Round 7 Part 12: The Castle (2053-2057)

Corbin is 54, Audrey is 47, Charles is 11, William is 8.

"Shake it off"

narrated by Corbin Todd

I know Audrey and I aren't the most popular people in this town and maybe we deserve it (I'm immature and Audrey's a snob; I'm just gonna own that) but if Fate has a problem with us she's hasn't shown her hand yet. The only bad luck we've had lately was a minor break-in years ago, and nothing actually got stolen then. Audrey was unhappy about it, though. I'm not sure if she was more upset about a threat to her precious stuff or unnerved that the cops showed up. She's nervous around cops for some reason.

Audrey adopted a puppy after that in the hopes that he'd scare off potential burglars before the cops had to be called. I was a bit skeptical about whether this tiny fat puppy could scare a fly, let alone a burglar.

But within a year Leroy was a big brown and black dog, so I guess I would be intimidated if I met him on the porch on a dark night and didn't know he's a total pushover.

The boys kind of just do their own thing most of the time--Audrey and I aren't the sort of parents to sit there making up crafts for you during your summer vacation. They probably watch way too much TV, but they seem to be turning into decent people anyway. One time when they were in maybe 3rd and 6th grade they brought home this little kindergarten girl just because they thought she might be lonely and need friends. When I was their age I definitely wasn't sparing a thought for unpopular kids or the "babies" in the lower grades.

Charles turned 12 not long after that. I keep expecting him to get into girls but more and more lately he's got his nose buried in books! He's not shy or awkward at all, so I don't see why he doesn't get out more, but he says he wants to get good grades so he can go to college and become a teacher...so, basically, he wants to do well in school so he can do more school so he can spend the rest of his life in school. I don't know where he gets that studiousness from; certainly not from me.

When he's not doing his own homework, Charles is practicing his teaching skills on William--I swear William's never once come to me with a homework question! (Which is good because Charles probably knows the answer better than I do anyway.)

They do have fun sometimes, though. A lot of times on the weekends they'll spend hours fishing together and talking about their favorite sci-fi show.

Oh, and on top of all that, Charles has a part-time job helping out at the ER over at Sim City General. Like I said, no idea where he gets his altruism and work ethic...if he didn't look just like me I'd be seriously questioning his paternity.

As for Audrey, she's still working for Malcolm Landgraab, raking in the big bucks and having a great time spending them. Last year she bought herself a helicopter and took flying lessons as a 50th birthday present to herself. I teased her that she was having a midlife crisis and already had the fancy convertible so had to go one bigger. She pretended not to be able to hear me over the whir of her helicopter's blades.

I think William takes after his mom; he only just turned 12 and he's already talking about how when he's grown up he wants to run the whole town.

Lately when I'm home alone, instead of calling up my lady friends I find myself painting. I can really get in the zone and it feels like no time at all passes before the boys are home from school.

I've been doing a bit of pottery too.

My coaching job is going great; I even have my own star in the hall of fame. Lately, though, I've started to think that I spend an awful lot of time traveling and maybe it's time to cut back and really enjoy the last few years we have with them at home--maybe their school needs a basketball coach.








Notes:

1. Corbin is definitely coming across a little more mature and responsible in this update, mostly thanks to his new secondary aspiration being Family. But really I think that's kind of realistic--he seems like the kind of guy to party hard through his 20s and 30s and then one day up and decide that he's had enough of parties and wants to settle down a little. But of course that gets complicated when you father a few kids during those wild 20s and 30s. We'll see whether Corbin ever ends up rebuilding the bridges that got burnt when he broke up with Edith. 

2. Leroy the dog was actually Charles' 12th birthday present so he'd spin up a LTW, but it fit better in the story to have them buy a dog because of the break-in. He came with the name Leroy and I thought it fit well since it means "the king" and their last name is King.

3. Charles is a Knowledge Sim with the LTW to Become Education Minister, but currently working as an EMT because that was the job that happened to come up.

4. William is a Popularity Sim with the LTW to Become Mayor. He doesn't have a job yet.

5. Corbin maximized enthusiasm in his One True Hobby, Arts and Crafts. He also got his second TOC/LTW, Become Hall of Famer. Now he wants to Become Education Minister, amusingly enough. Sometimes the father takes after the son, I guess.

