#shankel household

[mlek13]

Spring, Year 7: Carpenter / Shankel

I hope they didn’t hang up that garlic to ward off vampires.  (They’re actually onions, but I like the idea of it being garlic.)

The days are pretty boring for Gabriel.  He’s stuck inside without much to do.  If the family had more money to expand and/or a bigger lot, I could move the crafting bench inside or add more walls to move the business indoors so Gabriel could help out.  Instead I direct him to sit for awhile to protect him from burning up in the sunlight.

Where are you going with that baby, Linus?

He’s not a kidnapper.  He’s just alerting Andrea that she needs to take care of her child.

Andrea: Oh, yeah.  I need to feed these things, right?

Timothy is getting on in years.  His lifebar is concerningly full, but he can’t slow down yet.  With Kitty at work, Gabriel unable to be outside in the daylight, Andrea struggling with infant twins, Coraline struggling with pregnancy, and Kit too young to help, it’s left to him to run the business almost single-handedly. 

I’m sure it’s a relief when Kit has his teen birthday. An extra set of hands around the business is much needed.

Andrea’s babies are growing up fast too.  Dana ages up first.

I had been getting a lot of warnings about hungry babies.  Andrea is nearly starving herself and having trouble keeping herself and the twins all fed.  Now Dana is big enough she can ask for food.

Gabriel immediately fetches her a bottle, but it’s too little too late.

Look!  Lady, he’s getting her the bottle right now!

She not only lectures Andrea, but she goes after Coraline too.

Social worker: I hope you are paying attention and will do a better job with the baby you’re carrying when it’s born.  I don’t want to have to come back here.

Unlike Andrea, Coraline puts up a fight and lectures the social worker right back.

Andrea:  You can’t come in here and judge us.  We are all doing our best.  My sister has nearly starved herself trying to take care of her baby girls.

In the middle of their drawn out argument, Gabriel helps Anna with her birthday.

Andrea:  Look, we’re taking care of things.  We were a little late on a feeding or two, but she has her bottle now.  It’s fine.

For a second I thought the social worker gave in and left without the girls, but the twins vanished after the van left.

Normally I send the child that triggered the social worker to the orphanage and then move the other kids back to the family.   I pretend like the child died, but I still want to see how they would have grown up and I don’t want any sims to go to waste, so I let them come back to the kingdom and treat them like townies.

Dana was the one who was starving. I had a warning about Anna earlier, but I intervened and managed get her fed.  I couldn’t get anyone to take care of Dana in time.  So it could have been either one of them and it was kind of unfair that I was able to intervene for Anna but not Dana. 

In the end I decided to return Anna to the family and not Dana.  But instead of pulling my orphanage director simself out of retirement, I decided on a better plan for Dana.

But first, Anna is returned back to her grateful mother.

At least Coraline didn’t go into labor until after the social worker’s visit.  She gives birth to a baby boy named Gerald.

Gabriel sends word to his mother to let her know that the baby arrived and that mother and child were doing well.

He knows how eager Aiyanna will be to hold the new baby.   When he invites her over, she makes a beeline for her newest grandchild. (I don’t think she even minds the dirty diaper smell.)

Gabriel will take care of that.

Benjamina stops by for a visit.  Kit especially has missed her and wants to spend some time with his big sister.

Instead of sending her to the orphanage, I decided why not send Dana to live with her father, Daniel?

Daniel and Roy can’t have children together without intervention.  (Daniel does have a fertility potion in his inventory, but I’m not sure about the idea of male pregnancy.  I’m treating the fertility potions like magical intervention, but it’s more of a stretch of imagination when neither parent has a womb to support a pregnancy.  If either of them wants a baby I may reconsider later.)  But for now, this is one way they can expand their family and Dana gets two loving fathers. 

And two dogs, which is what she might be most excited about.

The big dog, Kimo, is very protective and sleeps at her bedside to guard her while she sleeps.

She also has her own personal butler, since retired butler Ralph is a member of this family. (I guess he would be her grandfather by marriage.)

Ralph has ties to the nobility and royalty and is personal favorite of the queen.

They have a ton of chemistry and have flirted a bit (probably more than flirted) before.  He asks her on a date.

She gets straight to the point.

But their date never leaves the roadside and the queen excuses herself shortly after their conversation.  It wasn’t pointless though.  She leaves the lot with a new desire to get married again and she knows just who she wants to be with.

[tamtam-go92]

[raindropdrinkwater]

13. The aftermath -- meta and extras

I created a “deirdre shankel” tag, if you want to read the whole arc chronologically from just before she caught the flu. I also linked it on my pinned post.

