Out-takes chapter 18

[dicreasy2]

Yes indeedy, it's time for me to waffle on about my latest chapter and share some of the pictures that didn't make it.

First of all I knew that this chapter would not be a happy one for you all to read (the next one won't be great either I'm afraid) but I feel I need to do this in order to do the storyline that's been in my head since last June justice.  Sometimes I get an idea in my head that just needs to be told, and this is one of them I'm afraid.  It's not easy for me to do at all, because Eddie and his family are just sweethearts and need to be happy, but do it I must.

Right onto out-takes. 

Apart from Marielle the entire family dotes on Bertie (and Stuart).  If I can't find one of the adults, the first place to look is the nursery.



To prove I'm not kidding about how little Marielle has to do with Bertie, here's a picture of William going to autonomously let Bertie out of his cot:



Beth is also about to head up the stairs to do the same:



Marielle is that purple blob playing Myshuno!  she didn't even register that Bertie was awake.  (Eddie's studying for his final promotion in the library).

I've been thinking about getting the family a dog for a little while now.  I doubt I'll do very well at the whole petacy part of the challenge but hey, I can give it a shot.  The Skinners have been bredding dogs ever since Arthur and Rover moved into the neighbourhood.  I had to start again when I rebuilt, but the pet bin is getting filled up with their puppies.  Sally is one such dog.



The wee little thing really did nearly get lost in the snow.

Beth and William may have gone down to 2 bolts when they aged, but they are still adorable and do a lot of things to make me squee.



Anthony & Alexandra (or A&A as I've started calling them to save key strokes) are another squee-worthy couple and everything that happened between them in the morning room was autonomous.  As you can see they were being watched:



Gabe doesn't come out very often, but he does like to scare someone when he does;



Luckily Beth is a knowledge sim so quite enjoys it.



Something I didn't show at all this chapter were the businesses.  They are still running them, but unless I have to shoot something in them they are going to take a back seat from now on.

I'm currently trying to get William to pass on all the wholsale perks.  I can do without the others, but wholesale are really useful.  It is taking forever, but he doesn't half pull some amusing faces when he talks.



I think they've only got one more to get through now.

One very annoying thing about playing businesses with AL installed is the damn evil witch turning up.  So many times I've had to have Beth or someone spray the damn roaches.



So many times I had customers interrupt Beth to complain about the roaches she was spraying. 

Oh and, Melissa broke the shower in the staff room.  That didn't please Eddie.



*giggles*  I love this sim.

I did actually have a good witch turn up too, and I have to say she put on a pretty light show.



Beth's Boutique is a business I'm not sure the family will keep.  I'm going to eventually delete this downtown, and I really don't want to bin an owned business so they will sell it at some point.  Whether I will move it or build a new one in Simdon is something I've not decided on yet.

Oh I just wanted to declare how much love I have for my car pool replacements:



Lookit, Eddie's going to work in a hanson cab, complete with David the footman!

I have some spam from Bertie's party to share too.  I didn't mention it in the update but I'm going for the Happy Birthday master point with Bertie.  I don't normally throw birthday parties for my sims, so it'll be interesting.



I was trying to take a picture of just Eddie and Bertie when Alexandra walked by just as I pressed c.  It's actually a picture I love, because of the expression on her face, and the smile on her brother's.

Like the secret says, no one is immune to Stanley and his charms.  




This was Marielle's expression throughout most of the party:



I did very nearly use this picture, but thought I had enough to make you all hate her already.

She did eventually pass out standing up, and bless, awesome Anthony was all worried about her.



I also forgot to share Bertie's stats.  He's an Aries, 8,10,7,3,3. A naked hot-tubbing, neat, slightly grouchy Aries.

Pointless Eddie and Bertie picspam for you now:






D'awwww go on I dare you to tell me you're not a puddle of goo now.

This is a picture I really adore, and very nearly used instead of the ones of Beth playing with Bertie.  In the end I liked the fact that you would all see her bonding with her grandson. 



