5.10 First Day On Campus

"I'm all packed 'Aunty Kim', we are ready to go!", yelled Delilah as her friends helped her carry the last of the luggage from her room. "Not quite yet Delilah, I think your Grandmother has just arrived.", Kim yelled back towards the stairs.

"Good evening", the elderly lady growled. "My apologies, its been a long day.", she said as she cleared her throat and started again in a much silkier voice. "Good evening Miss Diffy, I've come calling to visit my grand daughter, that you are so kindly taking care of in her parents absence.", she stated. It was clear that she was unhappy with Jack and Alice's preferred choice of guardian.

"Your timing is fortuitous Florence, the girls are having a sleep over at a friends house and then departing at sunrise. Perhaps you should have called in advance, rather than drop by unannounced, you might have had a little more time together", Kim suggested, in an even silkier tone. "Oh, I like surprises, they keep people honest.", Flo rebounded.


Delilah imagined that she could see the air frost over between he grandmother's piercing yellow eyes and Kim's icy blue ones, and trotted out to mediate before blood was spilled.

"Hello Kitten.", purred Florence Fortuna, "Be a dear and introduce your friends before you send them on their way so we can have a private word."

"Grandmother Fortuna, these are my best friends form High school, and also the girls that I will be attending University with. This is my friend Jessica Jettstar.", said Delilah by way of introduction. Grandma Fortuna nodded and smiled sweetly at Jess.

 "This is Hyacinth Evergreen.", Delilah continued. Delilah's grandmother repeated the smile and nod as if it were programmed function.

"Coral Seabreeze.", Delilah stated, which prompted a cloned copy of the smile and nod.

"And Evette Longpaw". Grandmothers infinitely repeatable smile and nod was slightly less friendly at Eve's introduction..

"Guys, this is my maternal grandmother Florence Fortuna. I'll be over in ten or fifteen minutes.", Delilah stated as her friends filed off the verandah taking her luggage.

"Look at you, all grown up and heading to university!", Flo began. "Yes I am all grown up, and yes I am am going to university, so if you here to talk about the family business, forget it", Delilah stated firmly. "I wouldn't have it any other way dear, most of the monkeys from our family tree fall out of it before even finishing high school, they reach for the first shiny banana before they are ready and I can see you are so much smarter than that.", Flo replied.

Delilah waited, she knew her grandmother had more to say. "But you are a feline changeling, and all feline changelings have sticky paws, its our nature, dear.", Flo added. "Yeah, well I don't!",  Delilah retorted hotly, ignoring the fact that she had swiped the odd item here and there.

"It.is.in.our.nature. Sticky paws are inevitable.", Florence repeated pronouncing each word clearly. "Unlike that fool my daughter married, I have never been caught and I would suggest you head my advice."

"There are two kinds of people who choose to become thieves, those who steal to enrich their lives, and those who steal to define their lives, don't be the latter.", Flo advised. "Know your exits", she added, "And when you plan anything with others, always make sure you are the smartest person in the room.", she finished.

"Okay then, so that's all your wisdom rolled up into a few lines then is it?", Delilah asked. "Don't be cheeky. You are not too old, and I am not so old that I can't put you over me knee for a spanking.", Flo grinned at her favorite grandchild. "Oh, and never get in your own way!, I got that one from a fortune cookie at the Green Dragon Palace last Wednesday. Now give your granny a hug and go enjoy your life!".

"So hey guys, what do you think of this as a band outfit, like we were talking about last week?", Jessica asked, showing the outfit that she hoped they would all agree on. "Awesome", said Cindy, "Yeah that's perfect!", added Coral. "You got it spot on, although we aren't going to have time to go get ours before we leave.", added Delilah. Eve just nodded in approval.

"So you guys all know how I love a bargain right?", Jess asked. "Yes 'miss save me the coupon', we know!", pointed out Delilah. "Well there was a mad sale on, and I bought everything they had, so I have enough for all of us, and spares!", Jess gushed. 
 

"Too cool, so when we play at any Uni parties, we are all set!", Cindy could hardly contain herself. 

