complete history, from one adventure to the next. There is no amnesia in this story! At the end of her stay in your town, she will suddenly feel an aching desire to move on. You have to decide why she wants to leave.

#2, she may mention or think about people from her past here in Lakeside Heights, or from any other place she travels, but she must not make any contact with anyone at home until she is 35. She may bring travelers with her from one place to the next, though she is not obligated to stay with them permanently.

#3, when she turns 35, she will suddenly feel an aching desire to finally come back home. You have to decide why she wants to come home, who is she hoping to see, or what is she hoping to accomplish by coming back home? And is she bringing anyone with her?

The girl: (download her here) let me know if anyone has trouble with the download.

CC notes: She comes with her Lakeside Heights t-shirt, some Bruno eyeshadow and Helene blush, and some super-cool jeans with Docs (can't remember who made them) which you really should have in your game anyway ;)

Of course, you can redress her any way you like (remember that she hates pink!). And keep in mind, that we're all using different default replacement sets, so she could look slightly different from one neighborhood to the next. In fact, I now remember that the lipstick she's wearing in my hood is also a default replacement, so when you get her, she might have some ridiculous color of Maxis lipstick on, lol! Anyway... She'll also probably want to change her clothes and cut her hair from time to time.

She doesn't have to walk around in that t-shirt if she doesn't want to, lol! That's just a gag. If you're wondering, her usual style was pretty simple, jeans and t-shirt kind of girl, casual, not too girly, but not sloppy either. She's girly enough to curl her hair occasionally and put on some makeup though :)

Use whatever means of cheats, hacks, objects, or SimPe to modify her personality and stats.

zodiac: Gemini (6/9/9/5/4)
aspiration: family/popularity
LTW: golden anniversary (no need to set this one, since you won't be playing her long enough to fulfill it, but just keep it in mind)
OTH: cuisine
college graduate: political science major, 3.8 GPA
last known profession: journalism, fact checker
skills: cooking 6, mechanical 4, charisma 9, body 8, logic 9, creativity 7, cleaning 5
interests: food, fashion, travel, environment, weather, sports, work, politics
disinterests: crime, animals, toys, sci-fi
turn-ons: fitness, hard worker
turn-offs: stink

Random trivia:
- her parents divorced when she was 7.
- she is the oldest of 5 cousins, but was never very close to any of them.
- childhood best friend, Riley (Nova) Hathe
- first love, Jackson Phoenix
- doesn't usually have one-night stands, but it's been known to happen
- doesn't usually sleep with married men, but that's been known to happen too
- enjoys drinking, and worked as a bartender in college
- loving, but not gushy or very affectionate - doesn't care for PDAs
- friendly and sociable, likes to cook and host parties
- emotionally unstable, tends to run away from her problems rather than dealing with them
- favorite colors, black, red, dark purple
- never EVER wears pink!
- holds an eternal contempt for blonde-haired women (because of Nessa, lol!)
- family: mother Autumn (Phillipine) Bradshaw-Bertino, father Cody Bradshaw, half-sister Bella Bradshaw.

Timeframe: Don't worry about the current year in your own neighborhood, just her current age in your story, and I'll work out the differences. If you don't normally use real-life ages or years, you can make them up in Samantha's case. Time progresses in this hood VERY slowly, and Samantha isn't due to turn 35 in Lakeside Heights until the year 2085. You should have plenty of time to work on her story, as my own story here has slowed to a crawl.

The story: You may tell her story in any tense or format you like, as long as (see rule #1) you remain true to her character and the stories that came before yours. You can even collaborate with the participants who come before or after your turn, so that one story can flow easily into the next. No need to stop what you're currently doing with your neighborhood, just work her into your story like any new character. She's like a ROS on legs :)

The stories you're writing will be flashbacks in terms of Lakeside Heights time. And as you guys are writing the stories of her adventures in the twelve years she is away, I'd like to post a couple/few interviews with my characters, in current time, about what they remember of her back when they knew her. These won't affect the stories you're writing, because none of my characters have seen her since she left. Don't think of it as confusing, lol - it's more like putting a puzzle together. It's a game! I think this is going to be fun :)

*** Note: The Samantha Bradshaw Project is currently in progress, and the official slots are all assigned. You can follow her adventures from place to place here on the master list of stories. ***

LH stuff: my random file

My random file, to be used in conjunction with the RandomStuff program.

