Tamara practically skipped all the way home from the meeting. She had grand plans for her daughter and her self to become the "Best good Witches that Bridgeport had ever seen!", as she told Emily.
John buzzed silently along the street behind Tamara and Emily, soaking up the warmth of Tam's happiness that radiated from her like an aura..
John suspected that Tamara's dream may not work out as she had planned, and when they reached the penthouse he asked Tam to go back down to the lobby and check the mail. In all the excitement of bringing Emily home they had forgotten to empty the box or pay any bills.
When John had mentioned earlier how pale Emily was, Tamara had written it off to the fact that her parents had probably always kept her indoors.
John picked Emily up and snuggled her into his arms, he had seen a glint of gold in Emily's eyes, and one of his siblings had skin like that. John put his thumb in his mouth, then gently used the wet digit to rub the side of Emily's neck. His moistened thumb cleared away the makeup that concealed her mark.
By the time Tamara returned with the mail and a package marked 'To Emily Goodstone, Love Great Aunt Bertha', Emily was learning to walk, she cooed "Da", and with a serious look in her face was attempting to defy gravity long enough to cover the small distance across the kitchen. John was half focused on Emily, and half focused on how he was going to break the news to Tam,
"Our little Vampire Princess is a fast learner!" John stated simply. "Vampire?", Tam inquired. "Yeah, she has the mark like my brother Nick." John pointed out, although he failed to mention that Tam's parents had covered the supernatural mark with makeup. Images and memories of Nick flooded Tam's mind. Tam had had a thing for Nick, he was like a magnet, and it was Nick that introduced her to Johnathan.
Tamara shook the thoughts from her head, and looked closely at Emily's mark. "I've never noticed it before."
Tam was a little crestfallen that her baby girl wasn't a Witch, but if her daughter turned out to be like any of the three Vampires from Johns family, she was fine with that. Angel, Genevieve and Nick were all fine people, especially Nick, Nick was really fine. Tam shook thoughts of Nick from her head again. Nick had that effect on people.
Tamara flicked through the bills as she watched her Fiance and her daughter play. "There's a package here for Emily from my Great Aunt Bertha", Tam eventually announced.
"I thought you didn't want to have anything to do with your family now?", John asked trying to keep his tone neutral. "Aunt Bertha is a black sheep like me, she ran away from home when she was a teen and joined a traveling circus, she openly admitted to the world that she was a witch. She married a Gypsy Fortune Teller, another thing my family doesn't believe in.", Tam trailed off. "Here's your dolly.", Tam smiled at her daughter as she handed over the unusual handcrafted patchwork doll.
Emily hugged the doll, like they had been best friends for ever, and then sank her baby teeth into its neck.
John started his pub crawl at Waylon's Haunt, not that he was there to get drunk. John had realized that while he enjoyed fixing things, and tinkering, that he didn't want to do it as a nine to five grind. He enjoyed bar-tending. Constantly getting to meet new people, and socializing was his thing, and like with cooking, he enjoyed learning drink recipes. 'Maybe I could create my own drinks, maybe even open a bar.', John mused.
John had pretty much learned all he could from the staff of Waylon's, and seeing that the place was empty, John decided to move on to somewhere more livelier.
'The Grind', now this was more John's pace, livelier music, livelier bar staff, even if they were taking turns at dancing on the bar. John spent the remainder of the night learning new drinks and chatting with the friendly staff.
John got home in the wee small hours and upgraded the memory on the computer before searching the real estate section. Then he crashed for a few hours. Tamara was having an impromptu 'Hens Night Party', and had asked John to stay as she didn't really know any of her guests that well.
With less than an hour before the party starting, both the stove and the kitchen sink went on the fritz. The first guests arrived to find the kitchen flooded, and a burnt electric smell.
John stopped the taps leaking and began preparing the food using the outdoor grill, he whipped up several trays of drinks for the ladies, who all seemed to be party animals.
"Damn girl, if I could find a good lookin' man who can cook and clean, fix things, and make fine drinks like these, I may settle down too.", one of the drunken party girls told Tam.
