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Woohoo in the outhouse is actually so gross, lol! Sims love their potty humor, I guess.

It looks like I’ll obviously have to use Jordan for this event. He’d actually be so excited about that outhouse. Aspiring hobo life! 🤣 And all the new woodworking items. New wood bench! And are those grilled mushrooms! He loves grilled mushrooms!!!

But he will never, ever ever ever get Maria to do anything saucy in that outhouse. She won’t even pee in it. Traumatized for life! 🤮

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Some favorites from Carly & Kyle's wedding. (May 2022 RL time, May 2088 in the story timeline. So they've been married about 7 months now.)

I was not posting whole chapters to Tumblr back in the day, so their whole wedding is only on Blogger. Read here if you like.

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Kyle's tattoo shop from before we had tattooing in this game!

I still don't have real tattooing in my game since I don't have that pack yet, lol! When I finally buy it, I imagine we'll spend a lot of time with Kyle!

Actually playing my game as a game on this Sunday morning! Kyle gets his tattoo shop back, because I need it for an upcoming story bit.

And I so miss the tattoo artist profession from TS3. I guess we’ll mostly need to fake it for TS4.

[CC by ATS4]

The first victim customer arrives. So, this chair is just based off the styling chair from Get Famous EP, but we can give her a tattoo on it. And she doesn’t pay him anything, but I can cheat a little money into his household. When playing my real sims, I’ll be able to pay him using transfer funds on MCCC.

I brought Carly along because she doesn’t have a gig of her own today. I thought she might like to head over to the boba shop or check out some thrift fashion next door. She’s stylish, it sounds like a nice way to spend the afternoon. But she plants herself here in the lobby of her husband’s tattoo shop, knitting as her cover, while he works on this pretty girl.

Come on, Carly, we’ve moved past our trust issues by now, haven’t we?

“I’m not snooping,” she says, “I’m just waiting for a client to call.”

Okay, sure.

So we gave townie girl a small bird tattoo on her shoulder, and we took a picture for the gallery wall. She even pulled out the perfect pose for a shoulder tattoo.

Bonus shot: what the townie looked like before.

Ha ha, she was a mess.

So I just have Kyle in the artist career at the moment, but maybe I’ll try the style career instead, which is funny because that’s what Carly did in TS2, and now Carly is in interior design. But most importantly, I want Kyle to have “work from home” options, and it’s so annoying to me that they never updated any of the base game careers to work from home. Like an artist wouldn’t, OMG!

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Kyle is best known in this story for being Jordan's tattoo artist.

Before he headed out into the wilderness, while still in San Sequoia, Jordan stopped into a tattoo parlor in a quiet suburban shopping strip. Colette was never a fan of his only tattoo and forbade him from getting more. Why did he ever let her decide that for him? They weren’t married, and half the time they hardly liked each other. 

Now, they weren’t together at all anymore and he wasn’t asking permission.

He wasn’t asking Maria, either, to be honest, though her opinion he absolutely cared about. This journey for him meant not letting women control his life anymore, and that had to include Maria, as well. 

So, with a sizable chunk of his travel fund and a couple of ibuprofen, he settled in to commit vision to flesh. And he said a small prayer that Maria wouldn’t mind this one on him, because it wasn’t exactly small.

His travels would next take him up the coast and into the Cascade Mountains where he looked forward to being truly off-grid and out of cell reception for a few days. 

Time to go get lost and see what epiphanies we find. 

— from “boxes and squares #3: what dreams?“ (1/8)

* artwork shamelessly swiped off the internet and ran through S4S for Jordan to have exactly the perfect tattoo for him.

But somehow the added back tattoo makes his other arm look a little unbalanced… one more tatt maybe? After he saves up some money, I mean. Kyle’s work is top notch and he’s expensive! And I guess Colette is probably gonna want some child support. *sigh* Reality hits hard. If Jordan doesn’t know that yet, he’s about to find out.

