Simstorytellers Challenge 008: Day off

[strangetomato]

Here's my entry for the latest simstorytellers challenge. Again, this takes place in Veronaville, and involves original characters. It's actually a glimpse at a little pseudo legacy taking place there, and these kids are from generation three. There are connections to other hoods hinted at here, but some of it is pretty subtle (hint: the names are clues).

In my vision of the sim world, the Calientes and the Lotharios come from South Veronaville (the Mediterranean side of town, where the Montys reside). That makes sense to me, since Don, Nina, and Dina are new arrivals to Pleasantview, and they fit in with the feel of that region.

CHALLENGE 008:  Day off
Prompt:  Day off
Word/pic limit:  200 word/2 pic (it's actually about 300 words, and I doubled the pic count)
Expires:  July 15, 2008
Characters: Neko, Fandango, Gato, and Fortunata Caliente
Warnings: None




My husband had the day off, so we spent it with the children. Since it was a gorgeous spring day, we took them outside.




It's on days like this, when I have plenty of time to think, that I start to wonder about where I came from, and where I'm going. 




My mother moved here, to South Veronaville, late in her life. I was one of those "change of life" babies. A miracle, if one believes in such things. I never did ask my mother about it, but by the time I became a teen, I started to wonder if I really was the only child she'd ever had. There were some clues, here and there, that suggested otherwise.

I wonder if I'll ever know the truth.




She lived to see the children born, but not much beyond that, and she had never been fond of my choice of a partner, even though Dan was always a perfect gentleman in her presence.

It was the alien thing; it bothered her. She hated the idea of abductions, and I have to agree with her, to a point. The way they abduct innocent people is wrong, but Dan is just the product of that. It has very little to do with him. She shouldn't have let her fear of aliens effect the way she relates to those who are also half sim.




Dan ended up with the green skin, unlike his brother, Flamenco. He's more alien in other ways too, I'm told.

It's funny, but I also feel something like an alien in Veronaville, even though I was raised here. Like Dan, one of my parents was an outsider, and one was old blood. I suppose I'm rooted here now, with the marriage and the kids, but sometimes it doesn't feel that way.

 I wonder what exists out there, and what ties I might have to another place.







Bonus pic:




This pic didn't make it into the entry, but I just had to share it. Just try to resist the cuteness of Fortunata Caliente. You can't.

Comments

[smjoshsims.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, Fortunata is adorable! I want her. :}

I see the connection to the Caliente siblings, Flamenco was their dad right? I didn't know he had a brother...

I liked this, I would love to see more of this Pseudo Legacy you have going on... ;)

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Isn't she sweet? It just rots your teeth, she's so sweet...

You've got that part right. Flamenco was the Caliente sister's father, and he was a half alien. He doesn't have a brother in the family tree, but hardly any of them do, so I took some liberties there.

It's really only a legacy in spirit, since I'm using CAS sims (who are based on Maxis sims), and I'm not recording it. They'll stay at this point for a while now too, to keep with the pace of the rest of the hoods.

I'm sure I will share some more of these characters in shorts like this, and it will eventually have some relevance to Strangetown HWC.

[simsbarbie.livejournal.com]

This is very nice. I love the pictures, characters and the start of hopefully a new short story or long one. lol

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Thank you. Veronaville loves the camera. There are always interesting backdrops for photos there, just waiting to be used. I especially love that aqueduct that runs through town.

I'm probably going to treat the other hoods this way, and make a number of little side tales from the activity happening there, but I'm trying not to obsessively record everything, like in Strangetown, because it takes so much time. I figure I can always use InSIM to recreate scenes, if I really need to.

These characters may also crop up in the main story at some point.

[(Anonymous)]

I have a question. How can you put Veronaville and Pleasantview characters in Strangetown ? I read it was very buggy to do so, and that if you did that, SimPe didn't work anymore (like taking the house in the house bin and then putting it in another neighbourhood. Can you tell me how can you do that without making your game or SimPe crash ? I'm very interested in it.

gab75

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

That a GREAT question, and I suppose I should have explained that sooner. I wouldn't want anyone to attempt to move lots like that, since, as you said, it isn't a good idea.

What I do instead of physically "move" the characters is recreate them in the hood that I need them in, by extracting them with SimPE and then making them in CAS. I only recreate the characters that I will actually need to show in that hood, so I've made a Beau, Lucy, Bottom, etc., but not an Alexander, Puck, etc. If I show Puck, for example, I do it from the Veronaville hood. When Vidcund visits Veronaville, I will make a clone of him in that hood for that purpose, and use the Bottom that is located there (the REAL Bottom).

