Stephen Cho: Week 1

Stephen's being made playable by accepting Ripp Grunt's invitation to move in is here.

Our next, but not yet last, stop for a member of the Cho family is in Strangetown. Stephen Cho has just bought this not very welcoming house at No. 73 Road to Nowhere, and it cost him nearly all his savings - he only has 3,732 Simoleons left to furnish it and keep some back for the bills.

There isn't much to say aboutt his house apart from that it is not very nice, and what installations are there are all of the cheapest variety. I remove the unnecessary walls and gate by the front door, which raises Stephen's account to 4,693 Simoleons.

Here he is, having just made a batch of Comfort Soup and wondering whether he should call the adoption service. 

You can already guess a lot about him from this one picture: Stephen Cho is a former NPC waiter who used to work at several restaurants in Strangetown. His aspiration is Family (hence the soup), and he dreams of marrying off three children - maybe starting by adopting one, since he has not yet developed a romantic interest in any lady who could be the future mother of those three children. 

Understandably, one of his first wishes is to find a job, and with the help of Mr Humble's computer he chooses the position of Spelunker in the Adventure career - simply because it offers the highest pay of the five available options. However, he will only start tomorrow, which allows him time to welcome his distant cousin Abhijeet Cho, who lives just down the road (and is so distant a cousin that he does not even appear in Stephen's family tree), and Christian Love. 

More of Stephen's wishes are about getting fit and gaining a skill point, and so the three men set off for a jogging round. It does not yet yield the desired result, but it was worth a try. 

Soon afterwards, the two others go home, and Stephen has a shower, another bowl of soup and then goes to bed. Because he was out running, he has missed the customary phone call inviting him to meet downtown, but that can't be helped. 

He starts work on Tuesday afternoon and returns after sunset with a promotion to Multiregional Sim of Some Question. The day's pay and the promotion bonus are VERY welcome!

While he was at work, a stray wolf has dug a hole in front of the house. Stephen has learned a thing or two on his job as a Spelunker and decides to give it a try right here, but all he unearthes are a rock and the model of an ocean liner, hardly worth selling. 

Wednesday is a day off for Stephen; not good in financial terms, but it allows him to walk up the road to the small town "centre" to buy some badly needed clothes - he can't remain in his waiter's uniform forever, can he!

He's made his very modest choice and then meets and greets first Jill Smith...

...and then Pascal Curious. I have him scope the room, but although he finds the townie lady in the green top "hot", he has only one bolt for her, and nothing further is done in that direction.

Back home, he invests into an easel and spends the rest of the afternoon and evening painting, satisfying wishes to gain skills and finally selling his first painting for 28 Simoleons.

On Thursday, not only is Stephen promoted to Deep Sea Excavator, he is also accompanied by colleague and (yet another) distant relative, Blake Cho. 

While Stephen tells cousin Blake that he has recently taken up painting, his guest somehow manages to eat soup through the helmet. Maybe it's for demonstrative purposes, because Stephen will wear just such a helmet tomorrow, too. 

Blake comes back from work with Stephen again on Friday. 

This time, he does not only stay for dinner, he moves in! 

Blake Cho is a Romance Sim who fancies himself as Professional Party Guest - he will switch career as soon as he finds a suitable offer. He only brought 1,000 Simoleons with him and had nothing in his back pack; his skill profile is modest but he has a few friends which should help Stephen towards his next promotion. 

Until the latter finds himself a girlfriend and potential mother of the three children he wants to see married before he dies, Blake will stay here. 

I like checking on my Sims' dreams, and early on Saturday morning, Blake dreams of college. When I check his memories, he has actually been to college, but there is nothing else such as choosing a major or graduating. 

Instead of the promotion (and especially the bonus!) Stephen was hoping for today, he is fired after he has taken the wrong decision with a chance card. 

"Unfair!! How could that happen?!" it sounds dimly from inside the helmet. Well, he wasn't really into his career anyway, just wanting to get a bit of money before starting on a family.

It is Sunday morning, and the cousins are busy in the kitchen. Stephen makes sure that Blake has a good breakfast - bad enough that he has to work on a Sunday. 

