I'm so excited about how fast this is going ^^ I'm really looking forward to seeing the next generation take over completely, something that I've never been able to do so far - not in the megahood, but not in any single pre-made maxis hood either. My sims ADHD has always prevented it, I've got the annoying habit of not finishing what I start. So far so good though, and I'm still excited to play, which bodes well :)

Starting out with a 'hood pic of Pleasantview in autumn, which is actually the start of Round 3 (my seasons are set to spring-summer-fall-winter, and my seasons last for one week each, so Round 2 was played out during summer.)




University



Last round, Johnny Smith, Ophelia Nigmos and Tank Grunt were sent off to college. Mama Smith has a hard time letting go of her precious eldest :)



They're all in one dorm together, and surprisingly enough, they get along allright most of the time. Johnny and Tank don't really seek eachother out, and study and watch tv together without problems.

Tank keeps rolling wants about Ophelia though, it's all he seems interested in. So far just to be friends, best friends, play with her, talk with her, etc etc. But I'm keeping a suspicious eye on it.



What's college without some partying? And what's a party without the smustle?



Some of their younger friends were invited for shenanigans as well. I'll be playing university for two terms, so the next batch will be freshmen while Tank, Ophelia and Johnny are juniors. This whole american university system is a bit foreign to me, so I hope I'm getting the terms right.

Notice Buck displaying one of his trademark cheesy grins, by the way. I'm not kidding about those, he does them all the time.



I'm sure you're not supposed to manhandle the flipper.. game... thing like that, Ophelia.



Not all's sunshine and daisies, of course. Tank and Johnny occasionally let off some steam when returning from classes. The cow mascot thinks it's a hoot and happily cheers them on.



And then after a while, you find them like this again. Boys.

Most of the time in college is actually taken up by studying, seeing as my semesters are shorter than the standard EAxis ones. Which doesn't make for hugely interesting pictures, so moving on!


The Pleasants



Okay, I confess. I cheated. I moved out the Pleasants (using the stay things shrub), and then back in, to get Lilith back, because it wasn't looking like she'd be found before she hit her birthday.



I made sure that her relationship with Mary-Sue was in the positive, though she still hates Daniel, and her careful attempts to reconcile with Angela have been thwarted by autonomous slapfests when the twins were invited when I played a different household.



She's found a measure of peace in a new hobby. Turns out her OTH is Arts & Crafts, so she's happiest tucked away in her little attic room with canvas and paint. That way, she doesn't really run into Daniel and Angela all that much anymore, which prevents hours of pointless slapping, shoving, and shouting.



Daniel and Mary-Sue are pretty much at it like rabbits. I was planning on letting them have another kid, to fulfill grandma Coral's LTW of having 3 grandchildren (thank you, saner LTW mod), but I shouldn't have bothered seeing as ACR took care of that for me.

*Chimes*



Daniel and Bella got up to some autonomous romancing while they were visiting another lot I was playing at the time. She came over for some illicit hand-holding, which made me rather nervous, but they seemed to be dodging a pregnant Mary-Sue allright, and anyway, weren't up to much more than some flirting and talking anyway.



Oh Bella. What would Morty say? :(  Damn you EAxis, romance does not equal floozy! Or not necessarily, anyway.



Way classy, cheating on your pregnant wife. Bella seems quite taken aback by Mary-Sue's rage.



Daniel manages to convince her that it was just a stupid mistake, and that he will never, ever do it again. Ever. Promise.



That's not to say he doesn't spend the rest of the round sleeping on the couch though. Normally I'd be tempted to let them break up, move out that cheating scumbag Daniel, etc etc. But I'm not going to. Mary-Sue has a little one on the way, and Daniel's the main provider in this household. We'll settle on trying to patch things up between them.



More relationship agony when Lilith calls over Dirk for a Talk. Her chemistry with Ripp (2 bolts) is way better than hers with Dirk (nada), and I don't think she's the kind of girl that goes behind people's backs for things like this. She'll just tell them right in their face, which is probably what caused all the difficulties between her and her family, who prefer to hush up every difficulty they might encounter.



Lilith's been working on her grades as well, seeing as she does want to get into college. She's got a scholarship for her creativity skill and is looking forward to moving out of the house.



I just realised this is the only pic I have of the Pleasants in which Angela is featured. And she's getting beaten up by Lilith. You'd probably derive from this that I dislike her in favour of Lils, but while I do love a rebel, I've got nothing against Angela. She's just been busy being a dutiful daughter, doing homework, working on her skills and cooking and cleaning. Not exactly rivetting picture material.



Nooboo time! Mary-Sue gives birth to a baby boy, which Daniel insisted they called Jeff, after his dad. He's got Mary-Sue's black hair and brown eyes.



Lilith's all over him. Finally, a family member that doesn't scream at her! Well okay, he does scream at her. But he's a baby. They scream all the time. It's nothing personal.



Daniel tries to get into Mary-Sue's good graces by complimenting her cooking.

Daniel: "Wonderful! Delicious! I haven't enjoyed a meal this much in, well, I don't know when!"
Mary-Sue: "They're just sandwiches, Daniel." *sigh*



The twins leave for university! Lilith must be so pleased. She gets to go together with Ripp, too.

Yup, still no pictures of Angela.



Birthday time for Jeff signals in the end of the round for the Pleasants.



I'd say he mostly looks like his dad. Still, one pretty good-looking kid, I'm not complaining.



