1.16

His parents were true to their word. Gavin was even forced into doing yard work.  "If you want to eat," his father said, " you will harvest your own food."  Gavin cussed under his breath.  He hated being outside.  It reminded him he was on an island.  Surrounded by water.

The grounding was worse for Graham, and lifted shortly after.  Graham brought home the meat the family ate.  Some days, he would fish from sun up to sun down.  He enjoyed the quietness fishing brought.  He always felt satisfied at the end of the day knowing he brought something to the family. 

The chilly air of fall did nothing to help the pain in Jace's bones.  He knew his birthday was coming soon.  He could feel his body aging.  He couldn't tend his small garden like he used to.  His writing became painful after an hour of writing.  Sometimes, his fingers cracked and popped with the stroke of the keys.

His age caught up with him one night in front to the tube.  It was official, he had to take it easy on himself.

Gavin's birthday came, and he was not the happiest about it.  He began the day calling his mother a llama.

Then he left a soapy surprise for her.

Donated 1,000 simoleons for Undermine Social Bunnies United.  Sounded like a legit charity.  

Days like this Graham avoided his brother.  He was difficult when he wasn't moody.  Graham didn't care if it was raining, he was staying as far away from Gavin as possible.  Of course it wouldn't work.

Maybe it's the weather, Graham thought.  Of course it was raining, but the glow hadn't left yet. And it was almost noon!  Graham couldn't understand how the moon affected his 24 hour sun, but these were questions best left for another day.  Right now he was hungry.

Sun Li pulled her hair out.  What am I going to do with the boy?  These teenage mood swings were killing her.  If only they didn't happen every. other. day.  The boy really needed to get off the island. 

She tracked down Jace at the television watching cooking shows.  " Honey, Gavin's in one of his moods again."  Jace watched the boys search for food and sit at the table.  "It's almost over, babe.  Don't worry," Jace said as a chunk of pumpkin pie flew into Graham's face.

Just when Graham thought he only got the tail end of his brother's mood swings,  Gavin cornered him in the kitchen.  "Don't you dare talk about Snuggles.  Snuggles is the only, I repeat the ONLY reason the ocean stays off the island!!"  Graham rolled his eyes, but before he could sneak away from the crazy, Sun Li plopped a cake down on the table.

"Happy Birthday!" Jace said, spinning his son towards the cake.  "NO! No! you can't make me!"  The family sang happy birthday as Gavin went screaming into adulthood.

"It's almost like he's being born again," Sun Li whispered to Jace with a giggle.  Gavin was definitely a screamer from the day he was born. 

Anthony's Adventures: University Terms 1 and 2.5

So even though it's been awhile, I've still been simming.  I even played some Sims 2 over the holidays.  I love apartments and the whole private school thing.   Sometimes I miss it.  Although, I love my open neighborhood, sims 3 style,  Sims 2 had amazing game play.    For Christmas I got Island Paradise and University and even though I patched all of my mods up prior to installing them, I received warnings and code 12 errors.  Both magically stopped when I pulled out all my mods.  That's a completely different story.

So I've been play testing University with one of my favorite sims.  I don't like to cheat, but I have been known to do some questionable things.   Anthony McNeal comes from one of my Nothing Is Free saves.  He is generation three I believe and lives with his daughter and her three kids. Oh, and he's forever young.  There at least.  I packaged his self up complete with some money seeds and a few lifetime rewards and moved him into the bin.   I wanted to play a bit with supernatural since I really haven't, so I moved him into Moonlight Falls and made him a vampire.  Then I installed University and instead of turning him back, which I should have done, I got excited and sent him straight to university.   These are his adventures.

Of course we had a burglar the first week..

I Love the sissy slaps.  

Anthony lost.  Ego Hit!

Of course we had to play with the death ray ma jigger.

Second Term came around and I moved in with a lovely girl I made my wife.  And after a few "code 16 sorry but you can't save" errors. I lost my first dorm.  I also removed all my mods  :(

 Not one...

But two fires.  The perks to living longer than any of my sims ever have?  You are maxed out in at least 6 skills.  Including MAKING THE STOVE FIRE PROOF... 

Ummm, Ma'am, this isn't what it looks like... Your bottom is on fire...

