CON LOS CANTAROS ALFREDO ESPINO 🍂🏺 | Jícaras Tristes Auras del Bohío 🔥 | Alfredo Espino Poemas
¡Hola, Amiguitos, Papitos y ZoeTubers! Tengo la dicha de declamar el poema: Con Los Cántaros de Alfredo Espino, nuestro insigne poeta niño y escritor salvadoreño; de su libro de poesía, Auras del Bohío, Jícaras Tristes.
Suscríbete a mi Canal de YouTube: ▶️ Valentina Zoe Tv. Encontrarán la mejor Poesía, Cuentos Infantiles, Teatro y Consejos Educativos para Niños. Les mando la mejor energía del mundo mundial, un fuerte abrazo 🤗
Joko cut scenes, and Kira cut scenes, and Elenor cut scenes, and Zoe cut scenes, and Antonio cut scenes, and Valentina cut scenes. All the cut scenes!!
(Uhhh so I wrote this a while ago based off of an idea for an alternate ending to S5 Case 52 where the player decides to accompany Jones as he walks home. Have fun reading it, I guess, I’m not that proud of it, but eh. I hope you enjoy!)
(SPOILERS FOR S5 CASE 52 AND TW FOR SEWERSLIDE IMPLICATIONS)
(Also, sorry if any of the canon characters are OOC-)
“A Tough Time Holding Up”
“…I don’t think you should have done that.”
Gloria’s whisper is the only thing keeping the tension in the car from going silent.
And stale.
“Done what?” I ask, my voice a low grumble.
“You know what I mean.” Gloria replies, not even raising her tone.
The silence I give as my response causes her to sigh as we stop at a red light. “Listen. I don’t like Leroux for a lot of reasons, killing Zoe being one of them…but breaking his nose wasn’t-!”
She runs a hand through her hair and groans. “You know what? Whatever. Leroux got sentenced, and his cowardly ass is going to rot in jail for a long time…Zoe’s finally at peace.”
She says the last part with some level of uncertainty. I don’t blame her at all.
There were too many unanswered questions to this case — Leroux’s motive, Zoe’s involvement with Dreamlife, et cetera, et cetera. Gloria and I had to find these explanations fast.
But first, we had to check up on Jones back at the station.
After we park the car in front of that oh-so-familiar blue building we see everyday, I practically barrel out and make a mad dash into the station to find Jones.
I can’t find him anywhere.
Shit, where is he?!
“Jones?” I ask, running over to his desk to see if he’s there.
He isn’t.
“Oh, are you looking for Jones?” Gabriel asks as he sips from a mug of coffee. I nod somewhat frantically in response.
“He’s in the bathroom right now.” He tells me. “I think he’ll be out pretty soon.”
“Ah, alrighty then. Thank you.”
I sit down at Jones’s desk and wait patiently for him to show up.
Sure enough, a couple minutes later, I hear a door open and close, and Jones walks in from around the corner.
Judging by his physical state alone, he looks better(?) than before - he’s calmer, albeit looking a bit exhausted, and it looks like he had splashed cold water on his face.
“Oh! Hey, Val.”
“Jones! Hey!” I reply as I get out of the chair, making sure to give him a warm and friendly smile. “How are you feeling?”
Jones just gives me some sort of dazed stare in response, and I just look at him right in the eyes, waiting for him to answer my question.
He does not answer my question and instead says, “...I heard you arrested Leroux…for murdering Zoe.”
I flinch at the mention of Leroux, and I nod. “Yup, we did…and I even broke his nose. For, y’know, good measure.” I make a fist with one hand and make a swinging motion to demonstrate, and Jones gives me a half-hearted chuckle.
We stand in silence for a couple of seconds somewhat awkwardly until Jones reaches past me and grabs his jacket from a chair. “...Well, I’d better get going.”
Going?
“Uh, wait, you’re going? If you don’t mind me asking, where, exactly?”
Jones flinches at my question. “Oh, uh…I’m just gonna go home and take a nap. I’m…exhausted.”
…Something about his words feels off to me, but I don’t know what.
“A. A nap?”
“...Yeah, what about it?”
He’s only glancing at me, but I can feel his eyes boring into my soul.
