Tiny Town Challenge Part 2

 Beatrice was just a few decorative details away from having her house finished, so she threw a couple more parties to sell her goodies. It's fall, and she only has one small tree on her house lot, but it throws a lot of leaves. I guess you could call the first party a leaf-raking party as all the guests really got into that activity.

Then the leaf piles generate squirrels and chipmunks, which are cute if there's only a couple of them - terrifying if the place is overrun with them. 

The next party was a rodent-watching party, and Beatrice had a very special guest in attendance: Grim himself.  

Surly Chip Offablock was very mean to poor Grim. I really don't think it was wise.

"Hey man, I have no beef with you. I just came for some of Beatrice's famous pumpkin pie. Are you still angry that I took your parents away? It's just my job, man." 

"Oh, is it now? Well this is for my mother."

And this is for my father! And here's another one for my little dog Sparky!" (Chip slapped poor Grim repeatedly! I lost track of how many times, but Grim didn't fight back except to taunt Chip for being homeless.)

From the cash register, Beatrice couldn't help but notice that these two were neither raking leaves nor watching rodents. She had to go break up the fighting.

After the squirrel watching party ended, Beatrice collected up all but a couple and sold them, leaving one or two for the neighbor's dog to enjoy.

Then she and Elias had late night dessert and called it a day.

Elias is supposed to have commitment issues, yet I saw him earlier talking about an engagement. I don't know if he intends to propose to Beatrice, or if he's just telling about how he called off his previous engagement so he could be with Beatrice instead. 

Maybe it's hairy-legged Ulysses who is engaged and Elias is just congratulating him. 

The day finally came when Beatrice was satisfied with her home.

I don't know what caused it, but shortly after the party with Grim, I couldn't get the game to work right. I couldn't get Beatrice to do anything or go anywhere. I thought it might be because I invited Grim to my home lot. Some people say Grim breaks the game if you do that. However, I had also just added the Sim State Open For Business mod, so I removed it, and the game went back to working. I don't need the mod right away, so I'll play without it for a while then try it again. But for now, let's move on the the next resident of Tiny Town: Annie Aperture.

My version of Annie is a couch potato, has no sense of humor, is a vegetarian, is a born salesman, and has the photographer's eye. All traits, except the last two were randomized. Obviously, her favorite color is red. She plans on building her house primarily from selling her photographs. She has an ambitious lifetime wish that involves mastering the photography skill and having 10 photos from each of the World Adventures worlds displayed in her home. She's going to be a traveler. I found out that the consignment store managed to find a new clerk, so she can sell her photos there, and with the born salesman trait, she can get more than the going rate when she does sell from there. My plan for her house is a modest studio apartment over an art gallery, and I might even put in a dark room for her to process her photos. 

On Annie's first day, I sent her out to take some photos and realized it costs money each time she takes a picture. If she completes 3 collections of pictures, her film will be free from then on, so we'll definitely get working on that. 

Beatrice, bless her, used some lifetime points to purchase "No Bills Ever," so at least I don't need to worry about keeping funds separate for bill paying. I used Nraas to make Beatrice unselectable, at least for awhile. Story progression is turned off, so she shouldn't do anything whacky like move away. She should be fine while I focus on Annie. While Annie can't go in Beatrice's house because I locked the door, she can still use the picnic table and play with the chickens. 

Beatrice doesn't seem to mind. But I digress.

As I was saying, on Annie's first day, I sent her out to take some pictures. I sent her up to where that giant dinosaur landmark is with the run-down building (set dressing) and a lot of dinosaur bones could be found. She took some really lousy pictures and insisted on going to the beach instead.

She's pretty strong-willed, choosing to play over working, so I'm going to have to be firm with her if she is going to have a house by winter. It's already fall. 

She seems to crave adventure, so I can see her as a world traveler. She doesn't have the good sense to wear a coat, no matter how cold it is outside.