Next ->

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Oooh, pretty! 😍

Can you believe I've owned this pack since it came out, and this is the first time any of my sims have set foot in Tomarang? My sims are so excited to try out all the exciting new rabbit holes! 😝

So, picture evidence that I am beginning to pick at #5.4. It’s going to be an awkward and sloppy little chapter. It’s mainly setup for #5.5, which is everything that #5.4 is not, a beautiful and tidy nugget of story. I actually considered finding a way to cut it, because its mess bothered me. If I were my own book editor, I would tell myself to KILL THAT DARLING!

But we don’t kill darlings in our hobby writing, my friends. No, we publish those messy bitches like precious self-indulgent drabbles they are. 😎

One important thing happens in this chapter, there are some charming exchanges (the darlings), and I imagine I’ll find plenty of gameplay and picspam since it’s my first time visiting Tomarang. I also decided to bring Carly and Kyle along on the trip to share the costs of the very pricy vacation rental. (It’s basically a whole resort, but you can’t rent just one room on vacation rentals.)

In the coming days, I’ll probably reblog a few posts because I’m sure none of my current readers know who Carly and Kyle even are, lol!

Might see #5.4 start by the end of the week?

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Story time for long-reading fans! The middle third of #5.3 is compiled to the blog. 4300 words and 80 pictures!

about: Jordan brings his girls to visit the Phoenix family in San Sequoia for the long holiday weekend. New friends become good friends, who become the kind of friends who fold you into their generous and sprawling family. These wanderers are adopted now, whether they like it or not. Good friends also mean good babysitting, and a gold-star date night! 😍

Now on Blogger: #5.3: hindsight is a bitch (2/3)

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“Wow. Do you see those? They’re glowing. What are they?”

“Bioluminescent plankton,” he answered.

“I guess you’ve seen them before.”

He shrugged. “Maybe once or twice.” 

“And I guess you take girls to see the ocean all the time.”

“Heh, all the time is a bit much. But you’re the best girl I ever took to see an ocean.”

“You better say that, mister!”

— boxes and squares #5.3: hindsight is a bitch, part 6.6/10

next -> // 5.3 start // index

Redo of these shots because I wanted it to be nighttime. 🙃

Yes, this date is 75% swoony fluff, with just a little bit of character development tossed in for good measure. As intended, lol!

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storytelling questions tag

Thanks @treason-and-plot for tagging me! 😊

I'll answer these for my current story in progress, Boxes and Squares, but many answers also apply to previous stories I've completed.

1) How did you come up with such unique & fascinating characters?

If my characters are unique and/or fascinating at all, it's probably because I commit to their personalities and can be ruthless about showcasing both their virtues and their terrible flaws. Not cute little endearing flaws, either, but big ugly messy flaws, the kind that you worry might make them “unlikable.” You have to commit to allowing those traits to affect their story and have real consequences in their life. That’s easy to do for flaws, but even positive traits can have messy consequences, like how Maria is whimsical and impulsive, that gets her easily swept away when sometimes maybe she should stand her ground instead. 

2) When you started writing your story, what did you take into consideration?

I knew it was going to be hard to make Jordan sympathetic, knowing he was going to do what he did and prioritize his adventures and self fulfillment over his family and love life. Nobody likes a character who ditches his kids, and I wanted to try my best to make sure it didn't come across that way, because that was not his intention. (Even if it looks how it looks in the end!) But I am sympathetic to his plight, how he wants to live his life and not be told how he has to do it. It’s a hard way to be if you have a family.

I am also ever careful that Maria doesn’t come off too much as a Manic Pixie Dream Girl, because she does tend to be all about her man to the expense of her own hopes and dreams. I think that is also part of her story, though, to recognize that and deal with it. 

3) How did you shape each character’s background/family?

For my legacy families, their background happens organically as they live it. For characters who come into the story later in their lives, I like to discover their background along with the story. I like to imagine what made them the way they are. Colette was a good example of this. Spend a minute with her salty ass and you're like, "Who hurt you?" 😂

4) Do you plan everything before starting, or are you more spontaneous?

