lakewood_bacc | Week 3, Part 5: Broke (TPC)

Hello, and welcome back to Lakewood: Just a BaCC! This is the fifth instalment of the third week, and it's time for the Broke family TPC. Let's get to it, shall we?
Morning, Brandi, how are you?

Brandi: "Kind of nauseous, actually."
Right. Like Daniel Fortunato next door, also Brandi got pregnant late last week.

She and John currently have one child, Jeff, who's currently a toddler. Brandi tried to start her morning by teaching him how to walk.

Unfortunately, her morning sickness got the better of her and she had to rest and take a bubble bath, so Jeff had to manage on his own for a bit.

When John had woken up and taken care of his needs, he got to work on the car that they bought last week when he moved in. He managed to finish working on the body.

Unfortunately, the final part, painting the car, wouldn't work. On the last minute, the interaction would just glitch out. Dammit, what's wrong with you, car?

While making dinner, Brandi got her first baby pop. Finally, no more morning sickness!
Brandi: "Amen!"

After dinner, Brandi was in good enough shape to try painting the car, in case it was John that having the problem. It was to no avail, only made Brandi's fingers emit a yellow paint smoke. We tried forcing errors with the batbox, but that didn't help it either.

Meanwhile, John was at least more successful in teaching Jeff to walk than Brandi had been.

Brandi had a bit of a rough time being pregnant. In the morning, her needs were so low that she woke up to nightmares.
Brandi: "Goodness, I dreamt that I was stuck in a trailer with no money and with way too many kids!"
It was just a bad dream. Go back to sleep Brandi.

Meanwhile, John tried to get the car painted again, black this time, in case it was the particular color that was acting up.
Nope.

So instead, John headed to the Walmart to dig for some treasure for the yard sale for next summer.

What was perhaps more interesting than John's digging in the dirt was the fact that apparently his canonical spouse hooked up with Regan's canonical spouse.

John: "You gotta be kidding me. It's below freezing out here and I just burst the water pipe."
Apparently today is a day when nothing goes well.

After John stuffed the land back into the water pipe (that's totally the way to fix it), I decided to see if anything might go right that day. John called Darren Dreamer, with whom he previously has red hearts, and asked him for a date. He happily agreed, so so far so good.

Apparently John was happy to see him, too.

Interestingly, John would keep rolling wants for Darren, but they stayed friendly. Tickle Darren, tell a joke to Darren, appreciate Darren, tickle Darren again... I think that's the first time I've seen this happen.

When I left them alone for a bit, they did walk straight into the photobooth, though.

No lullaby, too bad. Also, there were no try for baby dialogs, even though I have them on. When we returned home, I even checked that unmarried try for baby was allowed, and it was. At this point, I wondered whether it was in fact Darren that initiated the woohoo – in that case John wouldn't be able to get pregnant.

In any case, the date was pretty good. If I wanted to get some results from John's stepping out on Brandi, I'd have to figure something else out.

Back at home, Brandi was right where we left her. Eating. The pregnancy is quite tough on her, and she's pretty much stuck in a cycle of eat-bathroom-fun-sleep.

Darren stopped by to deliver a date flower, which was promptly sold, as the rules allow that. The family gained 15 simoleans, whoo!

Now I'm going to try this one more time, on the driveway, in case that would help, and if that doesn't work, I'll just claim the car finished. They've painted it like five damn times, so it should count as done.

Yes! Boys and girls, preliminary evidence would seem to indicate that the restorable car can otherwise be worked on the lawn, but the painting would seem to require it to be positioned on a driveway.
+1 point for finishing a junk car, and that gets us back on the positive points-wise. *mumbles about stupid chance card last week*

Huh? How'd ya do that, game? Some oddity with move_objects on, I suppose. Now let's get it fixed so that John can go back to the Walmart.

Where it seems that Cornwall is getting around some.

But he and Jennifer, they're in love.

But that wasn't was this was supposed to be about. This is about John and Darren. I regrouped and formed a new plan, and now we're ready for a new try.

No date this time, we'll just get right down to business, because if he's already having an affair, I want an illegitimate baby out of it, damn it! To make sure that it's John that initiates the woohoo (and that they woohoo so soon after the last time, in the first place) I chose the "auto woo" option.

