Strangetown! What Sims player does not have a soft spot for this strange town? :-)
We're going to spend a week with the Singles household, who in my game I have put into this modest house at No. 95 Road to Nowhere. But... hold on... aren't there supposed to be FOUR Singles? But I can only see three... Who's missing, and why?
We have - left to right - Chloe, Kristen and Erin. But where's Lola, Chloe's big sister?
I completely forgot that, when I was playing the Grunts, Lola fell in love and moved in with Ripp Grunt, where she now of course resides - still on the same street, at No. 51 Road to Nowhere, as you can read here.
The Maxis-written biography for this household reads: "Has there ever been a group of roommates so different from one another? As if living in Strangetown isn't hard enough, will these girls be able to accept their differences and be friends or will the tension tear the house apart?" Hopefully, nothing and nobody here will be torn apart. But let's have a bit of history first, shall we?
I found some Maxis-made pictures among the Strangetown snapshots and try to cobble together a background story from them.
This can be no other than Lola and Chloe's human parents, Glarn and Kitty Curious - their mother being, strictly speaking, not their mother. Apparently, Kitty is unhappy about her husband just having given birth to Alien twin girls. Their father is the same Pollination Technician who went on to found the Smith family.
Correction: I found since out that the woman with the red hair in the above and below picture is not Kitty, but Glabe - she does not appear in the Curious family tree, and it is unclear whether she was Glarn's first wife (as the picture with them in front of the double bed suggests) and left or divorced him, or in some other relationship with him; anyway, Glarn later married Kitty, and the girls were raised by Glabe.
Here, it looks like Chloe (left) and Lola (right) perch on the sette with their adoptive human Mum (Glabe, as we now know) telling them something like "Wait till your Dad comes home" - or maybe it's not like this at all, but especially Chloe's downcast face seems to imply a lecturing. Correction: Apparently, Glabe tells the girls here who their human father was. No lecturing, but certainly a serious matter.
Kitty (now with blond hair instead of red?! --> Yes, because she never had red hair, as we now know!) and Glarn also have entirely human children: Jenny (on the settee; she went on to become Mrs. Smith), Vidcund and Pascal, by the looks of it.
Here are the all-human Curious siblings at home with their Mum. At least that's how I interpret this picture, after having looked at everyone's family tree (which is quite confusing here in Strangetown, I must admit!).
That's all the pictures I found among the neighbourhood snapshots which look like they could be about the members of this household, hoping I got it right and not all wrong.
The house where the three remaining room mates are now is very modestly and incompletely furnished, and not really equipped for three single ladies. Downstairs is one large room with an open-plan kitchen and a tiny, empty bathroom. A spiral staircase in one corner leads to the upper floor.
There are two bedrooms and one bathroom. The larger of the two rooms can be made into two smaller ones, but the household budget is tight at just above 3,100 Simoleons, and any such things will have to wait until some money has been earned.
Chloe expresses her relief at her big sister having moved out - the house really would be cramped with four of them, wouldn't it. She is a Romance Sim with the lifetime want of woohooing with 20 different Sims. Maxis say about her: "The complete opposite of her sister, Chloe just wants to meet new people and to have a good time. She can often be found daydreaming or chatting on the phone."
Kristen, sitting next to her, "envisions herself as a world famous sports champion. She doesn't particularly care for Strangetown, but it's only a pit stop on her track to greatness." But unlike what Maxis had in mind for her, she actually wants to become The Law, suitable for a Fortune Sim.
Erin, who is Bjorn Beaker's younger sister, "spends a lot of time working on her psychic powers. Of course she isn't really psychic, but don't tell her that." She will now spend a lot of time working on her cooking powers, since she dreams of being a Celebrity Chef. Her aspiration is Popularity.
Mr Humble's computer is set up on the dining table that's already been here when the girls moved in - they do not have a desk yet, and the chair Erin is sitting on is the only one they own. She gets to look for a job first, but does not find anything in the Culinary career. Similarly, Kristen has no luck in finding anything in Law.
There aren't enough resident men in Strangetown to fulfill Chloe's lifetime want, and so she has to resort to befriending townies and NPCs - which will also mean less trouble in the other households and families in the neighbourhood.
The welcome committee consists of Monica Bratford and Camryn Lee - both women live on the same street. Erin tells them how she wishes to make more friends; shouldn't be hard, since she is originally from Strangetown and must know some folks since her childhood.
The usual Monday evening call to invite the ladies Downtown comes, and they board a taxi that takes them to Maple Springs Pool and Spa.
Most of the visiting Sims here are townies, with few residents showing up. One exception is Bella Goth, who I spot in one of the jacuzzis on the roof terrace.