Plans for years! I don’t always stick to them though. If I come up with a better idea halfway through, I’m willing to let the old plan go. It can be so fun to watch a story transform into something I never imagined at the beginning.

5) Does reality inspire you, or do you rely more on your imagination?

If we’re talking about realism vs fantasy, my story definitely leans on the realism more. Fantasy is fun, but I find that real horrors and sorrows are a challenge to think about, and wrangle a happy ending out of, and that inspires me. 

6) When did you KNOW you were going to make this story?

As soon as I wrote the original version of that work field trip Maria and Jordan took to the farm, almost 4 years ago RL time! Maria was swooning HARD over Jordan, and I knew he was very fond of her, too, but I also knew he already had one foot out the door. I knew she would be heartbroken to find out, and that heartbreak cried out for a story. Would she let him go or try to make him stay? Would she hold on or get over it? Would he remember her on his adventures or move on? So many possibilities and I had to find out what would happen next! 

7) What has shaped your story into being the way it is?

The format, maybe primetime tv dramas, like some seedy HBO thing, lol! Even though I call them books and chapters, the story is shaped into seasons and episodes, where we follow a particular arc of the story to some resolution and the opening of a new arc with new problems to solve. But it’s definitely more self-indulgent than a book or TV show would allow, with picspam and gratuitous swoon and tangents here and there. That’s what makes it so fun to write. I also love how reader feedback can manifest ideas that never would have been there otherwise. (Not a Colette baby, but maybe a fight club, lol!) Likewise, gameplay does the same thing sometimes, like surprise writing prompts. It’s different than writing a novel in that way, it’s more malleable and open.

I'm tagging: @kimmiessimmies @igglemouse @abbysimsfun @changingplumbob and EVERYONE (I mean it!) who wants to do this!

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For my simblr friends. These animals are totally not safe for Tumblr. 😱🫣🤭

Bet they won't get flagged.

But your toddlers and pets and decor photos? Totally flagged!

More photos here.

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Going off-grid for a bit. There won't be any cell connection, so I will catch up with you all in a week. ❤️

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Gabby had a very strange dream last night...

So it's very likely I decided to make Gabby a spellcaster because I've been reading @shmoodlet 's Gemma Charm story! 😁 And I realize we're about to get fairies, but I still haven't played a spellcaster yet in like five years!

With Gabby's interests, I think witchcraft would totally be something she'd be interested in. I made a note in the last story piece that occults in my story are only as real or unreal as they would be in real life, but Gabby has never liked to be told what's not real.

With her history of scrounging around junkyards with her brother and concocting explosives and other mischief, I think she'd be particularly interested in the alchemy and mischief branches of spells.

She will be allowed to use spells in gameplay, but there won't be any spellcasting in the story unless I have an explanation for it.

Also, new powers come with a cost. Becoming a spellcaster made her hate food, lol!

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Ha ha, this game is so pure. It made me let them have a first kiss before they could begin their filthy affair in the supply closet! 😂🤣😂

Which is odd for their encounter, actually. In the story, I think they did not properly kiss at all!

So their first time actually happened in the supply closet, but I couldn't get story pictures in there at all, because the sims disappear. So I had to furnish a whole boiler room for them instead.

If I ever upload my museum to the gallery, Colette's filthy boiler room in the basement will be included. 😆

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content warnings: sims behaving badly, infidelity, little bit spicy, no nudity

“Follow me,” she said, and he did. It was sort of a test. She wanted to see if he could handle a bossy woman. 

She led him downstairs, past the classical art wing where they entered, past the lobby, past the guest services on the ground floor, the family bathrooms and the lockers. Down another flight to the basement, the storage rooms, the loading docks. She opened the door to a boiler room.

“Should I be worried that you’re leading me off to my murder?” 

“I only murder when I’m angry,” Colette joked. “But I can’t answer for your wife, should she find out about this.” 

