Strangetown, Here We Come.

Well, Helena isn't new... just new to me. She's had a long career of being awesome over in The Broke Legacy. I love redhead aliens too. It goes so well with the green skin.

As a sidenote, my alien child from Chester and the redhead PT ended up being a blond. Like, WTF? Chester must have recessive blond genes. I was hoping for red. That just seems like rotten luck to me. Oh well. I do like blond aliens too.

Yeah, I liked Lysander (and the name) a lot too, and I really would like to try to recreate the Globe Theatre. But all hope is not lost. Hippolyta really does want to bring him back, and has devoted her life to the cause.

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If I remember right, Chester actually has blonde/blonde genetics, but dyed red hair. I did a double-take at that too. WTF, EAxis? I changed it to red/blonde or something.

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A dye job had occurred to me too, but I've never heard of a playable character that was like that. It's usually just the townies and NPCs, and lots of them dye their hair.

I should have opened him up in SimPE, but I just assumed he was red/red, like most CAS sims. Few premades seem to even have recessives. Oh well.

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Yeah, I dunno. I think EAxis just likes to screw with us. Gilbert Jacquet also has dyed black hair (genetic blonde), but his eyebrows are still blonde so at least you can tell, with him.

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Really? I didn't notice his blond eyebrows. *snicker* For shame. I have to take a closer look.

I don't mind the loss of the black hair as much. It seems like everyone fights a non-stop genetic battle against black hair, and brown too. I like them, but I always like to have a recessive in there too, if possible.

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cindyanne1.livejournal.com

I knew about Gilbert, but not about Chester! Of course I've never made him have any bio kids in my games except aliens and I don't have a replacement PT hack (yet) lol!

I'm totally moving away from the "must have perfect looking sims" phase now though... so I think I might have to indulge and let Chester be a family man... after his seven aliens grow up of course. ;)

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With all the times you've bred Vidcund, I think you owe it to Chester. It's not like Vidcund makes perfect kids (well, perfect is in the eye of the beholder, because some of them are perfectly awesome... just not pretty).

Are you going to get that PT hack? I'm really thinking about making one, since everyone seems to be stealing that idea from simgaroop. (Okay, that's the THIRD time I mentioned her name in this post. Is she talking about me, somewhere? *snicker* Sorry for the random superstitious rambling.)

I'm thinking of designing some PTs from scratch, using some characteristics that I like, while keeping them alien enough too. Maybe a mix of mangled eyes and pointy ears too. Maybe I'll whip some out and get people to vote for the best ones to use.

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It's not like Vidcund makes perfect kids (well, perfect is in the eye of the beholder, because some of them are perfectly awesome... just not pretty).

Pixel is not amused!

*wink*

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Well, obviously, I wasn't referring to Pixel. She's very pretty.

(Sorry, Pixel! Don't be angry...)

I was thinking more about Bean and his type, who have an interesting look that wouldn't be considered "pretty".

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Pixel wasn't offended (with 10 nice? Are you kidding? hee) :)

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Yeah, the dominant genes can be rather annoying. The trick is to breed them with recessive haired sims and then have every offspring carry some recessive blond or red hair. :D

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That's what I try to do, unless I really want it to run in the family. I go in and give recessives to the premades in SimPE too, where appropriate (based on the family tree).

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Yeah, I went ahead and looked at the (usually dead) parentage of every single EAxis sim in every neighbourhood, and then gave them the appropriate recessive genes (unless the parents' genes didn't match up at all, which often was the case). Jennifer Burb now has recessive red hair, for example, so it makes more sense that Daniel is her brother.

Man, I never wanna do a big cleanup like that again. But it did give me a painfully good insight into Maxis/EA's many, many small and rather huge mistakes and oversights, as well as getting to know all the characters pretty well.

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Oh, good call on the recessive red for Jennifer Burb. I will do the same, if I breed the Burbs (and I probably will). I have to "play up" Pleasantview too for this story.

Yeah, some of those premade families make no genetic sense, like the Curious family. Even factoring recessives in there, it doesn't make sense.

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simfulacts.livejournal.com

Am I a bad person that I giggled when I saw the smooshing picture?

