#keystone: vaux street allstars

[maxfaiden]

Happy Pride!

Pride month has come to an end, but the spirit of celebration should be a year-long, life-long thing.

This is my first Pride in active storytelling mode, so I decided to offer an illustrated summary of sorts of the simple, complex, and complicated ways that people--my crew in particular--relate to or interact with their queerness.

While personal, all of our views and experiences are what unite us; what we bring to the community is what truly gives color to the array of flags we wave in solidarity, allyship, and pride.

I hope I was able to convey even a tiny bit of that over the last 30 days.

Credits and such under the cut.

Series as posted (/chrono) (Names link to original post)

1-15

Quela | Pose @violettssims

Ryan | Pose | Hair @sheabuttyr

Danny | Pose

Jason | Pose

CJ | Pose @akuiyumi

Lee | Pose @simmerberlin | Hair @dbasiasimbr | Pant @qicc

Wes | Pose @simsxen

Dez | Pose /akuiyumi

Aloysius | Pose

Mark | Pose @dearkims | Pant @peacemaker-ic

Thea | Pose | Hair @qrqr19

Evan | Pose [candid]

Jaz | Pose /simmerberlin

Penny | Pose /dearkims | Hair [rt]zebrazest

Decs | Pose /simmerberlin | Hair /qrqr19

16-30

Ai-jen | Pose /dearkims

Kellen | Pose @katverse

Zeke | Pose [candid]

Sophie | Pose @joannebernice | Hair /qrqr19

Kris | Pose @ratboysims | Hair /qrqr19 | Wheelchair @teabaker & @plasma-tree

Kari Ann | Pose [candid]

Mauri | Pose

Andre | Pose /joannebernice

Desi | Pose

Jess Rae | Pose [candid] | Hair @simtric

Ellis | Pose | Hair @daylifesims

Ben | Pose /simmerberlin

Caet | Pose

Kaisle | Pose @pandorassims

Gil | Pose @k-sims-7

Other

Feet @necrodogmtsands4s

Color Slider

[maxfaiden]

Keystone is celebrating Pride Month with a 30-day parade! 30 days! 30 queer OCs!

28/30: Caet broke up with one of his exes because, in response to Caet opening the discussion about telling people about their relationship, they said, "If people know we're together they'll know I'm a bottom." He was not unsympathetic about the various ways that people coped with, lived with, experienced, or embraced their queerness, but that was a loaded statement with way too much to unpack and he was not equipt.

He feels that it helps to be 6'4" when you go by Caet, which, for the record, rhymes with eight.

[maxfaiden]

Keystone is celebrating Pride Month with a 30-day parade! 30 days! 30 queer OCs!

19/30: Sophie was outed by a former member of her band.

She likes girls and drums.

[maxfaiden]

Keystone is celebrating Pride Month with a 30-day parade! 30 days! 30 queer OCs!

25/30: James Raymond Phillips went missing the same summer that Jess Rae Phillips packed two bags of things that felt like her and went off to assume a scholarship she had secretly applied for at a conservatory abroad.

She remained pen pals, then texting buddies with the first boy she kissed. When they were finally going to be on the same land mass after so many years, she was afraid to see him because he still called her "James" and she hadn't told him one of the most important things about her new life in all the time that they'd kept in touch.

[maxfaiden]

Keystone is celebrating Pride Month with a 30-day parade! 30 days! 30 queer OCs!

12/30: Evan knew that coming out to his parents wasn't going to go well--they were trash and he was a 30-year old man who still feared their rejection--but he didn't think his heart would hurt so much more than the black eye his father gave him.

He didn't fully appreciate the weight of a 9-year emotional investment until his fear cost him the privilege of it becoming a life-long one.

[maxfaiden]

Keystone is celebrating Pride Month with a 30-day parade! 30 days! 30 queer OCs!

8/30: Dez did not wait for her divorce to finalize before she began reintroducing herself to the poly support groups she reluctantly left behind when she got married.

She and her eldest are in the middle of what is definitely not a good time, but the youngest and middle are quite vocally on her side.

[maxfaiden]

Keystone is celebrating Pride Month with a 30-day parade! 30 days! 30 queer OCs!

6/30: Lee has never actually come out. At first, he was keeping it on the low because a lot of things were going on in his life and he didn't want to have to deal with it on top of everything else. Later, though, he kind of came out when he told his band members who he was dating, but he's never actually clarified anything beyond that.

