Welcome back to Familiar Faces

Chapter Seven: Betty's Agenda

When last we left the third generation of Familiar's had just graduated from Familiar University. Being the heiress, Betty Familiar has now moved back to the family home in order to take charge. She'll do it alone. There's no college sweetheart waiting in the wings to move in and marry our heiress. Betty has no desire to confine herself to a single man.

In case you've forgotten, Betty is a romance sim with a lifetime want to woohoo 20, she has 15ish.

Betty's parents Abe and Dina (Caliente) Familiar are elders and have diligently held down the fort waiting for Betty's return. Both parents are perma plat fortune sims. Dina is still working as a Space Pirate in the Adventure Career track, while Abe has been a house husband since taking early retirement from his job as Chief of Staff at the local hospital. Abe keeps the house going, the dogs washed and the garden thriving.

Oh yeah the dogs, there's too many of them. Currently four adult dogs live with the Familiars. Lex the second generation heir is an elder, so is his mate Lady; their daughter Sassy and her mate Snickers are still adults and haven't yet bred. The dogs of Tucker's line are primarily mean and sloppy, which is why Abe had to retire in order to keep them all bathed.

While Betty was away at University, we rebuilt the family home. I wanted everything on a single floor, so that toddlers and puppies could easily move around. I'm in a constant state of rebuilding and redecorating and so the house as it stands currently will change over the course of the generation and most likely will change dramatically as the generations progress. But for now I'll explain the layout and give a short tour of the key rooms.

From the front walk you enter into a small entry hall that has three arched doorways leading to the living room, the kitchen/dining room and to the pool hallway. Off the hallway from bottom left are Betty's Chocolate bedroom, female child's room, shared children's bath and male child's room at the top. Down the right side of the hall is Abe and Dina's lime bedroom with private bath, the purple nursery, and a large communal bath that connects the the mudroom. Off the dining room is a small study/sun room.

The living room in apple green with Holy Simoly Arizona furnishings.

Betty's Chocolate Bedroom

The girls room

The boys room

Abe and Dina's lime boudoir. Furnishings are again by Holy Simoly, this time it's the Sendai set.

Purple nursery with crib cubes, cribs and changing table are from the Bentwood Collection by MsBarrows at TSR.

The mudroom/dog room. Approaching the room from the communal bath the door on the left leads to the covered porch and out to the yard, pool, pond and greenhouse. The door on the right leads to the kitchen/dining room. Behind the half wall is a set of stairs that lead to the basement where the skilling rewards and some band instruments are, there's another bathroom in the basement.

The kitchen/dining room. Table is imported from life stories and the kitchen is currently from Numenors counter culture set at MTS2. Later in this generation the kitchen will be switched to Holy Simoly's Tranquility set.

The small study room off the kitchen. The bookcases on the floor by the window are by Sunair.

And that's the tour, or at least the main highlights of what will be shown this generation. I'm not a great builder, but I can usually build a playable home for my sims.

Now back to the story.

Since Betty had had such success wishing for love at University, she wanted the ability to do the same at home. In order to make that happen we needed to join the garden club and get a wishing well.

For the most part the tour went well, but they weren't impressed the small patch of weeds in the back yard. I'd like the garden club graders to try to have a weedless yard with four dogs.

But the final grade was impressive, leaving the garden club members wondering why the Familiar's weren't already members. They gave a sizable cash prize and left a wishing well by the pond.

Even though she has no want to work Betty took a job in the Athletic track cause it was available and the family doesn't have the punching bag plus she hoped to meet cute, well-built guys she could woohoo with.

Oh well two outta three.

"So if you refuse to listen to my gossip, I guess WooHoo's out of the question?"

Send him home he's not legacy legal no point in wasting your charm on him till after you give me an heir/ess.

Since meeting guys at work didn't turn out so well, Betty goes back to basics and wishes for another love.

And it's Chaz Whippler, bin sim from Academie Le Tour and a Ben Long look alike. We're starting to scrap the bottom of the barrel when it comes to romance sims that can pop outta the well.