He didn’t laugh. Colette didn’t take offense. She’d never been known to have a ripping sense of humor. 

The boiler room was noisy and totally empty. It was the kind of room that didn’t get much foot traffic at 9:00 in the evening. Also the kind of room that probably didn’t have any cameras, but Colette wasn’t too shy to put on a show if there were. 

“You know, I could have taken you somewhere,” he said.

A whole hotel room, all that expectation. She’d tried and failed at that already. “No, it’s too much. Does this shock you?” 

She was leaving no mystery to what he’d be dealing with. If he was going to be disappointed, she wanted to know right now.

“I must say, I think I’ll be pleasantly surprised.”

“Well, you can work your way up to more. You can try. Start now. Kneel.”

And his eyes lit up. If he was surprised by her ask, she was equally as surprised by his answer. He knelt.

“Okay, now slide your hand up my leg. Slowly.” 

He took direction enthusiastically. A little too well, maybe. His hand found the long slit of her skirt and the bare skin of her knee, slowly tracing upward.

“There,” she said. “Stop there.”

She didn’t mean to make a whole show about it. Some people did, but it had never occurred to her to try that before. She just wanted to ask for what she wanted without the whole song and dance. Men had such fragile egos—she was learning that more and more every day. She felt silly at first, but then she felt empowered by it, by how he played along.

She lifted her leg slowly, resting her shoe on his thigh. “Now wait,” she said. She slid the toe of her shoe to his groin, teasing him to arousal. “Now beg.”

“Yes, Miss Marin. Anything you want, Miss Marin. Please.”

“Good boy.” 

Oh, how he grinned. What can of worms did she open with this one? Okay, maybe it was about ten percent fun. Maybe it could grow on her. 

“The chairs,” she said, her body on fire with power, with possibility. Her body throbbed with the hunger, and she knew just how she wanted it. “You’ll use your hands, and so will I. You’ll unzip your pants and finish inside.”

So he draped her over one of those cheap metal chairs, and he handled her expertly. 

And this was different. She would see him again, she decided, and he could have her in a hotel room next time. She thought to ask him, How many times have you cheated on your wife? But she wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer. 

This time, she texted to let Gabby know she was headed home, and she didn’t pull any tricks about it. She gave them twenty whole minutes to finish whatever unruly trouble they’d gotten themselves into, because she honestly couldn’t bear to look her boys in the face after the night she had. 

The boys were thankfully nowhere to be seen and Gabby sat quietly on the couch with her calculus books closed and her phone in hand. Werewolves tonight, the sound turned down low.  

Colette couldn’t believe her eyes. “What did you guys do tonight?”

“Oh, not much. We did the puzzle. It was okay. Then some video games, and we read some books.”

“That’s all?”

“Yup.”

Gabby took her wages for the night, collected her things, and left.

When Colette went to the kitchen to clean up and turn out the lights, she found a book that Gabby left next to the puzzle boxes. She flipped open the cover. A Modern Witch’s Guide to the Craft. After the werewolves, the zombies, the yetis, the mermaids, the ghosts, and now witches?

Whatever, it wasn’t real, anyway. Just another of the many fantastical things these kids filled their head with.

And that was fine. We all liked a bit of fantasy from time to time.

Colette was too tired to make a stink about it. There was lots to care about in life, and this wasn’t it. So she turned out the lights and went upstairs to bed.

— boxes and squares #5.3: hindsight is a bitch, part 11/11

chapter 5.4 coming soon -> // 5.3 start // index

notes: just to keep in mind that occults (spellcasters, etc.) in my story world are only as real or unreal as they would be in real life. But then, all kinds of people believe all kinds of things...

Also, trait reveal for Sebastian. Probably not surprising that he's noncommittal. Then why ever did he get married? We'll find out more about that a few chapters later in the story. Also, bad reputation. Clearly, lol! Colette’s mean trait approves!

