Di's Victorian Vexes

Sim_Spiration 14/12/09

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 20:31:22 GMT

Yet again, I've written far too much for the comments. I admit, I'm not completely happy with this. I'm not sure I've got everything I wanted to get across, across, and parts of it seem clumsy and/or irrelevant. In fact, this is more like a first draft than a finished piece, but I'm not in a writing mood at the moment really.

Anyway, I hope you like it.

"People who need people are the luckiest people in the world" ("People" - Funny Girl)

Or not, as the case may be. :)

***

Stuart Legacy regarded his reflection in the hall mirror critically, and started faffing with his hair. No matter what he did, his hair would not lay flat. He remembered, very vividly, his grandmother sighing as she wetted it and tried to smooth it down before family occasions. She always failed, and ended up standing back from him, her face in her hands, looking at him and saying "well I suppose you will have to do my Stuart. That piece of hair does not want to behave itself."

As he had gotten older, he had tried to tame it himself, even slathering on pomade in an effort to make it stay plastered to his head. It hadn't worked, and in fact had looked far worse, since he ended up with a greasy, sticky quiff. His solution had been very simple: if his hair didn't want to lay flat, he wouldn't try to make it. Instead, what he did now, was smear a little pomade on his fingers and wipe it through his hair so that it looked as if his hair was doing exactly what he wanted it to.

He was still faffing with his hair when he heard his brother start down the stairs. He heard Bertie's steps falter and stop as he reached the foot of the stairs. "You are looking very smart. You are going out?" It was somewhere between a question and a statement.

Stuart looked at his brother in the reflection of the mirror. "Yes, I'm dinning with Miss Fitzhugh again tonight. I did say." He replied, looking back at his own reflection as he straightened his tie.

"You more than likely did. It looks like I will be all alone here tonight then." Said Bertie, morosely.

Stuart quelled the irritation that had flared at his brother's words, and tugged at his tie, undoing the knot so he could redo it even neater. He knew that Andrew and Peter were taking their future brother-in-law out for a friendly drink that would end up with them telling him in a very friendly tone, that if he ever hurt their sister, they would help Celly hide the body somewhere it would never be found. However that still left David, and so he asked Bertie where their cousin was.

"The library." Said Bertie. "He has only gone because he has his eye on the new librarian working there."

"You say that like it is a bad thing!" Said Stuart, flicking his gaze to his brother.

"I did not mean it to sound so."

"No. I just hope that if he likes this girl, he actually engages her in conversation and makes his intentions clear, before someone else does, as has been the case the last three times he has shown interest in a girl." Murmured Stuart as he tied his tie. "Anyway," he continued louder, "you have a fiancée. Why not go and see her?"

Bertie kicked at the hall tiles. "She has an art exam coming up. She says I distract her, and so she does not want me around." Bertie met his brother's eyes in the mirror and leant against the wall, his arms folded across his chest. "It must be my startling good looks. Poor thing goes to pieces when she sees me."

"Well, that is hardly surprising my brother. You are a very good looking chap."

"You are not too bad yourself Stuart. Neither is father come to think of it." Said Bertie smiling genuinely for the first time since he had come downstairs.

Stuart returned Bertie's smile with one of his own. This was the Bertie he loved to see: confident and happy. If only he would believe in himself some more, then maybe he would be like this more often.

"You could go to the Lounge." Stuart suggested as he put the finishing touches to his knot. Bertie's attitude may have irritated him, but Stuart still hated the thought of his brother miserable at home all alone.

Bertie sighed. "No one good is playing. Do not worry about me here on my own. You go and enjoy yourself." He said, forcing a smile onto his face.

A noise distracted Stuart before he could respond, and he looked out the hall window. "The carriage is here. I must go."

Bertie nodded. "Have a pleasant time."

"I will." Stuart turned and smiled at his brother before grabbing his coat and heading out the door.

Bertie watched him go, the feeling of unease he had felt since he had realised that he would be all alone that evening, growing. He hated being on his own, absolutely hated it. He had hoped that the feelings would have lessened as he had got older, but they hadn't. In the short time since Stuart had left, the Legacy Society already seemed a much colder and eerie place.

His brother, and all who didn't need people with them all the time were so lucky. They would never feel the stab of worry, or the surge of adrenaline he felt when he was sure he was all alone. It was one of the things he envied Stuart for.

Important annoucement

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 16:35:34 GMT

I have an important announcement, one which will impact on the future of my legacy. Some of you already know this, but for everyone else, please click on the cut to read it.

It is now, officially, Carmen Tiem!

The happy couple are honeymooning in Takemizu and it is lovely to be playing them.

Rotational picspam

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 23:30:46 GMT

Wow, this playing malarky means I actually have pictures to share with you all. I've been meaning to share some of these for the past 2 weeks, so there are lots of them I'm afraid, and I apologise to those of you with slower connections.

We start off in Abigail's house. It's a unit in an apartment block I downloaded from Parsimonius, and it's very gltichy. So glitchy I'm going to eventually move everyone out into a row of cottages when I get round to wanting to build again.

I don't know if this is standard for apartments, but Carmen's engagement ring disappeared. It's there when I go into her apartment (she lives in the same block), but not when she turns up when I'm playing Abigail.

I had to lol at the look on the face of the landlord when he fixed Abigail's shower. He's of the "hit it with a spanner" school of plumbing.

There was also a birthday:

Basil is still a cutie. He might look slightly familiar: I gender switched him to create Baz for a sim_scenes a few months ago.

Baz's younger sister Amy, was played by Amelia:

She's a lot of fun, and I have no idea why a picture of one of the Stodgy Badgers makes her think of aliens.

Aaaanyway, proof that Carmen's ring came back when I was playing her:

Carmen spent most of this rotation eating, painting, and socialising with Eddie. I left them on free will for quite a bit. Carmen was all over Eddie. That made me smile. A lot.

By the time I left her house, Carmen had eaten 128 grilled cheese sandwiches. I probably won't get her perma plat before she becomes and elder, but I should get it done not that long after.

Onto the big glitches on this lot (yes Carmen lives in the same building as Abigail). A couple of the non controllables seemed to lose the ability to look after themselves. Observe:

After a while, I kept getting a pop up window coming up over Leo, and he kept rotating to follow the camera all the time, while pulling this face:

By morning I was fed up and made him selectable:

It's almost as if he was stuck waiting for the grim reaper to come for him. I tried to get him to eat, but the action kept dropping out of his queue. In the end I cheated his hunger bar up a bit in the hope that he would go and get something to eat.

He didn't. Oh and don't you love Bee's reaction? I do.

Abigail's reaction to her husband was just as bad.

"You sure you don't want any pizza Shane?"

Onto Stanley now. To be blunt, he's been busy being Stanley. Not that Jamie is complaining about that.

It took me a bit of trying, but I did finally get Stanley and Becca hooked up.

"You want to kiss me, don't you?" Said Stanley's companion, her sapphire eyes twinkling in the light from the gas lamp.

Stanley looked at her, and took in the soft curve of her cheek, her perfect pout, and her gorgeous big blue eyes. She was stunningly beautiful and he thought she had just uttered the most blindingly obvious statement in the history of the world.

"I always want to kiss you."

Becca leant towards him, her lips parted slightly. "Then you should."

Stanley grinned and took her in his arms, pressing his lips against hers. Well he was after all a gentleman, and as a gentleman it behoved him to accede to a lady's request.

(Yay, look, using a past sim_spiration post as a caption).

Yay look, slow dance twirl, not a classic dance twirl, a real, true slow dance twirl. Most of my slow dance twirls come from Stanley actually.

Hehe, his lower hands face is brill.

As is Becca's.

Hehe, synchronised swooning.

Unfortunately, Laura walked onto the lot, so I tried to keep Stanley and Becca apart, and get them out of there. They took no notice of me.

No idea why she got aspy points when he slapped her back though. Oh, and she also has several other lovers.

Aaaanyway, onto another lot, and the big hearts showed up.

I think that if I hadn't of ended the evening like this, neither Stan nor Becca would speak to me again:

This is a typical Stanley want panel:

Timothy's house now, and time for a wedding. Unfortunately it was raining, so Timothy had to fix that:

"Honey, are you sure you know what you are doing?"

"Yes, I think so. How hard can it be?"

Not very, since it worked!

John is truly his father's son. It is not the best idea to be gossiping about me Mister.

I did smile at the fact that Henry and Aphrodita managed to sit next to each other. Oh and Henry and Eddie were seated as far apart as I could get them.

It was a beautiful ceremony, even if they were at an odd angle for some reason.

Unfortunately the guests weren't very good at clapping properly:

Some of us got it right though:

"I really don't know why you are complaining Di. Nothing wrong with looking in the wrong direction and clapping. Anyway, it's more than likely your fault for putting the benches too close together."

Oh and just in case anyone has forgotten, Timothy is very much Henry's son:

Oh, and I changed Katy's hair. I know it's the Marielle hair, but I'm trying to improve its reputation since it's a nice hair.

CAAAAKE:

I was so not surprised that Timothy shoved it.

Jamie decided to cut Ari in two:

Oh and Doc threw me a scratchy thought bubble. Thanks Doc.

And Eddie stood there looking gorgeous and making me miss him.

It wasn't long before Lauri started to feel a bit ill. She really didn't have a good pregnancy, and probably won't be having another one because of it. plus the cottage is tiny.

Not that her husband was feeling very sympathetic. He was playing with a work colleague, who was fast learning that it is not a good idea to play any game with one of Henry's descendants.

Scary stove is scary:

This is what happens when I don't clean it. It also catches fire a lot in this state.

It wasn't long until Lauri and Timothy's daughter made an appearance.

Everyone, meet Margaret, or Peggy.

Very quickly to Samuel's. He doesn't get on with many people, see:

His daughter did grow up though, but I forgot to take a make over pic, so here's a rubbish one.

Alexandra's house was more interesting because I love her and her family.

Alexandra is such a wonderful mother. She really does love her children, her husband and her life.

Speaking of children, there were two birthdays to be had:

Look, her first finger gun. *so proud*

Bethany is so pretty. She has Joe's nose and brow, but the rest seems to be from Alexandra.

Christopher is Joe with the Brow and Beth's chin.

While I was playing the party, Beth managed to get herself stuck somewhere inaccessible.

The first of what I fear will be many noogies.

I don't think Bethany will stand for too many of them though.

A&A still stalk each other to death. Alexandra decided that she just had to go and clean this bath while Anthony was practising a speech. She then stood just looking at him for ages.

Oh, Christopher still likes to slide down the banister.

Moar stalking, this time it's Anthony stalking Alexandra.

Oh, and next time I'm in the house, I'm going to be meeting a new arrival.

Before we leave the Smiths, I just have to say that Sarah-Jane is kinda awesome, and I'm looking forward to playing her as a child.

Onto Louisa's now. Louisa had a really rough pregnancy. She spent much of the first day worshipping the porcelain god, and made me so glad I suspended her pregnancy for the interlude.

The rest of it was spent napping,

and eating.

Charles came home with Cyd one day and wanted to play catch with his niece. I think it was a surprise to him when she caught every one of his hard throws.

Cyd was a very attentive husband throughout and was often on hand for back rubs and the like.

I did have to wake him for the birth though.

Meet Harry:

Ad Gregory:

The two boys have some pretty interesting recessives going on, with Harry getting the tattooed skin as a recessive and Greg blond hair. Plus I love that Greg got the green eyes from Enid and Cyd.

Synchronised playing

They are a very sweet family.

I have a few things to post about the uni lots too.

This is Gerald, a second cousin. He autonomously fell in love with Veronica here:

Things were going well, until the cow struck. (I forgot I hadn't put a cow head on the lot.).

I started with the apologises straight away.

While the cow said bye to Ernie, Gerald's brother.