Those two little girls are SO cute!

Also, keeping what killed your dad is rather morbid. O_O

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I think it's hard not to laugh a little at that satellite death.

They are very cute. I should find a better pic to post. I have a really sweet one of them hugging, which didn't fit for these drabbles. I'll probably use it later.

Well, Hippolyta is a rather morbid girl like that. She's devoting her entire life to studying and defeating death, so maybe she's less aware of how weird that might seem to others.

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smjoshsims.livejournal.com

I agree with madame_ugly, red headed aliens ftw. Wow, that sucks for them though. :)

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I also agree. The colours just go together so well.

Luckily, the girls get adopted into a good home (and that's where the name is a clue).

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vega-pleiades.livejournal.com

He died because Lysander < Demetrius. It's unfortunate but true.

What's the other redhead's name?

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*snicker* Yes, maybe that's why... though, the connections there are mostly just as a naming source (though you never know when I might "borrow" a detail or two from the bard). I love the name Demetrius. I'll have to save that one for the next generation (maybe Helena's child, if she ever has a son).

The speaker in that second drabble is Hippolyta. Helena is her twin sister. The full names are listed in the drabble stats at the top.

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Ooh, interesting. I wonder how this will fit into the Strangetown storyline.

Also: I really like the girls' hairs. May I ask where you got them?

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These characters will have an impact in numerous ways. The death thing will surely be significant, but I have other plans too. The next time you see these girls in the story, they'll probably be adults (or youth adults, at least).

The hairs both come from Maxis Dream, which is a great Maxis-match cc site. Simgaroop posted about it recently. She's just all kinds of helpful, isn't she? Any post by her is almost guaranteed to bring a smile to my face.

Here the link:

http://maxistraum.de/index-eng.htm

There isn't a lot of content, but there are some very nice hairs there. Those two are recolours of a Raonsims and an XM Sims mesh. I love that straight bob. I had downloaded it anyway, even thought the Raon textures are way too shiny for me, and I'm planning to use it on the female Nervous clone. It's nice to see it in Maxis textures.

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Oooh, thanks for the link! Some very nice hair there. I love good Maxis match stuff, and especially hair. There really aren't many meshes that match the quality of the ingame hairs, most of them look weird when the sims, y'know, move or something. Besides, I hate all the shiny shiny black hair and the ridiculous shades of red.

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I fully agree. I really do prefer the more cartoony textures, and the Maxis stuff is always so well painted.

The variety in shades of red bothers me too. I just want the red from the game, not some "natural" red, and especially not burgundy. I have liked some of the lighter reds, and used to use them once upon a time, but I want there to be a consistent red for the sims. I just like that ultra-simplified four haircolour thing that exists in their world. I don't mind a few different Lyran eyecolours, though, so that makes me a bit of a hypocrite. *snicker*

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Totally agreed. I'm the same, I want the four hair colours to be consistent, but I don't mind extra Lyran eyes. I think that's got to do with all the eyes having different genetic properties of their own (and they all look so good!), while the hair is just in four colour bins, no matter what. So you can have a medium blond parent have a very light blonde child but the game doesn't distinguish between the two. I like order, dammit!

Maybe I just have OCD.

And I really should go to bed now, before I stay up all night babbling about sim genetics. :D

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I have obsessive tendencies, for sure. I get caught up in details like that.

Ah, our timezone differences are showing. It's still early in the evening here. Well, have a good night. You can move on to dreaming about sim genetics now. :P

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Yeah. Morning here, now. You're somewhere on the American continent, right? *grins* I didn't dream about sim genetics, by the way. :)

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Yeah, I figured that you were on the other side of the "pond". I checked your profile, which confirms that you're in Norway. How cool. My SO went there as a young teen to participate in the Olympic ceremonies (he won a poster contest - one of five in Canada).

I'm just barely on the North American continent. Newfoundland is so far east into the Atlantic that we have our own time zone. No kidding - it's called Newfoundland Standard Time, and it's 1/2 hour ahead of Atlantic Time. So, I'm usually ahead of anyone in the the rest of the continent by at least half an hour. It's like living in the future.

I dream about sims sometimes, but not really as often as I'd expect.

