Tom Freshe: Week 1

Tom's and Ellen's Senior Year at uni is here.

We're staying in Veronaville, now at # 101 Via Veronaville.

This house backing onto Veronaville Market has recently been bought by Tom Freshe.

He has just graduated and is now ready to tackle the next chapter in his life, and his lifetime want of becoming City Planner.

Before he can start to make plans for the city, though, the house needs planning. When Tom moves in, only a cheap line of kitchen units is already installed as well as a bathroom and separate toilet.

Because Tom has been saving his student grants, he now has almost 12,000 Simoleons to play with. As a Fortune Sim, no doubt he will be having many "buy me" wishes, and I will fulfill them within reason.

Now is the time to ask his college sweetheart over - not just to visit, but for good.Ellen Frost doesn't need to think twice and moves in right away.

Both have majored in Economics and now intend to make their fortune together, Ellen as Veronaville's Head of SCIA. Of course she brings money as well, and they start buying the first indispensable items for the house.

Soon they can have their first meal together and happily raise their glasses of champagne.

Ellen's wardrobe is meager (Tom's isn't any better), and since she shows the wish to buy new clothes, they walk to H&M.

While Ellen chooses and buys outfits in their prefered colours (Tom likes purple, and Ellen is into black, grey and white)...

...Tom is drawing quite a crowd with his freestyling for tips.

Back home, the two of them are winding down on their first day after graduating.

By the way, Ellen has already found a job as Rookie Field Agent and will start on Wednesday.

Tuesday is off to a studious start.

Ellen also wishes to buy a sculpture, and after I have recently read on Twoyys4me's blog about the stealing (and stealing back) of the garden gnome, this was the obvious choice from the catalogue :-)

Tom's search for an opening in the architecture career has not yet been successful, and so he has the afternoon and evening to himself. Two of their friends from uni are invited over, and because Tom has been diligently pouring over his cook books, he produces a batch of delicious hamburgers for Marla Biggs, Emily Lee and himself.

The ladies then hog the chess table and their host is pretty much left to his own devices. He waits up for Ellen, who returns from work at 10:00 pm (with no promotion, because she lost a logic skill point due to a chance card), after he says good-bye to his guests.

Once he improved his cooking skill, Tom started to roll wish after wish about kitchen items, counters and so on. This is the result, and I think it looks quite nice.

On Wednesday morning, not only does Tom find a job as a Draftsman; also, the drafting table is delifered instantly, and set up in the one room of the house that was left empty until now.

Tom can't wait to sit there and start drafting, but of course he has to put in a good day's work at the firm before. He is made Architect right away, even though the shabby car pool doesn't hint at his success.

Ellen has had a good day, too: She is promoted to Field Agent.

Both Ellen and Tom now need several skill points for their next promotions, and on Thursday morning they buckle down with a book about mechanical and at the chess table.

Ellen is sent home early from work, though not because of a promotion. On the contrary; a bad decision with a chance card has lead to her domotion back to Rookie Field Agent. She can't let that smudge her good reputation at work and heads right back.

Many hours later, she relaxes into a hot bubble bath with a smile - she has won her former positon back and is a proper Field Agent once more. 

Tom returns from work early on Friday. Meet the latest Architectural Partner at the firm!

Ellen won't return from work until 10:00 pm, but Tom is hungry and wants to tell someone about his promotion. He invites Alan Riley, a former co-student, over for a chat and a burger.

Alan "thanks" his host and friend by stealing the garden gnome!

And Tom steals it back right away. (Sorry for the dark pictures, but this happened at night.)

Ellen and Tom have Saturday off, and since they have both been wishing for a car almost all week, a drive is built and a car bought, which Ellen promptly takes for a spin. (I was hoping for the option to have Tom join her, but there was no such option.)

When she's back, they both change into snazzy outfits, and Tom gets busy in the kitchen while Ellen invites over some of their best friends. 

Tybalt Capp, Emily Lee and Phineaus Furley arrive... 

...at the same time as Marla Biggs and Chris Cho. Of course they all went to uni together, where we have met them, and since graduating they all live in Veronaville.

Tom is very proud of his Crêpes Suzettes. The serving platter looks almost as colourful as his outfit!

Ellen catches up with the girls...

...and Tom has to explain to a very interested audience exactly how the crêpes are made.The party ends a roof raiser, and Tom and Ellen go to bed tired, but happy.

Over breakfast on Sunday morning, Ellen suggests they go for a holiday after Tom's next promotion.

Winter has only just begun, but already there has been heavy snowfall in Veronaville, and Ellen is glad that Tom is picked up by the car pool and does not drive himself to work.

He returns as a Master Architect - that can't be far from City Planner, I think!

The week ends with them going to bed early, snuggling under the cosy duvet while outside the snow keeps quietly falling.

It was nice playing Tom and Ellen, even though most of what they did was career-related, working towards their lifetime wants. But they also spent time with friends, visited a community lot and were a good team as a couple.

Phineaus Furley is next.

Max Flexor - Junior Year

Max' Sophomore Year is here.

Veronaville's Académie Le Tour is our next stop, and here we are at the two tiny houses at No. 4 Danish Drive.

Best friends Max Flexor and Mitch Indie have been renting them since their Freshman Year, and now at the start of their Junior Year they are still here. 