No try for baby dialogs this time either – now that I think of it, I suppose it makes sense that since John is married to someone else, they won't try. But, that doesn't matter, 'cause I got lucky, and we have a risky! Third pregnancy of the generation and the first illegitimate baby is on the way!

John: "Hoo... hooray, I think?"

Back to home, where we now have two pregnant sims. What have I done?
Well, I suppose that just means that they'll eat. A lot.

John's phone also rings a lot, since he has a lot of friends with lowish relationship scores. He got the discount thing, although Brandi already has it, so I don't know if they can get it twice. Still, thanks Erin, it's nice of you.

Brandi gets her second pop. Almost there!

It's also time for Jeff's child birthday, but he doesn't know the Nursery rhyme yet, so Brandi gets to teach him.
Come on Jeff, you want it and it's your birthday, and it's the principle of the thing!

And of course, about two seconds before Jeff would have learned it, Brandi is too tired to continue. *sigh* Alright, alright, go to bed, I'll kick John up instead.
I would have liked Jeff to get the memory from Brandi, but we need him to grow up asap so that we don't need to buy a second crib that we then won't need at least yet.

So John is called to duty to finish what Brandi started, and like I predicted, it just took one more singthrough.

Alright then, Jeff, time to grow up! Daddy will watch you, but Mommy is just too tired.

There you go! Still looking cute. Now off to bed with you, either Mommy or Daddy will get you something more TPC to wear tomorrow. If we can afford it.

In the night, Darren snuck on the lot to leave a date gift. Thanks, Darren! The family already has lamps, but it's a nice addition to the yard sale in the summer.

In the morning, Brandi's misery and cycle of eat-bathroom-fun-sleep continues.

Meanwhile, John gets to clean the plates that Brandi leaves around.

Not that he has it all that easy himself.

Bye Jeff, have a good day at school. Sorry you have to go in that old outfit, Mommy and Daddy are just in no shape to go out yet.
Jeff: "It's ok, it's just an outfit."

Like I said, absolutely in no shape. This is Brandi's, poor girl.

But with some hard work from us all, Brandi recovers her needs to a decent shape. Including fun, which seems to drop like a rock. So she's deemed to be in good enough shape for a quick trip to Walmart.

She needs to accomplish two things. First, it's high time that she got her job back.
As you might remember, last week Brandi had to quit her job thanks to a stupid chance card mishap by me. Now the rules say that she can't go back immediately, but should rather go in another career if it's available. A position in Slacker just became available this week when the Curiouses founded a club, but I didn't want her to switch, so I meant to wait for a few days. That turned into a few more because of the rough pregnancy. But this baby is due soon, so after it's born it's high time for Brandi to go back. This time, she got a level 1 position, presumably because we got rid of some skill points last week.

The other thing that Brandi needed to do, was to buy her son some clothes. Very carefully, not spending any more than necessary, because money doesn't grow on trees.

After that, she was exhausted enough to go straight to bed. John kept her company.

Jeff came home from school and got a makeover. That's more like it, I think!

John: "Oh, I'm pregnant."
Yep, that'd happen you know.

Jeff dragged John outside to play catch. Apparently his favorite hobby is hurling baseballs at his pregnant old man.

But now it's time for Jeff's little brother or sister to make an appearence.

The whole family rushed to look, and yes, both Brandi and John wanted a baby.

Meet Jack Broke, Jeff's baby brother. Upon seeing that he has John's coloring I remembered that I forgot to go roll the die in CAS. So he might be a clone. Whoops.
But +2 points for a legitimate child in any case.

Jack gets some nice comfy clothes. Fortunately we bought some extras in the first place so that not everyone needs to wear the same thing.

In the spirit of letting kids be kids, I've tried to let Jeff decide for himself what he wants to do for fun. Apparently he wasn't very interested in the family's tv, so I checked the finances and decided that they can afford an easel. Jeff seemed to get the hint, as he went to it just about immediately.

I also don't know whether to blame the milkman or what, but he also sometimes cleans autonomously. Yes, he's a legitimate kid and I think I've yet to see Brandi or John clean anything on their own.

As homework is explicitly allowed in the rules, Brandi got to teach her son how to do it. Finally she was able to teach him something without going to needs desperation in the middle of it!

Time for a quick trip to Walmart! Who might be joining Brandi in the photobooth?

Got you! Just re-doing the portrait now that Brandi has her official look and isn't pregnant for a change. I'll have to remember to John's at some point.