After Deirdre’s demise, I checked all my sims who were sick got some proper rest. Guess who got a membership card out of the deal? That’s right, Todd! XD I think he’s only missing a couple by now.

He started reading autonomously, so it’s even funnier.

I also checked who wanted to resurrect Deirdre and/or was best friends with her, gave them a memory of her death, and put them in aspiration failure. There weren’t too many: Todd, of course (who had a fear of losing Deirdre recently, but lost it, I guess during the party); Daniel, Dirk, and Dustin. Sio and Odhrán didn’t need my help, they were already in the red :( . Quinten, too, but I haven’t touched his aspiration level yet until I decide what to do with him.

Talking about Quinten, that’s it, I got attached to him. So sending him back to Uni as a dormie isn’t an option anymore. Hmpfff.

I’m still not sure where to go from here. Sio, Odhrán and Todd will stay at the Pleasants’ household for now, but what next? How is Angela going to react once she can deal with the whole thing? Then there’s Coral. She’s a good woman who can’t leave two toddlers and a very damaged young man in the lurch, but once Todd gets better, all bets are off.

Quinten is bi. I could easily make Todd bi as well and things would sort themselves out once they’re friends again. It almost sounds too easy, although Todd being bi would also mean double-trouble in the hood!

Finally, the last few posts were quite obviously “scripted”, unlike my usual posts. And oh boy mad respect for people who write scripted sim stories. Even for this couple of scenes, I found myself wanting to download poseboxes (of which I have a grand total of one), props, hacks, you name it... move the couch here, tweak the light there... and I spent more time than I’d like to admit wondering how my sims would react. It also made me know them better. I really enjoyed the process!

[esmeiolanthe]

Here we have the household of Atropos, Clotho, Lachesis, Andy, and Boomer. Oh, and Cecil and Allyn Shankel. But the cats are the really important ones. This household is playing a Crazy Cat Lover challenge, created by yours truly. You can find the rules here.

[dramallamadingdang]

Here’s something a little bit interesting that I just discovered. This is part of the relationship panel for Allison Shankel, one of my GilsCarburg Sims. Specifically, she’s one of the twins born into a polyamorous household. Her genetic parents are the first two Sims in the panel. Her other parent, who isn’t shown on the panel because she was out at work and who is not related to Allison by blood, obviously, I used the Simblender to set parent relationship flags on without breaking the flags to her genetic parents. OK? OK. 

Now, the last Sim on the panel above is Sage, a nephew of the third parent, who just barged into the house and struck up a conversation with Allison, whom he’d not met before. And the game still gave Allison and Sage family flags as cousins, even though the relationship is not one of blood at all. 

I didn’t think the game’s programming would be capable of recognizing family relationships like that. (As in, ones that are manually set with a modded object and that are the result of a Sim having three parents, which is not exactly a “standard” situation.) It’s more flexible than I thought that way, and I thought that was pretty cool. :) I’m thinking it could be useful for families where there are step-parents/step-children, so that they get family flags and you don’t end up with step-siblings falling in love with each other and stuff. 

[mlek13]

Fall, Year 8: Misc. Merchants

While Maureen is tending to her mirror shop, Shaun makes out with a random elderly townie.  Who is she?  How do they know each other so well?  I have no idea.

Marlene and Roscoe take turns at the business.  It is doing pretty well, but I think it will be a long time before it can become the beauty shoppe I had intended.

Back at home, baby Roland grows up.

And Roscoe barely scrapes together the money to pay the rent.

Next door, Benjamina has baby number three, a boy named Eugene.

They lose a family pet.  :(

Dorothea has her child birthday

and Cody becomes a toddler before the season is done.

This is one of my odd households that doesn’t really fit in anywhere

Daniel gives birth to a baby girl named Rochelle, with the help of a magical fertility potion.

As a vampire, he’s struggling with his health postpartum

and has to be rescued from death by his husband, Roy.

I’m a little disappointed that Rochelle inherited the vampire trait with how difficult it has been to keep her father alive.  She’s pretty cute though.

[mlek13]

Summer, Year 8: Carpenter

It’s a sad day for the Carpenters as the family patriarch, Timothy, dies of old age.  :(

He disregards the Grim Reaper’s orders and takes off in the wrong direction, walking toward his sobbing wife.

