Thursday 5 August 2010

Undone

Round 28: Winter 2027
last update/Nathan's next update/Hope's next update/next update

Emil Collins is 55, Anna is 49, Nathan is 17 and Hope is 16.
(Malcolm is 17, Camilla is 14)

Narrated by Hope Collins

Just about all Nathan does these days is study.

He's freaking out because he hasn't heard back from Suffolk University about his application yet, so he just spends all his time cramming.

I never study any more. I have better things to do. Why waste time on books?

I already know I got into Suffolk, a fact I rub in Nathan's face at every opportunity.

Nathan says I'm smug. But he's just jealous that his little sister had her application accepted before he did.

So while Nathan's at home studying, I usually go and hang out at this bar in Exeter with Malcolm. Technically, we're not supposed to be there but no one's ever said anything to us.

Even when we order drinks. We don't even get carded! I didn't like the taste at first but you get used to it.

It's so much fun, even though you sometimes come across a few creeps. They don't bug me, as long as it's clear I'm with Malcolm.

I guess Dad has been noticing how much time I'm spending with Malcolm because he asked me about him over breakfast one morning.

He actually said, "so when are we going to get to meet this Malcolm guy?"

Uh, what? So lame. My parents have always just let me do whatever I wanted and now they're trying to get all parental with me?

Dad just kept looking at me, waiting for an answer, and stupid Nathan was no help with his, "yeah, Hope, when are we meeting Malcolm?" crap. I could have killed him and I still might.

I somehow managed to fob off Dad's questions with some feeble excuse about how Malcolm was really busy getting ready for college. I was pretty sure I hadn't heard the end of it.

And I was right. Dad came to me that afternoon and said that obviously Malcolm wasn't too busy "preparing for college" to hang out with me every night, so he could spare a couple of hours to meet him and Mum.

I probably should have thought that excuse through a bit more. I tried anything I could think of to get out of having Malcolm to dinner. It's so embarrassing. I thought I had cool parents!

But there was no getting out of it so I relented and invited Malcolm over to meet my parents.

I actually invited him over a little earlier, because Mum and Dad were both out and Nathan was at work.

It wasn't the most romantic of first times but I guess it was okay. We only had about 10 minutes before we heard Mum and Dad getting home, so we had to hurry and get dressed again.

We got downstairs in just enough time that we could pretend we were never up there. It was close though!

Dad really doesn't seem to like Malcolm very much. I thought maybe Dad might be inclined to be nice, because he went to high school with Malcolm's parents.

But Dad didn't go any easier on him because of that. I wondered if maybe Dad wasn't as clueless as I thought about what Malcolm and I had been doing before he came inside.

Mum was just flat-out embarrassing. As soon as she heard Malcolm was going to Suffolk soon, she kept talking about some dumb club she joined while she was there and then demonstrated their secret handshake.

I was actually relieved when we finally sat down to dinner, even though I could tell Mum and Dad were both cringing at Malcolm's table manners. Even I have to admit he's pretty disgusting when he eats.

The dinner didn't get worse from there but it didn't get any better either.

I told Malcolm to play up the whole medical school thing. It seems like the kind of thing parents would be impressed by, a boyfriend who's planning on becoming a doctor. Malcolm loves talking about how he's going to go to med school, so I didn't need to tell him twice.

Mum's eyes lit up at the mention of medical school and Malcolm went up a little in her estimation, I think.

Not Dad though. If Dad wasn't glaring at Malcolm, he was frowning at him. He really, really doesn't like Malcolm.

Oh well. It's not like I'm not going to keep seeing him anyway. Dad has been a bit stricter about me going out on school nights since he decided he hates Malcolm though, so we have to sneak out.

We should have tried a different bar though. Or yeah, okay, maybe not gone to a bar at all.

It was all fine until I spotted a cop walk in. She locked eyes with me right away, I immediately turned my head away from her and I guess that made me look guilty.

She was asking for my I.D. within 10 seconds. Which of course, I didn't have.

Or at least, I didn't have one that would entitle me to be in the bar.

Neither did Malcolm.

And that's how I got to ride home in a police car.