Here we go, it's looking pretty nice, isn't it?

Before work, Brandi gets some phonetime. I have a tentative plan for that fourth obligatory pregnancy we've yet to go. Meanwhile, the pregnant John gets to eat.

Whoops, that phone time almost made Brandi late for work. Run Brandi run, we need that money!

John wanted to catch some bugs, so I let him. He even managed to catch something pretty quickly.

John: "Aaaaaaaaa!"
Hey, it was you who wanted it.

School tanks Jeff's fun meter, so apparently instead of doing something about it, he'll stand around and complain about it. *sigh*

So once John's second pregnancy pop is done with...

... he gets to play red hands with his son. Conveniently, Jeff happened to want to play with a relative.

After that one game of red hands, he's happy to go paint on his own again.

Daddy burned dinner, but in this household they're going to eat it anyway, because they can't afford to be picky.

Brandi's day at work was quite successful, she brought home a promotion. Well done, Brandi!

Jeff has been an easy kid to manage so far. Not only does he happily paint a lot, but he also gains aspiration from doing homework and eating cereal in the morning, both things that I can direct him to do with a clean conscience.

Jack the baby doesn't do much yet, but at least he's pretty cute.

Anyway. Remember the tentative plan I mentioned with the fourth pregnancy? Time to try it out.

That plan? Would be Lazlo Curious. He and Brandi had two bolts, so I've been increasing their relationship score on the phone, and now he agreed on a date.

Like with John earlier, Brandi's wants stayed friendly for a longish time. I hoped for a little autonomous action, but apparently being Family sims, Brandi and John are actually a pretty faithful type. But this is a TPC, so a little unfaithfulness is encouraged, so I may have pushed a little.

*Ahem* Okay, well maybe I pushed a little bit more. And I still don't get the cashier's behavior. She disapproves when Brandi woohoos her husband, but when she cheats on him, she cheers? Maybe she just has opinions on Brandi's taste?

Well, unlike last time, "auto woo" didn't seem to produce results. Brandi and Lazlo were autonomously affectionate afterwards, so I guess that's something.

Sighing, I gave up on the date. Since Brandi is the one working, she can't cheat on John on the home lot without getting caught easily. I'l have to try something else here.

With the date ending kiss, Brandi and Lazlo are now in love.

When Brandi returned home, John was apparently eagerly waiting her. I guess as my efforts so far have not been fruitful, we could go with a third legitimate kid. Unofrtunately, no lullaby.

Brandi and Lazlo's date was a dreamy one, so we got a bouquet out of it. 55 simoleans, kaching!

Jeff earned an A+ grade. Doesn't somehow feel very TPC to me, but hey, as far as I understand, that's totally legal, plus he earns aspiration for that. I suppose once he turns teen it might be a different story.

Jeff also brought a friend home. Again one of the Curious girls from next door. I had to think for a bit, but this is the youngest, Octavia.

While it's off to work again with Brandi, Jeff gets to be a kid and play in the yard with Octavia, all autonomous.

They also discussed sumo wrestlers, all autonomous too.

Brandi is still at work, when it's time for John to go into labor.

So the only ones to rush to watch are a couple of schoolkids. Not that adults would be any more useful anyway.

Fortunately all goes well and so we welcome another little boy into the family, one who's rather obviously Darren's kid. His name is Jim. Obviously I must enjoy being confused by kids' names, that's why.
Oh, and +3 points for an illegitimate child. Hooray!

Jim had an eager welcome committee.
Octavia: "Your Daddy had a baby."
Jeff: "Yay, my Daddy had a baby!"

Jim also promptly got new clothes. Again I'm glad we bought a few different ones to begin with. But John...
John: "Yeah?"
Now we're going to need that second crib, can't help it.
John: "... oops? Can we afford one?"
I think so, but not entirely sure.

I turned out that we could, and we could even afford the room dividers so that yelling babies/toddlers won't wake each other up. Hooray!

John: "It was nice having you over, Octavia, but it seems we're a bit too busy for guests right now. Welcome back another day."

Brandi comes home with another promotion, great job! And whom would she bring home from work, if not her husband's babydaddy Darren...

Brandi: "Nice meeting you Darren. I'm sorry, maybe another time would be better to come over, I hear there's mysteriously another baby in the house."
Darren: "Oh really? That's interesting. I'll come back another day then."

