Tuesday 12 January 2016

Bury me with it

Round 36: August 2043 (Winter)

Jessica Royce-Nihill and Emma Gottlieb are 23 and Lauren Carmody is 22.
(Abigail is 60, Louisa is 23, Austin and Declan is 22 and Caitlin is 20)

Narrated by Lauren Carmody


Not long after graduation, I got a job working as a blogger for the online version of the same publication as my mum works at. I’d rather work somewhere different but there’s not a lot of choice around here. 

I really want to get my writing in print but I have to work my way up to that and earn it. 

I’m being very careful to make sure everyone can see I’m pulling my weight. The last thing I want is for someone to assume I’m only there because Mum is the boss. 

She’s actually harder on me than anyone. It’s never unfair but she doesn’t hold back if she thinks I could have done something better.

Emma’s not quite in her dream job yet either. What she really wants is to make her living with her sculpting but she’s not there yet.

In the mean time, she’s teaching art classes at an art school a few blocks away.

I honestly cannot imagine Emma teaching at all. She’s the most impatient person I know.

These people she’s teaching are all hobby artists, not “real” artists and she totally looks down her nose at them. 

I don’t know how long she’ll last! She’s putting up with it for now because it’s paying the bills but it’s not her passion. 

She’s dying for some distraction and really wants to meet somebody, so Louisa suggested she look online. 

She hated the idea but she was getting desperate, so she took the advice anyway.

So far, she hasn’t found a single girl she likes though. I think she’s being picky but she’s insisting everyone she’s met online is crazy or annoying. 

Jessica scored a job with a catering company straight after graduation but she’s getting really restless there.

They took her on as a decorator and she was hoping with enough time, she’d be allowed into the kitchen. So far, it hasn’t happened. 

She’s started looking around at other companies, to see if she might have better luck elsewhere but nothing so far.

She is really happy she gets to see Declan so often again, at least. They had three years together at uni, a year apart at the beginning and another at the end. 

They survived that time apart and seem to be all the better for it. They’re adorably happy together. 

Declan’s still studying for his Master’s but he’s not living on campus any more, so their separation is all behind them now. 

He lives in the building right behind us, so he and Jessica are in and out of each other’s apartments all the time. 

He also lives with Austin, which also means Austin hangs around here a fair bit too.

I pretend to be annoyed sometimes, because he just invites himself in and never calls first but I like seeing him. We’d never been away from each other before I went off to college and it was pretty weird at times. 

It’s nice living close by again, while still having our own spaces to retreat to.

Now that I’m back home, I’ve been meeting up with Austin and his girlfriend Nora a lot. 

I’d met her before, of course. They came up to visit me on campus a few times and she's been coming to all our family things for ages. But I’m getting to know her so much better now. 

I’m liking her more and more. I like to think we’d be friends even without our common link in Austin.

But I also have to say that I think she’s been absolutely awesome for my brother.

She’s quite ambitious and I think that has pushed Austin a little more in that direction too, which is nice to see. 

I hope Nora sticks around for a good while yet and I can tell Austin is hoping for the same. 

I wish I was as lucky in love as Austin is right now but unfortunately, I’m not. 

I had been seeing Dane for the last couple of years but I ended things with him when it turned out he wasn’t the kind of guy I thought he was.

I would never have found out if not for Caitlin. Dane is still on campus for another six months, so Caitlin saw him more than I did and one day, she happened to see him making out with some other girl. 

Caitlin wasn’t sure if maybe it was something I was okay with or if we’d split up but seeing Dane looked guilty when he spotted her, she put two and two together and decided to tell me. 

He tried to tell me that it was nothing because it was just making out.

I don’t really care how far it went. It was really just the fact that it was all going on behind my back. It’s just not something I’m willing to put up with, so I said goodbye to Dane and didn’t look back.

I actually feel good about it. Better than I thought I’d feel breaking up with someone anyway. 

Now that I'm single, I really want to forget about guys for a while. I want to just focus on myself and spend some quality time with friends.

Notes:
  • Title is from Bury Me With It by Modest Mouse.
  • Sorry this took so long! It's been 12 days since the last update but much, much since the last proper story update and I feel bad about that. :( I'm trying to get ready to play my next family as we speak, so I can play them in a more timely fashion. I really want to get to Connor and Lila's wedding, which is just three sessions away!
  • Lauren and Dane's break-up was prompted by something that happened while I was playing my uni boys this round. Dane lives in that dorm and was constantly making out with one of the other dormies. :\ Caitlin visits Brendan there a lot (of her own accord, which I think is quite cute and very Caitlin) and did actually witness one of the make out sessions. I didn't get a pic at the time. I considered staging one and then I thought I kind of preferred this update without it.
  • I've also changed Lauren's aspiration from Romance/Knowledge to Popularity/Knowledge. I've never really been happy with Romance for her - for a Romance sim, I think she's too nice and too serious. She's never been one to roll those multiple wants anyway and has always been more of a serial monogamist, if anything. So she's Popularity now. :) She was rolling romantic wants for someone near the end of the session but I'm not quite ready to do anything about those yet. But things will be happening for her eventually.
  • I cannot find anyone for Emma! I need to put that matchmaker crystal ball thing back in my game, because without it, it's just not happening. Not only did she not meet anyone who she has chemistry with, she didn't even meet anyone who liked girls!
  • Jessica started this round really depressed. Way into the red and she did the aspiration failure animation two or three times. She had really hard wants to fulfill, so I couldn't even do much about it for a while. I actually have no idea what upset her so much, so I just wrote it in as job woes!

