Justine and Marty Keaton seem to be that rare thing – Sunset Valley townies that very few people seem to have played: certainly I’ve only read a couple of blogs with them in (and those only recently), and so I wanted to play them and see what they were like. I gave Justine a makeover immediately because the way EA styled her did nothing for her. I think I’ve pretty much left Marty as he was, though.

Their story has kind of developed from what they wanted. The game sets Justine up to be a cop and Marty an athlete, but she wanted to join the architecture career and chucked up lots of artistic wants, so I changed her career path and made her LTW the one where you have to master painting and photography. He chucked up the want to be a firefighter so I let him – and a back-story was born.

Their house is relatively unchanged from the EA one – Justine will probably fix it up when she has time and when they have money, but it’s not their first priority. In the EA game they have a nursery set up, so I’ve left that there even though in the story it doesn’t exist yet (/lazy simmer).

When I play the architecture career with the Dayes, I just go for meeting the requirements, but this time I’m doing it to match the characters’ style as well.

I don’t have any active plans to play Billy Caspian, but you never know.

She got the chance to makeover the student halls as well – but they wanted their bathroom doing and I wasn’t changing it, so I simply replaced the existing stuff with… the same stuff.

I also took the liberty to decorate a couple more of their bedrooms as I’d only got round to doing three of them.

Don’t know what business students have with being so fussy!

I have a confession to make. When the Keatons start in the game, Justine’s pregnancy shows almost straight away, and I was so busy playing with the Jolina-Moss and Goth households that I forgot to keep my eye on the Keatons and they had the baby when I wasn’t ready. So I total killed him and got her pregnant again. Bad, bad simmer.

Anyway, to make up for this, she went to the spa, where various townies were kicking about, including the old dog lady from Apaloosa Plans, who’s apparently in the army now. Um, ‘kay, game, whatever.

When I clicked on the spa, I noticed a new (to me) interaction – to visit the matchmaker. I don’t know if this is an EA thing or a Twallan thing – anyone?

Jeannie Marshall, a sim I created for a GoS challenge a while ago, who will be living in the artist’s district once I build it, was kicking about, so I switched to her to get her to investigate. She had the option to choose a male to get the matchmaker to investigate so we chose a random member of the roller derby team. The pop up said he would be interested in her calling. So there we are. Maybe one day I’ll follow that up, but it seems more of a Dayes thing.

Also hanging about in town – more roller derby people: Dinah Mighty and Tiger Killy (and the guy Marty is talking to in the chapter is Barack O’Jammer).

Also in town, a household of single ladies: Emma Hatch, Olenski Populous, Tamara Donner and Tori whose-surname-I-forget. Tori and Tamara have had makeovers. I don’t know if I’ll play these guys or not yet, but I’m kind of intrigued because Tamara is a bitch in everyone else’s stories.

My sims have never really encountered her though, so we’ll see.

The noisiest stray cat ever stopped by their house. Maybe I’ll let them get a cat one day.

I’m away at the moment with limited computer access, so biographies and house tours will have to wait until I get back – but just a brief introduction to Rowan and Jamie – you’ll get to know them more very soon. Rowan is a spare of Cait Styxlady’s A Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss – an excellent completed DITFT story, well worth your time! She offered him up as part of the casting call I had. I wasn’t sure where to place him at first, but I’d also had the idea of having Jamie Jolina in the hood, slightly older, with a man but no kids. Rowan seemed like he might fit the bill nicely.

Originally I thought Jamie would be about 40 or so but I have several sims in that bracket, so I’ve made her late 20s instead. I wasn’t anticipating playing her and Rowan, but when I did the ROS, they were the household designated ‘full control’ (i.e. I need to look after their needs, not story progression) so you’ll be seeing a lot of them in the earlier entries. I have no idea how their story will pan out. I made sure they were into each other (and they were – rolling up lots of flirt with each other etc wants) whilst shooting the prologue chapter before I committed them to each other, but they’re now boyfriend and girlfriend. Rowan is working at the science lab, but his LTW is to be the tinkerer and I am thinking about effectively turning him into the town handyman instead. They still live in Jamie’s house – but modified. I figured Rowan would have moved in and set to work on fixing and decorating – but you’ll see their house next time.