Jeff finished a painting! Off to John's inventory it goes for the yard sale. Great work, Jeff!
Jeff: "Thanks, Katri. I try."

Jeff is all around pretty awesome. When I put the finished painting in John's inventory, Jeff started to paint again immediately, and he scores big aspiration points for his creativity skill points too. I only help him by locking the wants as he rolls them.

Yet that night, it's time for little Jack's birthday. Let's see how he turns out!

Still a cutie, though he might be a clone. Personality-wise he is one: 4/4/9/7/1 (Sagittarius), just the same as Jeff. Oh well, with a makeover he can get a bit of his own looks at least. I'm also happy that he grew up in something reasonable-looking, since we don't exactly have a lot of money for new clothes right now.

When the birthday celebrations were over, we discovered that Jeff can amuse himself in other ways than just painting: playing with the fridge. It's something I've seen happen before, but not many times.

Here's little Jack after his makeover. Still a little cutie.

That night, as the family had accumulated a little bit of money, I decided to prepare for the future dogs that we need to get before the current generation reaches adulthood. So I expanded the back porch and covered it. After that, the family could only afford one set of dog items (and obviously, no dog), but it's a start.

The next day John headed out to Walmart to get his obligatory photobooth picture taken. He seemed pleased.

While there, he also did some digging of course.

Oh hey, good job John! That'll make a nice addition for the yard sale!

Back at home, Reina Capp from the DITFT of the 'hood (practically next door) walked by, so I had Jeff greet her. You need friends for being kids and playing in the yard, right?

Well, at least Jeff needs someone to hurl balls at to indulge in his favorite hobby.

Okay, I was wrong. You don't always need friends to be able to play on the yard.
That's okay, Jeff, but only as long as it isn't raining.
Jeff: "Okay! *splash splash*"
Hmm, I hope he doesn't do that too much when he's a teen...

Meanwhile, Brandi worked on getting little Jack to walk.

Octavia called Jeff to chat. How handy – despite that look on his face, he actually wants to be friends with her. I suppose that's one of his agreeing faces, with his one whopping nice point.

He did chat a bit with Reina too.

Oh, right. I almost forgot to hang John's photobooth pics on the wall. Pretty nice, I'd say.

John gets to work on little Jack's potty training. Somehow he and Brandi have been kind of unlucky with potty training this go around. Either they're just a bit late and can't train Jack at all, having to change his diaper instead, or then they're both in the green and can't make smart milk. Like now. Or actually, Brandi is at work and John is in the green. Oh well, eventually.

Reina, too, discovers the joys of playing with the fridge. So apparently visitor kids can do it too.

John: "Oh you see Reina, it'd be really nice to top a career, only in this household we can't. It's part of the rules here, to make things a bit harder."
Reina: "Ooooh."

Regardless, Brandi came home with her last allowed promotion that night. Only now I have little bit of a problem again. You see, I was again a bit stupid with chance cards – one'd think that after the idiocy last time, I would have learned my lesson but no. Hoping for a cash bonus, I played a chance card since Brandi wasn't yet on the maximum level allowed. Well, no disaster this time, and it was a good chance card. Only instead of cash, Brandi received a skill point, and of course it was a creativity skill point, which again makes her eligible for the next promotion. Oh well, time to break out the thinking cap in green again.

But for now, Brandi is still in gold, so she gets to make some smart milk and store it in the inventory for later.

Also, most of her nice promotion bonus goes into food, because apparently the family has just about eaten the fridge empty. *sigh* I was hoping they could afford at least one dog soon. Well, on the bright side, at least with hacks, I get a warning about the fridge before it's empty.

Now to finally potty train Jack once and for all!

Oh yeah, little Jim is still there too. Babies just don't get a lot of face time in a busy household, but he's well fed and happy.

Jeff continues to be awesome and finishes a second painting, then proceeding to paint more again and score big points for his creativity.

Time for Brandi to hit the Walmart again and for me to find out that she doesn't have a cell phone and therefore can't make a phonecall while there. So time to spend pretty much the family's remaining cash on one. The money is doing no good sitting in the bank, right?

