Ann's vacation to Lesvos Island

These events take place before Tierra De Legado.



Aerial view of Lesvos Island. Lesvos land was created by Patul @ MTS2

Inspired by Mama Mia, I've been working on putting together a Grecian inspired isle. It's not complete, but Ann insisted she be the first to visit.



Day 1 (in Ann's own words)

Here we have an over head view of my first stop. This is a picture of Greek City, which I managed to get on a helicopter tour around the island.

Greek City is a relatively newer, more contemporary city that is just beginning to get itself established. There have been houses there forever, but it seems people are wanting to dip their hand into the tourist trade.

The first place I stayed in was Villa Maria.


Villa Maria was meant to be someone's vacation home. The story the desk clerk told me is that the elderly parents left the home in the care of their children so they could travel the world. When they didn't return right away (just taking too long on vacation, I'm sure they're still alive out there somewhere traveling the world), their kids turned it into a hotel.

The view from Villa Maria

((I thought I should point out that most of the buildings in Greek City are created by Greeksim over at TSR. ))

Are you going to keep doing that? It's going to get old fast.

((Shut up Ann. It is my blog.))

ANY WAY, since most of the buildings had been houses in this section of the city, I found that the city was mainly full of hotels. The thing to do it seems is to hang around these previous homes. There aren't many bars or night clubs. And to encourage visitation, most of the hotels have an open kitchen. For a small amount of money, anyone is welcome to come and make a meal for themselves or for other patrons.

The place to hang out is the center of town, called Golden Isle, which was most likely the original center of this precious little town.



It has all sorts of shops, clothing and food, restaurants, a cafe, a bar, and even a swimming pool. And for those most brave, one can actually rent rooms for cheap (around $300 per night) and stay in the heart of all the action.

It was a little too busy for me though, so I did not choose that as my next destination.

Ann in the Aegean Sea.

My next destination was on the sea. A little home turned into a hotel. I took the room on top, a little tiny room with only a bed, a book case, and a chair. The little bathroom seemed like an extra thought. Was this even supposed to be a room?


I will say, I had some amazing view from this hotel on the beach.






There was a little problem... it began to rain in the morning, and I found out why my room was so cheap. It was leaking. So I once again had to pack up my things and move onto the next destination.





It was indeed fun to put together and lovely to explor with Ann. I have to make sure everything is working. The leaking roof waas a surprise to me, but it could have predated Seasons. It was an old house.



I personally thought this was funny. Ann started the topic about Sofia. Apparently, this traveller knows her full well. Oh my, Sofia Stratton is getting a reputation.

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City Center

I'm always working on my style. In essence, I'm pretty simple and I don't like to keep track of too many things. (Most everything has to be able to be mental!)

My play style is geared towards playing stories. Most everything is at my discretion, but to keep some balance, I do try to have my playing on some sort of system.

Currently, only the teachers are played every season. I play each teacher for four days, and that will indicate a season. The main reason, is that then I get to see the kids and have them working on the skills they should work on. (The school is pretty easy going though. I have a lot of time for them to learn skills.)

Even then, a season may be shorter or longer based on my own discretion. (Like Summer 3-- that has lasted forever!)

I'm not a very tidy player.



As for the writing. I have a mix of playing and ideas. Generally, I know where I would like a story to go, but I still do play and watch my sims for cues.

Sometimes, especially lately, I will write out pieces from the POV of the sims I am focusing on. These generally don't turn into entries. They're just for my own fun.

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CIty Calendar

Aging

I play a slow game. There are four seasons in one year. Life stages are as follows:

Baby - 2 seasons
Toddler - 1 year
child - 3 years
teen - 4 years
Adult (including YA years) - 10 years
Elder - my discretion


This is still being worked on of course as I play. Most seasons have about 10 or 12 entries in general.



Holidays

My sim holidays get their cues from the Seasons EP of course. I do usually play through the holidays, but I haven't really worked them into any stories. None of them have any proper names at the moment, but I'll update them if something pops into my head.


Spring - Romance season. Usually have dances for the teens during this time. A good way to let someone know you care is to bake something sweet to give them during this time. Parents also celebrate their unions during this time (much like IRL anniveraries) by hiring a baby sitter and going out for a night on the town.

Summer - This is the season when the sims arrived in Tierra de Legado. The whole town gets together for a large block party on the beach where they crash landed. It's also tax season, so they need to let loose.

Fall - Back to school season. Students head off to college during this time, young students also start school again. Teachers usually are invited to dinner at the homes of their students. They will also open the doors of their schools to let in the general public.

Winter - Time for family. Sims will have huge family reunions or small gatherings of immediate families. Either way, it is a time for family to get together and be thankful that they have each other.

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The Library

Welcome to the library. Feel free to pick out a book to learn more about our residents. The list goes from new to old.

Once you've clicked on a storyline, remember to start at the entries from the bottom and work your way up. Clicking on the "Read more ___" at the bottom of entry previews will open the entry in a new window, so you won't have to navigate away from the main page with the entries on it.


Books Available:

???
A listing of the weird going-ons in town.

Rendezvous
A few old characters meet up and a few new characters step into the picture.

Haphazard Complete
Multiple stories brush against each other this season while I play around with my storytelling style.

Going to Gabe's Complete
Alberta gets to hang out at Gabe's house and meet Gabe's parents.

Connections Complete
My Favorite-- Amberle learns a little about herself and we get a glimpse into the far past of Tierra de Legado. Note: The prequel to this is Embarrassing Amberle, so it might be a good idea to peek at the last two entries or so.

For the Love of Alberta Complete
Alberta Fergueson comes to the attention of older student Gabriel Mellon and meets Kate Stratton in the girl's bathroom.