<3 Ernie and the faces he pulled.

I eventually got things better between the two of them:

I love that he was thinking about it while he serenaded her.

Things are much better now.

Ernie also found himself a love interest in the form of Amber here;

When I popped into the VPLs, all the sims from the graduation party were still there. For some reason Alexandra showed up in maternity rather than her normal dress:

As did Rosie: (Yes she is pregnant. It took a lot of trying and I did think it wasn't going to happen).

Not that Anthony cares what Alexandra is wearing:

I have a few things to share from the Legacy Society and John. A lot of what I shot will go into the update, but while John was at the library, Florence turned up and promptly had a breakdown because of Charlotta's death:

John was very sympathetic, speaking about his own merits while his cousin was distresed.

Totally, totally, his father's son. He does like to start an argument.

He has found love though. In the original hood she was called Abbey Cox, in this one she is Ashley Inada, but I think I'm going to call her Abbey still.

Nearly there. I've been shooting in Anne's lot, and I can't share much yet, but she rocks as much as ever

And Julia, her youngest, headed to uni.

Henry's house was a bit more eventful, with the burglar turning up the second all three sims got into bed. Henry is not happy about this at all.

Secondly, Gavin Newson managed to piss Aphrodita off within minutes of arriving on the lot. Also not a good move.

Finally Alfie headed to uni as well.

i still have a few days to play in the rotation before I'm able to get to the main house, but for now, this is it. Lots of pictures for you, and I'm sorry the captions were so uninspired. I really must post more, smaller picspams rather than leave it to one big post. Anyway, that's what I've been doing in the game. I hope you enjoyed it.

Sim_Spiration 30/11/09

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 19:32:23 GMT

I really do talk far too much at times, so I'm really not surprised that this is over the character limit. Anyway, here's my drabble for the prompt "Hell is gone and heaven's here/There's nothing left for you to fear" ("Let Me Entertain You" - Robbie Williams)

***

"Bu-bye Mr Thompson, thank you for being our groom today." Called Bertie as he walked along side the omnibus that ferried him and his brother to and from the board school in Simford.

"Goodbye Master Legacy. See you in the morning." Replied the groom with a friendly wave.

Bertie stopped at the gate. He lifted his face to the warmth of the sun and breathed deep. He liked the end of summer he decided. The heat wasn't as fierce as earlier in the season, but it was pleasant and the sun stayed up long enough for him and his brother Stuart to stay outside playing. He wondered what they would play today, but first they had to do their homework. Speaking of which...

He snuck a peek at his daily report card. A+s across the board again. A big grin stretched across his face, and he ran down the front path to the door to the house. It opened at his touch, and he burst into the entrance hall, eager to share his good grades with his father and grandparents.

He stopped dead, a frown forming on his face. Usually at least his grandmother would be there waiting for him, but not today. Today the hall was empty.

Never mind, maybe they had all lost track of time and were in the drawing room.

He entered the most formal room of the house, expecting to be greeted by exclamations of surprise and apologies for forgetting the time. Instead, all that awaited him, were dust motes, lazily floating in the sunbeams coming through the windows.

His frown deepened. It really was unusual for no one to greet him from school.

His eyes alighted on the door to the library and he smiled. Of Course. His grandmamma had got caught up in whatever she was reading, and his papa and grandpapa were at one of the shops. That was why no one had been waiting for him and Stuart.

He fairly skipped to the door and pushed it open, fully expecting to see his grandmamma's white head bowed over a book as she sat in her favourite wing back chair, but the library was as empty as the drawing room had been.

Bertie fought to control his rising panic. After all, this was a big house and he had been in a tiny part of it. Someone would be somewhere in it. They had to be.

As he trotted from room to room, each as empty as the last, he called out his father and grandparent's names, with increasing urgency. By the time he entered the final room of the house, his grandfather's hobby room, his breath was coming out in sharp, frightened gasps.

He was alone in the house.

No one else was there.

And he didn't know where they were.

Over his panic, he suddenly became aware of the sound of birdsong outside. Relief flooded through him and he laughed. He was such a silly billy. It was nearly autumn, and so his grandmamma would be in the garden making sure everything was prepared for the cooler weather. His grandpapa and papa would be there helping her. It was all so obvious and there really was no need to panic after all

A smile on his face, he flew down the stairs, through the dining room, kitchen and scullery, and out into the kitchen garden.

It was as deserted as the house.

A sob rose up in his throat, and a fresh surge of panic turned his knees to jelly. He had no idea what to do.

Stuart.

His brother's face filled his mind. Stuart may be nearly three years younger than him, but he was far braver then he was and would know what to do. But...Bertie couldn't recall hearing Stuart get off of the omnibus and follow him into the house. And he hadn't seen Stuart as he was searching for their father and grandparents in the house...

He shook himself. This was Stuart he was thinking about. He had probably become distracted by something on his way into the house, and Bertie would find him sitting in the front garden, looking for bugs in the grass, without a care in the world. The thought didn't stop him from running down the side of the house, vaulting the garden gate rather than taking the time to try to open the fiddly latch.

The omnibus was still there in front of the house, the groom missing and his brother no where to be seen.

"Stuart!" Bertie called for his brother as he trotted along the front fence. "Come on Stuart, where are you?" One of the horses turned its head and snorted as he went past , but Bertie ignored it.

His brother's report card and homework lay abandoned on the ground by the back of the bus, the pages of the book splayed as if it had been dropped.

"STUART!" Shouted Bertie." "COME ON STUART THIS IS NOT FUNNY! No one is home and I do not know what to do."

There was no answer.

"STUART!!!" Bellowed Bertie as loud as he could. All that answered him was a deafening silence. There was no birdsong, and no noise of the horses shifting.

Breathing heavily, Bertie looked back towards the omnibus. The horses had gone, their bridles and reins puddled on the ground.

In that second it felt to Bertie as if all the warmth and colour was sucked out of the world.

Shaking with cold and fear, he turned to enter the warmth and comfort of his home, and screamed.

The house he saw in front of him was far too tall, its perspective skewed alarmingly. Gone were the cheery red bricks, and in their place were cold grey stones, that seemed to absorb the light. The windows through which he should be able to see the warm colours of the rooms behind them were dark and distorted, and he got the impression that if he cold see through them, what they would reveal would be monstrous.

Bertie screamed himself hoarse, but did not stop. As he continued to scream, he became aware of a growing feeling of warmth on his chest and back, and of a voice, faint but reassuring. "Bertie, it is alright, Papa's here." The voice grew stronger and Bertie started to fell himself calming down.

***

Bertie opened his eyes. He was sitting up in bed, his papa holding him close, stoking his back, and murmuring in his ear. "I promise you nothing can hurt you when I am here. I will not let it."

Bertie hugged his father hard as his screaming gave way to sobs. He relished his father's comforting smell, and the feel of his long hair entwined in his fingers.

His sobs started to subside. He could always rely on the nightmare to terrify him and cause him to scream out at night, but he could also always rely on his father to be there to calm him with it did.

Happy Birthday Jenn!

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 23:04:22 GMT

Happy Birthday Jenn from me and a few sims living in Simdon. I hope you're having a great day.

Emporium Update

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 23:05:08 GMT

Hi guys, I've gone and updated the emporium with a finished set of the mesh edits I did of CashCraft's Vanity Fair teacup for Viridian Child.

More information and the download link can be found here.

Who's Who in Regalton

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 20:28:40 GMT

With the interlude finished, it's lovely to be back in Regalton playing and getting to know my sims again. However, my family is now well established into the fifth generation, and there are many sims running around the neighbourhood. So many in fact, that I can't remember all their names. "Di," I thought to myself, "if you can't remember who everyone is, how are your readers going to? If Bertie brings, say Amelia Wong home from school one day, and you write about them playing, all your lovely readers are going to be scratching their heads, asking 'who the *expletive of your choice* is Amelia?'" So, rather then the meta I was going to start work on, I decided to put together a handy little guide to who is who in my legacy neighbourhood. (Don't worry the meta will come, eventually).

This is arranged by generation, and the sims added by age (for the most part). It includes all the playables from the entire legacy and so is very long. Quite a few of these guys are available for download over at the Emporium, but if there is someone you really want and they are not there, let me know and I will upload them for you. The main characters that are still children will have shorter blurbs than the adults so as to not spoil their stories and character development.

Generation one:

Gabriel William Legacy.

Legacy Founder.

Known to all as Gabe, Gabriel William Marks was a man born into abject poverty in the heart of the Nickel slums in Simdon. He dreamed of a better life for his descendants and so, through several roguish and completely illegal methods, he managed to amass enough money to purchase a plot of land in the tiny hamlet of Regalton. There, under the new name Gabriel Legacy, he started a new life.

Although the shack he erected to protect himself from the elements when he first arrived there is long gone, the house he built for his family still remains at the core of the current Legacy mansion, and the diamond ring that was the last thing he stole, is, to this day, the betrothal ring presented to each future legacy spouse.

Grumpy, and not the sort of man you want to cross, Gabe was never-the-less a devoted husband and loving father. He provided a good start for his family and their lives in Regalton.

Elise Legacy (nee Brown)

Legacy Spouse.

A former bar maid who met Gabe on one of his trips to the tavern where she worked, the orphaned Elise came into the family with surprisingly large dowry. She had never really believed that Gabe was as poor as he said he was, and she had a bit of a shock on seeing her new home. Resilient and determined, she made the best of it, establishing the legacy garden as a method of feeing her family and, if there was enough surplus vegetables, bringing in a bit of extra money. By doing so, she also established the tradition that the legacy spouse is the one to care for the garden.

Never the most affectionate of people, it sometimes seemed that she neglected her children and her husband, but she loved them all in her own way, often supporting them quietly behind the scenes.

Generation two:

George Albert Legacy.

Second Generation Heir.

(Gabe + Elise => George).

Growing up in a very poor house, with many necessities (such as walls) missing, had a not exactly positive effect on George. Selfish, stubborn, grumpy, mean, contrary with a minute attention span, George flitted through life, irritating all around him. Only his family had any genuine affection for him, but even then it took a few years of constant pursuit for his wife Allyn to see beyond the annoying exterior to a man she loved. Although he mellowed with age, his stubbornness never, ever left him, and there were few outside his family and circle of close friends (including a clicky person) who mourned his passing.

His greatest legacy to the family was to concentrate on enlarging the house to accommodate his very large family. His efforts left them paupers, but at least there was room enough for his youngest children, his son and his daughter-in-law to live comfortably.

Allyn Legacy (nee Thomason).

Legacy Spouse.

Former member of the Regalton Garden Society, Allyn met Elise at one of the society's shows. It wasn't long until she was introduced to George, and she was not impressed. Their courtship was not the smoothest, but eventually she realised that she did love George and they were married not long after he graduated from university.

Allyn put her family before everything else, and went on to give George ten children. She did her best by all of her children, trying to raise them right, but unfortunately, there was one child she always felt as if she failed, and his actions caused her to die prematurely of a broken heart.

Elizabeth Anne Skinner (nee Legacy)

Spare.

(Gabe + Elise => Elizabeth).

Just like her brother, Elizabeth was really affected by growing up in a poor house. She became just as grumpy as him, but also more obsessed with material possessions. Dresses became her particular weaknesses, probably as a reaction to the drab clothes she had had as a child, dresses made by her mother with whatever scraps of material she could find.

Again, she wasn't the most affectionate of mothers, but she loved her husband (or rather what her husband could give her), and their family turned out to be very close knit anyway.

Arthur John Skinner.

Spare's husband.

A successful businessman, Arthur moved to the country to escape the hustle and bustle of the city. Once there, he was introduced to Elizabeth by clicky person, and despite her brash nature, he found himself falling in love with her. An exceedingly patient man, (well he had to be with Lizzie as his wife), he was the lynch pin who held the family together.