Yep, time for a new try for that illegitimate baby with Lazlo. With no luck.
I went as far as trying the base game "try for baby" interaction, but there was something funny going on: Lazlo would join Brandi in the photobooth just fine, but when I clicked on the "try for baby" option, he'd just exit the booth again. I'd understand if he rejected her, but no drama, he'd just get out of the booth, multiple times.

After I gave up trying with Lazlo and Brandi returned home, John was again eagerly awaiting her. I think he'd very much like the next baby to be his. Unfortunately, still no lullaby, even though the odds are still pretty high.

Have I mentioned lately that Jeff is awesome?

Brandi and Jack work on the talking thing.

Afterwards, Brandi went fishing in the hopes of catching something for the yard sale. Not much luck.

Time for little Jim's birthday! Only the family in attendance, there's enough fuss as it is.

Well the kid seems cute, but that outfit... I'm glad this isn't an apocalypse, so we can at least theoretically get rid of it.

Hooray for hand-me-downs! Jim got Jeff's old outfit, because at the moment there's no way we could afford a new one. All the boys have used the same pjs, too.
Jim's stats are: 4/9/4/7/6 (Libra).

Finally Brandi is in green and we can get rid of any extraneous skill.
Brandi: "What's that smell? Oh no, not again!"
Luckily, this time she lost a logic skill point right away, one that counts and makes her ineligible for the next promotion. Mission accomplished.

It seems that the dog bed that has no dog in it yet made itself useful. John carried Jack to his crib when he could tear himself away though.

Suddenly, it was Monday morning, so only a half a day left in this extended rotation. It started off with some toddler training.

And continued with trying for a baby, again with no lullaby.

John the master chef burned his toaster pastries. You know you're going to have to eat those?
John: "*cough cough* I'm aware."

With now two toddlers in the house, you can guess how Brandi and John's day continued.
Jack, however, won't be a toddler much longer. We got him all ready to grow up, and the next rotation will start with his birthday.

In the afternoon, Jeff continued the Lakewood trend of bringing home one of the Curious girls. This one is the middle daughter, Odessa.

Jeff: "Oh, did I throw too hard? I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to!"

Odessa: "Oh, that's okay. It happens to me too."

As the clock approaches six, and this family is exempt from taxes, I suppose it's a good place to leave the household and leave Brandi to her fishing. Only the stats remain.
For the BaCC:

Playable sims: 20 + 2 (Jack, Jim) = 22
SM: 13
Population: 286

Households: 5

CAS sims: 1 placed / 18 earned

Community lots: 8 businesses + 1 free = 9

Businesses:

Lakewood Recreation Center (Lizzie Davidson, level 10)
Yummy! (Regan Capp, level 8)
Curious Gadgets (Pascal Curious, level 10)
Variety Buffet (Daniel Fortunato, level 10)
Face the Music (Ajay Davidson, level 0)
Better Dressed Sims (Jenny Capp, level 1)
Club Flamingo (Nervous Curious, level 4)
It's Art (Daniel Pleasant, level 6)

Other community lots:

Lakewood Walmart (general store)

Careers:

Business: Unlocked! / 1 taken (Ajay Davidson, level 10)
Medical: Unlocked!
Architecture: 2 openings / 1 taken (Jenny Capp, level 8)
Culinary: 1 opening / 1 taken (Brandi Broke, level 4)
Criminal: 1 opening / 1 taken (Regan Capp, level 5)
Music: Unlocked!
Slacker: 1 opening / 0 taken
Education: 1 opening / 0 taken
Artist: 1 opening / 0 taken

Business Tycoons: 1 (Ajay Davidson)

Universities: 1 (privately funded, founded by Lizzie Davidson)
Business Districts: 1
Downtown: no

Fires: 2
Burglaries: 2
Electrocutions: 1

Taxes collected from this household: 0 simoleans* (the Broke family is exempt from taxes)

Taxes collected total: 71,200 simoleans at 5% rate

* I round both the net worths and the results so as to make calculations and keeping track of payments easier.

For the TPC:

Points from previous week: 0 (stupid chance card)

Points for this week:

+1 for fixing up a junk car
+ 2 for a legitimate child (Jack)
+ 3 for an illegitimate child (Jim)

Total so far: 6

I believe that's it for the Brokes. Week 3 isn't quite finished yet though, as I have a couple of new households planned yet before we start week 4 with the Davidsons. So welcome back next time for a brand new household and a brand new (well technically not really) challenge. Until then, happy simming!