If Wishes were Horses -- a Wishacy (February 25)

[MarianT]

I've started posting this on a different forum and decided to post it here as well. It's a wishacy, with a few additions, such as moving each heir to a new town (assuming the founder ever gets around to producing an heir). Also, I'm picking traits as follows -- infants start with randomized traits and then as they grow up, they get traits based on their astrological sign.

Anyway, Hans has reminded me that he's the one calling the shots, so I should probably let him take over.

Hans Hooley

Chapter One -- Sleepless in Sunset Valley
Chapter Two -- Be Careful, etc.
Chapter Three -- Romantic Progress
Chapter Four -- Honeymoon
Chapter Five -- Maids and Murals
Chapter Six -- Two Birthday Parties
Chapter Seven -- A Really Spooky Day
Chapter Eight -- Midlife and Other Crises

[MarianT]

Chapter One -- Sleepless in Sunset Valley

I come in peace. Maybe. I haven’t decided yet.

My name is Hans Hooley, and I am the son of Robin and Marian Hooley. You might have heard of them under a different name.

I'm having trouble showing what my mother looked like, but this is my father:



And this is my baby picture:



I was named after the author of One Wolf, Two Wolf, Where Wolf, There Wolf. My parents died in a crash in Dragon Valley, and I was sent to the Bin. I grew up fast there, so fast that I don’t even know what school I graduated from. Maybe I’ll hang my diploma on the wall and see what it says.

When I was a baby, I loved the outdoors and loved the cold. Now that I’ve moved to Sunset Valley, I’m also avant garde, family-oriented, and a mooch. I figure if Dad was the Prince of Thieves, I can be the Duke of Beggars.

I’ve been given the option of founding a free will dynasty or legacy or something. According to most of the other sims in the Bin, this is an opportunity I should take because the Watcher is always ordering people about and squashing all their really fun wishes. There are a few nay-sayers, however, who claim that the Watcher is such a control freak that things won’t be any different for me. We’ll see.

Our first clash of wills came over hairstyles. There’s more to being avant garde than wearing your hair differently from everyone else, but the Watcher went way overboard when it came to finding something different for me. This was the first look she chose for me:



I reminded her that there weren’t any red-haired samurai, and added that I wasn’t about to wander around in a kimono. The second look was your basic mophead.

I said that I liked to be able to see where I was going, so she swept my hair up into a do that I think I saw in The Wizard of Oz:



Finally, she agreed to the style I chose. She let me pick out my own clothes, but she “forgot” to take pictures of some of them. Here’s my formal wear, nightwear, and outerwear. My favorite color is spiceberry, but I’ll accept gray.






I think the Watcher expected that I would want a job in the arts, but I surprised her by expressing the desire to join the military. And she surprised me by granting my wish.



In my opinion, this plane lacks something – some spiceberry paint, I’d say.

[MarianT]

Chapter Two – Be Careful, etc.

My lifelong wish is to become a great street artist; I can’t remember what the exact name is. So I’ve started decorating the rather bland interior of my house.



While I didn’t really wish to make anything for supper, after a while I started to get hungry, so the Watcher “pushed” me to eat. I decided to try making macaroni and cheese (something we were given frequently during my childhood in the Bin), and this was the result.



At work the next day, I started meeting people. I quickly became friends with my boss, Jack Bunch, and a few days later managed to mooch 10 simoleons from him by telling him that I wanted to buy a set of blocks. Jack’s a great guy, but he’s not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree.



The Watcher and I had our first disagreement when she ordered (ordered!) me to unclog the toilet. It wasn’t something I particularly wanted to do when I first came home from work. In fact, I was hoping she might just replace it for me. But no, she pointed out that I did have the wish to get a promotion (true), and that improvement in the skill of handiness would aid in getting a promotion (I guess), and unclogging the toilet would build handiness (whatever). I did wish that she wouldn’t photograph me in the act, but she pointed out that my wishlist was full so she couldn’t honor the wish. Like I was warned, she’s a control freak.



