Young Writers Society

I've been playing Sims 3™ for about a year now. It was on sale on Steam, so I bought it and have been playing semi-regularly ever since.

Sims is great for telling stories, in my opinion. I've crafted dysfunctional families full of hope (the Roth family: neglectful coach potato mom gets a job in law enforcement to pay the bills; angry, kleptomaniac uncle finds that journalism is his passion and starts to climb the job ladder; unlucky, unfortunate teenager caught in the middle of this mess turns to writing and starts to publish books after she finishes her homework), and then I introduced more chaos by turning the mom into a black widow. She tried to marry an old rich widower with the plan to kill him, but he just refused to die.

Seriously, she forced him to run laps around the pool and yelled at him until he soiled himself, but he was apparently very resilient.

I, uh, never got a chance to resolve the Roth family's storyline. I was trying to clean out my computer and then I accidentally deleted their save.

So, now I turn to Ethan Moth! Ethan Moth is a young upstart genius who just wanted to solve brain games. Unfortunately, he also decided that he wanted a career in politics. Instead of sitting inside all day and unlocking puzzles, he somehow kissed up to his bosses enough that he's now the mayor.

He, also, uh, romanced a married woman and convinced her to break-up with her husband. It was only after he romanced Malia that I found out she was seven days away from being an elder. (So I need to use some cheat codes to chaNGE THAT.) She also has, uh, three kids. And she didn't speak with her daughter enough, so now she's a "distant friend" with her own daughter. I really destroyed a family.

So, what are your tales? Any grand adventures? Evil deeds? Let us know!

That black widow attempt, though-- lel.

I usually don't play very long, so when I do I just have my sims wander around town causing trouble or having a good time. The one time I did try to make a sim somewhat functional, he was ended up so stressed that he spiraled into depression. His name is Louis Sullivan, and he was based on a character I made in Rock Band 3 (and have since recreated in multiple character-creation games [s]I should make him in Dark Souls, oh dang).
Since his origins stem from Rock Band, I gave him musical aspirations in The Sims. He made a couple friends on his first day in town, then got married to another sim on the second or third day. It was ridiculously fast.
But it turned out that his new wife already had a relationship of sorts going; only Louis didn't figure this out until he and his wife had adopted one kid and birthed another.
Life in the Sullivan household was hectic, with neither parent getting enough rest before having to rush off to work. Louis was an entertainer, working towards a career as a stand-up comedian. In his off time, when he wasn't collapsing on the bathroom floor from exhaustion, he'd be practicing instruments in the basement. His wife, (whose name I forget) was really bad at helping with the kids, instead inviting her grown children to come and visit (didn't know about them until later, either!) so Louis was left to juggling work, hobbies, and his two toddlers.
Eventually, I devised a plan to befriend the wife's side-piece and introduce him to the Grim Reaper -- which went fine, until I somehow accidentally swapped households and suddenly lived in the wife's old mansion. Only, I didn't have control of Louis or the kids. So oops.
Fixed all that, devised another plan to kill the wife, but when that went through, the kids were devastated, so Louis pleaded for her life. Reaper agreed to let her live, then Louis sent her packing.
He raised the kids on his own for a bit, before meeting a nicer lady. I'm not sure if they've married yet, or if I stopped playing when they got engaged, but his life was on the way up when I left off, at least.

I also didn't realize that you have to make Sim children do their homework. I thought they just did it on their own, but nO duh of course they wouldn't, they're children!


Anyway, this is prob toooo long, so I'm done now-- lel

I totally can simpathize with the marry-a-few-days-before-elder dilemma. My Sim Charlotte Steel (daughter of Christopher, who makes a sweet and adorable husband with a new hairdo and outfit, btw, even if his fancy for fish is annoying), met an electrician who came to her house to fix something. He seemed perfect and they hit it off instantly! Until she married him and I saw that he was a whole zero days from becoming an elder.

So I got her pregnant immediately and then swiftly built the husband a death chamber outside. I gave him nothing but an easel so he could at least paint and earn money for me.

Because of the moodlet boosters of marriage and, soon after, the birth of his son, the husband existed in the state of "elation" in his death chamber for a good three days before he really started to decline. I locked the gate to his chamber to everyone but Charlotte, so she visited him occasionally and whenever she did he'd get the "my love!" booster that made him so happy and aaaghhh I felt bad for the old guy!

But, gosh darn it, Charlotte was only a few days into adulthood and this would never work. So I waited it out, and he died.