The six new students stood on the verge: on the verge of their new home, on the verge of their new lives. Before them lay three years of study, of meeting new friends and trying new things, but more than that; before them lay the whole future, wide open, a blank sheet waiting for them to inscribe themselves upon it in whatever way they chose.

For Esther and Joanna Peterson, the adventure was, at least for this first year, to be a shared one. They hadn’t chosen Kingsfield University deliberately to be together; in fact, they had expected – possibly even hoped – to be making their first strides into the big wide world separately rather than together. It wasn’t that they weren’t close, just that they resented always being seen as ‘the twins’. They had very different tastes and interests and had worked hard for the past few years to establish their own identities. But Kingsfield offered Joanna the best politics course and Esther the best fashion design course, and it seemed stupid for either to choose an inferior course in a place that had less to offer, simply because her sister was going to be there. They hadn’t really anticipated staying in the same halls of residence, but somehow the administration had seen it fit to place them together.

Although, Esther thought, maybe it would be nice to have someone here she knew. Like the others in the halls, she felt dwarfed by the possibilities of life at university, so very small, and so very exposed.

Ivory Towers felt the same shiver of nervousness and excitement that she’d had come over her periodically ever since she filled in her application forms all those months ago. She was both excited to be starting her new life – her own life, an independent one, and sad to be leaving her father behind. Since her mother died when she was a small girl, he’d brought her up alone and she knew she’d been much more sheltered than others her age. Not that it hadn’t had its advantages – he’d spoiled her with anything she wanted in terms of toys and later clothes and books. She’d learned to ride horses and play the piano, flute and guitar – and now she had the opportunity to study music full-time as she’d always desired. She knew her being here was breaking his heart, but that the only thing that would have hurt him more would have been if she hadn’t come to university, hadn’t taken the opportunities to learn and grow and become her own woman.

Serena Abe was the fourth girl in the household. She’d been living in the country since she was sixteen when she’d moved in with her sister, who had recently graduated. Their parents were still at home in Korea with their younger sister and brother, and Serena had always talked about returning there one day, but the longer she spent away from home, the less likely that seemed.

They were joined by two boys: Dale Glimmerstone and Micah Lazarus.

Micah was excited to finally leave home, and leave the glare of the Riverview spotlight. He loved his hometown and his family, but his father was the leader of the council there and his family had been high-profile in that community for generations after the role they played in the town’s rebuilding. The name Lazarus was famous not only in Riverview but in the communities around it, and Micah had never really enjoyed the spotlight – the pressure to behave, to be a good politician’s kid and avoid any bad publicity for his father. Kingsfield was one of a few universities offering funded studentships for Riverview residents, and his brother Luke was now in his third year here and loving it, so it seemed a natural choice for Micah, too. Already their little sister Meg was talking about coming here when she was eighteen, and had already made plans to visit her brothers during her college half-term. Their other brother, Noah, was much quieter and a lot happier staying at home, helping their mother tend their growing farmstead.

Dale was from another large family, and like Esther and Joanna, he was a twin as well – except his brother Chip had taken a completely different path in life. It felt good to be stepping out as his own man, yet at the same time, he really missed his brother, and seeing other twins here sent a pang through him that he really was on his own.

–

Justine Keaton sat at her drafting table, waiting for inspiration. She was beginning her new job the next day as an interior designer, her first role since she graduated as a mature student in fine art. Since her husband Marty retired from the Sunset Valley football team through injury, they’d both wanted a new start – seeing the stadium there and hearing the chants of the crowds on a Saturday night had been too much for him, and he’d been becoming rather depressed. When the opportunity came up for her to study in Kingsfield, Marty urged her to take it – and here they were.

