Rendle Legacy Chapter 2

When we last left Phoebe, she had graduated Academie le Tour with honors and a degree in economics, and chosen this atrocious dress to start her adult life in. She went real estate shopping and bought a huge plot of land on which to found her legacy.

My, what a lovely football field you have, Phoebe. A 5X6 lot, lots of room for lots of stuff. And no pesky neighbors to spy on her.

Good thing, too, I'm sure any neighborhood association would have a major hissy fit over this setup.

"As the first person here, I plan to impose my taste upon all who follow."

First you need to get some taste of your own, Phoebe. Too bad you don't have the money to buy better clothes yet.

Ah, these should help. At university, Phoebe crossbred money trees, and ended up with this lovely blue variety which nets her two hundred simoleans a pop.

(OK, I hate harvesting money trees. So I cloned, recolored, and hacked a new money tree to yield five times the cash for five times the aspiration cost. I imposed the rule of one of these money trees per Sim, two per Fortune Sim, upon myself. I like the blue color better than the yellow, too.)

Time for the welcome wagon! Weirdly, it includes both my boyfriend's Sim, Kish, looking rather sad... probably because he doesn't look anything like himself, eesh.

And my selfsim, Emily. I haven't played these two at all, just plunked them down on empty lots.

Hours of tweaking, and she STILL doesn't look right. Bah :-P

And I was about to say you were cute, Nolan. Well, just for that, I will marry you into a Legacy family and torture you. Perhaps you will be an "eaten by flies" ghost one of these days.

Nolan, what a doink.

"See? I was right to go for the big noses."

Yeah, yeah, so why don't you want to call Warren now?

"Invite him over when all I have to wear is this dress? I don't think so."

I think he'd be perfectly happy if you had literally nothing to wear, Phoebe.

Still no athletic jobs today. It's the only job Phoebe wants

Phoebe! What are you doing?

"Mmph."

"Why did she kiss me? Does this mean I still have a chance with her? What about Warren? He's my best friend. Oh, I am so confused."

Poor Thomas, he's a nice Family Sim.

So, Phoebe, what DO you want, anyway?

"A sink, a car, a loveseat, a table, an expensive stereo, and to start my athletic career."

Great.

The joys of lawn living: kicky bag in the, er, kitchen.

Let's settle this once and for all. Time to invite Warren over and see if some real competition ensues.

Oh geez, Thomas. Poor guy, seeing the woman he has a crush on with his best friend. Phoebe, you really need to stop playing around.

"What the -- I don't even know you people, and you start making out right in front of me? Oh, I am so going back to the bowling alley and telling everyone about this. Freaks." Joanne Kim is not amused.

On the other hand, Lois, the teenager in the background, thinks it's quite hilarious. "'Grown-ups', huh?"

And poor Thomas studiously ignores the whole thing.

"There is no passion, there is peace." Thomas will not yield to the Dark Side, no matter how much of a tease Phoebe is.

"Oh, jeez, they're doing it AGAIN."

That's right, just parade in your undies in front of the teenage girl.

It's time for Phoebe to settle down and stop teasing Family Sims. Warren has moved in, bringing a whopping $425. He's a Popularity Sim with 4 neat, 10 outgoing, 4 active, 4 playful, and an unexpectedly low 3 nice. His lifetime want... have 20 best friends. Grr.

He also wants to be a politician. Running around in tightie whities in front of the neighbors is probably not the best election strategy.

Since they both want a car, they get this lovely shiny Volkswagen Beetle in Phoebe's favorite gold color.

I can't really blame Phoebe for wanting a sink that costs $500. This is the second time this one has broken in two days.

Phoebe finally got her dream job, and started pumping iron for promotions. Unfortunate choice of workout clothes.

I would think woo-hooing in a Beetle would be rather uncomfortable than otherwise, but Phoebe and Warren seem to be enjoying themselves.

This is about the sixth dream date these two have had, and Phoebe STILL doesn't want to marry Warren. Warren has wanted to marry her since the first date. Phoebe is surprisingly unconventional for a Fortune Sim.

She may be broke, but I couldn't stand to look at Phoebe in that pink dress any more. So she went downtown and spent upwards of $1000 on clothes for her and Warren.

"Because clothing is SO much more important than walls."

Going downtown was worth it for more than clothes. Phoebe actually stopped obsessing about stuff for long enough to roll the want to marry Warren. Yay! Oddly, neither of them want to get engaged, just go straight to married...

"Engagements are a culturally-manufactured way to inflate the importance of marriage and the wedding ritual. They funnel more money to the wedding industrial complex, making normal women into bridezillas who force their friends to spend hundreds of dollars on hideous matching outfits and obsess over place settings."

You don't want to register for stuff?

"Pfft. I can earn my own stuff. Besides, diamond rings are a medieval expressions of one Sim's ownership of another. And diamond mining is an exploitative and violent industry."

Wow, a social conscience and political views? Phoebe, are you becoming deep, caring, and morally aware?

"And do you have any idea how much those stupid rings COST? And weddings -- why, think of how many stereos I could buy with that money!"

*sigh*

Oh, great. The perils of lawn living.

