The Kindle Random Town Jump

[Beks]

Sorry about the error 12, lack of space and screenshots.

On the flip side, with your wonderful 'imagine if you will' scenarios filling my head, it was a typical sims wedding.

Nobody did what they were supposed to, nobody sat in the chairs you had painstakingly arranged (hours, hours of work!), and most of the guests were not wearing the clothes you intended for them to wear.

And despite all of that, when you were just about to give up, your sims got married and one or two poor guests will cheer and throw rose petals to the ends of time! lol

As for posing sims, I too have given up! It's an impossible task that only leads down the road of Insanity!

Congratulations Aria and Mario, um, Ario? At least you two got some face time. And what a face it is Mario! I do believe he has some Goth in him somewhere!

Congratulations Dawn and Derick, on your wedding day with no visible mementos. Better luck in the next town! I will be devastated if there are no toddler pics! Just saying. lol

Thank you so much deedee! Sounds like you imagined the wedding perfectly. You may as well have been there.

Ario is a much better ship name. Let's go with that from now on. Maria was just silly.

And don't worry, there will be plenty of toddler pics! I'm almost to that point in my game already, and I'm hyperventilating with excitement! (I'm still holding out for someone to inherit Harvey's red hair...but I'm trying not to get my hopes up.)

[Beks]

Chapter 73 – City of Dreams

You may remember that when the Kindles moved to Riverview, Desert Rose was horrified. At the time, she must have forgotten that she would be moving to another town before the end of her life––that she would have a second chance to live in the city of her dreams.

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Everyone, welcome to Bridgeport! This sparkling city is the final stop in this Random Town Jump, and it’s going to be a great time. Let’s jump right in, shall we?

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The Kindles, being quite rich and rather important, have some unprecedented power in these parts. They move into what is undoubtedly my favorite house in Bridgeport––Celluloid Heights, the gorgeous 1920s mansion at the end of the mountain road. Normally it houses Alan Stanley and Emmy Starr. They have been gently kicked to another mansion just down the road. I think they’ll survive.

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The house is absolutely stunning, and I do very little to change it. After taking these screenshots, I turned part of the master bedroom on the left into a children’s room with spare beds, and added some furniture in random places.

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I also put up many of the paintings that the family has created and kept over the years. Blaise’s axe also may or may not be hanging around somewhere.

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The girls settle right in to their new digs, enjoying the large-yet-cozy living room with the dim lamps and fireplace (plus a nice view of the pool and probably the city, on computers with better graphics).

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Calder immediately finds one of the easels I’ve tucked into corners throughout the house. How nice to paint a landscape in a room with an actual palm tree!

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And Mario goes straight for the shuffleboard out front. He likes games, this one. Heh heh.

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Derick, meanwhile, chooses to work out in front of the tiny vintage television set in his new, very pink master bedroom.

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As the family settles into their new mansion, Dawn is the first to venture downtown. She locates the business and journalism office in the sea of skyscrapers and gets herself a job as a Paper Girl.

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She stays downtown for a while to get to know some Bridgeport natives. The first woman she makes friends with, Caroline Custard, also happens to be her boss, which is convenient. In the afternoon, Harvey comes down to take advantage of the crowd out back. He makes a few acquaintances and earns a few dollars in tips.

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When a certain Bridgeport townie shows up, I simply HAVE to make Dawn say hi.

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While Dawn and Harvey get to work on the Bridgeport social scene, Aria and Mario are getting busy back at home. They’re going to move out to their own place soon (don’t worry, I am keeping a VERY close eye on Mario), but before that happens…something else must happen.

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The next morning, after a goodbye kiss from Derick, Dawn heads off to her first day of work. Derick apparently has a thing for yellow baseball caps, or something, because he is absolutely SWOONING in Dawn’s wake.

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It’s the first day of work for Ario, too. Did I mention that they both work in the culinary career? Mario took a job at the bistro back in Riverview before he married Aria. Now, the two of them work as Kitchen Scullions at the diner on the water.