I ended up changing the arguments sligthly to what I had originally shot for this chapter.  Partly it was because of space: I already knew that it would be a two-parter by this point in sorting the pictures because I still had most of A&A and Joe to put in as well as the pub scene which I knew would be long due to catching up with Theo and Stanley. 

Partly it was because, how many arguments did I really need in the chapter?  Because of this the argument about how little Marielle did became part of the pub argument, and Eddie being locked out the bedroom got moved forward a day.   In the game he was actually present for Stuart's birth, and was only sleeping in a separate bedroom from the following night.



Yes Marielle did hand Stuart straight to Eddie again.

I love having the boys together on a lot, and in fact I've often thought about plonking them together in another neighbourhood so that I can play them as one unit when I feel like it.  They always manage to crack me up, and a lot of my inspiration as to how to write them comes from just watching the three of them together.  Shooting the pub scene this time was different to others though, because I knew I had to look out for serious faces from all three of them.  That's not always an easy thing to do when they insist on acting like this:







They did eventually co-operate though:




"Aw, come on Di, you know you love us really."

That I do, that I do.


Which is why doing this makes me miserable.  I hate to have to have Eddie argue because everytime I do he does the "why me?" animation, but it's necessary.



As part of me merging two arguments, and wanting Eddie to be locked out of the bedroom, I actually used shots only from the last argument (the other one took place in their bedroom like the first argument had).  As a result Marielle is not pregnant in it, but because I had shot just head and shoulders I dont think you notice it.

This was the shot I was originally going to use instead of the pictures of Bertie with Sally:



In the end I'm glad I changed my mind for several reasons.  Firstly I think it's more powerful to have Bertie on his own with just his dog.  Secondly, story wise William and Beth should be in bed at this time of night.  Beth because she is exhausted, William because he wants to be there to hold and comfort her.  Thirdly, if William knows how much Bertie is being upset by Eddie and Marielle, he has got to say something to Eddie, which opens the flood gates because Eddie would be devestated to think that  1) his son had heard that and 2) that he had upset his son.  Fourthly because William and Beth are in bed Marielle should be looking after her son, and so should know he is up.  Because of that she should make sure that he doesn't hear her shouting at Eddie and shouldn't storm off to her room and just lock herself in there.

It's a bit convoluted, and not necessarily spelt out in the chapter,  but the reasons make sense to me.

Let's talk a bit now about Joe and his family and Aria.

This is all part of his long term punishment, and is a mixture of several people's ideas.  It's going to run for ages yet, basically until his death, but this chapter was putting the foundations in place.  I'm planning on keeping you all updated as the chapters go on, but I'm not sure if you'll see the next bit until after the main story line is over.  I'm just not sure I'll have the space to include it.

I've spoken a bit about Maria and her attitude in my first response post at Boolprop, but I thought I'd just say that whilst I knew my readers wouldn't like what she had to say, I knew I had to have her say it.  It wouldn't be right any other way. 

In fact because I've already done research at various times in my life and for various reasons into the attitudes of the Victorian middle class and their morality, I was slightly surprised that so many people thought that Maria and Marcus would want to not only get to know their grandchildren, but have Christopher carry on the family name.  I really had to remind myself that just because I spend a lot of my spare time trying to get into the mindset of a Victorian, doesnt mean you all do too. lol.

Anyway, this is the picture I really wanted to use for Joe entering the drawing room:



Unfortunately I encountered a small problem when I told Joe to sit next to his mother.  They wouldn't talk to each other.  All they did was stare at one another.



Also during this time, despite free will being turned off, Marcus got up and left the room.  I got Joe and Maria to changed seats a couple of times, and success they started talking.



I do feel quite bad making such a minor character such a horrible character, especially since I hadn't inteded her to be like that until I started writing,  Of course it makes perfect sense that she should be like this, but I really did just make her fit the role as I wrote chapter 15.3.

Filming Aria at the bar presented me with a few problems.  First of all it's an original lot from the default Downtown that I redecorated and moved to Simdon, so the lighting is a bit dark.