"He's legacy legal and I haven't woohoo'd in almost three days (which is a record) so I don't care what he looks like. I'd woohoo the ugly secret society guy at this point"

Umm you did the ugly secret society guy your freshman year.

"I don't remember that, I must have been under the influence of bubbles and punch."

So Betty drags Chaz to the hot tub and

"She didn't drag me I came willingly"

So Betty and Chaz hit the hot tub and Betty takes her chances.

And with her first woohoo of adulthood Betty realizes I was serious about upping her risky rates.

At least this means she no longer has to confine herself to legacy legal partners.

Being pregnant only means she has more hours in the day to wish for woohoo.

"Now that I've fulfilled my contract, please make him tall dark and handsome"

Wishes don't always come true, but I guess some might say he's handsome in his own way.

Abe's a little bit confused over finding dormies in their undies at his lunch table. Don't worry Abe you won't ever see him again.

Betty's already moved on. Ajay's added to her contact list but they don't have any chemistry so he doesn't make the cut. There's more than enough one and two boltersin her panel for Betty to choose from, anything less than that is more work than she's willing to do. There's no such thing as a three bolter for Betty.

"There aren't very many men running around in formal swimsuits"

I think it's mostly based on the Maxis personality definition of romance sims. Most Maxis romancers are Taurus's or Libras, neither of which have attraction boosts with Sags.

"Bob dear, I'm really happy that you called, but please get back in your coffin before you turn into a pile of ash. You can call me this evening to tell me about Sierra."

Bob the vampire spare is engaged to marry Sierra the firefighter.

Insert witty lines about boiling water and calling the doctor.

Welcome to the world Cary Familiar

Named for the familiar face of actor Cary Grant, Cary Familiar's got blond hair, green eyes, and light skin tone. So far his genetics point to being a clone of his father. We'll have to wait until he's a toddler to see if he has the Pinocchio nose.

Fred stops by for a moment to see his great grandson.

"No I'm just here to cheer my bed which you stuffed behind the walls of the basement."

But Fred, you love meeting new people!

His mother's a romance sim, which means she'll take very little interest in Cary. Luckily he's got Abe to care for him and sniff his diapers to see if he needs a change.

Betty has more important things to take care of.

Abe no longer asks questions, he doesn't want to know the answers.

Betty starts hitting the bars looking for contacts. Betty rarely goes back for seconds so she's always needing new options.

Sorry Herb she's done with you and moved on, there's no reason for you to hang around she doesn't waste her want slots on anyone she's already conquered.

And while she doesn't waste her want slots on her son she does take care of him on free will.

I downloaded this dog only bath tub so that they would have a tub easily accessible for dog washing, without having to worry about shocking the gardener by bathing outdoors.

It works. . . to a point. Dina relives her days as a Dread Pirate.

The funny thing about this is that Dina is the current town slapper. The neighbors don't spy on her nude sunbathing or having elicit affairs, nah they just catch her playing in the tub.

What's up Lex?

"Fetch it boy!"

Lex is the first doggy death of the family that I didn't miss.

Bye Lexi, Abe and I will miss you but I don't think anyone else will. Lex was at negative or almost negative relationship scores with all the other dogs at this point. He was fully trained to be playful and calm but he was still always challenging the other dogs. I play with animal controls on so I'm constantly x'ing out challenges and replacing them with play with but such full houses I can't catch them all.

First order of business for ghost Lex is to show his mate and daughter where he buried his bone stash.

Thank wright the ghost holes aren't real, I'd be forced to move the graves to a pet cemetery if they were.

It's time for a toddler toss! All of the family is invited to cheer on Cary.

Betty quickly turns her head in order to avoid having an eye poked out by Cary's nose.

Cary Familiar, defiantly a cute kid from the front.

Sagittarius 1/7/9/8/3 He's sloppy, outgoing, active, playful and just a bit mean.

Cary's also a wee bit spoiled, his mom doesn't want to teach him anything, but she's always snagging him for tickles and talks. Gotta love playful sims they love to entertain the kids. Gotta hate playful sims they never leave the kids alone.