I was dreading what Dad was going to say. It definitely wasn't going to improve his opinion of Malcolm.

He didn't say anything while the cop gave him all the details: where I was, what I was doing, who I was with.

Dad waited until the cop had left before he said anything to me but once she was gone, he really let me have it. He was so angry. He kept saying how he'd been very lenient with me and I'd taken advantage of it.

I really hate crying in front of people. I always feel like such an idiot. But I couldn't help it.

On the plus side, Dad softened a little when he saw me crying and he stopped yelling at me. I'm still grounded, until further notice.

Being grounded sucks! I can't see Malcolm except at school and I can't even have my best friend Julia over. I'm stuck hanging out with my cousin Camilla instead.

The only reason I can even hang out with her is because we're related. We also work together at the convenience store after school and it's good to have someone to talk to on our shifts.

She's such a goody-goody though. Every time I want to make a joke about someone, she just looks really uncomfortable or tells me I'm being mean.

It's getting really old. I can't wait until I can hang out with Malcolm and Julia again instead.

Outtakes:
So unprofessional! That Massive Attraction makes Emil attractive to just about every woman (and gay man!) that crosses his path. Even the ones returning his wayward teenage daughter.

Also, I don't know what Crazy Cop Lady's problem was when she walked into the bar! She did that autonomously. Do cops get furious with the burglar as well? That's the only way I can explain her RAGE!!!!1!

Notes:
  • Title is from Undone (The Sweater Song) by Weezer.
  • Nathan and Hope will both be going to university, though it was a close call for Nathan! He only had two scholarships and I wasn't sure if he'd roll the wants to get any more but he did and he now has four, the same as Hope. Nathan will start in Summer 2028 and Hope will follow him the year after.
  • Almost this whole update stemmed from two wants: Emil's want to talk to Malcolm and Hope's want to sneak out with him.
  • Anna is fairly indifferent towards Malcolm but Emil doesn't like him at all. Usually when my Sims start rolling up wants for their kids' partners, they'll roll a want to be friends with them as soon as I have them interact with each other. Yeah, not in this case! Emil was either stone-faced or sneering towards just about everything Malcolm said. He never rolled up any wants about Dominic, so he must have just known Dominic wasn't going to get his daughter into any trouble!
  • I'd sent Hope to sneak out with Malcolm and had Emil sitting in that chair so he'd catch her when she got in. But then I see the cop car pulling up and I thought, "oh, even better than I imagined!" LOL! It's a shame you can't trigger those events (well, there's probably a way but I don't know how).
  • The woohoo, by the way, was autonomous. Initiated by Malcolm, surprise surprise! Also autonomous: Anna doing that weird Secret Society handshake thing, completely confusing Malcolm. I don't think she ever even did that when she was in college but she decided to drag it out now, 30 years later!

20 comments:

  1. Haha! I love Hope, she's like Anna version 2.0! It would be pretty funny if you got her and Lila together, that could definitely inspire a reign of terror, lol!

    Oh, Malcolm, I guess you finally got some, now will you calm down? He and Hope seem like a perfect match for each-other though, super high maintenance for sure!

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  2. Oh man, that Hope she sure is something! I'm looking forward to these heading to college. Does Hope have enough neatness to take birth control? I worried about that as soon as I saw that they headed to the bed. So typical that Malcolm is the one who initiated it. boys.

    I think Emil is right on to distrust Malcolm. Anna with that secret handshake was serious funny crap, I can imagine how mortified Hope would be from that!

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  3. Tessa, yeah, Hope is a lot like her mother! She's much better suited to Lila than Camilla . Lila would be up for making fun of people, for sure!

    As for Malcolm, let's hope so! If he wants to actually get into med school instead of just bragging about it all the time, he's going to have to start thinking about something other than sex!

    Maisie, I've been eagerly anticipating sending Hope and Nathan to college, so I'm pretty psyched that it's finally time for them.

    And yes, Hope definitely has enough neatness for BC - 10 points! The whole Collins family are neat freaks, actually. Mean, neat freaks. LOL. Even with the BC though, I was expecting her to get pregnant for some reason. There's a small chance of failure but I've not had it happen since I updated my ACR.

