Mittwoch, 19. Juni 2013

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I have a Tumblr/Simblr now, where I post shots from my Sims game:


I also updated this blog with a few uploads, check out the newly made DOWNLOAD page!


I hope you enjoy your summer!

Dienstag, 4. Juni 2013

The Gaitanos: Life in a Puddle - An ISBI-Challenge in Strangetown PART 4

PART 1   PART 2   PART 3

The next day, we were invited to a birthday party at the Grunt house, Buck was celebrating. Tank brought a friend from college, his new "housemate", but if you ask me, there was more to it than just friendship.




His "friend" Frances seems interested in not only Tank, but also Tank´s brother Buck. I am not sure what to think of it, but well, it is none of my business, anyway.


It was a nice break of routine. "The General", as he likes to call himself, was in good spirits, and I am glad to see he is slowly recovering from his mental breakdown.

There was a minor incident though as the party progressed. I was just admiring the moon when Buzz suddenly approached me rather flirtatiously.

 


I was quite upset and told him in no uncertain terms that I am a married man and not up to any kind of romantic interaction with anybody else than Gabriel, who sadly could not make it to the party.


He wandered off. Later, I found him chatting with this Frances guy. If you ask me, "the General" seems really desperate to find somebody, but I am not sure if he is aware Frances is interested in his sons, too.


                                                                                ***

Speaking of Gabriel, we are still getting along well.




As do the kids.


And then my special day came. The syndicate had sent me this "costume". Don´t even ask. They demanded that I should put it on and meet them at the headquarter. Really, I am getting too old for this kind of sillyness, but what could I do?


Finally, finally I received the promotion to become head of Strangetown´s notorious underworld. Now I am the villain of villains, the trickster of tricksters, the ... ah, I am too old for that, too. I guess I will just retire soon.

                                                                          ***

I was pleasantly surprised to see that Deirdre seems to get along well with Vidcund.


They share a love for chess.





"Gabriel, is there anything in particular you want?"
 "No, I just love to stand here for hours and look at you." He is just so sweet.
  When I got up the next morning, Vidcund and Deirdre were still deeply involved in their game.


Amadeo is more of a playful guy.



***

Author´s notes

Again, things were running smoothly, maybe except poor Buzz Grunt hitting on Tadzio. I was curious how Tadzio as a Romance sim would react, and was proud to see he refused the approach (glad I finally fiddled enough with ACR´s settings to make it work, although some Sims just fight it with tooth and nail. I was happy Tadzio was not among them.)

Frances is giving me a headache with his affection for the whole Grunt family. Tank moved in with him and developed an instant crush, but so far nothing has happened besides a first kiss and flirting when they are somewhere else. 

The Gaitanos: Life in a Puddle - An ISBI-Challenge in Strangetown PART 3

PART 1   PART 2


The years just flew by. I continued to climb the ladder in the syndicate, and my spare time I spent with friends and family.


Vidcund was around often, and we had lots of fun together. Well, most of the time.


Deirdre grew up into a beautiful young woman. If I may say so, she is a spitting image of myself.


Everything went rather smoothly, apart from the occasional kitchen fires. I don´t know what it is with Strangetown and stoves, but the disproportionate amount of burnt omelettes and pancakes was a bit worrying.


I noticed something else that was weird. While we continued to live our lives, everyone else around us seemed to age much more slowly. When it was time to celebrate my 60th birthday, it became really obvious. All my friends didn´t look any different compared to the day I first met them.

When I mentioned it to Vidcund, he mumbled something about his aliens again. Sheesh.

I had invited all my friends, the Curious brothers, Loki Beaker, the Grunts and of course my family. I wasn´t aware that there were some long-standing disputes between the families, so before the party had even started, Loki attacked Vidcund out of the blue.


I did not want to get involved in this quarrel, and had to say goodby to Loki. It is unfortunate that he doesn´t get along well with others, but I still consider him as a friend, even if he is a little rough around the edges sometimes.


Yeah, and then the dreaded moment came. Take one last look at my stunning appearance.


An invisble force came and whirled me around, and all of a sudden, I was old!


We had a great party, though, and I consider myself fortunate to have these friends around me.


It was a rough start here in Strangetown at first, but now I can really say I have settled down. I am blessed with a wonderful husband and two lovely children. What more could a heart desire?

  


 
***
Author´s notes

Not much to say here. This ISBI challenge is going surprisingly well. No aspiration failures, no piles of ashes - it was a rather calm and fun time.
 

Strangetown Randomness

While playing the The Gaitano ISBI challenge, I of course came in contact with the other citizens of Strangetown. Vidcund was part of the welcome wagon, Pascal waddled around on the community lots, so I finally went to the households, to give the poor Simmies there a makeover. After a while, I thought Pascal should at least have his baby.

The first household were the Curiouses, since they had developed some friendships with the Gaitanos.

Vidcund and Pascal Curious

Pascal Curious and Baby Phobos

Vidcund Curious


Lazlo Curious

The only one who stayed in his profession was Vidcund. Pascal wants to be a celebrity chef, but could not find a job for ages, so he is still working as a scientist. Lazlo became an adventurer.

I eventually became more interested in this family and the others; some very entertaining developments ensued, which I will hopefully put up in the future.

Next were the Grunts, I had already shipped Tank and Ripp off to college months ago.

I was touched by General Buzz Grunt´s wish to find a friend when I started the household.


I went for a rather bold makeover:


General Buzz had a nervous breakdown (probably a delayed reaction from Lyla leaving/learning of her death, probably burn-out or mid-life crisis, or all of the above), had to be hospitalized for several months, received intense medical and psychotherapeutic care and is slowly recovering. He realized he has been in the closet his whole life, and is slowly coming out of it.

He is working hard on establishing a good relationship with Buck, but progress is only made very very slowly.

Attempts to speak with Ripp on the phone are a complete failure. They just don´t seem to find any kind of topic they could speak about.

When I sent Buzz out for the first time to make new friends, this Sim came along. I thought: What the heck??, then realized it was Ripp. I had deleted some custom content, and this was the hilarious result.



Of course, his father was upset.

Buzz: "Ripp??"

Ripp: "Oh, hi Dad."

Buzz: "Ripp?? What the hell ..."


Ripp: "..."

Buzz: "I can´t believe you are running around in public, looking like this!"

Ripp: "You are the right person to tell me this, yes?"

Buzz: "How dare you ... !"

Ripp: "Just leave me alone." (Walks away.)


The Unsavory Charlatan aka The Great Zampano made a cameo appearance, too. He is Tadzio Gaitano´s secret admirer.



 Poor Buzz. Seeing Ripp like this nearly caused a relapse.



Buzz on one of his better days:



Both are trying very hard to make the relationship work, but the house and the whole atmosphere is very depressing. Before his breakdown, Buzz devoted more and more time to secure the house and turn it into some kind of bunker, most likely out of fear of an alien invasion.

 

At least Buzz can tolerate now that Buck wants to grow his hair.

The Bunker - Dining

The Bunker - Living

During the renovation, I ran out of money, which probably is a good thing, because the place is really depressing.