Marty secured himself new work in the town; a training post at the local fire station. He was able to put his athleticism to good use without over-exerting himself, and it offered him the chance to do something good, something worthwhile. His mother had warned him that he couldn’t always look to play the hero, but Marty couldn’t help it – he loved putting a smile on people’s faces, and if this was an extreme way to do that, then so be it – at least it was a vital role within the community. At least he would be needed again.

Three years later, and he was loving his work more than anything – except Justine and, if he was being truly honest, football. The townsfolk were always so grateful for him and his colleagues, and the job gave him the opportunity to keep his fitness up. The endorphin rush of climbing a ladder, sticking a hose through a window and dousing a fire was greater than sex – was almost on a par with scoring a goal.

–

The students had each made a beeline for a different bedroom, and begun the job of unpacking. The others were all tired and went to bed early – it was a Sunday, no clubs were open and they wanted to be fresh to enjoy everything that freshers’ week had to offer them from tomorrow.

Ivory, to her own surprise, was the last one up. She’d gotten into the late night film and wanted to see it through – and she wanted the luxury of choosing her own bedtime for the first time in her life.

It would be strange sleeping in this bed for the first time, knowing it would be her home for a whole year, but she was ready for the challenges the morning would bring.

–

Justine’s first client was a man named Billy Capsian, who lived in a small one bedroom place on the edge of the artists’ district.

She was incredibly nervous, but Mr Caspian told her she could have free reign within his living area – he’d not long bought the place and he wanted it to feel more ‘him’.

Justine wasn’t expecting Mr Caspian to be as full of praise as he was though, and he promised he would call her whenever he needed any more work doing. She wondered if all her clients would be as easy to please as Mr Caspian had been.

As she left Mr Caspian’s place, she passed by the chemists and remembered she needed some paracetamol. Whilst in there, her eyes alighted on the tampons and she picked up a packet, thinking her period must be due… and she mentally did some calculations. It was overdue. Four weeks overdue, in fact. She’d been so busy with work she hadn’t even realised. Instinctively, she placed a protective hand over her stomach, and instead of taking the tampons, she reached for the pregnancy test…

Five years ago

When Jamie Jolina had first had a cocktail in the morning, she’d thought it decadent and somewhat ludicrous. She’d looked around the bar, not quite believing that people weren’t staring at her and judging her. But now a cocktail to celebrate the end of a night shift had become common practice – and she had long reasoned away any fears she might have had that this was a potentially worrying trend – after all, that was what normal people did after a work shift, wasn’t it? It was what she did after a day shift herself, and that wasn’t a big deal. Of course, then she was in here with her colleagues rather than by herself, but the stigma of being a lone drinker had also long abated – after all, everyone in this dive of a bar at this time of the day was a lone drinker.

The sweet pomegranate mixed with a kick of rum was just the trick – she would sleep well this afternoon.

Rowan Moss had only intended to buy a Coke. Lessons were over for the day and he was at a bit of a loose end. But then he saw the beautiful young woman at the end of the bar knocking back a cocktail and he figured if it was good enough for her, it was good enough for him, and so he ordered a long cocktail, with a shooter of JD for Dutch courage.

He knocked back the whiskey with a grimace as the sweet burn coated his throat. He took a deep breath, picked up the cocktail glass by the stem and got up.
‘Drinking alone at eleven in the morning? Never a good look’
The young woman looked at him, and he wasn’t sure if she was offended or not.

‘Always looks much better with two people drinking themselves silly at some stupid hour, don’t you think? Can I join you?’

Jamie was somewhat disarmed by this and had no real response. Nobody had ever interrupted her post-night-shift haze before, and all she could muster was a ‘sure’.

‘Rowan’

‘Jamie’

‘So, you a student as well?’

Jamie inwardly groaned. Oh God, a student. She knew a good looking guy taking an interest in her had to come with a catch.

‘No. I’m a doctor. A junior doctor, newly qualified’.

‘You work at the hospital?’

‘Yeah, nights. Just finished’.

‘Sucks’.