    I wouldn't want Malcolm dating my teenage daughter, so I don't blame Emil for being very wary of him! Dominic was Malcolm's polar opposite and Emil had known him since he was a kid, because he's Nathan's friend. Much less to worry about with him but also not as good a match for Hope.

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  4. I like Hope, she has spirit, does just what she wants, and it frustrated by her parents!
    And Poor Nathan, all the teasing his sister does, but then again, he wasn't much of a help when their dad asked about Malcolm.
    Well I hope Malcolm is satisfied now, after all he got what he wanted, I would hate to see Hope's heart broken because of him, but then again, Susannah warned her.

    Well those 2 wants, the update was all about, did make it into a story. Emil being a typical dad, and Hope just being a teen.

    I want to ask you where you got a specific pose; when they are having breakfast, there is a picture on the wall, do you know which posebox has Emil and Anna's pose?

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  5. Hope is really refreshing, she's so different than most other sims. Definitely reminds me of her mother although I don't remember if Anna was ever that bad LOL.

    That was a close call for Hope and Malcolm. Thank goodness she's so neat so she's on BC! As for Malcolm, I think Emil has a good reason to be suspicious about him.

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  6. I definitely would not want my daughter dating Malcolm! He has "jerk" written all over him. But if anyone can handle him, I would think it would be Hope lol. I can't even imagine what she's going to be like in college!

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  7. I don't blame Emil for being wary of Malcolm dating his daughter! But I see Malcolm did get Hope into bed before he headed off to college. I hope he doesn't go crazy and start going after the college girls once he's there.

    I can just imagine how mortified Hope was when Anna started doing the secret handshake, lol!

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  8. Ha ha! How fun that secret handshake came out after all that time.

    Glad Nathan made it into college as well. I liked your line of "Or yeah, okay, maybe not gone to a bar at all." lol Think so?

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  9. Tanja, Nathan gives as good as he gets with Hope, so no need to feel too sorry for him!

    We'll see about Hope and Malcolm though! She's a much better match for him than Susannah.

    The only information I have about that posebox I used is that it's called Posebox3. Descriptive, huh? It's black, with a picture of a male Sim with a cigarette in his mouth. Your best bet would be to check the Posebox Reference List
    , to see if that has the URL for this box. It has pictures, so it might not be so hard to find.

    Sari, no, Anna never had a chance to be that bad! Back then, Sullivan was almost pure gameplay. There's a more even mix between gameplay and storytelling now and I like to think my Sims are a little more interesting because of it. Anna probably would have been a bit of a tearaway, like Hope, had I thought of it at the time!

    Mizzgin03, Malcolm really does give off the "jerk" impression, but I don't think Hope will stand for any of his crap, if he starts it. I can picture her as sort of a ballbuster!

    Shana, hopefully not! Malcolm is Fortune, with a Pleasure secondary, so we might need to worry a little, but not as much as we would if he was Romance!

    I was sort of mortified for Hope when Anna started doing that handshake! Anna was very sad that Malcolm didn't know what she was doing though. Head hung low, pouty...it was pretty funny!

    Denise, I don't think I've ever seen any of my Sims do it autonomously before, although I think the arresting Sim does part of it before they cuff your Sim when they get inducted. Strange!

    LOL, yeah, Hope was having second thoughts on how good an idea it was to hang out in adult establishments at 16! A pity she didn't figure that out before she got caught!

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  10. Wow, you really caught some great expressions in this one! Spot on! Especially with Hope. She has a very expressive face. And Emil's glaring, lol! Very appropriate!

    OMG, LMAO, she invited him over a little earlier! Wow, Malcolm's a charmer there ;)

    I love it when just a couple little wants can inspire a whole story!

    I'm wondering though, did you bring in that cop for the bar scene, or was the cop a walk-by, or was it inspired by Hope being caught sneaking out?