Annie went to the library and read the first photography book, and her pictures started to get better. She registered as a self-employed photographer, made a couple friends (Her first friend was Maisy Guillen, whom she took on her first trip.) I allowed her to accept gifts either sent in the mail or given to her by her admirers. . . . 

Kim Marshall seems less than thrilled that old man Reardon is giving Annie flowers. I wonder if he's her boyfriend. She seems to think he's "tom-cattin'" around. 

Like I did for Beatrice, I also let Annie pick up rocks, gems, and the occasional flower if she stumbles across them, and I let her dumpster dive once. By the time winter came around. She at least had some shelter from the storms.

It has no windows because she ran out of money for now.

One of the gifts that came in the mail was this fire pit. It was eventually moved to the community section. Where the all-in-one outhouse is. 

Annie's first major trip was to Egypt where she took all kinds of pictures - some because they were pretty, and some, like a pile of coins or a pile of rubble, because they were part of the collections she was trying to fill. She took her friend Maisey with her because I was thinking she could get some pictures for the collection - like a sim pushing a statue - but since I wasn't controlling Maisey, this couldn't be done. It was a waste of money bringing her along except for company.

Nevertheless, Maisey was excited to be included in the trip. Annie asked Maisey if she wanted to join her in the tombs searching for jewels.

Annie explained that it would really help her out with her career if she could take pictures of others in the tomb, but Maisey is apparently afraid of ghosts and such. 

So Annie went alone. 

She was asked by a local to collect flame fruit from the pyramid of the burning sands, so she did - and kept some to take home with her as well. 

One of the things she needs to get a picture of is a sim charming a snake. There didn't seem to be any takers, so Annie decided to give it a try.

I guess it takes practice. After trying a little longer, Annie was starting to get the hang of it.

Still, she couldn't exactly take a picture of herself doing the snake charming, so she bought a basket to take home with her to put on her lot. Maybe Beatrice will give it a go. I decided at this point that when I got back, I would take control of Beatrice again so she could come on the next trip and help Annie out with some of these pictures. 

I let Annie sell some of the artifacts she got on her tomb explorations at the relics shop in the market, but anything she took home with her I will have her hold onto and either put them in her art gallery or sell them AFTER she completes her house. If she can achieve her lifetime wish, which relates to her being a photographer, I'll let her get an inheritance like Beatrice did. Annie also wanted to buy the expensive camera while in Egypt, so I let her. We'll call it a business expense. The 2600 simoleons would have gone pretty far in improving her house, but hopefully it will pay off in the end. 

Annie went back home and finished out the winter taking seasonal photos and having fun.

She seems to really like the winter sports. Oddly enough, she prefers sleeping in the igloo to sleeping in her own cheap bed. 

One of the things she's been wanting to do is become BFFs with Oriole (Bird) Bellamy. So Annie sent her several friendly texts and invited her out to ice skate on a pond . . . 

 . . .  and sing karaoke.

They are good friends, but not quite BFFs yet. She met a few potential boyfriends as well.

Elliott Ferreria has potential.

So does Saul Fox. She met Saul in a bar, which might be a bad omen. Also he has a girlfriend.

He didn't seem too concerned about his girlfriend when Annie met up with him at the festival.

But he was pretty stand-offish when she met him the next day at the library. Maybe he thought better of pursuing anything romantic with Annie. 

Winter gave way to spring, and Annie and Beatrice set out for China. Annie took a lot of pictures, but I was so busy focused on her taking pictures, that I didn't take hardly any myself. Here's all I got, but next installment, I'll show off some to the pictures Annie took. 

Learning the martial arts skill. She got her first belt. 

Swapping stories with a fellow explorer.

The ice cream truck found it's way to China. 

Welp, that's all I got. 

They went home and had fun with the chickens.

Beatrice is still obsessed with befriending Paguk To'Vedachot. She thinks about him all the time. She invites him over, but he's always busy. She sends him friendly texts. 

Annie was able to add to her house. She still is short on windows.