The next morning as the sun rose, Sally pulled up at the gates in her pink Jeep with Mr. and Mrs. Longpaw, and Mrs. Evergreen soon arrived by bicycle. Kim pulled up in her police car a few minutes later. Hugs and good wishes were exchanged all round as the last of the luggage and instruments were packed into the moving van. Evie drove the truck with Delilah keeping her company, and Coral, Cindy and Jess followed in Jess' car.

After two days the group arrived at their destination. "There's five bedrooms, and its just us and two guys and another girl. Hopefully we are here first, so let's check it out! If it doesn't work out, I have enough money in my education account to just rent a house for the five of us.", Jess declared  

Jess grabbed her most important piece of luggage and followed her friends in.

Three of the five bedrooms were on the third floor, it was agreed that Delilah and Evie could take the room with the double bed. Delilah was ecstatic to discover it had a working fireplace.

Coral and Cindy took the largest room, with two single beds.

Jess took the smallest bedroom on the floor, there wasn't a lot of space, but it also had a fireplace.

Later that day they met their housemate Rickie Denny, he wasn't overly happy with sharing a room, but he wasn't willing to argue that Jess or the other girl share with a guy they didn't know, so he took his anger out on the first person shooter he found on the computer. 

The other girl went by the name of Naomi McLendon, and she was stoked to find that the girls had reserved her the second story room with the double bed, even if it was one of those flip up thingies.

The last housemate to arrive was Ernest Gregg, "Just call me Ernie, or Gregg, whatever.", Ernie grinned after Rickie made a joke about Ernie's name making him sound like a shady used car dealer. 

"Damn there's no food, the cupboards are empty and I have no idea where the supermarket is!", Jess realized. "No problemo, I packed a palette of Cheesy Mac in case of the zombie apocalypse or some other emergency!", Delilah grinned. She disappeared upstairs and returned shortly after with enough packets to make a meal for the whole household.

Cheesy Mac Cook off time!

Authors notes:

< RANT >
I know most of you simmers and sim bloggers out there love your birthdays with all your sparkly screencaps and slender man impersonations, but I'm well over them. Five teens become five young adults. To me for these girls that means two hours each in CAS, updating the Everyday1+2, Swimwear, Sportwear, Sleepwear categories. And two and a bit for Jess, because I have to do her Everyday 3 and Formal as well, which Ill then use NRAAS MC to copy to the four other girls. The MC part takes like three minutes to do the lot...

I load the game at 9PM, just to make a few changes, I redress Evie (2 hours) and Delilah (2 hours) and save, I dress Cindy (1 Hour 45) and Coral (2 hours), and save again. Then Jess (2.5 hours), copy Jess's ED3 and Formal to the other four girls with MC (3 minutes), the girls get the call to go to graduation and it's now almost 7AM RL, dammit I need a coffee, they can graduate while I get caffeine, then I'll save and make changes I need for screencaps. Coral goes in to graduate, Jess goes in to graduate, Evie goes in, Delilah is queued at the door, Cindy at the door.  *Maker walks away for caffeine fix*

I come back to find my desktop wallpaper staring at me... Sims wont restart. Three coffees and a dozen cigarettes later I've rebooted and I'm back in the game, another 2.5 hours and 3 minutes to get back to were I was and...SAVE

Coral graduates, 'Lilah graduates, Evie graduates, Cindy graduates, Jess.exe is not responding. Fer real?
I can't alt-tab out of the sims without crashing it and it takes near on 40 minutes to shutdown and restart sims 3, so I begin trawling through the MC options to fix another sims 3 bork, 30 minutes later I find what I'm looking for!!!! Woohoo, saved meself 10 minutes, and Jess thinks she graduated!

My next legacy blog story may just about an immortal vampire character that doesn't have birthdays!!!!
And to make matters worse Jess has Fashion Diva for her gen rolls! More CAS time!
And I need more caffeine!

Over 13 Hours real life for a few hours in game time!

< / RANT >

ALSO. Jess is like a level five cook, and Delilah is level two or something, round one of the cook off, Jess cremated hers, and we had to go to round two for the screencaps

< / RANT >

ALSO. There's a dozen carefully staged pictures that fit between Jess showing off the band uniform and them arriving at uni. There's tears and hugs between Sally and Delilah and Parent actors, there's two stand in Plantsim actors pretending to be Mr. and Mrs. Evergreen, there is a cleverly parked removal van parked diagonally in front of the garage, and Kim and Edward holding hands waving goodbye, and where did those photos go?

