Delores Cromwell didn’t know what she was getting into. Her first thought when she found out her Aunt Cerise had died and left her a house was, “Cool! I have a HOUSE!” Actually, her first thought was, “Poor Aunt Cerise!” but “Cool! I have a HOUSE!” was the very next thought.
The house was a shabby, old-fashioned shack with peeling wallpaper and grungy tile, but it sat on a nice piece of property in a scenic little town called Northcliff. The only other inhabitants of Northcliff were a group of scientists and their families who were participating in some strange experiment called “The Prosperity Challenge.” They all commuted to Sim City for their jobs, and Delores figured if they could do it, so could she.
The only rub was that she had promised some college acquaintances that she would be roomies with them once they all graduated. But would they want to live in the hinterland of Northcliff? She wasn’t sure, but she approached them with this idea: they could live in Aunt Cerise’s house rent-free if they helped her fix it up.
Since the alternative was to sleep in cardboard boxes in a Sim City alleyway, they accepted Delores’s deal without hesitation. The day after graduation, they moved into Cromwell House.
Here they are on their first day at the new house, chatting excitedly about life after graduation. Their futures hold so much promise! They seem so happy! They have no idea.
In case you’re wondering who’s who, I’ll give you a run-down: in the bandana is Benjamin Labelle (Pleasure) talking to blondie Johnny Garnett (Family). Johnny seems to be fixated on Delores (Knowledge), who is wearing the blue stripes. Delores speaks with perfect indifference to Sheila Ireland (Fortune), the only person on the lot with a Niceness score of less then 5. In the foreground, we have long-haired Steve Charlton (Romance) chatting up Eleanor Dutcher (Popularity), who apparently thinks the best way to win friends and influence people is to wear one’s hair in a side ponytail.
Delores is the first person to enter the house, and as you can see, it’s far from luxurious. Stains cover the wallpaper, the sofa is stinky and threadbare, and there’s barely enough light to read by, even in daytime. Still, Delores is delighted to be finally starting her new life, and in her own house to boot. While she waits for the paperboy to arrive so she can begin the dreaded job hunt, she escapes into a juicy romance novel. Hey, even Knowledge Sims need a guilty pleasure or two.
The paperboy finally arrives! His name is Pegasus Glassman, and he wants to be your friend.
He sets the paper on the ground, waves to all, and takes off down the street to deliver papers to the 5 other houses in Northcliff. The first housemate to grab the paper is Ben Labelle. He moseys on into the house, leaving Johnny behind to gesture unwittingly at Sheila’s…erm…shirt.
Ben scans the “Help Wanted” section of the paper and finds a grand total of three ads — Dishwasher, Golf Caddy, and Emergency Medical Tech. Ben sighs. No Professional Party Guest? That’s his dream! But there doesn’t seem to be much of a demand for those in Sim City, so he has to postpone that dream for the moment. He decides to go for the Golf Caddy job since he could really use the money, and it sounds easy (aside from that whole 4 o’ clock in the morning thing).
While Ben peruses the rest of the paper, Delores scribbles frantically in her journal. She mumbles as she writes about her new housemates: “Eleanor is nice…I hope we’ll be great friends…I like her purple polo shirt…not sure about Ben yet…he’s cute…looks good in jeans…but kind of a slacker…”
“Oops…did I just say that out loud??”
Mortified, she runs off to make some lunch. Ben just laughs, “Slacker? Hah! We’ll see about that!” and pulls some Tolstoy out of the bookcase. He is in the midst of wondering how you say “death by literature” in Russian when Steve wanders in and picks up the paper.
“Any good jobs today?” Steve asks.
“Not really,” says Ben. “I took Golf Caddy.”
Steve ponders. His dream is to be a Hall of Famer. Doesn’t matter what sport, he just wants to have his picture on a wall somewhere with his name engraved on a little gold plaque underneath. Then he’d have the hot babes chasing after him for sure. Hmm. Golf is a sport, he thinks. “I’ll take that one, too. Wait — 4 o’ clock in the morning? Are you SERIOUS? Dude.”