“...Oh, uh, nothing really.” I stammer out, feeling a bit embarrassed with myself.
“...Alrighty, then.” He frowns slightly in response.
“I’m going to take a rest.” Fernando tells me. “I’m…I’m just tired right now.”
Something in my gut is pulling me towards Jones, telling me to make sure nothing bad happens to him.
But how do I help?
I know fuck-all on what to do.
I’m internally panicking, mentally scrabbling around to try to find ideas.
Jones is saying goodbye to Gabriel and Gloria as I’m just standing by his desk like a complete goddamn fool.
“Take care.” Gloria tells Jones with a comforting smile.
“Stay safe, alright?” Gabriel says to Jones, putting his hand on Jones’s shoulder.
Jones flinches at Gabriel’s touch, looking at the floor as he mumbles, “I’ll take care of myself, don’t worry.”
He’s lying.
I don’t even have to look at him, and I know he’s lying.
I don’t know what he’s going through, but all I know is that I have to help him somehow.
But how?
I have no game plan, no nothing.
Jones is heading towards the exit carrying nothing with him, even leaving his jacket by his desk.
…Fuck it, we ball.
I make somewhat of a mad dash at him, grabbing his jacket along the way. “Jones! Wait up!”
“Hm?” Jones turns around to face me, looking more tired now. “What is it now?”
“…Can I walk you home?”
“…What?”
“I- I mean, if you want me to, of course- your home is kinda far away if I remember correctly, and you seem pretty tired right now-”
Jones blinks once. Then twice.
“I- uh- what I was trying to stay, I mean say- is that you could use some company???” I blubber out like a fool.
I immediately brace for incoming rejection.
You know what? If he wants to head home, then that’s alright. Maybe I’m worrying too much about him. I probably am kind of bothering him and distracting him from his own thoughts, after all-
“Sure.”
“W-what?”
Jones gives me a small smile. “Yeah, sure. I think I could use the company right now. So why not?”
“I-”
I almost fucking gape at him like he just told me I won the lottery.
“…Val? You alright?”
“I- uh- yes!” I exclaim with a smile, patting (unintentionally slapping) him on the back. “I’ll- I’ll go get my jacket-!”
“V-Val, you’re wearing your jacket-”
“Ah! Alright! I’ll go ask the Chief for permission to walk you home then!”
I scoot over to Chief Parker’s office and almost kick open the door.
“CHIEF.”
Chief Parker yelps with surprise as she almost drops her papers. “Ah!- Detective Perez, please do not scare me like that again-!”
“Sorry! I- uh- so Jones is going home, can I escort him?” I stammer out.
“…Perez, you have work to do-”
“I know, I know!” I exclaim. “But I’m genuinely worried about Jones, and- and I want to escort him home to keep him company and make sure he feels less alone…”
Chief Parker sighs as her eyes flick around the room. “Pere- Val, listen. I’ve known Jones for a while, and I’m genuinely sure that he’ll get through this…eventually, he just needs a bit of time. He’s…a strong individual…”
“Chief.”
“…and I’m sure that all he just needs is a bit of time to himself to recover mentally.”
“Chief. Chief. Chief.”
“I do understand your concerns, but right now, Jones needs some space alone to breathe, alright? Also, you have other work to do when it comes to investigating Leroux’s claims of Zoe’s telekinesis-”
“Chief!” I shout.
“What?! What is it?!” Chief Parker shouts back.
We’re in a bit of a silent standstill for a moment until I exhale.
“How long have you known Jones?”
“…3 years.” She responds, raising an eyebrow. “Where are you going with this?”
“Well, I’ve known Jones for 5 years, and even I don’t know everything about him.” I reply. “Just because he looks calm right now, it doesn’t mean that nothing’s going on for him. I do also believe he needs some time alone to process everything, but goddamnit, I am VERY sure that he needs comfort and support right now instead!”
A pause. I notice the Chief rubbing her fingers together repeatedly as she looks around for a moment.
“I’ll be fine.” Fernando tells me with an exhausted, slight upturned curve of his lips.
“Trust me.” I say. “I know something’s wrong. Just…PLEASE let me be there for him.”
“Val, I-”
I’m tearing up right now, but I don’t really care. I just need the Chief to understand what the hell I’m saying.