Violet Marie Harrison (nee Legacy).

Spare.

(Gabe + Elise => Violet).

Baby of generation two, Violet was bold, candid, opinionated, forthright and pedantic. She also had a heart of gold. The first woman of the family to really start to challenge the role she was expected to take, she took on the position of governess in the Harrison household. It wasn't long until her unique and sparkling personality caught the eye of her employer and he realised he loved her. After a small misunderstanding, she confessed her feelings to him, and the two of them were wed.

Vi was a wonderful stepmother to her former pupils as well as mother to her own children with Thomas. Her attitude lives on in her step-granddaughter Louisa.

Thomas Michael Harrison.

Spare's husband.

Major, later General, Harrison, moved to Regalton from Riverblossom Hills following the completion of one of his tours of duty. Strait-laced, due to his upbringing and career, he was a good man. If he had a fault, it was putting too much emphasis on the importance of continuing the family line and name. It was that which lead him to lock his grandson in the family home in Riverblossom Hills with seven beautiful simselves. Turns out he knew what he was doing though.

A devoted family man, he was mourned by all who knew him.

Jayani Harrison (nee Singh)

First wife of Thomas, mother of Frederick and Catherine.

Jayani was living in a village near where Thomas Harrison was stationed in India. He was stunned by her beauty and they married soon after meeting. They went on have twins Frederick and Catherine, but not long after they became children, she contracted consumption and died.

Generation three:

Charlotta Marie Legacy.

Spare.

(Gabe + Elise => George + Allyn => Charlotta).

The oldest of George and Allyn's ten children, Charlotta loved her family dearly and spent her life fearing being a disappointment to them. This was compounded by the fact that as a teenager she realised that she was attracted to women rather than men. She also had a dream to travel the globe, and experience new places and cultures. Luckily as a young adult she met Hannah Belfour, who engaged her as her companion. It was on one of their many journeys together that they both realised that the feelings they had for each other went beyond friendship, into love.

In their middle age they adopted an orphan named Elle, completing their family.

Charlotta remained especially close to her twin Anne throughout her life, despite the fact that she had trouble reconciling herself to the life Anne led, both before and after her transformation.

Hannah Sophia Belfour.

Spare's partner.

The daughter of a very rich man, Hannah moved to Regalton using the inheritance she received from him as his only child. (Woo go progressive legislation). There she was introduced to Charlotta, and the two of them spent a large part of her inheritance on travelling to far off and exotic places.

A very strong partnership, they may not have been able to legally cement their relationship, and may have had to hide it from many people, Hannah loved Charlotta with all her heart until Lotta was taken from her. It wasn't long until she joined her.

Anne Elise Nosferatu (Legacy).

Spare.

(Gabe + Elise => George + Allyn => Anne).

Brash, and doesn't suffer fools gladly, Anne has had a a fear of death her entire life. It led to her to grab life with both hands and live for the moment. That included stepping out with every man who looked at her. One of her dates would change her life when he infected her with the vampirism virus.

With her new found status, she stopped worrying about aging and dying, and continued dating with abandon, much to some members of her family's dismay. This state continued, even after she moved in with a coven of vampires in the village. It was a dalliance with one of those vampires, Mathias that put an end to her romancing ways when she became pregnant.

She hated the hurt those she loved dying had caused her and one of the reasons she had wanted to become a vampire was to avoid those who loved her from feeling that same hurt. Now she is having to experience the hurt of seeing her siblings die of old age. Charlotta's death has hit her especially hard.

Mathias Nosferatu.

Spare's husband.

A centuries old vampire, Mathias offered Anne a place in his coven as a way to help her to adjust to her new life. He didn't plan on falling in love with her, but that's what happened and when she announced she was pregnant, he knew he had only one course of action, and proposed to her.

Despite his wife's wobbles at first, the two of them have been very happy together and Mathias is proving a rock with helping Anne through her grief.

William Steven Legacy.

Third generation heir.

(Gabe + Elise => George + Allyn => William).

William has a heart of gold, but his understanding of human nature is often lacking. It's that which has led him to making several mistakes that could have been disastrous for the family. Thankfully things had a way of working themselves out and disaster was averted.

William ended up putting his energies into building up a thriving business empire to be able to provide his family with everything they deserved. He also continued the expansion of the house to the present mansion.

He was supported in all of this by his loving wife Beth, but it took him a lot to realise that he had to trust her with everything that was happening in his life. Their marriage became stronger for it though, and they were the pair to lead the family to the strongest position it had ever been in. The family will not be the same without them in it.

Beth Legacy (nee Trimble).

Legacy Spouse.

Beth stepped into the position of legacy spouse when her husband's family was in a terrible state thanks to Henry's actions. As such she had practically no support from her mother-in-law and had to find her feet on her own. She made the position of legacy spouse her own, successfully juggling being a mother with supporting her husband both in the businesses and when he was trouble, running the house and all of the social obligations a middle class woman had.

Unfortunately her first daughter-in-law didn't accept the position as readily and so Beth nearly worked herself into a nervous exhaustion by continuing to try to do all the things she used to as a younger woman when she was in her elder years. It was only an injury that caused her to stop and take a back seat.

Prone to worrying, kind, loving and generous, she isn't always the most patient of people and has a short temper she has gotten better at keeping as she has aged.

Henry Norman Legacy.

Spare.

(Gabe + Elise => George + Allyn => Henry).

The younger twin by only a few minutes, Henry felt from a young age that he was far more suitable for the position of heir than his brother and has spent an incredibly large part of his life trying to prove that. His scheme to discredit his brother while they were at university, lead to naught and in the end, his desperation led to him trying to kill his brother. He failed and spent the better part of his adult like in gaol.

While in gaol, he met and fell in love with Aphrodita. He has three children, and has had varying levels of influence on them all.

Mean, nasty, manipulative, a complete bastard all told.

Aprodita Legacy (nee Simself).

Spare's wife.

Aphrodita seems to have left the community, but she did write Scarier than Thou and was one of the brains behind Reclaim Your Game. She agreed to her simself marrying Henry, and her simself really does love Henry deeply. She's tried to do her best raising her sons, and hopes that her love for her husband has helped him to give up on his dream of his family being the main branch of the family.

Harold Jake Skinner.

First cousin.

(Gabe + Elise => Elizabeth + Arthur => Harold).

Harold is very much his mother's son, even if he does look more like his father (apart from the brow of course). Mean and brash he always dreamed of becoming a successful businessman like his father, but he lacks the imagination to make the decisions that would get him there.

Emmy Skinner (nee Inada).

Cousin's wife.

A devoted mother, Emmy does love her husband very much, but wishes he could be more successful than he is, only because he gets so down when his ventures don't go as well as he expected.

Robert Gabriel Legacy.

Spare.

(Gabe + Elise => George + Allyn => Robert).

The oldest of George and Allyn's third set of twins, Robert has always been clever and curious. He became one of the more eminent surgeons in Simdon, thanks to his intelligence and hard work.

He's sporty in a huntin' shootin' fishin' way. He is also extremely loyal to William and his family and will do anything for him. Although he doesn't understand the life his son leads, he doesn't judge him either and is trying to help his wife Cecilia come to terms with it too.

Another one who doesn't suffer fools gladly, he has a heart of gold.

Cecilia Charlotte Legacy (nee Wrenworth).

Spare's wife.

The softly spoken and gentle Cecilia, has, never-the-less a tough side to her and stands no nonsense. Well she has had to develop that over the years so that she can keep Robert in place. She really doesn't understand why Stanley can't settle down with just one girl and give her grandchildren. She is really looking forward to the grandchildren her daughter will give her, but she isn't happy that she may have to wait as Rosie gets her career as an enquiry agent off of the ground.

She's illegitimate, something she has struggled to deal with, and her mother (Mary) and grandfather (Cecil) moved to Regalton to try to escape the scandal. They invented the story that her was a soldier who had been killed, but she has no idea as to who he is.

Enid Frances Harrison (nee Legacy)

Spare.

(Gabe + Elise => George + Allyn => Enid).

The younger of George and Allyn's third set of twins, Enid has always had a live and let live attitude. She barely batted an eyelid when Anne became a vampire, and in fact was the first of her siblings to declare her support for her. She fell in love with a man her father may not have approved of: her aunt Violet's stepson Frederick. Luckily George did give his blessing and Enid and Frederick have enjoyed a very happy and passionate marriage ever since.

Fashionable to the point of being vain, she is never-the-less a very kind sim who loves her family dearly.

Frederick Abhijeet Harrison.

Spare's husband.

(Thomas + Jayani => Frederick).

Frederick has always been headstrong and done what he wanted, no matter what others may have said. His father hoped that entering the army would put an end to that, and although he does now have more discipline, he still likes to do what he wants to do.

He adores his wife with all his heart and they have always had a very passionate relationship.

Catherine Nadira Turner (nee Harrison).

(Thomas + Jayani => Catherine).

Catherine did not like her father marrying the governess, but once she realised how much he loved her, she resigned her self to it.

Jonathan Turner.

Catherine's husband.

An ex-tourist, Jonathan met Catherine while she was at finishing school.

John David Skinner.

Cousin.

(Gabe + Elise => Elizabeth + Arthur => John).

A charmer and bit of a cad, John is still wowing and wooing the ladies in Simdon where he lives. Like his brother he took more after his father with his looks (apart from the brow), and was also more like his father with his temperament.

Alfred Michael Legacy.

Spare.

(Gabe + Elise => George + Allyn => Alfred).

Alfred is a kindly soul, but has a tendency to depend on those around him. First it was his twin James, then his wife Marielle. He does not do well on his own.

Marielle Legacy (nee Greaves).

Spare's wife.

The other Marielle, not to be confused with Eddie's wife. Marielle adores her husband and daughter, even if she sometimes get frustrated with how much she has to do for Alfred. Somedays she would like some time to herself.

James Albert Legacy.

Spare.

(Gabe + Elise => George + Allyn => James).

Alfred's twin, in many ways he is the polar opposite to his brother. He is a very independent person, and has, on more than one occasion, felt stifled by his twin and family. He wasn't sure that he wanted to marry, but he has in fact had a very happy relationship with his wife Claire since the day they wed.

Claire Legacy (nee McMillan)

Spare's wife.

While Claire has often wanted to do more with her life, she has never-the-less resigned herself to staying at home. She knew her husband was reticent about marrying him, but she agreed anyway, and is happy that they turned out to have a strong marriage.

Samuel Gabriel Harrison.

Cousin.

(Gabe + Elise => Violet + Thomas => Samuel).

Samuel takes after his mother a lot, but while she could get away with having such a blunt manner, Sam is often called on it by others who take offence to him. He is surprisingly gentle with his family, especially his daughter who is his spitting image.

Heather Harrison (nee Schweber).

Cousin's wife.

An ex-slob, Heather isn't the most house proud of people, but she is a loving mother and wife.

Charles Ernest Legacy.

Spare.

(Gabe + Elise => George + Allyn => Charles).

The youngest of George and Allyn's sons, has always found his own path. An excitable child, he has learnt patience when dealing with his children. He is however not at all subtle, and is as crotchety as a bear with a sore head. If anyone is going to end up in a fight, it is Charles. He's great anyway, and turned out to be the best looking of all of George and Allyn's sons.

Angela Legacy (nee Simself).

Cousin's wife.

Angela (thepiepers5) writes the brilliant Tha Simple Life. She asked to be introduced to Charles and they got on like a house on fire from the first meeting. She sometimes gets a bit exasperated with her husband and his short temper, but the two are totally devoted to each other. She is also a proud mother to two boys.

Evelyn Louise Steele (nee Legacy).

Spare.

(Gabe + Elise => George + Allyn => Evelyn).

