Saturday 30 November 2013

Nighttiming

Round 34: November 2040 (Spring)

Linnea Lane is 80, Eliot is 54, Cordy is 47, Simon and Matthew are 15 and Charlotte is 11.
(Athena is 80, Luc is 47, Tim is 20, Annabel is 16 and Aurora is 14)


Narrated by Matthew Lane

A few months back, we had my grandma Linnea move in with us.

She’s 80 now and she can’t really afford to keep living on her own. Mum and Uncle Luc also thought there probably wasn’t much time before she couldn’t really handle it physically either.

It’s a bit strange having her around all the time now, as we didn’t see her that often previously.

But I actually like Grandma, so it’s a good change, as far as I’m concerned.

Mum hasn’t really got along very well with Grandma since she was a teenager, so she’s been struggling a bit.

They disagree fairly often and there’s a lot of sighing and eye rolling going on.

She’s always had a better relationship with Uncle Luc and it probably would have made more sense for her to live with his family.

There’s no room at his place though. Marcus and Felix are already sharing a room, Ruby won’t want to share with her grandmother and the spare bedroom has already been converted into a recording studio.

Mum thinks that’s all just a bit too convenient but she hasn’t said anything else to him. 

Honestly, Grandma doesn’t get in anyone’s way too much. She’s home a lot but she lives a pretty quiet life these days, watching TV or hanging out with her sister.

Dad thinks a lot of it is just left over from when Mum was much younger. 

He says they’re much better than they used to be, so he’s hopeful that it will blow over once everyone gets used  to the new living situation. 

Simon is hoping that Mum will also get off his back about going to college when everything settles down. Mum really wants him to go and he's not really sure he wants to. 

Mum is very concerned about his future job prospects, assuming this “rock star” thing doesn’t work out.

That always leads to Simon bringing up the fact that Dad flunked out of college and has done all right for himself. 

Simon is pretty confident that his future is as a rock god and he spends most of his time practising his guitar 

When he’s not playing, he’s usually with Annabel. Annabel’s mother is pretty strict and I’m not entirely sure she knows about Simon. 

If she does, I would bet money she’s not too keen on him. 

To my eyes though, they seem like a pretty good match. She’s willing to listen to Simon’s music ad nauseam, which always wins people points with him.

They’re also similarly disinclined towards study, which works for them.

Simon is like Tim’s complete opposite.

Mum never hesitates to remind Simon of this but Simon just doesn’t care.

I can’t really see Simon following in Tim’s footsteps and going to medical school anyway. 

Even though Simon is my twin, I’m more like Tim in most ways, even appearance. We're both shy and very, very studious.

We’re both pretty hard workers too. I manage to drag my butt out of bed for work before sunrise almost every morning.

I have a paper route, which isn’t what I’d call a fun job but it brings in some money and leaves my afternoons completely free.

Simon claims I waste my afternoons, seeing I spend most of them doing homework. 

It’s okay for him. He slacks with school and still gets straight As. 

If I slack even a little, my grades go down. I have to work to keep up.

Homework has to be done, so I just get in and do it.

Aurora and I often do our homework together. It makes it go faster.

Aurora is a year behind me at school, so we’re never doing the same assignments. But I did a lot of the work she’s doing now last year, so I can often help her out with it.

She’s also much better at me at maths, so she helps me out in that area too.

I’m always so relieved to be done with that part of my homework. I actually like school but I hate maths.

Aurora and I aren’t really very similar. She’s much more organised than I am and she’s way nicer than I could ever be.

She even talks to Charlotte voluntarily. She’s my sister and I avoid doing that a lot of the time.

We’re compatible where it counts though. We play a lot of basketball in my backyard. She's the only one willing to play with me. She beats me the vast majority of the time too. 

I love that my girlfriend likes hanging out at home with me. Staying in beats going out any day!

Notes:
  • Title is from Nighttiming by Coconut Records.
  • Cordy's top kind of blends into her skin, which I didn't really notice until I looked at my pics later! But I went into SimPE just a while ago, extracted the texture and changed it to a much darker orange. It's going to work a lot better for my medium-toned sims now and as a bonus, I prefer the new colour anyway. I really love orange in general.
  • Initially, I decided to move Linnea in because I didn't feel like decorating a house for her on her own. And she's 80 now, so it made sense too. But I went to grab her from my Saved Sims folder and she wasn't there! Opened up Sullivan 1.0 and tried to extract her with SimPE and couldn't. A ton of my sims are now "uneditable", which is strange, because last time I checked it, they were fine. Last time I checked it was when I extracted them all to start Sullivan 2.0. So if Linnea looks a little different, that's why. I used Athena to make her and changed her a little bit to hopefully make her look fairly close to her old self. She's definitely not exact. I decided I didn't want to kill her off though, so it was all I could do. :\
  • New Cordy and New Linnea still don't get along. Their relationship is positive and they may even be friends but they argue a TON! I was a little worried my sims wouldn't act the same when I rebuilt but so far, so good.
  • I really love Matthew and Aurora together. I can't even remember if it was something I initiated or something they did but I'm quite happy with them regardless, at least for now. :)

16 comments:

  1. They are cute together and wow, I don't think I could have a paper route, too early in the morning for that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, nor I! I'm not a night owl but I am most definitely not a morning person either! Fortunately for Matthew, he got a promotion this play session and now has far more godly working hours. ;)

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

      Delete
  2. Aurora is adorable, and how nice that she talks to Charlotte too. I love that Cordy has such a mix of personalities with her kids. Charlotte was very missed in this episode, she's just so spoiled, I love her antics. She's getting old too! Matthew and Simon are super opposite, and I really liked the comparison of Matthew to Tim, they really are more similar. I hadn't thought of it that way before, but I like the comparison.