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Ooh, that would've been in 1994, right? That your SO was over here? That was all a very big deal over here, the Olympics. I was only 11 though. :p

I didn't know there was a separate time zone for Newfoundland. That's pretty cool. I suppose that means you're closer to Europe to everyone else too!

I've had sim dreams, I feel like a terrible geek when I wake up from those.

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Yeah, it was 1994. He was 13 at the time. That was quite a big deal for him too, since it was the first time he'd ever left the country.

We're definitely closer to Europe than the rest of Canada, in more ways than one. Newfoundland still has one foot in Europe, especially England and Ireland, and it really shows in the culture and dialect. It's pretty varied, but where I come from, there are many expressions that seem to have gone unchanged since the 1600s. I guess the isolation of being on an island helps to preserve those things.

Sims dreams are geeky, for sure, but hey - at least it's not a nightmare. :)

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cindyanne1.livejournal.com

Well, I'm completely stumped as to where these girls will fit into the story, but that's okay. :) I'll just wait for the reveal to come in its good time.

On a side note about "reveals" lol, I think I've decided what hair Ripp is going to have. (I've been trying to guess and then I'll see if I'm right... I know it's silly, but humor me, lol)

I hadn't ever noticed the hair before but today I was playing around with some of my binned sims and gave the Cooke guy a makeover and used it on him. It's from Nightlife, which means I've had it a while, but never noticed. If it is the one, it's quite a big change from his old look! ;)

Guess I'll wait on that one too, eh? :D

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The connection to the main story probably won't happen for some time, but it's part of the plot "arc" (I say that loosely, as it's barely formed as of yet) that deals with death, and Death, specifically. Right now, there are several Strangetowners who are linked to that.

I think I know what hair you're thinking of, but I won't say anything about it just yet. ;)

The change is pretty significant, either way. Personally, I like how Ripp looks with short hair.

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Very nice. Though I too am saddened by the death of such a pretty sim.

I wonder if one of the girls will fulfill her father's dream of building the amphitheater.

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I'm a little saddened by the loss of him too, since I like how he turned out in appearance and styling. I started with the "faery" template and made numerous adjustments (mostly eye shape and enlarging of most of his features - ears, chin, nose). I'm loving those wild BV eyebrows. I think they belong on the wise old man, but they look great on a faery like Lysander. Those new dread conversions are nice too. Have you tried them on Bean yet?

I really want to build a replica of the Globe theatre for Veronaville, so someone will likely get around to that in the story. I saw a couple of plays at the Globe when I was in England studying art history. It was AWESOME. We were booked in to see one as part of the course, and I went back to see another on my own time. The first was Twelfth Night, with an all male cast, as it would have originally been performed, and the second was A Midsummer Night's Dream. I can't even express how great it was.

It was an amazing experience, even when we got caught in a downpour of rain. We were watching from the pit, and we really got to experience the open-air thing in a big way. *snicker* I was SOAKED to the skin, but I still loved it.

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You could always do the soap opera thing and bring Lysander as his long-lost twin. ;)

I did try the dreads on Bean, and they look good. I did a photoshoot, but I can't remember if I posted any pics.

Wow, a replica of the Globe? Would you consider uploading it to MTS2? That sounds amazing and I don't think anyone's ever done one for Sims 2, at least not that I've seen.

Also quite envious of you for experiencing the real thing! If I ever get to travel to the UK, that's on my must-do list.

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simgarooop.livejournal.com

This is so cool! Well, not Lysander's death, of course.

I smiled when I saw Helena's name in the character list ^^. Of course I don't mind that you kept her name!. After all, she was named after Shakespeare's play and you gotta keep the trend with the rest of her family, right?

Hmmm... so Hippolyta seems to be a teensy bit obsessed with death, right? I hope not like a certain evil woman who used to collect ghosts in her garden. And I wonder how far is she willing to go to bring her father back to life, though? (plus the satelite thing, I suspect this is an important detail).

And it seems these twins are also adopted, right? I can imagine who are they adoptive parents. And I can't wait to see how you'll develop this side of your story (which I guess will be related to Circe's evil plans... perhaps?)

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