Last round, they made things a little more practical by choosing Max' house (on the left) for their dining/hanging out place with a large dining table and reasonably well equipped kitchen and Mitch's (on the right) for studying and skilling, with a chessboard and bookshelf. Each of them have their bedroom, shower and toilet in their own place.
Unsurprisingly, Max is one of the many Sims who have autonomously changed their hairstyle since I have installed the Legacy version of the game. Mitch has remained the same.

Unfortunately, all the IKEA stuff they had is gone (I do have the IKEA pack again, thanks to Twoyys4me, and have added it to my game but the items are not showing), and so they need to spend more than 2,000 Simoleons to buy a dining table, chairs, book shelf, bedside tables and lamps as well as bathroom mirrors again. 

Thanks to their student grants, they still have almost 2,800 Simoleons.
They have both returned from their end-of-Sophomore-Year exams ravenously hungry, and so the first thing they do before tackling skills and other things is sit down for a meal.

Max fixes his broken shower next, and only then can he start to work on his cleaning skill, while for Mitch it is a body point he needs.

The boys do their fair share each of the housework, but since Mitch is a Family Sim who can make Grandma's Comfort Soup, he does the cooking - it's the most filling meal available to them.

Skilling is important if they want to get through the semester alright, and in Mitch's little house he works on his body skill while Max keeps him company and improves his logic.

He manages to finish his Term Paper in one go; I almost expected him to break off at 80 or 90 %, since he was hungry, had a low fun level and needed the toilet.

I catch Max writing something in his diary about a pretty redhead - but who is she? His relationship panels show nobody who looks like her.

There is no time right now to pursue the mysterious lady, because it's Exam Day the next day. The boys make sure they go to bed early enough to have plenty of time in the morning to shower and have a solid breakfast, and their efforts pay off when they return a couple of hours later with best grades, their names on the Dean's List and the full 1,200 Simoleons grant each, boosting their account to the dizzying heights of 5,078 Simoleons.

"All the things we could do with those grants! Just think about it, Mitch - we could get better chairs for our chess table, for instance..."
Nothing is decided just yet, though; better showers would make more sense, or a better kitchen stove.

It is late spring, almost summer, when a thunderstorm rages across Veronaville. Lightning hits the birch tree behind Max's house, but fortunately the pouring rain quickly puts out the flames.

Just as Max is taking the bills due for payment to the mail box, he spots an unknown student kicking over their rubbish bin. "Hey, you!! I saw that!! What did you do that for?!" he shouts after her, but the girl doesn't even turn around and just walks off. Neither of the friends has had anything to do with her until now, so she must have just been in a particular bad mood (no excuse, though).

"Look, I'm trying to write my Term Paper here... could you maybe do the school cheer somewhere else?" Max sighs. It's not his lucky day with the ladies today, it seems.

But then I spot the lady he was writing about in his diary walking past outside, and have Max rush out to greet her.
Disappointingly, he shows not a single bolt of chemistry for her, and so the unknown NPC student is sent on her way.

Not long after both Max and Mitch have gone to bed in their respective houses, a burglar appears on the lot. There really is hardly anything worth stealing here; maybe he's after the computer or the chess board. In any case, I don't want the boys lose any of their precious few possessions, and because the burglar enters Max's house, I wake Mitch and have him call the police.

A rather dashing young officer quickly appears and cuts to the chase.

Mitch witnesses the fight between burglar and police officer...

...and then stares in disbelief when the burglar gets away!
The police officer says (as per a message appearing on the screen): "Beaten by a burglar? Now I'll never get that promotion!"
And rightly so!
At least nothing was stolen, and a very exhausted Mitch can go back to bed. Max slept soundly through it all.

The boys have acquired all their skills for this semester and not missed any classes. Max has written his Term Paper and Mitch has done a few assignments. They have done all they can to prepare for their exams, and now have time to visit Le Tour Student Centre.

Max bumps into Mark Royce, a friend of his and Secret Society Member. He'd really like to join, but he doesn't know enough members.

Mitch meets and greets Puck Summerdream. The girl's face seems to say, "What has that boy done with his hair?!" I'd like to know, too! (It's one of the ugliest male hairstyles in the game, in my opinion, and certainly was not my choice, but Puck's own.)

The friends help themselves to the free food available at the Student Centre's cafeteria before they return home.

Max has been wanting to throw a party all year, and now he invites his friends Mark Royce, Tom Freshe and Alan Riley to a kind of pre-exam gathering. He has just ordered pizza when they arrive. But what's this? Max seems to have the hots for Alan!

And sure enough, when I have him "scope room", both Tom and Alan "light up", but a message informs me that "Alan is HOT!".
I don't know whether to pursue this or not; I can't remember right now what Alan's plans are and whether he is in a relationship or not. Max is actually in love with Roxie Sharpe, something that happened without my doing, and we all know that Roxie lives with her boyfriend Jonah Powers...
It's all a bit of a mess, isn't it, but so far there have not been any negative consequences.

Over a slice of pizza, Mark explains to Mitch that more best friends are needed if the boys really want to join the Secret Society. I doubt this is going to happen, as they only have one year left, and are kept pretty busy studying, making meals and so on.

The party has put the boys in a good mood, and they get through their exams with flying colours the next morning.Their Junior Year is over, and they now have more than 7,300 Simoleons.

We'll see how they fare in their Senior Year when it's Mitch Indie's turn on the alphabetical list. What romantic adventures await Max, I don't know yet.

One thing is for sure: There WILL be some home improvements :-)