Fuck it. I even get down on my hands and knees and start begging.
“WHOA! Val, HOLD ON-!”
“PLEASE, Chief Parker. I’m worried for him. I just want him to be mentally okay, but I don’t want him to be alone…please, please, please, please, please…”
I look up for a moment at Chief Parker’s shocked expression. “Val, I’m not su-”
“CHIEF, I WILL LICK YOUR SHOE-”
“ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT!” She exclaims, stepping back. “I will let you accompany Jones on his way home, and I’ll ask Gabriel to partner up with Gloria in the meantime.”
“OH, THANK THE GODS-” I almost sob with joy.
“Val, please calm down.”
“-Ah, alright. Sorry.” I get up from the floor and dust myself off. “Anyway, thank you so much, genuinely.”
“It’s no problem.” She replies with a tired smile.
I nod and bid my farewell as I leave her office.
To my dismay (but not surprise), Jones was not where I had last left him.
He was already across the street when I dashed outside like a maniac.
“There you are!” I exclaim, running over to catch up to him.
Jones flinches at the sound of my voice and flips around. “Oh! Val! Heyyyy!” He says nervously.
“I thought I was gonna walk you home! Why’d you leave me in the dust like that, man?”
“You- you were actually serious about that-?”
“Yeah, of course!” I reply. “You’re one of my closest friends, man. I can’t just leave you alone.”
“Oh!” Jones looks pleasantly shocked. “I- thank you.”
“No problem.” I grin at him. “So…do we take public transportation to your home, or-?”
“…Nah, don’t feel like it tonight. I just feel like walking.”
“Ah, alright.”
“…”
“So, your home’s this way-?”
“N-no, no, Val, it’s that way. We’re literally going to Newmark right now, I live all the way in Fairview.”
My Aro playlist (the perfect soundtrack for ASAW!)
A while ago I made an aro playlist that I keep adding songs on. It's on an account that I don't feel comfortable sharing but I thought I could tell y'all what songs are on it because aro songs are not easy to find. So here you go.
Note: this playlist is tailored to my personal music taste. It's mostly pop. I know there are more out there (Cavetown) but these are the songs I like to listen to. Besides, you might interpret these songs differently. They were clearly not written to be aromantic songs but they sound pretty aro to me ( but obviously you don't have to agree).
I tried to sort them into categories (at least roughly) so can find songs you relate to better.
I used an alien emoji to mark the songs containing internalized arophobia (in my opinion) if you want to avoid those.
Enjoy!
Being happy about being aro/not feeling romantic attraction:
Never been in love - Will Jay
Curse - Emily Burns
Zero feelings - Zoe Clark
Being somebody's crush but you can't reciprocate:
Sorry - Halsey
I wanna love you but I don't - Ben Platt
I won't - H.E.R.
Crush - Glades
FRIENDS - Marshmello, Anne-Marie
I don't know - Gabe Bondoc
Idle Worship - Paramore
I help you hate me - Sunrise Avenue
Dating someone but turns out dating isn't for you:
Bad liar - Imagine Dragons
Liked you better - Good problem, Boy in space
Turning out pt. ii - AJR
Psychofreak - Camila Cabello, Willow 👽
Someone else - ClockClock
I wasn't made to fall in love - Miko 👽
For when the Romance Repulsion hits:
Crush Culture - Conan Gray
I'm so tired... - Lauv, Troye Sivan
Never Fall in love - Jack Antonoff, MØ
Romance is boring - Los Campesinos!
Love is for losers - The Longshot
Don't fall in love - Danko Jones
This fall - The Duhks
Romantic - Hooverphonic
Being happily single:
Good thing - Zedd, Khelani
Soulmate - Lizzo
No - Meghan Trainor
It's not you it's me - Bea Miller
I don't wanna be in love (dance floor anthem) - Good Charlotte
I just wanna be single - Brika
Me, Myself and I - Blonde, Bryn Christopher
Dating myself - sad alex
Aroallo anthems (sex mentions):
Not a love song - bülow
Leave before you love me - Marshmello, Jonas Brothers
What's love gotta do with that - Tina Turner
Extra Agenda - Claudia Valentina
Thief - Ansel Elgort 👽
Girlfriend - Bea Miller
Animal - Sir Chloe
Best Friend - The Weeknd
Yuck - Charli XCX
Cupioromantic anthems:
Hopeless Romantic - Sam Fischer 👽
People watching - Conan Gray
Love like that - Lauv
Love love love - Of Monsters and men 👽
High Definition - Waterparks
"No it's not romantic":
Despair - Leo.
