under the skin, revisited

Gameplay notes, extras, outtakes, and assorted goodies for the four part, "under the skin" story series.

*** part 1, on April and James ***

So this picture was actually from part 2.5, but oh well. I didn't have any outtake pictures on part 1, which was largely about April and James.

It's a shame she's so flaky right now, because she and James are cute together. They get along well in personality too, besides the whole issue of her sluttiness, lol! I just can't do that to him, you know, after having put him through two flaky women already. He just won't go for it. He's too smart, too wounded, too far closed off - that, and April isn't even trying hard enough anyway. She's got her own issues to sort out right now.

I keep finding her drawn to these kinds of normal, stable, well-adjusted men (James, Beau), which leads us to, again, daddy issues? But how does a girl solve daddy issues anyway, especially if she's so hell-bent on driving all the good men out of her life?

But while we're on the topic of James, since he refuses to leave the story, and seems dead set on torturing himself with all these crazy girls (oh, and yes, there is yet another...), I went ahead and added him to the database as a playable. He's been around the story since nearly the beginning, so he probably deserves to be full-on playable anyway. So he's in the database now, filed under Porter, and you can take a peek at all his personality stats.

He's a Virgo, quiet and a little bit antisocial, but funny and caring. But you probably already knew that. I bet you didn't know he enjoys long hikes in the forest, lol!

And while we're on the topic of the database, I also wanted to mention that everybody is in order of last name now, even my apartment dwellers. So rather than finding them at the beginning, like they were before, they'll be in order by last name. (Like Jodie is filed by Larson, and Corbin is filed by Gray, and so on.) The only two group shots will be the college kids, and the retirement village.

*** from part 2, Max and his posse ***

A close-up of the Shaw family's foreheads. Valerie and Angelo's weird dents are the most prominent, but then sometimes I see it on Max too.

Hmmm, Max is descended from downtownie blood, and Valerie was a former downtownie, sharing the same rare genetic forehead dent?... maybe they're very distant relatives? Somehow, Max marrying one of his very distant relatives would probably be one of the least trashy things he ever did ;)

Funny as that might be though, Valerie was just an ordinary downtownie when he married her, so she has no relative ties in this neighborhood except her children.

Another weird anomaly - Max can't have body hair? Adding body hair to him changes his facial structure completely. I had to exit without saving.

I didn't think any of my other dudes were having issues with their body hair (lol, "issues with their body hair"), so I tested it on some other dudes, and they were all fine. It's just Max then? Big ol' bad Max is impotent when it comes to body hair, lol! No wonder he feels the need to compensate! :)

And yes, Cameron really did go to Max for marriage advice, lol! We'll just say Cameron didn't know any better? He's just so dumb it's cute sometimes! :)

And did you ever see anyone but Bella step out of a photo booth after a public indiscretion with such pride?

*** from part 2.5, the party ***

Here's drew Drew crying up a storm over that failed proposal. He's a family secondary, and quite sensitive with his 9 nice points, so I guess it hit him pretty hard, lol!

It's okay, Drew, we don't think you would have been happy being married to Cameron anyway. Amelia has nicer boobs, lol!

Funny as it is, I really wish that beer keg didn't leave real memories. It's a bit silly, you know. Good thing my game crashed after this ;)

And that's Cameron in the background, bitching to Max about one thing or another, all night long. He was NOT impressed, lol! I don't know what he would have been impressed by, but this wasn't it!

Valerie decides that since everybody else is doing it...

They emerge with great approval from Bella, go figure. And Max, for some reason, looks almost bashful!

And April and Joe! This is also where they happened originally in the game. Joe was all over her the whole night, but I was watching out for her to try something with Max or James, so I didn't think anything of it. I take my eyes off her for a minute and there goes the photo booth a-rockin! And I caught this as she was coming out. Sheesh, girl!

Now I'm not saying people can't be happy in a lifestyle like she's trying to live, but I just don't feel her being very happy in it. She's not getting any of the men she really wants, and whatever men she does get are pretty much just using her. So I recreated this scene for the story, and gave her that epiphany there in the bathroom instead. This kind of lifestyle can work for a certain kind of person, but I guess she has to decide if it's really, honestly working for her or not.

And Joe... Doesn't he look very pensive for having just gotten lucky? I did check up on him and Carly, and he's got a little explaining to do. I'll have another non-playables update coming up in the break after this chapter ends, and you'll hear from him then.

*** part 3, the wedding ***

This was just a random shot I caught as I was getting them assembled at home, before the wedding.

Okay, we get it kids, you're in love. Maybe pull it together for a sec so you can get yourselves hitched?

I think I've mentioned before that these two are the third-highest attraction in my game, at a super-high three-bolts and 188 attraction score. Which inspires me to make up a top attractions list, of all my high-chemistry couples in this story. So that'll be fun! And I'll have that coming up next. Next after the honeymoon, I mean ;)

Yes, Amelia, stand in awe! Valerie is a whole lot of woman!

