The Drifter Chronicles - House 003 (COMPLETE)

[commasplice]

Journal Entry, Eddard Holiday

I am being punished.

I know that’s a crappy thing to say about your children, but I can’t help it. This is nuts.



We ended up with three little girls: Lyanna, Cassana, and Shireen. They’re beautiful and perfect, but I haven’t gotten a good night’s sleep since they arrived.



The plan had been for a nice manageable 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom ranch. Triplets have rendered that impracticable. Now the plan is for a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom 2 story house.  I didn’t even have time to finish the upstairs. We had to leave the cribs where social services literally dropped them off.

Mom and Uncle Steffon came over. After I did the obligatory showing off of the babies, I let Mom take over so I could water the dying garden and to grab a shower.



“They’ll age up in no time,” Mom said.



I know she meant it to be helpful, but I can’t even think beyond tomorrow. Valeria is exhausted all the time and overwhelmed. She came home last night and just stood there in shock on the sidewalk.

Neither of us knows what we’re doing and all it seems to result in is one or more crying infants.



From: Pierce Delgato, Drifter Board of Directors, No Sim Left Behind
To: Eddard Holiday
CC: Evangeline Hecking, Drifter Board of Directors, No Sim Left Behind
Re: Re: Re: Drifter House 003, Progress Report 006

Congratulations on the birth of your children! And good work getting the cow plant done. We recognize it was a dangerous and frightening task, but your time management and strategies for completing the task in such a short period of time are commendable.

We know right now you are overwhelmed and that accomplishing the remaining tasks probably seem insurmountable, but you have over 30 days in which to get everything done.

Look for some toddler gifts from No Sim Left Behind in the mail!

From Pierce Delgato, Drifter Board of Directors, No Sim Left Behind
To: Evangeline Delgato Hecking, Drifter Board of Directors, No Sim Left Behind
Re: Drifter Subject 003

Someday soon when you make me a grandpa, you’re going to recognize that babies are a lot of work. The only reason your mom and I are still sane is because your grandma, Aunt Evie, and your dads helped us out.

Have some compassion for the poor guy. He’s a stay-at-home dad for three of them and in less than 48 hours he fed himself to a carnivorous plant no less than five times.

Love,
Dad

From: Eddard Holiday
To: Drifter Board of Directors, No Sim Left Behind
Re: Drifter House 003, Progress Report 007

Thank you for the toys. The girls are getting a lot of use out of them. We actually got a ton of gifts from a bunch of random people I’ve never heard of.

Lyanna, who I guess is my heir, assuming she wants to participate in the Project, has my luck and got the fussy trait. That’s her in the lavender.



Cassana is a charmer.

Shireen, the youngest, who has her mother’s coloring, is inquisitive.

We love them, but they are somehow more work than when they were babies.

Right now, they’re all upstairs. I managed to get the plumbing in the second bathroom installed, but the rest of the floor is one giant room.

We briefly flirted with high chairs, but frankly it seems simplest to just make a ton of food and bring up the platter and let them feed themselves.



I had no idea how three little toddlers get so dirty so quickly. Lyanna screams bloody murder every time I try to bathe her.

My plants haven’t died yet and I maxed out at level 10 for gardening. Incidentally, even though I know it’s not part of the requirements I got Freelance Botanist. I also reached level 10 for fishing.

If we survive toddlerhood, Valeria and I want to take the girls to the park, which we can do as I've lifted the restriction. It’s too soon right now. Just keeping them and us alive is all we can manage.

[oshizu]

Wow, I hadn't realized that Eddard finished all that cowplant business in 48 hours!
Congrats again on having that requirement behind you, commasplice!

Triplet nooboos are nothing compared to triple toddlers, as you've already discovered.
I'm sure the SimGuru devs made the toddlers so adorable on purpose; their cuteness makes us feel guilty for not doing our best for the little monsters.