Jamie nodded. Yeah, it sucked alright. It sucked that she never saw her friends. It sucked that she had very few friends to even see. It sucked that she worked long hours and spent the rest of her time asleep. It sucked that she was reduced to drinking in the morning to help her sleep in daylight.

But she didn’t say any of this to the poor boy sitting next to her.

Instead, she smiled sweetly.

‘What are you studying?’

‘Material design’

‘Which is?’

Rowan grinned ‘posh name for CDT. Woodwork, metalwork, that kind of thing. I want to set up my own carpentry business one day. Or, you know, whatever’.

Jamie smiled. He reminded her a lot of the boys she’d known at university on other courses. Medical students never mixed that much with other students – the world of lie-ins and a few hours a week of lectures that the rest of them enjoyed had always been alien to her and her cohort, and she’d never been sure if she pitied or envied the other students.

‘So, a doctor. You must be what, 25?’

’24. Just. And you’re how old?’

‘21’

That wasn’t so bad, Jamie thought, and then stopped herself. He was still just a boy.

Rowan indicated the football tables on the other side of the bar. ‘You want a game?’

It had been a long time since anyone had asked Jamie to do something fun and she found herself acquiescing.

Conversation began to flow freely – about work and study, about the people they knew, about TV and books and sports – and Jamie found herself laughing more than she had done in years. She wasn’t sure how much they’d drunk, but she knew two things – one, it was way past her bed-time, and two, she was starving.

‘You like pizza, Rowan?’

‘I love pizza, Jamie’.

‘Well come on then, let’s go get pizza’.

Jamie flagged down the nearest cab and bundled Rowan into it. During the short taxi ride, she called for an extra-large Margherita. They emerged at her place, to be greeted soon after by a pizza deliverer.

Rowan found his head spinning – this beautiful woman, this beautiful older woman had invited him back to her place, and now she was buying him pizza and it was only… he looked at the time on his mobile phone… two in the afternoon.

‘So, Mr Rowan’

‘Mr Moss, actually’

‘So Mister Moss, what do you do for pleasure?’

A huge string of cheese started to dangle from the pizza slice. Jamie caught it in her fingers with a goofy grin, spiralled it round with her fingers and popped it in her mouth.

Rowan decided he was in love.

‘Well, I drink in bars at eleven in the morning, play a bit of table football, eat pizza in the houses of beautiful strangers…’

Whether it was the alcohol, the sleep deprivation or simply the power of pizza, Jamie suddenly felt emboldened. ‘You know what I like to do for fun?’

‘What do you like to do for fun, Ms…’

‘Jolina, and that’s Dr Jolina, actually’

‘So, what do you like to do for fun, Doctor Jolina?’

‘Come here and I’ll show you’.

While I was playing Bella and Mortimer, I figured I’d send them to the university site to see whether everything I’d built so far is functional. The corner of the Sunset Valley map that used to house the Alto and Landgraab houses and the legacy lot is my university campus. The halls of residence are there at the moment, and there will probably be a student union, a library and some, er ‘other’ stuff. The main event, though, is the university itself. It’s meant to function as a skilling zone, primarily, and the aim is to have both skilling equipment and rabbithole rugs/doors so my students can go to lessons and can learn independently.

I’m also going to demolish the science lab eventually because most scientists work in universities or businesses, not some random lab on its own somewhere. Mortimer will be working here so he may as well get to know the place.

The art room is small, but functional. I want a properly functioning artists’ district in time, where many artists will live, work and display their wares, so this is really just for students.

Some of what’s produced in here will adorn the walls here, but other things will end up in an exhibition in town somewhere, or in people’s homes.

Bella went straight for drafting. Maybe she’ll want to turn her hand to being a stylist – it’s one of very few things I can see her doing, work-wise.

Her first attempt. Um.

The freshers all turned up on campus, which was rather opportune of them, so I briefly switched households and put them all to use.

Esther took straight to drafting as well.

Her first attempt is better than Bella’s.

There’s a sports block, with male/female toilets/showers/changing rooms.