Charlotte moved on with her life. She started dating other guys, but alas! Fortune had it that the game still believed she was romantically involved with her deceased husband. Maybe Sims can still be in a relationship with ghosts? I wouldn't think so, but she started getting close with this one guy when all of a sudden he accused her of cheating and she earned the reputation of being "naughty." She hadn't kissed or done anything with any other guy. It was the weirdest thing! She also had the "Family-oriented" trait which made her feel really guilty.

I ended up saving up on life points to get the "Clean Slate" thing, which solved the problem. Lesson learned: divorce your husband before you kill him.

@Wolfical - Oh my goodness. That's amazing, fantastic, and so, so dark. That seriously sounds like it could be the basis for a really messed up short story, lol. Did this happen in Sims 3 or Sims 4? (Not that I want to replicate it, of course. Just. Wow. I literally held my hands over my mouth because I was laughing so hard.)

@Evander - Sims 3, so you can totally replicate it! Mwahahaha.

So, uh, Ethan (my main Sim) became a governor today. He's finally back to work after his honeymoon, so it only took two days for him to get that promotion! Things in his life might take a turn for the worse, though. Unfortunately, he really wants to have a kid with his wife (Malia), but Malia is about to turn into an elder in a few days. I keep on messing with her life expectancy, but I think it's ultimately her time to be placed within the box of death.

I'm trying to increase Ethan's charisma skill, so I ended up inviting a random person from his acquaintance list over to his house (let's call her Carey because I forget her name). He was hitting it off with her and wanted to become her best friend, but then I accidentally switched over to Malia's perspective without knowing. Immediately, the bar went from positive to red. Oops. Apparently Malia really hated Carey. I started to freak out, thinking that Ethan had accidentally said something to horribly offend Carey, but it turns out I just invited someone that Malia really hated. W h o o p s.

Malia had a phone conversation with one of her daughters! (Apparently, uh, she had four kids??? I miscounted.) It's not enough to mend the broken relationship, but it's enough to prep Malia for the march of death.

On a happier note, I think that I'm going to let Ethan hit a few of his life goals. Once he does that, then I'll probably romance someone new, kick them out of their house, and then adopt a kid. I might also take their kids. Who knows?

Find out next week! Same bat time, same bat channel~

Woah those stories are insane! I feel soo bad for that old guy, Wofical!

It really does make me miss the "reputation" aspect of Sims 3. I haven't played 3 in a while >.< I also really miss the popularity system! I wonder why they took it off...

I usually like playing long families. I'm working on marrying my new sim into my old family. I'm boring >.< I don't like it when my sims die lol But I'm a big fan of family drama and crap. I love making up their stories.

@Nobunaga, tell us about some family drama! We need more stuff to spice this up.

Alright, so uh, I killed the my sim's wife. I realized in shock and horror (as I sped through her final days) that Ethan legitimately loved his wife. When I left them alone, they would flirt with each other and make conversation. Malia would fall asleep on the bed, so Ethan would pull up a book next to her and just hang out. Like, they were so, so in love.

Unfortunately, she aged into an elder.

I watched as Ethan and Malia's relationship developed while I spent Ethan's hard earned money on a death house. The death house wasn't the fanciest thing in the world, but it was a nice little cottage outside of the main house. One room, one hall, no lights. Two doors. Both only able to be opened by Ethan.

Ethan and Malia spent the night together before she turned into an elder. It was bittersweet, really. The game told me that it was time to celebrate her becoming an elder. I gave her one last good day.

And then the sun rose.

Early in the morning, Ethan and Malia entered the death house. Malia was hungry, but hopeful. Ethan had no idea of the words that were about to come out of his mouth directed towards his sweet wife.

Here's a preface: I almost chickened out of getting rid of Malia. She had just published a book. She was making friends. She was leveling up in the charisma skill! She had just become a good chef. Like, for all intents and purposes, she had a beautiful retirement ahead of her (despite not working). Nearing the end of her life, one of my friends asked me if she had to die.

So he rolled a die. Evens for life, odds for death. He rolled a nine. Then we asked a magic 8-ball if Malia should die and we were told "decidedly so".

I wanted to save her, but the internet had called for her death.

And death took her.

Ethan mourned their breakup and painted crappy paintings to adorn his walls. I watched on in shock and horror as Malia cried and weeped over losing the love of her life.

The grim reaper came. She begged for her life as a ghost, but he swung his scythe.

