Family names and related posts

Sunday 29 November 2015

The Nelson Twins' Freshman Year


Welcome back to Pinenut Plaza Dorms at SimState Uni. This building is currently home to five students, and we have two newcomers:
Nelson and Nellie Newson have just arrived. They were both eager to start studying as soon as possible, not only because they wanted to go to uni anyway, but also because their mother's (Ginger Newson's) lifetime want is to graduate three children from college. So far, only their older brother Nigel has returned home with a diploma.
Upon turning into a Young Adult, Nellie has lost the hairstyle I gave to her when she became a teenager.
That is soon remedied, though, and she seems happier, too.
Nelson gets to know the other dorm residents one by one. Here, he is playing chess with Gerlinde Gavigan, one of Mary and Nathan Gavigans' children. Gerlinde and her twin sister Gesine are both in their Senior year.
This is Freya Hart, nee Furley, adoptive daughter of Matthew Hart and Jane Stacks-Hart who lost her entire family (Fineaus Furley and Alegra Gorey-Furley plus two sisters) in a dramatic house fire caused by a burning Christmas tree when she was a little girl.
Fenya is a Junior and has finished her term paper - the frist of the group for this semester.
Lance Landgraab (right) and his twin sister Lilo Landgraab, children of the late Malcolm Landgraab, are Sophomores. I am not particularly happy about Lance and Nelson having identical hairstyles and outfits; I am going to change that, too.
Nellie moves into one of the downstairs rooms. I know it looks like someone has been sharing the bed with her, but that's only because the bed was still unmade from the previous student occupying this room (yuck!).
Nelson gets a new hairdo from one of my recently acquired extra packs. Is it just me or does he have a slightly... hm... gay look about him?
Maybe that's why he didn't mind me giving him this room with its pink and grey colour scheme.
Fenya is super neat and can always be relied on to clean the girls' toilets and shower room. You know how I play my Sims at uni: I control them until they have all their skills for the current semester and completed their term paper. From then on, it is mostly up to them what they do all day. The only exception is that I let them make phone calls to friends and family back home, so that their relationships won't suffer too much during their being away from New Max.
Sadly, Lilo's aggressive behaviour towards Fenya has not changed. In spite of being half sisters (their Alien father is the same), Lilo has detested Fenya from Day One for no apparent reason.
Nelson is shocked to see the girls fighting.
But it's not only the students living at the dorm who fight - the eternal rivalry between Llama and Cow mascots never seems to change, either. Here, Gesine and Lilo are watching, and it is unclear whether they cheer for the Cow or against her.
After two or three days, the Newson twins decide on their Majors. Nelson chooses Politics, which will serve him well in his future political career (his LTW is to become Mayor). Nellie's choice of Literature will come in handy, too, when she will begin working at being Education Minister one day.
With her twin brother, Lilo is never aggressive.
Nelson and Lance soon become friends.
Fenya is cleaning again.
Lilo corners Fenya in the shower.
Gerlinde and Lance have a chat in the downstairs common room.
The newcomers soon learn the dorms' favourite dance: The Hula.
Queuing for the telephone - a scene that used to be reality in many dorms (also when I went to Librarian School many moons ago!) until everyone started having their own mobile phones!
Sometimes it gets all a bit much for Gerlinde, the quieter of the Gavigan twins, and she retreats to her room to read.
Nelson tries to reason with Fenya and Lilo. "I wish you girls would stop punching each other," he sighs. It suits him, doesn't it, trying to mediate between warring parties. In his future role as Mayor of New Max, he will often have to reconcile opposite interests.
So much for his attempts as a peacemaker!
Nellie and Nelson finish their first semester successfully.
Lance and Nelson sitting together in the cafeteria.
Gesine's pretty face is deceptive - she is not as nice as I thought she'd turn out to be, and almost always cheats when playing chess, even with Lance, who has become her sweetheart autonomously some time in the past.
This semester, Gerlinde is the first to complete her term paper.
A magic lamp is placed on the front porch. Nobody needs it at the moment, so it will just stay where it is.
The campus coach has not been seen yet this "year".
Nelson heeds her advice and starts working out on the exercise bike.
A typical afternoon in the downstairs common room: Fenya is working away at the computer, two of the students have a comfy chat on the floor, and Nelson is talking to his Mum back home about how his studies will help his future career.
Upstairs, Nellie and Gerlinde have fun playing a video game together.
Lilo has been so busy arguing and fighting with poor Fenya that she has badly neglected her personal hygiene. And what does she do instead of heading upstairs for a shower? She shoos everyone out of the cafeteria and has a sponge bath.
I wonder whether Lance and Gesine's relationship will survive once Gesine graduates; Lance is two years behind her, and she may find someone else when she moves back to New Max. The same could be true for him with any future newcomer. (They don't roll wants for each other all year.)
Lance, Fenya, Gerlinde, Lilo and Gesine have all finished the second semester (Nellie and Nelson are a few hours behind). For Gerlinde and Gesine, it was their final exam.
Gerlinde has graduated Summa Cum Laude in Physics. For Gesine, it's Magna Cum Laude in Biology. The twins' parents, Mary and Nathan Gavigan, are here for the graduation party, as are friend and former co-student Deirdre Dreamer and young relative Carl Capp (the girls' older brother, Isaiah, has married into the Capp family).
Another former fellow resident at the dorm, Sirius Swain, has been invited too. And of course Isaiah mustn't miss out on the party, either.
It's a lively party with lots of dancing, telling jokes and family kisses.
Mary is happy to see her daughters graduate with such excellent results.
The daft Cow thinks it is fun to liven up the party a bit by setting one of the sprinklers going.
One of the girls' professors and the dorm cook line up along with Fenya and Sirius to say good-bye to Gesine and Gerlinde.
They board the taxi back to New Maximiliania, where we are eventually going to catch up with them.
Later that evening, Nellie and Nelson return from their final exams for their first year. They are now Sophomores. Fenya is now a Senior, Lance and Lilo have just started their Junior Year.
A funny outtake and something else I've never noticed before in my game: Super-neat Fenya does not sweat when she works out - she has "clean bubbles" around her, and indeed her hygiene level does not drop at all!

