Well, a new neighborhood, a new house and a new look. I guess we are all set to start this thing off right. First off, introductions. My name is Steph and I play the Sims2, a lot. Recently, I completed an apocalypse challenge that was published at the Sims2 website. It was so much fun to write that I jumped right into a legacy in the same neighborhood.

It was going along ok until the pictures began disappearing from the hard drive on my laptop I was playing on at the time. At first a few, and then whole game sessions worth would just vanish. My geek friend suggested that my hard drive was too full and that I needed to get back to playing on my PC if I was going to play such a large game and take pictures and have custom content and use the laptop for other things too. Excuse me a moment while I feed my guests.

So anyway, I spent a few hundred buck to upgrade the video card on my PC that crashed all the time and wouldn’t allow me to place swimming pools on lots and installed all the EP’s and stuff packs. Right about then, I got the chance to return to work after almost a year of recovery from an injured knee, and life interfered with my even trying to salvage my legacy. Now Pleasantview is my new home and its time to start writing again.

Before I introduce my founder and get her story started, I thought it would be nice to introduce the SimSelfs I invited to liven up the party a bit.

First, as if you couldn’t pick her out by her purple coat earlier is Purple Bunny. She writes “A Piratical Legacy” and the fantastic “Sim Spade” stories among others. She is currently hurling a water balloon at…

Little Nemo who is currently working on an apocalypse challenge and just recently killed my villainess (along with many others) and seems to have zombified all the simselfs in his neighborhood. His story called “Far Away from Eden” is very fun!

Along with those two in house one are Michelle Fobbs, Maxie Buckle and thepiper5 (aka Angela). Michelle writes “A Planetary Apocalypse”. Maxie is an apocalypse rules guru and writes “The Many Incarnations of Pinstar”. Angela writes “Romancing the Apocalypse”.

House two contains Orikes, writer of the “Pseudo Legacy” and Beloved Wagon (BW) who is currently writing “Monster Manor”. Along with…

Ephemeral Toast (ET) and Professor Butters (PB). ET set the simming world ablaze with her villainess Uranium in the “Apocalypso A-Go-Go” and “The Ugothlacy”. PB is writing “The Squeaky Clean Legacy”.

Choosing not to socialize with her new roomies at house two is Candi020765 who started the uglacy craze and unleashed the monster known as Gage upon the world. And don’t we all just love her for it. Check out her two completed stories: “The Uglacy Family” and “The Prettacy Family”.

*Included because it was funny

Nina came as part of their welcome wagon and quickly made herself unwelcome with PB. For some reason I see a Grim future for Nina.

House three currently only has three residents. Lorinsv60, seen here joking with ET who came as part of the welcome wagon, along with…

BlueBerryPie360 (BBP) and tlhs0 (lea). Both of whom have seemed to take a liking to one another. BBP writes “One Ugly Pie” and “Back to the Basics” among others. Lea is writing a fantastic legacy named “The Barsoom Legacy” based on the “Martian Chronicles”, a series of books by Edgar Rice Burroughs. If you are a SciFi fan I highly suggest the series. Lorin writes “Romancing the Apocalypse”.

Why did I devote so much space to these particular simselfs? Well, all of them write or have written some excellent tales that are very much worth your time to read. A few (Lea, Lorin, Maxie, Angela, Little Nemo and BBP) took the time to read and comment on my completed story and I really appreciated their time and assistance in making the story better. There are some others who also read my story, but I haven’t found their simselfs yet. I will add them when I do.

Let’s get on with the challenge, shall we? This lovely young lady is Tess Trueheart, my founder (bonus points for those who know where the name comes from). She is a fortune sim with the life time want of becoming the Hand of Poseidon (insert ominous ocean sounds here). She is a Gemini (4/7/8/3/3) who likes blonde guys who work hard and dislikes men who live with their mothers (jobless). Her favorite hobby is Sports. By the way, that’s the Pleasant house behind her and simself house one across the street.

She’s starting on a 3x3 lot with a green belt behind it. She is also right next door to me so I can keep a close eye on her.

First things first, let’s unpack the flamingo army and their general. Since this is supposed to be a wacky challenge I choose to name the gnome AND all the flamingos. We have Bob the Gnome (Bob made brief vocal appearances in my apocalypse story) and from left to right: Lord Byron, Phil and Pinky. Pinky by the way, was featured on my coversheet. I will be naming all additional recruits to the army (yes, I have them plotted on a grid to keep track). Next, we need a house.

And there it is. Money’s a little tight for Tess right now so we will be building as we go.

We have a simple kitchen and eating area.

A place to sit down and read or watch a little telly or paint. Exciting, I know.

A small bedroom with a passable bed for two.

And a very cramped bathroom. What you can’t see is the very expensive telescope the was placed in the back yard for Tess’s intended to enjoy.

The welcome wagon arrives with two ineligible, yet handsome gentlemen (I’m not doing the simself mania challenge) and…

Tess’s new next door neighbor, me! How fortuitous.

Well, I thought it was a good thing until my simself went and did this! Four sim hours into the challenge and I gnomenap Bob myself.

Once her visitors were gone, Tess found herself a job in the oceanographer career track that day (more good luck) and set about tracking down someone to use that telescope she spent so much money on. Two nights and four different stops downtown landed her two things. The Countess's phone number and Joe Carr. Boy, was he a tough cookie to crack! On their first date he kept rolling wants to slow dance with Tess, but would refuse her every time she asked. Honestly, he wanted in this order, “to make 100 simoleons”, “dance with Tess”, “buy a TV”, and “slow dance with Tess”.