The youngest of all of George and Allyn's children, she is by far the most flighty and excitable. Her playfullness knows no bounds and she often acts as if she has more energy than her active points show. She often gets exasperated when people do not take her seriously because of her exuberant nature, especially if those people are members of her family.

Orlando Steele.

Spare's husband.

Orlando never thought that he would marry (well there really was no need) until he met Evie. Now, although he does still look at other women, he stays faithful to his wife.

Abigail Susannah Wong (nee Harrison).

Cousin.

(Gabe + Elise => Violet + Thomas => Abigail).

Abigail takes after her mother a lot, both in looks and personality. She could see right through Joe with his treatment of Alexandra. She tried to warn her, and would have been there to comfort her when he left, if she had been able to see her. A no nonsense person, she is actually a very good mother to her two children. She would like four more, but she currently lives in a very small house. A very, very small house and she won't be moving.

Shane Wong.

Cousin's husband.

Shane knew as soon as he saw Abigail that he had found his soul mate. He too wants to marry off six children, and is working hard to try to earn enough money to move to a bigger house.

Generation four:

Alexandra Allyn Smith (nee Legacy).

Spare.

(Gabe + Elise => George + Allyn => William + Beth => Alexandra).

The first born of generation four, Alexandra was a spoilt and demanding child and teenager, but that bold front hid a very vulnerable young woman, who just wanted to be loved. She latched onto the first boy to show an interest in her (Joe Grundstorm) like her life depended on it, ignoring the obvious signs that he wasn't interested in her back. Long story short, he decided that Alexandra would make a willing wife and proposed. things ended disastrously when he left her at the altar, and to make matters worse, she was pregnant.

Thankfully, Anthony Smith had been in love with her for ages, and asked her to marry him. She agreed, but it was many months before she came to realise that she adored him back. Their marriage is very loving and passionate, and Alexandra couldn't be happier. She has embraced her roles as society hostess, wife and mother completely and adores her life.

The Honourable Anthony James Percival Smith.

Spare's husband.

Technically Anthony's name is the Honourable Anthony James Percival Fotherington-Smythe, but he prefers to to be known as plain old Mr Smith. Anthony is from a very rich family, but prefers to live in the family town house in Simdon to the rambling estate in Simbridgeshire. He fell in love with Alexandra soon after meeting her, and tried very hard to make Joe stop stringing her along.

He tried to offer her support when Joe left her, and as soon as he discovered her pregnancy, he put his plan to court her into action far earlier than he had intended. Though he was happy when she married him, he was still unsure as to her feelings for him for a long while. He now knows she loves him as much as he loves her.

Because he is so awesome, Anthony has always treated Joe's children as his own, and although he understood why Alexandra did it, he was slightly hurt when she suggested that Joe be given the chance to get to know his children. He was more than slightly relieved that Joe didn't want anything to do with them.

Edward George Legacy.

Fourth generation heir.

(Gabe + Elise => George + Allyn => William + Beth => Edward).

Eddie is a very smiley, easy going sim, but he felt the pressure to find a suitable wife and carry on the family line immensely. As a result he decided he was in love with the first woman who showed any romantic interest in him. That was not a good idea, as his wife turned out to be only after the position of legacy spouse, having no interest in supporting or being part of the family. He became increasingly unhappy in his marriage, but it wasn't until he walked in to find his youngest son distressed and dirty, while Marielle was in the bedroom with a lover, that he was able to take action and divorce her.

He has tried to be as good a father to his two sons as he can be, and Bertie especially idolises him. He has also found love again with a friend he has known for years, Carmen Leong.

Marielle Legacy (nee Hutchins).

Ex-Legacy spouse, mother of Albert and Stuart.

I know there are many of you who think that Marielle's blurb should literally read "she sucks" and that's it, but no. more needs to be said about her. Like Gabe she grew up in the Nickel, in poverty. Her mother (Mary) was a prostitute who died of syphilis. Mary tried very hard to keep a roof over her and her daughter's head and food on the table, She also tried to help Marielle realise that she would never escape from her upbringing.

Marielle didn't believe that at all, and vowed to one day lead the life she dreamed of. Normally that would be very admirable, but the way in which Marielle went about realising her dream was not. One of the many things she did was help Henry try to kill William, something the family still doesn't know about.

Her ambition led her to Eddie, and, despite the fact that she didn't even like him, she decided that she would marry him. Once she was legacy spouse, she refused to take on the duties she didn't like the sound of, leaving them to her elderly mother-in-law instead, showing everyone how selfish she really is. As for her relationship with her sons, indifferent is probably the best way to describe it. She doesn't love them, but she also doesn't dislike them, she really has no feelings for them and it will take an earth-shattering event to change that.

Elle Ruben (nee Legacy).

Cousin (adopted).

(Gabe + Elise => George + Allyn => Charlotta + Hannah).

Charlotta and Hannah's adopted daughter, Elle is softly spoken and calm. Her memories of travelling the world with her mothers are some of her most precious and make her want to travel with her own family.

Joshua Ruben.

Cousin's husband.

Joshua dropped out of Sim State to take what he thought was the job of a lifetime. It wasn't but he sticks with it to provide for his family.

Theodore Abhijeet Harrison.

Cousin.

(Gabe + Elise => George + Allyn => Enid + Frederick => Theodore).
(Thomas + Jayani => Frederick + Enid => Theodore).

One of Eddie's best friends, he is more like a brother than a cousin to him. Intelligent, good looking, kind and totally unaware of the effect he has on women, it took his grandfather locking him up in a house for a week with seven women, before he found the love of his life. Him and Doc have been very, very happy ever since, and have twin boys Peter and Andrew.

Always scientifically minded, Theo became an astronomer, following an abduction as a teenager. As an adult, Theo was tricked into riding a gyroscopic device by Kevin Lum and Nawwaf Lew. His abduction from that, resulted in the birth of his daughter Celestia, whom everyone in the family loves, because she is awesome.

DrSupremeNerd Harrison (nee Simself).

Cousin's wife.

Writer of the awesome Vetinari Dualegacy, DrSupremeNerd's simself was the undisputed winner of Theo's bachelor challenge. SimNerd still stalks her Nummy Theo as much as she did in the BC, and they're very happy.

She is also a wonderful mother to their three children, and both her and Theo are already trying to get their children interested in science by taking them to the museums in Simdon.

Stanley George Legacy.

Cousin.

(Gabe + Elise => George + Allyn => Robert + Cecilia => Stanley).

The third of the boys, Stanley, Theo and Eddie are as close as brothers. Stanley has a small problem where he falls in love with every woman he meets. He thinks each and every one is perfect, and he wants to woo them. He also has a lot of love for his family, and is often the first to notice that something isn't right with a family member.

There are times he is a complete pillock, and jerk, and Theo and Eddie will call him on it, but none of his girlfriends, many of whom are simselves, care.

Victoria Rose Simself (nee Legacy).

Spare.

(Gabe + Elise => George + Allyn => William + Beth => Victoria).

The baby of the main family, Vicky has never been comfortable with the role society demands of her as a wife and mother, she always wanted to be known and appreciated as an individual in her own right. A very perceptive person, she is getting her chance to shine as an enquiry agent with her cousin Rosemary. After a shaky start, the agency is now building an impressive reputation.

Unfortunately her home life isn't doing quite so well. She married her childhood sweetheart and is finding it difficult to balance her burgeoning career with his demands that they start a family. The question is if they can find a balance before she feels trapped.

Patrick Simself.

Spare's husband.

The simself of Strangerhood7, who also seems to have left the community, Patty was Vicky's childhood sweetheart. Now they are married he is starting to pressure her to have children, rather than supporting her in her chosen career.

Rosemary Joan Go (nee Legacy).

Cousin.

(Gabe + Elise => George + Allyn => Robert + Cecilia => Rosemary).

Rosemary is very down to earth and has a knack for seeing things as they are. It's this, coupled with her intelligence and tenacity, that makes her the natural partner for Vicky in the enquiry agency.

She's very fond of her family, and is a total daddy's girl. she's also very close to her brother Stanley, who, being a good big brother, showed her how to defend her honour, something else that has come in handy at the agency.

Stephan Go.

Cousin's husband.

A very gentle and shy soul, Stephan never-the-less stood his ground when Stanley tried to warn him off dating his sister.

Louisa Marie Roseland (nee Harrison).

Cousin.

(Gabe + Elise => George + Allyn => Enid + Frederick => Louisa).
(Thomas + Jayani => Frederick + Enid => Louisa).

Although shy on paper, Louisa is very much her step-grandmother's granddaughter, and wishes her husband wouldn't treat her like porcelain during her pregnancy. Her determination and backbone has proved invaluable to her cousins with their enquiry agency.

Cyd Roseland.

Cousin's husband.

Cyd had always been a dreamer, and it was one of those dreams that caused him to walk out of his parent's house at eighteen. As soon as he met Louisa though, that changed and he decided to settle down in Simdon. He hasn't given up on all his dreams though, just the more ridiculous ones His marriage was also the catalyst for him to get back in contact with his parents.

He does have a tendency to worry too much about his wife though, especially when she is pregnant.

Sophia Nadira Boyle (nee Turner)

(Thomas + Jayani => Catherine + Jonathan => Sophia).

Sophia unfortunately annoyed me by wishing at the well and getting a man with the same face as her father. She is also extremely boring and included here only because she is Theo and Louisa's cousin.

Aren Boyle.

Sophia's husband.

Ex-streaker, I would probably like him if he didn't have the same face as his father-in-law.

Timothy Norman Legacy.

Cousin.

(Gabe + Elise => George + Allyn => Henry + Aphrodita => Timothy).

Growing up in a simself house for his formative years had a very positive affect on Timothy. He despises what his father did, and is determined not to turn out like him. All in all he is a good boy, a real sweetie. He is married to Lauri Simself.

Lauri Legacy (nee Simself).

Cousin's wife.

The writer of a Legacy of Jubilee, Lauri has always thought that Timothy is a good boy. She's now getting to find out how good he is, as well as learning how to deal with his slightly abrasive manner.

Gerald Arthur Skinner.

Second Cousin.

(Gabe + Elise => Elizabeth + Arthur => Harold + Emmy => Gerald).

Richard William Nosferatu.

Cousin.

(Gabe + Elise => George + Allyn => Anne + Mathias => Richard).

Richard still has no idea what he wants to do with his life, or who he wants by his side while he does that. What he does know though is that he doesn't want to share his parents' life-style.

Jayani Violet Turner.

(Thomas + Jayani => Catherine + Jonathan => Jayani).

Far sweeter than her sister, she isn't in love with a man with her father's face, and so is my favourite Turner child.

Ernest Gabriel Skinner.

Second cousin.

(Gabe + Elise => Elizabeth + Arthur => Harold + Emmy => Ernest).

Florence Emily Nosferatu.

Cousin.

(Gabe + Elise => George + Allyn => Anne + Mathias => Florence).

The middle of Anne and Mathias's children, Florence is very family orientated and is the only one of the children who shows any interest in becoming a vampire.

John Gabriel Legacy.

Cousin.

(Gabe + Elise => George + Allyn => Henry + Aphrodita => John).

Henry's favourite son and his heir. Henry was present for John's formative years and has certainly had an effect on him. The first chance he got, John put his father's portrait back on display in the drawing room of the Legacy society (it had been removed by Edward when he had moved in).

Ruby Jane Legacy.

Cousin.

(Gabe + Elise => George + Allyn => Alfred + Marielle => Ruby).

One of the forgotten cousins, Ruby's a sweet girl who just wants to be loved. By everyone.

Lydia Ruth Legacy.

Cousin

(Gabe + Elise => George + Allyn => James + Claire => Lydia).

Another forgotten cousin, Lydia is easy going and gets on with everyone.

Alfred Henry Legacy.

Cousin

(Gabe + Elise => George + Allyn => Henry + Aphrodita => Alfred).

