Chapter 30b: Strangetown Stories

Strangetown Stories, Part 2



Hey Texas, how's it going? I see you just got back from work. I thought I'd pop in here between families to see how you were recovering from the wedding.

"Whell I hain't supposed ta be recoverin. I'm supposered ta be kickin it inta high gear so I kin git the wedding of mah id... mah second boy chile a goin', but I hain't seen hide ner hair a him."

Kasson's not here? But I just talked to him yesterday. He said he still hadn't found any houses to buy, and I recommended he maybe look into renting one.

"Hmmm... maybe he's done out lookin at aparterments and conder-minimums then."

He did say he had some calls to make when I left him. His realtor must've had a few leads.

"It still seems downright odd that I hain't seen him atall taday."

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I suppose he could be over at SK's tonight. They are kinda engaged you know.

"That there's probably it. Sheesh, cain't tha boy till his weddin night? Heh. Jes like Waylon. Speakin a mah sweetie, we done hain't had a chance ta try out tha ja-koozie Salina installed fer us."

Er... I think we'll leave you and Waylon to the hot tub then. I think a few folks might be a bit traumatized by nakee elder pics. I'll catch up with you later.

"I'll done be lookin fer ya"

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With all the aliens living in Strangetown now, there is one among them who has been a father figure (both literally and figuratively) to them over the years. PT had a long and fruitful career as a pollination technician and has been enjoying retirement as family man and father. Not only does he have a beautiful wife and bright son, who is now raising a family of his own...

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But he also has a lovely daughter who has managed to capture the heart of the son of his arch enemy in Strangetown...

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He has a faithful canine as a boon companion and... er... protection for his family. And...

(Chica's parents were both CAP chihuahuas so this is what EA/Maxis thinks a chihuahua should look like. WTF?)

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He also has a couple little handfuls to keep him busy in his old age. Yes, I couldn't handle PT and Jenny's constant rolling of 'have a baby' wants, so I had Jenny elixir back a few days to fulfill it. I wasn't expecting twins (or maybe I should have)

This is little Jimmy, who looks a lot like his dad.

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And this is Joey. He's kinda cute at this stage, but we'll have to see what happens when he hits childhood.

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As if to taunt me, the Smiths promptly rolled another 'have a baby' want as soon as they finished teaching the boys their toddler skills. Jenny still has a day or two before she's too old. Do I dare?

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Johnny and Ophelia Smith-Spectre are rolling a few 'have a baby' wants themselves. They're not getting any more, however, until they get the ones they have under control.

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Olivia Smith-Spectre is a moody, temperamental child. She's not grumpy enough to take to beating her bear into the floor, but she's already grumbling about something. I swear, her two favorite things to do are to complain at me with those spiky red thought bubbles, and jump on her (or anyone's) bed.

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I suppose Olivia has a reason to complain. Two of them in fact. Two little out of control reasons.

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Meet Jennifer (on the left) and Pollux (on the right) Smith-Spectre. They are why I really shouldn't have been surprised when PT and Jenny had twins; it apparently runs in the family. Between Olivia and these two, Johnny and Ophelia can't keep up. There's no discipline in the house, the bathrooms are flooded from toddlers playing in the potties, no one is skilling, and Olivia is doing absolutely rotten in school. Ophelia finally appealed to one of her mentors at her teaching college for advice, who made a bit of a radical suggestion.

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Ophelia and Johnny were just grown up kids themselves. They needed a little help in bringing their household under control. Someone more mature to help bring order to the place. So Ophelia pulled some strings with Grimmy to bring her aunt back into the family

Grimmy was actually kind of glad to let Olive return to her family. She was getting jealous of his poker nights with Mrs. Crumplebottom.

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Olive was more than happy to be back as well. She'd learned a few things on the other side of the veil, and with all sorts of new family just waiting to be met, she decided it was perhaps time to turn over a new leaf... and adopt a new look.

(and the fact I lost all the tombstones on the lot in a bizarre glitch may have helped her make the decision too)

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Not long after Olive stepped into her new role, the bathrooms were clean, Olivia's grades were doing better, and the twins were well on their way to learning all their toddler skills.

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In fact, things are starting to look downright sane in the Smith-Spectre household. How about posing for a nice family portrait everyone?

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Speaking of family portraits, there's another family in Strangetown that's riddled with green kids. Eugene Retrorocket was hired by a top secret science foundation to study alien abductions in the Strangetown area. A half dozen kids (and who knows how many abductions) later, he's starting to think about hanging up his researcher hat and secret decoder ring.

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Mostly because of this lady. Genesis Lam started as Eugene's maid, but they fell in love and she moved in to help take care of his alien family. He hasn't quite gotten around to popping the question to her and she's starting to wonder if, after all these years, he ever will.

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Eugene's second son, Eustace, also lives at home still. He's hard at work vying for a prime spot on the Strangetown Stars basketball team, so he doesn't have time to keep his own place. Besides his ample paycheck, he helps out around the house with is siblings too.

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Eugene and Genesis have one son of their own. This is Jenner, who probably feels a bit outnumbered in the house.