Not a love song - Austin Moon
Not wanting to fall in love:
I don't wanna fall in love - Addison Grace
I don't need love - Niic
I don't want love - The Antlers
No lover - Jetty Bones
Your friend is dating someone that is bad for them and you're just *facepalms*
Devil doesn't Bargain - Alec Benjamin
Snap out of it - Arctic Monkeys
No Romeo - Dylan
Third Wheel - Zoe Wees
Aro songs I couldn't really sort in any of those categories but are still dope:
Mad at Disney - Salem Ilese
Turning out - AJR
Loveless girl - Pale Waves 👽
I've never written a song about a boy - Eva Westphal
here’s a masterlist of popular names from each state in the united states. names will be separated by state and by gender, and there will be 5 of the most popular names from each state. i put all of the names on one line to avoid having this end up being too long, and i also included district of columbia. thus, there’s a total of 510 names. if you found this at all helpful, please reblog / like.
I may not have the... best tastes, but I appreciate the fact that you enjoy me being me. I mean it.
And, likewise, I enjoy you being you! Don't let anyone drag you down ^^
thank you!! i honestly don't mind your villainfuckery, i have a buddy (hatch @agentukelele) who also likes villains/eldritch creatures such as scarecrow or riddler and...a lot of magnus archives characters i can't really...figure out if they're evil or more blue and orange. you and hatch are like the villainfuckers i can TRUST.
thank you for enjoying me being me! i will enjoy my freakish joke characters with personality disorders (dan hibiki) or traumatized acting out women with personality disorders (poison, juri han, kolin) or my female shonen heroes (lucia and sakura and r mika) or my should be nonbinary joke characters but people consider them too ugly to be nonbinary which is DUMB BECAUSE NONBINARY DOESN'T HAVE A SET LOOK (blanka, dan hibiki, rufus) and i will also enjoy me and my partners' collaborative ocs ESPECIALLY rhys linoux, varis miller (pronounced VAHR-is, like the name carys), netty/khardia (giving you a secret spoiler shhhh) valentina la rosas, and ravi bhaskar who are all four my babies and in sprint, bechette choi (who is TECHNICALLY shared between me and @pissonthepoor but technically i made the moodboard first smokestack /joke)
i will also enjoy my self owned ocs valla alkyrie, jessica bloodstone, clorica lightrisen, ashe knightwind (though maybe i should change her name considering she's amnesiac and ashe is the only name she TECHNICALLY knows herself to know...), berlick (she has only one name because she's an assassin shhhh), jean marie cotard, yuuki honda, alonzo rock johnson, aleksandra zima and albina zima (they're sisters but aleksandra is a tough as nails but also traumatized knife freak who's bitchy and cold but also super cool, and albina is also sweet but traumatized and also incidentally obsessed with gore stuff for some reason, and they're both demon hunters), erzabet williams, cortnee trickson, brett-coleman-nguy-trickson, alice null (originally my "good guy m bison" idea formulated into an idea role for podcast actress and comic book writer zoe tunnell to pull off PLEASE if twine games could be voice acted i NEED zoe tunnell to voice alice null)...i have too many ocs of my own to list. and that's not counting the universal self insert oc for ALL universes pennigeorge allen.
i will continue to enjoy being me and making ocs that i like and writing characters that i like
Katie, Drew, Silena, Rosamie, Billie, Miranda, Zoe, Nyssa, and Lavinia are in a band called "Nine Muses." They got their start with humble campfire concerts but made it big after syndicating a TV show called "A Night With the Muses," which serves as the closing ceremonies for the fours yearly Hellenistic Games. (Pythian, Namean, Isthmus, and Olympics)
It's an all-demigod production 😄
- Lee, Austin, Victoria, and Gracie are part of the band.
