Monday 6 September 2010

Come to this

Round 28: Autumn 2028
Arianna Weaver is 73, Liam is 65, Jonas Lachance is 50, Tatiana is 45, Audrey is 16, Edward is 13 and Brendan is 5.
(Jacob is 27, Dominic is 18, Jack and Charlie are both 16 and Sophie is 15)


Narrated by Audrey Lachance

When I broke up with Charlie last year, I did so knowing it might make things awkward between us. I just really thought it was for the best though, so I thought about it for a long time and then finally just did it.

It hasn't been quite as bad as I was expecting though. There is still some weirdness sometimes but we still hang out and we still talk. We're still friends.

Things have actually been a bit weirder with Jack since Charlie and I broke up, which I wasn't expecting.

Like with Charlie, we're still friends but it's like he's not sure how to act around me sometimes.

I think maybe it's because he has a girlfriend now, Sophie. A girlfriend he actually seems to like, I mean. He's not the same with her as he was with Julia.

Jack and Sophie actually act like a couple, for one thing.



It's a bit strange seeing Jack so into someone else but I had been hoping he'd find somebody. Not just so he'd get over me, but for his own happiness. He's my friend and I like that he's happy.

I'm a little bit over dating for the mean time, although there have been a couple of guys who've shown some interest.

I try to be nice about it when I say no but they usually get offended anyway. It seems like it's the kinder thing to do to say no right away when you're not interested but some of the boys don't see it that way.

Brendan just started kindergarten this year and he's already popular with the girls! He gets phone calls from Caitlin and he has his friend Annabel over a lot after school.

I think my little brother might end up being a little charmer!

When Brendan's not hanging out with one of his little friends, he's talking about them.

Grandma likes to tease him and call them his "girlfriends", which she thinks is hilarious.

Brendan doesn't think it's very funny. He's never going to have a girlfriend (so he says now, at 5!)

Caitlin and Annabel are just his friends that are girls, not his girlfriends.

But that's just Grandma. She's not a nag, she just likes to tease.

She does the same thing to Jacob, and he's 27. Everyone is waiting for him and Claudia to get engaged and Grandma loves bringing it up at every opportunity. Jacob is used to her by now though, so he mostly just laughs.


Edward isn't really dating yet. His grades were slipping down and fast, so he decided to focus a little more on that.

Mum and Dad are thrilled. He's finding high school really difficult but he's working hard to improve.

I tried to teach him how to play chess, because Dad always says chess is good for your brain. I don't think Edward really bought it but he humoured me anyway.

It was probably more due to the studying than the chess, but Edward's grades are improving.

Dad was very pleased for him but I think he was a little stunned at Edward's victory dance!

I wish I could say Dominic was doing so well but he's going through a pretty tough time right now, since his girlfriend Tessa died.

He came over for dinner the other night and he barely touched his food. Dominic usually has a pretty big appetite, so that's unusual for him, though understandable.

Dominic had a pretty long talk with Dad after dinner. We're all worried about him, you know.

None of us have ever been through anything like what happened with Tessa but we all just want to make sure he knows we're there for him.

I think Mum is the most worried, but she always seems to be worried about something. She even wanted Dominic to come home for a while, so she could look after him. He turned that offer down but Mum says it's still open.

I think it's good that Dominic's talking, and not bottling anything up. I've never seen Dominic cry before. It's hard to watch him and not really be able to do anything to help.

Extras:
I don't know if I've ever mentioned it here but I know we've discussed once at Laura's blog. When my Sims come home from school sometimes, their hair looks weirdly transparent. You can kind of see it on the left side of Edward's head here (our left, not his). It looks kind of like he has white tips, because of the door behind him. I found a really easy fix for it though and am very excited!

I tried it twice and it worked both times and only takes a second. I just chose the "Snap Reset" option on Decorgal's modeling box and Edward's hair was back as it should be, as you can see here. I would think that the Snap Reset/Stop All Poses/Force End options on any of the pose boxes would work the same way but I only tried it on the modeling box. I hope this ends up being helpful to some of you down the track!

LOL, I love this so much that it is now my avatar just about everywhere. Audrey and Edward were very unimpressed when Tatiana grabbed Jonas's butt one morning before school.