Just then the oven beeps and Steve remembers he has a TV dinner in there. Before Ben can ask, “Do I smell smoke?”, Steve leaps the 20 feet to the kitchen and retrieves his scorched salisbury steak from the oven. Delores is already there, calmly eating a sandwich. Before she has finished chewing her third bite, Steve is already done eating. He stares at her over his still-smoking dinner tray and says, “I’m waiting for it to cool off.”
In her mental journal, Delores crosses out, “Steve is a mystery” and replaces it with, “Steve is WEIRD.” Once the tray has cooled off, Steve disposes of it and proceeds to watch Delores finish eating her food. Johnny wanders in and joins him. They just stand there, watching. Delores wonders if she has something on her face.
Back in the living room, Ben decides to write in HIS journal, then totally freaks out when Eleanor enters the room.
“Oh no! She might see my words!”
He heaves a sigh of relief when Eleanor leaves to greet the welcome wagon. And what a welcome wagon it is! It’s Pablo Roselle and Evan Hahner, two of the scientists involved in the mysterious Prosperity Challenge. Unfortunately Evan brings his new wife Parthenia, and they can’t keep their hands off of each other.
“Darned newlyweds,” mutters the gypsy matchmaker as she polishes her crystal ball for the umpteenth time.
Back in the house, Delores finally nabs the paper and finds the perfect job — Emergency Medical Tech! Her dream of being the Chief of Staff at a major hospital is on its way to becoming a reality. In the same room, Sheila finishes off a TV dinner while Johnny, tired of just watching people eat, wolfs down a bologna sandwich.
(continued on Page 2)
Ooh, you’re doing the prosperity challenge, too? Isn’t it so cool and fun and junk? :D My Sims in it who began as Teens are just hitting Adulthood. Their maturity is hitting me like a ton of bricks.
Anyway… Cool! She has a HOUSE! Hee. I like that line. XD Oh, wait. “They have no idea.” That one wins over having a HOUSE! That one made me all… LAUGHTASTIC!
But… most of your Sims had a Niceness score of 5+?! You… are TEH LUCKS! … my brother’s Maple Story is rubbing off on me. Sorry.
Waitaminutewaitaminutewaitaminute. Side ponytails aren’t beloved by all? Okay. Time to change my look. And the look of all of my beverage glasses. (I thought they looked so good, too.)
Teehee. Oh, those Sim romance novels. Remington is such… a star of them. On the cover. See him, there? Hee. Silly Remington London. All the ladies love him.
That could turn into some kind of rhyme thing. Like with Georgie Porgie.
Oh, man. I just love Pegasus to bits and pieces already! I mean, he wants to be my friend! Waving!
Ben has dreams! It is a revelation. But, hey. If he can party at 4AM, he can carry golf clubs at 4AM, right?
…right?
I mean, it’s like dancing.
The leetle beety golden plaque! It’s not the kind you brush away, you know. *nod* Ladies like the kind that is unbrushable! Steve teaches me things already. IloveyouSteve.
(Wow, his Romance aspiration is really taking effect on me. *does that swooning thing*)
Hmm. That’s really weird! I had a Sim couple who started immediately being all kissing over each other, when I started up the PC, too. They so rarely do that in my game, yet…
That is so coincidental is is nearly frightening.
Like hospitals. Creepy ol’ hospitals! YOU ARE SO CREEPY DELORES! What with your creepy house and creepystinky chair!
Creep. >_>
Ee, little typo on page two (I made the exact same one- thank goodness for backspace): “two many cooks” instead of “too many cooks.” Maybe there are two chefs too many?
Oh, dear. Theraputic cleaning for Delores, ruined! RUINED! Sigh. Man, though. Their shower has no walls. Must have been so used to the big ol’ group showers in college.
Privacy is overrated! They already know this, though. What with the people looking in their bathroom windows. They don’t mind.
Eeep. Everything! So amok! Poor Delores-the-creepy! Her aunt died, she had an accident, and she started a fire.