And, in Ethan's typical fashion, he tried to befriend the grim reaper. They became acquaintances, friends, and then Ethan started to romance Grim. He learned that Grim was evil, had a nice sense of humor, and then... Grim left.

It's time to start a new chapter for Ethan. He needs time to focus on his career. I'm thinking of selling his house. He'll probably get a new house, adopt a kid, and then meet his life goals before he turns into an elder. I'll never let him forget the cruelties that he inflicted on Malia. They were happy together.

But, as a cruel creator, I'll never let myself forget Malia.

I took pictures of the entire process. If anyone wants an imgur album of Malia's happy days to her final demise -- with the added bonus of a loving apple tree -- then I'll be happy to supply it.

The internet had spoken! Malia had to die. You had no choice.

All the same, poor thing xD

I'd like to see those pictures, please.

@Wolfical - Here’s the link! https://imgur.com/a/pNfrHq4

Oh gosh the lights! You meanie xD and Ethan's paintings really do have something to be desired, ahaha.

At least Charlotte's husband died in the great outdoors with the sky as his ceiling. Now I wish I had documented his death.

I checked what Sims screenshots I have taken and oh my, uh... Here's a couple from a particularly entertaining moment:

@Wolfical those are the greatest pictures I've ever seen come out of a video game. The firefighter's face in the second picture is fantastic.

I'll hopefully share a little update on my recent Sims activity soon, but it's definitely not going to stand up to Adri's tale, or those pictures, lel

@Wolfical - I agree with Hattable in the sense that those are fantastic screenshots. How did you even manage to capture those beautifully cinematic moments?

-

Quick update! Ethan adopted a toddler named Lynet. She's a big handful, but I can't wait to see how her story develops.

So my two current Sims are roommates, Karrrrl Hamby and Andre Longo, coming to you live from the following selfie--



And they've had a lot of adventures recently.

To introduce you to each of them, really quickly, Andre is into painting and gardening, and he does a bit of fishing here and there. Otherwise he hangs around at home and complains about bad food (ironic? given that Karrrrl is a foodie, but hey). Oh, Andre also repairs and cleans all the broken appliances and whatnot (which all broke at once yesterday).

Karrrrl is the bread-winner, and is moving up in the tech/business world. His most recent promotion landed him... as an assistant manager, I think? Other than work and watching cooking shows, Karrrrl doesn't really have any hobbies. I tried getting him to cook, but neither of them will do it all of a sudden, for whatever reason. Might be a glitch.

Anyway, neither of them were lovable, apparently. Every time they tried to pursue a love interest, they were turned down, whether because the love interest was Evil and then kicked over their trash can, or because they just didn't love Andre's great afro I guess??? Which is ridiculous.

Andre eventually met a nice lady, who was also a big painter and level 10 in gardening, heck, she's a druid, and they hit it off nicely. Unfortunately, she's an elder. Fortunately, she had 20k in funds stowed away and was very eager to marry Andre. So now it's a house of three. Sort of speeding through this, but there's a lot, and I doubt anyone wants to read a novel's-worth of my sims' escapades.

Karrrl also met an elderly lady who reciprocated his advances (unlike anyone else in town? So they didn't have a lot of choice in the matter). Some other guy was wandering around and kept flirting with Karrrl's romantic interest, though, and she ended up brushing him off. Karrrl then spent several hours just standing in the street and browsing the web on his phone? While Andre and Avery (druid lady) became an official couple.

Fast-forward through some gardening days and not seeing Avery for a while, Andre invites her over and proposes and they get married on the spot. Karrrl got home from work just as the impromptu wedding was starting, and walked in all like "what's going on, fellas...?"

That night, Vivian, the lady Karrrl was talking to, called and asked if she could come hang out, so things seemed to be looking up for Karrrl as well! Vivian came to visit and they hit it off. Now, this is important, uh, I tend to keep my front door locked to anyone but household members, only quickly unlocking it to let welcome visitors in (unwelcome visitors can keep a-knocking). But, so, I always lock it right back up when the visitor is inside. This proved to be a bad move.