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The little one you saw Eugene holding in the earlier picture grew up into this. This is Euffie and she doesn't get much better looking when she's not screaming. *shudder* I swear, I will never mock Cassie Severn's looks again.

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I'd best not forget the family pet, or it'll gnaw my leg off. When I loaded the Retrorocket lot to get these pics, I got the pop up announcing that someone had bought a pet. I've had decent luck with the pets my simmies have bought on their own. The Beakers bought Biscuit, the father of Salina's pet Cookie, and the Farwalkers got a beautiful elder kitty named Alia. The Retrorockets (and I'm not sure which of them) however bought... this. I forgot that for some pics back around Easter, I'd loaded this. Oy.

This is Balin. He's loud, rude, and a freak of nature.

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He'a also huge. He's almost as big as Jenner. Let's not mention the sharp pointy teeth.

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Oh, and Jenner isn't going to be the only 'normal' boy in the house for long. It seems Eugene and Genesis are expecting one more addition to the household.

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Eugene seems pretty excited about another new face joining the family, doesn't he? Or is he just happy that he isn't the one carrying this child to term.

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Either way, Eugene realized that it well past time that he told Genesis those magic words and asked her to marry him.

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I'm not sure how she could've been surprised by him asking, unless she hadn't expected him to whip that big of a rock out for her. Eugene probably borrowed some money from Eustace; he's got all the money in the family.

Genesis happily told him yes; she had been waiting for him to ask her for years. There was just one problem...

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Eugene was just a bit off on his timing. You know what they're both thinking... "Five minutes. Why couldn't the kid have waited five minutes, so we could've had a chance to say 'I do'?"

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Poor Eugene doesn't know what to do. He was at work when Jenner was born, and he's used to being the one wailing and pushing. Knowing this, I'm not about to razz him for being useless during birth, like most sims.

Genesis, on the other hand, doesn't look quite so understanding.

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And it's a girl this time. This little one is Mary Lam. She has her mother's dark hair and green eyes. Both parents have green eyes, so there's no variety there.

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"Here Darling, hold your daughter a moment."

Oh my, you know what this means...

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Yep, twins. Baby #2 is Lilly Lam, another dark haired, green eyed girl. Eugene apparently has the twin coding. Until I'd browsed through his memories I'd forgotten that Euclid and Euphemia were actually twins (I'd raised them separate, thinking Euclid was older).

Actually, I'm kinda glad the babies are out of the way now.

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Because I can actually give Genesis the wedding she deserves, after putting up with this mad scientist all these years.

Oh don't look at me like that Eugene. It's about time you two got married. You've been living together since two weeks after TS2 was first released.

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And there was quite a turn out to see these two get hitched. The extended Retrorocket family was in attendance, along with several close friends. Euclid couldn't attend, what with it being a daytime wedding and him a vampire. Jenner was asleep in bed while it all went on, however, and Euffie was more concerned with the bunnyhead.

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If you're curious, here's a list of the attendees. If you're not curious, scroll on down to the next slide.

Starting on the left: Rhys Deerfield (Kasson-hair and beard, Eugenia's husband), Eugene Jr (white suited alien, eldest son), Euphemia McGaw-Retrorocket (second daughter), Mary Subject (short red hair next to Phemia), Solemnity Retrorocket (red rockabilly ponytail, behind Texas, Junior's wife), Eugenia Deerfield-Retrorocket (black haired alien behind Texas, eldest daughter), Texas Holldum (front), General Buzz Grunt (behind Eugenia), Vasyl McGaw (white suit behind Buzz, husband of Euphemia), Waylon Holldum (next to Eugenia), Elizabeth Camden (redhead with veil behind Waylon, Buzz's date), Eustace Retrorocket (white suited alien on the right, second son), Nervous Subject (behind Eustace), and finally Captain Angelia (pirate in the front). I'd promised the Captain she'd be at the next wedding. *snicker*

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The reception was an interesting time. General Buzz and his date finally managed to fall in love. Seeing how she's the mother of four daughters (Mary Subject being one of them) maybe she can teach the general some parenting skills finally.

She doesn't look too thrilled about being asked to join him in a game of red hands though, does she?

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And a picture of the two lovely Retrorocket daughters. Even though Phemie's had plastic surgery to give her more silver screen worthy features (along with a nose) I still think Eugenia's the prettier of the two of them.

But what were the bride and groom during the reception?

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You guessed it. I did not direct them to do this. They ignored the cake (after they cut it) as well as the piano playing and the video games, to go stargaze instead. They headed right for the telescopes as soon as they got back from the honeymoon too.

Eugene, that's the 10X telescope. If you get abducted this time, its your own damn fault.

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Reception Outtake

Maybe inviting Captain Angelia to the wedding was a bad idea. Everyone wandered around for a while, throwing up anti-captain thought bubbles. I still don't know what she did.

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So lets move on down the Strangetown main drag and...

dammit Balin, get your face outta that muffin!

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Er, nevermind... we'll just continue on down the road.

I'm tellin ya, this is one freaky housepet.

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