Thursday 12 August 2010

I summon you

Round 28: Spring 2027
last update/next update

Maia Novak is 25, Calvin Clarke and Aaron Novak are both 24.
(
Araminta is 64, Magdalena is 63, James is 52, Madelyn is 47, Ethan is 21 and Tessa is 18)

Narrated by Aaron Novak

Maia and I have always wanted to go camping. We were planning on going once I graduated but we weren’t counting on how little money we’d have! It's finally a possibility for us now and we're both looking forward to it.

Calvin isn't as convinced about the joys of camping but we're making him come along anyway. He can learn to love it.

Maia's younger sister Tessa came along too...

...as did my brother Ethan.

I wasn’t sure about going with such a big group but I don’t think it could have worked out better. Maia and Ethan didn't know each too well before now and Calvin and I hardly knew Tessa, but we all really clicked together and had a heap of fun.

It meant nobody cared if Calvin and I wanted to sneak off by ourselves for a while, because we weren’t leaving anyone in the lurch.

Maia was able to get some much needed catch-up time with Tessa. They haven't seen each other as much since Tessa went away to college, naturally.

And Tessa and Ethan were both just happy to get a break from their classes for a week or so.

Maia and Ethan ended up getting on great. I don't know what I was expecting, because Ethan and I are a lot alike but it was good to see. I want my brother and my best friend to get along.

Three Lakes is amazing. There's so much to do and I can't wait to go back.

I didn't even care that I sucked at log rolling. I think Calvin really enjoyed the fact that I sucked though.

So Calvin enjoyed himself more than he thought he would but I don't think we've turned him into an outdoorsman yet. He was pretty content to sit back and watch most of the time.

Calvin has his limits though. He didn't say anything but I could tell he got bored watching us fish after a half hour or so.

He did enjoy eating the huge catfish Maia managed to reel in though.

Once we got home, I was talking to Calvin about how great our trip was, just to get away and relax. He agreed but then he asked if I noticed how much Maia and Ethan hung out together.

And yeah, actually, I had. Maia and Ethan did seem to spend an awful lot of time together while we were camping.

A couple of times, I worried about Tessa feeling a little left out but she seemed to be off in her own world so much of the time that I don't know if she even noticed.

I was just about to ask him what he was getting at when he mentioned that he'd noticed Maia and Ethan getting a little flirty with each other, more than once.

Calvin was a little surprised I hadn't seen anything, because I was apparently never far away but I guess he's more observant than I am.

He also saw them looking kind of cuddly on the last night, when he got up to use the bathroom. It must have been really dark but Calvin was adamant that he knew what he saw.

I decided I'd ask her about it. I was sort of annoyed that she didn't tell me herself but I tried not to let it show.

Maia was honest about it, at least. She and Ethan flirted a little and kissed a couple of times. Ethan asked her out, Maia's not sure whether she wants to. She said she didn't tell me because she thought I'd be angry at her.

I'm not angry at her. I wanted them to get along and I guess they really did! If Maia decides she doesn't want to pursue anything with Ethan though, I just want her to be up front with him about it. She promised me she would. I don't think Maia would intentionally hurt anyone but Ethan's my brother, and I just feel like I have to watch out for him.

I saw my parents a few days after we got back and I had to bite my tongue to stop myself from mentioning Ethan and Maia. Mum isn't the type to nag but she is really nosy sometimes and she kept asking if I knew if Ethan was seeing anybody.

I haven't even talked to Ethan about it yet and it's not my place to say, so I had to pretend I had no idea about anything. Dad changed the subject, thank goodness.

Mum moved on to me then, wanting to know if Calvin and I are planning on getting married. I promised her she'd be the first to know when we decide on that.

If it was totally up to me, Calvin and I would be engaged already.

I've talked about it with him - not a proposal, just a discussion. As a maybe-someday-in-the-future sort of thing.