Vivian and Karrrl hit it off, like I said, and ended up becoming an official couple (Sims move pretty quickly), and they had fun chatting all night. The following morning, Karrrl got up and went to work, leaving Andre, Avery, and Vivian to hang out at the house. Vivian found no trouble in making herself feel at home, making herself a cup of coffee and treating herself to the shower.
But then, while trying to get Andre to talk to Avery some, I noticed a cup of coffee on the floor. The tag said it was made by Vivian? So I thought she'd gone home and just rudely left a perfectly good cup of joe on the ground. Andre drank it, no problem-- until the problem came to light.
I realized that Vivian was still in the house (hard to miss when my camera panned over to her automatically), and there was a purple aura about her as she waved up to the ceiling. Then she slowly collapsed. I immediately remembered the front door, and thought she must have needed to go home for something, but I'm not realizing that my head has been on the wrong way recently and she had all the resources to stay alive at the Hamby/Longo house, so it was definitely her time.

Vivian died slowly, and Karrrl arrived home from work just in time to find her freshly-dead body on the hallway floor. His cries alerted Andre and Avery, who had been talking in the kitchen (Andre with the abandoned cup of coffee), and they both rushed over. There were tears all around, until Andre paused to hold his nose at the stink coming off Karrrl (give him a break, he had a hard day at work. Andre was stinking as he got married, too, so--)

The three of them mourned Vivian's untimely death ("untimely"-- she was an elder, what did I expect?) and the Grim Reaper showed up. Karrrl begged for Vivian to be spared, but his pleas fell on deaf ears. Her soul was harvested, and Death started flipping through his phone.

Naturally, whenever the reaper shows up, you've gotta try to romance him. Karrrl was freshly single, so I tried with him, but he was too depressed to flirt, and Death turned him down harshly. So, Andre decided to give it a whirl. Right in front of his new wife.
Death liked this and reciprocated. Avery, not so much.

After Death left, Andre and Avery's new marriage was really rocky for a while. She was full of rage (and painted it out to prove it), and he was immensely depressed by this, as well as Vivian's passing (he seemed to take it the hardest, sobbing over her urn in the middle of the night and such, despite not even knowing her that well?)

Andre tried calming Avery down but she wouldn't have it, and even when she was in a good mood, she'd become enraged at the sight of him, so he went out to his garden and painting easel. I believe he legit watered the garden with his tears, or that was another time before Avery was a thing and Karrrl was at work, so he was lonely, lel

But yeah-- Karrrl experienced a long depressive episode and tried to strengthen Vivian's connection to the realm of the living, at her urn. He also left a sugar skull as an offering, which triggered a Day of the Dead celebrator visiting the neighborhood? Karrrl tracked him down-- a young man named Travis Scott-- and received another sugar skull. It was kind of odd, and there were no signs of Vivian, so it seemed rather pointless.

After a few days that Karrrl took out of his vacation days, Andre took him out and they hit the town. Karrrl tried playing the piano at the nightclub, but failed, and they ended up at a bar. Andre was chatting with the bartender and ordered some funky drink. Karrrl got chips and water, like the sad boy he was. A bunch of cool peeps came in and Karrrl seemed ready to distract himself from Vivian's death, but he was starting to stink, and one of the cool dudes pointed it out. (Karrrl actually later fixed this by going upstairs and brushing his teeth, then washing his hands a million times, in the bar's bathroom sink.)
Andre tried defending Karrrl, but ended up disappearing, and Karrrl hung around a while before falling asleep on a bench somewhere.

The next morning, back at home, Karrrl called a girl he met while out the night before, and they hung out a bit, but she had the Evil trait and was furious over something, so Karrrl got angry too and slept on another bench.

(Things may be out of order by now but I think it's relatively accurate)

The next day, Vivian's ghost appeared, haunting the oven. Karrrl arrived home from his bench-napping just in time to hang out with her for a while, and I tried having him propose (yes, to the ghost), but you can't propose to ghosts that aren't a part of your household? So I tried upping the friendship meter enough to ask her to move in, then try proposing, so that they could be together, finally. But that didn't work, and Vivian eventually faded.

Andre asked Karrrl about his relationship status, and Karrrl insists he's still in a relationship. Hopefully this isn't a curse he's stuck with forever. If Vivian's spirit ever shows itself again, I'll try to have him break up with it and see if that does anything.

--

Anyway, super long post. I hope that it wasn't too boring, if anyone made it through, and I hhhope I didn't miss anything. @Evander can probably pick up on anything I missed, as I was updating him in real-time, lel.


(Oh wow I forgot one of the things I was gonna mention, too. The sugar skull guy-- Travis Scott-- he sat down next to Karrrl at the bar a short time before Karrrl left, and it felt like some crazy uhhh secret plot point thing in the arc. I dunno. Words are evading me, lel.)