A gym

And a pool

Dale went swimming, whilst athletic Serena plumped for the machines.

There’s also a garden which doubles up as a social area.

My first attempt at creating a rabbit hole was placing this rug in the theatre. Sadly, everyone route failed when they tried to use it.

I moved it to the corridor, which worked a lot better – sims just stepped on it and then vanished through the wall. Hee. Here you can see an EA townie pre-makeover, and Slammii Minogue, one of Kingsfield’s roller derby team. They actually have two teams, a men’s and a women’s. They’re probably just NPCs in this hood unless rollerskating becomes an option in the game, or there at least becomes some roller CC. But I wanted to create my own teams anyway (mainly for the lulz and the naming). At some point I’ll do photo shoots with them all.

The front of the theatre, also doubling as a music classroom.

Micah and Ivory are both music-oriented: he towards rock, she towards classical.

Mortimer is totally checking out Joanna’s arse.

Bella has some down-time with the music box

The Goths’ profiles are up on their page under ‘characters’ now. The whole Goth storyline probably needs some explanation – and yes, I gave Bella some plastic surgery (hate the TS3 Bella). Still not sure I like how she looks even now but they’re rich and she’s bored so more plastic surgery in the future wouldn’t be out of character!

You’ll notice I changed their traits as well as I didn’t think the game ones suited them – although I kept the teen trait the game rolled for Cass (Hopeless Romantic). The story ‘proper’ starts three years after this prologue. I’m not intending to do profiles for everyone, just the Goths and the next household I’ll be writing about. Everyone else will probably just start from where they are.

The original idea for this hood came way back when TS3 first came out and I wanted to recreate my TS1 families and take them further. In the end, only five of those households have made the cut (so far): the Goths were one, and Cassandra’s little friend Rima Kline belongs to another – but more on her family when you meet them properly.

They live in this old TS1 house, which you can get from Kate’s Kreations in her recreation of Simsville. I don’t think it’s where the Goths start out in that game, but it’s where I moved them to, so in my mind it’s the Goth house. There’s a tour of the house under ‘Neighbourhood’. In my TS1 game, their second child was Thursday – Alexander never existed, and won’t exist unless Bella and Morty really spam the baby wants.

Mortimer was all sciencey, and Bella and he had some rough times (some of which may be repeated in this hood so I won’t spoiler them). When Superstar came out, she was the sim I had try to get famous. She kind of sucked at it, hence me giving her the Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous LTW. I may not pursue it with her – not sure what I want to do with celebrities in this hood yet but probably not much.

Poor Bella, destined for a life of frustration.

See what I mean?

I’m not doing supernaturals (although I won’t stop kids playing with the IF dolls) but Cassandra is definitely the kind of kid who would have an imaginary friend.

The Goths would have help in the house, so I thought I’d get them a butler, but they still seem to be glitched. He just cooked non-stop and left all the food out so the kitchen was disgusting.

He never attended to Thursday, and then he fell asleep whilst cooking yet AGAIN (he did have a bed assigned, he just didn’t use it) and the house got set on fire.

I would say this was useful of him, but he started the fire!

We soon got rid of him. Babysitters and maids from now on for this family!

By the way, we haven’t seen much of Mortimer yet, but here are some clues about his character. He wants to progress at work, he wants Cassandra to do well, and he wants to flirt… not necessarily with Bella.

Three years ago

The baby wouldn’t stop crying. It seemed to Bella that this infant was spectacularly unhappy, as if the girl knew how much of a chasm her birth had caused, how difficult her arrival had made things.

Bella had tried hard to bond with her, after all, she reasoned, she may become the child Bella had always hoped Cassandra would be – her own person, not a clone of her father. Not that he would allow it. Bella still shuddered when she recalled how utterly gleeful he was when she told him she thought she was pregnant again. He didn’t understand the cold shock of fear and despair the pregnancy had been to her. To Bella it had signalled the end of something – her youth, perhaps – and the final confirmation that the life she had once dreamed of would never be a life she would attain. The dreams of cockatils by the beach in Cannes, of international acclaim and photo-shoots for Vogue, with her handsome Nobel Prize-winning husband were just that – dreams.

