Dienstag, 22. Januar 2013

Artwork and Garden of Shadows January Challenge

Not an actual update regarding my ongoing legacies, but just a little artwork I would like to share. See more of my images here.

I felt my Sims were looking kind of boring, and I downloaded tons of new face makeup, and started fiddling with it in Bodyshop.

The first result was Yair Fallon, a little drug doing punk who moved into an abandoned factory at the outskirts of town.


He lives by scavenging the dumps around town and loves to collect old things.



I admit I find him a tad bit boring, despite his attempts to appear cool in a grungy sort of way. He might wind up as a townie, unless one of my silly Sims falls in love with him :-)

Hair is converted by Trapping, the eyes are from Yuxi, the makeup I got from Lilith/GOS, collar by Aikea.


I used the same Sim to create Nimai Nayar, a very feminine, androgynous luxury lover. He spends most of his time in his spacious bathroom or in the outdoor hottub. He is looking for an elder companion, preferably with money. Someone needs to finance his exquisite taste, n’est-ce pas?




I will enter both pretties in the January Sim Challenge at Garden of Shadows.


Pictures edited in Photoshop, I discovered Lieveheersbeestje´s stunning Old Tone actions on DeviantArt, and totally love them!

Freitag, 11. Januar 2013

Academie L´ Amour Part 3

The introduction of the characters finishes with the new Freshmen. Right now, there are no Juniors on campus.

Academie L´ Amour Part 1    Academie L´ Amour Part 2

The Freshmen


Thor "I can´t stand anybody" Gustavsson  
Mia "Clingy" Powers
Xenos Stardust

Griffin Thompson
Frederick "The Slob" Powers



Thor Gustavsson



Thor is Aeryn´s younger brother and second child to Anders and Basic Gustavsson. Just when they thought they were done with child raising, he popped in. He inherited the typical mixture of Gustavsson traits, neither very outgoing nor nice, but a perfectionist when it comes to cleaning. He longs to meet a brown-haired, illogical vampire. I kind of knew then that life would not be easy for young Thor.

While he usually is very shy and reserved, that can change completely when he enters the dance floor. He even received the Tsang Footwork Award for his outstanding dancing skills.



(Thor turned out to be so completely cute, my heart melted instantly. He looked so ordinary as a child, but when he grew up, the resemblance to my favorite siblings Arkadij and Flynn, his uncles, made him my instant favorite.)

Thor shares a house with 

Mia "Clingy" Powers


Despite her innocent looks, Mia can get very determined when she wants something. She might not always be successful, but this does not stop her from trying. 

(Of course I made the mistake thinking she is a Family Sim, because deep inside she is. But life (aka The Great Big Randomizer) threw a Knowledge aspiration at her.

She is the daughter of Jonah Powers and Mitch Indie, two premade University Sims (who I of course made over).




Xenos Stardust

The third roommate in the house is Xenos Stardust, son of Elaine and Ziggy Stardust.



Elaine and Ziggy met in college, actually the same one Xenos is attending now. Elaine comes from one of the oldest and richest families in town, the Shadowbanes (it is kind of hard to overlook that).

Ziggy simply fell from the sky :-)



Xenos loves cats and fishing. He is used to be surrounded by a ton of relatives, including his immortal great-grandfather Raeburn Shadowbane. He admires strong, independent women like his mother Elaine and grandmother Akira. He is nice, outgoing and playful, an easy buddy overall.


The other house is shared by Griffin Thompson and Frederick Powers.


Griffin Thompson


Griffin grew up in an apartment-sharing community with his parents Maik and Pierce Thompson, Luna Hatter and her lover Amir al-Qadiri as well as the servo Fowler de la Garcia.

Maik is a waiter in a restaurant owned by Raeburn Shadowbane, the "Di Lorenzo", while Pierce is a college professor.



Griffin is the nerdy type in the friends group, serious, neat, had maxed out logic before he even attended college (but only because he had three school-free snow days in a row). He is nearly friends with everybody else thanks to the Gootentaugen Award Luna and Amir brought into the household (it boosts all needs, so he needed much less sleep and could hang on the phone for hours building his relationships.)

Griffin has absolutely no recollection of how he ended up in the Pleasure aspiration. I can´t picture him jumping on the sofa, either, but we will see.

He can´t remember why he wanted to move in with Frederick Powers. Sure, they have been friends forever, but half an hour in the house and Frederick breaks the computer, sets the bathroom under water and makes a general mess of everything. But I am getting ahead of myself :-)

There is something between these two that is not expressed in bolts or chemistry, a strange sort of attraction that I find worth exploring :-)

Anyway, on to our last candidate in the College Camp:

Frederick Powers


Frederick is the twin brother of Mia Powers. He wants to get rich soon, so he doesn´t have to work anymore. He thinks a mop is a German dog breed, and "detergent" a synonym for "deterrent". Frederick is delighted Griffin agreed to move in with him, because he appreciates Griffin´s superior cleaning skills. The first want to call was not his sister or parents, but the servo Nautilus. Guess why? :-)

Some kids just steal my heart, and he is one of them. He is such a personality.