Week Six Part Twelve: The Castle

Corbin Todd: 46 years old. Aspiration: Romance. LTW: Become Hall of Famer (fulfilled: Become Professional Party Guest). Astrological sign: Libra.
Audrey King: 39 years old. Aspiration: Fortune. LTW: Become Criminal Mastermind. Astrological sign: Scorpio.
Charles King: 3 years old. Astrological sign: ?

Note: I realized as I was writing this post that Charles King should actually be two calendar years younger than his half-brother Charles Riedmayer, not one. I like the storyline potential of them being closer together in age, so I'm pretending that the previous update spanned 6 years (from 2039 to 2045) and this one spans 8 years (from 2045 to 2053). This magic math doesn't affect gameplay at all (Charles and his younger sibling would be in the same college batches regardless of whether they were born in '42 and '45 or '43 and '46); it's just storyline. 

Corbin and Audrey are both townies, but Corbin had 4 children with a playable before he ran away with Audrey, so he's irrevocably part of the timestream now. Edith and her children were played already this round, in Part 7.

"Peter Pan"
narrated by Audrey King

I'm surprised you want to hear from me, the "other woman" in the story started by that silly Riedmayer woman. But here I am, so I guess I'll say my piece.

My first son, Charles, was what you might call an "accident". That didn't please me, let me tell you. But I thought, "Well, I'm not getting any younger, and I have to leave my money to somebody." So I made an arrangement with Corbin, and next thing I knew we're practically domestic, with two sons.

Yes, two. William was born on Charles' third birthday. I would have preferred a girl, but both boys are ridiculously good-natured, and a girl probably would have been even more of a diva than me--I mean, really, with Corbin as a father?--so I suppose I got lucky.

William wasn't an accident, because Charles was constantly asking for someone to play with him, and I figure that since I already had a kid demanding attention 24/7 there wasn't much danger in having another. And it turned out that they actually did keep each other entertained, so that's a relief.

Corbin and I have a pretty good thing going. He's actually really easy to manage, if you know how to do it. I mean, the only real trick is that you can't expect him to be faithful. I don't care one way or the other, as long as he does his bit with the rugrats.

Funny thing is, he actually does. Maybe it's just 'cause there's two instead of the FOUR that crazy other woman had, or maybe I just know how to keep him in line better, but he's managed to keep the boys alive so far.

I'm not one to gush over the baby years--or much of anything, really--so let's just skip ahead a ways. Mercifully soon, the boys were both old enough to go to school--Charles was 8, and William was 5.

I decided it was high time to call up the headmaster of the private school...Corbin's other kids had gotten in the year before, and I wasn't about to be outdone.

The ridiculous thing is that Corbin got it in his head that he wanted to invite his other sons over the very same day of our interview with the headmaster. (His daughter was at college, and anyway she doesn't speak to him.) Still, the middle one--Fritz--managed to sit down and have an intelligent conversation about literature with the headmaster and I, while Corbin was being stupid and trying to discuss video games with another one of the boys.

That didn't go so well. Shockingly, not every young boy likes video games. Kind of like how I'm a woman but don't like pink and fluffy kittens? You'd think Corbin would get that, but then again he doesn't really understand women either, even though he likes them so much.

Afterward we were relaxing in the hot tub, and Corbin was saying how surprised he was that the other kids seemed so grown-up already. I guess part of it is that he hadn't seen them since they were toddlers, but the other part could very well be that he's never grown up himself, so he can't imagine that anyone else does.

The Todd/King family got a gypsy lamp sometime this week, so they were able to make their downstairs a lot fancier. 

The upstairs got fancier too. 

And here's the whole house. They definitely need to buy some windows with their next bit of spare cash.

Notes:

1. William is a clone of Charles. Boo. At least they're cute. Corbin is pretty good at fathering cute kids, even if he is pretty lousy at raising them.

2. Both boys have 10 outgoing points and as a result their social motive is constantly plummeting. I actually got social worker warnings two or three times. Audrey wasn't kidding when she said they want attention constantly.

3. Corbin rolled a secondary aspiration of Family partway through the round, which is why I had him invite over his sons. He'd never even met Charles R. As you can see, their first conversation ever didn't go too swimmingly. Charles really does hate video games. 

Week Five Part Twelve: The Castle

Corbin Todd, 40 years old. Aspiration: Romance. LTW: Become Professional Party Guest. Astrological sign: Libra.

Instead of giving a family tree for Corbin, I will refer you back to the last post in which he featured.

Excuse me if I eat while we talk. I have to head to work soon.

So, you've heard all about me from that daughter of mine, haven't you? Yeah, she thinks she knows everything. One of these days she'll get old enough that she'll figure out there are two sides to every story.