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That night, Derick goes on his first assignment as a ghost hunter. I was a little worried about finding spirits in those tall apartment buildings, but it turns out that the spirits just hang out in the gardens and parking lots surrounding the buildings. So far, Derick hasn’t even had to go inside. Fine with me!

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After only two days in Bridgeport, Harvey succumbs to old age. He actually got an extra day tacked onto his age somehow. So no complaining, old man!

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The next morning, Aria puts some waffles in the oven and discovers that she also has a bun in her own oven. Hooray, she’s pregnant!

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She runs upstairs to tell Mario, leaving the waffles to burn in the oven. (Amazingly [and somewhat to my disappointment], the waffles don’t burn. They just sit there, cemented, preventing anyone else from baking anything, until I delete the oven and buy a new one.)

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Now that she’s definitely bringing a new Kindle into the world, it’s time for Aria to go out on her own. She and Mario venture into Bridgeport to find their own place and raise their family together.

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As luck would have it, the game places them in this cute little cottage right at the foot of the mountain. I think we’ll be seeing a lot of them. Bye, guys! Good luck! No untimely murders/deaths please!

Speaking of untimely murders and deaths, things haven’t been going well between Rose and her son-in-law (who is looking FINE due to his new favorite pastime of swimming, by the way). Back in Riverview they were starting to become friends; here in Bridgeport, their clash of traits comes out in full force.

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Rose: “You’re GOOD?! Why didn’t you tell me you were Good?! I would never have given you my blessing if I’d known you were the ENEMY!”
Derick: “I thought you knew! You can access my personality traits from your relationship panel at any time!”
Harvey: “I’m going to leave the room now before this gets any worse.”

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And boy, does it get worse. Rose takes a moment to change into her bathrobe, for some reason, and then she corners Derick in the living room and TACKLES HIM. (She goes at it with such violence that Derick actually finds himself stuck inside her bathrobe. Oh, the horror!)

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The Empress of Evil defeats the Rookie Ghost Hunter, leaving him sore for days. I think this is going to become a regular event in this house. Derick’s gonna have to start working out a lot more!

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Meanwhile, Harvey’s decision to leave the room turns into a decision to leave the house. He ventures downtown, wondering if any of the late night hotspots would be interested in hearing a freshly-eldered drummer play while they sip cocktails. As luck would have it, he schmoozes his way into the Prosper Room without any trouble. (I’m not sure this bouncer is cut out to do her job, if she lets a strange old man in a speedo walk through those doors.)

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Late that night, as Derick is arriving home from ghost hunting and taking out the trash…a visitor appears. Someone we haven’t seen in a very long time.

[Trip]

Final town Hopefully Bridgeport behaves, when Rose does not~

More sadly I guess this is the place where I learned what happens to screenshots when the hard drive space isn't there. Of course EA didn't program in a warning. But I trust my imagination and you still have a wedding left in Bridgeport after all.

Since this and the Honeyhearts are reaching their natural ends, what plans do you have after this?

[mpart]

The house is beautiful! I have never noticed it before in Bridgeport, but wow!
I'm curious to see what Mario will be up to now that he and Aria have moved out. Hopefully, he won't be doing anything too fishy...
Poor Derick. XD His mother-in-law is about to make his life a lot more difficult.

[Beks]

Final town Hopefully Bridgeport behaves, when Rose does not~

More sadly I guess this is the place where I learned what happens to screenshots when the hard drive space isn't there. Of course EA didn't program in a warning. But I trust my imagination and you still have a wedding left in Bridgeport after all.

Since this and the Honeyhearts are reaching their natural ends, what plans do you have after this?

Haha, Rose never behaves...and Bridgeport is starting to follow in her footsteps, if only because of its glitchiness. I know, I can't believe it's the last town already! This would be a longer challenge if I had more space on my computer...that's the cause of all my problems, apparently.

I don't know yet what I'm going to do after the Kindles and Honeyhearts wrap up. I am starting grad school in January, so I really should stop playing the Sims so much...but I can't imagine stopping altogether. I'd love to start a new challenge of some sort, maybe something completely different. I am definitely open to suggestions for fun challenges to try!

