"I don't know, Aunt Marisa. The place just feels so crowded. I mean, I love Justin and everybody, but I know Jane and Georgia want another baby, and, it's just. I don't know. Is there enough room?"
Heart to heart
Marisa is actually Joan's sister's wife's mother, but "Aunt" is a common Neighborhood One term for any complicated female relative. And technically speaking there is enough room, since there are only six Danverses on the lot; but I don't think I'm up to running a lot with seven or eight Sims in it.
"I want to have fun! Do teen things! Play video games!"
This younger generation
Everything just has to be electronic.
"I mean, yeah, Dad and I have been getting along great lately. I know he really likes having me around."
John and Joan reading
Joan's working on her Hygienics Scholarship. John's just chilling.
"But what do I want?"
Joan thinks.
Still sleeping in her childhood bed, but not a child anymore.
What does Joan want? (And if she wants to move out, will Maxis let her?) Stay tuned for Part II.
"Yeah, I saw the ad in the paper? Rooms to Let? I wonder, do you have like an age limit?"
First make arrangements, then ask permission.
It turns out, of course, that teens in TS2 don't have a "Find Own Place" action on the newspaper. But my RL daughter and I came up with a way to get Joan moved out with help from her Mom.
"Well, okay honey, you've convinced me. As long as I like the look of the place, we'll give it a try. But your Dad's not going to take it well."
Girl talk.
John's rather clueless. That's Eleanor Raptor he's on the phone with. Despite all the trouble he got into over her last time, he keeps spinning up these Eleanor wants, and I grant him the safe ones like "talk". It keeps him distracted from what his family's planning behind his back. He's in for a shock when he finally gets off the phone, though.
"Oh, my baby, my baby!"
"C'mon, Dad, I'll be right across town. You can visit any time."
Poor fellow.
I was surprised to see John crying. I haven't checked to see if he has a bad memory of the event; I imagine it was more the "wife moving out" thing that upset him, since the game doesn't know that she's coming right back. Still it'd be in character for him to be upset about his teenage daughter leaving. It's a big moment for a Family Sim.
"Okay, let's go!"
"You have money for the fare, right Mom?"
Will Jean approve of Rooms To Let? Will this trick actually work? Will John mope around miserably until Jean returns? Some of these questions may be answered in the next exciting episode!
Meanwhile, at the bus stop on the outskirts of Neighborhood One, Brandi LeTourneau was waiting. Her being there deserves its own story (don't we all), but basically she had finally gotten tired of the Love Nest, called up some former minions from her world domination days (back before she got into medicine), and arranged to get an old industial warehouse on the edge of town transferred into her name and fixed up. The last steps had involved a quick trip out of town, but now she was back and ready to take ownership.
Even ex-Criminal Masterminds like their MP3 players.
Turned out Brandi's Lifetime Want was to be Chief of Staff, so she's working her way up. Although you can't really tell in this shot, Brandi's wearing the Better Living Through Chocolate Crop Top from The Pearl.
Right on time, the college kid that'd answered her ad (Taylor something) showed up (fresh from his graduation party (which also deserves a story of its own; he's passed the house along to Candice Ng)), followed shortly by the teenager and her Mom.
Joan and Brandi size each other up; Taylor's a little shy.
The Bus Stop is a tiny lot with just a lamp post and a phone that I use for family merging, and for characters that really ought to be in the Sim Bin while waiting for houses to be built and stuff, except that in the Sim Bin there's no phone.
They got in a taxi, and after a brief drive they arrived at Rooms to Let. Brandi and Joan headed inside immediately, but Jean stopped Taylor for a moment.
"You be a gentleman with my daughter, you understand?"
"Okay, ma'am, fine! It's not like I can violate the laws of physics anyway."
Jean, satisfied with the people and the place, headed back home, where John was happy to see her.
A warm welcome.
So we moved Joan out by having Jean move out and take Joan with her, then combined families to get Brandi and Taylor in, moved all four into the new Rooms to Let lot, and then Jane called Jean and invited her over, John asked her to move in, she naturally accepted, and on the "who should move in with her?" dialogue I didn't choose anyone. Result: Joan happily installed at Rooms to Let, and all other Danverses as before.
Back at the edge of town, the three new roommates get their first look at the place.
Not bad. Love that new-carpet smell.
I'd meant to get rid of all the beds and stoves and toilets and things before they moved in, so that they could get some cheap aspiration points by spinning up wants for those things and I could then buy them again, but I forgot. These three are pretty well off aspiration-wise anyway.
And that's it for this story. Will the roomies get along? Will Taylor eventually bring Candice to live with him? Will they find a lodger for the fourth bedroom? Will Brandi be our second PermaPlatinum Sim? These questions will probably be answered in some other thread, if at all...
(Running a big well-endowed lot with two unrelated adults and one unrelated teen, none of them in any complicated romantic tangles, is really fun!)
Whole lotta skillin' goin' on.
As I was playing just now I thought to myself "whoa, these three sure want to spend alot of time building skills", and then I realized that they're all Knowledge Sims! D'uh.
When Joan was out at school and Brandi was out Specializing, Taylor invited Candice over. Then Joan got home, and well...
"Hey Taylor and whoever you are, I got an A+!!!"
I thought kids only did this with parents. Guess not! Taylor annoyedly shoo'ed her away and went back to sleep, which I thought was unusually sensible; although he did get a "Cheer" in his queue. I cancelled it.
Taylor got up soon after, did more skilling, and went back to bed; Candice woke up and came out to eat.
"I think you might have been asleep when I mentioned this A+ I got?"
So despite her strong opinions about fashion and her thirst for independence, Joan is somewhat the nerdy bookish type that I originally imagined after all. Never can tell!
(Okay, now I have to go put computers back together and go to the grocery and stuff. Cheers!)