I nominate Eddard for the Drifter of the Month Award and, possibly, the Drifter of the Year Award, too.
Congrats on maxing Gardening, Fishing, and Freelance Botanist! You go, Eddard!

P.S. I selfishly hope that you'll build a one-story house for another future drifter.

[commasplice]

Wow, I hadn't realized that Eddard finished all that cowplant business in 48 hours!
Congrats again on having that requirement behind you, commasplice!

Triplet nooboos are nothing compared to triple toddlers, as you've already discovered.
I'm sure the SimGuru devs made the toddlers so adorable on purpose; their cuteness makes us feel guilty for not doing our best for the little monsters.

I nominate Eddard for the Drifter of the Month Award and, possibly, the Drifter of the Year Award, too.
Congrats on maxing Gardening, Fishing, and Freelance Botanist! You go, Eddard!

P.S. I selfishly hope that you'll build a one-story house for another future drifter.

Thanks! Poor Eddard probably deserves that award.

I'm trying to do different styles for each house and at some point, I'm sure a one-story ranch is in the offing. I will say this is helping me become a better builder.

Thanks for your continued support and encouragement.

[commasplice]

Phone conversation between Valeria Holiday and Tobias Lentz

Valeria: Can you thank everyone for all the gifts? It was so sweet of them.

Tobias:  At some point you are going to have to tell Eddard that you have 10 half-siblings and me.

Valeria: I was going to. Right after we had the baby and he could see what a great mother I was. And then there were three of them and Toby, I am so bad at this.

Tobias: Shireen looks pretty happy in this photo.



Valeria: She’s eating cold pancakes that are three days old.

Tobias: [long pause] Well, that won’t kill her. But what’s Eddard doing? Why isn’t he making them fresh food?

Valeria: You cannot blame Eddard. He’s home with them every day, all day long. None of them sleep through the night. They all get so stinky so quickly. Every time we turn around one of them is making a giant mess. We’re building their bedrooms as fast as we can because at least that way, they stand a chance of sleeping for more than three hours.



Tobias: They are beautiful and they look healthy so you must be doing something right. Also, those are nice hardwoods. The thing is Val—I’m your brother and their uncle and I want to like meet them.

Valeria: Soon. I promise.

Journal Entry, Eddard Holiday

It’s been so weird with Mom gone. I keep thinking back to what Dad had said about not waiting so long before starting a family.



Somehow my three little angels are sleeping at the same time. I’m dirty, hungry, and tired, but I needed to vent out my feelings somehow.

Valeria and I had all these plans. We were going to spend the time with our kid, teaching him or her to say please and thank you, to say sorry, making sure the kid was skilled up right so they’d have a head start in life.

Our only goal now is to make sure social services doesn’t come to take them away.

Email from Steffon Baratheon to Pearl Munch

So the Romance festival is coming up soon. We should go. Maybe drink some Sakura tea together.

From: Eddard Holiday
To: Drifter Board of Directors, No Sim Left Behind
Re: Drifter House 003, Progress Report 008

We have flooring, mostly. We also have a new addition to the Holiday household, Proudwing. No clue what breed he is. The girls love him.



I think he’s terrified of them, but they’re running everywhere these days and they outnumber us.



As you can see, the outside is pretty much done. I went for brick on the first floor and stucco on the second.

I aged up to an adult. I had spent the morning scrubbing the five different messes my daughters left me all over the house so it seemed kind of anticlimactic.



The girls age up tomorrow and I am hoping and praying that they go to school the next day before I lose it completely. Does that make me a bad father?

[FrancescaFiori]

Eddard, you kept them alive and Social Services didn't take them. Therefore, you are Father of the Year! Sorry your birthday was a bit of a bummer, but I imagine the triplets' birthday will be much more celebratory!
I'm just super impressed he and Valeria managed to get the kids on the same sleep schedule. That in itself is an accomplishment!
So Steffon and Pearl have a little something going? Nice! Always good to see the spares getting to have lives of their own.
Also, welcome Proudwing! He does look terrified, but also adorable!