Known to all as Alfie, Henry's youngest is his second favourite son. In many ways he encouraged competition between John and Alfred before choosing his heir. What Alfie thinks of all of this is a bit of a mystery as he very taciturn, and rather phlegmatic.

Julia Elise Nosferatu.

Cousin.

(Gabe + Elise => George + Allyn => Anne + Mathias => Julia).

Anne's youngest may be her spitting image, but her temprament is the exact opposite. She is currently stepping out with Gavin Newson, but hasn't told her parents yet as she doesn't know how they will react to the fact that she is seeing such a poor person.

Ernest Steven Legacy.

Cousin.

(Gabe + Elise => Geroge + Allyn => Charles + Angela => Ernest).

Cutie Ernest stands no nonsense like his father, but manages to keep his temper better.

Basil Thomas Wong.

Second cousin.

(Gabe + Elise => Violet + Thomas => Abigail+ Shane => Basil).

Another cutie, Basil takes after his grandmother with his temperament.

Susannah Violet Harrison.

Second Cousin.

(Gabe + Elise => Violet + Thomas => Samuel + Heather => Susannah).

Samuel's only child, Susannah is the not only the spitting image of him, but behaves like him too.

Bartholomew Michael Steele.

Cousin.

(Gabe + Elise => George + Allyn => Evelyn + Orlando => Bartholomew).

Kind, caring, and playful Barty is very much his mother's son.

Eric Bradley Legacy.

Cousin.

(Gabe + Elise => George + Allyn => Charles + Angela => Eric).

Angela and Charles's son is another cutie, and was named Eric because I wanted an Eric and Ernie somewhere in the neighbourhood. He takes after his father a lot, but unlike his brother struggles with controlling his temper.

Amelia Emily Wong.

Second cousin.

(Gabe + Elise => Violet + Thomas => Abigail + Shane => Amelia).

Amelia's a fun loving soul. If she had a sister instead of a brother, she'd probably throw a water balloon at her to stop her from reading so that she would play with her.

Stephanie Elizabeth Steele.

Cousin.

(Gabe + Elise => George + Allyn => Evelyn + Orlando => Stephanie).

The baby of the generation, Stephanie is very neat, very playful, nice and very, very outgoing.

Generation five:

Christopher William Smith.

Cousin.

(Gabe + Elise => George + Allyn => William + Beth => Alexandra + ~~Joe Grundstrom~~ Anthony => Christopher).

The eldest of generation five, Christopher has never met his biological father Joe, and has no desire to either. As far as he is concerned, Anthony is the only father he has and needs. Hot headed, nearly always wrong (poor chap), and very, very playful, Christopher has been a handful since he was a toddler.

Bethany Elise Smith.

Cousin.

(Gabe + Elise => George + Allyn => William + Beth => Alexandra + ~~Joe Grundstrom~~ Anthony => Bethany).

Nicer than her brother, Bethany has the makings of becoming a very capable young woman, if she can reign in her curiosity and learn a nicer turn of phrase that is. She takes charge very easily and everyone is always willing to let her get on with it.

It is obvious that she is not Anthony's daughter, but woe betide the person who tells her that to her face. She adores Anthony, and is proud to be his daughter.

Albert George Legacy.

Fifth generation heir.

(Gabe + Elise => George + Allyn => William + Beth => Edward + Marielle => Albert).

Known to all as Bertie, the fifth generation heir idolises his father, and doesn't have much faith in his own abilities. However, he is also very tenacious, and, with the help of others, often overcomes the things that scare him, or he isn't good at. His best friend is his brother and the two of them are often found together. The poor little mite has been plagued by nightmares since his mother left and has started to rely on the other people in his life. It remains to be seen if he will adjust to having a step mother and having to share his father with someone other than his brother.

Peter Frederick Harrison.

Second cousin.

(Gabe + Elise => George + Allyn => Enid + Frederick => Theodore + DrSupremeNerd => Peter).
(Thomas + Jayani => Frederick + Enid = Theodore + DrSupremeNerd => Peter).

In many ways Peter is far too nice and serious for his own good. He has a tendency to take responsibility for everything that happens around him, and coupled with his sensitive nature, it can be too much for him.

Andrew Thomas Harrison.

Second cousin.

(Gabe + Elise => George + Allyn => Enid + Frederick => Theodore + DrSupremeNerd => Andrew).
(Thomas + Jayani => Frederick + Enid = Theodore + DrSupremeNerd => Andrew).

While Peter looks like their mother, Andrew is almost all their father. Tougher than his twin, Andrew is often the one to look after him when things get too much for Peter.

Paul Frederick Boyle.

(Thomas + Jayani => Catherine + Jonathan => Sophia + Aren => Paul)

The spitting image of his father and grandfather, I can't help but be annoyed by him and find him boring.

Helen Hannah Ruben,

Second Cousin.

(Gabe + Elise => George + Allyn => Charlotta + Hannah => Elle (adopted) + Joshua => Helen).

Unfortunately due to her father's borked genetics, Helen doesn't look like either of her parents.As mean as they come, but also extremely playful, I'm sure she is going to be a handful.

Celestia Enid Harrison.

Second cousin.

(Gabe + Elise => George + Allyn => Enid + Frederick => Theodore + Poli Tech => Celestia).
(Thomas + Jayani => Frederick + Enid = Theodore + Poli tech => Celestia).

The only playable alien in the neighbourhood, Theo's celestial daughter is awesome. Really, really awesome. She does all the bold, brave women who have come before her in the family proud. When she was kidnapped by three men determined to sell her and the other children, it was Celly who took charge and tried to mastermind their escape.

Did I mention that she is awesome and I love her?

David Steven Smith.

Cousin.

(Gabe +Elise => George + Allyn => William + Beth => Alexandra + Anthony => David).

The eldest of A&A's biological children, David feels like he has to try to keep up with his elder siblings all the time. The truth is though, that he is better if he is true to himself. Easy going and pretty friendly, David gets on with most people, but he's no push over, and will fight his corner if necessary.

Stuart William Legacy.

Spare.

(Gabe + Elise => George + Allyn => William + Beth => Edward + Marielle => Stuart).

When Stuart was very young, his father told him that sometimes you need to stick up for those who can't stick up for themselves. It's something he has never forgotten. Always willing to help anyone who needs it, Stuart sometimes acts without thinking. He adores his older brother and more often than not, he is the one to challenge Bertie and help him to achieve over and above what he believes he is capable of.

Sarah-Jane Smith.

Cousin.

(Gabe + Elise => George + Allyn => William + Beth => Alexandra + Anthony => Sarah-Jane).

Margaret Jennifer Legacy

Second cousin

(Gabe + Elise => George + Allyn => Henry + Aphrodita => Timothy + Lauri).

Harry Thomas Roseland

Second Cousin

(Gabe + Elise => George + Allyn => Enid + Frederick => Louisa + Cyd => Harry).
(Thomas + Jayani => Frederick + Enid => Louisa + Cyd=> Harry).

Gregory Fredrick Roseland

Second cousin

(Gabe + Elise => George + Allyn => Enid + Frederick => Louisa + Cyd => Gregory).
(Thomas + Jayani => Frederick + Enid => Louisa + Cyd=> Gregory).

Interlude out-takes and behind the scenes

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:38:38 GMT

Well the interlude is done, and that means that it is that time again when I share my thoughts and some picspam from the making of it. If you've not read Vicky's interlude, I suggest you do so before clicking on the cut, since this does contain items of a spoilery nature. :)

Ok so where to start? Probably why I did this is a good place.

Why do the interlude?

I wrote the interlude for several reasons. Firstly, both Vicky's siblings have had their turn in the spotlight. Eddie because he is obviously the heir and his continuing story arc has been the main event for generation four, and Alexandra had a very large part of generation four's university time allotted to her with the storyline involving Joe and Anthony. I really didn't want the baby of the main house to fade into the background or for anyone to feel they hadn't got to know and cheer for her at some point in her life. It was a case of working out how and when.

The idea of setting Vicky up as a detective of some sort came to me at the beginning of the year sort of time. It really did just appear in my head one day and I knew as soon as it did that I really wanted to do it, it was a case of when.

That's kinda where the second reason for doing the interlude comes in. I've been pretty...apathetic about playing this year, although I'm not entirely sure I can put my finger on exactly why. Part of it might be because I've had various things going on in real life, which, although not exactly earth shattering, have left me feeling tired and not really like ploughing on and making progress with a computer game. In addition, I've been feeling a bit burnt out with having to spend so much of my free time slogging through my rotation in order to try to keep to my aim of getting a chapter out a month. I didn't feel like I had time to do anything but play Regalton, and the fun was starting to wane. I wanted to do something that didn't demand playing the neighbourhood, and so I played an asylum challenge in a different neighbourhood, and wrote a completely staged story for this one.

The third reason links into the feeling that I was playing all the time: there are a couple of events coming up in the neighbourhood that I am really not looking forward to, namely the deaths of William and Beth. I've snuck a look in SimPe and I know they have only 6 days left each, and that is not enough. I adore the pair of them, and I've been putting off playing them for a bit to delay the inevitable. Silly I know, but I've been playing William for over 2 years and Beth for very nearly 2, and my game is not going to be the same without them.

Plotz? Plotz!

So it became inevitable that I was going to do something with Vicky as a detective, and I very quickly realised that Rosie would make the perfect partner for her. The two of them had become very close at university, and their characters really compliment each other, so I knew they would be able to bring individual strengths to an investigation. What I needed now was a case for them to investigate.

I quickly discounted a murder, since I wanted the idea that they weren't getting much business and thought a murder would be far too high profile a case for them to investigate. Missing pearls or other jewellery was something else I considered and discounted, even though it got a quick mention at the beginning of the case.

Inspiration struck as I was sorting for a chapter and found the pictures I had taken the day Celestia was conceived. You see I came up with the idea that Theo would be duped into riding a dance sphere and getting pregnant as an explanation for Celestia's birth. It never made it into a chapter since I couldn't work it in without it feeling shoe horned in, but I kept the pictures, and left the community lot I had shot them on as it was.

Yes that is Lum and Lew. The reason they were chosen as the scientists that tricked Theo into the dance sphere is very simple. I filmed this on a community lot, before Operation Victorianise Everyone, and before I discovered Pescado's clothing hack. Lum and Lew were the only two townies who turned up in Victorian clothing, so they got shanghaied into being the scientists.

I reshot the abduction pictures, but the others are all from the time Celly was conceived and born.

One advantage of desaturating them to show them as memories was that it disguised the fact this was before I made my alien skintone so Celly is a slightly different colour.

The story Theo told in the interlude, was exactly the one I was going to use in a chapter, right down to the scientists badgering Theo after Celly's birth. The fact that there would be people interested in Celestia because of what she is, got me thinking and wondering about someone kidnapping her because she is green.

That was my starting point, but the rest of the plot came to me piecemeal over the course of about seven or eight months. Partly, that's because I wasn't really thinking about it. At least I didn't sit down and brainstorm the entire outline until after I'd finished the asylum. Instead scenes would just pop into my head at random intervals. Which, come to think about it, is how I normally work. Anyway, it was 2 of the scenes that popped into my head that cemented an idea I'd been toying with.

Starry, starry night.

I didn't really want Celly to be the only sim kidnapped, but there is a distinct lack of green children in my game, so I'd been thinking about adding a few guest stars. My list was very tentative, when the scene where Vicky meets Dean on the street while he is looking for Derri came to me. I knew right then, I had to ask Stacie to borrow her boys, and I'm so glad I did.

Likewise, the scene with Pipi and Myotis looking up through the window came to me practically as it appeared in the interlude. The only thing I changed was the direction the picture was taken from since I couldn't get my original idea to have the impact I wanted.