Dorms also irk my nerves,  can't these people clean ANYTHING up?   No?   And I don't have which ever Nraas mod has the "clean all"  feature.   I pay for a maid, but I also have my own little apartment behind a locked door.

Complete with everything I need in a condensed space! 

I mean, sometimes I clean up downstairs.

Then there's juice pong.  

I wish I had a video of the jig they do when they win.  Worth it.  

And there's dumpster diving... 

Sounds sanitary.

  Zombies congregate outside my dorm.  I watched them change three people in one night.  

Dude, I'm pretty sure a naked zombie running up on you is a bad thing.  

 Again,  RUN!

He was saved by the daylight , but that didn't stop Cletus Herzog from scaring him one last time.  

Remember how I said I WISHED I had changed him back to human before going to university....

 Just when I thought semester two was over. 

But that's a whole post in itself. 

Simming Fails: Ayala

So it's been awhile since I've posted.   I've played a bit here and there but mostly it's been just to play.   I do have bookoos of pictures to add.    I started playing a third nothing is free challenge (No, the first two aren't complete...).  It was the first challenge I failed due to the founder dying before reproducing.. There's  first time for everything!!!

Apparently, I was supposed to put her bottom out in the shower... I figured it out too late....

At least she welcomed death... Not that she had a whole lot to live for... 

Death stayed and chilled for a while. 

After a reboot, she is doing fine, but I can say I'm truly not playing her either.  I'm actually trying to finish my second nothing is free challenge.  I am on Gen 4, and really, it's mostly complete.   

1.15

"Babe," Jace said looking at the house, "What's different?"  Sun Li stopped in her tracks,  "Well, it was your idea to leave them alone." 
Two days?  Really?

"What were you thinking? We had a roof?  Where is the roof?" Jace demanded from his children.  He hardly ever lost his cool, but when you come home to see your house altered, unexpected things happen.

 Graham shivered.  His father was not happy.  Not at all. It was Gavin who answered, as sly as a cat.  "Dad, we knew you wanted to play catch.  As a matter of fact, I think fondly on those times on vacation when we would play catch."  Gavin stopped, letting his words sink in.  Graham calmed down seeing his father calm also.
"We really want to be able to play catch here too dad," Gavin said.  He was smooth.  Real smooth. "So this was our solution."
Jace shrugged.  "This project we could have done together if you wanted it bad enough.  I think this goes without saying, but I don't want any confusion so both of you are grounded 'till kingdom come. Got it?"

Graham let out a little sigh of relief. Gavin's eyes sparkled with excitement. Jace just stared at his sons.  He was sure this was pay back for his teenage years. "EW! GROSS!" Graham yelled out.  It was the first sound he made all night.  Graham pulled his shirt up over his nose.  Gavin darted for the basement stairs.  "DAD!"  Before Jace could respond the smell smacked him in the face.

 Sun Li, who watched Gavin set off the stink bomb, was already in discipline mode.  She grabbed Gavin by the ears.  "You know better!" She said sternly.  "In addition to your forever grounding, you will have double duty chores every day until your birthday. And you will clean THAT up before you march straight to bed."

Jace smiled at his wife.  She was on it.

Gavin begrudgingly cleaned up the flask.  It was excellent.  While it lasted.  The stink bomb was pretty potent.  He smiled.   Grounding for a few days?  Extra chores?   There wasn't much left they could do to him. And he had left one more surprise for his family.

Jace closed up the house ensuring all the doors were locked.  He turned the lights off and checked on the boys.  The house was quiet, and he was ready to sleep in his own bed.  Jace was pretty sure the stink was still on his hands.  One more wash, he thought.  Jace entered the bathroom and received an unneeded shower.

"GAVIN!" He yelled into the silent house.  Down stairs Gavin laughed.  He knew he'd have the last laugh. 
 

1.14

Graham woke up to Gavin shuffling around in his room.  "What are you doing?"
"This thing is dead," Graham said, fishing a small shark out of its bowl.  Yeah I guess it is. Graham thought.  "It's been dead a while." Gavin said.  Yeah, yeah I think it has. 
"It's stinking up MY room," Gavin said, marching upstairs for the toilet.