- Leo, Heloise, Shane, and Harley man the cameras/backstage equipment
- Valentina, Lacy, Piper, and Mitchell are in charge of costumes/hair/makeup
The show is only an hour, but the party lasts long after the cameras stop rolling and divine beings of all kinds flock to the audience to party HARD
I finally bit the bullet and did an updated group photo for gen 3 because I wanted to replace the header I have for this account right now. I'm still stuck on what to do for a profile picture, but I'll figure it out eventually I guess. When planning out the posing for this, I was inspired by @duggardata to do some info points for my sims, so I'm going to be doing some basic and random facts about these little bunches of pixels to end the year. This ended up being a mini thesis, so grab a snack if you plan on scrolling down, and I'll put the post under the cut to save your scrolling the TL. When I started this it was meant to be a small cute post with random information, and has now become an actual analysis. If I've missed anything or if i find more that I can talk about, there definitely can be more of these later down the line.
I'm going to queue this for 11:30pm my timezone, so I wish you all a very happy new year, may you get everything you desire and more!
This is all 36 people that make up the 3rd generation. I've arranged them in birth order, so this is technically chronological I guess. I did mess up when I got to the end because I forgot about Ashton (Allan & Casandra's 13th - the irony 😂) and plopped her further down than she should be.
Names L-R:
Back: Adalynn Leonard, Barrett Collins, Macie Collins, Carter Paulson, Abbey Hill, Brittany Dahlmann, Zoe Moreno, Valentina Townsend, Alan Paulson, Tanner Collins, Maggie Wright, Celeste Paulson.
Front: Rory Godwin, Ruby Rae Godwin, Parker Collins, Ava Grace Godwin, Conner Paulson, Jarrett Paulson, Gabriela Hunt, James Lee Collins, Matthew Collins, Ashton Collins, Amelia Godwin, Archie Collins.
Now onto the stats!
Basics
Out of the 36 :-
Men: 17
Women: 19
The split between men and women is 49/51 (don't quote me on my maths, I dropped maths classes as soon as I was able to 😂) Within the siblings groups it's definitely not as even, though the final results even themselves out. Gender roles are heavily enforced in these households, so ones that are female heavy (Allan and Casandra's 8 girls to 5 boys) compared to those that are male heavy (Claire and Ryan's 6 boys to 4 girls) will have different experiences. Having girls being born earlier in the birth order definitely helps lighten the load when there's a new children every other year.
Marriage
Marriage is definitely a stage of life that fundies emphasise for their kids, with purity culture pushing for them to be married as soon as possible to (A) prevent sin and (B) produce children as fast as possible. Of course, there's those for whom marriage doesn't happen at the desired time, but in times like this the advice is to wait "on the Lord's timing".
For those eligible for marriage out of the 36:
21 are married
1 is engaged
1 is in a courtship
The average age for marriage is 22. The youngest age being 18 (Maggie, Reece, Priscilla) and the oldest being 29 (Abbey)
I don't have exact data for the courtships so I can't do an average, but I can say the longest relationship prior to engagement was Abbey and Adam's - they dated for two years before getting engaged.
Speaking of dating, fundies and many other conservative christians push courting rather than dating. They reason that it's more serious and with the purpose of marriage, and if you add in purity culture there's the argument that they're saving 'pieces of their heart' for their future spouse. Out of the 23 couples who are either married or on their way there, only 2 couples kissed before marriage: Abbey & Adam and Brittany & Colton. These two couples weren't held to as strict standards as their cousins due to their parents outlook on things, they already knew that their daughters didn't personally agree with the convictions on purity (plus with brittany marrying into a well known political family, they saw it as a means to an end 😂) The other 19 couples (soon to be 20) saved their first kiss for the altar, as will the one courting couple (Zachary & Kelsey). Only 3 couples had no touch courtships the whole way through (and this number is debatable because I myself couldn't keep a storyline straight hehe - but from the character personalities and different plotlines let's agree with 3): Reece & Stacie, Alan & Tessa, and Tanner & Tabitha. In all 3 cases it was the girls family that set the stricter rules, which is more common as girls are engineered to guard their purity.
