The Sims 2 Presents: Foster's Valley!

[Cassini90125]

Originally Posted by jekylljuice

That's awesome. Though presently I'm racking my brains to work out what could possibly be the highest level of a Slacker career track...

Level 1: Golf Caddy
Level 2: Gas Station Attendant
Level 3: Convenience Store Clerk
Level 4: Record Store Clerk
Level 5: Party DJ
Level 6: Projectionist
Level 7: Home Video Editor
Level 8: Freelance Photographer
Level 9: Freelance Web Designer
Level 10: Professional Party Guest

For the record, teens can only advance as far as Level 3 in any career.

Originally Posted by Lynnie

Oooh, a four day weekend, every week! Man, I wish I lived in Sim Land, lol.

So do I, albeit for different reasons.

Originally Posted by Fomalhaut

Can't wait for more. Weird, in my Fantasy Fields Wilt is rarely seen on Community Lots; the most frequent out is actually Madame Foster.

I haven't seen Madame Foster or Eduardo outside of the house yet, although I've spotted everyone else wandering around town.

Day One at the Never Forgotten house continued with the arrival of the Welcome Wagon. No one from Foster's or any other family from the show was present, but it did include this lady:



Some of you may remember Amanda Blue from much earlier in the saga, before the SecuROM disaster. Still wants to be a cop, still very a friendly but no-nonsense sort of woman, and still a tremendous distraction for me on every lot that she visits. You don't want to know how many pictures I've taken of her. Also present was a couple originally from the old part of the Valley, Bjorn and Ingrid Gustafsen:



Bjorn aspires to be Mayor of the Valley someday; Jekylljuice is chiding him for his position on one of the issues. Dunno which one but there was a picture of a rat in her speech balloon so it might've been an opinion on politics in general. In the background Linestra is getting lunch on the table, and shortly thereafter the meal began:



Bjorn and Amanda, along with some of the house residents, were outside playing on the swings; none of them seemed to care about the fact that it was raining at the time. Talk at the table centered largely on the local school system; Bjorn and Ingrid have two teenage daughters of their own, one of whom is pictured earlier in the thread, and naturally Ingrid wants to know if the schools in this part of the Valley are any good. Trust me, Ingrid, they're fine. Lunch ran rather late from all the talking despite it's early start and after it was done Lynnie cleaned up and began preparing dinner:



Spaghetti is on the menu tonight. At this point Lynnie is only a little behind Frankie in Cooking ability, so the house will no doubt be well fed... and will no doubt need a treadmill before long. While Lynnie cooked, Sparky headed to the office to check on the Forum but never got there; Xdx intercepted her with a pillow:



And got off one seriously good hit:



Sparky retaliated:



And they went back and forth for the next hour. Sims love a good pillow fight; you should see Wilt and Eduardo go at it. All of them do it, usually without any prompting from me, and I've rarely seen anyone say that they're not in the mood. Dinner, like lunch, was a haphazard affair; people showed up and ate at random. Bjorn hadn't eaten all day (he spent most of it on the swings) so Lynnie went out to get him:



I think there was a comment or two about slaving over a hot stove but she was very polite about it. I don't think these two are too fond of each other but they'll get over it. Sparky wasn't hungry at the time so she headed upstairs to the easel and began to paint:



It won't be high art but it's good practice, and it builds Creativity skill, which she'll need to get ahead in her job; earlier she went online and found a position as a dishwasher, which is the first step along the Culinary career track. In the meantime Lynnie studied, Jekylljuice and Imaginary Light watched TV with (through) Ingrid, Linestra and Xdx finally got around to having dinner, and the day began to wind down. Oh, and I got another picture of Amanda:



What can I say? I like blue hair.

More on the way. (Insert Red smilie here)

[Fomalhaut]

Can't wait for more! And yeah, pillow fights... I still recall the first day at the Millennium home, when Major and Rip started one in the middle of the street and no one thought that was a little weird.

[Lynnie]

So, people just suddenly have pillows in their hands, randomly, and start beating eachother? I find that highly amusing. Especially when trying to picture it in real life.

Oh good, I'm glad no one will go hungry in the NF house. Or the rest of the valley if I'm going to insist people eat. After all, I slaved away at a hot stove all day, so you MUST eat. Heh, that sounds like me, lol.

The shot of Sparky getting smacked by the pillow is priceless.

[antgirl1]

Oh yeah. NEVER mess with Sparky in a pillow fight. =P

Can't wait until my housemates and I show up.

[jekylljuice]

Whoa, I'm already getting on the wrong side of the man who could rise up to be Mayor of the Valley some day? That probably doesn't hold well for the future, lol.

Well, I do love rats (and Ratatouille), so it's perfectly possible that I was just singing their praises to the good visitor...are rats symbolic for politicians in the Sim world, then? Ouch, that's rather unfortunate. For the rats, I mean.

