Emerald Valley #5: Seeing what the others are up to

I'm going to let Spring and Gustavo have a break from me and focus on other Emerald Valley residents. A glitch occurred that I don't know how to fix, and it's making things interesting. I think it started with Spring and Gustavo getting married. Suddenly a new sim arrived at the townhouses. Her name was Anita Gamboa. All indications showed she was now a "roommate," so I assigned her an townhouse, locking the doors to everyone but her. Then, since I was getting messages that Siddhartha Ware-Wolfe and Athena Thyme got married but couldn't find housing, I decided to have Spring invite Siddhartha to be a "roommate." (He was inquiring about what the rent for one of the townhouses would be.)

Because these sims live on an apartment lot and not a single family home lot, she doesn't have access to the roommate service and has to invite them or I have to ctrl-shift-click and add them to the household. Once I did this, only Siddhartha was controllable, which was not what I was expecting. I was expecting to be able to control Siddhartha, Spring, and Gustavo.

I ignored this script error and had Siddhartha invite Athena over, so I could add her to his household. Once she was added, Athena, Siddhartha, and Spring were controllable, but not Gustavo. I learned that Siddhartha is evil and Athena is a kleptomanic, and they both work in the science facility. The next morning, they went off to work, I puttered about with Spring for a bit then went to check on them. They were slacking off! (I thought they would be working in the rabbithole, but they were in the science lab goofing around instead.)

I made them get to work and develop some skills.

Erm, Athena, do you really think that is appropriate work attire? Dress code is really lax here.

Athena tried to enhance her brain to a genius IQ.

Maybe she should have been working on her skills instead of taking shortcuts! Siddhartha used the telescope to seek out evil doings.

He was delighted to see that the University Mascot was annoying the neighbors.

He is across the street from the bookstore, but I don't know what he saw that put him off . . . .

I left the computer running for a few hours because I hate how long it takes to load and went to run some errands. I do this regularly and it usually pauses itself after a few minutes because one of my sims gets a call on the phone or something. This time it didn't happen that way. When I came back to the townhouses more roommates arrived.

This is Alejandra Diel, (I think).

And this smelly guy was standing around outside the door of one of the townhouses desperate to get in. His name is Damien Smart. There is also a blonde dude named Alvaro. Then everyone started bawling about someone who died.

Apparently they lost Anita Gamboa in a kitchen fire. Again, the fire department is right across the street and all these people have phones! What were they thinking? I moved her to the workout room and placed her urn next to Jasper Gains' urn.

Jasper is an accidental resident of Emerald Valley. He was one of my LEPacy heirs who got a little too aggressive with a vending machine while trying to get a soda. I placed him in the building and forgot he was there when saving the lot to the bin and placing it here. He comes out from time to time. I followed him the last time I saw him as he left the lot, and I didn't know ghosts could do that.

I wonder how far their wandering range is. He went across the street to the pub and got himself a coffee.

I wonder, is that because he died while trying to get a beverage?

But I digress . . .

When I came back to the game I found a mess. Nobody did the laundry, the toilets were clogged,

and Spring was wearing her night gown in the workout room and holler'n about monsters or werewolves or something.

I made someone get the laundry going but this happened.

Curse Corrine Burnette for stealing the good washers and forcing us to settle with these crappy ones!

Spring decided to tackle the problem, but I was worried about the puddle causing her to get electrocuted,

but luckily Alvaro Hoyt, the other new tenant, autonomously stepped in to help out.

All's well that ends well.

Athena and Siddhartha have a strange relationship. He will flirt with other women in front of her, (or in this case behind her back while she's trying to learn guitar), and she will become upset,

but instead of slapping him or beating him up, (as the old Athena in my other game would have), she decides she wants to go on a date with him! She's definitely a kinder, gentler version of herself. They went to the surf shack, which was closed, but I still let her buy a flamingo from the porch since she liked them so much. Maybe someone in town needs to buy this property and run it as an actual store.

I don't know about this relationship - it seems a little toxic to me. Maybe that brain machine mishap rattled her noggin a bit. We'll see how long she puts up with his shenanigans.

In other news, Spring was invited to a party at Elaine Siew's house. Elaine lives in a nice Sears and Roebuck house built back in the time where bathrooms were considered an optional upgrade. Luckily this house has the upgrade. Elaine had very little furniture: just a table with two chairs, a cheap double bed, cheap single bed, and a crib. Of course there was a functional kitchen and functional bathroom. I decided to get to know her and fix up her house to suit her personality and goals. I also gave her a makeover.

Elaine is a "hobbyist" who wants to be a one-man-band, mastering various instruments. I think she's a former student of the magic school, but she's not a witch, and her heart wasn't really into becoming one, so she decided to follow her dream. She apparently took in two roommates, (and I don't think I have the option of dismissing them and turning off the roommate option even though this is a single family home lot.) I gave her a new hair style and sent her to the stylist shop for a makeover. I gave her an edgy sort of look as she's going to be an entertainer. The clothes she was wearing were extremely frumpy.

But Aspen Winnibego was there to help her out.

Aspen did a pretty good job with the new outfit. Elaine was thrilled! I took her to CAS to complete the rest of her wardrobe. As for her house, she seems kind of Bohemian to me, so to decorated her house with an eclectic style using a purple, olive, cream, and tangerine color scheme, with a variety of patterns. Elaine's favorite color is purple.

The puddle in the picture is from one of the roommates peeing. Luckily, the redhead cleaned it up. Elaine had a wish to paint, so I gave her the drafting table, and I rearranged the kitchen, moving the table and chairs in there and added a piano in the "hobby room." Those updates I will also show in the next installment. I also furnished their previously empty dining room.

Elaine likes to spend some time in the park busking. It was there she met another woman who also liked to play music. They decided to form a band and named it Woohoo Warriors.

I can't remember what her partner's name is; I'll check next time. (Update: It's Anitra Simpkins - more on her in a later installment.) One woman (Jeanine Thyme) was rather upset with her though. Possibly Elaine's new partner is the type who would steal your lunch out of the fridge at work.