[commasplice]

Eddard, you kept them alive and Social Services didn't take them. Therefore, you are Father of the Year! Sorry your birthday was a bit of a bummer, but I imagine the triplets' birthday will be much more celebratory!
I'm just super impressed he and Valeria managed to get the kids on the same sleep schedule. That in itself is an accomplishment!
So Steffon and Pearl have a little something going? Nice! Always good to see the spares getting to have lives of their own.
Also, welcome Proudwing! He does look terrified, but also adorable!

The sleep schedule was entirely accidental. Lemme tell you only being able to control one sim in this thing is both kind of cool (it's interesting what the non-controlled sims will do on their own) and agonizing.

I still cannot figure out MC Command Center but one of my settings must have took because Steffon showed up and he was living with Pearl somehow.

[commasplice]

From: Evangeline Hecking, Drifter Board of Directors, No Sim Left Behind
To: Eddard Holiday
Re: Re: Drifter House 003, Progress Report 008

I just had twin boys. It’s all I can do to show up to work clothed. I don’t know how you’re managing with three.

Phone conversation between Steffon Baratheon and Pearl Munch

Pearl: Hey babe, how did the birthday party go?



Steffon: Okay, I guess. The house is still a construction zone, but you can see it’s coming along. The girls got all these presents in the mail. Eddard doesn’t know anything about the people who sent them and Valeria got real quiet. Anya always wondered if she was keeping a secret.



Pearl:  If that’s a hint we should let on we’re dating, no. Not yet.





Steffon: It was not a hint. Whenever you’re ready, it’s cool and if you’re never ready, that’s cool too.

Pearl: That’s a lot of look Lyanna has going on right there.



Steffon: [laughs] Valeria insisted they all have makeovers right after. She had one too.

From: Eddard Holiday
To: Drifter Board of Directors, No Sim Left Behind
Re: Drifter House 003, Progress Report 009

May I present our three children.  From left to right, that’s Shireen, Lyanna, and Cassana. They can now bathe themselves and the lord willing and the creek don’t rise, we have put potty accidents behind us. Turns out I had enough parenting skill to influence Cassana and Shireen to do their homework. Lyanna, who had spent ten minutes staring at the name plate Valeria’s boss gave her with her last promotion, got focused and did it on her own.



We went with a dark green for the downstairs area. I’m not loving it, but it beats the drywall.

Phone conversation between Valeria Holiday and Tobias Lentz

Valeria: I parented. Finally! I did it!

Tobias: Val, you’ve been parenting all along.

Valeria: This is the first time I didn’t feel like a total fraud. Lyanna was doing her homework—she lives for homework—and she couldn’t figure out a math problem and I helped her! Me!



Tobias: Congratulations, but you’ve been raising those kids since you gave birth to them.

Valeria: It’s just weird. I feel like we raised ourselves.



Tobias: We did.

Valeria: But we didn’t know what we were doing and I kept thinking that when I had my own child, that feeling would go away.

Tobias: Where was this taken?



Valeria: Sylvan Glade. There’s this weird looking tree. We stood there for like ten minutes while Eddard talked to the tree. Yes, you did not hear that wrong.

Tobias: You have like 5 fishing spots right by your house.

Valeria: He needs to catch 20 different types of fish. That means we have to go places. It was fun. We took the tent and the cooler. I hung out reading Wilderness Digest while he and the girls fished.



Tobias: [long pause] Who are you and what have you done with my sister?

Valeria: I caught a sturgeon worth $1,231. It paid for the tile for the kitchen and a bunch of furniture. Don’t knock it till you try it.

[PeregrineTook]

Oh goodness!  I somehow missed that house 3 had started!
Triplets.  Wow!  And the first female heir!  How exciting!
Steffon and Pearl are rather adorable as a "Background couple."
Can't wait to get to know the girls' personalities more!