She probably needs to get some quality sleep. And a shower. Ew.
Steve’s sleeping on the sofa is SPORKING CREEPY. I have hereby dubbed the Cromwell house “Creepyton … house.” Let it be known in the dells!
The DELLS!
Just remember, Stinkygolfcaddyman. It’s like dancing. In the SOULL.
I wonder why Pegasus wasn’t waving back? The monster! He’s changed since the day before, hasn’t he?! Oh, Pegasus! Stay the sameee! I WANT TO BE YOUR FRIEND!
Are the strawberries the berries that are crunchy in question? Because if so, then… they are also creepy. Creepy strawberries.
This house has everything (that is creepy)! :D
Oooh a Jen Challenge! Heh, sounds fun, but hard! All those adults in one house, with 2 beds! How will they survive??
Im looking forward to reading more of this, but I do look forward to more Brayton updates! I love the Braytons :)
kath
(My game messed up – again! So I had to reinstall – again!! So my legacy which I was determined to complete is kinda gone – again! Im really annoyed about it, but I managed to back up my prosperity challenge. I’ve deleted my blog, since Im really not good at keeping it updated and stuff, but I may try again in future. So, since you have the link to my blog on the side of yours, you could delete it since it doesn’t exist anymore…so..thanks for listening to my ramblings :) )
Ooo! That was good!
Very nice, Jen! I don’t know about anyone else, but I am curious to hear the rules of your Jen Challenge. The members of the house are all really interesting. Poor Delores! And Johnny is a cutie. ;)
Ahhhhhh….*sigh of relief for update*. I consistently like your stories Jen. Thanks for updating! :)
This is awesome! :D Please do share what rules you’ve come to so far, Jen ma’am? I see I’m not alone in wanting to play this too.
(*creepy chant* One of us one of us ooga ooga one of us) ;)
*cracks up at Blu* XD
A very interesting twist on autonomous households. I like the bit about the magically migrating back door. ;) I’m glad you are enjoying the mythic name hack. I hope other people do too. I can’t wait to see where this story goes!
Wow, that’s cool, great update, I hope you have fun with your Jen challenge, I love it so far.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT! Another great one, Jen. My blog is on full roll now, I have many updates…just not many readers. : ( but such is the fate of all new blogs so I’m hoping it will pick up. Keep ’em coming.
(P.S. is it getting you out of your slump?)
Thought I’d leave my blog address because I accidentally left it out in the last one. Sorry :)
http://www.simplysims.blogspot.com …..even though its in the thing above this. Sheesh I’m spacey today. Thanks for putting up with me everyone! (Not that you have a choice but….oh geez I’m rambling again.)
I can’t wait to see what happens with this house! :D
Hey guys, thanks for the comments. I wasn’t sure how this would fly, but if you’re enjoying it, I’ll keep posting updates. I’m having fun playing it, and writing about it is a nice break from my other Sims stories. Maybe after a few more updates, I’ll post the rules — I’m still tweaking them as I play. :-)
Blu – Yeah, I’m doing the Prosperity Challenge, too. It’s fun, but unfortunately 90% of the Sims I created for it have low Niceness scores, so I’m not too fond of any of them! There is one Nice family that I adore — a grandpa and his little granddaughter (although she just became a teen so she’s not so little anymore) — I’ll probably keep playing just so I can marry her off to some nice townie boy (none of the meanies deserve her). Elsewhere in the news…Blu? You are too cool for words. TOO COOL.
Kath – I deleted your link as you requested, but I really hope you start up another blog in the future. It was a really cool blog. And I’m sorry to hear about the computer troubles — those always suck. :-(
Katie – Your blog is great so far! Just keep posting, you will soon gain loyal readers. As for my slump, I’m having fun so far, we’ll see how long it lasts! Haha.
Well hey fancy seeing this I love how they are all living in that house and my Gawd are you insane? :lol: This is just too funny.
@__@ I love the picture with the two people sleeping in their food. It was fun.