She’d believed it was her destiny to marry Mortimer, she could see their life together mapped out – glamour, success and excitement. But here they were, he nothing but a mid-level academic, she nothing but a mother of two.

The baby was his baby, not hers. She couldn’t bring herself to feel anything but revulsion or resentment towards her, no matter how she tried. Even her choice of name for the girl, Thursday, was borne of an act of malice. The name was meant to be a dig at her husband and his family, at their petty desire to stick to their ‘legacy’, to be Goths, the eccentric family, creepy, kooky, altogether ooky…

She clenched a fist under the baby’s squalling, convulsing body. He hadn’t even flinched at the name. Hadn’t even bitten. He’d just accepted it as if it were natural.

Cassandra couldn’t cope. Her stupid baby sister was always screaming. Stupid baby had made everything horrible lately. She had the big room. Cassandra wanted that room but was told the baby needed it more. Why? She was a baby. She was small. Cassandra didn’t get it. There was nowhere you could go, even in this big house, to get away from the stupid baby crying. Cassandra just wanted some quiet to do her homework and write her stories.

She thought a baby brother or sister might be a friend, someone she could play with, but so far, having a sister was just trouble. Still, her dad had bought her the pet chinchilla she’d always wanted, Thor – and Cassandra loved him to pieces. She always whispered her story ideas to him to see if they sounded good. Not that he ever offered much in the way of critique.

Cassandra had also made a new friend. Rima Kline was new in town, and she’d invited Cassandra over to her house to play.

Rima lived with her parents and their cat in a house by the beach. Cassandra thought it was a beautiful house – so modern, not like their old house, which was an old family mansion. The floorboards creaked at night, and Cassandra was sure they had ghosts. Rima’s family would never have ghosts or creaky floorboards in a house as new as theirs.

Rima had always wanted a baby brother or sister and was jealous of Cassandra, but Cassandra assured her there really was nothing to be jealous of.

As many ten-year old girls do, they decided to form their own secret friendship club – no boys would be allowed, and no little sisters. They invented a secret password and a code. Only they, Rima’s cat Sheba and Thor would be allowed to be members.

Bella hadn’t worked since having Cassandra, and although she and Mortimer had been living in Kingsfield for ten years, she had yet to really make friends. The few people she considered friends were back home in Sunset Valley, and whilst she would call or email them from time to time, she had little desire to go back and visit. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to see her family – it was Mortimer’s family she wanted to avoid. When they were children, Gunther and Cornelia had always seemed so accommodating. She was welcomed into their home – treated as royalty almost. If only she’d realised at the time that it was because they were so grateful for her, grateful their son had a friend – a girlfriend – and even more so that he had an attractive, popular girlfriend.

They were angry when Bella insisted that she and Mortimer did not move into Goth Manor when she fell pregnant. They’d been living in a small apartment in Bridgeport, on the outskirts of the Valley. Bella had hoped to stay there and work on beginning a film career, but pregnancy put the cap on it. No-one would employ her when she was pregnant and both their families insisted the baby be brought up in a ‘proper’ home. Some distant relative of Gunther’s had passed away and left his mansion to the family, and so it was decreed that Bella, Mortimer and their new child would live in the old Goth mansion in Kingsfield. And there they lived, in a musty house where the floorboards creaked and where Bella was convinced there were rats. Kingsfield was a nice town, but there was nothing much for Bella to do, and nowhere she wanted to work. Mortimer told her she didn’t need to work, he earned enough money for them to live on, and with no mortgage to pay and his family’s wealth to fall back on if necessary (ha! As if you could ever persuade a Goth to dust the mothballs off their vaults and spend any of their vast fortune!), they would be fine.

So Bella spent her days doing very little. She would go to the shops, or the spa, or one of the bistros or coffee shops in town. Occasionally she would try and chat to someone, like the new woman she saw in town that day. Justine Keaton and her husband were new in town, and she seemed happy to engage in chit-chat with Bella, although, Bella noted, the young woman had cast what she perceived to be a somewhat scornful eye over Bella’s clothing.

