views on sex: a study on fictional nookie

* warnings: pics are marginally NSFW, and plentiful discussion of a wide variety of sex ;) *

Okay, first of all, I have no idea why I was so compelled to do this study, lol! But since I couldn't think of a fictional Christmas gift to you all, I decided to give you a character study on fictional sex!!! :D

Of course, just the very reason I'm exploring my characters' views on sex at all has to be inspired by Lunar's profiles for Ruin. I've always felt (and I think she would agree) that you can tell a lot about a character based on how they approach their sexual relationships. This became even more apparent as I write my characters' current relationship ordeals, seeing how each of them view love and sex so differently.

time in a bottle, revisited

* Sorry, this is going to be unbelievably long and rambly! *

not really a prosperity blog, or anything like it, anymore...

It's been a long time since I wrote that post on time and aging, and a lot of things have changed in the almost-three years I've been writing this story. So if this opens a new era in the keeping of LH time, then it's something that actually happened quite a while ago. If you compare my rounds 2076/78 to rounds 2080 and especially 2082, I'm sure you'll see the huge difference ;)

I don't play/write my families in anything resembling equal turns. In fact, I rarely get the chance to really and truly "play" my families at all anymore. I'm fine with that, by the way. I have just as much fun using the game to tell my story as I do playing it for fun. And in the midst of posing, I do try to steal a couple minutes to just "play" them like the little pixel dollies they are. If I do manage to take any cues from gameplay anymore, it'll be found in these little 5-minute play sessions.

This story (and all of its story parts) has plenty of momentum, for the next two rounds, and into the spin-off even after the Lakeside Heights portion of the story is finished. So I thought we could talk about the way things started here, and what things have become. And I'll go ahead and finally say out loud that we're leaving that "prosperity blog" structure, which in honesty, we left quite a while ago.

elections 2083!

December 6, 2083 - Election Day. Presented by Clarice Miller of the Lake County Courier.

Clarice Miller: We bring you this broadcast live from County Hall, in Lake City. Welcome, and I'm happy to bring you coverage of the 2083 Elections Press Conference.

base hood uni, something like a tutorial

The simplest part of building a base-hood uni is... building it ;) Your base-hood uni can be anywhere, downtown, shopping district, vacation hood, whatever... just not the regular uni hoods. The trickier parts are getting your university to act like a university, and getting your students there.

Lake City University

*note, because I suspect this will likely turn up in all kinds of Google searches: Lake City University is a *fictional* university campus for my story Lakeside Heights. If you got here searching for a real university, you might want to try again... * ;)

Welcome to Lake City University. We are a full-service university located in the heart of Lake City, just twenty minutes from Lake Michigan. LCU offers a four-year bachelors degree in a wide area of studies, study abroad opportunities with Takemizu Academy in Japan, as well as both masters and doctorate programs.

(base hood uni, kind of a tutorial)

picspam: randomness with Hayden and Piper

This all started because Hayden and Piper wanted to buy a house. They won't be married for another six months still, but I didn't want to do the moving hassle at the same time I'm having to deal with wedding plans, so we did this now.

This is in Hazel Park (and hey, look, train station in the background!). He's still just about a mile away from his mommy, because I figured he'd want to move too far away, lol!

I didn't build this, but remodeled it quite a bit, both inside and out. I changed out all the windows and doors and stairs, and the color scheme. Complete overhaul inside. The second floor was left unfinished, so I finished it.

from myself, extras and author's note

first, a note on the ending of stories:

Since this is kind of the first storyline that's been well and truly wrapped up in this blog, I thought I'd do a little author's note. I'll also probably want to give them each their own author's note when they're finished. For a time, I was doing the author's notes by round, but I think this works better, maybe.

But on the ending of stories in general, this is how it will work:

The storyline tags cover the arc of the story itself, from beginning to middle to end, and only the story. Both Micah and Mariah existed as Sims/characters before this story took shape, and those entries are not included. Likewise, the whole Buchanan family will still exist in Lakeside Heights in the future. You'll still hear from them in other stories, and they'll still get their once-a-round family update. But as far as I'm concerned, this story is finished, and I'm happy to let them have their peace, lol!

