The Cleveland Family: Week 2

Week 1 with this family is here.

We're back in Belladonna Cove to spend the second week with the Clevelands, who are renting a flat spanning the two top floors in the left part of this building.

Here are Jason and his son Justin. As a Fortune Sim, it suits Jason that he dreams of earning 100,000 Simoleons in his lifetime. Justin's aspiration is Popularity, and one day he wants to wear a military uniform with a general's five stars. For now, he's diligently doing his duty at the Cove's Private School. 

Marissa's aspiration matches her husband's, but her means of earning money are dubious: She hopes to take over the town's underworld as their Criminal Mastermind one day.

And she has steadily been rising the ranks in the Criminal carrer; on this Monday, she is promoted to Getaway Driver.

It is an important day for the family, as you can see from the birthday cake waiting on the kitchen counter.

Justin's beloved Uncle Geoff (his Mum's brother) is one of the first guests to arrive. Timothy Riley is also here...

...as are his daughter Sally and stepdaughter Etsu. 

At 6:00 pm sharply, Jason turns into an Elder, and the cake is cut.

While the party is in full swing, Christian Love appears. He has not been invited, and for some unknown reason, Jason can't stand the man, but he is friends with Marissa. I make sure she sends him away quickly, so that no nasty scenes will occur. 

Jason has the day off on Tuesday, and after pottering about all morning, he enjoys his afternoon nap - a privilege that comes with elderhood.

His nap makes him miss his wife's age transition; Marissa is now a Senior Sim, too. Unfortunately, her wardrobe is neither nice nor practical now that it is winter. 

Justin has missed that big moment in his Mum's life, too; he was busy doing homework.

The family gather in the kitchen a little later, although it is for the last time in this precise set-up: Justin has made the phone call to college and will leave as soon as the taxi is here to take him to campus. "My little boy... not little anymore..." Jason sighs.

Marissa walks to Freya's Raiments to remedy her wardrobe issue. Money is no problem, and she can pick and choose whatever takes her fancy. 

She meets and greets Isabel Baldwin. 

Outside, the Human Statue is striking a pose I don't think I have seen before, and the townies seem to be impressed enough to tip him. Unfortunately, when I tell Marissa to walk home, my game crashes :-( 

Back in the game, the day proceeds without any further incident. Marrissa goes to work and returns with a promotion to Bank Robber. 

On Wednesday, Jason is promoted to Lieutenant. Although his lifetime want does not involve a specific career, the promotion bonus nicely adds to his dream of earning 100,000 Simoleons. 

When I try to have him walk to a community lot to buy clothes for his wife, the game crashes again. That's it - the decision is made to move them out of the rented flat. They can easily afford to buy their own property, which should be less inclined to crashing the game than those buggy apartment lots. 

No. 322 Bay View Drive is the Clevelands' new address. 

The house is large for just the two of them, but they want to be ready for the future, when hopefully their son will graduate from college, move back in with his parents (if they are around long enough) and start his own family. 

The place comes partly furnished, and on the ground floor the couple only replace the cheap kitchen appliances with better ones and have a toilet installed in the tiny room off the front room. 

Upstairs, the cheap double bed and bathroom installations are also replaced by much better things, as you will see in the course of the rest of the week.

Speaking of which, the move means that their timeline has shifted back to Monday and the end of summer; I am still going to play them for seven days, so that Friday will be their last day before we'll check on Justin at college. 

Finally, Marissa is able to walk to Desprit Deals for some new clothes without a hitch. (The shop's name is appropriate, since she's really been "desprit" for something else to wear!)

Vivian Riley is browsing the racks, and the friends are pleased to stop for a chat after Marissa has paid for the earrings she's chosen. >

Back home, her new outfit is modest but looks much better than what she age-transitioned into.

Better still is her new hairstyle, showing off the earrings (a wish of hers) - not sure you can see them in the picture; they are the green pendant ones. 

Their new bed is really comfortable, and with no noise from other tenants, Jason has slept well and wakes up feeling really good on Tuesday. 

This must have helped him take the right decision with a chance card, and he returns from work with a promotion to SWAT Leader. Interestingly, the chance card involved apprehending the Cove's current Criminal Mastermind - unwittingly opening the way for his wife who secretly aspires to that position. 

It is skilling time for the Clevelands that evening.

The only thing worth reporting on Wednesday is Marissa's latest promotion to Cat Burglar. According to the chance card, she promoted herself while acting as a look-out during a heist and realising how much easier it is to steal stuff directly than robbing a bank. >

Jason takes advantage of the good weather on Thursday late afternoon and rakes the leaves in the back garden before he even changes out of his work clothes. 

Friday is here - the last day of the week with the Clevelands. 

Marissa has works the night, and Jason won't have to leave until 10:00 am today, and so she decides to try and make pancakes for their breakfast, something she has not done before.

They turn out a bit on the dark side, and Jason jokes that he certainly did not marry Marissa for her cooking skill (she has barely two points, while he is at four)... 

...but who cares when you can have champagne for breakfast! Indeed, who cares :-) 

Justin has not yet seen the new house comes over from campus. 

"This will all be yours one day, Justin... and your children's, if you'll have any," she explains. 

I really wanted this last day of their week to be the Clevelands' Family Day and had Marissa try and invite over her brother, Geoff Rutherford (Justin's beloved uncle), but he was at work until 10:00 pm, by which time Marissa was at work and Justin had left. Oh well, they'll just have to try again next time I play them - or maybe Justin will invite his parents and uncle to visit him on Campus. 

It was such a relief that the game didn't crash again after the move to their own property, and I hope Justin's Freshman Year at college will go just as smoothly.

With Marissa now being elderly, I very much hope she won't get fired due to a chance card - it will then be impossible for her to get back into the Criminal career, and the chance to reach her lifetime want will be gone. Jason has not had a wish to earn a specific amount of Simoleons all of this week, which is strange for a Sim with his LTW.

I quite liked playing the family, and although I will never be a fan of Marissa's, she has begun to grow on me a little.

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.