So, this introduction is kind of long-winded, but it makes watching the interaction between the characters so much more fun if you know more about their backgrounds. I played two rotations/days of the four households and will share these soon.

Continue reading:  Academie L´ Amour Part 4

Jonah Powers VI

While I was working on the "Academie l´amour" update, I realized I never uploaded a follow-up on the Powers family. I will make up for this instantly!

See the story so far here:

Jonah Powers I   Jonah Powers II   Jonah Powers III  Jonah Powers IV  Aeon Adams   Jonah Powers V

To sum it up, despite not being fully convinced he really wanted to be in a committed relationship, Jonah proposed to Mitch, who was pregnant with his twins.

Well, sometimes you just have to jump without knowing where you will end up! Mitch was happy he was able to provide a safe and stable environment for the babies to grow up in, and he kind of resigned into being in a relationship where most of Jonah´s attention was directed towards learning.

They married:



"Where are the Nobooos?"


Incoming .... First Mia was born:


Then Frederick arrived.




Raising twins is a difficult task (ask Eldred and Aeon Adams about it, and yours truly with real life twins). After having just played the Adams Household extensively, I felt Jonah and Mitch needed some support. Nautilus Shadowbane, faithful servo of the Shadowbane household, was kindly asked if he would like to act as a nanny for the new twins, and he agreed, since he didn´t have anything else to do.




He was happy he found someone new to give his lectures about breaking the household items. I love how his gesture is reflected in the mirror.


A rare occassion where I forced Mia to at least try to play with a toy other than the dollhouse.
She is the stereotype of a female family sim, the dollhouse was the single most important thing for her. Apart from "asking for attention" constantly.








In fact, everybody loved the dollhouse:





I am glad at least Frederick wasn´t so clingy.




I really like how the twins turned out once they became kids. Quite unique.



Faust Stockhausen became friends with Jonah.


I was wondering why in the world Jonah is the Sim with nine (!) three-bolt relationships in his friends panel. I checked out his turn-ons and laughed out loud:





Having "Make-up" and "Well hung" as his turn-ons is obviously very beneficial if you want to make lots of friends in a gay neighborhood. (It is a hack from an adult site found here).

Another hack I have recently installed also caused some amusement: When Faust was tired, he did not get home, but silently walked into the sleeping room and put himself to bed.

It is the Sleep on community lots hack by Numenor.


Jin Ikx, a new addition to the neighborhood, also used the opportunity for a nap:


Besides that, the kids grew up well.




They made friends with the kids from Elaine and Ziggy Stardust, Xenos and Sharona. I haven´t written much about Elaine and Ziggy, and probably never will, but they are doing fine! :-)







Xenos was the lucky one receiving another lecture by Nautilus:


He turned out to be a real brat, shocking everybody by rubbing his feet on the carpet:







It seems to be contagious, because the next thing Mia did was run over to her brother and give him a shock, too, but he thought it was hilarious.




Then it was time to say goodbye to dear Nautilus, who did a great job as a nanny. The next family is already waiting for him.


A very pregnant Arkadij Leclerc, formerly known as Arkadij Gustavsson, dropped by to pick Nautilus up. The sweetheart finally, finally found someone to really fall in love with and became pregnant promptly. There were some more surprises in store, but you will have to wait until I eventually write all that down.


Ah, and then finally it was time for the twins to grow up. I did not bother with a huge birthday party, I was just happy they were ready for leaving at last. They just brought another friend home from school, Griffin Thompson.


Ha, no way, Mitch, no more babies for you! Don´t even try to give me that puppy-eyed, pretty please look. The next baby you will hold will be your grandkid!




Then I rolled the randomizer for the aspirations. Poor Mia, I know all you want in life is to have tons of kids, you were just meant to be a family Sim, but fate had different things in store for you.

Who would have guessed it, Mia became a Knowledge Sim. Really, poor Mia. She gained about four skill points growing up. College will probably not be easy for her! Unless she plans on getting pregnant right away.

And I laughed when I saw her turn-ons and -offs:


The infamous "well hung"-trait shows up again, but as a turn-off! Oh Mia, life surely has some lessons in store for you.

Frederick became a Fortune Sim. I had to reroll the first turn-on, because I think it is silly to have clothing as a turn-on or -off (at least in the game).


Make-up  as a turn-off is not the easiest task, either, because all my Sims wear some kind of nose-masks etc.

The shape of things to come:


I did not pay much attention to the traits while the twins grew up, but as soon as they arrived in college, I remembered why I changed Mitch´s personality :-)

Have fun with the Powers twins and their friends in college!

Academie L´ Amour Part 1

To round things up, Jonah and Mitch were glad they stayed together. Once Jonah had reached his Lifetime Want of maxing all seven skills, he felt he could relax and spend more time with the kids and his husband. Having the servo Nautilus around was a real relief (apart from the frequent lecturing). Mitch was happy his husband finally became more approachable, and also reached the top of the career (another Captain Hero).

This is it!