Chloe sees her big sister Lola walk by and rushes to greet her. "Lola! You look... pregnant!" she grins when they hug. "And you look... almost naked," her sister counters. She's expecting her and Ripp's first child.
On Tuesday, Kristen finds a job as File Clerk. The other two ladies do what needs doing around the house and then are set to other tasks, such as making phone calls, paying the bills, and taking advantage of their free time for some skilling.
Another townie walks by and is befriended by Chleo.
Kristen returns from her first day on the job with a promotion to Law Firm Receptionist. Her salary and the promotion bonus are very welcome; after having bought three single beds and paid the bills, the household account was down to 2,000 Simoleons - not worryingly little, but not enough to make any significant house improvements.
Now Kristen needs a logic skill point, and so her bonus is invested in the cheapest chess table and chairs available. This will also be good to boost relationships and get the ladies' fun level up.
Once again, due to the wrong decision with a chance card, Kristen is demoted back to File Clerk. She heads off straight away to complete the afternoon shift, hoping for a promotion, but it doesn't happen. Still, the money is welcome, as always.
So far, Chloe has not made any real progress towards her lifetime want. Today, at least she gets to the crush stage with townie Jason Menon, and has her very first kiss - a big wish of hers.
It is Thursday morning, and Chloe is glad to have an aspiring Celebrity Chef as a housemate - Erin is now able to make omelettes for breakfast, while Chloe herself just about manages to pour herself a handful of cereals into a bowl and add milk.
She later greets passers-by Makoto St. Julien - another potential candidate for the 20 different Sims she wants to woohoo with. "So you ladies have only just moved in," the elderly gentleman politely enquires. Yes, on Monday, to be precise.
Kristen has been diligently working away at her filing tasks and is rewarded by getting her former position at reception back.
With her salary and the promotion bonus, a few modest improvements can finally be made: The computer is moved to a simple desk on the landing upstairs, and the old dining table is finally surrounded by four chairs so that meals won't have to be taken any longer slumped on the settee or standing.
It's been a good day for Erin, too - early this morning, she found a job as Dish Washer, and returns in the evening with a promotion to Drive Through Clerk.
Some of the money she brings is used to buy bedside tables and lamps for each of the housemates as well as a mirror and wall lamp for the bathroom (a shower in addition to the bathtub that was already there has been installed earlier this week).
Friday is yet again Promotion Day when first Kristen is made Legal Secretary...
...and then Erin Fast Food Shift Manager. With their combined salaries and bonus money, the ladies now have almost 3,500 Simoleons to play with, and I know just what to do with (part of) that!
This is what the upper floor now looks like: The smaller bedroom has been given to Chloe and contains a double bed - without one, she won't ever make that lifetime want of hers. Erin and Kristen now share the larger room, with Erin's bed the pink one and Kristen's the green one.
And promotion or not, even a Legal Secretary has to do the odd job at home. Acquiring a mechanical skill point while repairing the broken shower won't hurt Kristen's career, either.
Chloe is forever greeting and trying to befriend any man who passes by - with mixed results. Here, townie Jihoon Hsu is obviously not keen on being hugged by a woman he has only just met for the very first time, no matter they have the same hair style! But eventually, he thaws and the two are almost friends by the time he leaves.
Serdar Chen, an exceptionally well dressed man, sees Erin getting off her car pool after work and thinks "This lady does not look happy." Too right she doesn't - the wrong decision with a chance card has seen her demoted back to Drive Through Clerk.
Thankfully, by Sunday night, Erin is back at her job as Fast Food Shift manager. She returns home just as it begins to snow, and after a relaxing bubble bath, she is off to bed.
Meanwhile, Kristen joins Chleo and her current almost-conquest, a townie by the name of Ryan Wheeler, at the dining table for a bowl of chili. Chleo and Ryan are best friends, have a crush on each other and two bolts, but Chleo still does not manage to shift their relationship from pink to red hearts, which is of course required for woohoo.
Thus the week ends for the ladies having made serious efforts at their respective lifetime wants, with Chloe the least successful of the three. But several of her friendship are advanced enough to probably result in those coveted woohoos next time I play this household :-)
The household name "Singles" is unfortunately also the surname for the ladies. But in reality, all three should have their true family names: Beaker for Erin, Loste for Kristen and Curious or Smith for Chloe (probably Curious, since she and Lola were raised by Glarn and Kitty Curious).
Because I do not wish to faff with SimPe or other mods to change their surnames, I wonder whether I should simply treat them as if they had their real surnames, and insert them at the appropriate places on my alphabetical list.