I JUST DON'T KNOW!

< / REALLY END RANT >

5.09 The 'Midnight Hollow Voodoo Dollies'

Edward noticed that Cindy, Eve, Delilah and Coral were waiting on the doorstep as he pulled into the driveway. Rather than wait for the gate to open he pulled up at the fence and sidestepped the swarm of gossip bugs that where descending on Jessica. Even though the two dozen people he had spent the last week with were family, it was still far too many people in one place at one time for him.

Jessica on the other hand embraced the swarm, and couldn't wait to share her newfound knowledge of her relatives. "So, Grandma Tamara is a witch, and an inventor, and Grandpa John owns a nightclub, even though John's a Fae, his brother's and sister's are a Witch, Vampire, a Werewolf, a Mermaid, a Genie, a Plantsim, and an Alien, and I got to meet them all and some of their partners and children.", Jessica started to explain before the swarm could bombard her for details about her weekend away.    

"It's going to be so quiet around town when Delilah and Jessica leave for university, have you given any thought to it?", Kim asked Edward, technically Kim was on her lunch break, but she had known where Edward would be fishing today, so she slipped down to the location with a picnic basket.

"I have.", said Edward. "I was thinking with the kids away at school, we would have more time for things like 'Black N White' movie night.", grinned Edward. Kim smiled to her self, that was close enough to the answer she wanted to hear.

Jess and Eve sat in the school grounds awaiting the rest of the group. "Relax Evie", assured Jess, "Coral and Cindy are in a similar boat. Fill out this scholarship application form today and get it back to me at the end of the day.", Jess explained. " I'll sent them em off together, and then we'll know how much money we need to raise so we can all go.", Jess finished.

Eventually the scholarship applications where answered, in the form of three full and two partial scholarships.
The newly named "Midnight Hollow Voodoo Dollies", performed for tips regularly after school behind the main set of shops in town.

"Ladies, we all good!", Jess yelled triumphantly after counting the takings in the latest 'Send Us All To Uni' jar. The girls stopped unloading the instruments from the car long enough to do a a little victory dance.

Jess grilled her friends, she was pretty sure she already knew the answers, but now that between fund raising and scholarships and savings there was definitely enough money for the whole group to attend uni and cover course and accommodation costs, Jess wanted to confirm who was going to study what.

"Tech.", stated Delilah, "Definitely, technology, I don't exactly know what career I want, but, I mean seriously, who doesn't love new toys and gadgets?".
"I still don't know if I want to go for Business, Science, or Fine arts first, I mean, all three could help with what I want to do!", Cindy contemplated. "What exactly is it that you want to do?", Eve inquired.

"I want to own a restaurant, but I want to cook there, I want to cook things I've harvested, and I want to harvest the things I've grown, so I guess I'd be a cross between a farmer and a chef, as well as a business owner." Cindy explained. "Well Darlings, let one give you a little advice!", Evie said impersonating a local TV personality. "Hyacinth Evergreen, One might suggest that one consider fine arts, followed by science, and then if one still considers the lifestyle appropriate then and only then should one consider moving on to a business degree darling!", Eve impersonated with all the appropriate gestures, which brought laughs from the group.

"Thanks, that's some pretty solid advice, but what about you Evie? What are you going to study", Cindy asked Eve. "Please don't make any ball jokes, but being a Werewolf, its most likely a sporting degree for me.", answered Evie.

"Two balls bounce into a bar, you'd think the second one would have been smart enough to duck!", laughed Delilah. "A Werewolf goes into a bar and asks the barman if he'd seen the Werewolves balls...", followed up Jess.

Eve rolled her eyes but couldn't help but grin. "What about you Coral? What are you going to study?", Eve asked trying to redirect the groups attention somewhere else. "Definitely Sci-Med, with a focus on medicine.", offered Coral. "Wait, the girl who showed us how to kill a rabbit with a bow, skin it and cook it, as well as seven ways to kill a man with an empty teacup wants to get into medicine?", asked Delilah.

"Is healing an ally not as important as killing a foe?", Coral asked.