Obligatory PT face :)


The Oldies



Coral had gone into platinum over the birth of her grandson, and Herb couldn't be left behind. His aspiration is Romance/Popularity, and I rerolled his LTW and ended up with 10 best friends. This is such an easy LTW to do if you play the entire neighbourhood, as everyone gets to know pretty much everyone else, and after that all you need is a phone and some parties.

Those are Herb's bestest buddies, P.T.#9 and Goopy. I'm not really sure what this says about him.



Coral spends most of her time in her flourishing garden. She's got a gold gardening badge and racks up the simoleons (or is it simoleans? I never know) selling high-quality fruit and veg.



I got Herb into platinum right in time, as he popped his clogs the next day.

Herb: "Don't worry, darling. They've got fruity drinks with umbrellas in them. How bad can it be?"



Herb's death has even taken the joy out of gardening for Coral, though.



So by the end of the week, she rings up her daughter.

Coral: "Mary-Sue, poppet, how are you? Listen, I've got a question for you. What would you think of me coming to live with you? The house is so empty with Herb gone, and I could help out with little Jeff..."

The last one was the deal-breaker really.


The Dreamers



Darren makes a wonderful stepdad. He spends lots of time working on his relationships with Brandi's kids, skilling alongside them, helping them out with homework, and generally being awesome.



Darren: "Night night Billie! Sweet dreams."
Billie: "Ni ni Dada!"



Beau grew up into a teen before I could foist a birthday cake on him. This household is rather busy to play. And I suck at keeping track of birthdays, of course.

I like Beau. He's refined, classy without being snobby, good-natured and has the makings of a great housekeeper. And gayer than a treeful of monkeys on nitrous dioxide. Oh yes.



His little sister's birthday was on the same day, but she was asleep at 18 o'clock, so I could rush her towards the kitchen for a proper birthday party.



I love her :) Especially because she's not a Brandi-clone. She was a super-easy toddler to care for, and she's just as good as a kid.



Both Brandi and Darren rolled wants to get married, and benevolent sim-god I am, I gave in to their wish. Most of the ladies from Chloe's little knitting circle attended.







I'm not sure I approve of her choice of wedding dress, but hey. Whatever makes you happy, kids.



Dustin discovered his love of tinkering, which promoted him to handyman of the house.

Dustin: "When I said I liked working with my hands, this isn't exactly what I had in mind... Eugh."



Beau has brought this kid along from school a few times now, and they're already best friends, bonding over their love of chess.



Beau wouldn't mind being more than friends, but Orlando (I think that's his name? Orlando Centowski or something) seems to be a bit hesitant.



Dustin and Dirk roughousing in the kitchen. Ah, brotherly love.



Brandi is still steadily working her way up in the cuisine track. Here she's borrowing Darren's easel to work on her creativity a bit. All that time cooking and tasting hasn't done her figure any favours, but I kinda like the curvier Brandi. She's a mother of three, cut her some slack.



Billie blowing bubbles. Just cause I like her, really.



Family time...



... and quality time :)



Soon, it's time for Dustin to leave for college. Dirk is a bit younger, and has to wait a few days before joining him.



Beau's careful wooing is finally paying off.



I don't think they're going to end up married or anything. It's just a teen romance. But Beau is a family sim, and rolled the want to go steady, so there you are.



Billie saying goodbye to Dirk, who's off to university now as well.


The Lothario's



When previously playing Pleasantview, I never really knew what to do with Nina. She was a single sim, of my least favourite aspiration no less, and just not any fun to play. She usually ended up dead, or some equivalent of the town bicycle.



Team her up with Don Lothario however, and I can't get enough of her. The cute... it's too much!



Nina's LTW is still to Woohoo 10 different sims, unfortunately. I should've given that one to Don, he'd get it over and done with in 3 days tops. ALL the ladies love him. Seriously.

Nina, on the other hand, is having some trouble. Daniel's trying to mend his marriage, she's probably just barking up the wrong tree here.



She doesn't have any success with ladies, either.

Chloe: "Sorry Nina, I like you and all, but I'm just not interested."
Don (watching from window): *SO DISAPPOINT* D:



I was itching to give the townies all a makeover, so I invited the lot of them to Don and Nina's place for a big makeover party. They all clean up surprisingly well.

From left to right, the ones you can see are: Marylena Hamilton, Jan Tellerman (with her back to the camera, Ivy Copur, Joe Carr (back to the camera), Kennedy Cox, Sandy Bruty and Christy Stratton (back to the camera).



The networking was just the thing Nina needed to expand her playing field. Here she is smooth talking Abihi... Ajbie... Abhij... Abe Cho.



Oh, cheers for the nametag Abe. I'm sure Nina appreciates the reminder as well. It gets hard to keep track sometimes, doesn't it?



With Don and Herb being one and two, that makes Abe three!



Joe Carr's up next. Nina's tapdancing costume amuses me greatly, especially in this context :)



Number four's in the bag!



And Abhij.. Ajhib... Other Abe makes five.



Stunningly, Nina still finds time in between all the romancing for working on her career in the dance track. I don't know where this girl gets the energy from.



Don's not doing too badly being a slacker, either. (I do love the old Maxis sense of humour. That's one of the main reasons I just can't get into TS3: that quirkiness that made the sims for me is totally gone.)



At the end of the day, despite all her conquests (which get kicked out of the door as soon as the woohoo's done) I think Don's still Nina's one and only. Maybe not in the strictest sense of the word, but they're both romance sims. I think they'll make it work. :)

Next up: The Burbs, the Curiouses, and the Goths!