Calvin's just not interested in the idea at all. He doesn't see why a piece of paper is that important to me, if we're already committed to each other.

My parents didn't get married until they'd been together for more than ten years and I know they were still committed before then. I just think it'd be nice for us to stand up in front of everybody and make it legal.

I'm hoping Calvin might change his mind in the future but for now, I'm very focused on my job. I just have to get promoted soon. I cannot take waking up at 3am to be at work by 5 any more.

Calvin's really sweet about it. I always end up waking him up when I get up and he hardly even grumbles. He's got to be getting just as tired of this as I am though.

Maia's parents have both been on her back about finding a boyfriend lately and she was expecting more of the same when her mum came to talk to her.

Magdalena came to nag Maia about her job situation this time. Her friend Araminta is an events planner and the firm she works for is looking for new people and they're willing to train people on the job.

Normally, I think Maia would roll her eyes and shrug off her mother's advice but she was sick enough of the convenience store that she agreed to go and meet with Araminta.

Maia wasn't entirely sure that events planning was a good career for her but she thought she'd go and talk to Araminta about it anyway.

So they talked about what a typical day was like, the kinds of things Maia would need to do and anything else Maia wanted to ask about. She decided it was something she might like, so she applied and she got the job! She started out as Araminta's assistant but she's now doing kids' birthday parties independently.

She really loves it. I've never seen Maia excited about a job before but I knew she'd find something eventually! There's a job out there for everyone.

She was so over the crappy wages they were paying her at the convenience store and now she's getting paid twice as much! I'm so proud of her.

Notes:
  • Title is from I Summon You by Spoon.
  • Ethan rolled several romantic wants for Maia while I was playing him at uni this round, so I invited him on the trip to see what would happen (Tessa got to go just 'cos). I was really surprised when I checked their chemistry. Their attraction score is 148, which is higher than Josie and Troy, the previous title holders for highest natural chemistry. I'm not sure what will happen with Maia and Ethan. Ethan's rolling lots of romantic wants for her but she's only rolling platonic ones for him. They haven't been on a date or anything though, and sometimes my non-Romance Sims need a date before they look at another Sim in that light.
  • Aaron has a marriage want right now. Calvin has a fear of same, probably due to his Romance secondary. I don't think of Calvin as being scared of it, exactly, though, so I haven't written it in that way. It's not out of the realm of possibility that he'll roll the want one day though, so who knows? I don't need his permission to make them get married anyway. ;) I only need one Sim to roll the want, though I often wait a while to see if the other will roll it.
  • I used Apple Valley's system to decide on events planning for Maia. I've adapted her system, to add in the custom careers and I've outlined the changes here. It must have been meant to be too, because when I sent Maia to the computer to find a job, events planning was the first one to pop up!

17 comments:

  1. Yay an update! :D I'm so incredibly excited. I can completely see Calvin as the kind of guy who doesn't see the big deal in marriage.

    I didn't see Ethan and Maia as a possibility at all, that might be kind of fun. And I love your choice for her career, and Im so glad you put up the custom careers up, I'll be adding that to my notebook. Question, since you don't have the IT career, would you mind helping me come up with what the traits would be? pretty please. :)

    The camping trip looked like a lot of fun!

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  2. Maisie, thanks for reading!

    Calvin's definitely not sold on marriage. I have some vague ideas of how I'll explain it away if and when he ever rolls the want to tie the knot but I guess I'll save those for the time when it actually happens!

    I never really saw Ethan and Maia together either but it makes sense. If Aaron was straight, he and Maia would have three bolts, so it makes sense that she'd develop a thing for his clone brother! And Ethan used to follow Maia around like a little puppy dog when he was younger. They're cute together though, so I'm hoping they last.

    Hmmm, I've not seen the IT career. But this is how I'd probably decide the criteria for that one:

    Personality: Neat, Serious, Shy
    Aspiration: Knowledge, Fortune
    Interests: Work
    Hobbies: Games or maybe Science
    Degree required: Any

    I'm sure there are plenty of messy, playful and outgoing IT professionals out there but for the game, that's probably how I'd set it!