Kim began spending more and more of her lunch breaks with Edward, a quick picnic lunch, a spot of fishing, a small amount of chatter, then back to work, until it was almost a daily thing.

With Senior Prom just around the corner the girls pulled out their junior prom dresses and made adjustments, as well as making up one for Coral to match. "So have any of you got dates this time, or are we all going stag again?", asked Cindy. "Solo, same as last time. Unless Coral has a date?", Jess told Cindy. Coral shook her head. Evie looked at Delilah, Delilah looked at Evie. Neither said a word.

"Tomorrow is 'Leisure Day', the day after is Prom Night, the next day is my birthday, then I'm off with Dad to visit relatives for a week, so I'm thinking Leisure Day might be the last chance for another fundraiser?", Jessica suggested to her friends.

"So, I'm thinking the 'Midnight Hollow Voodoo Dollies', so that way if theirs already a band with the name with Voodoo Dolls or Dollies in it, we can still use the name because it's got our town name at the front, and nobody else will think of that. What do you all think?", Jess asked. Coral and Cindy interrupted their game long enough to agree that it was a good choice.

After Evie and Delilah trotted up in their animal forms and returned to their bipedal shapes, the newly named 'Midnight Hollow Voodoo Dollies' spent the rest of the night rehearsing all the songs they knew.

Word soon got around the girls band were playing a fund raiser behind the book store and a large selection of the towns population dropped by at one point during the day and added to the jar to send Eve and Cindy to university. 

The girls all met at Jessica's place for prom night, again, Edward had hired a Limo for the evening, and the girls all piled in looking forward to the evening's event. 

"Delilah, Evie, Hurry up!", yelled Jess. The two girls had been almost right behind her a few minutes ago, Jess was about to return to the second garage to collect them when they appeared at the gate.

The night went off without any major hitches. Evie had secretly entered Delilah and herself as a couple, and officially asked Delilah to go steady, Delilah was ecstatic. Delilah was again voted Prom Queen, and Jess spent most of the the night dancing with Raphael, who was as Coral put it, 'Queerer than a raw egg, oyster and mustard sandwich'. Raph's boyfriend refused to peek out of the closet door in public and Raph just wanted to dance, as did Jess.

With the Prom out of the way it was Jessica's party on the next night. Edwards house hosted nearly half of the town's teenage population for a wild pool party. Jess considered the sensation of aging up, it was as if your body was all warm and rubbery for a moment, there was a sparkly, glittery sensation and a sudden burst of very rapid growth.

Jess felt a little more confident around people, and looking down at her body, it was noticeably curvier and more mature than it had been, but other than those two things, it really didn't feel that much different. Jess wasn't sure if she had found this aging up a disappointment or not. It meant she was ready for university, or would be by the end of the week when her best friends aged up, so she consoled herself with the fact that that was enough from aging up to satisfy her.

"Let's go Dad, I'm especially looking forward to meeting Emily's partner Dolly!", Jess enthused. Edward and Jess began the drive to the week long stay in Bridgeport with Edwards family.

Authors Note:

Again, Cindy went against group tradition for the prom shot backdrop, she doesn't even have the rebel trait.
The game had Evie ask Delilah to go steady at the prom, and I was stoked, because I had planned on doing that with those two after prom anyway, so yay that was a win. Then they both get a 'Naughty' reputation because they apparently had romantic interests from junior prom that I had forgotten about. So a little NRAAS hacking was required to clean up the relationships for Delilah and Eve, as well as for Jess who the game tried to link to Raphael Somebody-or-other. I converted all three relationships to 'just friends'.

I also discovered the retired career for Kim which means I no longer get any or have to remove any payment for Kim.

I made a big deal out of Jess's not feeling any different because of the massive physical changes that occur in the female chest area between Teen and YA in my game, I have a bucket of extra sliders, as well as a slider multiplier and a well developed teenager turns onto a mad booby mutant that requires reduction, especially along the horizontal scale. I've also noticed some of the CC that I have can also modify a sims shape...   

Autowater Failure.
It can happen to you! My current garden has 14 auto water sprinklers, one of them glitched, I don't know if this glitch happens to non auto water upgraded sprinklers or not. You will be able to identify an auto water sprinkler failure by the fact that while is shows the 'watering' animation constantly, none of the plants in its radius will actually get watered. The easiest way to spot this failure is to notice one auto-water sprinkler continues after the others have turned themselves off.

