Britt - Another Fresh Start

The last time we visited the Britt family Damien Britt had just moved his family to Twinbrook away from the family home in Sunset Valley. Adrianna worked at climbing the thief ranks in the Criminal career and took daily mud baths to hold off the Grim Reaper so she'd have enough time to get to the top. Eugenia gained a little brother when Damien decided he wanted another child and adopted Edvin. We also dealt with various small glitches that seemed to indicate the game file was less than healthy. After a bit of deliberation I decided to be proactive about it, copied them to the library, and moved them into a fresh version of Twinbrook. They've lost all of their previous relationships, including the family ties they still had before to the Medinas, but hopefully this will fix the issues I was having with them last time. For story purposes they still have their family in Sunset Valley, they just never see or talk to them anymore.

The only changes of note that I made to their house was that I got them the gardening station that came with the Stones Throw Greenhouse so they could care for their small garden easier, and I went ahead and built a small building out back for the sauna. Moving to a new file reset them to Sunday of course, so none of them had to work or go to school. They spent the day doing whatever they wished - I had Adrianna working in the garden, and later on set Damien to writing, but I let the kids do whatever they wanted for the most part. Edvin wanted to learn fishing and take a class in it, so I sent him down to the grocery store to do that. In checking ages, I realized it was Eugenia's birthday, so early in the evening I got her a cake and she aged up to Young Adult. She got the Eccentric trait.

After her makeover she got on the computer and arranged to join the Criminal career to start working toward her LTW. By then it was getting rather late, so the whole family headed for bed. Eugenia had her first day of work the next day and due to an opportunity to stay late that boosted her performance she got a promotion as well. Hopefully her whole career will go this easily.

It was also Edvin's birthday that day. He went over to a friend's house after school for a little bit, but then came home in time for the family to have a small party for him. Adrianna had to leave for work, but Eugenia and Damien were there to cheer for him. He aged up to Teen and gained the Photographer's Eye trait.

Eugenia kept up her streak and got another promotion the following day. Too bad Adrianna can't advance like that. I'm sure it won't last for Eugenia either. I sent her to take a Charisma class after work, which was one of her wishes, and then to the gym to work out. Meanwhile, Edvin had his first day of High School, came home and did his homework right away, but then hit the juice bar. Might have to worry about him when Late Night comes in...

The next day Edvin got an opportunity at school that asked him to get a part time job after school. I hadn't really planned for him to do that, but since he seems to be at loose ends then I sent him to the grocery store to get a part time job there. It'll keep him occupied at least.

Friday night Adrianna and Eugenia both earned promotions at work. Adrianna was now up to level 8 and Eugenia was at level 4. Saturday passed fairly uneventfully with Eugenia trying to meet a guy she was supposed to befriend for work. She missed him that day, but managed to find him at home the following day. She talked with him until they'd become friends and got the dirt on him that her boss wanted. It gave her enough of a boost that she got another promotion that night.

Adrianna did well that night as well. As she got to know the people she was working with, they trusted her more, and her perfomance started to go up faster. An opportunity to stay late and prove herself gave her the added push she needed to get the promotion to level 9. Only one more promotion left until she's reached the top and will be ready to face the Grim Reaper when he comes.

I had Edvin spend the night skilling, mostly to keep him away from the juice bar and the stereo. His Party Animal trait gets very annoying sometimes. While I had him doing that, he spun up the wish to become an International Super Spy (Level 10 Law Enforcement, Special Agent branch) as his LTW. I locked it in since it's one that hasn't been done/taken yet. I'm amused at the irony of a kid whose mother and older sister are both criminals wanting to be top in the Law Enforcement career.

The next few days passed fairly uneventfully. Eugenia got another promotion on Wednesday morning which put her at level 6 already. I also discovered a whole bunch of money tree seeds in Damien's inventory and had him plant them. They're already well off, but they'll certainly never have to worry about money now, at least as long as they stay on this lot.

On Wednesday afternoon I finally let Damien call to retire from his job. He's been at the top of his career for awhile now and if I hadn't had to switch them out into a new file I likely would have let him retire sooner. As it is though, I had him keep working for awhile mainly so he could make some friends easily by meeting and befriending his co-workers. Now that he's done that, it was time to let him enjoy his remaining days.

Again, not much happened for the next few days.  Adrianna was off on Wednesday and Thursday nights so I was largely just keeping her busy. On Friday I had her Work Hard in hopes that she'd be able to max out, but she ended up getting arrested and pulled out of work early, so it didn't happen. She gets arrested a lot, whereas I don't think Eugenia's been arrested even once yet.

Eugenia did get a promotion that night, as well as an opportunity for work that wants her to travel to China to learn Martial Arts and then get to level 5 in the skill. I locked it in, but will probably wait a bit to do it. Her promotion took her to level 7 and gave her the chance to choose which branch of the career she wanted to follow. She chose the Evil branch since that's her LTW.