(download here)

Includes things like: my random event list, the randomly selected Sim (you'll have to replace my name list with names from your own hood), the depression roll, a weighted turn-ons/offs roll, and the usual aspiration roll, gender preference and such.

I shared this once ages and ages ago over at MATY, but I've been tweaking and adding to it over the years, so I'll host the updated version here :)

Updated 2/1/10: added the career risks roll.

LH stuff: t-shirts!

This is a test, this is only a test... kind of. This is my first attempt at trying to share anything, ever, so you can tell me if I'm totally doing this wrong or whatever. I'm trying to get everything figured out so I can get this Samantha project started :)

I'll share much better stuff in the future, but I thought I'd start off small, like with cheap logo t-shirts! :) So now your Sims can be Lakeside Heights fans! Or they can wish they'd gone to LCU instead of wherever it was you sent them.

(I don't know what exactly I'll have to share, or how frequently. I know some of you wanted my graying elder hair recolors. And I've probably got a building or two worth sharing... but anyway...)

(from left to right)
April is wearing a "Lakeside Heights" t-shirt, in Simlish.
Vicky is wearing a long-sleeve college t-shirt, featuring "LCU" in her college colors.
Summer is wearing the same "Lakeside Heights" t-shirt, but in English.

(download is here)

All shirts are made on base game meshes.

So, since we're testing and all, would somebody mind checking these out for me. Did I do it right? Do they actually show up in the game? They're zipped, and file names are labeled.

You can delete them afterward if you want. You won't hurt my feelings ;)

prequel stories #5: what ever happened to Samantha Bradshaw?

A follow-up on prequel story #4: sorry, I've owed this to you guys for some time now ;)

They didn't call Samantha's mother a 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!

author's picks (round 2080 and earlier)

I enjoy seeing other writers discussing their stories, after the fact, about what their intentions were, or what their story was meant to do. So I'm going to do something of my own.

I usually try to be pretty impartial in my notes, so that my opinions won't persuade the way you read these stories, but I thought it might be fun to share which ones are my favorites. I can usually tell which ones are your favorites, from the comments and the way you react to the entry. Your favorites and mine are not always one in the same, though sometimes they are.

It takes some time after the round is finished to look back and reflect on the ones that really stand out. So these are the ones I spent a lot of time on or felt particularly proud of. And maybe some time after this current round is over, I'll post something like this again.

And it's a good way for me to stall and take a little Christmas/mid-round/just finished a huge-ass chapter break, lol! So here, go read something I already wrote! :)

***

November 2079: Summer's place

At some point, I started writing these updates a little less commentary-style, and started shaping them into stories. I think it might have been around the time of this update. The writing of this one isn't my best, but it reflects this change, the opportunity I saw for turning these prosperity-style updates into actual stories.

And I guess I also noticed that writing these updates in any less quality than I was capable of wasn't beneficial to my real storytelling. So my pace has slowed down considerably in doing this, but the end result was a good one - a better story for you to read, and better practice for me.

But like I said, this wasn't my best writing ever, and it almost makes me want to not showcase it, but for sentimental reasons, I will.

I also wrote this story the same week I conceived the novel I'm working on (I remember, because I was thinking what the crap is up with all these tragic stories???). Which makes it a very nostalgic time in my storytelling life. *sigh* LOL!


May 2080: blissfully clueless

Even though Piper had been around Lakeside Heights since before this blog began, this was sort of her "debut" story. She'd never been a feature of her own story before, though I have no idea why I waited so long, because this one really just made me fall in love with her!