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  11. This is my first comment, but I'll admit that I've been lurking here for a while now; Sullivan is sort of the inspiration behind my first blog :)

    I have a feeling Hope is going to give Emil grey hairs at this rate - and just wait until college! For now I think her and Malcolm deserve eachother, but at the same time I think Hope just might eat him alive if he isn't careful!

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  12. Laura, thanks. I love Hope's face. Expressive and genetically varied - she's a good mix of Anna and Emil. Nathan is mostly Emil, except for his colouring.

    Malcolm is still mourning his break-up with Susannah, as you can see.

    And yes, that's one of my favourite things about blogging this hood! Love it.

    To answer your question, Hope snuck out, got caught by the police and then I staged the bar scene by teleporting the cop in. It just occurred to me that I have three playable cops I could have used for this scenario and I didn't! How lame am I? I should have used Evan, who is also Hope's uncle. I'll have to remember that for next time.

    Ren, hi, thanks for delurking! I love knowing who's reading.

    That's so sweet of you to say that Sullivan inspired your own blog. Expect to see me checking out Oceana properly in the next couple of days!

    Hope is probably a dad's worst nightmare and she's even worse because her parents have had her on an extremely long leash until now. They've created a monster!

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  13. Camilla nearly got her head bitten off there, Hope certainly takes after her mother!

    That cop looks like she has some anger issues from that outtake, lol!

    I'm starting to use a screenshot program and I'm wondering if you mind saying how you have it so there's no interaction boxes in the top left of the screen. I think I've seen somekind of hack for it before but I can't remember where?

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  14. Shake, ha, you have to watch yourself around Hope! You don't want to get on her bad side. ;) Or the cop's bad side, apparently.

    I don't know that there's a hack to get rid of the interaction queue, though there is a hack to get rid of pause lines. For the queue though, I just take all of my pictures by pressing F5 to go to Options mode and then tab to enter Free Cam mode. I used to use Buy Mode instead but Options mode lets you take pictures in the snow - Buy Mode removes it.

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  15. Hope is more and more like her mother all the time.

    What also struck me about this update is that Emil has fully gone from being a boy like Malcolm to be "dad." I loved it. Even Hope was all, "What the hell?"

    Funny how things repeat like that, isn't it? Very true to life I think, and probably a good explanation for Emil's insistence on meeting Malcolm and for his instant dislike, lol.

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  16. Lunar, Hope really does take after Anna. I think she might be a little worse, even.

    And yes, I can see Luc ending up like Emil in about 15 years! Emil knows exactly what Malcolm's up to, because he was up to the same thing at Malcolm's age.

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  17. I'm glad Nathan is going to university. His shirt is very nice btw-wcif?

    Wow, Hope, way to betray your dad's trust, but I loved the scene at the bar and her returning home. Wonderful!

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  18. Apple Valley, it was a close call for Nathan! I've never had a Knowledge Sim not go to uni (though Dominic's not going and he's Knowledge secondary). Nathan's shirt is actually a full outfit and it's from All About Style.

    Anna and Emil created a bit of a monster with Hope, by being so lax with her. It worked okay with Nathan, because he's so reserved anyway. It reached a point with Hope where Emil had to lay down the law.

    And thanks!

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  19. LOL at Hope. I love the way you wrote her. The sneaking upstairs for a quickie was too classic. And I love Emil frowning during dinner. So unimpressed with the med school talk. Typical dads lol. I loved the whole bar set up with the cop. Great to see what really goes on when teens sneak out. :) I can't wait to see Hope in college.

    And I don't know if Tanja will catch this comment but that pose box is from "Making Of" http://giu.magique.free.fr/making-of/posebox3.html Your description of the box reminded me right away since I didn't remember that pose (and could barely see it). I just found that site recently. Great stuff there :)

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  20. Danielle, Hope is fun and I'm very excited to see what she gets up to at Uni but I have a little while before I send her (about six months, in game).

    Emil knows what Malcolm is after, so nothing is going to impress him. The bar set up would have been cooler if I'd remembered to use one of my playables as the cop! Doh! I have some scenes with the police planned for next round, so I'm going to have to remember to use my playables.

    Thanks for tracking down that pose box! That site has some of the best ones, I think. I wish they'd make more. :D

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