As if common with real life fundies, the older the kids get the faster they get in courtships that end in marriage. This is one of that things that you can't really predict since people's stories are different, Adalynn was the first one to get married 13 years ago, and the next family wedding was Barrett's 3 years later. In the first 9 years since the 3rd generation started getting married, 8 couples were married. The beginning of the next decade is when things started to happen in a flurry, 5 couples got married with four of them having their first child in the same year (this wont make sense, but if i try to make it fit real world parameters i'll acc go insane HAHA - this is fictional so it's allowed not to make sense) The most couples to get married in a year is 7 couples, and with the 13 left I doubt that there will be the same back to back that was happening earlier. The girls have gotten married faster than the boys, but that was to be expected when you consider that gender roles play heavily into fundie culture. It's easier to marry off a daughter to be a wife and mother than having to marry of a son, she will be provided for but he needs to be in the place where he can provide for a family that has the potential to grow exponentially. Obviously because this is a game where reality is suspended, the men in the game don't have to do much to be providers.
Education
Education is important as it shapes a person's thoughts and opinions, therefore fundies are more than likely to homeschool their children so that they are in control of what their child is exposed to. For those who think total at home education isn't where the Lord is leading them, there are other options available such as a homeschool co-op and private christian schools, with the last resort being the public education system.
The 2nd generation are quite diverse with their belief systems, influencing their thoughts and opinions around how they educated their children - and let's be honest, finances do play a certain role here whether you like it or not.
Allan & Casandra - Casandra totally homeschooled all 13 of their children through K-12.
Branden & Lea - Lea homeschooled their 3 children from kindergarten through to grade 8, and for high school the kids attended a private christian school.
Claire and Ryan - Claire totally homeschooled/currently homeschools their 10 children.
Danielle and Sebastian - Danielle totally homeschooled/homeschools their two children.
Elaine and Taylor - Elaine homeschooled/homeschools their 5 children through a homeschool co-op that she taught at prior to having children. The kids are educated by various teachers that specialise in different subjects using an approved curriculum.
Fletcher and Cara - They've chosen to send their son to a private christian K-12 school.
Grayson and Keira - Keira homeschools the kids until they're in grade 8, then they send the kids to a private christian school for high school.
When it comes to university, fundies definitely don't push it onto their children as they see it as a place where they'd be brainwashed. As the times have changed, there have been more and more conservative christian universities that have opened up that cater to fundies, so there are more fundies getting a tertiary education.
Right now there are only 8 out of the 36 sims that have gotten degrees or are actively pursuing them:
Beckett - He's the only one of his siblings to attach themselves to a university, even if his degree was in Bible & Missions at a very conservative bible college. His siblings' skill sets are either self taught or they were mentored by someone, though his sister Amira is doing an associates degree at some point (I just haven't figured out in what yet).
Abbey - She has an distinguished degree in biology and currently works as a marine biologist. I sent her and her sister to the in game university and physically sent them to classes and everything (which is something I'm never doing again HAHA). Back then I also didn't have the thought to send them to a christian university, so let's pretend she just skipped everything evolutionary for her degree.
Brittany - She has a distinguished degree in communications and worked as a political commentator before getting married. She and her sister were the first girls to go to university from their cohort (as well as the first to not be homeschooled), especially since they're in the first phase of the 3rd generation when the 'vibe' in their extended family was very conservative.
Tanner - He has his MD and is now working as a doctor (using the in-game university mechanics) he was also the first boy to attend a secular university, but there obviously weren't as many opinions on him doing it than on his sisters doing it.
James - He has his degree in Bible Counselling with a focus on Youth and Ministry from a local bible college in his area. It was a two year degree to help create missionaries that could be sent out to help churches. He met his wife whilst at university and they married as soon as they graduated, they now live in henley on Bagley as missionaries assigned to help grow a church there. His sister Gabriella doesn't know what she wants to do (i also have no clue), so that will be revealed in due time.
Kyra - She got her degree in early education and is now a kindergarten teacher at a private christian school, she even met her husband at the school through his niblings. Her mother (Elaine) being a teacher and her father also being college educated was definitely an inspiration to her. Being educated in a homeschool co-op also helped her realise her love of teaching.
Rory - Rory is currently at a local university getting a law degree (for my game i'm using a mix of education systems, incase you get confused) and is currently enjoying it. He initially wanted to join the police force like his uncle and cousin, but decided on enrolling in university instead. His parent's are encouraging him down the political route, but with a law degree he can do anything.