I'd really envisioned being able to see the stars through the window, and the angle looking up more, but I really couldn't get it to work, so I reversed it to the shot of looking down at the twins through the window.

The other alien guest stars came pretty easy after that, with their families coming along for the ride, and I found I was ending up with far more guests than I'd planned. Not that that stopped me from continuing to add more because I felt like it.

Just in case any of you have been living on Mars since the conclusion of Marina's BC for Elle, and haven't realised it, yes Ellie is moving to Regalton to be with Stuart., because, eeeeeeeee they're soooo sweet together and I have much love for the two of them. I've been thinking a lot about their relationship, how they will meet and how it will develop. It is still very much a work in progress, but I loved the idea of her and Stuart nearly meeting in this as children.

Everyone else came to me as I was writing because I thought it would be nice to have a mix of my townies and downtownies and legacy sims people might recognise.

Moar plotz.

Once I sat down and worked on my outline, all the pieces came together pretty easily There were a couple of things I got a bit stumped with how to resolve, but for the most part it went well. Behold 2 pages of my outline:

This covers from tea at Gil's to Louisa, Peter and Andrew leaving the office, and contains a fair amount of brainstorming.

One thing I knew right from the start was that I wanted Vicky's instincts to be key to solving the case. I also wanted them to be not brilliant at what they were doing, since it was their first case and I wanted them to be learning as they went along. I would hope I managed to get that across. Of course there was that element of luck too, because it was an opportunistic crime and the kidnappers had no connection to the families of the children. They saw them around Simdon, followed the family, and when the opportunity was right, snatched the children. That luck with solving a case is present in real life police work, so I felt I could get away with it.

I also knew that there had to be a red herring, in this case I went with Lum and Lew. Mikey wondered what happened with them, but they are innocent, and will probably try to get funding for their research again, but they won't be bothering the family at all.

The real reason behind the kidnapping was more problematic, but I remembered how popular freak shows became in the era, and thought that an unscrupulous owner of one would probably be willing to pay good money for a selection of alien children who could be made to perform and bring the crowds in.

Writin'

As a lot of you know, I approached writing this the opposite way to how I normally write. Usually I'll have ideas for scenes planned out in my head, often including dialogue. I'll then shoot them, but not actually write anything down, other than a rough outline, until I'm writing the entire chapter, which will also contain gameplay shots. This time I knew I was going to be working on something that would need to be entirely staged, so I wanted a shooting script to help me make sure that I got everything I needed.

I have to say there are advantages and disadvantages of working both ways. Having a shooting script made sure I didn't have to go back and reshoot things because I was missing a shot, or the tone of the scene had changed slightly as I wrote so the picture I had didn't fit quite as well as I wanted it to. It also allowed me to be more aware of what each picture needed to look like, so my staging and posing of sims was done with slightly more care than usual. Not that I'm careless or don't give it much thought normally you understand, just having written something like:

Vicky watched Theo raise his cup to his lips, noticing that his hands were shaking slightly. Rosie had been right, their cousin was unsettled about something. She stole a glance at Doc, who was staring at the tan liquid in her cup, as if she had never seen a cup of tea before in her life.

made me want to stage Theo and Doc drinking from fine china, whereas working my normal way, I might have had them sitting on the other side of the desk, their teacups sitting on the desk untouched, because the idea for their actions might not have come to me yet.

On the other hand, having the pictures in front of me often inspires little things. For example this picture:

completely inspired me to write Stuart fidgeting because of the starch in his collar. No idea why I was inspired to do that, but I was, and I doubt I would have been if something in this picture (perhaps the expressions on all three sims' faces) had sparked that thought.

I think I'll be sticking with the method I've been using up until now, but I certainly won't rule out writing a shooting script for more involved scenes and projects in the future.

This interlude was an opportunity for me to lay the foundations to a few things that will be upcoming in the legacy itself, and especially develop the characters of generation five some more. Most of them are about to become teens, and what with Eddie' plot taking up so much space, I wanted to flesh the kiddies out a bit more and start introducing the people they will become. So in this you all got to see a glimpse of the very capable woman Bethany will be, always in the right place at the right time, with the right words. If she wasn't so darn self-effacing, she'd be annoying. You also saw the Christopher who's always slightly wrong and has to compromise in life. Also David who always tries to fit in, but really is better if he is his himself. Peter the sensitive soul who takes far too much responsibility for everything that happens around him. Andrew who is there to pick up the pieces when his brother loses it. Celestia, latest in a long line of bold and daring women in the family, and of course, these two:

I adore these two little boys so much, but I know that Bertie is only 2 days from becoming a teen, 2 days that will be very busy, and contain a holiday to be precise, so I wanted to show them interacting as children in this. I could talk for ages about them, so I'll try to be brief. Whereas Eddie and his siblings have had very separate plots, these two's will be intertwined. Key to their story is their relationship, so I started to put in things that will be developed as they grow and will hopefully pay off in the end, such as Bertie's dependence on others, and Stuart's fierce love and loyalty for his brother. One other thing that I did want to say about Bertie though, is please don't think that he is shy and timid in the way that he isn't sure of other people, because that couldn't be further from the truth. Bertie is actually maxed outgoing, and I'm using that in a different way to one I have before by having him need to be with people all the time.

Lights, camera , action.

Shooting this was exhausting, I'm not going to lie. It took me about a month to shoot both parts, and there were times it went incredibly, incredibly slowly. It was also frustrating at times.

Both Vicky and Rosie are very expressive and I had to shoot around all sorts of funny faces when I had them speaking.

They're also both pissed off at the burglar still. As is Louisa. So many times they would start grring over it.

This also kept happening if I placed someone who had been sitting in a chair onto an OMSP and onto another surface. Very annoying.

Getting angles right on a couple of lots was tough too, because there were things I really wanted to show clearly., but found it really difficult to do so.

I couldn't have made this without the freezerclock, various animation boxes, and SilentLucidity's new OMSPS.

I used the OMSPs to not only place items and props:

But sims too:

(Bonus shot of Stuart 'cos he's a cutie).

Even if I wasn't putting sims at angles, I used them a lot to get sims closer than the game normally allows without stacking them:

I mentioned animations boxes, the one I used and abused an awful lot was the OFB one by Jaydee.

Every time one of my sims was looking around looking lost, or was pondering something, or reaching for something, you can almost guarantee it was an OFB animation.

Shooting so much of the story at night was challenging because I had to keep it looking dark, but also add enough extra light so that you could see the sims' features. This was especially important with enlarging the pictures to put into a powerpoint and then converting that to a pdf, since I've found that, on my monitor at least, pictures in the finished pdf, look a lot darker and richer in colour than the original jpegs.

I tried to keep it subtle and natural. Oh and in case anyone is interested I shot all the night bits at 6.00 am in order to get round the child curfew.

Another thing I came across was sims turning up where I didn't want them, made worse by the fact that I was shooting on community lots most of the time. The worse lots were the less salubrious lots. With AL, the game is meant to send the different social groups to different lots according to the lot's class. Doesn't affect townies, downtownies and playables. Several sims found themselves being given makeovers so that they didn't resemble their normal selves at all:

This is Abigail, Theo's aunt, Violet and Thomas's daughter. She turned up when I was setting up for the inn, but left almost as soon as I made her over. She turned up on another lot, and got posed underneath a lamp-post.

Henry kept walking into shot, so he got made over like this:

Mwhahahah.

This is my Ramin Centowski clone from William's plot, with Abhijeet in the background.

It's also how Jan Tellerman got made over to become Lilly. I want to say that until someone mentioned it in my thread at Boolprop, it didn't even enter my head that this is the same hairstyle Lark's simself wears. I just liked it and thought it suited Jan. I'm really sorry if anyone thought she was Lark, because I would never, ever do anything like that to someone's simself. I was thinking about creating a character, and didn't realise about the resemblance that character had to a simself when seen from a distance in dim lighting. I really do apologise.

Anyway, more sims turning up where I didn't want them:

At the Inn, Jamie and Marielle ended up playing cards together and I realised that Jamie's blush is radio-active.

At Lum and Lew's office while reshooting Theo's abduction. "Make him go away!"

No one is immune to Vox's charms.

Briggs turned up at Barsoom Road Market while I was shooting there.

Lew turned up at the H&M lot.

I did a lot of experimenting with camera angles and therefore ended up setting up a lot of things that didn't make it into the story.

Their expressions when they entered the inn.

The market and its traders.

Shooting in the carriages was really difficult. Outside the reflection on the carriage made it really difficult to see the sims inside.

The doors also don't open, so poor Alexandra had to stand like this.

I edited this pic to make it look like there was an open door behind Alexandra, rather than her being impaled.

I installed a camera hack a few months ago, and I'm still getting used to it. I do like it, but I've found it seems to do strange things to the perspective, even when I don't zoom in. Remember this pic?

Stuart and Bertie look really close don't they?

This is where they were actually standing:

I am getting used to it though.

We're getting to the random pictures now, and I thought that Cait might want a close up of Ed and Ein.

I also thought that Stacie might want a close up of all the pics in the Whedonberry home:

I had a lot of fun making these.

Last couple of things before I get really random.

I really wanted to show Larch talking to Andrew and noticing the children's injuries before making a comment and looking pointedly at Di, as a prelude to the fact that the Vetinaris would be beating the snot out of the baddies in the credits. I couldn't get it to work though, and so it got cut.

I had a few hacks I downloaded for my Halloween shoot still in the game, so I had a lot of wolves turn up on the lots. For the most part they were annoying only because they kept getting into shot. This one took it too far;

REALLY not happy with it. No one does that to my baby.

Cute pictures are cute. Oh and Celly and Ivan weren't friends at the time of the hug.

First thing Connor and Indy talk about when I teleport them onto the Harrison lot to shoot the last scenes?

"You rock the hat."

"I know."

Cass was in the tearoom, and he was covered in flour, but I cut his scene because I thought adding yet another green sim to the story was too much, so he was mentioned, but never seen.

I <3 Celestia.

*sigh* There are several reasons why I had Bertie injured in this, one of which was showing Stuart's reaction to it. The big one though, i can't talk about yet, but I will reassure everyone again, that Bertie makes a full recovery. He suffers from headaches for a bit, but physically he is fine, thanks in no small part to Rosie and her care of him.. See, having a doctor's daughter on the team is very handy.

I loved that Vicky found Ellie and started talking to her.

Towards the end of the shoot, I started to experience a few oddities and problems. They included A&A's lot freezing and crashing on me, and on one occasion I couldn't even get into it. I also had strange things happening on the factory lot. The social worker turned up, even though at all times I was shooting, at least one of the adults were unfrozen, and time was stopped so the kids weren't skipping school. Then I forgot to freeze time one day, and when the sun came up all the kids cheered. Since I had showheadlines off, I didn't see any notices so I wasn't sure what it was. When I shot the credits, I found out.

SNOWDAY!

But....

That's a lot of snow!

Goodness knows what was going in with the game.

So that's what went on behind the scenes with this. I've probably forgotten a few things I was going to talk about, but I think I've talked enough for now.

A Victorian Interlude: V. & R. Legacy Investigate the Case of te Viridian Child - Part Two

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 12:26:36 GMT

Comments to everything coming later, but for now, it's done:

Comments at Boolprop as per usual please.

Happy Bonfire Night!