Then this was also Jodie's first real story as a side-kick since she moved to Lakeside Heights, in all her arctic cold glory, and certainly made me fall in love with her as well.

Amelia has always been one of my favorites, and then add Carly in there too, and I really found that these girls would become (and still are!) one of my very favorite groups of friends to write about. All of them are so completely different in character, but yet they're all looking for the same things, to have fun, to love and be loved, and wondering what it's all about - is that not the formula for a great sitcom or something? (Well, yeah, duh... Sex in the City? But set in Michigan, lol!) Can I sell this idea to someone? Any TV producers reading? ;)

But anyway, this was the start of many fun stories to come.


August 2080: you're doing it wrong

When you're a parent, you're not supposed to have a favorite child... you love each of them for their individual quirks and beauty, though some of them give you more joy, while others give you more grief. The Deppiesse family would be that beautiful, bright, and quirky child that gives me nothing but joy, lol!

The twins are always hilarious fun, and Dallas is always charming and adorable. And this story in particular, the start of Dallas and Lucy as a Lakeside Heights power-couple, lol! That's enough in itself :)

March 2081: the love shack

And if we were to carry on the child comparison, Maxwell Shaw would be the one who gives me nothing but grief, lol!

But I love him just the same. Being in Max's head is so much fun, probably because he's just so foreign to my way of life (any maybe most people's?). I love him for bringing color to my story, and forcing me to think outside of my own personal comfort zone. I love that even though he's quite honestly a creepy pervert, he adores his family and is madly in love with his wife. I love that even when he screws up, he manages to weasel his way back stronger than ever. But most of all I love that he does actually have a little bit of a soul in there, buried deep, deep down. Who knew? :)

I just posted a new family picture in the database for them, and I think it really captures the essence of them as a family. And I love that I couldn't for the life of me manage to squeeze a genuine smile out of Max for that picture. It was like pulling teeth! He strikes me as the kind of guy who doesn't smile willingly for pictures.


April 2081: fourteen percent

This one erupted from my brain in a flash of words and images before I'd even started up my game. Its initial form was very poem-like, and was maybe one of the first in this blog to really show off (with no apologies) my mad poetic skillz, yo! ;)

I think each manifestation of grief is a very complex and personal thing, and Hayden's head has been both a very dark and beautiful place to be. I'm happy to finally see him leaning more towards the beautiful lately though.


August 2081: outshine

I love Melissa Fortney! Who doesn't love Melissa Fortney? I love how she always manages to make sunshine out of the little bits of light she has in her life.

Well, I've always had a soft spot for her mother as well, who never meant to be such a screw up. These two are so dynamic as characters in my head that I already know they'll exist in some form or another after this story ends...

(psst, maybe novel #2?)


September 2081: headcount

This one wasn't exactly a literary masterpiece or anything, but it's always been one of my favorites. The whole Deppiesse clan are hilarious together. It was just plain fun, from beginning to end, and who can ever get enough of Fiona McCullough? And I still laugh out loud when I read it :)


October 2081: curiouser and curiouser

Well, who doesn't like dropping secret bombshells? Except for the people they're dropped on, I guess... This one was just a lot of fun to write. I always have fun bringing up history from the neighborhood that I didn't get to write while it was happening. And this one brought to light the secret past binding together two very unlikely families. Hmmm...

I also tried to weave in a little bit of a subtle Alice in Wonderland theme, though I don't think anybody picked up on it at the time... too subtle maybe, lol! :)


December 2081: in real life

I have to identify with Hailey quite a bit, a hopeless romantic writing about love. This one was maybe one of the smartest I tried to write in that round, if you were inclined to try to pick it apart, with the facade of Hailey's idealistic romance novels against all these portraits of realistic love and its failures. I had a ridiculous amount of fun writing that scene in the literary cafe... and all of the therapy scenes too for that matter. You guys should see me writing these things - I must look like a lunatic, cracking myself up, lol! :)

I loved including Jodie, Mariah, and Hayden with their smaller cameos, so that all these different love stories became interwoven, finally coming to the conclusion that what it means to be honestly happy in life turns out to be not very idealized after all.


