4.57 More Money Than Sense

Gradually, the household creates new routines.

Lela doesn't know anyone on the force in Monte Vista, but given her work history she is generously hired on to do low level police work. Mostly reports processing, which she can do from home.

Milo the sports legend no longer plays for a team, but continues to make good money with marketing deals. He signs autographs and promotes businesses he doesn't actually care about.

"Azzo Ricardo? Any relation to Luca Ricardo?"

"He was my father. That makes us distantly related you know!" the young fan gushes.

Milo has never felt so old.

Milo's grandmother—Terry Taylor—and Azzo's grandfather—Fred Taylor—were siblings, though Azzo here is only Fairuza's age.

Carlos has officially retired, what with no local demand for astrophysicists, and his elder birthday coming up soon. He occupies his time starting a new garden...

...and cooking perfect meals with perfect produce.

Truly an exact science.

Carlos has bulked up in the muscle department because while I was focusing so much on the teen characters in Starlight Shores, Milo was constantly challenging his brother to basketball hoops contests.

Cooking, gardening and housekeeping aren't enough to keep Carlos entertained forever though, so pretty soon he's conducting mad science experiments in the barn.

Don't worry, he's just trying to further improve produce quality.

Ceth no longer puts on performances for huge crowds, but she still delivers sing-o-grams to die-hard fans willing to shell out enough simoleons.

Too many people have more money than sense.

"Hey, aren't you from Starlight Shores?"

"Yeah. Robbie Platt. Uh, Rob. Rob Platt."

"I know, it says on the payment receipt."

 Ceth is surprised by how many sims followed her to Monte Vista.

 Mercedes May was not swayed by Ceth's social media posts, exactly, but one of her kids is dating someone who was, so here they are.

Hey look, Swan on Fire is practicing nearby.

You do you, Lucida.

Angelita Lee was quick to pick up a local lover, and her new boyfriend was right to think a sing-o-gram from Sister Sell Out would impress her.

"I love it so much here! If I have a son, I'm naming him after you."

Ceth frowns. "Uhh, thanks."

Dysen doesn't have any long term goals. His parents aren't pushing him to do anything but have excellent grades. So he's keeping his options open and hoping something catches his interest.

He has the ambitious trait, so this lack of direction bothers him sometimes.

Cats picture.

Cat picture.

Cat picture.

Caaaaat picture.

More. Cats.

Cats cats cats cats.

Video games with dad.

Carlos checks in on his parents often. They seem happy and healthy, despite their advanced age.

Lela's unstable trait causes her to lose the childish trait and pick up the supernatural skeptic trait instead. Considering she shares a household with three werewolves, this development is a real pain in the tail.

Milo, a good brother in law, convinces Lela to go to the hospital for some drugs or whatever magically cures these episodes. Normally Lela doesn't bother getting treatment and is a revolving door of random traits, but this one was pretty bad.

So Lela goes to the hospital.

She almost turns around and flees when she sees this creepy sidewalk art, but for the sake of her son and husband, she gets the treatment, which is free of charge and works instantly. If only things were so easy in the narrator's universe.

Ceth visits Mech.

Mech is overjoyed to see her, and invites her inside to chat over tea.

He can't drink the tea himself, but he is always prepared for visitors.

Robot fishes.

Dysen rolls a wish to order pizza. He waits for everyone to be in bed at around 1 AM to do it, because he almost feels bad wanting something other than his father's carefully prepared, nutritionally sound meals.

ALMOST.

Awww yeah this is good pizza.

Mmmmmmmmmmm

Benino orders a sing-o-gram for Lucida.

Since she's already at the Worries & Woes Country Pub, Ceth steps inside for a drink. "I'll have an organic, herbal Red Rocket, with two ice cubes."

"You're one of Swan on Fire's kids right?" Xaviera Bianchi is the granddaughter of Benino's cousin Tami, but he was never close to that branch of the family.

Ceth narrows her eyes and takes her specialty tea, not correcting the woman.

"Rumor was you three all died," Xaviera continues. "Like, the old blue lady is a witch and she cooked you in a stew. My grandfather told me the same thing would happen to me if I misbehaved."

"That's seriously f***ucked up," Ceth says flatly.

Finally, it is Dysen's birthday. A few people are invited to help celebrate and eat cake.

Lucida and Izalee are the first to arrive. Lu brought some deep fried strawberry fritters.

Molly's mother, Holly, brought some deep fried... something. I'm sensing a pattern.

Holly is not pleased to learn this town has simbots. Everyone knows simbots steal jobs.

Hugs for grandpa.

Aside from Molly, Dysen only had one schoolfriend to invite—Karla Elson—and before even hearing her speak, Ceth knows the girl is from Starlight Shores, and a Sister Sell Out fan.

It's that double bun hair.

Dancing, mingling. Mech panics when he thinks about how old his creator's kids and grandkids and great-grandkids are getting. 

Molly's father, Seth, makes things awkward by showing up drunk.

He's a grumpy, absent minded slob with commitment issues. And also a mooch. He has a lot of questions pertaining to the wealth of his daughter's boyfriend's family.

Milo rescues his nephew, politely steering the conversation to sports until Seth leaves.

There's only one guest Dysen really cared about seeing, and that's Molly herself.

"Gorgeous, absolutely stunning," he greets her. "Should I be concerned about the symbolism of the roses in the garbage?"

Molly looks down at her shirt. "Hmm, no."

Nobody threw the flowers in the trashcan, she explains. The flowers are just growing there. Something pretty out of something unwanted.

Dysen ages up.