Timothy was the son of the late Caroline (Farmer) and Andreas (Potter) Carpenter.  His twin brother, Benjamin, was taken by social services as a toddler, and survives as a vampire.  His younger brother Nathaniel preceded him in death.  Timothy is survived by his wife, Kitty (Leong), daughters Andrea, Coraline (Gabriel Farmer), and Benjamina (Abraham), son Kit, and grandchildren, Anna, Dana, Cody, Gerald, and Dorothea.  Timothy was 73 simdays old.

With Timothy’s death, the family makes some changes.  Kitty decides life is short and quits her job at Laurel Leaf.  (I’m not sure if she was really still employed there with the change in management anyway.)

I find a vampire cure in Gabriel’s inventory, so I have him take it.  He didn’t have the want to be cured, but that he bought the cure at some point is a good enough sign for me.

It’s odd to see him looking human again.  I decided to wait and see if he wanted to turn back, but so far he hasn’t shown any sign of missing the vampire life.

Now Gabriel and Kitty can both help out more at the shop during the day, which Timothy had been running almost single-handedly.  Gabriel starts work in time to chat up Phoenix, the reviewer.

Kitty wastes no time letting her bed get cold following her husband’s death.  Maybe sleeping with someone else right away is her way of mourning.

I wasn’t sure if Tobias was going to go for it, considering he’s back with Elaine (though they never remarried) but he doesn’t turn down her need for comfort.

Anna grows into child.

Her cousin Gerald becomes a toddler and is doted on by his loving parents.

I wasn’t sure how Coraline would feel about Gabriel curing his vampirism, since she seems to be attracted to vampires, but she seems pleased with his change.

I’m still looking for someone for Andrea.  Jonas seems to be a favored choice, but he has a lot of other options.

Same with Rama Langerak.

I invited Rama here for Andrea, but Kitty hits on him first.  Surprisingly, he turns her down.  He has so many lovers, I’m surprised that he knows how to turn anyone down.

He agrees to a date with Andrea though.  I guess older ladies aren’t for him, either that or he has enough standards not to date the mother of a woman he’s interested in.  (Though he has dated twin sisters.)

Juliana happens by as her brother is taking out the trash.  I don’t think he was quick enough to greet her.

I hop over to the Shankel’s to catch up Anna’s twin and let Dana have her birthday.

I lose one vampire and gain another, when former butler Ralph’s visit with a countess gets Daniel turned into a creature of the night.

He does not adapt to his new lifestyle well.

In former butler fashion, Ralph sweeps up Daniel’s dust before Roy can plead with the Reaper.

Luckily that doesn’t interfere with Roy saving Daniel’s life and the life of their unborn child.  (I caved and let Daniel use the fertility potion in his inventory and cheated him pregnant.)

I kind of hope Daniel gets cured.

I kind of regret retiring Ralph.  He was cute as a butler.  Current butler Blair has been much more boring than his predecessors. 

[mlek13]

Year 7: Year End Review pt. 2 - Census

Here is a look at how the population of my kingdom has changed over the last simyear.

Royals (1 household, 5 sims total)

2 elders (2 female, 1 servant)

2 adults (2 female, 1 servant)

1 child (female, servant)

2 cats (1 female, 1 male)

3 dogs (2 female, 1 male, all small)

Change from previous year: No net change

Losses: Princes Laurence and Calvin graduated and have moved to the Noble Class.

Gains: Servant Lydia Mamuyac married and moved in Alice Fancey and had a daughter Alida.

[In previous years I counted servants in the Royal household as household members,  Since right now the number of servants outnumbers the number of Royal family members I didn’t include Lydia or her family on the graph.  But she and Brigid were included in past years.]

______________________________________________________________

Nobles (14 households,  93 sims total)

17 elders (9 female, 8 male)

26 adults (13 female, 13 male)

13 young adults (8 female, 5 male)

16 teens (8 female, 8 male)

13 children (6 female, 7 male)

4 toddlers (2 female, 2 male)

4 babies (2 female, 2 male)

10 dogs (1 large, 9 small)

7 cats

Gentry (8 households, 39 sims total)

2 elders (1 female, 1 male)

13 adults (9 female, 4 male)

6 children (1 female, 5 male)

5 toddlers (4 female, 1 male)

3 babies (2 female, 1 male)

1 dog (female, small)

(I’m grouping together the Nobles and Gentry for comparison, since they were one class in the previous year.  I listed the numbers separately above for comparison for the next year.)

