Week Three Part Three: Riedmayer Cove

In what seemed like only a matter of days, Agatha was in school. Johnson often helped her with her homework. Agatha called Jill "Mom" and Jack "Uncle Jack", logically enough, but she took to calling Johnson "Dad." Johnson certainly didn't mind, and Jill said she didn't either. After all, Agatha had been hardly more than a baby when her biological father died.






Noticing Johnson's obvious love for the girls, Jack began to get the strangest ideas. One day, he surprised Johnson with a proposal; they entered into a civil union right there in the yard. (Note: The game itself calls same-sex marriages "joining," so I figure Sim City has some kind of civil union policy.) Johnson was surprised but pleased. Jack worried he was making a mistake, but figured it was too late to turn back now.





Almost immediately after the commitment ceremony, Jack suggested that they apply to be foster parents. They did so, and the next thing they knew a little girl named Annie showed up on their doorstep. They adopted her about a year later, giving her the last name Riedmayer.








Johnson loved having Annie around, so much so that two years later he surprised Jack by accepting a second foster placement, a little girl named Gretchen. (She took the last name Riedmayer as well.)









Jack began to feel a little overwhelmed by domesticity, so he took to spending most hours of the day painting while Johnson and Jill took care of the FOUR little girls running around. Annie and Gretchen took their cues from Jill's daughters and began referring to the various adults as "Mom" "Uncle Jack" and "Dad." In spite of himself, Jack became rather fond of the girls.






Not very long after Gretchen's adoption was finalized, Jack was on his way to visit his brother's gravestone when he collapsed himself. Jill, a paramedic, determined that he died instantly.

(Despite a LOT of work on my part, Jack died in gold aspiration. Loser.)

Jill naturally assumed that Johnson would want to move on after Jack's death, but Johnson insisted that he'd like to stay if Jill would let him. (Jill was trustee of the Riedmayer estate on behalf of her daughters, and therefore had a right to dictate who lived in the house.) Jill agreed, and the two of them settled into raising their daughters together. (But with an entirely platonic relationship themselves. Seriously, I have never known two Sims more indifferent to each other.)

Johnson decided that it would be in the girls' best interests to get into private school, but his first attempt to get them admitted failed. Johnson was so upset by this that he needed therapy. (No doubt, there was still some lingering grief as a result of Jack's death that he needed to work through.)







The second attempt proved successful--perhaps because Jill charmed the headmaster over coffee--and all four girls were admitted to private school. Life was looking up for the unconventional little family.









This is what the first floor looked like at the end of the week. On the left you can see a bathroom (or at least the bathtub), then eat-in kitchen, living room, and Jill's bedroom.










This is what the second floor looked like: Another bathroom, a room shared by all four girls, and Johnson's room. (I really should have swapped the two rooms, since Johnson doesn't need all that space to himself. Oh well.)









This is what the exterior looked like. Take note of the fact that I've tiered the sloping yard and built a set of stairs from the patio to street level.











At some point during this week of gameplay, I happened to look in Johnson's inventory and found a TON of stuff. Behold. (The truck was not in there, nor were the tombstones. That area just happened to be the largest flat spot.)









This is the stuff they actually kept. (I think two of the blue vases were already there, but the other flowers around the graves are from Johnson's inventory.)

Week Three Part Two: Dejackome Place

When she first moved in with Rivka, Melanie had gotten a job in a music store to help make ends meet; not long after an opening as a professional gamer came up and Melanie leapt on it, hoping to realize her dream of becoming a game designer. As her income grew, she improved the little house.

Next thing Melanie knew, Gretchen and Jeannie were turning 13. She realized that the girls were getting closer and closer to college and decided it was time to try to get them into private school. Surely Rivka would have wanted them to have the best education possible. So the headmaster was invited and much to everyone's surprise was impressed by their small but well-kept house. All four children went to school the next fall looking very sharp in their new uniforms.

Gretchen Dejackome, daughter of Rivka Dejackome

Aspiration: Knowledge
Lifetime Want: Become Criminal Mastermind
Astrological sign: Aries

Jeannie Dejackome, daughter of Rivka Dejackome

Aspiration: Knowledge
Lifetime want: Become Head of SCIA
Astrological sign: Aquarius

Gavin and Theresa

Theresa, Jeannie, and Gretchen. Notice that Gretchen grew out her hair.

It wasn't long before it was time for Gavin and Theresa to turn 13 as well, putting Melanie in charge of four teenagers.