Unlike a combined hood, this limits how much you'll see the outsiders walking by lots and all that. When I don't need the characters to be seen at all in the hood they're in, I can just stick them in the bin.

It's not very hard to clone them that way, and with a little effort, it gives the impression that the sims can move freely between the different neighbourhoods.

Does that explain it clearly enough? I can elaborate, if you have questions.

[(Anonymous)]

It's very interesting, but I still have questions.

First of all, how do you extract a Sim with SimPe and then put it in the hood bin ?

Then, do the sims keep their genetics this way (including their parent's genetic ?

And what if I cloned all the sims of hood 2 and 3 in hood 1 ? Would it explode my game, or could I have them live in it without consequences ?

Actually, I don't have MATY's giant hood, but I think it would be interesting to play all the hood this way, by moving the sims in one hood. Thanks for your answers !

gab75

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

1. You extract the sims using the sim surgery tool. There are a number of tutorials out there. Here's one from MTS2:

Tutorial- How to Extract Born In game Sims EASILY

2. The sims do not retain their recessive genes, but you can also alter this in SimPE (madame_ugly posted some useful tips for this, and you can find that in my memories). Since you create them in CAS, they behave the same way any CAS sims do, where genetics are concerned.

3. Unless you run out of room, it shouldn't be a problem (at least, I don't think so). If you have a downtown and a shopping district attached, you should have plenty of room to add more sims. To be safe, I use the antiredundancy hacks from MATY, so fewer townies,dormies,NPCs, etc. are respawned.

There's a nice combined hood on MTS2 now too, which would be worth checking out if you want to play all of the families in one hood. It would be less work. Doing it the way I've done it allows you to pick and choose who you want to add, and I like that. It works for my purposes, but the other option may be more appealing, depending on what you're looking for.

[simsbarbie.livejournal.com]

Hey, that's pretty neat. I also see at MTS2 they have a combined neighborhood, but I'm not sure about that.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

If I hadn't already started with Strangetown HWC before that was posted, I might have used it, but I also think it might open things up a little too much for my purposes.

Looks fun, though.

[indigoleo.livejournal.com]

Aww she is a cutie!
Sometimes I just love seeing how the kids turn out. I've got a few really cute kids/toddlers at the moment that I can not wait to see how they look when they hit their teens.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Sim breeding is just endlessly entertaining, isn't it? I never get tired of it.

[madame-ugly.livejournal.com]

I love challenges being used as sneak previews. It's just so perfect.

I also love normal skin and alien eyes. Best combo ever.

Forget the toddlers, Dan is cute as hell.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I agree. They make great little previews, since they're so short.

Yeah, I know you have a soft spot for that combination. I love it too, and it seems like a lot of other people do too. I like green skin with normal eyes too. Anything a little different is fun. The second gen. alien kids are always fun like that.

I like how Dan turned out. I recreated PT #7 from a pic and then created his father from the Caliente genetics, and it was a good combo. I'm already extracted these sims with SimPE, just to be safe. I'm going to get into the habit of doing that right away. Recreating some of my lost sims in CAS was challenging, and I'm sure they aren't exactly right.

[eiou123.livejournal.com]

It's nice that you named Dan after a Dance like all the previous Calientes (Nina and Dina broke that tradition I think....) and Fortunata, as you said, is friggin' cute.

Hmmm... So If Veronaville is the English and Mediterranean of the Sims Neighborhoods, so Riverblossom would probably be the Southern USA part(right?) and that means Desiderata would be the Asian neighborhood?

I thinl Dina and Nina's alien relative is a hint at Bella Goth's abduction, do you think so too?

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

All of those names follow themes that are based on their parents and grandparents. You might be able to figure out who Neko's mother was, based on that too (and also facial resemblance, to my eyes), but I won't say anything more about it. It can be a mystery for now.

About the geography and references to real world places... I view Veronaville as being like Europe, based on it's many references, so I have this idea of the sim world map (which I started sketching out a while ago) with Veronaville across an ocean like that, and the rest of the hoods are all in a sort of America-like continent (referring to North and South America, not just the US). I don't feel like the other hoods reference anything specific for me, but Strangetown is further south west on the continent (where the desert would logically be, just east of the mountains), Riverblossom hills is north (maybe in Canada? :P), and I'm not even all that sure about Desiderata Valley. Maybe it was more central, like Pleasantview.

I'm not trying to match them up perfectly to real places, since it doesn't make a lick of sense, but it's fun to map it out for my own idea of the sim world map.

I'm not going to say much about Bella's abduction, but there are some connections among some of those people, as I'm sure you know. ;)

[fireflys-locket.livejournal.com]

Fortunata is so lovely. <3