[oshizu]

Oooh, Eddard and Valeria survived the triplets!
With all of Eddard's trials, I'm glad that he has a wife that appreciates "outdoor life."

How will he react to the news of Valeria's many half-siblings? I can't imagine him making a big deal about it after feeding himself to a cowplant 5 times in 48 hours....
Nice progress on the house.

[FrancescaFiori]

I tried MC Command Center for awhile, but I too found it hard to tweak it to get things to go the way I wanted without having to micromanage the entire community. It's really interesting to see how it's working in your game.
Loved Valeria converting her sturgeon into kitchen tile. That makes it seem even more valuable!
I really love everyone's makeovers. They're a lovely family.
I'm very glad Valeria has Tobias to give her these parenting pep talks. Give yourself some more credit, girl!

[commasplice]

Oh goodness!  I somehow missed that house 3 had started!
Triplets.  Wow!  And the first female heir!  How exciting!
Steffon and Pearl are rather adorable as a "Background couple."
Can't wait to get to know the girls' personalities more!

If it hadn't been for my Valeria having triplets, I would have been over the moon about a female heir. I usually prefer female sims. Glad you like Steffon and Pearl

Oooh, Eddard and Valeria survived the triplets!
With all of Eddard's trials, I'm glad that he has a wife that appreciates "outdoor life."

How will he react to the news of Valeria's many half-siblings? I can't imagine him making a big deal about it after feeding himself to a cowplant 5 times in 48 hours....
Nice progress on the house.

Well, Eddard and Valeria have survived toddlerhood. We shall see how they survive childhood and adolescence. Thanks about the house. I don't love the exterior, but I was really pleased with the interior by the end.

I tried MC Command Center for awhile, but I too found it hard to tweak it to get things to go the way I wanted without having to micromanage the entire community. It's really interesting to see how it's working in your game.
Loved Valeria converting her sturgeon into kitchen tile. That makes it seem even more valuable!
I really love everyone's makeovers. They're a lovely family.
I'm very glad Valeria has Tobias to give her these parenting pep talks. Give yourself some more credit, girl!

MC Command Center has been interesting. I love a lot of the features, but there's just so much in there to pay attention to and it's hard to figure out what settings to adjust.

Thanks about the makeovers. It's been pretty much a given that I need to give them makeovers every darn time they age up.

[commasplice]

Journal Entry, Eddard Holiday

I can’t say it’s easy, but I think we have a routine these days. We’ve even been able to have family over on a more consistent basis. The house is a lot more habitable and I can even shower regularly.



But I think this is going to be the last generation of the Baratheon/Holiday clan to do the Drifter Challenge. I said I would do it and I will, but I look at my daughters and I don’t know that I want to even suggest this is something they consider. I had to feed myself to a cow plant for pete’s sake. House 004 might be even harder. How can I put Lyanna in a situation like that?

The girls have a great relationship with each other and they’re all really good at school work.



The other day they came home with school projects. All I had to do to influence them was to suggest they work on them and they were off. Valeria came home, and without any prompting knelt down with Cassana while I worked first with Lyanna and then with Shireen.



They’re good kids now that they’re past the terrifying toddler stage.



I’ve been working on my handiness by upgrading and fixing all the household appliances. 



Valeria had her birthday. I wish she would tell me what the deal was with her family. I know there are relatives, but every time I ask, she shuts down.



I want to respect her privacy, but I look at our girls who are so tight and I feel bad that she can’t or won’t talk about them with me.



Uncle Steffon came over. He’s gotten so grey. Valeria was being moody again and I finally confided in him.

“She has a private life, kid. You’re doing the right thing by respecting that—not everyone wants to share their business, even with loved ones.”



I thought a lot and finally when we were sitting down to eat I just told her again that I was there for her, but that I wouldn’t ask anymore.



She burst into tears and after I finally calmed her down, she looked at me. “There’s something I have to tell you.”