Yep, she got away before the police got there. Phoebe is taking it surprisingly well, with no aspiration hit.

"Meh, I live mostly on a lawn. These things happen."

"But how did the burglar get my CAR too?!"

Magic.

"Stupid bus. Stupid burglar. I want my car back. And a burglar alarm, while we're at it."

Phoebe bought the same car after being promoted to All-Star. She just can't resist the shiny gold color.

Warren takes Phoebe to swanky Londoste, which they really can't afford, to celebrate her promotion. Mr. 10 Outgoing Politician of course ends up talking about his own career.

He does, however, get around to his real reason for asking her out. Phoebe, I thought you were against diamond rings?

"Sparrrrkkkllly."

Phoebe's not very good at living up to her political convictions when sparkly things are involved.

Thomas is starting to creep me out. He shows up downtown whenever Phoebe goes there. Maybe it's coincidence...

A little celebratory public woo-hoo at the "romantic" Lost in Love Hedge Maze.

Warren has a really dumb smirk on his face.

"Do you know how many votes this is gonna get me? Woo-hooing with an All Star in public, oh yeah."

Phoebe is waving at... uh... Warren's cell phone. Yeah, that's it.

"I told you, big noses --"

Ahem, moving on.

So, what are Warren and Phoebe doing waaay back there?

Waiting while I build them a "house". A wedding party with no roof would just be embarrassing.

Phoebe finally gets her $1800 stereo: a karaoke machine.

I forgot to take a photo of the wedding itself. But here's everyone clapping!

A surprisingly neat cake stuff. Note everyone ignoring them. This party became a Good Time in under two minutes with no help from either Warren or Phoebe. All the guests are perfectly happy to socialize with each other.

I didn't know who this was until I saw the money bag floating over her head.

Woah, Candice is definitely gunning for a rich Sim.

Kish Sim and Emily Sim have been so busy talking to each other that they haven't even grabbed cake yet, and everyone else is finished with their slices.

I would love to say this was completely realistic. But passing up cake... you can always eat cake and talk at the same time, you know.

Whah? Thomas and Suzie? That came out of nowhere, they have no lightning bolts for each other. I thought that was just a friendly kiss, or I would have gotten a picture.

Well, looks like Thomas is moving on.

Smooth, Thomas, one little kiss and she's in love. I can't fault your timing, a wedding's a good place for it, but your actual physical location directly behind the married couple's a little weird. Trying to upstage them?

1) Why did Phoebe change into her everyday clothes, and
2) Why is she standing in the middle of the road right in front of the limo?

Time for Phoebe to carry Warren over the threshold. She IS the athlete in the family, after all.

Well, the threshold of the driveway, anyway.

Guess the car isn't exactly the "safest" place to woo-hoo. Obligatory morning sickness photo.

Phoebe does actually want a baby. Warren is oblivious, though.

Tummy bump #1.

This is what I get for making fun of dormies falling asleep in their food.

Bump #2

Warren pulled out all the stops in a greasy, slimy, no-holds barred campaign against his party's rivals. Of course his party won. He apparently took Karl Rove's correspondance course.

His party sent him this lovely bonus of $30,000 to help him and Phoebe with the soon-to-be new baby. The fact that it came after their candidate won the election due to Warren's disgustingly unethical maneuvering is purely coincidental. *wink wink*

Warren immediately spends 2/3 of it. And we have a real house!

Well, on the outside, anyway. It's still furnished with the same old cheap lawn crap.

"Do you have to do this NOW? The carpool's waiting for me!"

"Tell ya what, next time I'll work and you have the baby."

Welcome to the world, Rachel Rendle.

Warren gets to stay home and take care of the baby. Phoebe needs to get back to earning money.

Warren is the worst Sim singer I have ever heard. He has an amazing ability to span three octaves in one bar of music, accidentally.

Sim babies are so cute when they're being bathed.

It's time for Rachel to grow into a toddler. I wonder if she'll be traumatized by the llama blowing a kazoo at her.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd183/neriana111/Rendle%20Legacy/Rendle%20Legacy%20Chapter%202/2_64.jpg

Rachel is an Aries (of course) with 10 neat, 9 outgoing, 5 active, 6 playful, and 3 nice. She shouldn't have any problems building skills, but I think she's going to be a handful.

The llama wants to be friends with Rachel. Rachel wants to discuss Pythagorus' theories with her Wobby Wabbit.

Phoebe proves that pregnancy didn't slow her down.

An MVP with 10 body skill vs. a state assemblyman. Gee, I wonder who's going to win that fight.

First Warren teaches Rachel how to talk...

then potty trains her (those zzz's were stuck above her head for quite a while)...

then her mommy teaches her how to walk.

This is the only couple I've ever had who has never rolled a want to interact with their toddler. Not. One. Popularity Sims are always the most disinterested parents, in my experience, followed by Fortune Sims, but this is ridiculous.

Oh, I take it back, Warren does want to throw a birthday party.

That birthday party will be taking place next chapter. For now, I leave you with this lovely picture of the firstborn, the pride and joy of the Rendles. Darling, isn't she?