Graham quickly dressed and followed.  He particularly liked that shark.  It was the first he caught.  He supposed he should have fed it.  A tear crept into his eye as Gavin made up some bogus speech about the fish.

"Now what are we going to do today?" Gavin said, rubbing his hands together.  "I'm going to shower and put on clean clothes.  Why don't you cook us some breakfast?" Graham said, shooing his brother from the bathroom.

Gavin wasn't sure who Graham thought he was.  He wasn't the maid.  Graham could feed himself.  He was the oldest! And he sure as hell wasn't taking orders from his brother.

Graham finished showering and walked into the kitchen making as much noise as possible.  "Did you eat?" he snapped at Gavin.  "Gavin laughed on the inside, "Yes, I finished off the spaghetti."  Graham slammed the dirty dishes around in the sink and started preparing himself breakfast.

"So I was thinking," Gavin said.  He had been toying with the idea for a while, now his parents were gone he could put it in action.

"Great," Graham said, whisking his eggs harder.

"We need some space to play ball.  Dad's always wanting to play catch, but we don't have any space."  Gavin could tell Graham was listening intently.  "Let's use the wood dad's been saving and add a third floor courtyard."

"That's a terrible idea!" Graham protested.  "We don't have any clue what were doing!"
"Well, I'm going to get started, come join me after breakfast if you aren't scared."  Graham said heading upstairs.

After working in the hot sun for hours, the boys finally finished the third floor courtyard.
Graham was pretty sure his dad was going to be pissed, but it would be nice to play catch every now and there.  "Hey Graham, whats that out there?"  Gavin said pointing towards the sun.  Graham looked only to be hit in the back with a water balloon.  Dad's gonna love this, Graham thought as he retaliated.

1.13

"Being a teenager is nice," thought Graham. Since aging up his parent's were easier on him.  His father made him work the garden, since Gavin refused to leave the house, but that was the hardest thing he did.   Graham enjoyed fishing the most.   He was especially happy when he'd come home with a fish and his mom would start prepping it for supper.  There was some sense of belonging that came from being valuable in ones home.    Even Gavin seemed to ease up on him. 

Gavin was, well Gavin.  He hardly came out of his "under ground layer."  He spent most his time concocting things and sometimes shaking the house.  At least now he cleaned up his own messes.   When he wasn't hibernating in his room,  Gavin was leaving little pranks for the family.  Mostly the bathroom.

"GAVIN!" Graham shouted post shower.  He could hear Gavin's snicker echoing through the house,  "You deserved it you damn canary!  It's a shower not a singing booth!" 
"Mom!" Graham whined walking into the living area.  "I'll talk to him," was all Sun Li said, shaking her head.

Every day was similar.   Graham needed to showers to get clean.  It was a large waste of time.

Since Gavin surfaced to eat or drink,  Graham took over most of the chores.   He could leave it for mom, but he didn't want too.   Today's plans was fishing.  All day!  The sky darkened, Graham wondered if the Weather Stone would be tormenting him with weather today.

Sure enough,  after two hours of peaceful fishing, the bottom fell out, and rain fell hard onto the island.  "This is getting old," Graham called to the sky.  When will this curse lift?  Apparently not today

Jace loved the rain. It reminded him of home.  And good times.  Then those good times reminded him of the people he used to know.  He was better off now.  Assholes.

After seeking shelter inside,  Graham pondered things to do.  His father was on the computer writing.  His mother was fixing the dishwasher.  There really wasn't anything on T.V.  Gavin would probably be up to something.

A short search of the house and Graham found Gavin leaving his room.  "Hey bro," he said awfully cheerily.  "I was just looking for you.  Want to play chess?" Graham offered. 

"I have a better idea. Come close," Gavin said, pulling Graham closer to him.  "This potion I made, it will keep you awake for 24 hours!"  Gavin pulled away.  "You could watch the sun not set!" Gavin said all giggly.  "You want to try it."   Graham weighed the consequences.  Gavin was always pulling pranks. But being awake 24 hours? That would be awesome!  "Sure, lets see it."