Even Max seems to know you shouldn't play football with a woman who's nine months pregnant and expecting twins at any moment!

Max was an endless source of amusement at that wedding :)

And then Mariah, oh Mariah. *sigh*

I had all kinds of horrible torturous events planned for her in that dress, but then she ended up torturing herself quite well on her own. This is all it takes for her to go flying into a tailspin, by the way, he just has to walk past her and she falls apart. No interaction even needed.

As long as I keep her about 20 miles away from him, she's fine. I managed to keep them apart for two years, the last time being this confusing ordeal. But of course they'd both be at this wedding. It ends up being a kind of "don't think about it and it doesn't exist" kind of thing. As soon as they're on the same lot together, bam, all kinds of romantic wants from her.

As much as I'd like to say she's over James, as much as she tries, and as happy as she is, truly, she's just not really over him. She's just not. Maybe some day?

He is, and has been for some time, well over her. Or at least over her in the way that he's stopped feeling anything for anyone at all. Another twisted way to deal, but then, you see the kind of women he's dealing with. I'd close up too, lol!

All this time and I haven't been able to find him anyone (who isn't a basketcase) that he likes as much as he liked Mariah for that time they were okay. Even April is only about 100 attraction (quite low three-bolts), while Mariah was 121. (Mariah, for the record, is 129 with Micah.)... But just this week I found one, super-high chemistry for him. But a basketcase, definitely, or at least highly complicated and maybe impossible.

Poor guy :(

But I don't think she made a mistake in choosing Micah over James, not at all, but if you remember, it was close. And if not for their lifestyle differences, maybe she never would have even considered it. I haven't had a girl this tricky since Charlotte. But I guess it makes sense that some people are more sensitive than others. And Mariah is sensitive, and I guess she never got the space or time she needed to move on properly. That, or he meant more to her than she ever gave him credit for.

But this is an example of how her wants go, and this always, ALWAYS, happens, just the same way each time - a romantic want for James, always accompanied by a want to talk to Micah, lol! It's like she knows she needs some talking back down to reality. I was hoping she wouldn't always need to be talked back down. But who knows, maybe some day something will fall into place for her ;)

Some random Amelia and Drew spam, since there was no reason to work it into the story.

And speaking of Amelia... If we might dig up something from the past... do you guys remember this???

It was spring semester, 2078 - Micah was a freshman, Amelia was a senior, and they lived in the same building for a whole semester, and by the end of the semester, under what kind of influence we don't know, but they got themselves into this little situation.

This was also the same year he was also dating Blossom - bad boy, Micah, lol!

But Micah and Amelia, I swear they don't remember each other! Maybe Amelia wouldn't, since she's kind of been around the block a few times, lol! But on the few family occasions they do end up around each other, they never roll even the slightest want for each other, never a heart-fart, never a thought bubble. Nothing.

Maybe they really don't remember? Maybe they were really, really drunk or something.

I just found it strange, while they were all sitting next to each other at that wedding table, and they're all fine with it. Even Mariah, being who Mariah is, you'd expect her to be all paranoid. Maybe she would be if she didn't have other things on her mind. It's like, "Sure, he used to mess around with my cousin. No biggie..." Well, everybody has a past, right?

Maybe this is like the whole Blake/Aurora/Clarice thing. Like sure, you used to kiss your best friend a little, no biggie!

Anyway, while we're memory surfing, Amelia would like to say that she's highly offended - she's only been with 6 men to date! (While in this story, I had her confessing to nine, with Drew still pending.) It's that woohoo counting painting, that counts public woohoo separately from regular, so one man ends up counting twice. Oops. I'll have to check manually from now on I suppose.

Bella however, has had 7, and thus, officially beats out her cousin. I originally said it was the other way around. Oops. Bella reclaims the crown of, um, sluttiest Bradshaw cousin. And she probably reclaims it with pride! ;)

Mariah and Keri have both had two.

And Bella's first? You guys weren't reading at that point, as this blog started when she was already eighteen, I think. Her first was Roland Ellis, and judging from her memories, it happened junior year of high school and she was about 17. I'm guessing she didn't tell him how old she was ;)

Cameron's first was with a girl named Cordelia, in college. She looks like a lovely girl, lol!

The funniest thing though? Cameron gets around with this reputation, and always has. He's always projected this image of sleaziness, like Bella. This man has his head in the gutter pretty much all the time. Sex on the brain almost constantly, farting hearts over everything that breathes, man and woman alike.

And how many people do you think he's been with???

Just two, lol! Cordelia and Bella. Geez, he's almost virginal, lol!

In truth though, he is actually kind of shy. And picky too, I mean 10 neat points. Maybe he's worried about catching something ;)

*** the honeymoon, extra ***

I rarely have the time or patience to give my newlyweds a honeymoon, but Bella and Cameron were both itching for one. And I think it suits them to want one, so because they're celebrating the wedding, and her new promotion, and because her parents were in town already to look after the girls, we'll indulge them.

It turned into something of an actual story though, so I'll be working on that, and it'll be coming up next in the schedule :)