The house is beautiful! I have never noticed it before in Bridgeport, but wow!
I'm curious to see what Mario will be up to now that he and Aria have moved out. Hopefully, he won't be doing anything too fishy...
Poor Derick. XD His mother-in-law is about to make his life a lot more difficult.

Full disclosure: I had never seen this house before this either. I was doing some snooping before moving the family to Bridgeport and I fell in l-o-v-e with it. I haven't even shown the best part of it yet...

I'll keep you all updated on Mario and Aria, for sure! I'm happy to say that they've at least been popping out some babies, if not much else. You'll see them and their kiddos (yes, plural!) soon.

[Trip]

Congrats on grad school! The Midnight Sun Challenge was the first one I ever tried in TS3 and it was even done on a crummy 2011 laptop (like crummy by 2011 standards). You have to spend only five generations in a tiny island world and the only thing that could tax your performance is the one vacation you're allowed per generation to find a spouse abroad. (I opened up travel to regular worlds with NRaas Traveler to make spouses more fun) But you gotta study too.

And now that you mention a best part, is it a sick party basement? There's some Bridgeport mansion that has one and I want to believe it's yours now.

[Beks]

Congrats on grad school! The Midnight Sun Challenge was the first one I ever tried in TS3 and it was even done on a crummy 2011 laptop (like crummy by 2011 standards). You have to spend only five generations in a tiny island world and the only thing that could tax your performance is the one vacation you're allowed per generation to find a spouse abroad. (I opened up travel to regular worlds with NRaas Traveler to make spouses more fun) But you gotta study too.

And now that you mention a best part, is it a sick party basement? There's some Bridgeport mansion that has one and I want to believe it's yours now.

Thank you so much, Trip! The Midnight Sun Challenge does sound like fun. I'll add it to my list of possibilities.

It might be a sick party basement...maybe...but only maybe.

[Beks]

Chapter 74 – Fiery Flamingo

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While he’s downtown ghost hunting, Derick also goes dumpster diving. It seems he has a fondness for this activity, for reasons I can’t figure out. In any case, the first thing he picks up (and only thing, before I realize what he’s doing and stop him) is a backyard flamingo. Naturally, I have to give it a coat of paint before it can grace the Kindle entrance.

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Harvey does not approve of the fiery flamingo. Yeah, I think that Good trait is good and gone now.

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Fortunately, we have another Good sim in the house. Derick, out of the Goodness of his heart or possibly in defense of his secret stupid hobby, sets the flamingo upright again when Harvey’s not looking.

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The family is settling in nicely to their home outside Bridgeport. We brought along Clover’s old martial arts board breaker thingy, and Rose goes out there almost constantly to add to the growing pile of space rock gems.

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I keep a close eye on Aria and Mario after they move out. Before long, I spot Aria heading into town with her new baby in her arms––a boy! His name is Zackary. Isn’t he cute? Oh wait, he’s just a generic bean right now. We’ll see what he looks like soon enough.

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If he even makes it to toddlerhood, that is. Aria, inside the steering wheel is NOT the correct place to put a baby while driving. Isn't this an old bug that was supposedly fixed a hundred years ago or something?

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Harvey’s gotten a bit bored since achieving his LTW. In an attempt to stay relevant, or something, he goes out looking for some other musicians his own age. He happens upon the glamorous Aria Trill, who somewhat begrudgingly agrees to be in a “band” with the crazy old man in the speedo.

And what about our lovely heir, you ask? She has something special in mind for her hubby tonight.

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Derick: “Uh, Dawn? Why are you standing out here in a…wait, is that your wedding dress?”

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Dawn: “It sure is. The forum didn’t get a chance to see me in it. I also thought maybe you’d like to see me in it one more time…”
Derick: “I-I can’t say that I wouldn’t! I only wish I was wearing something more suitable…”

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Once again, Derick gets sucked into a woman’s skirts. But this time, he’s not being tackled––well, I guess he is, in a way…

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Somewhere in between kisses, Derick scurries off to change into his wedding suit, and Dawn contracts a bug wherein her kisses are not reciprocated and her arms go all twisty.

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Derick: “Um. Sweetie? That’s not…I’m over here. That’s not my mouth. Hello?”