Change from previous year: +32 sims, +7 pets, +9 households

Losses: 5 deaths from sickness, 2 sims married into a lower class (Christian Burgos and Armando Burgos)

Gains: 35 births, 4 sims married into households (Prince Laurence, Prince Calvin, Rodney Collin, Owen Mace)

All of the new households are due to students returning from university.  Aisha and Samira’s household and Miranda and Calvin’s household are new to the Noble Class.  Elodie’s household was bumped to Gentry.  I’m still including Brett’s household as a Noble household for now, even though I didn’t include him in the rankings.

[The graph above is the combined totals for Nobility and Gentry.]

______________________________________________________________

Merchants (18 households, 82 sims total)

22 elders (11 female, 11 male)

34 adults (16 female, 18 male)

9 teens (4 female, 5 male)

4 children (2 female, 2 male)

4 toddlers (2 female, 2 male)

9 babies (4 female, 5 male)

13 dogs (6 female, 7 male / 8 large, 5 small)

6 cats (3 female, 3 male)

Change from previous year: +19 sims, +12 pets, +6 households

Losses: 2 deaths from old age (Allyn Livingston, Colby Schamess), 1 death from sickness (Nathaniel Carpenter), 4 marriage into another class (Rodney Collin, Jay Collin, Walter Smith, Alice Fancey), 1 moved out (Anton Smith.)

Gains: 16 births, 5 sims married or moved in (Christian Burgos, Abraham, Aldous, Armando Burgos, Pamela Chun), 6 sims were from unofficial households that I counted this time (Ralph, Roy, Robin, Griffin, Clark, Phoebe).

The new households are the Bransfield household and Shankel household (who were in the kingdom before, but not counted) Chun (Pamela and Armando), Guevara (Marlene and Roscoe), Fancey (Marissa and Aldous), and Carpenter 2 (Benjamina and Abraham.) In my previous census I had 13 Merchant households numbered, but only 12 listed, so I’m not sure who else I was counting.  My other numbers only add up if I assume I didn’t include the Bransfield and Shankel households before.

_____________________________________________________

Peasants (16 households, 78 sims total)

11 elders (5 female, 6 male)

33 adults (14 female, 19 male)

9 teens (3 female, 6 male)

14 children (9 female, 5 male)

9 toddlers (5 female, 4 male)

2 babies (0 female, 2 male)

12 dogs (6 female, 6 male / 10 large, 2 small)

3 cats (2 female, 1  male)

Change from previous year: +29 sims, +4 pets, +5 households

Losses: 2 deaths from sickness (Janice and Robert), 3 married into another class (Drake, Aldous and Abraham)

Gains: 24 births, 10 married or moved in

_______________________________________________________

The percentage of sims in each class is still staying fairly constant.  Upper class sims (Royals, Nobles, and now Gentry) account for 46% of the kingdom.  At the end of Year 6 they made up 47%.  Merchants have gone down a little from 31% to 28%.  Peasants have gone up slightly from 23% to 27%. 

All classes are experiencing growth.  90 new sims were added to the kingdom this year.  That is twice as many new sims from the previous two years.  (Year 6 saw 46 new sims and Year 5 added 48 new sims.)

[The red line for Upper class sims is Royalty, Nobility and Gentry combined and closer to where the Nobility line would be if I hadn’t separated the Gentry from the Nobility.]

_______________________________________________________

Supernatural Sims

14 vampires

7 werewolves

5 witches (2 good, 2 neutral, 1 evil)

2 aliens (1 half-alien, 1 quarter-alien)

This is my first time counting supernatural sims specifically, but since the numbers have been growing, I thought it would be something interesting to keep track of over time.

________________________________________________________

Maximum Aspiration Acknowledgement

As I was entering data for my points system I noticed a lot of sims had the same number of aspiration points and discovered that aspiration points max out at a certain value.  So for these sims (and sims in this situation in the future) I will be purchasing aspiration reward items so that they can keep earning points.  The sims that reached maximum aspiration points are:

Queen Rosalin

Prince Florian

Nicolette Durden

Erin Cade

Tobias King (Looking back through my records he is the only sims that was also at maximum points the previous year.  So nothing he did this entire year counted.)

Cora Burgos

Clare Peasant

_____________________________________________________________

In Memorium

Joy Mace (80)

Allyn Livingston

Nathen Warner (72)

Colby Schamess (71)

Claire Mellon (75)

Amin Byall

Navin Langerak

Janice Peasant (48)

Robert Thomason (12)

Nathaniel Carpenter (59)

Stacey King (76)

Flynn Durden (23)

Prince Emmett (27)

Beatrix Burgos (70)

Clarissa Cade (56)

Hope Mace (68)

Vlad Bachman

Dickson Bransfield (72)

[mlek13]

Winter, Year 7: Singles

At the end of the fall I played Roy’s household to catch it up a little to the rest of the kingdom and to see if anything would progress between him and Daniel.  Apparently it did when I wasn’t looking because at some point they autonomously got engaged!