Ruby Rae - She's currently in nursing school and is enjoying learning the curriculum. In my head she's always been that character that I'd send off to nursing school, especially with her uncle marrying a nurse, it just felt meant to be for her character. I initially envisioned one of allan and casandra's girls maybe going to nursing school too, but in the end it didn't pan out.
The only ones I can say are definitely attending college in some form are James Lee (Fletcher), Matthew and Archie (Grayson). They'll be like their parents and go to fairly conservative universities and go on to live your average fundie-lite conservative life.
Children
CW: There will be mentions of pregnancy, problems with getting and staying pregnant, pregnancy loss, and infertility of various kinds.
Fundies think of children as gifts from God, with many taking that ideology and running with it, usually ending up with children in the double digits if their fertility agrees with it. The notion of being 'quiverfull' implies that a couple don't use any methods of contraception, with the idea that if God wants them to have a child then they will conceive and birth one. 6 couples of the 2nd generation (Allan to Elaine, then Grayson) were all open to whatever kids the Lord would give them, and they ended up with a variety of children - one couple having 13 and another having just 2. Life throws various curveballs, or as they say "the Lord works in mysterious ways", so there can be many plans that don't work out - let's not forget that people's fertility isn't always textbook. Casandra had 2 miscarriages that I didn't plan in game, the mod I have gets triggered by certain conditions and the alert was a surprise to me. I don't roll for pregnancy losses, unless difficulties getting and/or staying pregnant are part of that character's story for whatever reason e.g. Madelynn, Stacie, etc.
Out of the 21 married couples, only 4 don't have children: Abbey & Adam, Beckett & Mandy, James & Emma, and the newlyweds Parker and Lana.
Abbey and Adam - They're not quiverfull so they've got a timeline for when they'll have children, but they definitely want them.
Beckett and Mandy - They've been married for around 4 years and have not yet had children, they're marked as a quiverfull couple so they're not preventing pregnancy, there's just no children as of yet. Honestly speaking, I haven't thought that far about the ways that children appear in their storyline but I have 3-4 options about where things could go.
James and Emma - These two are in the same boat as Beckett and Mandy in terms of their views on children, they want them but haven't 'been blessed' with them yet. In the actual game they're side characters, so I let the 'Neighbourhood Stories' take over their story unless I see it necessary to intervene.
Parker and Lana - They're newlyweds, so there could be a pregnancy announcement from them any day now. Though I have taken real life parameters into consideration with how fast a couple does conceive, since in real life it can take the average 'healthy' couple up to a year to get pregnant. So you'll just have to wait and see when Lana will be posting a sonogram 😂
Of the 17 couples that have children, they have birthed a whopping 50 children that make up the ever growing 4th generation. There are currently only 2 pregnant women that are gestating 3 children, which is I think the lowest to ever happen by holiday season. The speed at which they have children has definitely sped up the more couples get married. When Adalynn got married in 2010, she had cousins still being born, so for the first five years (2010 - 2015) the 10 grandchildren that were born came from her, Barrett, and Valentina (let's not forget that Kyleigh had triplets then twins back to back, so she went from zero to five children in 3 years)
The 10 children born in the 4 years after that are from Adalynn, Barrett, Carter, Valentina, and Brittany. The next 3 years (2020-2023; i use years to count so i don't get lost, but I make it a point not to mention years in the posts cause that adds opportunities for confusion 😂) were a wedding and baby boom, bringing us to the present day. 2020 had 5 couples marry and birth four children, 2021 holds the record for the most weddings and the most children born: 7 couples married and there were 12 children born. 2023 isn't finished in the game, but so far there has been 1 couple married with another set to marry at the end of the year. So far in 2023 there have been 5 children born, and the pregnancies that are in game aren't set to give birth this year so that's the number for that year.
With all these births happening in waves essentially, how fast are these sims multiplying? In true duggardata fashion I've got the intervals ready for you:
Adalynn & Mason - 9 children in 13 years of marriage: 7 singletons and 1 pair of twins, 8 boys and 1 girl.