[Sparky]

So did my Sim lose all her skill points in the transfer to your computer or did you strip them down Cass? She was already at the highest levels of Creativity and Cooking when I gave her to you.

[Cassini90125]

Originally Posted by Fomalhaut

Can't wait for more! And yeah, pillow fights... I still recall the first day at the Millennium home, when Major and Rip started one in the middle of the street and no one thought that was a little weird.

Originally Posted by Lynnie

So, people just suddenly have pillows in their hands, randomly, and start beating eachother? I find that highly amusing. Especially when trying to picture it in real life.

The first time I saw a pillow fight was on a lot in another neighborhood way back when I first started playing. Out of the blue the guy who lived there whacked the lady visiting him upside the head. At the time I didn't know they could have pillow fights, however, and I thought for a moment that I was witnessing some sort of domestic violence. It didn't take more than a moment to figure out the true situation but nonetheless it left me a little rattled. I went out and tracked down the Nightlife guidebook the next day.

Originally Posted by Sparky

So did my Sim lose all her skill points in the transfer to your computer or did you strip them down Cass? She was already at the highest levels of Creativity and Cooking when I gave her to you.

A package file contains only a Sim's physical form, clothing, and make-up, nothing else; no skills, no personality, nothing. All of that can be retained only by packaging the entire lot, which in your case would have included sending along Government Man and, unfortunately, a large number of unlinked memories.

Concluding Day One at the Never Forgotten house:



Ignoring the TV, enjoying the TV, annoyed with the TV. Lynnie, ever industrious, reads up on the finer points of working with greasecutters and other cleaning solutions, while Jekylljuice enjoys a Montero Bay video on Simstation Dance. Imaginary Light is not a Montero Bay fan, and thinks the lead singer, Jimmy Montero, is brain-dead. She may have a point. Jimmy is one of my creations; left to his own devices, he will spend all his time playing videogames and bouncing on the furniture. Not a bad choice, actually. Imaginary Light eventually tired of Jimmy's antics and opted to crash on the couch for an hour:



Again, not a bad choice. But that reminded me of a pending issue that I hadn't solved yet, that being bed assignments. There are seven bedrooms in the house, six upstairs and one downstairs. Who gets which one? Not having any reason to put anyone in any particular room, I admit I was stumped, but then it hit me; I'll let them figure it out. When tired enough, Sims will go to bed on their own or yell at me to click on a bed and send them there. If I don't respond, some wil still go to bed without any input from me; others will head for the swings or the bubble blower if one's available. As it turned out, xxxClaire was the first to head for bed:



Much to my surprise, she didn't grab the downstairs bedroom; she headed for the one furthest back on the upstairs floor. Beats me why. In the meatime, Sparky finished her painting and celebrated by contemplating the mysteries of the newspaper's crossword puzzle:



Doing the crosswords helps build Logic skill, which is needed for advancing in the Culinary career. I'm not sure why; probably for converting between English and metric measurements. Meanwhile, Lynnie cleared the dinner table:



And cleaned the bathtub:



Since Lynnie has more points in Neat than anyone else in the house, it seems she's going to be the one who learns the Cleaning skill and do the bulk of the cleaning. Welcome to Frankie's world.

By that time it was after midnight, and most everyone was starting to drift off to bed. Time to send the Welcome Wagon packing:



Amanda was the only one left at that point, Bjorn and Ingrid having left on their own a little earlier. With the three of them out of the way, the swingset was free, and Xdx and Jekylljuice wasted no time in commandeering them:



Neither one of them seems to care that it's raining; the swings are available, and by golly they're going to use them no matter what the weather is. I have yet to see anyone use them during a blizzard but I have no doubt that eventually someone will. Probably Jimmy Montero. It was nearly 2:00 am when Xdx decided to turn in; Jekylljuice followed soon thereafter, but not before a brief encounter with in a puddle:



Sims are so weird. Finally she, too, ran out of steam and went to bed, and a peaceful silence fell over the Never Forgotten house:



And so ended Day One. What future days hold for the residents of Foster's Valley remains unknown for now. There will certainly be new friendships and new rivalries born as the newcomers and the natives get to know each other. There is history here, stories to be told, stories yet to be written, choices to be made for better or worse. There's stll the unsolved mystery of the Piano, of course, and there's an adoption in the works. Bet that got your attention.

Up next: a few pics from some other families you may remember. And a video. Stay tuned.

(Mac smilie goes here)

[antgirl1]

Gosh darn it, the Piano is a mystery.

[xxxClaire]

I went to bed first? That's so unlike me...

[Lynnie]

Sleep well NF House. There's more fun to come tomorrow.

Ah yes, cleaning. That's totally me, lol! I actually enjoy cleaning, and the look (and smell) of everything when I'm done. Hopefully no one in the house will come down with a nasty bug. I'm sure Lynnie Sim will do all she can to prevent that.