When Blake is off to work, Stephen walks to Maple Springs Pool and Spa. His turn-ons are swimwear and underwear, and since he is still looking for that future mother of his three intended kids, chances are that he'll bump into a lady in swimwear there. However, everyone he meets there has a maximum attraction of two bolts for him, and he leaves after a while, in time to make dinner for himself and Blake.

I have decided to get rid of the narrow passage behind the dining table, moving the table and chair back to the wall, adding a fourth chair and freeing some money. 

After I took this picture, I've done some more: bought them a better stove and good bath/shower tub, and got rid of the small room in the middle which has not yet been used but caused them to go all the way around the back porch every time a Sim wanted to go to the bathroom. When Stephen will start a family, the house has enough space to be converted into children's rooms, even the roof terrace.

Sunday evening ends on a social note when Gunnar Roque jogs by and is invited to join the cousins for bowls of freshly made vegetable soup. Blake tells his fellow Romance Sim how he longs to meet someone new who could capture his interest. 

Well, that was Stephen Cho's week. It was a success in that we have a new member of the Cho family added to the neighbourhood, but he did not make any progress at all towards his lifetime want, apart from earning a bit of money to provide a home for his future family. I still had fun playing him but wished for more money to enlist the help of the Matchmaker. 

For a while, I was considering making the "cousins" a romantic couple and have them adopt those three children Stephen wants, but I actually want him to enter the gene pool of Strangetown, and Blake as a Romance Sim will probably happier without kids.

Hun Cho: Week 1

We're staying in Belladonna Cove for another Cho household. The address is Bella's Belles Townhouses, and we're going to spend a week in the green one. 

Hun Cho lives here, very obviously a former mail carrier. He became playable when he struck up a romantic relationship with Chastity Gere (or, rather, she with him). 

His skill profile is good, and he has some money, too. A typical Family Sim, he dreams of becoming Captain Hero one day, and I am certain he will achieve that goal. For now, though, he is unemployed. 

On the ground floor, the narrow townhouse has a tiny living room, toilet and open plan kitchen-dining area from where a spiral staircase leads upstairs.

Facing the street with a bay window is the bedroom - too small to place a double bed, and the wall to the box room can't be knocked through because it is a rented property only. In comparison, the bathroom is spacious. 

Green is the dominant colour, but all furniture is rather cheap. Never mind, Hun has enough money to make himself reasonably comfortable here, but I doubt he'll stay for much more than one round.

While he is waiting for Mr Humble to turn up with the computer, he gets rid of his mailman cap and (very quickly!) grows a full beard :-D 

He likes his new reflection in the mirror, and I think he looks much better than before, too.

The computer is here, and Hun immediately looks for a job. There aren't any openings in Law Enforcement, though, and so he can do as he pleases for the rest of the day.

Of course, the mail carrier outfit being his "everyday" clothes, he needs new things. A walk to Desprit Deals is in order, and on top of getting himself a nice wardrobe where blue is the dominating colour, he also meets and greets a few neighbours. 

Back home, he changes into one of his new outfits and prepares himself spaghetti with meatballs. Apart from a new and much better stove and fridge, the kitchen is unchanged.

He plays chess in his tiny living room until he is tired enough to go to bed. 

When Hun gets up on Tuesday morning, he hopes that today will be the day he finds a job in his coveted career. 

And indeed it is! Starting out as a Desk Sergeant, his superiors are so impressed with the eager young man that they promote him to Vice Squad on his very first day.

While Hun works on his mechanical skill, I observe the other tenants at the row of town houses. Vyn Scott and Dongsool Love have been sharing Vyn's house since the end of last round, but now I witness them falling in love with each other - not something I planned, but we'll see how things are when it is Dongsool's turn on my list. 

He has the Wednesday off, and so Hun can talk to Dongsool when he spots him coming out mid-morning. On his own initiative, he congratulates Dongsool on being in love with Vyn :-D 

The rest of the day goes by uneventfully; Hun gains a body skill, works on his friendships by making some phone calls, has a meal and cleans what is there to be cleaned.

Meet Detective Cho! Hun returns from work on Thursday with a promotion, and the fingerprint scanner is now his.

It comes in useful, because he now needs two more cleaning points for his next promotion.

On Friday, in spite of having lost a body point because of a chance card, he is promoted to Lieutenant. 

Two more cleaning points are needed, and Hun sets to work immediately. 