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Eventually, they figure out how kissing works again, and enjoy some gentle foreplay under the light of their very own streetlamp.

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Then they head for the bedroom, with the goal of bringing in the next generation of Kindles. Harvey provides a drumroll for his daughter’s exciting endeavor.

Dawn: “I really wish you wouldn’t, Dad.”

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Alone in their pink bedroom, Derick and Dawn give us a nice replay of their wedding night. This is as close as I can get to showing you the actual wedding day. I am sorry.

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The next morning, Dawn feels mysteriously ill, possibly because she thrusts her whole body through a stained glass door on the way to the toilet. But that’s just a hypothesis.

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Harvey pays a visit to his eldest daughter and her husband that day. It’s time he met his first grandson. He walks in to find Mario being a very good dad to his new son.

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…He also finds Aria being just as insane as ever. Good to know, I guess.

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I love this scene. Mario and Harvey sit side by side on the couch and watch Aria argue with herself for about five minutes, their heads turning in unison as they watch her gesticulate wildly.

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Just as you totally did not expect, Dawn finds out she’s pregnant after arriving home from work wearing this rather silly hat. The next generation is on the way!

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And who but Dawn Kindle spends her pregnancy striding around the big city in hot pink heels? (Well, a lot of people in Bridgeport, maybe.)

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Calder is a lucky teen––he gets to go to his second prom, and this time, it’s the big city prom. He’s only met one kid at school, a fella named Bronson Littler. And at prom, the two of them get together and go steady! Bronson is the one who initiates, kissing Calder right on the lips in the middle of the dance.

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This is Bronson. He’s a cute one, and has a mean sense of style. He also happens to live just down the road, which is convenient. (He and Calder actually started flirting a couple days before prom, so it wasn’t ENTIRELY out of the blue.)

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On the way home from prom, Calder ages up. I think he’s a few days ahead of his new boyfriend, unfortunately.

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Oooohh, look at this looker. Calder is straight-up beautiful. He really takes after his dad, except…he’s somehow even better looking? Anyway. Calder becomes, very excitingly, a Light Sleeper. I guess that’ll work well in a city like Bridgeport. He’s also an Artistic Virtuoso, a Coward, and a Mooch. His LTW is Golden Tongue, Golden Fingers.

That’s all the time we have, folks. Next time, we’ll meet a new Kindle or two!

[Beks]

Chapter 75 – Sunny Days

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Look who’s back, everybody! I know, it’s incredible. Somehow, by some mysterious magic, Blaise Kindle is haunting the house in Bridgeport. Don’t look at me, people. I had nothing to do with it.

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Oh wow, Justin is here too! Naturally, he’s in his swimwear whilst doing his haunting. I don’t know why that makes sense, but somehow, it does.

That’s only at night, of course. During the day, Dawn, um, waddles around the city looking for people to interview. She’s forced to take off work for her pregnancy, but thankfully she’s moved up the ranks enough to actually write her own articles, so she can stay busy during her downtime.

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Dawn: “Oh hey, sis. What’s up.”
Aria: “Hey.”

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While she’s out meeting the locals, Dawn captures the attention of the paparazzi. Oh. Turns out she (and all the other Kindles) have been celebrities since, like, their Sunset Valley days or something. The stardom has just been passed down effortlessly through the generations. Dawn is famous for no reason! Yay!

After she's had her fun, she finally gets around to some interviews.

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Dawn: “So, Ms. Strummer, have you heard any interesting gossip around the city lately?”
Suzy: “Oh, have I! Apparently someone new is in charge of the city’s criminal network––a bit of a hick, they’re saying. She’s old and kinda crazy, and she just goes around with her spooky red glow trying to tell these city slickers what to do when all she knows how to do is milk a cow! Isn’t that wild?! Apparently she has a very countryside accent––kind of like yours, actually…”

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Calder celebrates his graduation surrounded by classmates he only went to school with for, like, one day. He graduates with highest honors and is voted Most Likely to Be a Rock Star. (I enjoy the chaos that is happening just outside City Hall when Calder emerges. Ahh, Bridgeport, how I love you.)