Gavin Dejackome, son of Rivka Dejackome
Aspiration: Knowledge
Lifetime want: Become Criminal Mastermind
Astrological sign: Cancer















Theresa Dejackome, daughter of Rivka Dejackome
Aspiration: Romance
Lifetime want: Become Celebrity Chef
Astrological sign: Libra

After that milestone, things settled into a placid routine at Dejackome Place. The eldest three children seemed as fascinated by their studies as Melanie. Theresa was not such a scholar, preferring to flirt with boys during math class, but she gained skills too under the guidance of her siblings and "Auntie" Melanie.

This is what the Dejackome house looked like at the end of the week. Three bedrooms, one bathroom, a dining room and kitchen and living room. That little room to the right that leads to the garage doesn't have a purpose yet. Especially since I didn't figure out how to build the garage. (Stay tuned for that one.)







The exterior. I think this is a really cute little house.

The Dejackomes are one of my favorite families. It didn't hurt that they bore the brunt of my die's streak of 2's. (Of the 19 members of Generation 2 who are old enough to have aspirations, 7 are Knowledge. That's more than twice what it should be, statistically speaking.) Although Theresa has a relatively harmless lifetime want (and is therefore less loathsome to me than most Romance Sims), I'm planning to reroll her aspiration when she gets to college. I'm half-hoping that she'll round out my family of nerds here.

Week Three Part One: Kules Korner

Darius left for college when he was in his mid-twenties, very near the maximum age for full-time admittance.











After he left, Brittanie remembered that Jaden existed. She definitely didn't feel like taking care of the kid herself, so she bit the bullet, inviting Ryan over and informing him that he had a son. Ryan, naturally, immediately wanted to move in and help take care of the boy. Brittanie let him, and was soon glad to discover that Ryan was too busy burying his nose in a book to pay much mind to her...extracurricular activities. (Ryan is a Knowledge Sim with the lifetime want to become a prestidigitator. I don't remember his astrological sign.)
















Brittanie was still working, doing video editing. One day she showed her boss a life-changing video of some rabbits and he bequeathed her his entire fortune and went to live in the wild. Or something. Brittanie didn't really care. She just cared that she had enough money to bulldoze her old, dinky house and build a swanky new one.







Around the time Jaden started kindgergarten (or was it first grade? Brittanie wasn't really paying attention), Brittanie was dismayed to discover that she was pregnant again. She really needed to get better birth control. To make things worse, she'd been with some guys besides Ryan recently and couldn't be sure the baby was his.







A few months later, a baby girl was born. Brittanie named her Alexis, noted with relief that she looked just like Jaden (meaning she had been fathered by dark-complexioned Ryan and not by blond-haired what's-his-name), and promptly forgot that she existed.








Meanwhile, Ryan took time out from his own studies to help Jaden with his homework. Although he loved Brittanie, he noticed that she seemed perfectly content with her low level of education (she'd barely graduated high school) and he wanted his son to go to college and have opportunities he'd never had.







This is what the Kules house looked like at the end of the week. The exterior is loosely designed on a picture I saw somewhere on the interwebs. Unfortunately, Sims 2 furniture isn't really intended for slanty walls. I make it work, though.









This is the exterior of the house. Originally I was upset that the roof looked like that, but then I decided it was cool and funky. Or something.

I'm really glad I brought Ryan into the neighborhood, even thought it cramps Brittanie's Romance-Sim style. This way, I get to cast her as the villian and Ryan and the kids as victims. If she was the only one living here, she'd have to be the hero of the story and I just dislike her too much for that. (I'm a shameless Romance Sim hater. Also, I love Knowledge Sims to pieces even though they're boring by themselves.)

Week Two Part Six: Sim State Dormitory + Zeta Zeta Epsilon Greek House

During high school, Edith and Joan had discovered that Sim State University would be offering limited full ride scholarships to young Sims from Prosperity Plains. The catch was that the scholarships were only offered once every 7 years and only 8 sims from the city could attend. (Translation: I decided to put my kids through in batches rather than staggering them.) The number limit wasn't a problem, but Edith and Joan didn't have good enough grades at 18 and thus had to wait around until they were both 25. SSU didn't admit full-time students older than 26, so the twins were cutting it close.

Edith and Joan managed to convince their best friend from high school, Greg Pons, to go with them, and all three were placed on the second floor of Sim State Dormitory.

Edith immediately got to work networking, greeting a mysterious stranger in a black blazer and encouraging Joan and Greg to come hang out with him as well.










Joan went along with it, but the next morning she abandoned the networking plan and started working on her MRS degree...with Greg, who didn't seem too troubled by having to choose between his two best friends.