And everybody eats cake.









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Etc.: Lela's career is too glitched out to play properly. She can write endless stakeout reports though.

The one party crasher there is Darino Moretti, Ben's nephew. I know it looks like half the town is still related to Ben, but I swear I evicted the majority of them. The issue is not only did Ben have two sisters, he had three uncles and an aunt, resulting in seven first cousins.

Generation 5 begins!

4.56 New Territory

Carlos, Lela, Milo, Ceth and Dysen arrive safely in Monte Vista.

Lucida's first concern is her sons' teeth. Have they been taken care of properly?

(Yes, of course.)

Izalee has transitioned to elder phase.

The Goldbeard home is technically big enough to house another four adults, five cats and a teenager, but Carlos doesn't want to disrupt his parents' lives by rearranging all their stuff to accommodate that, so he purchases an old farm house on the edge of town.

It has four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a huge kitchen, a small barn, and plenty of common space, so it's exactly enough room for everyone.

The home is typical of Monte Vista styles, and came furnished with a few basics.

"I know it's not what you're used to," Carlos apologizes, "but we'll make it feel like home. You'll see."

"It's perfect, Carlos... all I care about is that we're together."

The family wastes no time filling the new house up with their old junk.

Plus some new junk.

Objects have to be upgraded.

Walls have to be beautified.

Gnomes Fan territory has to be marked.

Lots of settling in to do.

Even after unpacking his things and throwing his old posters on the wall, Dysen feels like his bedroom is eerily empty and quiet.

 They gave him the one with purple floral wallpaper, because purple is his favorite color.

It's... not really his style though.

Dysen looks out his window and sees fields and trees. Endless. Picturesque.

No cars honking, no waves crashing against the ocean, no obnoxious beach parties or neighbors screaming at each other across the street. Just silence.

Every once in a while birds chirping, or a rainstorm or something... but mostly, silence.

Dysen feels like his family moved onto a horror movie set.

"What's the matter, puppy?"

"Don't call me that..."

"What makes you think something's the matter? Everything's fine."

"A mother just knows."

"I don't want to cause any drama."

"You don't like it here," Lela theorizes.

"It's... it's boring. My classmates make fun of my accent. Everything is dead quiet. There's nothing to do."

"You'll find a way to make your own fun," Lela reassures him. "I think I know why you're blue. You miss your cousins. Your little pack was always around you, making noise and trouble."

Dysen wonders if she has a point. Maybe he's lonely. He won't ever admit to that, though, so he shrugs at his mother and goes back to concentrating on his homework.

At least he still has Molly. She's not doing any better with their classmates.

They visit a local restaurant for a romantic lasagna dinner.

"It's veggie lasagna, so no embarrassing throwing up on this date."

"You're trying to change your accent to talk like them," Molly notices. "Why?"

"I'm improving my charisma skill."

"I think you should be yourself."

"I am being myself. I need to network."

After lasagna, they head upstairs to mess with the arcade machines.

Molly's father, Seth, is pretending to supervise/spy on the date, but he finds himself more interested in Night of the Shambling Shades IV.  He doesn't say a single word to the teens.

"Come by the house tomorrow? You'll be impressed with the wide open spaces." Dysen has already seen the small cottage Molly's family now resides in.

"Sounds good. I could use some room to breathe."

"Just don't judge me for the tacky wallpaper. I'm not allowed to rip it down."

"Tacky is one word for this town. Would you look at this place? You can't just shove a bunch of game cabinets in an attic and call it an arcade. And I'm sitting on a barrel."

"It has a rich artistic history or whatever. Isn't that up your alley?"

Molly scoffs. "I bet Overdressed Owl didn't expect to be where he is right now in life either."

Despite insulting the poor arcade, which was only added by the restaurant owners to try to bring happiness to patrons' lives, Dysen and Molly try out most of the machines.

"Ugh, clowns are bad enough on their own, but now they're vampire clowns?"

The date ends poetically on Dysen vomiting up a candy bar from one of the vending machines.

The next morning, Milo is up at dawn to bother Dysen while he waits for the school bus. "Catch!"

"Ow! This isn't exactly fair, Uncle Milo!"

"Just pick it up and throw it back."

"Fine..."

"Your mom said you might be having trouble in school."

"I make straight A's."

"Well, not that kind of trouble. You're not Acheron."

"It's fine. I don't need a pep talk. I can deal with it."

"I'm here for you if you ever need to talk, Dyse."

"Thanks."

"But hey, isn't this place amazing? The pleasant smell in the air alone is worth it."

Dysen grunts, finally managing to catch the ball. "Huh? Sure I guess it's nice in a way."

"We'll have to go out hunting as a pack sometime. Oh, hey, you caught it!"

"You're getting older and slower, Uncle Milo!"






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Etc.: Okay, Dysen didn't age up this chapter. Maybe next chapter.

Initially I was going to have the family move back into the old house (with Lucida, Ben, and Izalee), but I'm tired of playing an overstuffed household so this happened instead.

If you're curious about what I did with the rest of Monte Vista's population... I aged up everyone to the ages they would have been if I'd have been playing that town all this time, and paired up the sims in Carlos and Milo's age range so I could make them have children that are Dysen's age now.

I also took the opportunity to save several of Ben's relatives to the bin and remove them from the town. The plan is to drop them in other saves someday.

Finally, I moved in sims from Starlight Shores (including Molly and her parents), and also dropped in a few from Midnight Hollow that I will pretend were living in Starlight Shores. I'm probably never going to play in that town, because it's too dark to see anything, so. It was a good target for pillaging.