Also while I was watching Roy and Daniel and Ralph and the queen, Amin passed away.  He was on a date with a woman he brought home from work and passed out in the yard.  This was in the fall before I put in the sickness mod, so it caught me off guard.

I guess it was sickness then?  Since he’s a green ghost? 

R.I.P. Amin Byall (aka Amin Jr.)  He was originally a townie child who became a family with his townie mother Elise Shankel, butler uncle Amin Wilsonoff, and repairman grandfather JJ Fong who all preceded him in death.  He is survived by his stepfather, retired butler Ralph Leive, half-brother Roy Shankel, ex-wife Morgan Collin, and son Malcolm Collin.

The Grim Reaper returns for the family dog Ace.  Who is probably one of the last of the Laughlin dogs.  Thanks for being a good boy.

The new stray dog I move in, might not be such a good dog.

He’s going to need some work.

Daniel moves in at the beginning of the season and his baby momma, Andrea, drops by for more than just a visit.  He’s not having it though.  He seemed more reluctant to commit to Roy, but now that they are engaged he has proved very loyal.

So they make it official and tie the knot.

Jonas and Barry join the nearly empty singles lot and look at the place like they aren’t sure what they’ve gotten themselves into.  I was really successful in pairing sims off (at least initially.  Whether or not they stay together is another matter.) so only Drake and James are still here from last season.

I try to invite as many singles over as possible to socialize.  They all gather around for a massive kicky bag game.

Uh oh, Drake starts a fire.

Jonas isn’t at a loss for romantic prospects, he just needs to choose one.  Should it be Ava?

Or Julianna?

He gets invited on a few outings and gets to know a lot of other sims.

He and Ava have a quick date at the beach.

Barry spots a lovely lady named Edith.

This looks like it might be going somewhere

until . . .

Seriously? And it’s Clare?

Clare has the good sense to decline his offer of a date and I think he seems more than a little relieved when she says no.

Edith really looks like she thought that was going to be a good idea.

Edith:  Oh, sorry the blind date didn’t work out.  Maybe I can make that up to you.

I’m not sure what kind of game she’s playing.

James’ best romantic prospect seems to be apartment dweller, Nichole.

Drake is still exploring his options.  He has a first kiss with this townie named Shenene

and he’s still really into Celeste, despite Barry’s disgust.

She’s nearly and elder and much older than Drake, but it’s starting to look like she may be the one.

[mlek13]

Fall, Year 7: The Carpenters

While playing other households Gabriel and Coraline both rolled wants to get married to each other and only each other!  (I think Elizabeth’s marriage narrowed down Gabriel’s options.)  Since Gabriel’s a vampire, I have bide my time and wait until dark when it’s safe for him to come over.  I also played up the Farmer’s lot so the aging would be even, which in hindsight I realize was completely unnecessary since vampires don’t age.

In the meantime, I try to introduce Andrea to some eligible young men that she might like, such as Daniel.

I have her scope the room to try to push her to take action and who does she think is hot and wants to date?  Former butler Ralph.  Well . . . okay.  Ralph really wants to marry Cora Burgos, but I don’t Cora will ever agree to settle down.

Before Coraline can invite Gabriel over, she gets invited on a date with Count not-Ray.  I forget his name.  Maybe it’s Shea?  I gave him a makeover so I could tell them apart and mixed up his personality and aspiration, so some of my sims won’t just get vampires as their potential matches from the crystal ball.

I let her have one last fling (hopefully.) For some reason she thinks playing the piano publicly is a good idea in spite of the fact that she’s never played in her life.  The Count agrees that it was not a good idea.

When Gabriel arrives, Andrea is still on her date with Ralph.  (It’s a working date.)  Gabriel is heartbroken, even though he really wants to marry her twin sister.

Maybe it’s best that they get this out of the way now and fall out of love with each other before there is more drama down the road.  I just hope they aren’t so furious with each other that they have the opposite problem.

After many attempts of me trying to figure out why the proposal option doesn’t work (I never fixed it, I just found a way to work around it.) and my sims trying to get their timing right, Coraline finally gets a chance to propose to Gabriel.

And since they wanted marriage, not an engagement, I see no point in waiting and have them get married.