Tess got Joe to move in right away. He brought 17,000 simoleons to the lot along with a fish tank, a neon floor lamp, an expensive stereo and a flamingo! He came prepared for this challenge. Ralph (the flamingo) was added to the ranks along with Sara and Jude and Joe Carr became Joe Trueheart. Joe is also a fortune sim with an odd set of turn ons/offs: stink/face paint and cologne. He wants to be a city planner but is currently working as a top secret researcher. Cha-ching!

Three tries before baby number one was on the way. Joe is a Scorpio (6/5/8/3/3) who enjoys sports just like Tess. They have a two bolt romance. If I made him blonde I bet they would be a three.

As you can see, Bob is still AOWL for the yard. I don’t really expect Joe to go get him as he was taken before he moved on to the lot, but Tess walks right by everyday and doesn’t seem to notice. Till finally one night…

Tess got the urge to walk the wrong way off the lot and get him back. My house is the other way Tess!

Despite her long trip around the neighborhood, Bob was returned to his flock and given a superior position. He used to be in back.

Joe began his seemingly never ending quest for proof of life elsewhere in the universe. Honestly, I don’t have high hopes for the abduction part of this challenge. I’ve only ever had one naturally occurring abduction in my game and that was during my apocalypse challenge with a senior female (not including the Curious brothers, of course). Joe is still going to work during the day, so he lives on espresso to replenish his energy needs.

Tess managed to get promoted to Dive Master before being placed on maternity leave. At this point I had Tess purchase a community lot on which to eventually build a BoolProp club house. Joe got a promotion to Theorist on a chance card which gave Tess enough to build a shell of a building on the lot.

Folks this is Maxie Buckle, newspaper thief extraordinaire! Her simself has a bit of a reputation for doing this and now I have proof. She loves to spy on the neighbors and currently has a feud going on with Mortimer Goth.

Not everything was hunky-dory in the house. Joe managed to set the kitchen in fire one morning while making pancakes for his pregnant wife. Good thing I always by a smoke detector!

Joe also managed to max out his logic skill in just a few nights. I think he started with six or seven points when he moved in. Still no aliens, just a new star and a new planet. Sigh.

Finally the big day arrived and baby number one is one the way. I’ve decided that baby number three will be the bad seed for this generation so number one here will be old enough to help out some by then.

It’s a boy! This is Brian Trueheart. Both mom and dad have those blue eyes and brown hair. The skin tone is all Joe.

Between birth and birthday not too much happened in the house. No abductions, no gnomenapping, no fires. Nothing! Except I put up this black and white tile in the kitchen that I don’t really like. Spin baby! Spin!

Very, very cute! Brian is an Aries (6/9/8/3/3) with high interests in paranormal, school and sports. He will eventually get the one true hobby of fitness.

This is not a great picture of him, but this is Komei Tellerman gnomenapping Bob.

Tess woke up in the middle of the night to go fetch him back. She’s really good at this game.

I got Tess back to work for one day to pick up her promotion to Marine Biologist before trying to get her pregnant again. It took three tries this time too.

Brian learned all of his toddler skill including the nursery rhyme in two days. He’s a sharp little kid! Joe still hasn’t been abducted (obviously), but he did bring in 50,000 simoleons via chance card. He has no time to sit down and study the cooking and cleaning points needed for promotions. He goes to work, comes home and either helps out with Brian or sleeps, so he can be up all night in front of the telescope.

Tess finally was able to finish building the club house and open it. Michelle Fobbs and Orikes were two of my first customers. Initially, I was going for a light and airy look, but later changed my mind and went tropical tiki hut with the décor. I just don’t have a picture of it yet.

A little while later and Tess went into labor in the newly remodeled bathroom.

Imagine my surprise when the box popped up saying there were two new babies on the way. Joe had decided that then was the most opportune moment to try and bathe Brian and couldn’t take little Odell from Tess. So Odell goes on the cold tile floor and mom pops out little Olive while standing on her hand in the smallest room in the house forcing me to take a picture with the walls down. Grr! Anyway, two little girls join the family and as stated earlier, the youngest, Olive, will be this generations bad seed.

The same day the girls arrived was also Brian’s birthday (How’s that for timing?). I like this brown tile a lot more than the black and white.

He’s actually a pretty good looking kid along with being very smart. He is already well on his way to a couple of scholarships and autonomously uses the telescope whenever his father isn’t.

It was about this time that things started breaking down in the house and according to rules they were left to be fixed until noon the next day. The dishwasher wasn’t much of an issue except I feared Tess might be electrocuted with her four measly mechanical points. The bathroom sink on the other hand was a mess!

This is little Odell newly toddlerfied. She grew up bald and with a long face I suspect she got from her mother. Odell is a Virgo (10/1/8/10/3) and is very neat and shy. She has a high interest in travel and will eventually find her one true hobby of games.

And this is Olive, our bad seed of generation one. Since I can’t look at her panels I really don’t know much about her except that she likes to drink spoiled milk. She did grow up with her mother’s hairstyle and a shorter face shape than her sister.

Well, this seems like a good place to stop. Part two will be out soon as I have played a ways ahead. So I will leave you with ET the expected puddle dancer (pleasure asp.) and…

PB the not so expected puddle dancer (knowledge asp.). I really like her!

Thank you for reading and look for part two soon!