Saturday, July 15, 2017

Gen 7 Ch 6: Welcome Home



When the moving truck rounded another corner, it finally came into view: a modern mansion built of bare concrete, set against the hazy blue ocean and framed by tall palm trees.

Grace and Jamey emerged from the truck and were greeted by the sound of waves washing against the shore. A faint smell of barbecue hung in the air. The A/C in the truck had been so strong that Grace had to wear several layers, but now she began shrugging them off as the relentless sunlight immediately engulfed her entire body. She smiled as she watched the pavement shimmer in the heat. It felt good to be back home.


The smell of barbecue grew stronger as they walked up to the house. Maybe her dad was throwing them a surprise party!


However, as the smoky smell passed the point of pleasantness and became pervasive, Grace's growing excitement soon turned into apprehension and finally, horror.

*


The power flowed from Gene's glowing fingertips and he couldn't help but grin. It was working, he could feel it. He was going to fix this mess, this disaster, this...


"Uh oh."


Hisses and creaks and foul smells were not what Gene had expected. A quick glance around the room confirmed his worst fear: something had gone terribly wrong. The kitchen sink's pipe had burst and sprayed a fountain of water, while the dishwasher next to it smoked and threw sparks dangerously. Piles of rotting garbage were strewn all over the floor, their permeating stench making Gene gag.


"You can start whenever," Fred prompted helpfully.


"It's already done," Gene scowled.


"Oh."


As the duo hesitantly surveyed the house, the extent of the destruction became painfully clear. Even rooms that had been completely untouched by the fire were utterly ruined now.


Not a single appliance was still working, not a single piece of furniture left unscathed.


"This is bad," Freddie murmured. He tried to think of something, anything they could do at this point, but nothing came to him.


"This is really bad," Fred repeated, feeling the panic build up. "Really, really bad... Oh plumbob, what do we do?!"

"Dad," Gene said flatly, but Freddie was too absorbed in his dismay to react.


"WhatdowedowhatdowedoOHPLUMBOBplumbob!"

"Dad. She's..."


"She's here."


 Grace's eyes darted around the room. She opened her mouth as if to say something, then closed it again. There were no words.


"The banner is a nice touch," she said finally, hearing her voice crack but desperately trying to keep calm. "What... happened?" Beside her, Jamey covered his nose and retched.


Freddie stood frozen, making Gene feel compelled to fill the uncomfortable silence with words.

"Well, you see, there was a fire, but we stopped it and then..." Gene's voice trailed off.

"Uh, welcome home," Freddie said lamely.


The sound Grace made in response was somewhere between a shriek and a sob.


When her shaky knees finally gave away, a pair of strong arms caught and steadied her.


"Grace," Jamey said softly. His warm brown eyes looking into hers were all the comfort she needed.


"You're right," she breathed. "We can fix this."


And so they tried.


They scrubbed the floors...


... gathered garbage and debris and then scrubbed some more.


But even after days of relentless work, the house was still an absolute ruin.





"Argh, I can't do this anymore," Gene roared angrily, tossing his filthy sponge into a corner. "We'll be stuck scrubbing this place until we're old and grey. Even the puddles are filthy! This is pointless! It's a... a simsyphean task!"


Grace, who had been scrubbing the same stubborn spot on the floor for hours, straightened up. She wiped her forehead with the back of one hand, then pressed it onto her aching back.

"Gene," she began, ready to deliver another one of her patented pep talks. But as she gazed around the room and realized how little progress they had to show for all their efforts, she deflated. "You're right," she said. "We need to call some help."

***


All in all, the construction work was done quicker than they would have ever anticipated.




The contractors had stripped the walls and floors down to bare wood and concrete. To replace the charred furniture that was beyond salvage, Grace and Jamey had trawled all the thrift stores in the area and found bargains and unique pieces they genuinely loved.


And even though the contractors had bungled some of the ceiling tiles...


... the house finally felt like a home again.



The only thing left missing was one very important family member.







______________________________

Sorry for the picture spam! Showing off the newly remodeled place <3

I was kind of tired of the way the house looked and wanted a cute hipstery makeover for the new generation, but Grace just doesn't feel like the type to throw away family heirlooms and remodel her childhood home just to suit her own taste. So the solution to my problem was, as usual, fire >:D

Btw, I don't think genies can actually fail at magically cleaning the house. Gene tried over and over and succeeded every time. I ended up having to turn Todd into a witch and adding him to the household temporarily so he could muck up the spell :,D

So yeah, the fire was completely staged in a different save file, in case you were curious :)

16 comments:

  1. Ahhhh, seeing your newly decorated house makes me feel so jealous! I really want to make houses and stuff and decorate them all cool like ^-^

    It's a shame that everything kinda went to shit, but hey! Remodeling! :D and fire is the solution to everything >:D

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    1. Every now and then I get these phases where all I want to do is build and decorate! It's a really fun change of pace from being in live mode sometimes. That's what's so great about TS - all he different ways to play :D

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  2. Great chapter! I loved the beginning, I couldn't stop laughing. Poor Gene... his mum should really come back and help him learn how to genie.

