A Scheme of Mad Genius: The Varela Immortal Dynasty

[Joria]

OMG I laughed so hard at those wedding vows!  I never come up with clever stuff like that.  It was priceless.

[SeraNita]

@Shmeggo Thank you for reading! As I'm going through my previous posts, I'm trying to keep track of things I wish I'd done (taken pictures of Emi's first week at work, clarified more on where Emi came from, etc) so that I can improve upon them later. One thing that bothers me is the lack of images; a lot of challenge stories are very colorful and the pictures are well timed, but I have trouble remembering to take pictures of important and even simply funny events in my Sims' lives, and even when I do remember, they're usually badly taken, such as a bad angle or low lighting, or simply just forgetting to make sure the plumbob isn't blocking someone's face. I didn't do well in photography class.

@Joria Thank you! Sometimes the jokes just write themselves, when I glance at the pictures and my mind just fills in the blanks for me. Emi is just easy to write because she has such a personality as a Sim, but Joaquin in my game is a little lifeless until Emi is home. Then, he automatically drops what he's doing and runs outside to the edge of the lot to hug or kiss his wife, like a dog greeting their master (which is just plain ironic).

I also apologize, because after rereading chapter 3, I noticed that one of the wedding photos (the one that Paolo photo bombed) was missing from the original post. I will get that fixed as soon as possible, so you all can get a good eyeful of beefcake dressed in a white suit.

[FrancescaFiori]

What a great wedding and a lovely setting! I'm glad she switched dresses. The purple suits her much better, though I'm glad Joaquin waited until after the ceremony to put on his swim trunks.

I look forward to the Paolo photobomb!

[SeraNita]

The image has been added! And I must say, Paolo in a monkey suit isn't a bad idea at all. It doesn't help that he looked over and did this wink as I was trying to line up the shot 

@FrancescaFiori Thank you, I was a little iffy about doing the Bluffs but most areas were too crowded and premarital Emi simply couldn't afford a wedding area, but I wanted to snag a gold party in there to save myself later grief.

I do agree that Emi looks better in her formal wear than the dress the game tossed on her; in the original save for her, she'd married a random townie that didn't have a household, the Windenburg librarian Angelo Joiner (although I just called him dark, mysterious and brooding most of the time). In that wedding, the game put her in a scarlet dress that went MUCH better with her than the white one does. Sadly, I didn't get lucky enough for that color.

By the time I'd gotten Emi to cut the cake (for some reason, my caterers always, without fail, place every cake in a position where the sims cannot route to it, such as backwards on a counter or on a surface facing a wall, so cutting cakes or blowing out candles is like solving a 10-sided Rubik's cube) Joaquin had gotten bored and dove into the pool. I'd just missed a good shot of the Dog in his magenta speedo doing an Olympic dive off of the stairway into the pool, where he landed on a guest, who totally didn't notice, but splashed Alice Spencer-Kim, who did notice and got angry.

[Curveball]

Oh this does look really interesting I always struggle to put together a story within the bounds of challenege gameplay, but it can be great fun!

My advice for the pictures is to keep multiple saves (good practice anyway in case anything becomes corrupted), and when you go to write up the story if you have a picture you wish you'd had go into the old savefile, set it up and take it there with no pressure. Exit without saving so you still have your old savefile intact in case of emergency.

[SeraNita]

@Curveball Thanks for reading! I usually don't do stories from Sims games myself simply because I feel like there's just too many ways their odd expressions can be interpreted, and I can never decide if they're angry, winking, or just smell something nasty if I'm not Watching them.

I've been lucky thus far in regards to pictures, I usually take about three of an action and pick the one I think turned out the best, and sometimes the funniest things are in them, like Paolo winking at the bride and groom as he walks by, or one of the spares messing up the cooking (again). I do keep a backup of my IDC save, which I keep as a separate save entirely because I'm a sap and I'm scared of letting my other Sim families grow old and die while I keep one family alive for eternity. You will occasionally see some non-townie Sims that the game has moved in, and their looks may leave a lot to be desired, for which I apologize, I've never been particularly gifted at making gorgeous Sims.

I apologize for the lack of updates to this thread, I haven't abandoned my dear headcase just yet, I've been insanely busy and all of yesterday's free time was spent organizing pictures for the next chapter, which should be up tonight, hopefully.