"I Love Old People" challenge #2

 Part 2 - Fleshing out the characters.

So I gave all residents jobs that they will quit at the end of the Sim week - except for Darron - apparently "retired" is a job you can get through the newspaper. I gave the others jobs to give them some work history and maybe get some skills.  I will have to figure out how to assign them some skills based on their backstories because it is unrealistic for elders to go through life and not acquire any skills. 

The character's personal items arrived, so I built the beginnings of their backstories based on them and the character traits they had. Some items were too large and ridiculous, so I exchanged them to something along the same theme, but of a reasonable size.

Darron received a large hay bale (I substituted the picture of a wagon wheel), a group of college team pennants, and a nautilus fossil. His traits are unstable, hydrophobic, party animal, never nude, and good. 

Darron was raised on a farm in Appaloosa Plains. He attended college, but he was a partier, so he didn't do well academically and didn't earn a degree. However, he looks back on those days as the best days of his life and has fond memories of his misspent youth. After dropping out of college, he decided to get a job on a fishing boat and lived in Barnacle Bay for several years. However, something tragic happened (I don't know what yet) that left him afraid of the water. I don't know if he ever married or had kids yet, and I don't know what his relationship to his parents was like.

Amir received a broken portion of a tomb wall (exchanged for a picture of the pyramids), a box of horse grooming tools, and a section of an air conditioner vent. His traits are couch potato, neat, genius, computer whiz, and photographer's eye.

Amir's mother was an Egyptian citizen, and he's very proud of his Egyptian heritage. When he was a kid, his family raised race horses, and he was in charge of caring for them.  However, while his childhood was a good one, the emergence of his latent talent for all things mechanical - both old tech and new - convinced him to attend college and earn an engineering degree.

(I don't know if he was ever married or had kids yet.)

Heather received a set of Texas Longhorns, a plastic pie, and an Egyptian Wedding tapestry. Her traits are dramatic, hot-headed, lucky, hopeless romantic, and schmoozer.

Heather has always been interested in romantic stories and was looking for her prince charming.  Then she met him, married him, and they stayed married until death did them part.  They went to Egypt for their honeymoon, and she brought back her Egyptian Wedding tapestry which she proudly displays over her desk. Her late husband always teased her about her horrible cooking skills.  Once he even presented her with a plastic pie as a gag, and while she was angry at first, she realized his teasing was good-natured, and he wasn't trying to hurt her feelings.  She grew fond of the plastic pie and keeps it by her bed to remind her to keep her temper and try to see things from the other person's point of view.  Heather was born and raised in Texas by a loving family.  When her father passed away, she inherited his Texas Longhorns, and keeps them above her bed to remind her of her family and her childhood. (I don't know if she ever had children. Judging by her sweater, I suspect she likes cats, though that isn't one of her traits.)

Dara received a piece of a castle wall (exchanged for a picture of a knight and dragon), some Medieval bottles, and a Christmas greenery swag. Her traits are adventurous, absent-minded, flirty, friendly, and party animal.

Dara has always loved things gothic and Medieval. In her younger days she was a Las Vegas showgirl with aspirations to make it big as an actress. She was a "wild child" from the start, and as a result of her chosen lifestyle, her dream of becoming an actress was derailed when she found herself unmarried and pregnant. Her daughter Noel was born on Christmas, and Dara considers her the best Christmas present she has ever received.  Christmas has remained her favorite holiday ever since. Unfortunately, she lost her daughter in a tragic accident, and because she has never had a lasting relationship with a man, though she is very fond of men in general, she now finds her self late in life living on her own.  She decided to move into this retirement home in a small town and make some new friends to keep her company in her later years.

Shawn received a piece of a tomb wall (exchanged for a mysterious footprint impression) a partially finished stone cat sculpture, and some bot batteries. 

His traits are neurotic, grumpy, diva, mean-spirited, and kleptomaniac.

This might look like he's making a love connection with Dara, but don't be fooled, unless she's willing to put up with constant insults, this won't take hold.

Shawn is a retired archeologist whose claim to fame was discovering some relics that appear to be extraterrestrial in nature. Of course these relics were supposed to be turned over to museums in the country where they were found, but two of his favorite pieces from the alien find somehow "went missing."  Of course if asked, he'll say the alien footprint sculpture is a replica of the original, and the alien batteries are "just some junk I picked up at a yard sale."  He has tried to sculpt his dearly departed pet, Smokey, who was the only friend who would put up with him for any length of time, but the sculpture is still a work in progress.  He wants to brush up on his sculpting skills so he can finish it. 

I mostly watched the activity of the characters this past Sim week except when they had a wish and a great opportunity to make that wish happen.  Here are some of the highlights.

Shawn was on a roll, saying insulting and inappropriate things to the women. First he accused Heather of being a Diva (though she isn't, but he is.) Earlier he thought she was hot, so I don't know what he was thinking.  Heather played the "walk in the other person's shoes" card and instead of retaliating, she tried to flatter him. Yet he hurled another insult, and she countered with asking him about his day.  She kept her cool, but left to take a shower after the encounter- even though her hygiene was still in the green.

Then Shawn verbally attacked Amelia.  I don't know if he was telling her that she smelled bad or that she had bug-eyes, but he definitely told her that she was "letting herself go." 

This retirement home is in my Deery Meadows world, where I keep all my builds (including the 10x10 challenges) and a few of my favorite venues.  I also put some of my favorite Sims here.  Since then Story Progression has taken over and created quite the lively, quirky little community. I'm saying this because at the end of the week, on the day everyone retired, Darron (a party animal) decided to throw a party and invited the Sims he had met that week. One of the guests was August Wilkins who is a Story Progression-generated character who happens to be the love-child of Donald Trump and the plus-sized consignment specialist with the last name of Wilkins. (August's parents hate each other, by the way. This whole affair happened while I was playing a different household.) The reason I am bringing this up is when he showed up, he started coming on to Amelia, and even after she refused his flowers, he persisted.  If you see any resemblance in facial features or expressions to you-know-who, you now know they are related.

Dara appeared to be making a love connection with Rigoberto McClain. It was really sweet how they played dominos together. (But I happen to know that Rigoberto is married and has three children - at least he did last time I checked.)

Vito, this red-headed kid, is clearly wondering why his dad (or older brother?) dragged him to this old-people party.  He went and found a fantasy book to read and later unloaded his feelings to Amir, who calmly sat and drank his double chocolate soy frothoccino with the banana whipped cream and told Vito something about having to take his medicine or that he hoped Vito felt better.  I think Amir would like to be a mentor for Vito.  We'll see where this relationship goes. After the party Vito called and talked to Eric - I assume to find out who the guy in the blue hat was.

A side note: I think this whole household is going to end up in a diabetic coma. All they seem to make are desserts. I opened their fridge once after seeing Amir make a wedding cake and Eric make peach pie to see what was in there, and this is what I found: strawberry cobbler, apple pie, orange pie, summer dessert pizza, and the uneaten mushroom omelet that I made Amelia prepare that first morning. Curse you bakery set! You are ruining my Sims' diets!