I did want it a bit dark and moody, but this was too much so I had to clear the lighting file and start shooting again.

The other thing was the other sims around. 



"You're as pretty as a picture."



"Oo pretty lady."



"Just going to stand by the bar and try to get into all your shots.  Don't mind me Di."



Even Stanley got in on the act.

Mathias was there too,. but he stuck to the other side of the club.  I did get a bit worried though, because he didn't look like himself.



I really can't explain what it is, but he does not look like himself at all.  I dunno, maybe it's the lighting.

I absolutely love this picture of Aria and the look on her face. 



Oh and I've just got to say, Aria has some great bar faces:




Thanks for lending her to me Jamie.  I think you're going to enjoy watching what she does to Joe.


That's all the out-takes I've got for you today, but I did want to talk about a couple of other things.

I really did grin like an idiot when I saw the Stanley secret, and again when I saw Anthony and read the historical legacy secret too.  It means a lot to me that I've caught people's imaginations with my little creations.    Stanley's queue is going to get rather long, but I don't think he'll mind in the slightest.

I didn't feel like playing today really (I caught the power switch of my pc yesterday and lost a lot of play at one of the houses, and I need to replay it), so I finished the row of town houses I've been working on in Simdon.  I don't normally share pictures of odd houses I build, but I'm really pleased with how these have turned out.  I'm going to be putting clones of it in other areas of the city too.



Three houses mostly furnished (ie just need a few more pictures and ornaments around) with a small communual garden out the back.



Off each entrance hall is the dining room:




and the kitchen:



On the first floor (second floor to all you Americans ;)) is the drawing room:




(I love the quarter tile cheat that comes with M&G BTW.  Couple it with a hack from MATY that makes most the mirrors movable using [ and ] and I can place tall mirrors over fireplaces without messing about with snapobjectstogrid false).



(Oh and these are the walls and ceilings I shared the other day).

There's also a small study:



Second (third) floor has the master bedroom:




And the master bathroom:



The top floor in the roof has another bathroom and, either one or two rooms for the children





Plans:






I really  am pleased wiht them and think they are a nice size.  They're not huge like A&A's turned out to be,  (I made it to original plans, and boy is it massive), but it's not tiny like Evie's (downloaded) house is.  I'm thinking about uploading it too.

Anyway I think that's enough from me tonight.

Comments

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

Yay picspam and outtakes!

It was actually really interesting to have your and Cee's updates come out one right after the other. Both deal with the illegitimate child issue. Even though both tend to regard the issue in the same way (the family can't possibly acknowledge the child), there's a definite difference in tone. With her Austens, it's obviously killing them to have to send Kitty away, but with the Grundstroms, it's a colder issue of reputation and perception.

I know that Maria's attitudes were quite common for the time period, but it's still pretty brutal to see it laid out there. Especially when she spoke such harsh words about Alexandra when we all know it was Joe that essentially used her. I wouldn't worry too much about making a minor character come off like that, though. It was necessary to convey the attitude of the time and explain why Joe would refuse to see his own children.

That said... BUNK BEDS! Where did you get those bunk beds? They don't look like the Grand Trianon collection set from MTS2.

Also, what did you mean about quarter tile cheat? I think I may have missed something valuable to know about. :)

I picked up a couple of books at Borders yesterday with floor plans in them. One of them is 'Victorian Floorplans'. It made me think of you. Hopefully it'll help me make some older looking houses. Everything I make screams of modern suburbia or just plain modern. :)

[dicreasy.livejournal.com]

I must admit I was a tad worried about dealing with the Grundstroms and the twins after Cait's update came out, because I knew the tone would be so different.

I think it's because the families are so different. The Austens are a very caring family, and in many ways I think if Alexandra had had to give up her children, the tone would have been similar to the one Cait went for with the Austens.

Maria however, is a very cold and logical woman. I see her as being a social climber. In my head the Grundstrom background is that Marcus built up his business on his own, rising through the social rankings as he did so. Maria I think was instrumental in that, pushing him to climb higher than he perhaps wanted to or felt comfortable with.

