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.)