Basically, the storyline tags contain only what I would include if I were writing this as its own stand-alone book. It's still a work-in-progress, but main characters are also getting their own name tags as well, and those name tags will span the entire collection of stories, any entry they make a meaningful appearance in. So for further reading, you can continue to follow their tags: Mariah, Micah, and for entries relating to the whole family, Buchanan.

And James too. James is one of those who doesn't really have his own storyline, yet plays an important role in about three or four different stories. Or maybe he does have his own story, and I just haven't discovered what that is yet.

Anyway...

This obviously contains major spoilers, so if you haven't read through all the from myself stories, you'll want to finish those first.

Author's note on the "from myself" storyline:
The hows, and whys, and hitches in the writing of...

career rules: a study on impoverishment

I've always had these career rules that I made up for my game, and I think I've mentioned them before, but never really talked about them in any detail. I haven't actually enforced these in quite a while, but writing these stories for Max and Bella recently reminded me of that. For a time, I was very strict about these, and they work kind of like the ROS do. Maxwell's father actually died of one of these when he was very young (Nina was still pregnant with Anjali at the time), which was part of their family's curse of bad luck - he was in an old custom extreme-adventurer career, and the story was that he died in a bungee jumping accident ;)

These are mostly an effort to make the Maxis careers more realistic, and give some risk for more interesting gameplay. And just to make things harder. I personally get very bored, very fast, when all of my Sims are at the top of their careers.

under the skin, revisited

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

first, part 1

June 2083 - Charlie Roseland and Natalia Deppiesse are 13, Gabby Roseland is 4.

It's summer, finally. Charlie is just hanging out in front of his house, with his sister, doing what kids do on these long, sweaty days, which is waiting for something to happen. Nothing is happening here. He can't even score some free lemonade from his baby sister!

"That'll be a dollar ninety-five," Gabby says. "Just like everybody else."

sittin' in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g

A guide to different height kissing:

Height differences between lovers can add a lot of realistic value to a story, but the in-game standing kissing animations can get pretty wonky. This is always one of the first complaints people bring up when they consider using different heights in their game, and was also my biggest complaint until I found some work-arounds. In these romantically-inclined stories, you know how we need to get our kiss on around here!

So nobody specifically asked me to do this one, but I've been using different heights in my game for some time now, and discovered a few tricks, so I thought I would share them.

Dallas and Lucy are happy to oblige us in the demonstration of these techniques ;)

LH sci-fi dork-fest... or the making of a space base

After viewing this video, a tour inside our current ISS, I've had to revise my plans for my happy little space-goers. A free-floating space station wouldn't have as much space or large windows with beautiful views of space like I'd envisioned. And it would not be very aesthetically pleasing at all. It would be cramped and cluttered and every bit of available space would be used.

But they can generate oxygen from their urine! That's hella cool! LOL!

So anyway, if I want to keep this story as realistic as I usually try to, then that means staying true to the kind of possibilities we might see in the next 70 years. So I've changed my original intentions a bit, and I'll now have their "home base" built on the moon rather than a free-floating station in orbit. So from this point forward, that's where they'll be. And I'll try to go back and edit the story to reflect that.

one day, long-dreaded...

May 2083 - Cabe Deppiesse (41), Andy Bradshaw (56), Joel Harris (41), Alon Hutchins (27), Jeremiah Day (26), Keri Riley-Kim (22), Tyler Jackson (19), Stephanie Day (23).

*note: box of tissues warning!*

They felt it coming, there were rumors, there was an atmosphere in the news reports of preparation. They're getting ready for the first contact. They've built up the bases to support a troop surge, so now they need the troops.

Protect the planet is their mission, their first and most important order. They need all the help they can get, and they'll take it from every available unit around the globe. As far apart as they might be in culture or distance, they are all in this one together. Some units went ahead of them, and later more followed. Then last week, one long-dreaded day, there were these pamphlets in the mail: Your Loved Ones on Active Duty.

