Mixed Message Masters

     Sometimes, there are those days when you suddenly find yourself sitting back and reminiscing about all of the major events in your life, and how much they effected the course of your life, regardless if the memory is positive or negative. Angeline knows that feel.

   No doubt that the rest of her family is going through a flurry of emotions as well. Still, whether you are cognizant of it or not, time is one of the most effective salves for all kinds of wounds.

  Of course the day after Angeline's passing would be Love Day.

  Brad and Heather express their love for their mother by comparing her to Ghostface from Scream.

I'd say Ghostface Killah, but Angie don't spit raps on the fly.

She offers cuddles indiscriminately though.

    
     Still, for a holiday the stores just invented to make money off of, the spirit is still there for the family's pets.

  The remaining family members preferred to work like it was not Leisure Day instead. No holiday will get in the way of grinding skills! 

 

     

     Also, I learned that the School of Hard Knocks is run by the Council of Hard-Asses since Gwen's grades dropped for being absent on the day of her MOTHER'S FREAKING FUNERAL.

 
     She got all of her frustration out by flexing her writing muscles. Being an authoress won't be her main bread and butter like it was for her mother, but any money flowing into her house is better than none.

    Today was a major day of developments for the Hollands. Gwen traveled to the local catacombs in a vain effort to score a free genie lamp . . . which, naturally, failed miserably for her. 

    Ian, on the other hand, managed to score his first date and first girlfriend in one go with a randomly generated Sim named Marjorie Skidmore, a classmate of his that had just aged up to teendom. As a side note, I love her name - she sounds like a late nineteenth century Hogwarts student. I'll call her Margie just because I can.

Yes, she has the Insane trait.

    The date wasn't an extravagant one; a simple trip to the movie theater down the block can never be like that. The stalker ice cream truck still wanted to join in on the couple, alongside Margie's mother, Lola, and her younger sister.

     Ian and Margie managed to shake those nosy jerks loose as they snuck into a screening of Corduroy Sunglasses. After the film ended, Ian worked up the nerve to ask her to go steady. Margie accepted immediately, but ended the date right after that, stating that it was getting pretty late for her.

    Our boy went home happily, whilst his new flame quietly sneaked behind the back of theater for some quality alone time with a dumpster.

She's a keeper.        

     Gwen was pretty supportive of this ship, but Heather kept autonomously wanting to yell at or smack Margie. Huh. 

     From this date, Ian finally got his first Lifetime Wish: to be Super Popular -  and thankfully, he had a few friends down already!

4/20 would Photoshop again

   Meanwhile, Brad and Ye continued to make themselves at home. 

    One adult has to be around until Gwen and Heather age up! For one more day! 

Ye wasn't that adult.

    Finally we can get Generation 2 rolling! Starting with a very laggy double birthday celebration and enough cake to trigger a two year sugar rush. Ye was nice enough to go to work before, making this a strictly Holland affair:

    With theit teenage years firmly in the past, Gwen and Heather were treated to makeovers, that for once, weren't inspired by Midnight Hollow contour. In fact, their clothing was downright tropical. As such, it was pretty clear that one place was stuck in the twins' heads: Sunlit Tides.

     As one does before moving to a new home, the old one was demolished in the name of earning quite a little fortune.

 Ian, gawping at the new family funds.

      After giving them hearty birthday congratulations, Ian packed up whatever little he had left in the way of possessions and ended up moving into Fiona and Kara's place, now having to share a room with Nolan for a little bit. No biggie, either one of them will end up in boarding school. 

     With that said, it's time for some house hunting! Which ended up resulting in the one house the girls could barely afford and had enough room for a handful of Sims!

Thankfully, we had some emergency cash in the shapes of rare gems and ingots. We didn't sell the crossed out stuff.

   Before you ask, yes, Heather actually isn't sticking around: as she wants a job in the culinary arts, tht would disqualify her from living with the main family. Good luck and thanks for all the cupcakes, Heather.

     I treated Gwen to a few things of her own, such as legal cheats and a pickup truck.

    Not to mention the two bedrooms I had to convert into nurseries for the incoming wave o' babies:

    Shortly after the remodeling, someone walked up and rang the doorbell -- but wait a sec, it wasn't the female university mascot I usually get . . . !

Awkward conversations!

     No, but seriously, Eugene Carnegie just up and waltzed into our home carrying his daughter Eloise excuse me, Elosie, chucked into one of the nurseries, and made himself at home with some EA product placement  video games. I appreciate that Eugene wants to get it on like Donkey Kong, but dude, you left your toddler roaming around a total stranger's home.

lol

    Too bad that Eugene, being family-oriented, just straight up refused Gwen's advances even after a heat of the moment kiss. Even flirty jokes invoked cringes for the both of them. So we kicked him and his kid out, and ran over to say hello to our neighbors, Alonso Candelaria and Rosalind Cruzita. Alonso welcomed us with open arms once Gwen found out their signs were compatible and that he was a flirt that had commitment issues to boot.

     Before any real flirting could occur, Alonso bid Gwen good night . . . no doubt to cover his tracks before Rosalind could suspect anything was out of sorts. After that, Gwen continued to work on The Heir and the Spare throughout the night. Just as she was about to head off to bed, the game threw me this loop:

     Admittedly, this was due to error on my end. I haven't thoroughly explored all the features that come along with The Sims 3: Generations, so imagine my surprise to see that there were graduations didn't only occur at Sims University. Regardless, Gwen headed out to the Sunlit Tides City Hall to grab a diploma that won't help us in any way. At least Heather showed up, so we wouldn't suffer alone.

     After that mostly pointless excursion (the twins did get two decent graduation related moodlets), Gwen headed out to the Tropic Llama Library in order to do a little more guy scouting. Two moms were nice enough to bring along their own toddlers for the ride.

Just keep rubbing it in, ladies.

     Hazel Hoffman, aka the uncomfortable-looking woman, was nice enough to drag her husband, Hugh, to the library. Thankfully, the game's really weird attraction system worked in our favor. 

      Before long, Hugh left us in the dust so he can actually spend some time with his family. As thus, we returned home only to find that our dear Fluffy is blossoming into quite the hunter. Good for us, that means more things to sell. 

     Eugene, despite his reluctance to flirt with Gwen in anyway during yesterday's visit, was more than happy to reciprocate the feelings today. Maybe being a kitchen scullion in a dinky greasy spoon messes with your hormones.

    Too bad Gwen was about ready to pass out from exhaustion.

     No doubt that ended up killing the mood for baby-making. Eugene promptly peaced out and once Gwen woke up, her first set of bills had arrived in the mail. Neither of the Sims got any action and Gwen still had to pay? What crap.

    In order to prevent anymore passing out, we bought an espresso machine. Capitalism ahoy.

       Alonso dropped by shortly after dinnertime just to say hello. Gwen wasn't about to let this fish swim away! Thankfully, her actions didn't go unappreciated this time; she finally got the Naughty reputation. Casually stringing along two men at once? The scandal! 

     WooHoo-ing in the downstairs shower managed to wash some of the shame away, though. In place of paying with Simoleons, Gwen accepted an offer to write a biography about Alonso so she can get more than pitiful pocket change.

   And only after a few hours of typing up yet another novel . . .