14 comments:

  1. Good for Lauren, breaking it off with Dane for going behind her back. And it's nice she gets to see her brother, live so close, but each have their own space too, now. It sounds so rough for Emma right now, and I thought the way you wrote both she and Jessica's job challenges right now are so true to life these days... they say 20 somethings are more underemployed than ever. I can see it being so frustrating for Emma, since she has such high goals and not only that, but can't find anyone to love right now, but I wonder what's up with Jessica?

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    1. I was pretty excited when I realised I'd moved Lauren in so close to Austin. I never seem to notice this stuff when I actually move them in, lol!

      I feel like it's going to take a while for poor Emma to find anyone. :( I don't have any gay or bi girls her age and the pool of townies might not be great. Need that crystal ball!

      I have no idea what was going on with Jessica's aspiration. I managed to get it up again after a date with Declan but I usually don't see such low aspirations unless someone has died! I think my last death was Augustin, who I don't even know if Jessica met, let alone cared all that much about. So I'm just figuring she's ambitious and her lack of forward momentum was getting her down. I did get her promoted near the end of the session though, so she should be in higher spirits next time we see her. :)

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  2. I think the girls look very similar and could be sisters. I like the bit were Emma looks down on her "students" as just hobby artists. Isn't that how some people start their hobby becomes their career.

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    1. Ha, do you think so? I can't see it myself. I only ever get mixed up with my actual siblings!

      You're correct about hobbies and careers but I don't think Emma would see it that way. She's not particularly generous in assessing other people and is a bit of a snob. ;)

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  3. Don't worry about taking a while between one update and the next. Playing and blogging about it should be fun and not feel like a chore :-)
    I've taken a bit of time out of TS2 during the Christmas/New Year period, indulging myself with an intense round of TS3 adventures (I love "France"!). But now I feel I am ready to get back to New Maximiliania.

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    1. Oh, it's not that it's feeling like a chore. I'm desperate to play - time just hasn't been working out the way I'd like it to, so that's been a bit of a challenge. I really want to keep my game moving along and get to all the exciting things I have coming up. :)

      France is the prettiest destination in WA. :) Enjoy your return to TS2 - I always enjoy it more when I've been away a while.

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  4. I am amused that someone else thought these three looked similar! That was the first thing I was going to say, too, lol! It's the hair, I think. Same color, nearly the same cut apart from bangs and partings. I think one of them needs pink hair or something for as long as they'll be living together! ;)

    Good for Lauren, getting rid of Dane. Whatever excuses, it looks like he has a lot of maturing to do before he should commit to a relationship. I'm sure the "just making out" would eventually lead to "just other things". Shame, shame.

    I love reading about young 20-somethings and their dating and job struggles. It's a very exciting time in their lives, full of possibilities in almost every way! :)

    ReplyDelete
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    1. LOL, it must be because they're my own sims then, because I don't see it! Their faces are so different to me!

      Yeah, especially with ACR in the mix! That almost always leads to "just other things", whether I want it to or not. I didn't really love Dane anyway - Lauren picked him out ;) - so I wasn't too sorry to say goodbye to him. And she's rolled zero wants for him since they split, so I guess Lauren wasn't either!

      This is definitely my favourite age to play and blog about. I took so many photos of these girls, just because I was having so much fun with them. Teens run a close second - lots of possibilities there too.

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  5. So glad she dumped him :) I wouldn't expect nothing less from her mother and from her to ensure that everyone knows that business is business

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    1. Heh, Lauren is glad too. She can do better. ;)

      Abigail took a while to find a career that suited her but once she did, she threw herself into it and has been really successful. She wants that for all her kids too, so Lauren will have no opportunity to slack at work!

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  6. I'm totally humored about the girls looking alike. While they do have different face shapes, they have the similar coloring and hair color/layers, that I could see them coming home after a drunk evening out, and the guy waking up to not recognize who he slept with! :D That would be fun. ;)

    Poor Jessica, I hope she finds a better company to work for, or that she opens her own biz like I had Eva do. Then she can boss people around, and do the parts she enjoys the most.

    I forgot all about Dane, and I love how it all came together, the photos of the girls talking was great, and her expression of shock over his ambivalence of it was spot on. She can definitely do better, and it sounds like she's not hung up at all.

    Great that she's working under her Mom now, I can see Abigail being extra hard on her daughter, wanting her to succeed, and to do it without anyone being able to say she'd been given favor to get there.

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    1. Oh goodness, lol, let's hope that never happens! Funny for us, probably not for the girls! :D

      Jessica ended up with a promotion near the end of the session, so she's getting there. I'll see how she goes. Not sure if she'll start her own business, as eventually, she'll have her dad's cafe to run. Josh is definitely not interested.

      I took so many pics of Caitlin for that phone conversation! She's just so fun to take pictures of - so expressive. I can't take any credit at all for Lauren's look of shock. She did that all on her own and it wasn't even a part of the break-up animation! She has 10 nice points too, so it can be hard to get pictures of her in conversation without her grinning like a loon. I don't think she ever felt that strongly about Dane, so he wasn't a great loss to her or anything.

      Yeah, you've just described Abigail exactly. It's a good thing Lauren is the one working under her and not Austin. I don't think Austin would respond in quite the same way!

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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    2. So funny, Caitlin grinning like a loon, that's so true of nice sims. That's how I am in real life half the time too, lol. But not helpful for serious conversations.

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    3. Ha, I was talking about Lauren but I'm pretty sure I have the same issue with Caitlin! I think it's 8+ nice points that bring on the loon grins and Caitlin has 8. :)

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