Soon after, Lake County unit 212 was called to duty.

prom 2083, revisited

With four different scenes, and travel time to community lots, that prom update took forever to shoot and produced a lot of fun outtakes. And I was also feeling very particular about the mood of my narrative, so I didn't want to throw a bunch of funny outtakes at the end.

And besides all that, it was plenty long enough on its own.

So to start things off, this is what Melissa thought of my first idea for her prom dress! She says, "My cleavage is showing, I feel so naked!"

while we're on the topic of chemistry...

Aurora says, "Did you ever realize how insanely hot I am?"

Adrian says, "Yes, dear, I think I noticed."

the truth about happily ever after, part 2

November 2082 (part 2 of 2) - Berjes and Hailey Monif are 37, Hazel is 13. (Mariah Buchanan is 24, Dakota Deppiesse is 12, Jodie Larson is 27.) Last update, December 2081. (part one here.)

Her mother leaves early in the morning for work, and Berjes knows this, which is why he comes to visit Hazel before school. She runs down the stairs to greet him, like she used to when she was little, and like she's been doing ever since he and Hailey started arguing. She was always her mother's little baby, but in recent months it's painfully obvious that she misses her daddy.

She says, "Have you still not figured that thing out yet?"

"Nope, not yet," he says.

LCU, just one key (part 2)

LCU, fall semester, 2082 (part 2 of 2). *optional soundtrack, "Get Together, by the Youngbloods*

*** I had a blast playing these three, so this is MEGA-LONG! I couldn't find a logical place to break it though, and it's mostly picture/dialogue-heavy, so it shouldn't feel too bad ;) ***

It's a lovely night in October, the air is crisp, but not very cold yet. The soccer field smells like cut grass and young men sweating. They're watching Tyler's soccer practice, or not exactly watching, but discussing the wonders of life. Which brings April Hutchins to a very important question.

She turns to her best friend, Beau, and says, "So I'm not saying I'm going to try or anything, but I just want to know, would you hate me forever if I hooked up with Summer?"

2082, postcards from the edge

*** updates on your favorite Lakeside Heights outcasts ***

This is something I've been meaning to do, though I probably won't do it very often. I do still play some of these move-aways and ex-girlfriend/boyfriends, so I'd like to update you all on what they've been up to, especially the ones you wouldn't hear about through any of my playable Sims. I figure if I've become attached enough to want to check up on them, then maybe some of you might be attached enough to care what they've been doing ;)

*sigh* If only I had time to tell all of their stories...

Summer's place, continued, part 2

July 2082 (part 2 of 2) - part one here.

*** optional soundtrack, "Not As We," by Alanis Morissette ***

He's been lounging around the house lately deep in thought. You'd think he might be giving up the gaming industry to become a philosopher or something. But he decides this morning, just as she's leaving for work, that he'll finally wake up and come bounding out to the garage to stop her and say, "Hey, Summer, wait up a sec'."

not my idea

June 2082 - Chad and Riley Hathe are 30, Liza is 13, Shaun is 4. (Phoenix McCullough is 42, Fiona is 14, Robbie is 11. Hayden Phoenix is 32.) Last update, February 2079.

*** Part gameplay notes on the Bluewater Animal Shelter ***

(quick note, just to set everybody straight, lol: these names get confusing, I would imagine - I have a Phoenix McCullough, friends with Hayden Phoenix, whose brother is Jackson Phoenix, and whose daughter is dating one of the Jackson boys, lol - half of those are Maxis names, so it couldn't be helped. I don't even know how I'm going to narrate this scene, but I'll try, lol ;) In the narration they'll be called by their first names, Chad, Hayden, and Phoenix, though Chad calls Phoenix "McCullough" in dialogue. Anyway...)

Chad is fully enjoying his work as the owner of this cozy little gaming club. The Gamer's Den is ranked 4 now, and he enjoys the company of his favorite regulars. Funds have been running low lately, which might be because his wife's animal shelter is housing SIX animals right now, and those dogs eat a lot!

Another hundred bucks will help, but unfortunately that means cleaning Hayden out. "I'm done, Hayden says. "You guys ran me dry."

"McCullough, aren't you broke too?" Chad says.

"Not that broke," he says.