They both have the same reaction their nuptials, and it isn’t good.  Hey, you two both wanted this.  It wasn’t just me forcing you together.

At least Coraline’s father is happy about it.  He congratulates Coraline on the engagement.

Andrea has moved on, this time with Daniel.  I took a look at his relationship panel and was reminded that last round I assumed he and Roy Shankel would pair up.  Maybe things will go in a different direction than I anticipated.

It looks like his romance with Andrea will have lasting consequences in one respect at least.

I send the pair out on a date

and they grab some dinner.  (A little bit.  The date ended and their table was cleared before they really had a chance to eat.)  It was a nice time, but neither seems interested in a commitment yet.

There were birthdays this round in the midst of the other siblings’ drama.  Baby of the family, Kit, is hardly a baby anymore.

And youngest sister, Benjamina, is an adult

and ready to jump into adult activities.

[raindropdrinkwater]

13. Shankel household

Long rotation incoming.

Deirdre gave birth to a little boy, Odhrán. Todd came over to meet his son, and took a shine to him. He’s also getting along with Deirdre’s boyfriend: Quinten’s a sports fan, so when Todd initiated a game of kicky bag he immediately joined in! The boys have plenty of time to play now that they’ve both been fired. :-/

I went on to play Deirdre’s household a bit longer, because I needed them to catch up on the other households.

And that’s regretful.

[raindropdrinkwater]

13. Shankel household

The Grim Reaper took Deirdre :(

[raindropdrinkwater]

13. Shankel household

Both Quinten and Deirdre were sick. I sent them both to bed, but Deirdre wasn’t tired. She kept asking Quinten to play catch, and she wanted to smustle -- no matter how low her comfort was.

I managed to keep Quinten sat with a book. I had no such luck with Deirdre.

The Grim Reaper took her.

I left without saving, and had a think. Deirdre has been my favourite premade townie for as long as I can remember, so having her die so young when I could have *forced* her to get some rest really isn’t my idea of fun. It hurts.

It would have been easy to reload the house and turn free will off, or even cure her with the Sim Blender. But. It didn’t feel right.

So I reloaded the house, once I was ready.

Deirdre wanted to teach Odhrán to walk. I let her have this wish, knowing full well it would probably kill her. Also knowing it would give Odhrán a memory of his mother.

[raindropdrinkwater]

13. Shankel household

Deirdre’s and Todd’s ship hasn’t quite sailed yet. I don’t think it ever will, but Quinten hasn’t actually much to fear from Todd.

Which is odd. From the way they interact, he’d be a better match to Angela, and Todd a better match to Deirdre. But it is the way it is.

The way it was.

[raindropdrinkwater]

08.06 Pleasant household -- Angela and Todd’s wedding

Angela and Todd invited pretty much all of Pleasantview and their Uni friends, including Deirdre Danger-Zone-Shankel, who looked absolutely stunning (and dangerous) in her randomly rolled yellow dress.

[raindropdrinkwater]

Name conundrum

Deirdre Shankel’s gone, and so is her last name if I don’t change things.

Todd has two daughters with Angela: Holly and Matariel Pleasant. He also has two kids with Deirdre: Siobhán and Odhrán Bradshaw.

I could keep the names as is, or change Holly and Matariel to Bradshaw and Sio and Odhrán to Shankel. I have enough little Pleasants running around that this last name won’t get lost, *but* this means there’ll be no one left in the Pleasant household with the Pleasant last name! (Angela’s going by Bradshaw these days).

I should therefore change the name of the household to Bradshaw. This feels weird because this is the historical Pleasant house. On the other hand Todd has become the main character of this particular house (if not the whole hood), so it would make sense, too.

Then there’s the matter of Quinten Day. I was going to send him on a date with Deirdre, and Deirdre would have proposed... Now he’s just on his own with a toddler who isn’t his. He’s nice, but I’m not particularly attached to him *yet*. I’m thinking of turning him back into a young adult and send him back to Uni, maybe even as a dormie, to give him a second chance later on.

I’ve considered letting him raise Odhrán, but I feel the little boy should live with his father. They have a strong relationship already, as I made sure they had a chance to spend time together -- and Todd was pretty good about interacting with him. This means 4 toddlers at once for Angela and Todd, and another baby ready to arrive... Yikes!!!*

Anyway! I need to think about it. Keep calm and dance on, which is what Deirdre would do.

*sounds fun tbh XD

(I’m still sending Angela and Todd on Twikii Island)

(I also realised I feel the need to explain that I care about them even though they’re only pixels... but most people reading this blog get that!)