I do have to admit that the Watcher can be pretty obliging, especially when it comes to romance. With the weekend coming up I expressed the wish to go to a dance club. “Great idea,” said the Watcher. “And take Erin Kennedy with you.” I then realized that Sunset Valley doesn’t have a dance club. “Not a problem,” said the Watcher. And she went into Edit Town and transformed something into a dance club. Now that’s power.

Unfortunately, there weren’t any sparks between Erin and me. Maybe it’s because we work together, and she wore her uniform to our date. Maybe she was upset because I was invited to Jack Bunch’s Spooky Day party and she wasn’t. Maybe it’s just that we’re not compatible – I don’t know.



A few days later, I got the opportunity to do some spray painting somewhere in the city. I was looking to improve my skill, so I went over to the Fall festival grounds.



I was hoping somebody cute would come along and watch, maybe put some money in my tip jar. But that didn’t happen. So far the only lady I’ve been attracted to in Sunset Valley has been Blair Wainwright, and she’s a vampire. Her favorite color is the same as mine – I wonder if that’s enough for a relationship. Anyway, she wasn’t at the festival, but her parents were. I tried to become acquainted with them, but it’s difficult to strike up a conversation when your mouth is full of apple.



Before leaving the festival, I wished to have my face painted. As the saying goes, “Be careful what you wish for.” The Watcher started laughing when she saw me, and wouldn’t send me to wash my face or anything because my hygiene need wasn’t low enough. Low blow, Watcher, I won’t forget this.

[Rhoxi]

Oh, a wishacy! Looks fun. I've never read one of these before, but I've heard about them. Your method of assigning traits sounds interesting; I'm curious to see how that works out, especially as I'm not particularly familiar with personality types associated with signs.

[JudesSims]

I love this, Marian! I've definitely bookmarked.

[RaiaDraconis]

Ooh, this ought to be quite interesting. I love the Hooley family and their son is quite handsome. I hope he does well!

[MarianT]

Thanks, everyone!

Rhoxi, I assigned all the traits to each of the zodiac signs a few months ago. My updated list can be found here.

It's not a hard and fast list; I just wanted to set something up so that I would be more likely to use every trait. Also, I forgot to mention that I gave my founder the family-oriented trait so that he would want to get married and have children (although so far, it hasn't had much effect, lol).

[saltpastillen]

Your wishacy sounds very interesting Marian

I often try the complete wishes play style but I don't think I have ever done it to the extent you are going for. I'm looking forward to reading more.

[PeregrineTook]

Oh, chapter two is up!  Nice.  I love how biased it all is in the narrating with the jaded Sim handling it rather than the Watcher or even Sim-Watcher interaction.  It just seems to fit the nature of your story really well and I enjoy how cynical Hans is.

[Pam]

What is a wishacy?

[saltpastillen]

What is a wishacy?

A legacy where you only direct your sims to do things they have a wish for.

[Pam]

A legacy where you only direct your sims to do things they have a wish for.

Thank you.  Does it follow Pinstar's legacy rules other than the part about the wishes?  I'm trying to decide where this story belongs. 

[MarianT]

Pam, I think that "wishacy" and "randomacy" were given their names because they were generational games, and at the time, Pinstar's Legacy was the basic form. Other than that, there's not much in common. I've posted the guidelines on another forum, but have not submitted them yet as a project here because I'm still fiddling with them, trying to see what works.

Basically, your sim can't do much (marry, get a job, work on a skill) unless there's a wish for that, or a related wish. You take care of needs by clicking on the hungry, tired, or dirty moodlet. It's a different kind of challenge from our dynasties where you're pushing your sim to accomplish various objectives.

If you want to put the story in with the legacies, that's fine, but I've probably already broken several of Pinstar's rules.

[Pam]

Thanks, MarianT.  From what you describe, I think you were right to put it on the Miscellaneous Stories board.  Sorry for the bother. 

[saltpastillen]

I've posted the guidelines on another forum, but have not submitted them yet as a project here because I'm still fiddling with them, trying to see what works.

I would very much like to read the rules you decided on (when you finally do ) It would be interesting to see what you did in case I want to try something similar. A link to your other site in the first post (or a pm if you prefer that) would be great.