Grandparents of course handle the training. Not that his grandparents roll up wants to train him, it's just something that I make them do, like gardening and using the work benches.

And the dogs line up to be cuddled. It's surprising that this kid had time to work on his charisma.

Dina does the play dead training a little too convincingly. She's a lazy sim so any chance to lay around is taken to it's best advantage. I let Dina handle the dog training cause she's the only one that cares whether they get promoted or not. Abe's a bit weird as a fortune sim, he rarely wants to buy things, he just wants to play with the dogs.

"Well now I'm just turned off, really how could you mention engagement to me at a time like this? You may as well just leave now, I'm no longer in the mood in fact I think I feel a headache coming on."

"Jeeze I'm sorry Betty I thought all girls wanted to get engaged."

Here comes the relatives, must be time for another birthday!

As you can see Barbie's pregnant, no she didn't marry big earred Martin. After moving back to the main hood she never again rolled a want relating to him. She became obsessed with, and then married to Darren Dreamer. I had wanted to save Darren for an heiress but Barbie got her way.

Blow out the candles Cary, lets see what happens.

Cary grows up well, still looking like a clone of his father long nose and all.

Speaking of fathers, Chaz was invited here so that he could get to know his son better, but for most of the party he was occupied in the hottub. It was his idea, as I've said Betty never wants to go back for seconds.

Cary had to statisfy his wants to talk to a family member by telling Aunt Barbie how her childhood pet had died. Way to send a pregnant woman into hormonal overdrive there kid, good going.

He then takes on the challenge of arguing for fun with cousin Amelia. Al watches them closely fully prepared to comfort the child once he starts crying. There's no winning an argument with Amelia, she's to mean to concede, even if her opponent is just a kid.

Chaz finally gets out of the hottub in time to impart some wisdom to his son.

"Well you know a good makeup job will draw the eyes away from your nose and onto other features."

"I told you to mourn for my wife woman!"

Fred still can't stand the fact that Dina took Chloe's death so well.

"Public School is just no fun! When are you going to get me into Private School?"

Don't worry Cary your Mom's handling that right now.

"I have the best mom ever!"

I think so too, best headmaster visit I ever had, he didn't even stay for dinner.

Betty rewards herself with Gilbert Jaquet. Having seen some of the things Gilbert does in other peoples legacies I'm not so sure I consider him a reward, but eh it's another notch on the headboard.

If this was a normal legacy I'd say that Cary had found his perfect match. Since it's not I can only question why a sloppy sim would ever want a job as a maid, and why any family would ever hire one.

"Great it's snowing, perfect. What a wonderful way to end an already wonderful day. If life gets any better I might just scream."

"Until then I'll just slump around depressed cause you couldn't answer a simple chance card correctly."

Demoted all the way down to the bottom of the Adventure track.

"Betty I'm depressed, my social and fun are bottomed out I need to play red hands"

"Mmmplf kinda busy here Mom"

I eventually had to pull Abe away from the toy bench to save Betty's date. Dina kept interupting them to talk to and play with Betty.

It's like she was purposefully trying to prevent Betty from achieving her lifetime want. Congratulations nameless townie you will always be remembered as #20

Betty's new lifetime want is to top the Athletic track, which is nice cause she won't need to switch jobs to do that.

It's saturday, shouldn't you be skilling?

"Grandma's teaching me to be a Dread Pirate!"

When tub play gets too boring for Cary, wait tub playing never gets too boring.

When I get sick of the constant tub playing and finally cancel out the action, Cary goes outside and begins building an evil snowman army, intent on removing the sim dictatorship that doesn't allow budding Dread Pirates to train properly. Good luck with that.

Sparkly lights means it must be puppy time.

Two puppies with black base coats. Checking their personalities and finding that both are equally horrible, we decide to keep the male.

Sorry little one, you'll get a new home soon I promise. Between this house and Al's cathouse the neighborhood families have no trouble getting pets when they want them. Although the cats from Al's house are pretty scary looking at this point. Never breed a black cat to an orange striped one /shiver.