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:33:37 GMT

*waves* Hello everyone, happy Guy Fawkes Night. I'm afraid I don't have a Bonfire Bash for you all this year, in fact it's the first year I've been playing this neighbourhood I've not done one. So there's no Stuart and Bertie traipsing round the village asking for a penny for the Guy, no Christopher using one of Anthony's dress shirts to make his Guy, and no gathering of legacy sims in my simself's back garden, watching Indy and Connor run around lighting fireworks and laughing when they go off in their faces. Of course that also means that there is no me watching Connor and Vicky like a hawk (they have only 2 bolts, but with 19 outgoing points between them, they have a tendency to not leave each other alone when they are on the same lot. I'm waiting for one of other of them to do an inappropriate hug, or back rub. *looks at Connor*), so maybe it's not all bad. ;)

The reason I've not done one, is the same reason I've not really been around that much the past couple of weeks: I've not had the energy. Work has been insane the past two and a half weeks. I had nearly a full week's worth of work to catch up with after my week off, and then someone else went on holiday within two days of me getting back, so I had to take on some of her work too. This week, everything has caught up with me and I've been completely wiped in the evenings and not feeling up to chatting or answering many posts. I promise I will make time to catch up on the comments I owe on stories because I loved them and I want to let you all know, it just won't be right away.

I've still been working on the second part of the interlude, but because I'm so tired, it's going very, very slowly. Last night I managed to get 9 shots in the bag despite the game being open for about 3 hours. Go me! I am now about halfway through shooting the story pictures, but I have the credits still to do, and want to polish the words. I was hoping to have it done for this weekend, but that is so not going to happen. Maybe next weekend? Maybe not? I don't know, but I am working on it.

To prove I'm working on it, and in lieu of Bonfire pictures, I have a couple of sneak peeks for you all. Click on the pictures to make them bigger.

I Hope everyone else is ok, and hopefully I'll be a bit more visible soon.

Happy Birthday Prof

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 17:17:55 GMT

Halloween also means that it is Prof's birthday, so happy birthday Prof.

I hope you are having a great day!

Halloween Photoshoot

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 16:48:04 GMT

Ah All Hallows Eve, the night where good's influence on this earth is at its lowest ebb and evil spirits can walk this plane of existence freely. Traditionally people dressed up as monsters in order to trick the evil spirits walking the earth into believing that there were already evil influences present in their house so I've dressed up some of my simmies in appropriate costumes and done a HUGE photoshoot (I got completely carried away and had difficulty narrowing it down to even 85 pictures). You should recognise everyone, even though two of them are older than when you last saw them, and several have their features obscured. Enjoy.

Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd.
Thrice and once the hedge-pig whined.
Harpier cries'Tis time, 'tis time.'

Fillet of a fenny snake,
in the cauldron boil and bake.

Double, double, toil and trouble;
fire burn and cauldron bubble.

The blood is the life.

Who knows what ghosts are thinkin' anyway

Death is only the beginning.

Wow! This is a lotta dolls. Er, they're nice, they're not super-creepy at all..

Who died and made you fucking king of the zombies?

Werewolves are badass.

Happy Halloween everyone!

A Victorian Interlude: V. & R. Legacy Investigate the Case of the Viridian Child - part 1.

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 20:18:41 GMT

Part one is done, and since it's going to take me another couple of weeks to get part two shot, and this is a monster story, you get to read the first part now.

As always, I hope you enjoy, and can you comment over at Boolprop please.

Progress report

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 21:12:18 GMT

Hello everyone. Filming Vicky's interlude is currently eating my brain, so I thought I'd share the brain numbingness and let you all know how it is going, because I'm nice like that.

The short answer is, it's going slowly. My script has already crept up from 317 to 330 slides, and that is still without the credits or without knowing how many slides the montages I want to put in will take up. It's looking like it will hit the 350 mark, so it will definitely be a two parter. My initial idea was to publish both parts together, after all Joe's Punishment was 366 slides, but not only were the captions for that not as long as the ones for Vicky, I really want to get something out there before my Halloween shoot. Mainly that is to refresh everyone's memories as to what gen 5 look like so you're not all baffled by who everyone is on the shoot, even though several of them have their features obscured in some way, oh and Bethany and Christopher are older than in the interlude, but there you so. What I've decided to do then is publish on two separate occasions. I've shot up to slide 136 out of the 160ish in part one, and the rest should be done this weekend, which means part one will be out soon. Since it's the part that is really setting everything up, I'm a bit worried it is a bit slow and boring, but one of the things I want to show with this, is Vicky and Rosie learning to be detectives, so things are a bit plodding and their questioning inelegant.

Filming itself is creeping along. Last night it took me the better part of two hours to set up for two shots, due to the fact I was shooting on a community lot and wanted a particular sort of clientele for it, and instead kept getting lots of simselves, or sims I couldn't change the clothing of because they would be appearing later. I'm also out of practise at posing sims: the last time I really did that was chapter 19 and 20 back in March. Given the fact that I've also not played the game properly since May, I'm finding myself really struggling to remember what interactions the animations I want to use are from. It's therefore taking me yonks to find them in my hacks. Plus I have a few new pose and animation boxes I'm playing with, trying to find things, and forgetting where I found them when I go to use them.

A few things I've discovered so far though.

1. Vicky and Rosie are beautiful I hadn't realised how good looking they were until I started shooting this. This is a reject from shooting the cover. I used the same poses, but moved them closer in the end (clicky on all the pictures for a big version. I couldn't be bothered to put them on Photobucket I'm afraid):

See, pretty. I also love this new dress on Rosie. I did try other hairstyles on her too, since this one is more a younger girls hair in this time period, but none suited her as much as the plat, so it's staying.

2. Both Vicky and Rosie are still pissed off with the burglar who burgled them at uni, so I'm having to shoot around grr faces all the time.

3. Teleporting a sim onto a community lot causes the date glitch you sometimes see at uni when you end up with two copies of the same sim on the lot:

"Rosie, that lady over there looks remarkably like you."

"Huh, how very bizarre. Well if she also has my brains she will stay out of the way of our filming. Now, we should be looking at this dinosaur, should we not?"

4. The NHM from MTS is completely borked and unusable at night due to errors with the lighting.

5. Much as I loved seeing my community lots without sims, seeing sims in Victorian clothing wandering round them makes me squee.

6. I love my gen 5 kids, and want to get back to playing them. I loved them doing the Halloween shoot, but this has just emphasised it.

7. Bethany pulls the best faces ever.

8. Finding a Victorian outfit for Archie Vetinari is fucking impossible. He's got a cameo in part 2, and at the moment he's in a space pirate/steampunky outfit because it is the nearest thing to having The Swagger I have.

9. Marielle still gets everywhere.

10. Melody Tinker is a cow no matter when or where she is.

She pissed off so many sims when I was shooting on this lot, it's not funny.

Aaaand I think that's enough procrastinating tonight. Might try to get a couple more shots in the bag. Oh and I plan on catching up with comments after part one is out. If I don't, it'll be after part two, and that may be a couple more weeks, and I'll probably have more to add to the list then, which I don't want.

Happy Birthday Doc!

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:48:26 GMT

Happy birthday from me and your little Victorian family. I hope you are having a great day.

I got distracted

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 10:13:51 GMT

So yesterday I was going to write the comments I owe as well as starting to shoot the interlude. Well i got one comment done, made a good start on the shooting and got distracted.

You see one of the pictures I was trying to shoot was of someone drinking tea. Yes very exciting, but having this picture adds to the suspense and pacing of the story. Or at least in my opinion it does. Now staging the actual action of drinking out of a teacup was simple, the problem was the prop.

I use Cashcraft's vanity fair teacup a lot, because it's lovely and a, you know, teacup. Trouble is, it has the saucer and a napkin and teaspoon attached, like so:

Really not going to to work for someone drinking out of it, so I found a tutorial, swore a lot as the version of Blender I had kept crashing whenever I tried to enter edit mode, downloaded a new version of Blender, swore some more as I couldn't re-import the mesh into Simpe, and finally, after many, many hours managed to make these:

Yeah I know, completely not exciting for anyone but me, and they're not actually finished since I'd like to eventually have them pull the textures from the original object, plus I need to learn how to add bits to a mesh so that the cup actually has a bottom to it when seen from underneath, but....it's the first time I've managed to mess with a mesh and get it into the game, so I'm happy.

Onto those comments now and a bit more shooting I think!

Finished?

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:03:09 GMT

Finished.

The shooting script for Vicky's interlude that is. It currently stands at 317 slides. but that doesn't include the credits (I want to do credits like I did for Joe's Punishment), and it might change anyway since it all depends on how shooting goes. But at least I can start on that now. Yay.

I do have a couple of WCIFs that have come up as I've been writing: an invisible recolour of the NL poker table would be great if anyone knows of one. Oh and a coil of rope that is a decorative object would be fab too.

I can live without the rope, but would really love the poker table if possible.

EDIT I found a tutorial and created the poker table myself. It works great.

Cait, I tried making you an invisible bowling alley too, but it's too complicated and I ended up with odd things going on, sorry hun.

I'm also almost done with my Halloween shoot. That took me far longer than I was counting on, so I'm glad I got started on it early. I had so much trouble with getting the lighting just right. I even installed Radiant Light into my dummy hood to get the directional light I wanted, and still couldn't get exactly what I wanted for some of the kids' pictures. I've ended up editing them in PSP, something I don't normally like doing since I don't like over or badly-edited pictures. I've basically ended up deepening some of the shadows and making the light pop more. I'm really pleased with how they are turning out and cant wait to share them.

Happy Birthay Annie.

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 18:12:14 GMT

Happy Birthday Annie. I hope you're having a good day!

Slow going

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:40:37 GMT

Hello you lovely peoples you. I felt like aimlessly chatting in the hopes that it will make me write quicker, or something. That's because work on Vicky's interlude is going very slowly, and I've been trying to peg down why. I've written only 88 slides, which is about 2 pages of my outline, and is only the start of the adventure really. Last night I wrote only 10 slides, which is rubbish for about two hours work. I think I've figured it out though.

Firstly, I'm in no hurry to get this out, even though I do want to share this and get back to the legacy. It's only two weeks since I last published something, and I found myself getting worked up about how long it was taking me to get anywhere with the game or writing a few months ago. Since then, I've made myself relax about it and enjoy what I'm doing.

Secondly, I'm doing this arse about face compared to how I normally work. Although I do plan what I'm going to be doing with a scene, right down to the dialogue occasionally, I don't normally start writing the captions until I've got the pictures in front of me. This is such a big story, with lots of things that have to happen, I'm writing a shooting script so I don't have to keep going back into the game to reshoot things. I will be revisiting the words, but it is odd not to have the pictures to act as prompts when I need them.

Thirdly, the past two days I've been writing other people's characters. It has been a lot of fun, but it's far more time consuming than writing my own characters. Partly that's because, one of the obstacles I have to overcome, is taking often very modern characters and writing them so that they are true to their characters, but still fit into my world. I find writing Indy interacting with one of my Victorians very difficult, because Indy isn't at all Victorian, but if I had him being totally himself, he would stick out like a sore thumb and the scenes wouldn't work. I can relax a bit and have him be more himself if he is talking to my simself, because I write the simelves as being more modern, but with the legacy sims? No way. So I try to get his voice right, but add a bit of restraint, as if he's been told to be on his best behaviour by a certain brunette simself he keeps marrying.

The other thing with writing other people's characters is that I like to read past chapters where they have appeared to help me get the tone of their voice, and their speech patterns right. Or as close as I can get them anyway. While huge amounts of fun, it is very time consuming.

Fourthly, I've been doing a bit of building round Vicky's office, so that it looks like it is on a busy street, like so:

This is that part of the city now. I think it really is starting to come together, and I might package up one of the dummy lots I made yesterday to add to the real neighbourhood.

The big lot next to Vicky's office will be showing up in the legacy, and although it's only half finished at the moment (it's as finished as I need it to be for the interlude, apart from a little set dressing), I did play test it in the real neighbourhood on Sunday, by sending Carmen to buy her wedding dress there. For any of you who have read my drabble for Monday's sim_spiration , I have the pictures of what happened to inspire it too.

I normally get evil witches turning up, so I took this as a good sign.

Look, pretty.