5.08 I am not a monster

Edward had celebrated his birthday in solitude while painting. His hair had grown a little longer and that was about all. He didn't feel older, he didn't look older, he just had more hair in his face. He finished his current painting.

And further celebrated his otherwise uneventful morning by going fishing for the days catch. Edward had filled the days orders much earlier than he expected and was now fishing for the pure pleasure of it.
The pleasure and solitude was soon interrupted by his phone. Jess needed him to come home immediately.

Edward arrived home expecting to see a fire truck or an ambulance, instead he found Kim and Jess sitting in the kitchen with a woman with short blonde hair, Edward thought she looked somehow vaguely familiar.

"Hello little monster, you've grown so big since you left us.", exclaimed the visitor. "Emily? Em, is that you?", gasped Edward in shock. "How ever did you find me?", he finally asked after his sister released him from a prolonged bear hug.

"Long story short, Jessica and Kim were trying to find out more about your Gobbler issue, so Kim made inquiries with her immortal great, great, great, great, great Grandfather Valentin who was alive during the time of the Goblin army.", Emily explained.

"He remembered that a friend of his had made inquiries about a Goblin like child in the previous decade and contacted her. Angel the Vampire who made the original inquiries is a close friend personal friend of your great, great, grandmother Lil. Lil put me in touch with Kim to check it out before telling Mum and Dad.", Emily continued.  

 "You are not a goblin Edward, Valentin told me goblins were never more than four foot tall, and they had scales and long spine ridge and that you don't have.", Kim added, trying to convince Edward.

"I worked out to hold off the transformation a short while ago, but I had to run when I was little, because I didn't know how to stop from becoming a Goblin then.", Edward admitted defensively.  "I am the most qualified genetic scientist in all of sim nation, AND I will tell you if you are a goblin or just a mental little monster!", growled Emily.

"Put your hand on the analysis pad, and let's put an end to all this nonsense!", Emily commanded. Edward did as he was told and placed his hand on the scanner. Emily held down a green button on the device and spoke "Begin Scan". Several lights blinked rapidly as the device examined Ed's DNA.  "Scan Analysis Complete, 94% Human / 6% Other.", a metallic voice emanated from the scanner.

"Define other!", Emily insisted holding the button again.

"Other DNA, totaling 6%",

"Alien 0.35 %"
"Banshee 0.07 %"
"Changeling 0.02 %"
"Ethereal 0.10 %"
"Fae 1.78 %"
"Gargoyle 0.09 %"
"Genie 0.13 %"
"Goblin 0.02 %"
"Merfolk 0.34 %"
"Plantsim 0.41 %"
"Satyr 0.01 %"
"Vampire 0.19 %"
"Werewolf 0.63 %"
"Witch 1.85 %"
"Unidentifiable 0.01 %"

The machine rattled off its numbers in its mechanical voice.

"List effects of goblin DNA", insisted Emily, pressing the green button again.

"Goblin DNA effects size and shape of ears and adds to skin tone.", the scanner stated.

"So, I'm not.. not a monster?", Edward stammered

"Maker, I have missed you little brother, you are not a Goblin, you never were, and you never will be, but you will always be our grumpy little monster.", stated Emily, shutting down the scanner and hugging her brother again. "Here's Mum and Dad's phone number, call them. Mum still cries herself to sleep some nights."

 

Emily stayed until late afternoon, catching Edward up with family history.

"I think he took that pretty well.", Jess told Kim, after Emily had left.

Evie had noticed some strange behavior in her best friend lately. "Delilah, you might want to put the cutlery back on the table before the meal arrives.", Evie suggested. "I, uh, just thought I'd clear the table so we can arm wrestle while we wait.", improvised Delilah, realizing that she had pocketed the cutlery.

"Did you come to visit me or the garden?", asked Jess. "Both.", replied Cindy, looking up from her agricultural studies guide. "With graduation coming up soon I'm trying to get a scholarship so I can go to university, I know you and Delilah gave the money set aside already, but without scholarships, Evie and I won't be able to afford to go. 