It looks unhealthy, doesn't it, when he scans right through his neighbour Vyn Scott! But she appears to be totally unaware of the blue rays shining through her. 

It is Saturday morning, and Hun is looking at the whole weekend off - no work for him other than what needs doing in the house, and acquiring another cleaning point.

Once he has had a shower and is dressed, Hun comes downstairs to make himself breakfast. He can't believe it when he spots the first snow flakes silently falling - it's still atumn; winter seems to have arrived early. 

The thin white layer covering the ground outside does not stop his neighbours, the Scott-Loves, from sitting on the pavement for a chat! 

It has snowed some more over night, and Sunday is the first proper winter day, just right to stay in and invite over a couple of friends. Hun has been best friends with Samantha Cordial and Ana Patel for a while, and he happily peruses the Sunday paper while the two ladies play chess. 

"Several best friends in my life are women, such as you and Ana, but although I've had something going with Chastity Gere, I know she'll never settle for one man unless she finds her 3-bolter... and that's not me," he confides in Samantha. 

Maybe she advises him to enlist the Matchmaker's help, because that is what I am going to do next time it'll be Hun's turn to be played (which will be probably somewhere around two years in real life!). 

This was a nice, neat, quiet and straightforward week with Hun. The rental lot is slightly bugged; for instance, there was no block party on Saturday, and at the start of the week, Dongsool Love (who used to be the Landlord here before Vyn Scott asked him to move in with her) was stuck on his front porch, seemingly unable to go either inside or somewhere else outdoors. Still, there weren't too many problems, and I will move out the Scott-Love household anyway when I play them - they want more children, and the house is barely big enough for them now.

The Cho-Riley Family: Week 2

The next Sims on my list iwth the surname Cho live in Belladonna Cove and are no other than the original bearer of the name: Etsu and her mother Vivian. 

During the first round, they lived in the rented apartment assigned to them by Maxis, but by the end of the week, that lot appeared to be more and more bugged, with Sims unable to leave it for anything but work or school. Also, Vivian and her upstairs neighbour Timothy Riley got engaged, and combining their two families (and their bank accounts) meant they could easily afford this house at No. 314 Bay View Drive.

"I'm so happy, Tim! Now we can really live together like a family..." Vivian exclaims as she jumps into Timothy's arms (on her own initiative). 

It is Monday morning, and while the girls are off to school immediately, the adults have a couple of hours until they will be picked up for work.

Vivian, as a typical Family Sim, dreams of becoming Captain Hero and is currently working as a Patrol Officer. Timothy is an aspiring Chief of Staff and already a Surgeon, which suits his Knowledge aspiration well. Both rolled the wish to get married last round, and of course I locked that. Unfortunately, she is quite a bit older than he, but that can't be helped without cheating (which I won't do), and so their age gap will eventually mean that Timothy will be widowed for the second time in his life. But that's still a long way off! 

A look at the house shows that all the cheap furniture will have to go. The entrance leads right into an open-plan kitchen-dining-living area, with a fireplace and a door leading out onto the back terrace. To the left side of the house are two relatively large rooms, sandwiching a bathroom.

Here is what I have done:

Top left corner is the master bedroom. The bathroom has received better equipment. The bottom left corner is the girls' shared room. The living room holds a computer desk and chess table. The breakfast bar and kitchen counters are the only things I have not changed. A dining table is in the bottom right corner. 

Here are Sally and Etsu, on whose behalf we are here. The girls have been best friends for a long time and love it that they are now living like sisters. 

Vivian is promoted to Desk Sergeant, which makes for easier hours; she'll now come home at the same time as Etsu. 

That new schedule is altered already when Vivian returns from work on Tuesday with a promotion to Vice Squad - she'll be out for another hour after Etsu comes home from school. But that doesn't take away her being happy about the way things are going with her dream career, and she knows Etsu will not be lonely with Sally around.

Meanwhile, on this beautiful afternoon of golden autumn sunshine the back patio is set up for the important step Vivian and Timothy are about to take, as per their big wish.

Just after this picture was taken, Vivian becomes Mrs. Riley, and Mr. Riley couldn't be happier! (I forgot whether they were 3-bolters before - they definitely were at the wedding, both dressed in formal wear.) 