May 2082: lost and found

Now tell me that picture of Hazel with the bear doesn't still make you spew your coffee!!! What is she doing?!?

Besides that even, it's got Dallas and Lucy doing ballet, Beau being adorable and clueless, April being fun, Robbie and Liza getting in trouble together! And all those stories seemed to revolve around this central theme that pulled it all together. What more could you possibly want from an update? :)

July 2082: Summer's place, continued, part 1 and part 2

Summer is a girl so close to my own heart, and I draw on much personal experience when I'm writing her stories. We (Summer and myself, lol) slaved over this decision that she needed to take a break from Tyler, and we still stand by it, even knowing what we know now about how it would unfold.

I love writing about choices and consequences, and that also means letting them make mistakes if they're so inclined to make them. I don't really believe in mistakes though, they're just chances to learn something. And sometimes what you discover is what you thought you knew after all.

***

So those were my favorites of round 2080, all the ones I put my blood, sweat, and tears into. Maybe half-way through the next round, I'll do this again for round 2082.

And Merry Christmas everyone! :)

come undone, extras

Psst, Lara... that's not your husband...

After what was the longest "chapter" I've ever written for this story (totally got carried away there, lol!), I've decided to start doing these extras by chapter from now on, instead of by year.

Okay, so let's see what other extras, misfits, and outcasts we might have from the spring/summer 2083, "come undone" chapter...

February 2083, Nova home, Lake City: You actually won't hear from these guys until the end of the round - I've been keeping them quiet intentionally because I have something very special planned for them. It's not every day a Sim character earns their place in a real story, but Pat and Lara have inspired a fantastic little short story that I just couldn't resist! My intentions are to finish it up and get it out there in the real world, so I won't be able to post it here on this blog, but I will definitely share it with you all once I find it a home :)

Ideally, I'd like to share the story in place of their turn when it comes around - but if that doesn't work out in time, maybe I'll do a little photoshoot for them instead. But anyway, Skye aged up every bit as cute as Raine was at that age, so I wanted to share her.

March 2083, Roseland home, Lakeside Heights: This was the night Charlie and Natty fell in love (or well, realized they were in love, we'll say, since they seemed to be pretty smitten since the first night they met). They wouldn't have their first kiss for a few months still, but she went to his house for a study date, and he ambush-hugged her - it was inevitable from there :)

April 2083, Riley-Kim home, LCU Campus, Lake City: Just a quiet evening, hanging out with a robot.

Keri and Justin were the first couple I ever saw use that super-cute new tender kiss that I think we've concluded comes with ACR 2.0. This was soon before she was called off to war, so it couldn't have come at a better moment!

Awww, can't get enough!

At Keri's graduation, Lily, with both of her grandmothers. I always enjoy it when a child has both sets of grandparents in my hood, since it doesn't happen very frequently.

May 2083, Fort Bluewater, Bluewater Township: At the military send-off, Tyler made little Zach cry, lol! It brings out the mother-hen instinct in Aurora though, she was about to bite his head off. Dude, I would have bit his head off if it were my kid!

Sheesh, Tyler, didn't you ever hear, "Pick on someone your own size?"

May 2083, Harris home, Lakeside Heights: Sometimes you just want to round them up and take pictures of them like they were your own children :)

Sam is twelve now, by the way, and I think he grew up cute as a button! He looks a lot like his uncle Joel.

June, 2083, college orientation day, LCU Campus, Lake City: Dallas gets quite the shocker for his introduction to college life. Iris gets a better eyeful though, while Fenton doesn't seem moved by it at all...

June 2083, Brant Street, Lakeside Heights: Lucy, just out with her future mother-in-law, buying some of Gabby's lemonade and having a casual little stroll. They totally hang out together, lol! I guess they've been pretty close for some time now?

