The Flowers waiting for Grim - Completed

[Seabody]

My posts keep vanishing.
Anyways, I think I know the answers to all three clues. I love the story!

[GlassMirrors]

Seabody, they may be considered frivolous by the moderating team. :\ I don't know though.

WONDERFUL story Schip!! Great writing, and it's quite funny. ;J Can't wait for more in the next chapter!

[Schipperke]

Thanks for the comments!  I have to admit, I really appreciate it when people take the time to leave a comment, and it's hard for me to see story comments as frivolous.  Seabody, I certainly haven't removed any of your posts.  I don't know if anyone else has done so.

A thought on the aging part.  If you are using the testingcheats to change the sims appearance, that might be the culprit.  My sister said after she used it, it put her sim at the beginning of YA again.  I am getting ready to check to see if it happens in mine, might be a random thing, just like the tatoo parlor.

Salty, thanks for sharing that.  I will definitely be careful with testingcheats and watch to see if my Sim's age changes when I use them.  But I know that in at least one game, that wasn't the case.  My Random Wishmasters game has the same kind of wonky aging going on - one of those characters is the exact same age he was at the beginning, and we're 5 weeks into the game.  I know I haven't used testingcheats in that game.  I just don't get it.

[Seabody]

They're also vanishing on the Babble Thread. But I'm getting off-topic. You really are writing a great story! I hope to see a novel by Schipperke when I grow up! Maybe "Stories of the Clan: I had a dynasty", perhaps?

[Schipperke]

Chapter Twenty-Four

You may recall that the students' graduation party was moved to Thursday evening because of Sunflower's job at the diner.  Thursday arrives, and like a lot of other students, the girls are finding it hard to concentrate on their studies.  They spend most of the afternoon trying on different outfits.  I hope you agree that the effort was worth it.  Certainly, Sunset Valley's eligible bachelors all seemed to enjoy themselves.







Leo is developing an interesting tie wardrobe, thanks to our talented pattern designers.  This is "Hello Daddy" by Gheez, and I love the way it looks on the tie.  I just hope Monica Morris, dancing with Leo, doesn't take the name too literally and start thinking of Leo as a possible daddy to her nooboos.  Leo is definitely not ready to be anyone's daddy.



Remember how last week's students kept going over to Leo's apartment?  Someone suggested I lock the door, but there isn't a door to the apartment itself.  There's the door to the garage that could be locked, but I think Sims would still be able to come in through the overhead door.  Anyway, Bessie Clavell definitely wasn't invited to this party but she came anyway and helped herself to a meal.  Then she went over to Leo's place to have a good look around.



I'm beginning to understand why Mr Payne said this to Leo back near the beginning of our story:  "Who is she and what did you do to her? Oh, never mind, I've heard it all before."  He doesn't do anything to encourage all this feminine interest, it just seems to happen.  By comparison to this steady stream of female visitors to Leo's place, I've never seen any of the many male visitors to the lot go over to Leo's.

The evening concludes with Marigold revealing the answers to the clues in the treasure hunt.

1.  "Seek me after dark; I'll light your way
And warm your tummy, so they say."

Answer:  Flame fruit, of course.  Edna and Fanny won this one with a picture of a flame fruit at the Langerak's house:



2.  "Scourge of vampires they call me.
To find me, you must truly outstanding be."

Answer:  Garlic, and the outstanding part tells us that it must be the garlic plant at the Outstanding Citizen's warehouse.  Gertie and Harriet, two of our criminals-in-training, had no trouble with this one.  Here's the picture they submitted:



3.  "Water cascading from the rock brings -
A bell that never rings?"

Answer:  Bell pepper, and the water cascading from the rock tells us that what we were looking for is the plant at Stoney Falls, where the waterfall is.  Gertie and Harriet won with this picture:



So the winners are Gertie and Harriet.  The first place prize is a pair of vouchers for a Great Escape at the spa.  Edna and Fanny get the second place prize, vouchers for Seaweed facials.  

Anyone else who played and who got all three answers right is entitled to a free manicure at the Sunset Valley spa.  Please let me know if you plan to claim your prize.  

[Sophie98]

Much as I love manicures and Sunset Valley, it's just too far away. Sorry. Plus I got one out of three right

[Natsuko]

YES! I got all of them right, shoot, I should've took pictures. No, but that was so sneaky. Still, a great story.
That was fun.
Please, I want another treasure hunt!

[Schipperke]

That was fun.
Please, I want another treasure hunt!

Ask, and you shall receive!  I had fun with it too and am already planning next week's clues.  I warn you, I expect the next ones to be hard. 

[Natsuko]

  *shocked* Keep your promise, pleeaassee? I love brainteasers and sudoku, so this should be fun

[TallStar]

Oh come on, I couldn't even figure out the other ones lol.
Good to know the girls could, I would totally fail.

[jessiethedog]

I love this story so far! I love your writing, Skipperke, and can't wait for more.

I couldn't figure out any of the clues either, but to my credit it was 11pm after a tiring day 

[Schipperke]

Thanks, jessiethedog.  I haven't given up on the Flowers, no fear - it's just that I had to scrap my first attempt at the Random Wishmasters challenge because of a bugged game, and I'm spending my time trying to get caught up with a second attempt.  But I hope to have an update or two by the end of the weekend.  Thanks for your patience.

[Schipperke]

This story has been very neglected lately.  I've been focusing on the Wishmasters challenge, hoping to get through it.  But every game I've started keeps going buggy on me - I wish I knew why this always happens in Challenges and not in other games.  Anyway, my  latest attempt started lagging, and I just stopped playing altogether for a few weeks.  Well, it's summer too, and I don't tend to play as much when it's nice outside.  But I haven't given up on the Flowers.  I've gotten back to that game and hope to have an update later today or tomorrow.  Thanks for your patience.

[MissPlumbBob]

I will be reading as you update! This story is interesting...

[Schipperke]

Chapter Twenty-Five

Friday morning.  The party guests have all gone home, after proclaiming the event to be "almost epic."  (Does anyone ever actually have an epic party?  I'm sure my Sims never have.)  The lessons are finished.  The students will have breakfast, find jobs, and then it's time for them to leave. 

Gertie has a wish to cook waffles, so she prepares breakfast for the group, demonstrating her cooking skill by burning the waffles.  Shoulda let Harriet do it, girl.  (Harriet's a Natural Cook.)



This story has been in hibernation for a while, so probably everyone has forgotten that three of our four students this week are kleptomaniacs whose fondest wish is to become criminals.  As soon as breakfast is over, they all run (literally) over to the Warehouse and sign on:





Fanny, the fourth girl, wanted to be a businessperson instead of a criminal (not that those two groups don't occasionally overlap, but that's a whole other discussion).  Unfortunately, I don't have a screenshot of her applying for her job as I was too busy keeping an eye on the kleptos.

And then it's time for our second group of students to leave.  They all have at least 1 or 2 skill points in the core subjects, even if their cooking isn't always perfect.  The town gives them quite a splendid house:



Now our faculty members have a couple of days to rest and catch up on their own activities before the next group of students arrives on Sunday afternoon. 

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking for Marigold and Sunflower.  As busy teachers, they have no time to sit around watching time pass and waiting for Grim as they were doing.  Nevertheless, time is still passing.  They may have temporarily forgotten Grim.  Grim certainly hasn't forgotten them.  I'm playing on Long lifespan, and somehow the aging went wonky at one point resulting in Sunflower being about 20 days older than Marigold  even though they're twins who became elders at the same time.  So Sunflower's age bar is almost all green at this point.