    Hopefully Simon can make it in the rock world, if not, at least he has a girl who is a huge fan. That's always a nice perk. I'm sure he will do well though, he seems determined. Still can't believe that he's dating Annabel, I always thought it'd come to an end. Does Lia still not know? Because I could see her stomping her foot on it, but the girls are getting SO old now! It's exciting seeing this next generation of young adults on the verge of growing up! Looking forward to the trouble they will get in!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cordy and Eliot's kids are definitely a mix, yes! That's a lot of fun. I thought people might miss Charlotte but it was hard to fit her in with everyone else. She made friends with Jacinta Nihill though, so you'll see her a little in the Nihill update, which is coming up next.

      Matthew is so much like Tim. He's not headed for medical school (he actually wants to go into politics) but they have the same attitudes about a lot of things and they get along very well.

      I had to actually go and read back to see if I said anything about Lia meeting Simon! Annabel and Simon got together at school and I haven't actually played Annabel post-Simon, so I don't think Lia knows. I can decide that when I get to the Notts, I guess. It will definitely be dealt with in some way. :)

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

      Delete
  3. How did you make Matthew a paper boy? It must be a hack or something, because it is definitely not a job available for anyone in my game.
    I like it how different the siblings in this family are. It is much more realistic than my "peace and harmony" households. Only recently have I started to see some less than good mood between Sims, when I had Barry Beaker move in with Monica Bratford, and her two housemates are not happy at all about the new addition.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. For a lot of the EA careers, I use default replacements (made by prudencepureheart at N99) that make them a little more realistic. Paperboy is the first level of the teen Journalism track with the replacement.

      It's fun to have a bit of conflict around, though I definitely like to have a balance. All conflict, all the time is exhausting! I'll get to Barry and Monica eventually and I look forward to it - I'm quite far behind, lol!

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

      Delete
  4. Oh, wow! I'm glad you found a way to "save" Linnea.

    I loved the shot of Matthew walking out to his paper route. He is definitely NOT the same as Simon, LOL! I really wonder if this 'rock star' thing will pan out...

    Matthew's reaction to Aurora willingly speaking to Charlotte was hilarious!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, me too. I hadn't played with her properly for ages and I would have felt guilty if I'd had to kill her off. :(

      Matthew and Simon are so different. I'm struggling to think of twins in my game that aren't very different though! I'm sure there are some but the polar opposite ones tend to stick in my mind, I guess. It's fun.

      In fairness to Matthew, Charlotte is a huge brat a lot of the time! Being the baby and the only girl, she's also quite spoiled. Aurora doesn't have to put up with all that but even if she did, she'd probably still talk to Charlotte voluntarily. She's a total sweetheart. :)

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

      Delete
  5. Matthew and Aurora are so cute. It's nice to see them challenging and balancing each other.

    I'm really curious to see if Simon accomplishes his dreams or goes to college begrudgingly. He seems to have his Uncle Luc's cool demeanor though.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Matthew and Aurora are good kids, even if he's pretty cranky. ;) He was born to cranky parents, so that was always going to happen. Aurora is so far from cranky that it does seem to balance them out.

      I'm curious if Simon will go to college too. It seems pretty rare for my sims to get to close to college age and not have the want. Perhaps Cordy can have Luc talk to him. Luc had a great time in college!

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

      Delete
  6. Sucks about losing Linnea. Glad you could improvise getting her back.
    I'm starting to lose track of the teens; that's no good!

    Doesn't Simon know one always has to have a contingency plan? LOL That's teenagers for you. At least Matthew has a good head on his shoulders. But a paper route? As soon as I heard that was a seven day a week job, I said no.

    I love seeing Matthew and Aurora together. They look so sweet! I hope they last.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, these teens grow up pretty fast! Charlotte will be among them next time. :)

      Simon is way too confident right now but yeah, that's a teenage thing. More and more, I'm starting to think a chat with Uncle Luc might be in order. ;) Matthew's job isn't 7 days a week, by the way - it's 5. He gets up before sunrise "almost every morning". Which is still 5 morning too many to me. ;)

      I have my fingers crossed for Matthew and Aurora too. :)

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

      Delete
  7. I like the realism of Cordy and Linnea not getting along--it might be difficult for someone like Cordy to get along with her mother when she's living in her house as an adult. Simon the young rockstar...I really wonder how that will work out!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cordy and Linnea haven't got along well for so long, so it would be unrealistic if they were just suddenly all chummy, especially seeing Cordy's sort of being forced into having her mum move in. I think they will settle but they're never going to be like Amelia and Sophie or Tatiana and Audrey. Cordy always favoured her other mother.

      I can't wait to play Simon as an adult. Or young adult, if he does reconsider the college thing. I think he'll be a lot of fun. :)

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

      Delete
  8. I'm sure it was an adjustment having Linnea move in with them, for all of them. Especially since Cordy and Linnea never where all that close, but they all seem to make it work.

    It might not be a bad idea for Simon to go to college, that way he always has something to fall back on. But I guess that's not what he wants to hear at this moment. I'm agreeing with Matthew that Simon and Annabel seem like pretty nice couple.

    I think it must be frustrating for Matthew, seeing his brother doesn't have to work hard to get straight A's, and he has to work his but off to improve his grade. Thankfully he has Aurora to help him.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think having someone new move into a household always changes the dynamic, so there's always going to be some period of adjustment. It's definitely most difficult for Cordy but she'll manage. ;)

      I actually would like Simon to go to uni but so far, he doesn't have the want. That's pretty unusual, so he must really, really not want to go. Even Annabel has the want to go to college, lol! But you never can tell what wants sims will roll - he may roll a college want next time I play him. If so, I'll do the SAS on him and hopefully send him off. :)

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

      Delete