Of course their daughters are there (I'm a bit disappointed with Etsu's outfit - I would have expected a pretty dress for her formal wear), as are friends Marisa Cleveland, Armand DeBateau, Samantha Cordial and Carlos Contender. 

Glasses are raised to toast the newlyweds, and the party ends a roof raiser.

Vivian is glad to have the day off on Wednesday. When the girls have left for school and her brand new husband for work, she walks to I N Clothing & Apparel, where she stocks up on everybody's wardrobe.

She has long returned by the time first Sally and then Etsu skip off the school bus, the latter proudly announcing her first A+ report. 

She has also brought along a class mate, Brittany Scott, who was adopted by Vyn Scott during the first round.

And when Timothy arrives home, it is with a promotion to Medical Researcher!

At 5:00 pm, the Headmaster's car pulls up in front of the house. If I remember correctly, both Sally and Etsu had the wish to get into Private School, and after Sally gave him a tour of the house, Timothy served delicious pork chops and everybody made an effort to schmooze the man about school (something he did not seem to be much interested in) and work, at 93 of the required 90 points both girls were accepted. Phew! 

Two proud girls look very smart in their new private school uniforms on their way to the school bus on Thursday morning! 

Vivian has reason to be proud of herself, too: She has been made Detective.

And as happens so often in my game, I realise too late that it's time for some Sim or other's birthday... in this case, Vivian and Etsu share theirs and grow up together in the girls' room. 

For Etsu, the Knowledge aspiration is determined - following her big sister Sally, I guess -, and she dreams of becoming a Game Designer. 

Friday is a day off for Timothy, and he uses it wisely to do some cleaning jobs around the house - not only good for everyone, but also for his career, since he needs to max out his cleaning skill. 

After work, Vivian retreats to the peace and quiet of the bedroom for a yoga session long enough to gain the body skill required for her next promotion. 

By the time the girls are off to bed, Timothy manages to max out his logic skill, too.

While the girls and Timothy stay home on Saturday, Belladonna Cove's criminals don't know weekends and days off; Vivian has to go work, but is rewarded with a promotion to Lieutenant. 

"Told you so - once I caught those Llama thieves, the only way was up!" Well, she's more optimistic than I am... Now that she's a Senior Sim, I dread her chance cards, because a wrong decision could of course mean that she is fired, and at her age won't get back to her former career level, ruining her chance to achieve her lifetime want. 

The girls have done nothing but school, homework and skilling all week, and although as Knowledge Sims they WANT to skill all the time, I think it's time for some teenage fun as well. 

Sally has been best friends with Sophia and Marcus Baldwin for a long time and invites them over. They don't know Etsu yet, but the four soon get along like a house on fire. 

Etsu and Marcus play chess, and she can't believe her Mum is scanning the chessboard and figures for fingerprints while they are playing. "Mum... seriously?" she smiles. Yes, Vivian is serious - she needs that skill point for her next promotion. But she soon moves on to scan other items in the house.

It is Sunday, and the entire family is at home. Vivian brushes up on her body skill while Timothy invites the Clevelands over, and also his townie friend Sam Hart. Of course Sam is eligible to become a resident at Belladonna Cove because of his "playable" surname.

In the evening, Etsu makes pork chops for the guests who seemingly can't wait and watch her cooking in the open-plan kitchen. (She's the best cook in the family.)

Finally, before the evening is over, Timothy invites Sam to move to the neighbourhood for good, and he accepts. 

Sam Hart, former townie and currently working as a waiter, must at some stage have worked at a shop - he has a Silver Badge for Cash Register. His skill profile is not very impressive, but as a Knowlege Sim aspiring to become Mad Scientist he no doubt will want to skill, skill, and skill some more. He calls 19,000 Simoleons his own and will invest them wisely at wherever he is going to move now.

I'm afraid this week consisted mainly of skilling - the adults needed it for their careers, and the girls both rolled wish after wish after wish for yet another skill point... hardly surprising, since they are both Knowledge Sims AND it was autumn :-)

I really am worried that Vivian could lose her job with a chance card. If that happens, she might undergo the process of changing her lifetime want - I'll cross that bridge when I'll get there!

Anyway, it was nice to play the wedding, and of course a new addition to the neighbourhood will be interesting to play.