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  3. For some reason I've never really liked Maia before, but she seems like she's really starting to come into her own and find herself, and I like what I see! I really like her and Ethan as a couple, even if I was slightly holding out for him and Matilda to get back together.

    I love Calvin & Aaron together though, they have such a great relationship. It's cute that Calvin gets up with him so early in the morning. One can only hope Calvin decides to give in and make Aaron happy with a wedding :)

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  4. I'm glad Maia has found a job she truly enjoys.

    It'll be really interesting to see how things will go with Maia and Ethan. I think they make a nice couple and wow on that chemistry!

    I'm so glad you put up the custom careers, we seem to have pretty much the same ones so I can just use your criterias for Wellington :)

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  5. I'm undecided on Ethan and Maia, I think I need to see them out together first lol. Calvin and Aaron are definitely cute together and I hope Calvin rolls the marriage want soon. Some people just live by that "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" rule of life :)

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  6. Yea, Maia would do great in event planning. And wow, Maia and Ethan, didn't see that coming. Good thing Tessa didn't mind the solo time during camping.

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  7. Thank you for helping me with the IT career. I didn't remember that Ethan was his brothers clone. Must be the hairstyle that makes me live Aaron more.

    If you ever want the IT career, let me hook u up. The one to Download has crazy pay, uninspired career names and so forth. I edited the crap outof that sucker and would be happy to share it. Save yourself from 2 hours of work and 8k pay haha.

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  8. I never saw it comming between Maia and Ethan, but I like them together. But Aaron is right if she's not interested in Ethan she should tell him.

    I like the camping-outing, all those young sims together, and they seemed to have had a great time.

    I like Maia's career, it's good to see her so enthousiastic about this job.

    I think SimsVille will be a second Sullivan, becaus I use so much of your stuff, but it all is so great! So I'm sorry for that, and a great THANK YOU!!
    The tuition you make your sims pay for university, do they have to pay it every year, or only when they start?

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  9. I never thought of Maia and Ethan together! But I kind of like them, and maybe things will work out. :)

    The camping trip was great, even if Calvin didn't seem so enthusiastic about the outdoors, lol! Looks like he spent most of his time spying on Maia and Ethan anyway. ;)

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  10. Renegade, well, previously, I've always loved Maia (but I love all of them) but she has been a bit flakey and immature in the past. But she's growing up, finally, at 25. She actually rolled the want to skill this round. I was like, "Why didn't you roll that in your last semester of college, you lazy bum?" LOL.

    I have liked Calvin and Aaron together since before they were even together. It was pretty convenient that my only two gay guys happened to be a perfect match. As for a wedding, we'll see. I'm holding out hope that he might roll the want one day.

    Sari, I couldn't believe it when I checked that chemistry! It's the highest I've seen without Massive Attraction and that's including other people's Sims that I remember reading about.

    And you're welcome for the custom careers. I'm finding it pretty handy.

    Mizzgin03, LOL, I want to see them out together too but that might not be for a while. I'm still deciding whether Ethan will move back in with his parents after graduation, just for a little while. That would mean I could play him again this round.

    Ha, that's definitely Calvin's philosophy!

    Apple Valley, I wasn't sure about events planning for Maia, because she's a little disorganised. But I decided being paid to be organised might be what she needs to get her butt in gear.

    Tessa was probably daydreaming about Dominic. She rolled so many wants for him while she was away, it was very cute (platonic ones, because he's still a teen, but still).

    Maisie, you're welcome! Ha, Aaron's my favourite too but it's the facial hair for me. I believe my love affair with Ethan's hairstyle has been well documented here on the blog, so it's not that. ;)

    I'll PM you on N99 about the IT career. I was actually looking for it on MTS but it's astonishingly hard to search for a two letter word!