Justine’s phone rang and she told Bella that it was an important phone call – it transpired her husband had some emergency and Justine simply had to go and meet him.

Bella watched the woman walk away, knowing they would never be friends, never have much in common, yet part of her wanted to cry out to her, tell her not to be so in thrall to a man that her life became nothing but a means of servicing his own dreams.

She felt an irrational anger and resentment towards Ms Keaton that she couldn’t quite articulate. Under her breath she muttered ‘this dress is designer, you judgemental bitch’.

Mortimer was working late again that night. He wasn’t there to greet Cassandra from school, to eat with the family, or to read the girl to sleep at night, even though Cassandra always preferred it when her father did it as he ‘did the voices properly’, Bella had to suffice. It took three chapters of The Amber Spyglass before the girl succumbed to sleep.

Bella walked out of the room in search of wine, and not for the first time wondered what it would feel like to walk out of this house and out of her stagnant life for good.

Although there’s no university EP, the hood is still going to have a university community. There will proabably be some postgrads/lecturers/resesarchers/cleaners etc in time, but for now, there are going to be two main groups of students I’m focussing on – the freshers (first years) and the third years.

You’ll meet the third years in time, but today we’re going to see the freshers. I’ve made a ‘halls of residence’ for them – albeit a small one. Six of them live here. When they get into their second year they will move out into other houses and I may well move in some new freshers.

The halls are on two floors, and there’s a lift for disabled access as well as stairs. I don’t yet have any disabled sims but I probably will do at some point if mods get sophisticated enough for it.

They’ve moved into a super-bland place as all freshers do.

As they settle in, they’ll add their own touches.

I’m not sure how I will handle their finances yet, but watch this space.

I hate laundry in TS3 so not all the sims will have it, but this lot have their own mini laundrette…

…which also serves as a neat little place to get some vague privacy.

There are two bathrooms, one on each floor.

They’re virtually identical, other than one being slightly larger.

There’s also a mini-gym.

I’ve started building the university and that has a much larger gym in it.

All six bedrooms are identical, as in real halls.

I decided that once the sims moved in and selected their rooms, I’d add the appropriate customisation for each sim.

The sims were all tired when they arrived on the lot, so I let them select their own rooms.

You can read more about who they are, what they’re studying and what they want from life when I get their character bios up and when I write the first part of their story, but for now, here they are…

Dale Glimmerstone – donated by desmera in a response to a casting call I made for spares. You can read about his family in Daydreams and Fairytales: The Imaginary Legacy.

Serena Abe – one of EA’s townies, aged up from teen to YA.

Ivory Towers – originally a teen sim created for a GoS challenge.

Esther Peterson, also created for a GoS challenge…

…along with twin sister Joanna.

And finally, Micah Lazarus, one of the generation five children from the Lazarus Dispatches. His big brother Luke is in the third year household.

Joanna and Dale were first to claim bedrooms, whilst Ivory was last, staying up late to watch TV.

At the moment, all the students have part-time jobs, and studying is mainly going to occur through skilling and through taking classes in skills. I’ve chosen to allow them to learn anything they want, and if they’re not rolling up wants, I will actively push them to learn skills that suit their traits or LTW. The university will contain stuff for developing most kinds of skills and when it’s built, I expect them to spend a lot of time there. Does anyone know if you can use multiple rabbit hole rugs on one lot, or will that make the game get annoyed? It would be nice if they could take classes on the lot as well.

You’ll find out more about how this all works, and about the individual students’ wants and personalities when I get to the stage of writing their first proper chapter.

Although this blog will be similar in tone to other TS2 and TS3 neighbourhood blogs (see links), the way it develops will be ‘by ear’.

Blog posts will cover both story and behind the scenes (BTS) stuff, but you can go to the relevant pages if you only want to see one type of update.  There is likely to be adult content.