Notes:
  • Title is from Come To This by The Sleepy Jackson.
  • Charlie and Audrey do not seem particularly interested in each other at all. Jack's only rolling romantic wants for Sophie but plenty of platonic ones for Audrey as well. Audrey isn't rolling romantic wants for anybody, so I guess she wants to take a break from dating for a while. I'm quite happy to let her!
  • Audrey will start college in 2030. She earned an A during high school, as well as four scholarships. I'm assuming Jack and Charlie will head off to uni with her but I haven't played them yet so I'm not sure.
  • Brendan is a little social butterfly, despite his shyness. Reminds me of somebody else, when they were little!
  • Poor Dominic. :( I think this update was harder to write than the last two, in some ways, because I had to balance the rest of the family (who are really doing quite well), with Dominic (who really isn't). It gave me a bit of a break from the tragedy though, which was nice. I'll need to get back to it soon.

17 comments:

  1. Awww, little Brendan is such a cutie :) I just love him, although I'm sure he'll probably have a girlfriend or two at one point ;)

    Glad to see that the whole Audrey-Jack-Charlie thing is over, and it's good to see that Jack seems to really like Sophie, and they're pretty cute together.

    Awwww, poor Dominic :( I feel so bad for him with this whole thing, I really hope that he can move on at some point, I would hate to see this ruin his life, and I'm sure Tessa wouldn't appreciate that either :(

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  2. Where did you get Audrey and Sofie's outfits from? I really love them. They are so cute.

    I really love this family, they are one of my favorte in your hood. But I feel really bad for Dominic. I hope he's able to deal with Tessa's death. Talking helps.

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  3. Thanks for commenting, guys!

    Tessa, lol, yes, more than likely Brendan might eventually want a girlfriend!

    Jack and Sophie seem to be doing quite well for now. I'm hesitant to call the whole thing "over", because it's been going on for so long and I may be jumping the gun! But we'll soon see, I guess!

    Tessa would absolutely want Dominic to be happy and I think he'll get there eventually. He doesn't have a lot to smile about right now though, the poor guy. But he's got some good friends and family to help him out.

    Riverdale, Audrey's outfit says "Confide" in the tool tip, so I'm assuming that's by Confide at TSR. She also has a free site, the name of which escapes me, so there's a slim chance it might be there.

    Sophie's outfit is a top and pants. The top is here, in a set with a bunch of other tops:
    http://www.digitalperversion.net/gardenofshadows/index.php?topic=18846.0

    The pants are by Mikexx2 at MTS, in a set with a bunch of other pants. ;)

    This family are one of my favourites too, though it's so big it's hard to fit everyone into the updates! Dominic's on the right track to deal with Tessa's death, being open to talking about it and spending time with his friends and family. He'll get through it eventually.

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  4. First off, I forgot to say, I still can't see your header! So weird. It I right click on it, I don't even get an option to view image.

    Also your icon is great, lol! I was wondering what was going on in your twitter icon.

    And poor Dominic. He's so young to have this happen to him. On the plus side, he'll heal eventually, but how tough things will be until then.

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  5. I'm glad that things are going well with Audrey and the Benton boys. It would be a shame if their friendship ended.

    Poor Dominic. It must be really hard for him right now. You don't except to deal with that kind of stuff at his age.

    BTW, Confide's site is called Fashion Twist. Audrey's outfit is from her TSR set called "Just Sweet".

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  6. Thanks Carla and Sari!

    I love big families but it's so hard to fit them for reunions and such, LOL. I hate how you have to pick sometimes who you want at their home for visits.

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  7. I still like Audrey, and I'm glad her relationship with Charlie isn't suffing from the break-up, too bad her relationship with Jack isn't that good anymore.
    Brendan and Annabel are sweet. I love his face when he's telling his grandma that the girls arent' his 'girlfriends'.
    Poor Dominic, it's sad to see him like this, but very understandalble.

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  8. By the time I got to comment on the previous posts, everyone else had pretty much said everything... but I'll add here anyway... this whole Tessa storyline is so sad... I can see why you weren't looking forward to this ROS... you've written it beautifully... poor Dominic, but he seems to be dealing with it in the best way he can.