[maxfaiden]

I was in another room doing Sophie's shoot and when I came back to the waiting room to see who would be next, I saw this. Lee with the gas face all hyped about something, Caet looking spooked tfo, and Jess Rae on the other side like she just broke out in gospel. Headline effects are off, so I can't even figure out what's going on.

[maxfaiden]

WIP... This is one of a handful of sets that will be getting a lot of screen-time, so I'm finishing it up so I can create the reshade preset for it. Above is just EA lighting with NoBlu + NoGlo. What I finalize for this will be one of 3 foundational presets for the story; Keystone, Vaux Street Allstars, and We Got Us will each have similar, but signature presets. Keystone's signature color is aqua/teal, VSA's is purple/fuchsia, and I haven't settled on WGU's yet.

[maxfaiden]

WIP... The Vaux Villages, colloquially known as Vaux Street. The floor plan is the same for both villages. I love this build so much. It will not be fully furnished because it's already a beast as it is right now. There are two sub levels and three above ground levels. Nine residential and four community units in each village.

It's the origin of the Vaux Street Allstars, but also features in Keystone and We Got Us, so you'll get to see many of the different parts of this behemoth as the stories go.

[lore under the cut]

The Vaux Villages are the result of a social experiment that was developed by The Venango Group in the late 1910s and was implemented in the mid 1920s. The goal was to observe how citizens of various socioeconomic strata and racial/cultural/religious backgrounds interacted with each other when there were no land-forms, bodies of water, or man-made structures to demarcate class, caste, or cash.

The experiment officially lasted 53 years, about two generations. Initially, the county was behind it, but as times and leadership changed, The Venango Group were afforded less and less privileges and encountered more and more ordinances that restricted what they were allowed to do.

It all started in the late 1950s, when the permit approvals for the 3rd and 4th villages were delayed again and again. Then it was one thing after another. The final straw was a zoning ordinance that was put on the books in the mid 1970s that prohibited non-educational research in that area. As the group was not affiliated with a scholastic institution, they would be in violation of the ordinance if they continued.

The one saving grace for the families that lived there and the community they nurtured was that the edifices and the land they were built upon were part of an irrevocable, ironclad trust, so try as they might, the county could not reduce the villages to rubble and the lives of those who dwelt within along with them.

These days, The Venango Group still manages the property, and rather than by selection, residency is inherited or gifted. In cases where the resident does not declare the recipient before departure, succession laws are followed or recommendations are voted on by the community.

[maxfaiden]

🧭Site Nav + 📑Other Info

ABOUT ME

I'm Max (aka Himi), a queer, Black storyteller; original works and fanfics. I'm also a simmer who started playing The Sims in 2003. I played a little TS2, skipped TS3 except for the occasional session with my BFF's game, and wholeheartedly returned with TS4 in 2019. Follows by @greighish. ~

ABOUT THIS SIMBLR

Stories will be told. While they aren't overly graphic and will never venture into trauma porn territory, my stories do contain sensitive, mature, or possibly triggering themes at various points.

General content advisement: partner abuse, sexual assault, slurs (censored as needed), queerphobia, death, rape, statutory rape, ableism, colorism, racism, prejudice, bigotry, violence; decent police, shitty police, stalking, sexism, child abuse, suicide, unhealthy coping mechanisms, profanity, toxic relationships, and sex.

ORIGINAL WORKS BY MAX (18+)

KEYSTONE - Three interrelated stories with a fair amount of crossover, but each can be followed/read as a stand-alone title; they will post concurrently. Story navigation links:

Keystone [Coming soon]

Keystone: We Got Us [Coming soon]

Keystone: Vaux Street Allstars [Coming soon]

Keystoneverse | Character Pages | Keystone Extras

FANFICS BY HIMI (mostly retired)

✔️ Dissonance of Attraction Kuroko no Basuke | Ship: KagaKise

A post-canon fluffy romance with a side of angst and innuendo. An adaptation of a fanfic I wrote years ago; a bit of a departure from my usual tone.

More fanfics may come, but who knows...

SIMBLR, ETC

#max reads (sim stories I'm keeping up with)

#pride 2023

#keystone builds

#kagakise builds

#the alcoves (TS4 retail district [64x64])

#non-story builds

#random screenshots (mostly ts4 scenery)