There are now five students left at the dorm. Who is going to fill the three empty slots?
The lot itself shows the odd glitch every now and then. Is it time to move the group to a different dorm?

Thursday 26 November 2015

The Newson Family: Week 6

Click here if you want to (re-)read week 5. 

The "main" Newson family still lives in this Maxis-made townhouse in Downtown New Maximiliania. We've already visited with some of the siblings, so who is here at the moment?
Gavin Newson, a Fortune Sim who originally wanted to become Business Tycoon and later inexplicably changed his lifetime want to earning 100.000 Simoleons. He graduated Summa Cum Laude in Biology many years ago but never did anything with his studies; instead of finding a job, he decided to stay at home and earn as much money as he could by selling paintings. It's not going too bad, but I doubt he'll ever make 100 grand with it.
His sister Ginger is still here, too. Her LTW changed as well: instead of celebrating her Golden Anniversary, it turned into graduating 3 children from college somewhere along the line. Her oldest child - Nigel Newson, whose father is Ripp Grunt - has recently graduated in Political Sciences.
Ginger married Clover Capp (one of Tybalt Capp's Plantbabies) last round. He took her surname and moved in, looking forward to the day when they both will be elders and can celebrate their Golden Anniversary.
All three adults get along very well. On this Monday morning, just after Ginger's twins Nellie and Nelson have left for school (you'll see them in a bit), they spend some time in front of the house tossing a football.By the way, Ginger and Clover had "only" two bolts between them. After I made them both wear glasses, they became three-bolters for the rest of the week.
Nigel returns from college, much to his mother's joy. He will now start to work towards his LTW of becoming Hall of Famer.
When Nelson arrives home from school, he is happy to see his big brother has moved back in with the family.
Nellie feels the same.
It's wonderful to have the family reunited again - it's been too long since they have all sat down for a meal together!
When Nigel left home for college, his younger siblings moved into his old room. Now that he is back, he is going to share his Uncle Gavin's bachelor pad on the ground floor. It won't be for long - you'll soon see why :-)
Tuesday morning, Nigel is lucky and finds a job as Minor Leaguer on the Simternet.
The twins are only just getting up by the time Nigel has already signed his work contract.
Ginger and Clover make a great team in the kitchen and elsewhere.
That afternoon, Nellie turns into a teenager. The lot falls on Family as her aspiration, and her LTW is to become Education Minister.
The ever-same hairstyle has to go. Now that I have such nice new clothes, objects, walls, floors and hairstyles in my game (thanks to Twoyys4me!), I enjoy choosing a different one for Nellie. Isn't she really, really pretty? The outfit she found in the wardrobe once used to belong to her Aunt Gabriella, I think.
Even though they are twins and I expected them to grow up at the same time, it takes Nelson several hours more before he, too, turns into a teen. He is now a Popularity Sim who wants to be Mayor of New Maximiliania one day.
Wednesday starts with Gavin busily painting away at his easel. Those 100k won't come without an effort!
Ginger is also busy: the cleanbot (a gift from friend Angela Pleasant) needs repairing.
The twins come home from school accompanied by Stacy Stacks.
Nigel comes home from work with his first promotion: He now is a Rookie.
Thursday has more repair work in store for Ginger.
Today, Meike Riley gets off the school bus with Nellie and Nelson. The three teenagers spend most of the afternoon watching TV together.
Nigel has been promoted to Starter.