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  9. Thanks for the comments everyone!

    Sari, I think so too. They've all been best friends since they were about 8.

    Dominic has been blindsided by Tessa's death but hopefully he can pick up the pieces and find happiness one day. :)

    And yes, Fashion Twist! Of course!

    Riverdale, you're welcome!

    LOL, me too. But I can't stop myself from allowing a few big families. They're so much fun.

    Tanja, Audrey is a favourite of mine, so I'm glad you like her too. She's such a sweet girl.

    LOL, Brendan's so cute. He really does love the girls though!

    I feel bad every time I think of poor Dominic. I did it to the poor guy!

    Blackcat, thank you. I'm not used to writing sad stuff! Dominic's doing the best he can and he's got a lot of support so he's got a good shot of coming out of this okay.

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  10. Yay we got more of Arianna in this update. She seems like a fun grandma.

    I'm glad that this family is doing so well, it's too bad about Tessa, poor Dominic. He looks so devastated on the sofa.

    I'm excited to see if they have another baby. All their kids are so beautiful, it'd be a shame if they didn't! I LOVE the photo that is now your avatar, it's so funny.

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  11. Maisie, I made a special effort to get more of Arianna into this update. ;) She's always in that damn greenhouse!

    I think Tessa's death will probably affect Dominic for a long time to come but it'll be a little less raw, eventually.

    I forgot to mention the baby thing here, even though I talked about it at N99. I used Starr's method of figuring out the ACR ideal family and Tatiana came out with 4 and Jonas came out with 5. They're off birth control but they didn't try for a baby. They have a lot counting against them, namely Tatiana's age and the fact that they already have one adult child. They'll have two next round, once Audrey goes off to college, but we'll see, I guess. Being 51 with a kid in college didn't stop Araminta from getting pregnant!

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  12. Where is Star's way of finding out ideal family size?

    It sure didn't stop Araminta, but she's more of the exception, and you are right on Tatiana's age. I can so see them with a little baby girl coming in at the end though.

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  13. Maisie, it's here:

    http://behindthescenesofapplevalley.blogspot.com/2010/08/assigning-acrs-ideal-family-size-based.html

    I wanted my Sims' secondary aspirations to affect their ideal family numbers as well, so what I do is do it once for their primary aspiration and another time for their secondary. Then I average the two.

    I should be thinking of my population but I definitely wouldn't mind seeing these two with another baby!

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  14. I love this family. They're all so cute and sweet. That sucks that Audrey and Jack aren't as close as they used to be. But like everyone else said, it's cool that Jack and Sophie seem to be doign well. Sophie's a cutie, too. And Audrey looks so cute turning that guy down. Look at the little playboy Brendan. Of course all the little girls flock to him. He's going to be trouble. :)

    And I'll echo the "awws" for poor Dominic. At that age it's almost like the end of the world.

    LOL it's great to see the large size of your avatar. Great catch! And instead of thinking about your population, think about your gene pool. Just think that you'll have yet another beautiful sim to marry off one day. I'm not helping, I know :P

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  15. Danielle, LOL, none of you ever do help! You're all enablers. ;)

    Yeah, I don't know what's up with Audrey and Jack. He doesn't grin at her all the time the way he used to and he doesn't autonomously interact with her much if they're on the same lot. I'm hoping they bond again when they all go off to college.

    It will be interesting to see if Brendan's chick magnet tendencies last until he's a teenager! He might find it more useful then. ;)

    Poor Dominic - who expects to have their 19 year-old girlfriend die? :(

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  16. I was looking forward to hearing from these three again! It's kind of bittersweet seeing them all move on, but I'm glad they are for now. They're too young for "happily ever after" right now anyway, but I can't help hoping Audrey would end up with one of them some day ;)

    Brendan is adorable! And oh, Dominic is breaking my heart! :( But LOL that Tatiana wanted to bring him home! She totally would!

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  17. Laura, absolutely, I agree! I'm really looking forward to seeing what happens with them. I wouldn't be disappointed if Audrey ended up with one of the Benton boys one day either though. ;)

    LOL, Tatiana didn't want Dominic to leave home in the first place, so she definitely wants him back with her at a time like this. :( But he's a big boy now and he's coping in his own way.

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