Joan and Edith still had a strong relationship, playing Red Hands together to help de-stress after class just like they used to in high school.

Their second year at college, the three students decided to begin a Greek house, which they named Zeta Zeta Epsilon. They moved to a 3-bedroom house just across the street from Sim State Dormitory.





All three students soon found that their friendships with the black blazer types had paid off; Greg was inducted into the Secret Society not long after the Greek House was founded; Edith followed and then Joan.























After sophomore year, the twins began to change things up a bit. Joan confined her college rebellion to chopping off her braids and dying her jet-black hair blond.










Meanwhile, Edith seemed to undergo a personality change; she stopped caring about money and started obsessing over going on dates and having fun. She started dating a charismatic young man named Corbin Todd; they very quickly became engaged and soon she had asked him to move in. She even asked him to share the big black bed with her.




















Joan was not too upset about this; she just moved to the other bedroom with Greg, to whom she had become engaged.











It wasn't long before Corbin was fully integrated into the Greek house and then into the Secret Society.











Meanwhile, the older students were hard at work trying to attain the coveted Big Man (or Woman) on Campus award. All three accomplished this before graduation; they celebrated their success with a toga party at which Edith led the crowd in a rousing rendition of an old folk song.

Then came graduation. All three of the older students graduated with honors, but Edith didn't qualify for Summa Cum Laude since she had a 3.9. Joan gave her a lecture about studying, but Edith shrugged it off. She would still be plenty prosperous enough.

This photo amuses me mainly
because Timothy Seifert (far left)
and Ryker Owens (far right) would
both later join the Greek House.

Also notice Brittanie Kules (in pink,
center) being a total cougar,
trying to pick up college guys.

Edith, as you may recall, was a Fortune Sim with a lifetime want to own 5 top level businesses. I didn't feel up to figuring that out, so when end of sophomore year came around I rerolled her aspiration. She's now a Pleasure Sim with a lifetime want to have 50 dream dates. Of course, she immediately snagged herself a Romance Sim. Their desires remained compatible through college (Edith kept Corbin faithful with lots of awesome dates; he didn't even mind getting engaged), but things might get interesting for them after graduation when marriage and children become possible.

Week Two Part Five: Riedmayer-Landgraab Estate

Finally, it was time for the twins to leave for college. They had worked hard to get their grades up and were thrilled. Beata was thrilled too. Since she'd given birth to the twins at 15, she'd barely had a chance to finish high school; college had been completely out of the question. She was glad that her girls had more opportunities than she'd had.

Joan was the first to leave.




Edith was next.













The twins took their bedroom furniture with them. As soon as they were gone Malcolm had some contractors come in and redo the twins' room for little Mal, who had outgrown his crib.










Beata insisted that he also hire some contractors to redo the kitchen, since they could finally afford it. So Malcolm did.











Not long after the last contractor cleaned up the last mess, Beata gave birth to her sixth child (Malcolm's third), another girl. They named her Marion after Malcolm's grandmother. (This actually was in Malcolm's family tree.) Like her sister Mildred, Marion strongly resembled Beata.








Malcolm told Beata that as a post-baby present she could get a car. Since she had four children at home, Beata reluctantly decided to get a practical minivan rather than a cooler sort of car.










Francine generally got lumped in with the "little kids," even though she was halfway between the twins and Millie in age. However, after Marion was born her mother gave her more responsiblity...and more freedom. For instance, she was allowed to have boys over. She became good friends with both Donte and Jihoon Whitfill, though she didn't give either of them romantic ideas. She wanted to go to college too and didn't need distractions from her studies. (Knowledge Sim.)

At this point I was very seriously considering setting Francine up with Donte. However, as you can guess from this post, that didn't pan out.

Bonus out-of-order picture: Francine became friends with Rishell Whitfill while they were both still children.











This is what the downstairs looked like at the end of the week. Notice that they've started using the porch as a sort of study.











This is what the upstairs looked like. Francine and Millie in the pink room, little Malcolm in the blue room.











The whole house from the back. I think my screened porch is cute.












The whole house from the front. My favorite part is that little window/balcony thing on top, which was put there by whoever designed the house for Maxis, not by me. The bay window (which you can just see behind the willow tree) is cool too.

I feel like a lot more happened to the Landgraabs than is contained in this update. A lot of ordinary Sim-life, I guess. Working and taking care of babies and making sure your kids do their homework and putting dinner on the table...stuff that doesn't make a very interesting story. I really like this family, though.