I went for strong words because unfortunately it was the woman who was blamed, and thought immoral, never the man. The fact that we know how Alexandra was essentially used makes the attitude totally unjustified and angers and upsets us. One of the areas I'm trying to develop with my writing at the moment is being able to elicit an emotional response from my readers. from the feedback, I think I'm doing a good job.

*nods* Maria has essentially become my poster child for Victorian Middle Class Morality.

The bunk beds were part of a lot I downloaded for the slums. I knew someone would ask about them so I checked when I put them in the house. They are part of the Grand Trianon set, but I'm not sure if the frame is a recolour or not.

Quarter tile is fantastic. Type setquartertileplacement on into the cheat box, and then when you press crtl F you can place items in the four quarters of a tile. Press crtl F to turn it back to normal placement without turning off the cheat.

You have to be slightly careful with using it because like the 45 degree cheat it can stop some objects from being used, but it's great for placing pictures etc on walls, and ceiling lights in the centre of the room.

Cool. I have the opposite problem. I've read so many books on Victorian interior designs and built so many Victorian houses that I can't build modern to save my life any more. I always end up Victorianising something. lol.

[avidreader7.livejournal.com]

Eddie and Bertie picspam is never pointless. It has the point of making us all go, "awww!" Plus I get to sigh over Eddie. :)

Those boys were making great faces in the bar! :D Too bad you couldn't actually use them. :)

And those townhouses look amazing! You did a great job on those. And I echo Orikes - quarter tile cheat? I haven't heard of that, but it sounds useful!

[dicreasy.livejournal.com]

I know, they're just adorable together. I was looking through some old pictures yesterday to do some recolours and I found all the ones of Eddie as a toddler. I awwed a lot then too.

I know. I have so many things I can never use, but make me smile anyway. that's why I like to share them here. :D

Thank you, I'm very pleased with them. I've explained the quarter tile cheat to Orikes above. IMO it was worth getting M&G for that and the roof slider alone.

[smoothiesims.livejournal.com]

Awwww outtakes for the win. TAKE HIM DOWN, ARIA. TEAR HIM TO SHREDS.

I really like the townhouses you made. They look functional and comfortable. I bet they'll be really useful ^_^

[dicreasy.livejournal.com]

Lot's of cute out-takes here today.

Aria is going to destroy him. I said to Jamie when I first mentioned I was going to be using her that she is going to reach into his chest and rip out his heart with her perfectly manicured hands and them step on it with her high heeled boots.

Thanks, I'm really pleased with them. Cyd Roseland has just moved into one of them to play test it for me, so I'll see soonish how they play too.

[leaths.livejournal.com]

I love the outtakes of the boys on their night out. Those were some great faces.

Your townhouses are lovely. All of your buildings make me want to crawl into your game and live there for a while.

You know, Maria's attitude didn't bother me much. Maybe I expected it or something? I remember thinking at one point that she might want to use her grandchildren to social climb, but I think you set me straight. Maybe that's why I wasn't so shocked at her during this chapter. Of course, it bothers me a lot to read those things said about Alexandra, but I can't muster up any anger at her, just a vague dislike. Maybe I am weird.

[dicreasy.livejournal.com]

My boys really do crack me up with the faces they pull.

Thanks I must admit sometimes I look at the houses in game and just think, why can't I live in a place like that?

Yeah I think if you know what the attitudes of the time were, then it's not such a shock to hear Maria speak as she does. It's not nice to hear Alexandra and her children called those names, but it's not a huge shock.

[jenga218.livejournal.com]

Like Lea, Maria's attitude didn't bother me, either. Such was simply the preception at the time. Wrong as she was about Alexandra, she honestly didn't know any better. If you've learned one way of life since birth, it's hard to accept a new attitude.

Also, she kept the twins from being wrongly influenced by their father, and probably by herself, too. That's a win for everyone.

The townhouses look fantastic, Di! I would do anything to be able to build like that.