Dawn, quickly becoming an astute and persistent reporter, takes advantage of the crowd to get another interview.

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Matilda Smart: “I’ve been having this recurring dream where I marry into a legacy family––I think the guy’s name is, like, really old-fashioned, Cleary or Claude or something––and the wedding happens in a bar, and my husband has an empty drink glass stuck to his hand the whole time! Isn’t that weird?”

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With so much strange gossip floating around, Dawn has lots of work to do at home.

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She doesn’t get far before the labor pains hit.

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Derick: “Hey babe. I just swam for three hours and put on several pounds of muscle. Check it out before I change out of my speedo.”
Dawn: *unintelligible scream of pain*

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Derick: “Oh, you’re having the baby NOW?? Why didn’t you say anything?!”
Dawn: "..."

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A few hours later, Dawn and Derick leave the hospital with their new daughter, Sunny.

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It’s been a while since there’s been a baby in the house for Desert Rose to bond with. Yes, I said bond with, Rose!

Rose: “What are you staring at? I’m not doing anything! I’m just taking the baby to the nursery! Leave me alone!”

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Rose: “Ahhh, forget it. Come on, sweet thing, turn out those pockets!”

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*sigh* Rose is Rose, as always.

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Calder somewhat makes up for his mother’s evil deeds. He’s a very attentive uncle. (And a very beautiful one. Whew!)

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He’s constantly going over to cuddle his niece.

Speaking of uncles and nieces…let’s check in with our favorite aunt and nephew! Aria's son Zackary has aged up to toddler, so let's go see––

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*jaw drop*

I can’t believe it. Zackary inherited Harvey’s red hair! As soon as this happens, I am immediately afraid that Aria is going to have all the red-haired babies, and Dawn is going to get stuck with the tried-and-true black or orange. (Both of which are lovely colors, but…you know, things get boring after a while.) In any case, Zackary is ADORABLE. Congrats, Aria and Mario!

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Rose goes over to meet her eldest grandchild and gives him a good scare. All Kindles need a good scare from an Evil family member if they are to grow up properly, you know.

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Granny Rose even starts teaching little Zackary to walk. Look at his little flame onesie!

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Back at home, baby Sunny is getting lots of attention. Seriously, it’s kind of hard to get the family to do anything other than nuzzle her and play with her.

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I love watching Derick as a dad. It really suits him. He happily cares for Sunny while Dawn continues writing for work in the background.

Now that he’s a young adult, Calder doesn’t have a lot to do. He’ll be moving out once his boyfriend, Bronson, is aged up, but for now, he’s just kind of puttering around, working on his charisma for his Lifetime Wish. That is, until he finds a certain secret door unlocked one night.

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He ventures down a long stairway into the basement of the house, where no other Kindle has ever gone before. There, he finds his destiny awaiting him.

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The dimly-lit basement stage becomes Calder’s hideaway in these long, boring days before his departure. If he’s going to be a rock star (and max charisma and guitar), he has to start somewhere.

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The ghost of Blaise bookends this chapter. Did you know that you can’t see ghosts when they’re underwater? Spooky.

[Trip]

Supposedly kids have a 50% chance of inheriting a grandparent's hair color, which is kind of absolute insanity (I've seen families where most or all kids get a forgotten hair color because 50% is a big chance) but might bode well for you. I dunno! You didn't age up the baby for the chapter ending after all. 😔

[deedee_828]

Yeah, Harvey's hair lives on! So far in just a spare, but he's such a cutie, I'm not complaining. But fingers crossed little Sunny gets it too. As far as grandparents passing on their hair color, in my TJ game, the turquoise hair from IP now has 3 gen 9 kids with it! All spares of course! Even though the mother and grandmother have it for the heir family, all four of the heir children have dark hair too, like their father and the grandfather. Just my luck of course!  And Calder....woohoo, he is gorgeous! If I didn't already have Leonard in the 2nd gen heir spouse spot in my Farmacy game, I'd be begging for him! I still may! He does have Harvey's genetics! And I never knew that you couldn't see ghosts under water. Even my Adam, who Loves to Swim, has never jumped in the pool.