[FrancescaFiori]

Oh, gosh! The big secret is about to be revealed! I'm really excited to get the full story and to see how Eddard will react.
I love him with a beard, by the way.
He sounds so dejected about passing on the Drifter mantle to one of his daughters, but I'm sure they will surprise him with their pluckiness. At least I hope so! I want to see how the next house unfolds!

[commasplice]

Oh, gosh! The big secret is about to be revealed! I'm really excited to get the full story and to see how Eddard will react.
I love him with a beard, by the way.
He sounds so dejected about passing on the Drifter mantle to one of his daughters, but I'm sure they will surprise him with their pluckiness. At least I hope so! I want to see how the next house unfolds!

I'm glad you like the beard too! It gives him maturity which I thought was good for his life stage.

I don't think he's so much dejected as he is unwilling to subject his kid to god knows what.

[commasplice]

Journal Entry, Valeria Holiday

I feel like a total idiot. All this wasted time. I’m sobbing like a baby and Eddard just kept telling me he was sorry and I blurted it all out. Everything. About Father and Toby and my twisted family tree.

“So wait, that’s what you’ve been worrying about? That your dad had a bunch of kids with different women?”

“You don’t understand.”

I told him about my grandmother being a Landgraab and even showed him part of the family tree and he just seemed puzzled.

“I’m sorry you had a crappy childhood, but this doesn’t change anything between us.”

“But—”

“I married you, not your family tree.”



Phone conversation between Valeria Holiday and Tobias Lentz

Valeria: I told Eddard about you. I told him about you because I’m tired of keeping secrets. I want you to get to know him and the girls and I miss you.

Tobias: When can I come over?

From: Eddard Holiday
To: Drifter Board of Directors, No Sim Left Behind
Re: Drifter House 003, Progress Report 010

Sorry, it’s been so long since my last report. We’re doing good. There was some family drama, but nothing that relates to the project.

As I now have level 10 in gardening and fishing, we took a trip to the park in Oasis Springs.



We went fishing in most of the ponds and creeks in the area which helped a lot with my goal of making Angling Ace, but I was still some fish short of the collection.



And then I noticed this boarded up cave in the back of the park. One of the regulars told me there was a grotto down there and that the entrance was blocked off when funding was tight. He also said the fishing had been fantastic when he was a teenager years and years ago. I don’t have enough handiness to break the boards down now, but I’m going to work on that.

The house is coming along. We’re not quite at 40k yet, but a few more dragon fruit harvests and we will be. All I really need have left is Angling Ace and making sure Lyanna makes it to young adulthood.



Phone conversation between Valeria Holiday and Tobias Lentz

Valeria: When can you come over again? The girls had the best time with you.

Tobias: Next Friday?

Valeria: Come after work. That way we can all hang out.

Tobias: Do I get to meet this Uncle Steffon they were all telling me about?

Valeria: [Sigh] We just found out that he died. His widow came over with a big box of family memorabilia he wanted Eddard to have. It was a whole huge thing. And here I thought our family history was a big deal.



Tobias: They didn’t mention an aunt. I just assumed he was a bachelor.

Valeria: That’s just it. We thought so too. We were eating dinner when his widow came to tell Eddard. It’s Pearl Munch—she had some kind of a crush on Eddard when she was a teenager. She’s at least two generations younger than Steffon. Nobody knew they were even involved, let alone married.

Tobias: How did Eddard take it?

Valeria: He stood there for like a minute, welcomed her to the family, and then started playing chess with her.



Journal Entry, Lyanna Holiday

Today I am a teenager. My parents gave me this journal. It seems like just yesterday I was a little kid.

The three of us voted and decided we wanted a strawberry cake, which Daddy baked for us.









And then one by one, we blew out the candles. I kind of registered Mom saying she’d be getting us some new clothes and hairstyles as we aged up, but mostly it felt like I was in a kind of dream.