I seriously need to read this Bohemian Legacy now. Anyone who can cause harm to Joe must be worth reading about. As soon as I finish the 5 other ones I'm working my way through, that is...

And, of course, I still hate Marielle. HAAATE! I'm really curious as to what the family will do to get rid of her. At this point, all I can think of is Eddie committing adultery, but that doesn't seem like something he'd do. I suppose, though, if worse comes to worse, he'd do whatever possible to get rid of her, for the sake of his family (especially Beth).

~Jane~

[dicreasy.livejournal.com]

*nods* She really was just repeating what the middle classes believed. We may find it difficult to comprehend their attitudes today, but they did exist.

Yeah there's always a silver lining, and in this case it's that the twins will never come under her influence.

Thanks, I do enjoy building and I'm pleased with how these have turned out.

Jamie's Bohemians are great, I really recommend them.

Yay for Marielle hate. No Eddie would never commit adultery, no matter how miserable he got. Also, you have to remember that I play with the Strict family Values handicap, so no extra-marital woohoo.

[jenga218.livejournal.com]

Yeah, kinda forgot about Strict Family Values. Also, I've been following the boolprop thread, and it appears that even if Eddie would (which I am sure he wouldn't) commit adultery, it had to be the wife's doing, not the husbands. Something about men have needs.

I've been trying to figure out how you're going to pull this off. It simply must be resolved. But I honestly have no idea how you are going to do it...

~Jane~

[dicreasy.livejournal.com]

Well, women could sue for divorce, but they needed to prove adultery AND either cruelty, bigamy, incest, desertion (having been deserted for 2 years) or bestiality. Obviously, Eddie isn't cruel or committing any of the other acts, so even if she wanted to, Marielle couldn't divorce him.

I've had the plan as to how I'm going to resolve this for ages now, but I'm slightly worried it will all be a let down. I just hope that I can make it an entertaining enough read.

[penguingirl03.livejournal.com]

Awwww....excuse me I have to reform from a pile of goo in order to write a comment. :-)

Eddie and Bertie are so very very cute together. It's nice to see them happy in the game even if they aren't written as such.

Those townhouses are gorgeous! Please let us know if you upload them. I would love to put Nelson and Emerald's descendants in them. Also, where did you get the realistic quilt bedding?

Thanks for explaining the quartertile cheat. I knew it existed but couldn't figure out what the actual cheat was. That will be so helpful!

[dicreasy.livejournal.com]

I know, I always melt when I see Eddie interact with Bertie.

For the most part the family is happy, but I do have to have the sims do things I would rather not. since it will all pay off in the end I try not to dwell on it too much.

Will do. I want to make a small change to them, and then I'm going to sort out putting together an upload of them.

The quilts come from T$R. This set here: http://www.thesimsresource.com/artists/STP Carly/downloads/details/category/sims2-sets-objects/title/Farmer Quilts. I deleted a lot of the ones I didn't want but there are some nice ones in there. In fact T$R is pretty good for quilts.

It's a great cheat: so useful for making a house look more like a real home.

[docnerd.livejournal.com]

I know Maria's attitude is accurate, but that doesn't mean I have to like it! No one's allowed to be mean to Alexandra!

Marielle's parenting style reminds me a lot of PseudoBruty's. Put the baby down, and do what SHE wants to do. Once it's born, she's done with it.

Nummy Theo makes good Bar Faces.

The new apartments look sweet! Very pretty.

[dicreasy.livejournal.com]

I agree, you don't have to like it at all. Alexandra's so lovely, she doesn't deserve to be called a whore, especially since we know that Joe is the one who talked her into bed. I really don't think she would have woohooed him if he hadn't of told her he loved her that night.

Oh yes, I think they definitely went to the same school of parenting. "What? I carried it for three days, and you want me to do more? Are you insane? I've done my part."

Nummy Theo just makes good faces full stop.

Thanks, I like them, and I think they'll play well too.