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    1. Yay, thank you! I'm glad you weren't too disappointed about the lack of explosions :D

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  3. That's some serious comedic timing you have there. *pregnant pause*

    b'dm TSSSSS

    Gene's glare is priceless, love your blog so far (I'm a bit new to it though I'm just getting into this challenge). What a great reason to dumpster dive, too! I love when sims homes end up with randomness everywhere, it's oddly refreshing from everything being all perfect or whatever.

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    1. Hey, thanks for reading and commenting! Quick(ish) recap for you:

      So Freddie here is the last generation's heir and a bit of a dope, though very kind-hearted. He had a highschool girlfriend, Charity, who he really loved and accidentally got pregnant. Charity's parents were very strict and sent her away after that, but she left the babies - twins, Grace and Gloria - with Freddie.

      Some time later Freddie rubbed a genie lamp and was granted three wishes. But, as things go with magical wishes, he was tricked! His badly worded wish of wanting "his time with Charity back" resulted in the genie leaving him with a baby, Gene. Despite that, Freddie was nice enough to use his last wish to free the genie.

      Freddie's kids were mostly raised by his mother Evelyn, who made sure to put them on the right path in life so they won't end up like their father. (Perfect children roll!) Once Evelyn passed, Grace kind of took over. Grace was always the most perfect one and eventually, her sister Gloria snapped under the pressure and was sent to a mental facility. What's happening there is another can of worms (the poor girl is suffering through an asylum challenge right now) but basically Grace (who is the heir now) is hoping Gloria recovers and comes home soon.

      I should probably make a recap page for all the generations o_o

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  4. Hahaha Todd as a witch... I almost wish he was born with magic powers, if only to hear the dozens of wand jokes he would make to the ladies.

    Goodness, good thing the family is swimming in money, I imagine that mess would have been more permanent otherwise. Nice in story reason for the remodel! The house looks really nice!

    So in story does Jamey live with Grace, or is he just hanging around a lot?

    :( Gloria! Will she ever find the 2nd internal hospital phone??

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    1. Yeah, the family is so filthy rich, it's almost disgusting. I have no idea what to do with all that money, save buy them expensive cars.

      Jamey and Grace are a couple - the living arrangements should become clear in the next chapters ;)

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  5. Simsyphean task! XD I love it!

    Poor Gene. He really tried! But I did doubt he would be able to help, since he hasn't had any help with his powers. I love the renovations, though.

    Omg. Todd as a useless witch is the best thing I've ever imagined. XD

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    1. Dumb puns ftw XD

      It must be tough, trying to practice something so volatile as magic without any instruction!

      It's as Marcy said; he'd be all about the wand jokes XD

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  6. Aw, I wish it had worked for Gene. He could have used some more confidence in his skills. Keep practicing for the next fire.

    It's cool that you used this as a way to redecorate. Yeah, Grace doesn't seem the type to get rid of everything just so it will be decorated the way she likes. The house looks really unique. :)

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    1. Yeah, let's hope he didn't get too discouraged. Maybe eventually he'll figure it out!

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    2. Just want to let you know I nominated you for a challenge called memory lane. It's pretty fun. :)
      https://diffyrandomlegacy.wordpress.com/2017/07/30/memory-lane-challenge/

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    3. Oh, thank you! That does sound fun! I'm super late, but I definitely want to do that, just to have an excuse to dig through my thousands of screenshots *u*

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  7. Oh plumbob!

    It was so cute watching the whole family try to rectify the situation. Grace is adorable. She used to actually irk me a little, maybe that was because I loved Gloria, but she's growing on me. :D

    Todd running away was great. I howled with laughter. "Let me help!" (first person to run). His character is so believable for some reason. :'D

    Beautiful redesign. Fingers crossed that we will see Gloria soon!

    (had a weird paragraph break in my last comment o_O hopefully it's gone now)

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    1. For me, all of them are my babies, but I can see how Grace is just too damn perfect to be very likable XD

      Ha, glad you liked Todd's reaction! He's such a crappy friend, really, but I hope the entertainment factor makes up for it!

      Gloria! Ah! She needs to come home already!!

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