Skills
Fundies are known to have their kids learn a skills, usually in the form of musical instruments. From my own childhood as well as research I've gathered via many hours of watching and reading, a musical instrument is the best thing to learn as the 'easiest' way to glorify God is through music. Music plays an important role in worship services, and so having children that can play instruments well allows for them to 'be of use' for worship; families also capitalise on said talent and travel around playing music as a ministry.
The skillset of the 2nd generation does play a role into how their children ended up:
Allan worked as a carpenter (and by carpenter i mean he reached level 10 of the woodworking skill and would just make things to sell) whilst being a Pastor, before retiring and working as a Pastor fulltime. He didn't learn how to play an instrument as he was focused on learning a skill that would help provide for a family.
Branden found his skills in writing, he worked as a writer in the writer field and wrote books that now provide him with royalties, like his brother, he wasn't enrolled in music lessons as his parents had other priorities set for him.
Claire was enrolled in music lessons and found she had a real skills for playing the piano as well as writing music, her mother also had her and her sisters learn homemaking skills such as gardening, cooking, balancing a checkbook and how to run a household. Claire put being a wife and mother first, but also continues to use her skills to minister for the Lord. She's become well known for her performance as well as her hymnal music arrangements (think Kim Collingsworth-esque vibe) and also teaches music as various music camps from time to time.
Danielle learnt how to play the violin as well as learning how to be a homemaker, and as she got married later in life she was the person who stepped in to run the house after her mother passed. She uses her skills whenever asked, like playing at church or at various worship events, but she's mainly focused on gardening and baking.
Elaine learnt how to play the piano and used to play at church and various events, but found her joy was in teaching. She took over homeschooling her younger siblings and went on to earn her teaching qualifications.
Fletcher was taught the piano by his older sisters, but lessons weren't pushed on him by his parents. He went on to focus on fitness and joined the police force after finishing highschool.
Grayson was more book focused and didn't learn an instrument, similar to Elaine he focused more on books and studying and ended up going to medical school.
Harley is the youngest girl and learnt how to play the guitar as a girl, as she was the youngest she didn't have to perform as often as the older siblings did. She went on to get a degree in Fine Arts and now works as the editor in chief at San Myshuno's biggest fashion magasine.
It's easiest to display the information based on the sibling order from gen 2, so here's the list of the various skillsets of the 3rd generation:
A -
Casandra being your typical conservative fundie woman, made sure that all the kids got music lessons, whatever she couldn't teach herself she found someone to teach them. Piano: Since Casandra plays the piano she taught the kids until they were in their teens, then if they chose to continue they could get lessons with Claira. Adalynn, Macie, Zoe, Beckett, Charles and Ashton chose to learn the piano and so far Zoe is the only one who has taken that and made it a career of sorts like her aunt Claire. Violin: Macie also chose to learn violin, with Amira, Priscilla, and Annette also learning the violin. Guitar: The boys mostly chose to learn the guitar, Barrett, Reece, and Parker all chose the guitar, with Maggie being the only girl to choose to learn the guitar. Of the 13 kids to learn a musical instrument, only Zoe has taken it and made it something that monetarily supports her.
B -
Lea learned how to play piano growing up, and enrolled all three of her children in piano lessons. Abbey, Brittany, and Tanner all had piano lessons until they were in their teens and focused on different extracurricular activities once they joined the private christian school.
C -
Claire made sure all her children know an instrument, the four girls (Valentina, Celeste, Kristyn, Sabrina) all know both the piano and the violin, with the 6 boys all learning piano and Carter and Alan also learning how to play the guitar. There were many suggestions of them starting a family band, but Claire and Ryan didn't feel that the Lord was leading them in that direction.
D -
Both James and Emma have learnt to play the piano, James' wife Emma can play the piano, violin, and the flute and has her degree (from a biblical college) in music with a focus on worship music.
E -
Elaine put all the kids into either piano or violin lessons, Kyra did lessons in both until she was a teenager, Rory did piano until he was a teenager, Ruby Rae did violin lessons and still plays at church, Ava Grace continues to play Piano, and Amelia still does violin lessons.
F -
Fletcher and Cara put their son into organised sports, so no music lessons this side.
G -
Keira wanted her boys to have some musical knowledge, so Matthew does guitar lessons and Archie does piano lessons.
That's all I've got for now, but as I was doing this I definitely found more things that I could write about in a few months. I hope you enjoy this!