    Tanja, ha, I don't think anyone saw this one coming. I didn't post a huge clue like I did for Sarah and Nick! But Maia won't want to risk losing Aaron's friendship by breaking Ethan's heart, so I think she'll be good to him. She's a nice girl. ;)

    My Sims actually pay tuition every semester. At the beginning of summer and winter, I enter all their parents' house and have them "Donate" the appropriate tuition fees. I do it by semester because then I don't have to refund fees if the Sim flunks out or drops out.

    Shana, I hope things will work out with Ethan and Maia. They're cute together and they made friends so fast on this trip!

    Calvin was the only non-Nature Sim on the trip. It just wasn't his thing. He made his own fun, as you noticed!

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  11. Maia and Ethan, an interesting combination. I can't say that I can see them together. But you never know what may happen.

    I love when I the Clarke family. The jawline just screams what family the belong too. Without even looking at the names, I knew Calvin was one of Galen's descendants.

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  12. Looks like they had a good time on their camping trip! Omg, you're never going to believe this, but since I was bored one day I was going through Sullivan archives again (can somebody say Tessa's a nerd?) and I was reading a Maia post and you said in the notes that there was someone you might get her together with, but they hadn't shown any interest in each other yet, and I was thinking "I wonder if she means Ethan?" And then I open this up and it's ETHAN! So of course I freaked out, lol.

    That's a good job for Maia, she's sort of like a big kid herself, so I can see her being a birthday party planner, it seems like she would enjoy that. And on a random note, I don't know why, but for some reason Calvin reminds me of the model Tyson Beckford. I don't know if you see it, but I kind of do.

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  13. oasisvalley, exactly! I've had some unlikely couples work out before, so it's not a death sentence. ;)

    And yeah, you can definitely tell Calvin is a Clarke. Even though I've given him surgery on his jaw (Troy too), they still both look a lot like Galen! Troy looks more like him, actually, because Calvin has Kendal's larger eyes.

    Tessa, LOL, you seem to have some kind of talent for this kind of thing! Of course, anyone can say that after the fact but I choose to take you at your word!

    I think Maia will be a birthday planner for a while, given that she doesn't often roll the want to skill, so it's a good thing that it suits her! The pay is decent, at least.

    I can kind of see the Tyson Beckford thing - I guess it's the pouty lips and the closely shaved hair.

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  14. A wedding for Calvin and Aaron would be so sweet, but I love how you write in Calvin's reluctance.

    The camping trip looked so fun! One fun thing to do with the college students/broke sims was taking them camping, lol.

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  15. Lunar, I think it'd be sweet too. They've been together for so long. I think it's 10 years now. I'm going to sit on it and see how Calvin's wants go.

    And yes! Part of the reason I added a campground to my island vacation area was so poor Sims could go to the beach too.

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  16. Camping! It's been so long since I sent any of my Sims camping!!! This totally has to be taken care of now.

    Oh, Maia the events planner - now I can totally see that! Yes, there is something for everybody, huh? But wow, Maia and Ethan! I never saw that coming! It makes sense though, I can see them together. And that's one heck of an attraction score!!! How did you not notice that before? lol!

    Awww, Calvin and Aaron! They're still young. It's tough though when one "gets there" before the other. I was wondering the same thing about one of my longterm couples recently, and they finally gave me an answer.

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  17. Laura, I love camping...or I love taking my Sims camping anyway! I am not the outdoor type, personally.

    Well, I've always known Maia and Ethan had three bolts but I never thought to check their score before! Crazy! But I think they could be good for each other. They have the same interests and a younger guy might suit Maia as well. She's still slightly immature.

    Aaron must have marriage on his mind after Troy and Josie getting engaged. ;) He and Aaron are both still young, so there's plenty of time to figure all that stuff out yet. That's what usually happens with my couples - I'll be wondering what's going to happen with them and then one will roll a marriage want or something and I'll go, "Oh...well, you told me!" LOL.

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