September 2083 - Autumn Phillipine is 67. (Samantha Bradshaw is 33, and has been missing for ten years)."The name, it's just Phillipine now," Autumn says. "My maiden name. I suppose I should have kept it after all. Turns out I wasn't good at being married.
Mitch, here, he's my third..." Autumn points. "Over there," she says. "Say hi, Mitch."
Mitch waves.
"And we've been together for longer than the rest of them," she says. "At this point, I think it's probably safe to say it was me and not them."
Autumn gets up from the couch and walks toward the wall.
"There's Samantha, at seventeen. She was a beautiful girl, not the typical beauty, but beautiful just the same. I didn't tell her that enough. A girl like her, she probably needed to hear that.
We had fun sometimes, I won't say that we didn't. I did try, from time to time."
"But in general, I suppose I was a bad mother. I disappointed her."
"There is plenty I was good at in life, organizing charity balls, floating around my social circles. We can't all be great at everything, and motherhood, it was just another one of those things I wasn't good at.
How was I supposed to know until I already had her?"
"Is she telling you I didn't love her? Is that what this is about? I was a very busy woman. I had
status."
"It all a bit selfish, if you ask me, this whole thing. I gave and gave and gave to that girl. I paid her way through college - do you think her ridiculous father had any money? I bought her first car. I doled out cash every time she wanted to go shopping with her girlfriends.
I did the best I knew how. That's all any of us can do."
"She was spoiled, that girl. I bought her anything she ever asked for. She never wanted for anything."
*******
notes: I'll let you guys discover the great tragedy of that ;)
Mitch there, by the way, is also Drew Bruty's uncle. They didn't come related by default, but Mitch was Mr. Big the 1st, and Drew was Mr. Big the 2nd, so I figured they came from some family money or something. And I like my townies to have family relations when I can manage it. I haven't seen Mr. Big the 3rd yet, but maybe he's Drew's younger cousin or something.
There's a striking family resemblance between Samantha and her mother.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I think I'm feeling for both Autumn and Samantha here. I think Samantha missed out on a lot of that parental love and approval kids scramble for but at the same time, it seems like Autumn thinks she gave all she could, for the most part.
Did you actually make Mitch and Drew related with SimPE (or something else) or do you just imagine they're related?
Wow... this really reminds me of one of my sim-mothers... or the way I imagine her :) Great to get some more insight into Samantha's past.
ReplyDeleteI like giving my townies family relationships, too.
Random semi-related question - was Samantha ever 'officially' missing? I mean, if someone were to look in a Lakeside Hights newspaper, say, from around the time she left, would there be any mention of her disappearance? Or if they searched her name in some kind of online newspaper archive, would they find anything?
I'm thinking not, since she said goodbye to at least her friends, rather than just suddenly vanishing... she was never really a missing person that sense... but I was just wondering... :)
Carla, she really did get a lot of her looks from her mother. And yes, I'm quite saddened by the situation between these two, or well, most of the people she left behind, actually.
ReplyDeleteI used SimBlender to make them related :)
Blackcat, hmmm, making me think, lol! ;)
I'm thinking no, not officially missing, or at least if she was, it wouldn't have been long because Riley knew that she left intentionally.
When I was writing Bella's interview, she mentions that once Sam left for college, they (she and their father) only ever really saw her for holidays or special occasions. (This is all just kind of bubbling up from sporadic memories and trying to fill in the gaps.)
I didn't mention one way or the other if she said goodbye to her father - though I did mention that he was sleeping when she snuck off. I do wonder if she would have left a note or something? Maybe you guys can help me answer that as we go along. Because though he was a bit of a fool, he was never cruel to her, and would she really be contemptuous enough to not say goodbye at all?
Though at the same time, I honestly don't think she knew she'd be gone so long, which is the interesting thing about this project. What was it that kept her away for so long?
Wow, that was like half a thought, lol! What I meant to say was: Bella and their father only saw her occasionally, so if she didn't leave a note or something, they might not have even noticed her gone for a couple of weeks. Probably her dad would have called and gotten a disconnected cell phone line or something.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Laura... I can work with that!
ReplyDeleteIn gameplay, Samantha is already in my hood, and she's put herself in a situation where she might be thinking about this... and I reallly mean, put herself :)
Based on who she wants to interact with, she has managed to take a minor (possibly even non-playable) character and give him a central role in my story, bringing with him a whole lot of hood history that might never have been referred to in the blog otherwise... but it's making so much sense... lol... she's found herself a better storyline than I could ever have imagined for her.
Really having fun with this! :)
This entry is so very sad. This has to be one of the saddest stories and told so indirectly makes it all the sadder. Autumn comes across as such an honest character, and at the same time because she's so honest, her inability to see the problem only makes it hurt more.
ReplyDeletePoor Samantha!
Wow. This was great.
ReplyDeleteI love the name Autumn Phillipine. It's so regal. So perfect.
Aw, how heartbreaking for Samantha. I almost wanted to add:
she never wanted for anything... except love.
And I love how she spoke about her daughter in the past tense... like she died or something or the second she left Lakeside Heights she ceased to exist!
I noticed that she didn't say once that she missed Sam and all. Aw...
And LOL at the hello mitch. too funny.
Blackcat, that sounds fascinating! I can't wait to read it :)
ReplyDeleteLunar, I know. I'm just not sure if she ever had it in her :(
Billy, thanks! That would be the perfect thing to add. Just what I was going for ;)
You know, for a very long time, a lot of them probably did assume she was dead, or at least considered it a possibility. Ten years is a really long time to have no contact.
Though, now that they're being interviewed about her, they must assume someone's heard something from her, lol! :)
I thought I commented it!
ReplyDeleteWhat an insightful interview into Autumn and the relationship from her POV. The comment about not making a good mother, and her multiple husbands was quite open. Showed a lot of herself in this interview. I really liked it, it's quite raw, and realistic.
Maisie, thank you! I'm enjoying doing these, and I'm finding it really interesting what comes out when they really get talking, whether about Samantha or otherwise.
ReplyDelete