The inspiration for the roof lines came from Hertford:

This is St Andrew Street. I wasn't trying to recreate it, but rather took the idea of having a mishmash of styles and ages all butting up next to each other, and made it work in the Sims.

Anyway, Johnny's (JWoodsBuzz)'s simself was on the lot, and, well, he pranked the wrong people.

First Larch...

Then Charles.

It's really not a good idea to piss Charles off. He's the most cantankerous of all the gen 3 boys, more so than Henry even. I like to think that's because Henry is very focussed on what he is mad at. whereas Charles doesn't care, and is actually a sweetie when he's happy.

Look at that grr face.

*SHOVE*

*GRRRRR*

"Dude looks pissed."

Dude is pissed Akor.

Johnny, his face glitched thusly, took cover in the shoe shop.

Didn't deter Charles one bit.

Charles REALLY didn't like being hit back.

For the next few sim hours, Charles chased Johnny round the shoe shop, poking, shoving and slapping him. Sometimes they got a bit close to the other shoppers, but that didn't stop them.

What did, was Johnny leaving.

I did laugh.

Anyway I want to get a comment for Rose done tonight, as well as a bit more writing, so I'm going to go now. Hope you're all ok.

Happy Birthday Widget

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 22:11:03 GMT

I know it's slightly early but...

As you can see, SimWidget has settled into Regalton well. Happy birthday and I hope you have a great day.

Happy Birthday Stacie.

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 12:20:55 GMT

Happy birthday Stacie from me and a few new residents of Regalton. I hope you have a great day.

Post-asylum post

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 15:24:37 GMT

Yup it is time once again for me to ramble on about my latest piece of writing, the asylum.

First off I had an absolute blast playing this, even though it did end up taking me longer to do that I originally thought. A big part of that is due to the fact that I took a little break from it when Grandad died. Anyway it really was a lot of fun, and very funny at times. Not every laugh made it into the updates, because of how I chose to write it, but I'll talk a bit more about that in a moment.

So why did I choose to do an asylum in the first place? There are several reasons for it. Firstly the very first challenge I ever attempted was an asylum. I failed miserably because I got bored of the inmates and the LTW I was shooting for, but I've always wanted to give it another go. I had started planning a totally unrelated-to-the legacy asylum waaaay back at the end of 2007, but I lost the neighbourhood and the motivation to do it when I had to rebuild my game following the black out glitch in January 2008. For a while I forgot about doing the challenge and concentrated on the legacy and playing a BC. It was only in about February/March time, when I knew I was coming to the end of Eddie's plot and thinking about what sort of Punishment I would do for Marielle that the idea started to come back to me. Part of me still wonders if I should have stuck with doing a Punishment like the one I did for Joe, but I wasn't keen on the fact that it might seem like I was rehashing the idea, so I started exploring alternatives. I was chatting to Lauri one morning when I decided to go for it, and put Marielle in an asylum, but not as the playable. In fact I have to say a huge thank you to Lauri, since the two of us did quite a bit of brainstorming that morning and the basics of the asylum, as well as the other inmates were decided then. She also volunteered Ari as the playable, which I am very grateful for especially since she was such a great sim throughout this challenge. So yes, a lot of this was all Lauri's fault too.

The idea to narrate it like Marielle's diary came to me during that conversation too, and the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to make it cannon, so I then had to tie it in with the legacy. The fact that I decided to do that made it pretty challenging to write at times, and probably made it less funny than it could have been, but I realised that when I made the decision. No matter, I hope that you all enjoyed it and laughed at the fact that some of the villains from some of my favourite legacies were tortured and humiliated during their stay at Simdon-Leys.

It occurs to me that I never shared plans for the asylum with you all.

A very simple layout all told, but that works for a challenge where you can't control 7 of the sims in the house.

I really like the look of the house, and I'm probably going to reuse it in Simdon, change the bricks for some that aren't as rotten, and give it a new layout inside and I'm sure it'll make a nice home for a spare or cousin somewhere down the line.

There were quite a few (make that lots) of pictures I couldn't work into the updates because of how I was narrating it. I tried to share some in my round up bits to the chapters, but it was for pictures like the following that I sometimes wished I was writing it as a commentary.

Lisa and her amazing invisible mop!

Ouch.

Yeah...never allow Meadow to adopt, I don't think it would end well.

Meredith's face got glitched doing the whistle animation at one point.

There were quite a few pileups in the bathroom and loo at some points. I did put down room dividers, but I like to leave plenty of room around the objects they divide off because of this:

"Can't step over strip of black plastic because it is a wall."

It also probably didn't come off as such in the narrative, but I did see lots of needs desperation.

Part of the reason I didn't keep mentioning them is due to repetition. By the third week the sims had settled into a routine and I was seeing the same things again and again. I didn't want things to get boring for my readers since, how many different ways can you write that someone is hungry, or needs the loo or is about to pass out?

One thing that didn't get boring as a player, was seeing the inmates suffer in more palpable ways.

I wanted to talk a bit about the relationships in the asylum. For the most part the inmates actually got on well.

Everyone was best friends with at least six of the others by the end of the challenge. However, there were a few grouchy faces:

and flamey thought bubbles:

Oh and Lisa really doesn't like being punched hard.

Then there was Brittany and Melody:

By the end of the challenge I was almost sick of seeing them fighting. Almost.

This was taken the day before Indy visited. He had been in the welcome wagon and Ari had started to befriend him, so I invited him round on her day off to try to get them to high best friends.

"You know Indy Vetinari?"

"Yeah."

"He's like, totally hand tilty."

"Nah, really?"

"Yeah, and I'm gonna tell him next time I see him."

That's not exactly what she did, but never mind.

"Baby, you're totally hot when you try to beat the snot out of me, call me sometime."

Oh Indy, I do love you, but I don't think SimDi would like that.

Random walk by invited in to get the family friend number up would call him though I think.

Melody really did take offence to Bruce, but I have no idea why.

The next day he walked past at least four times.

I suppose now's as good a time as any to talk about how I ended the asylum and why. The big reason is I needed to have Marielle released (I have a few things planned she needs to be present for), but because of how I had set it all up, I couldn't exactly Ari come home and say "guess what, I'm the Law now, you can all go home." I also knew I wouldn't be adding the six other non playables to the neighbourhood, so i had to come up with an idea that dealt with what would happen to them too. In a fairly typical turn of events, my brain was half a step in front of me. I'd been thinking about reasons why the visitors would be at the asylum as I was shooting and playing, and came up with the idea that Bruce would be a doctor as I was having Ari befriend him. The original idea though was that he was just there to study Gavigan's methods and there wouldn't be any follow up. It was only as I was putting the finishing touches to part 3 (three days before I finished the challenge) that I came up with the idea of an investigation that would close the asylum. Those scenes were shot in a combination of the challenge hood with a Robert-clone, Archie and Bruce, and in my dummy hood with the real Gavigans an Archie-clone and Bruce in a different outfit to the one he normally wears in Regalton.

I had to shoot Nathaniel and Mary twice.

First time they were wearing the same clothes as in the prologue, but as I was writing, I decided that it would be more in character if they were wearing new clothes. To my mind it showed that flash side of Nathaniel's character and how he spent money like water on himself and making his wife look the part too.

By the end of the challenge the inmates' sleeping schedules were completely up the wall, and it wasn't unusual for there to be only a few still awake by two in the afternoon.

Marielle spent a lot of time dreaming about herself, which didn't surprise me in the least.

Meredith was very creepy by the end too. She really didn't do well in the asylum (she gained only 4,250 aspiration points) and really did take to stalking the other inmates but not talking to them. It was odd.

I never move the dustbin or postbox on lots I build because I have had lots corrupt when either I've done it, or another creator has on a lot I've downloaded, so I did experiment with locking the gates to the asylum. The trouble with that was the sims wouldn't give up on trying to get to the postbox or the bin, and so just stood there getting annoyed. In the end I decided it was less trouble to let them out.

I really didn't take many pictures of Ari, for the simple reason, she worked her socks off in this challenge. She spent all her time skilling or making friends, and she didn't complain. It was also pretty strange for me, because I had to think strategically for once. My normal style of play is a bit lackadaisical, with me kinda bumbling through getting my sims skill points and promotions, but for this I had to really plan when Ari would be skilling, what she would be skilling and how she would make and keep 13 friends. Getting the logic points was handy for that since, I had her greet a walk by and then play chess with them, thus killing two birds with one stone. This was especially true of the last week where I was trying to get her three promotions, four and a half big skill points and 2 friends in five days. I don't think I could have had a better playable, so thank you again Lauri.

The last big thing I wanted to talk about before ending with a few more random shots was the fire. As I've already said, there was no TV, so every cooking skill point the inmates earned was through cooking their meals. There are probably some of you who think that I'm mad for doing that, but I wasn't worried for a couple of reasons. Firstly fires in the game don't worry me at all. For over two years I've been playing a neighbourhood by the behind the times handicap. The only lots which have fire alarms are lots I've downloaded and not noticed they are there and taken them out yet. Every single lot I build, I build without a fire alarm and without a burglar alarm. In addition I use Numenor's old time stove a lot, and it is a very flammable stove. If you don't clean it regularly, it catches fire when someone disposes of rubbish in it or cooks on it, and sometimes even when it's clean it catches fire randomly. I didn't use it in the asylum for that very reason. What I'm saying is I'm used to fires with no alarm in the house.

Secondly, the danger time was when Ari was at work, because if she was at home she could call the fire brigade. For most of the time Ari was out of the house, only the lunch options were available, and since sims need 2 cooking points before they can cook grilled cheese sandwiches, for the majority of the challenge, the only lunch dish being prepared was lunch meat sandwiches. It was only for the last week or so that I started to see sims use the stove during the day, and then it wasn't often.

Having said that, I was disappointed that I didn't make it to the end of the challenge without a fire, I would have liked that. Oh and no one had a break down over it either, so I guess they were as calm about it as I was.

Just a few random pictures to end on now:

Puddle splashing in a thunder storm on the very first day. This did worry me: I didn't want a death only a couple of hours into the challenge.

"So Katherine, have you found today tiring?"

She is a pretty sim, I'll give her that and she does pull some of the best faces I've seen.

Right, so now the asylum is over, I can move onto Vicky and Rosie's first case. I've actually about finished building for it: I'm going to create my dummy hood now and do any more set dressing or building in that. The reason being, I might have to put down a few more lots to fill some spaces, but they will be temporary lots since I don't have plans for those spaces at the moment. I don't want to have to bulldoze a load of lots further down the line, so this seems the best way.

I might be popping up with some WCIFs in the near future too as I get my outline and shooting script sorted. I'm so excited to be making a start on this project, I can't wait to get on with it and share the finished project with you all. I hope you all like it.

A Very Victorian Asylum Challenge - Part 4

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 18:23:15 GMT

Simdon-Leys Home for Irrational and Insane Women is about to open its door for the final time. Please have your fee ready and follow me

Comments over at Boolprop please.

Happy Birthday Jamie!

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 21:06:34 GMT

I know it's slightly late but:

Happy Birthday Jamie my dear, from me, Stanley and the rest of the inhabitants of Regalton. I hope you had a great day.

Sim_Scenes Summer Excited Serious

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 23:23:23 GMT

Ok, so this took me far longer to shoot than I thought it would, but there you go. Here's what I've come up with for this week's sim_scenes challenge.

So I hope the narrative is clear enough, but just in case any of you are as tired as I am, Amy is very excited that it's summer and her family is at their beach house, but she's bored, so she asks her serious sister, to play with her. Baz tells her to get lost, she's reading, which upsets Amy. However Amy has an idea on how to get her own back as she's walking away, and throws a water balloon at Baz. Baz isn't happy and chases Amy down the beach, which leads to deadly tickles of doom and lots of fun for both sisters.