Evie, who was no slouch academically, was trying to get in on a sports scholarship, and while she was already the biggest sports enthusiast of the group, she had taken to learning the rules of every ball sport played in sim nation.

Jessica, whose father had planned ahead in case she wanted to pursue further education, had no such worries, besides, senior prom was around the corner. Jess was explaining her possible future with Kim when she noticed something behind Kim's ear. Jess reached out and when she withdrew her hand she had within in it, a small wooden bird.

"Bravo, you did that so well!", Kim enthused. Jess had just performed the magic trick that Kim had been using on Jess since she was a child. "Even with my police trained Vampire eyes, I didn't see you palm it in advance.", Kim congratulated Jess.

"After aunt Emily came to visit I was thinking about my childhood a lot, and I realized some of my favorite memories are of you doing magic tricks for me, so I thought I'd learn that one.", Jess beamed proudly

"Come on Delilah, hurry!", urged Evie. Coral had suggested a group activity that required waiting until one of the only tourist attractions in town was almost closed for the day, and they had to time it right to 'accidentally' get locked in.

Coral taught Evie and Delilah basic archery while Cindy and Jess remained on lookout, Evie was natural, and Delilah, not to be outdone soon caught up. After Coral had taught Jess and Cindy to shoot, they dropped themselves over the fence and ran for the cinema.

"Now you see me 3", had just opened, "It's about a group of magicians that use misdirection to rob banks and bad people, kind of like Robin Hood magicians. I've been waiting for this movie to come out for ages!", Jess explained to her friends. 

"If I win, you come to the prom in whatever dress I imagine, deal?", asked Jess. "Agreed.", confirmed Mia, who had missed junior prom, and was hoping to avoid senior prom as well. Jess normally denied a pillow fight, it was too hard to hide all the feathers, besides, her pillow was not too hard, and not too soft, it was just right.

"I brought pumpkin pie for movie night, I love your new haircut by the way, it suits you.", Kim said as she settled in with Edward for what was formerly 'black and white' night. "My whole life I was scared about becoming a monster and I think I was hiding behind the long hair, but now that you, Em, and Jess have set me free..."

'Thank you for always being there for me.", said Edward.

"Oh yeah! about FREAKIN' time!", hooted Jess enthusiastically.

Authors note:

Isn't it funny, how when you finally get a batch of good ideas, it is just before aging up and there's that rush to get everything done before it's too late?

Obviously, because obviously I like that word, it was a single parent roll for Edward. I bent the rule by moving all the extras in as usual, but I believe I played by the spirit of the rule.

Single Parent Roll Summary.
The single parent must raise all required children on his/her own, which means a spouse/partner isn't allowed to live in the same household as the single parent and the children. The single parent may romance as much as they like, but moving in a partner to help raise those kids is what's forbidden. The restriction on moving in the single parent's partner is removed once their youngest child has reached the mid point of the teen age stage  After the youngest has reached the mid point of the teen stage, your single Sim may then move in or marry one partner, if you so desire (this isn't required).

I added Kim, Sally, and the other girls to the household, because when it comes to the sims, I'm a confirmed control freak and rule bender, and playing just a few at a time is soooo boring. Edward raised Jess, Kim raised Delilah, and the teens look after themselves, so I don't feel I have broken this rule too badly.  When Edward and Jess lived in Kim's little rental, all of the household extras lived in a secret basement, and the same when Edward and Jess moved to the mansion. I bought a separate house (second home) for Kim as soon as I could afford it, which was mostly just used for screenies, as everyone in the household considers the primary home as 'home' for any game related activities.

To get the police car for screenies Kim had to work her way up through law enforcement. I have about 100 CC cars and not a police car in sight. I docked each pay and bonus with the 'family funds' cheat so as to not give this generation a financial advantage.

Why did I go to all this trouble? Because when Kim first met Edward and Jess, she rolled a wish to have a first kiss with Edward, and she held on to that wish right up until the second last screenie in this chapter! That one wish has guided Edwards story for almost his entire young adult life stage in Midnight Hollow.

Also, when Edward aged up from young adult, (this being the very first screenie of the set) the game gave him this hair. I was contemplating a change to short hair after he found out that he would never be a real goblin, but the story wasn't ready for short hair, and this one was not my first choice.

   

As always, any comments and questions are always welcomed.