And then proceeded to spray her with a bottle of nectar.
"Oh Creator save me from temptation!", another girl announced, "If you don't marry this man, I might, and I don't care if I put on a few hundred pounds, this salmon is to die for!"
John heard the comment while he was working on the next batch of drinks and smiled. John had the skills and knowledge of a master chef, but again, it was something he did, but not who he was.
"Everybody inside, it's showtime!', called out Candy, or Sugar, or whatever her name was.
John chuckled as a party dancer arrived half dressed as a fireman,
John was pretty sure that this was going to be far more
awkward for Tam than it was going to be for himself.
The sun began to rise as the party goers began trickling out the door. Even those that had made excuses about not staying long when they had first arrived, had made it to the dawn. Tam fed Emily and took her upstairs for some quiet reading time while John cleaned up the devastation downstairs. Tamara had tried to help, but John had repeatedly shooed her away, stating that he had offered to cook, clean and play waitress for the entire event.
'This place was way too small for the three of us, never mind having guests over.' Tamara realized as she read to Emily. 'At least I got to live one of my dreams for a while.', she considered.
***** BONUS PICTURES *****
When I said 'The Grind' was livelier, I meant
'The Grind' was livelier, except for this girl.
I have some of Lil's old cure potions,
I might have to start carry them.
This is one of the many reasons that my sims are looking for a new place.
Instead of falling through the bathroom floor while using the bathroom,
and ending up in the neighbors place, Tam ended here, looking like this!
One game restart coming up!
This girl standing behind John is Elvira Slayer, more about her in the Authors Notes.
Author's Notes:
Part of the roll for Johns generation is to have a stepchild. Also Eco-friendly was rolled as the Generational Goal, and Misc. Fun is 'No Strangers.'
When 'Dolly' arrived my game started spamming error messages, 15 to 20 at a time every game hour or so. I assumed it was Dolly, because I have almost never had any luck with imaginary friend dolls, mostly they don't show up at all, despite a notification that they have one. (I've never ever seen one communicate with its owner) I had intended to take a few snaps with 'Dolly' in the penthouse and accidentally loose her at some point in time. Eventually the message spam died down and stopped. 'Dolly' is safe for the moment, and hopefully will stay.
Because John is a firm believer in 'No sex before marriage', I decided to have Tamara bring the child into the story. Because Tamara had led a a sheltered and restricted life with no boyfriends or dating before leaving for Uni with John, I then decided that it was rape at one of her families parties. Only a Vampire could get away with such a thing under tight scrutiny, and leave a victim with absolutely no memory of the event, so I used MC to find a suitable donor, I narrowed down Bridgeport's single male vampires to three, and chose the oldest one to be the donor. Vladimir Schlick It was an ugly device, but it filled all the blanks that the story needed, and I didn't want the babies father to be anyway involved in the story.
Everybody kept telling Tam to have a batchelorette party, so I had her make friend with a few randoms at the grocery store so she could invite them over for the party. Somewhere between the invite and the party starting, the one Vampire that was invited, Elvira Slayer, starts dating Vladimir Schlick, I discover that they are both evil criminals, and that Vlad is also a coward. Elvira hits on John all night at the party, and a few days later Elvira and Vlad announce a baby, and another, and then a nasty public breakup. Curse you SP, stop meddling! Don't make me leave town to stop your plot interfering, I will move my RLC with me!
Because of my forgetful brain, I broke the no strangers rule at uni by hiring a maid, and because the description for Eco-friendly is a three page essay, I have busted that rule about a thousand times already.
So rather than have John go from a penthouse to living in a cave like a neanderthal, it will be done in steps with several house and lifestyle moves until the requirements are met. Eco friendly is also going to make Tams career more difficult.
I am really enjoying Bridgeport so far, despite its pathing issues and its tiny squeeziness which makes it suitable to only singles and couples.
As always, if I have been contradictory, complicated, confusing or incomprehensible, comment and I will attempt to clarify. This authors note has been brought to you by sesame st. and the letter C.