Embarrassing Amberle Complete
It's just so easy to do! Amberle meets the mysterious Henry.

Elven Council
Amberle runs into an old friend. (This storyline ends with the Connections storyline.)

Ama on the Hunt Complete
Ama is just another word for "trouble." When she hears there's possibly a vampire on the loose, she thinks it warents investigating.

What Happened to Green? Complete
Something odd must've happened to him during the course of the Uncertainty storyline.

Uncertainty Complete
Elizabeth Kauker, already involved with Aden Mellon, starts a new relationship with his cousin and Legacy Heir, Green Mellon.

The Beginning
What's going on? Find out why these sims are new to this land and know very little about it!

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Growing families

These events take place before Tierra De Legado.



Bonnie Centowski gave birth to a lovely baby girl named Amália.


Daniel Mellon became a plant sim. O_O His partner didn't appear too happy about it, but that didn't stop the wedding.

Everyone that was important to Daniel was there. It was definitely the happiest day of his life.

Soon after the wedding, Daniel felt a tickle all over. His nose began to twitch, and ACHOO! He sneezed out an adorable little plant sim that he and his partner called Ivy Mellon. (I know, original, huh? XD)


Next door to Daniel, things at the Mellon Farm have been going really well business wise. Phillip has a great head for business! He suggested his family sell live stock and it's products. So they have renamed The Fish House to The Farmer's Market, and now they sell meat, milk, eggs and fertilizer.
Phillip treated his sister out to a meal at Water's Gourmet Diner.

The cute part was that while they were there, they ran into other sims like their brother Daniel.

I also took note of this:


Cherrie Smith and Jeannie Stratton out to a lunch date together. Jeanie was married into the family first and it turned out she was good buds with the sim who had been stalking my sims for a while. That's when I first became aware of the plight of my NPCs. Now I keep a close eye on them. (See the second paragraph of this post to see what is up with my NPCs.)




Also, I just love this kitchen. Buggybooz added more parts to it since the last time I played. So I had more to play with. It looks so lovely in game.

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Water Mellon Down to Business

These events take place before Tierra De Legado.



Water was recently featured in Legacy Living's very first article about the local businesses.

He has been busy!


It all started with the chocolate shop. Water made gourmet candies for a company before he became a celebrity chef. As he was working, he came up with his own delicious ideas involving exotic flavors he'd picked up from his travels. So he thought, "why not?"






The paintings are painted by Water and his father, Alec, who runs a gallery. Water wanted his shop to look good and be inviting. So he leaves out the nectar juice for guests to enjoy.

Women flock to the shop to visit personally with Water. It's all about the show. Nevermind that one small box of chocolates costs $500 and the larger one is $1,000. For the way he makes the ladies feel, it is well worth it.



Water is indeed a romance sim. But he has selected his one, Demi Love. She doesn't help him at the chocolate shop (for good reason!), so that's supposedly why she wasn't mentioned in the article about Water.


Demi loves Water greatly, but although she had promised to help him in his next venture, she found she couldn't. Doctor's orders. She was pregnant!

Water wanted better than the little hole in the wall they were living, so he bought a little shop and turned it into "Water's Gourmet Diner."



It has a homey feel, but you can go and get some really fancy stuff for a pretty reasonable price. Plus, in what other fancy restaurant do you get to meet the chef? Water doesn't want anything between himself and the customers. He wants them to see exactly what kind of kitchen he runs.



To help supplement his earnings, Water sells his famous pies now at the front. It doesn't deter sims from eating there though.


Water has done really well. He started off with nothing, and he's continually won the Best of the Best Award. Thanks to all the cash he's raking in, Water was able to buy a lovely new home.

Just in time too.





Sorry! I hope this wasn't too long. Water is one of my favorite sims. I wasn't sure when he started out with nothing that he'd be able to pull all this off, but this has been what I wanted for him. All of this happened over a five sim day period. So it was like a year for him! Wow, he works fast.

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High school is up and running

These events take place before Tierra De Legado.




The Students. In front Ethan and Tristin, in back: Ily and Ashley

I played through the high school today. Samantha Kerr is the sim in charge of the high school.

Students arrives around 8 and have a nice little break to chat, use the rest room and prep.

About two or three times a week, students will work on grade work. See the red head (dyed) in the back? She's the hardest worker. Today she had over 150% on her gradework!

Meanwhile, Tristin in the back (see his look of worry?) has a hard time working on his grade work. Samantha had to have a talk with him about it.

I don't know how, but Tristin managed to get on Sam's good side. He told her how he feels his life has a higher purpose, and that he isn't sure school is meant for him. He spends a lot of time praying to a higher power which he's sure will decide his fate.

Sam couldn't really argue with him after he opened up to her about his belief in a higher power (a subject still taboo among these sims, just like marrying service NPCs). So she asked him to make everyone lunch.


When students aren't working on gradework, they have other activities they can do. Some days they might have free time.

This week, they had their very first guest speaker.


Water Mellon came to the school to talk about his sales techniques.




The high school students are only in school from about 8am to 1pm. This is because the other half of the high school is.. da dada daaa~! After School programs!

After school programs can include time spent with other older sims learning skills or time after school working in quality jobs where they learn skills. Richard Mellon, the mayor, actually has a set of rules regarding the after school programs. Namely, students must be learning a skill. They can't just be tidying up all day.



Here is Ily practicing dance with my favorite sim, Ann. When Ann went to college, she earned the dancing scholarship, so she's helping Ily earn a dance scholarship as well. A dancer should know more than just ballet.



Here, Ethan talks with Water after the speech. "Teach me!" I can see him saying. When I play Water next, I'm sure Water will call up Ethan and hire him to work at the shop.

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