All adults in the family show the wish to go fishing, and so everybody piles into the recently bought car (a wish from Gavin) to drive somewhere with a pond or river.
This is SimCenter South or something like that; an (of course) Maxis-made community lot also in Downtown New Max.
While the adults indulge in fishing, the teenagers head straight for the espresso bar.
The otherwise really nice family outing comes to a sudden end when a thunderstorm breaks out and Nellie is hit by lightning. At home, she showers and eats and goes to bed early - no permanent harm done.
On Friday after school, the twins make their respective phone calls and move to college. True - they have been allowed to be teenagers only for a VERY short time, but they both know it is their beloved Mum's big dream to see them graduate just as their big brother Nigel did.
Speaking of Nigel, he diligently works on his body skill - he wants more promotions.
With her two younger children gone, Ginger is a bit at a loose end. Before the "empty nest syndrome" can fully set in (Nigel is back, yes, but he works all day), she invites her younger sisters Gabriella and Georgia over. They don't live far.
Castanea Landgraab comes home from work with Nigel today. She is not only Nigel's colleague, but also Clover's sister.
Speaking of Clover - knows just how to deal with his lovely wife's empty nest syndrome!
Good job he did what he did when he did it - because the next morning, Saturday, he is decidedly unwell and can hardly finish his breakfast without a coughing fit.
For every Newson, family is first and foremost. Today, Ginger invites her younger brother Garrett and his sweetheart Paola Picaso over.
Clover wants to see his family, too, and invites is father Tybalt and some of his siblings over.
For some mysterious reason, Paola and Clover can not stand each other. Something very strange happens then - I don't think I've ever saw this in my game before: On his own initiative, Clover offers Paola 50 Simoleons if she "bugs off" (that is what the message appearing on my screen said!). Do you know of this? Paola takes the money but does not leave.
Looks as if he brings up the subject in front of everyone at the table! I wonder why these two sit next to each other when they so heartily dislike each other.
Eventually, they engage into a fist fight on the top floor landing. How embarrassing and totally inappropriate!
The evening ends with Nigel flying the kite in the back garden. I don't blame him for wanting to be out rather than in, with such goings-on!
By Sunday morning, Gavin has earned 37.500 Simoleons altogether. Can that really all be from his paintings? No. There were still several items in his inventory (from uni and shopping at community lots while I was playing other households), as well as in the other family members' inventories. I sold everything they did not want or need, and that contributed quite a bit to the sum total.
Later, it is his turn with the kite.
Nigel gets his last promotion for this week - he is now an All Star.
Here, you'll be seeing Ginger as an adult for the last time.
Two birthday cakes are set up in the kitchen for her and Gavin.
Ginger is the first to blow out the candles. She age-transitions into a rather flamboyant dress - one I've not seen before, it must have come with one of my new download packs. Look at Clover's face - it appears as if he is not overly happy about his wife looking as many years older than he as she is!
Gavin is next. By the way, you can't see any Newson siblings among the party guests because I had Nigel invite to the party - all week he'd been rolling wishes to throw a party, and this seemed to be a good occasion.
Here is Gavin as an elder, and the week ends.
How much longer until Clover will be an elder, too, and finally celebrate the Golden Anniversary with Ginger?
Are the twins going to do well at college?
Is Nigel going to find himself a girlfriend, and will Gavin ever make 100.000 Simoleons?