You came through

Round 29: March 2030 (Autumn)

last update/Jack and Charlie's last update/Audrey's last update

Charlie's next update/Susannah's next update/Nathan's next update/next update

Nathan Collins, Susannah Carmody and Malcolm Novak are all 20, Julia Gray and Hope Collins are both 19 and Audrey Lachance and Jack and Charlie Benton are all 18.

(Camilla and Sophie are both 17 and Everett and Grace are both 2 weeks old)

Narrated by Audrey Lachance

Never in my life have I had so much freedom to practise in peace! I can hardly believe it!

Campus is usually a hive of activity but at 6:30am, it seems like no one is awake except me.

Even once I'm finished and walking back to the dorm, Suffolk seems almost eerily quiet.

When I get back, at least a few people are usually up. Charlie checked all these parenting books out at the library and he's been poring over them any spare moment he has. I think he really wants to be a good dad.

Charlie goes back home to Sullivan a lot, to see Camilla and their babies, Everett and Grace. It's pretty weird for me to think of Charlie as a dad though! Things change fast.

Camilla must be happy that Charlie is getting involved. I would be, in her situation. I can't imagine being a mother at 17.

I haven't met Everett and Grace yet but Charlie talks about them so much, I almost feel like I know them.

He doesn't get to see them as much now that we've started classes but he still tries to make it back home as often as he can.

I thought it would be a little awkward for Jack being in the same dorm as Julia. She was so angry when they broke up and I thought for sure there'd be trouble. But Jack was so surprised at how civil, even friendly, she was towards him.

Julia is dating Nathan now so I thought maybe she'd decided her energies were better spent elsewhere.

The civility didn't last long, unfortunately.

It was like she was just waiting for Jack to get comfortable before striking again.

Nathan got himself in Julia's bad books too, when he apologised to Jack on Julia's behalf. She was not happy.

No wonder Jack's been trying to avoid Julia!

On the weekends, we hardly see him at all because he's with Sophie.

Sophie still has another year of high school to go, so they don't see each other too often during the week.

I've really clicked with Susannah since arriving here on campus. I knew her at school but she was a couple of years ahead of me so I didn't know her that well. But we've definitely bonded this semester.

She's been telling me all about this new guy, named Greg. She went out a couple of times with another guy named Sam but she seems to be all about this Greg guy now.

Greg lives here in the dorm with us, so he and Susannah are together all the time.

I just don't know about him though. Something about him makes me a little wary.

It almost seems like he's flirting with me sometimes and I'm really uncomfortable with it.

Jack even said that he saw Greg making out with some other girl in the common room the other day.

I was talking to Jack about it, because I think we should tell Susannah. If my boyfriend was acting like such a jerk, I'd want to know about it.

Jack hates getting involved in other people's business and thinks we should both shut up about it. I told him I would but I also told him that if Greg makes another move on me or anyone else, I'm going straight to Susannah.

I hadn't really hung out with Hope much since she and Dominic split up but we've caught up a little since I moved into the dorms.

We don't have much in common but she's okay most of the time.

Most of the time. She's just realised that I'm the only single person left in the dorm, which she finds horrifying.

I think she's got ideas about setting me up.

I really hope not because I don't know what to think about Hope's taste in men. Malcolm wouldn't be my type even if he wasn't my cousin.

The only guy I'm interested in right now is currently unavailable.

I don't know if it's just because we're spending so much time together now or if it's something more but I can't stop thinking about him.

But he's very taken right now and I certainly don't want to come between him and Sophie. The last thing I want to do is become the other woman.

Extras:LOL. I just clicked upstairs and there was Jack, playing pool in his underpants. Sophie wasn't over at the time and there are no other woohoo memories in his panel, so I don't even know why he was in his underpants!
The second last family portrait; the Lachance side of Audrey's family. I actually had to reshoot this one because I forgot to include Nick and Sarah. Now I notice that Liam and Arianna are in this picture and shouldn't be. Oh well. It's a nice pic anyway!

(click to enlarge)

So I don't know exactly when this happened! The wedding memory that you see there is Troy and Josie's wedding, so it must have happened in one of the couple of times I popped into this dorm before the actual play session. I almost restaged it but decided against it in the end. I think Audrey is a little meek for that and she's also friends with Sophie, so it seems out of character. But anyway...now you know that Audrey's little crush on Jack is not storytelling on my part - it's pure game play.

Kind of surprised that Jack turned her down though! He certainly didn't have any problems accepting any of that little minx Sophie's advances when he was with Julia! Poor Julia...Jack really wasn't ever into her!

But I think we should all consider the possibility that Audrey just is not that discerning!

Notes:

• Title is from You Came Through by PJ Harvey.
• First of all, if you haven't visited already, you should check out the VSS Warm Fuzzies post. It's just a nice little way to leave an anonymous comment for various writers/bloggers/storytellers around the Sims community. It's a spin-off of the LJ Love meme and is a very sweet idea. If you have a minute, I encourage you to go and leave a comment or two. I found it was a good way for me to tell people things that I was afraid would sound totally weird if I just came out and said them for no reason! Thanks again to Stacy for starting the VSS thread and to allthingssimlish for the original idea on LJ.
• Anyway! This household is TOO BIG! I just about went insane playing them. It's a little different in a large family, because all those Sims are bonded together and there's sometimes only 2 or 3 different threads to follow. But with these kinds of households, there's like 8 different threads to follow and it's too much!
• I also find big households like this make me lazy with my posing and setting up shots. I can feel it happening while I play but there's so much going on that I can't motivate myself to fix it!
• Due to that, next round, I'm going to switch things up a little. I'll have Nathan move in with Dominic and Amar and Susannah will move in with Rebecca, wherever she ends up living. That will leave me 5 in the dorm (because Charlie will move out as well, with Camilla and the twins). Then I'll have to find housing for Lila, Sophie and Connor but if worse comes to worst, I'll stick them in my old dorm that needs revitalisation but is fortunately still perfectly serviceable.
• Jack rolled the Woohoo Scavenger Hunt ROS this round. There were a few that Jack and Sophie couldn't fulfill - there's no car or closet at the dorm - but they did woohoo on the couch at the club. I think that was as many objects as I could manage.
• I was meaning to have Susannah go out with Sam from Rebecca's update but she had other ideas. I was directing some other Sims downstairs, heard the "falling in love" sound and found Susannah upstairs tossing off her clothes and woohooing with this Greg character! Greg is a jerk and spends most of his time making out with Joanne (the girl in the pink sweater dress) and "admiring" Audrey. I've made him selectable and checked out his wants, so I know exactly where Greg would like this "admiration" of Audrey to go. He's up to no good, people!
• Malcolm's dad Owen and Audrey's mum Tatiana are half-siblings - just for anyone who needed a reminder as to how they were actually cousins.