[hurrisims.livejournal.com]

It seriously is totally perfect that Bertie looks so much like his daddy. It's like the game knows we don't wanna look at Marielle for any longer than we have to! That means he looks like Beth, too! Do him and Eddie even have the same general.. face shape.. thing, you know, cheeks and stuff?

Even your picspam can make us hate Marielle more! GET OFF YOUR ASS AND PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR ADORABLE SON.

I totally can understand how Maria's attitude would be fitting of the era but.. grr, still, it doesn't make it right.

[dicreasy.livejournal.com]

I know, the game is too good at times. I've gone into bodyshop and done something I've been meaning to do for a little while: I've put together a (rather large) comparison for you all.



The only difference I can see is that if you look closely at Bertie's cheek, there is a noticeable dent where his cheekbones meet the rest of his cheek. Eddie doesn't have that. That is it. He is a real Eddie clone.

Oh she's just a lazy cow, make no mistake.

[hurrisims.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow, I've looked at that picture several times now trying to spot SOMETHING, and that really is it. There really is no other difference besides the cheekbones, and even that takes a while to spot if you're not reminded it's there.

[dicreasy.livejournal.com]

I know. When I first grew Bertie up in bodyshop, I couldn't believe it. I saved him as an adult and spent about ten minutes flicking back and forth between him and Eddie, looking at different angles trying to find the differences. That really is it.

[mysterymusic7.livejournal.com]

First I HATE Marielle. She is one of the worst sim parents I've ever seen. I don't know how you are going to reslove this, and for some reason as I was reading an idea popped into my head that is probably so far off I'm not even going to mention it. I suck at prediciting things.

Second, Bertie is so cute. I just. I mean...he makes me turn into a big puddle with every picutre. What mother could possibly ignore him? I mean just look at him! He's so adorable.

Third, I completely understand why you have Maria act the way she does. It doesn't mean I like the way she talks about Alexandra, but considering the time she lived in and the beliefs of the period it's not surprising that she would react that way. I'm really enjoying the A/A and Joe storyline this generation.

I know you are doing a wonderful job of pulling out my emotions with Eddie's story too, but I'm serioulsy wishing he could be happy. And plus seeing Beritie so miserable only intesified my desire to see the family happy again. I almost cried when I saw him so unhappy.

[dicreasy.livejournal.com]

Marielle really is a bad parent. If it wasn't for the other three adults in the house I really do think that Bertie and Stuart would have been taken away by the SoWo.

Resolution is coming.

I know, I just melt whenever I look at Bertie. that face is just so adorable on toddlers.

It's one of those things were, even though you don't like it, you just have to accept it, because it was the attitude of the time.

Thank you, although I don't feel good about making people cry, I am trying to tug the heartstrings a bit, and develop my writing.

[governess-anne.livejournal.com]

Maria needs to shut up and get locked in a closet. No one's mean to Alexandra!

I want to kill Marielle even MORE now. I didn't think that was possible.

You know, I think the game hates Marielle as much as we do. I mean it's SO PERFECT that Bertie looks exactly like his father.

[dicreasy.livejournal.com]

Hehehe, lots of Maria hate floating around.

And Marielle hate.

I was so, so happy to see Bertie look like Eddie when he toddlerfied, and then when I grew him up in bodyshop, I couldn't believe it. Apart from the hair colour, I can't see any of Marielle in him at all.

[dgjamie.livejournal.com]

Yay for post update picspam!


I love all your Victorian Knowledge Di! You think it all through so perfectly and even if we don't understand exactly the reasonning because we're not as well informed as you are, I think we definitely can appreaciate how realistic and wonderful your final product is.

Glad you're enjoying Aria, she's a great one to shoot, or at least she always has been for me. And not that she needs telling this from me of course but, Show no mercy Baby girl, make him suffer. And hopefully soon there will be someone around to make Marielle Suffer.

[dicreasy.livejournal.com]

I love posting post update picspam. :)

Thanks, I do a lot of research for this, but I enjoy it. It's lovely to hear that it is noticed and appreciated. *hug*

Aria is great, thanks so much for the little brain baby that spawned this idea. :D