June 2083, Lakeshore Marina, Lakeside Heights: This was one of Natty and Charlie's kisses I chose not to use, since it looked a bit "practiced" for a first kiss. So we'll imagine this was their fourth or fifth or something ;)

June 2083, McCullough home, Bluewater Township: Liza was trying on her new bathingsuit in Fiona's room, and somebody totally snuck in there to take a peek! Sheesh, thirteen year-old boys!

They're reading the film magazine. What kind of films, we might ask? ;)

June 2083, Deppiesse home, Lakeside Heights: Just some more random Robbie and Liza picspam. They never make it into the story because they're always off in some corner, goofing off or getting into other kinds of trouble together.

July 2083, Watts home, Bluewater Township: Liza making dinner in the kitchen. Supposed to be feeding the kids, Liza! I guess she got hungry.

Felicity, looking like she's spent a little bit too much time out running in the fields with Connor.

Even the little girls are in love with Tyler Jackson!

But nobody loves Tyler Jackson as much as Dakota Deppiesse! We've known this for some time now, of course.

But she's not about to stop about it any time soon, lol!

July 2083, Modern Robotics, Lake city: A shot from inside Orion's robot shop, which was played "off-camera". There's not too much going on there yet. They're only up to rank 1, I think, and Orion can only make the basic toy robots so far, so they're selling laptops too.

I really did try to take Delphie and Dakota out for a little adventure, but man, they were so boring!!! So I spared you all from that, lol! They did sit by the marina for a bit though, and it was a nice day, pretty scenery 'n stuff ;)

Like I promised, I did get all the Deppiesse kids together for pictures before Dallas left :)

And as if you needed any more Dallas and Lucy spam... I have framed copies of these to hang in their houses, by the way.

And I have so few good pictures of my neighborhood founders, but I just came across this one in my archives: Becca Harris, who would be Lucy's great-grandmother - don't you think Lucy looks just like her?!

Maybe I'll make that my next prequel mission, to search inventories and such for better pictures of my founders, lol!

Dakota is getting to know herself and who she is, unique from her sister, and phase one of her therapy homework is finding a new hobby she enjoys... so since she keeps rolling wants for stereos, wanting to learn more creativity, and because she has a tinkering OTH, I figured she's be more electronically inclined with music - so I think she's telling me she wants to be an aspiring DJ! :)

So this is what she's doing with Dallas's old room. She decides to keep the dark walls, and her parents won't enjoy the noise, but I figure they'd do anything to make her happy.

She's very bad at it right now, but you know, we all have to start somewhere ;)

I thought Lucy would want to keep the big news quiet at least long enough to wonder how and when she'll tell her own mother, but it seems she had to spill it to someone... and this happened about the next morning, lol!

I figure Violet probably already knew, since Dallas does seem like the type to seek advice from his mommy on such things. Violet can't really have many concerns about the matter, she and Orion were also very young when they got engaged. And well, Lucy and Violet are best buddies and all.

And finally, this was Dallas's very first experience in Takemizu, before he unpacked, before he even got something to eat from the kitchen, he wanted to toss a coin into the fountain... let's just hope this isn't a bad omen... :/

***

And one more final note - I've been waffling around different posting paces lately, and I think I'll be committing myself to a strict four-day posting schedule from now on. I tried to do three-days for a while, and I loved that pace, (Lord knows how I managed to do two-days in the beginning?), but it just got too overwhelming. With the time it takes to actually get all the pictures in game (my computer is SO slow!), to the photoshopping, to the writing and polishing, and then comments afterwards (not that I would want you all to stop - I love your comments!), it's enough to take up just about all the free time I have. And I have to remind myself that this is my side-project, and not my full-time job, you know ;)

I hope that's not too slow for you all. I know there's a fine balance with these serialized stories between fast enough to actually progress the story, not so fast you can't keep up with it, and not so slow you lose interest. I think a four-day pace might be a good balance.