Saturday night went better for Adrianna and she finally got her promotion to level 10. She of course immediately rolled the wish to retire, which I will most likely let her do. She's 88 days old currently (I've been holding her at 86-88 days old for awhile now with the mud baths) and even though she was originally much older than Damien he's caught up with her. Both will be allowed to age normally now and we'll see how much longer they live. Both have been relatively athletic, so they might well hang in for awhile yet. She got a little statue as a reward for making it to Master Thief and when I went into the family inventory to pull it out I found this little guy in there. No idea where he came from - she must have picked it up on one of her jobs. I did get messages from time to time that she'd managed to snag something extra for herself.

As soon as she got home I had her make the call to retire. Damien and Edvin came to cheer for her. Interestingly, her retirement pension is more per day than Damien's is even though he was making a better salary at the end than she was.

On Sunday Adrianna rolled up a wish to see Eugenia get married. I'd been thinking that it was probably about time to get Eugenia hooked up with someone if I was going to, so I had her call her Best Friend Betty Wills up and invite her over so I could see if there was any possibility there. Betty came over, and it turned out that she was single. Supposedly she was also straight, but she was interested when Eugenia started cautiously flirting with her. Things progressed quickly then (it helped a lot that they were already best friends from work and I didn't have to build a relationship) and soon not only had they had their first kiss, but Eugenia proposed and Betty accepted.

Monday was Edvin's birthday and I decided to throw him a party. I'd hoped to make it a combination birthday party and wedding, but even though Betty showed up at the start of the party, she just dropped off some food she'd brought and left almost immediately. I think she was really supposed to be at work then. Undeterred, once all the guests had arrived and had a chance to mingle a bit, I sent Edvin to the cake. He blew out the candles and aged up to Young Adult. He gained the Heavy Sleeper trait.

The following day I had Eugenia invite Betty over early, hoping to be able to squeeze in a wedding maybe. I held off on doing a quick private wedding though because I'd really like to do it "right" and throw them a wedding party and get them married more formally like that. So, since I expect conflicting work schedules will make that difficult at best for most of a sim week right now, I tried to at least get Betty moved in. It was a no go though because by the time they'd talked enough to be up to Sociable to get the Move In option Betty had to leave for work. Hopefully it'll come up faster next time.

Tuesday was also Edvin's first day of work, and like Eugenia he hit the ground running and got a promotion on his first day. He's going to have to work on skills though so his rise should be a bit slower than Eugenia's has been since she already had Athletic mastered by the time she entered the Criminal field.

Eugenia was arrested for the first time on Tuesday night. Seems it always happens when it's most inconvenient. She was due for a promotion that night which she didn't get because of it, and it will most likely mess with being able to get Betty over in the morning to try to get her to move in. Ah well, not much to be done about it.

Eugenia did make it home in time to grab a bite to eat and then invite Betty over. Oddly enough, I never saw Betty arrive at the front door, but after a little bit noticed that Eugenia was in a group with someone. I found Betty out back standing in the garden. Eugenia was able to interact with her and ask her to move in. She readily agreed and it turned out it was her day off. A wedding party might be called for later in the afternoon. Betty is an adult and only 4 days from becoming an Elder. I might try to figure out something to do about that. She is Flirty, No Sense of Humor, Hot-Headed, Easily Impressed, and a Born Saleswoman. Her favorites are Latin music, Hot Dogs, and Yellow. Her LTW is Descendant of da Vinci. She is currently at level 2 in the Criminal career though I'll probably have her quit that to focus on the crafting she wants to do.

Then weirdness happened. No matter whose portrait I clicked on, it would only show me Betty's stuff on the right though it would put the highlight around the other portrait like I had it selected. The camera would center on that person when I clicked, but the info wouldn't change and soon it was like I had everyone in the household selected. I tried resetting the lot and that didn't fix it. Saving, exiting to the main menu, then reloading the household did.

One of the first things I did after getting it working right again was have Betty call to quit work. I'm thinking I'll have her go into the Inventor career instead to be more in line with her LTW.  The next order of business was to arrange a wedding party. I had Eugenia make the call and schedule it for later in the afternoon with Edvin would be home from work, but early enough that she'd have plenty of time for the party before she had to work. Everything went off without a hitch and before they knew it they were saying their vows under a wedding arch while others looked on.

Sadly, that evening proved to be Adrianna's last. Grim came for her late in the evening after Eugenia had left for work. She was 91 days old (I think). I'd hoped she'd have a bit longer, but apparently it wasn't to be. At least she got to see her daughter married as she'd wished for. She contributed 5 points to the challenge as well as enabling the hidden trait that Eugenia has (Leaves No Messes - child of a maid)

This seems like a good place to end this round even though I'm kind of having fun with this family right now. Eugenia came home with a promotion that evening which puts her at level 8 of the Criminal career. When she maxes out and finishes her LTW I'll probably switch her to some other career because the Criminal career seems plagued with a few annoying glitches (like frequently saying they're missing work on a night they're supposed to be off, losing performance if they don't go in but not gaining any for being there on those nights then having to manually cancel them out and send them home when their shift is done because it doesn't automatically do so). Not sure yet what I'll pick for her, but I'm thinking about having her do fishing so she can get some deathfish so perhaps someone can learn to make Ambrosia. In the meantime, I'll just keep Betty's age down with the mud baths. Here's a look at how my score stands currently:

Next up will be the Medina house I think. Until then, Cheers!