Chapter complete! Whew, that one got long! Colette began this chapter with one goal—to get laid. So, score? But the introspection she had along the way, though often unpleasant, will surely be more valuable than the filthy sex.

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The Crawdad Club | Lounge

NO CC Part of a series where I renovate the community lot street in Willow Creek. This is part 1 of 4 and The Blue Velvet nightclub has been transformed into the moody jazz club: The Crawdad Club. The heart of Willow Creek lies with its music scene and The Crawdad Club is the perfect place for your Sims to come and soak in the jazz and blues culture. The club has live music every night from the most talented musicians, bespoke cocktails and rich ambiance

Name: The Crawdad Club World: Willow Creek Type: Lounge Origin ID is TheSeptemberSim

If you would like to download this build please use the links below, or via my origin ID above. Although all my builds are no CC, I use a custom thumbnail so make sure 'modded' is checked to see this in your game.

Download (sfs)

If you would like to support me, use creator code:

THESEPTEMBERSIM

when purchasing on the EA app or thesims.com. Please note, this is not a discount code

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Sebastian was a highly educated man. He knew more than Colette did about a lot of things—classical art, history, radio-carbon dating, and he loved to show that off, too. He didn’t seem to doubt himself about anything, and she found that attractive. She suspected she would eventually grow tired of the lectures, the stream of endless facts—she finished her college learning and had no desire to repeat that experience again—but tonight, this was a novelty. She was impressed.

He asked her about her own work only briefly. In his world, selling high-end real estate on commission probably seemed so superficial. He was surely uninterested in it. Fair enough, though. She didn’t really want him to know her that deeply, anyway. 

Already this date felt more her style than the last one, which meant he could confidently count himself as her best date in ten years. The bar was that low, but he didn’t need to know. 

She found the classical art lovely, but basic. She wasn’t interested in fossilized rocks or dinosaur bones. But she loved the modern art wing, just as he told her she would. The cold and brutal sculptures, the black and white photos, the political rage, the paint splatters that could mean literally anything or nothing at all. This interested her, and he wasn’t bored by it, either. 

They had plenty of interests in common to talk about, and she thought their failed (or failing) relationships were a depressing choice of topic, but he brought up his marriage first. She wouldn’t have pried, because honestly she was trying not to think about his unfortunate marital status.

“She wants kids,” he said. “A lot of kids. And I don’t. I don’t want any. I don’t think we can work that out.”

“I suppose not,” Colette agreed. 

“Do you have kids?” 

“Two boys,” she said. “They’re nine. My ex wanted a ton of kids.”

“You didn’t want more?”

He looked entirely too eager about the prospect. It was probably a great turn-on to him to find a woman who didn’t want more.

That blank feeling filled her gut again. It felt something like regret, and she didn’t like it. She shrugged. “That ship has sailed now.” 

They continued browsing the exhibits, and they found themselves stood in front of a giant shimmering marble egg. He knew about the sculptor, of course, and he told her all about him. Colette wasn’t listening.

An egg. 

She never got a tubal, she realized. If she didn’t want more children, she would have gotten her tubes tied ages ago. Colette was no stranger to optional surgeries. She had the money for it. She got a boob job and a tummy tuck—after the twins, she wouldn’t have even considered it purely optional. She didn’t necessarily want more kids. She didn’t pin all her hopes and dreams on it. But she would have had them, if it made a difference, if they could have made it work. It was something she was holding in her back pocket like a bargaining chip. It was something she was willing to compromise on. For him, the father of the children she already had. If it could have saved anything. 

It probably never could have saved anything. 

But no, not now, not with anyone else. She didn’t want more. It wasn’t necessarily a depressing realization, but a heavy one. This baby factory was closed for business forever. And if that was a thing she had just decided, tonight in this gallery in front of this giant marble egg, then she should probably schedule that tubal ligation.

“God, do you want to stop talking now and go fuck?”

He grinned at her, looking surprised, but also keen. It wasn’t too much to presume, she hoped, because why else does a married man ask out a woman who isn’t his wife?