See, when I met Edith she wanted to be a businesswoman, start up a bunch of shops or whatever and run them all herself. That suited me just fine; I'm not much into the whole 9-to-5 gig so I figured I needed to hook up with somebody who had a steady income. I'd have that, and she'd have somebody to rub her feet--and do other things--after she got home after a long day being all businessy. I treated her right, as long as she gave me plenty of time to pursue my own interests. Granted, my interests involve other women, but I figure a little variety just makes me a better lover, right?

Well, then Edith got all clingy. She didn't want to run businesses any more, she just wanted to go out and do stuff all the time. It was nice for a while, but like I said, I'm not a one-woman man. It got stifling after a few years.

And then she had that kid. I wasn't even done with my degree and she expected me to be all responsible for this brat I hadn't brought into the world. I mean, I contributed, but she was the one who decided to keep the kid. When did I get asked if I wanted a kid? Never. 

But I moved in anyway, tried to do the right thing. Well, that Ingrid was as demanding as her mother. Always wanting stuff, always lecturing me when I had friends over while she was at school. I don't need lectures from a five-year-old, you know? And Edith didn't stop at one kid. No, there were two kids, and then three, and then a fourth on the way, and at that point I gotta admit I kind of checked out mentally.

So she caught me with Audrey, and maybe that wasn't totally an accident, but I had to get away from her nagging and demanding and all those kids. So she kicked me out, but I managed to snag a bit of land of my own. There are really complicated laws about who can and can't own land here.

And then Audrey came and told me she was pregnant and it was mine. She'd only been with two people around the time she got pregnant. One of them was a woman and one of them was me. So, she figured she knew who the father was. 

That did not thrill me, let me tell you. I just got away from Edith and her litter of brats and here was another lady trying to saddle me with a kid. 

But Audrey was a smart one. We worked out a mutually beneficial arrangement. She'd set me up with some light work with her old boss if I hooked her up with old man Landgraab and his questionable business dealings. I'm not sure why that guy wanted his stepdaughter's baby daddy's other woman working for him, but Audrey got herself in. 

Meanwhile, we'd have an open relationship. She wouldn't give me grief if I had a few ladies on the side, and I wouldn't give her grief if she kept in touch with her lady friend. She did draw the line at setting up a threesome with the aforementioned lady friend. Too bad.

So Charles was born a few months later. Audrey named him. I don't care. 

I did change a diaper or two--I'm not that heartless, to let a kid sit in his own stink--though mostly we had a nanny for that.

After a while of being--well, I guess you'd call it a socialite--I started thinking that working wasn't so bad, but I wanted to get into a field where I'd have a few more adoring fans. So I went into athletics. 

I used the extra money I earned to take a much-needed vacation. It was cold and the kid was whiny and Audrey managed to get pregnant again--really, it was serious deja vu--so I figured I deserved it. Picked up some nice non-local ladies while I was there. The nice thing about vacation hookups is that you never have to see those girls again.

Well, I'd love to stay and chat, but I'm going to be late for work. Wouldn't want to keep the adoring fans waiting on the awesomeness that is Corbin Todd, am I right?

Some Charles spam, since I didn't get to incorporate many pictures of him into the update. So far he seems to be a mini-Corbin with Audrey's nose, which is actually an improvement. (Corbin's nose is definitely not his best feature.)

And here is a cute picture of Charles dancing. He loves that stereo.

Charles King is only 1 Sim-day younger than his half brother Charles Riedmayer. Since Random.org gave them March and September birthdays respectively, storyline-wise they're six months apart, which actually kind of makes sense if you assume Edith was between 3 and 6 months pregnant when she kicked Corbin out.

I thought it would be funny to have half brothers both named Charles, just to showcase how clueless Corbin is about his children. (He didn't meet Charles Riedmayer until he was a teen.) Now I'm thinking it's just going to be annoying. Oh well.

The house at the end of the week. It's pretty basic: A combo kitchen/living room, a bedroom, an office/nursery, and two bathrooms. Audrey's Diva money didn't go very far.

I'm thinking of switching the pool for a pond. It'd make a better-looking moat and it'd probably be cheaper.

They keep most of their skill objects on the roof. The red sports car is Corbin's; he bought it with Edith's money and brought it with him in the separation. (He is so lucky there's no child support in Prosperity Plains.) The black car is Audrey's. (That might be why her Diva money didn't go far.)