Welcome to the world Blacky Familiar. Unfortunatly for us all very few of Snickers good genes made it into the pup. Blacky is an aggressive pigpen like all his ancestors have been.

If they are gonna paint every morning when they wake up, at least they'll now paint things I kinda like. I added a bunch of stuff to the custom painting folder. Abe's working on a Warhol knockoff while Dina's doing a copy Jim Warren's work.

"Really Abe? You want to do that? You haven't rolled the want to do that in ages!"

Must be the first day of spring.

I send Betty downtown to meet some new people and do some power dating. First stop doesn't turn up anyone new. Gunner was there but other than dance they didn't do anything else. Gunnner is living with Betty's cousin Amy and their daughter Bea. He's a family sim in disguise so he doesn't want to cheat.

More repeats, by this point though Betty needs a motive boost and Kiernan Ticou is willing to be used, again.

Third stop finally finds some new faces. Robert Kim gets added to Betty's shopping list. She's feeling a little tired and nauseous though so she just adds a few folks to her contact list and heads home to bed.

"Errr that nausea wasn't cause of the salad was it?"

Umm nope

"You're telling me I'm gonna have to change diapers again?"

You might get lucky you might die before theres any diapers to change.

"And that's supposed to comfort me how?"

"I'm protesting my pregnancy, I'm gonna burn down the house and everyone in it! My sons almost a teen I can't be pregnant."

Ehh yeah you can, cause you are. Actions have consequences, considering you were on a community lot with base risky rates, I'm gonna mark this down as fate.

A day in the life of Cary Familiar.

Wake up slowly, protesting all the way that more sleep is needed.

Mop up the puppies piddle puddle cause Blacky likes to walk all the way to the back of the house to pee on Cary's rug rather than on the tiles in the kitchen like most of the dogs have done.

Be utterly confused over how to add water to the muffin mix in order to feed self. It's not like any of the adults in the house will get up and fix him breakfast, he's gotta be self sufficent.

Once the muffin is done he shovels it in in one and a half bites, belches and then cleans up his plate.

He then heads back to the bedroom to paint for a little while before spinning into his school uniform.

And yes he gets all this done in the two hours between waking and going to school. What can I say he's an active little tyke.

After school it's red hands with grandpa

And dancing with grandma before doing homework.

"It would be politically correct for you to show some concern for your son Betty. He's growing up before our eyes and you just aren't in the picture that often."

Don't give her such a hard time Dina, when your kids were little all you did was play in the tub. Besides can't you see she's pregnant and passing out in her chili?

It's a busy day for the Familiars full of birthdays

And deaths

Goodbye Lady! Lady was a beautiful dog and a great addition to the family. If her genes had carried on we'd have a bunch of mild manner clean dogs in the house. Of course we don't.

Rest in peace Lex and Lady Familiar. Generation two of the pet line are now playing fetch for eternity.

At least this devil dog doesn't try to hide his horns. Blacky turns into a pretty scary little dog.

"Hey wait no I'm not ready for this!"

Neither am I Dina, neither am I

"But I don't wanna go yet, I haven't made my nightly phone calls to Bob and Barbie and the grandkids"

I think they'll understand.

"I don't understand why you'd let him take Grandma before she could see me spin!"

I don't control these things Cary I'm sorry. But if you spin now everyone in the house will have a good memory to overwrite the bad memory and that will help alot.

"Okay, if you're sure, here I go!"

Spin with the sparklies Cary and Jump into teenhood, your grandpa needs a good memory for the day.

And your mom's trying to make it in to watch you but she's really gotta go pee. It's hard to do the pee dance while crying for your mother and trying to swarm your son's birthday all at the same time. Betty's a multi tasker what can I say.

Cary Familiar rolls family with a lifetime want to be a rock god. How family = rockgod I have no idea most rock stars don't seem to have that great of family lives, they're always on the road and never home.

We'll leave this chapter with a shot of Cary's profile. If the nose doesn't give you nightmares maybe you'll return to read what happens next.

Until then, Thanks for Reading! and Happy Simming!