— boxes and squares #5.3: hindsight is a bitch, part 10/11

next -> // 5.3 start // index

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Colette's parenting is like:

It could only be more accurate if the decrease was in empathy instead, lol!

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Sebastian wasn’t a big fan of Thanksgiving, and neither was Colette, but it stood that most other people in the country were. It would be challenging to find a suitable babysitter two days before a major holiday. 

“There’s really nobody else to call,” Felix reasoned. “She’s not that bad. It’s not like she fed us poison or anything.” 

“Please, please,” the boys begged in unison. 

Even though Colette would be quite happy to never see Gabby Roseland in her home again, the boys had a point, the clever little weasels. They were cut from her own DNA and they weren’t wrong. 

So she called Gabby. 

“Well,” Gabby said. “It is two days before Thanksgiving. I’m technically already on my holiday weekend. I’d be missing valuable rest time, and don’t you know eleventh grade is murder? I’ll need time-and-a-half rates, and we’ll eat Chinese delivery instead of pizza.”

Goddamn, that girl. But, at the same time, Colette respected her hustle. 

“Fine, can you be here at six?”

Dating was going horribly, in Colette’s opinion—make no mistake about that—but Colette did enjoy having a good reason to dress up. She had a whole closet full of pretty things that had hardly seen the light of day or night over the past ten years. If she and Jordan ever attempted to go out somewhere together, which may have happened once or twice in their time, it wouldn’t have been the kind of place to require a gown and heels. 

Maybe she needed to be with the kind of man who wanted to take her to an art gallery or an opera or a charity ball.

Or maybe Sebastian’s wife would see them out together tonight and claw her eyes out, and nobody would ever want to look at her ruined face again.

Damn. Tonight, Colette’s own claws were unmanicured and stubby. 

Sometimes Colette felt a great humbling coming for her soul. Yes, of course she had a soul. It was a dark and shriveled little thing, buried somewhere in her chest, but it was there. All this angst and turmoil in her life fed upon itself, growing itself like a tumor, preparing itself for some grave moment in her near future when it would all explode in her face, violently. And when that moment came for her, she would have stubby nails. She just knew it. 

The boys came up to her room in the moments before Gabby was due to arrive. 

“I didn’t know you had so many dresses,” Felix said. “Is your friend your boyfriend like dad’s friend is his girlfriend?” 

“No,” Colette scoffed. “Definitely not. Definitely not like that.” 

“Good,” he added.

Good? Colette let that tiny sentiment make her feel validated.

Well, it was fine enough to indulge herself for a night, but she couldn’t imagine bringing a whole person into their lives like their father had felt compelled to do. She wasn’t convinced he had the boys’ best interests in mind. 

“I just want you both to remember that the people who are supposed to have your back won’t always be reliable. It’s not nice when that happens, but it does happen, and sometimes you’ll need to look out for yourselves.” 

“Because Gabby?” 

“Sure, because Gabby.” 

Colette didn’t know if she was talking about Gabby, who seemed to find it a game to spoil their last remaining drops of innocence; or their father, who was five states away with his new girlfriend because he wanted to be; or their grandmother, who wanted to shower them with ten years of backdated attention only to surely take it all away. Or, probably, all of the above.

But not me, she wanted to add. Wanted to, but she stopped short. She would never disappoint these boys. Never! But maybe sometimes you just don’t know what humbling your life will deliver and how it will unfold. You can’t promise what you don't know.

Then their doorbell rang, and it was time. They all went downstairs to greet their trusty babysitter and lay out the rules for the night. Colette had provided them with a charming assortment of age-appropriate board games and puzzles.

Gabby rolled her eyes. "I mean, buckets of lame. But we’ll play them, if you want."

And the boys snickered to each other delightfully.

And Colette knew for sure she meant Gabby in that lecture to the boys upstairs. Definitely watch out for Gabby.

— boxes and squares #5.3: hindsight is a bitch, part 9/11

next -> // 5.3 start // index