Graham lifted the concoction to his lips cautiously.  Gavin wasn't smirking or laughing, so it had to be legit.   Graham drank the bitter tasting liquid as quickly as possible.  "That tastes terr-" but before he could finish his sentence, Graham had an overwhelming "I have to pee" sensation.  Graham ran towards the bathroom, making it just in time before bladder failure.  Gavin stood in the hall way and laughed his wicked laugh.  "I will get you back!" Graham  yelled.


"Boy's"  Sun Li yelled down the stairs.  "We need you to come upstairs!"  Graham chased Gavin upstairs, when he caught him, he slammed him in the back of the head hard. "Ow, MOM!" Gavin screamed. "Boys, sit" Jace said commanded.  When Jace spoke- it was the end.  Gavin giggled to his seat.  Graham slid him a dirty look. He'd get him.  He would.

"Your mother and I are going on vacation for a few days.  I expect you two to behave." Graham's gut sunk.  His parents were the only reason Gavin behaved in the first place.  "Your father and I believe you are mature enough for this or we wouldn't be going."  Graham shot a look at Gavin.  He looked as if he was in a candy store.  Oh no.

As his parents walked out the door the last thing their father said was,  "Behave."

1.12 Childhood fears

The family returned home to a strange chill. The trees swayed in the wind. Jace could remember wind.  Barely.

Jace prepped a decent size breakfast with the fruits Sun Li purchased in Al Simhara. The breakfast conversation was  vacation memories.  "On the plane, I spoke with a witch mom!"  Gavin said.
"Mom, are witches real?" Graham said.  "No baby," Sun Li responded.
"Mom, she said that  what we experienced was rain.  It's when wet stuff falls from the sky.  I don't like it. She gave me this book,"  Gavin said sliding the book across the table.  Graham grabbed the book.

"Witches aren't real Gavin!"  Graham said.
"Yes they are!" Gavin responded.
A fit of "unhuh" and "utun" ensued.
"Boys!" Jace said getting up from the table. 

Graham ran outside all this talk about witches and curses was scaring him.  He shivered and pulled his cape tighter.  So far the Weather Stone's predictions had came true. Now there was a witch who knew about rain.  And there was a book that had all the answers.  But Graham wasn't ready to read it.The sun was low in the southern sky, so Graham knew it was time for bed.

But sleep wouldn't come easy for Graham whose  dreams were plagued by rain, talking stones, and curse casting witches.

The television was a great addition for the family.  Sunday mornings were the best time to spend with the family watching T.V. Even if Gavin hated seeing his family in their underwear. "Put on a robe guys!" 

With the boys bigger, Sun Li was able to work on her paintings.  She loved to see them in the halls of the house.

School consumed a lot of the boys' day.  When they weren't in class, Gavin enjoyed observing the evil astronomical happenings.  He was watched documentaries on aliens, and whoever thinks sims are the only beings that exist are wrong. Way wrong.

Graham debated reading the book.  It weighed him day after day.  He was scared of what he may find.  But finally, he sat down to read it.  Once he started reading, he couldn't put the book down.  He read about the phenomenon known as weather.  Weather accompanied something known as seasons.  On paper, it looked unrealistic, but he had experienced rain and wind.  Maybe it was all coincidence.

 After reading the book he was scared again.  There was this thing called hail, and he was pretty sure that mean the sky was falling. He had to get out.  The island was making him crazy. The book was making him crazy.  He was making himself crazy!   He wanted to leave the island.  He would swim.  He would swim all the way back to  Al Simhara.  He would approach the Weather Stone and make him take it all back.  Then he wouldn't be cursed anymore.

He swam until his heart beat in his chest.  It was impossible.  Graham went home and cried. He cried it all away.

 It was hard sometimes on the island to get away from your family.  So Graham retreated to his room where he could be alone.  But it didn't last for long because Gavin sought him out.  "Hey bro, what's wrong?" Gavin said, plopping down on Graham's bed.  Tears welled in Graham's eyes.  And without any more questions, all of Graham's insecurities came out.  When he finished, Gavin laughed softly at his brother's naiveness.  They were a lot a like.  Gavin hated water himself. Graham's irrational fear was the unknown.  "Graham, it's okay to have fears, but don't let it rule your life.  And you aren't cursed silly,"  Gavin said, softly punching his brother's shoulder.  Graham smiled.  "Now come upstairs, mom finished your cake."