T w e n t y S i d e d

The year is 2007, and Lorretta is gone. Kelly and Michael are devastated, as is Logan, although him with much less understanding of what’s happened, only that grandma is gone.

Lorretta has left Kelly and Michael the house in her will, as well as half of what she had saved. Kelly’s older sister got the other half, and Lorretta’s car.

At first, who got what doesn’t seem to matter that much, in the midst of grief and funeral arrangements. Kelly and Michael aren’t celebrating getting the house, they knew that was Lorretta’s plan and it makes plenty of sense to them; they’ve been living in it for the last seven years.

Kelly’s sister, Jen, though? She doesn’t feel like it’s so fair.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Sims 4 Overthinking: Jentle Disagreement”

Bay Jubilee Oldest child of Shamus Young. They/Them

It’s now 2006, Lorretta is 61, Logan is five. Kelly and Michael are married, and Lorretta has cancer.

The few weeks after the concerning diagnosis are a blur. The doctors at the ER are worried it’s progressed due to her symptoms, but the specialist she’s sent to is really optimistic it’s not. The nurse doing her blood draw helpfully mentions she has an uncle who recently died of cancer, but one of Lorretta’s colleagues at the library has herself been cancer-free for twenty years. Everyone has something different to say, and none of it is collaborated in any way because none of these people know each other. If Lorretta wasn’t under an over-abundance of stress and worry, she’d be understanding about that, but as it is she wishes these idiots could have a group call and get their stories straight.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Sims 4 Overthinking: Ice Cream and Noodles”

Bay Jubilee Oldest child of Shamus Young. They/Them

Michael and Kelly are engaged, and then quickly married. Michael’s mom can be a nosy piece of work, and so although the couple planned to hold a ceremony proper, that quickly proved too dramatic for either of them. They eloped shortly after Logan’s first birthday. She takes his last name, less for tradition and more for the fact that she never liked ‘Whitman’. This makes them Michael and Kelly Zhu, and provides an interesting hurtle of changing their baby’s last name to match.

I was going to insert a family photo here, but two hours of effort and sims infuriatingly ignoring me, I give up. It’s not a Sims play-through if you don’t at least once want to scream into the void. Turns out, the photography stuff doesn’t work with babies yet, since they’re too new a feature, in 2023. I hate this game.

But yes, back to the elephant in the room, the elephant that is now likely bored after watching me shake my fist at a broken video game for two hours.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Sims 4 Overthinking: Too Many Surprises”

Bay Jubilee Oldest child of Shamus Young. They/Them