#Dustin has the only braincell in that school

[luxshine]

Some notes that come to my mind as I watch Season 2, episode 3 of Stranger Things (YEs, this would be the equivalent of tweeting live watch, but in just one post)

Jim Hooper is VERY out of his depth. I get him trying to reassure El, but on one hand, BAD idea to lie, even white lie, to a girl whose only socialization after thirteen years or so is the phrase "Friends don't lie" and can make Carrie White look like a parlor trick magician. On the other, not explaining to El that he was late because of probable Upside down shenanigans? Good to protect her of a REAL danger, Bad to give his case. And also, uhm, he knows that Mike, Will, Dustin and Lucas CAN keep El a secret. He saw them ride literal circles around the goverment Shop guys (I know they're not the Shop... but they act like the Shop, they quack like the Shop, they are as stupid as the Shop) so why not trust them a bit?

El of course got her teenage rebellion runaway mood going on. Because come on, El was going to run away. She absolutely tasted freedom in season 1, she was not going to stay locked up in a cabin in the woods forever. Plus, now that she has hair? She looks completely different from before. People wouldn't think much about "Jim Hopper's niece", not even if he is still working with the idiot Shop. OTOH, Why absolutely NO ONE ever tries to teach her how to act normally ? She calls attention to herself precisely because she doesn't know how to talk to people.

Dustin being equally smart (because he started researching wtf was hiding in his trashcan) and stupid (Because he feed it the ONE THING we know is really toxic to a lot of animals and then invited Max to see something that OBVIOUSLY came from the Upside down when Max has no idea of it) is... very sweet in a "teenagers will be teenagers" way. OTOH, not realizing that Dart is OBVIOUSLY from the Upside Down, is a mayor fail on Dustin. I get why Will didn't tell him "Oh, I puked him up", but still, it is an obvious alien thing.

Of course he'd tell Mike. But well, then Will has no taste.

Max has the patience of a saint. But then she has to have it if she's related to Bill.

Bob is equally sweet and while his advice is not that good for Will since... uhm... well, Big Nightmare Clown is not the same as what Will experienced -unless his Big Nightmare Clown was named Pennywise and now I weep that Sean Astin didn't have a chance to be a character in It- at least he is TRYING to treat Will normally which is far, far more than everyone else is doing... and of course his advice ended up backfiring because, well, Will wasn't having NIGHTMARES.

Jonathan has fell SO down on my list of liked characters, he's sitting in the fort with Mike. I would get him angry that his mom is dating a perfectly absolute great guy if his father was a) dead, or b) had been a perfectly absolute great guy. But we have established he hates his dad. So why the hell is he mad his mom has a chance to happiness? It's not as if he read the script and he knows Bob will die and break Joyce's heart!

On other hand... wow, Steve really matured in the year between Season 1 and 2. And he called out Nancy on her secret threesome because wow, she was so entitled "where were you?" so Steve is apparently her driver? So good for Steve to actually step out of something that is bad for him. I understand Nancy complaining that she was drunk and thus he shouldn't take what she said seriously... but then she didn't contradict anything of what she said while drunk so... yeah. No Nancy, you want everything? You need to communicate. While on the other hand, Jonathan absolutely thinks they're a trio and just didn't thought of mentioning it to Nancy or Steve either. This really doesn't work.

Nancy is an IDIOT. Like, she KNOWS her phoneline is intervened. She SAW them do it in a montage. I mean, I love her gumption when it comes to hit things with more teeth than the Osmond's family, but she is an idiot when it comes to common sense. Then again, her brother is also an idiot. Him treating Max like trash just because he misses El is not fair. And why the hell El reacts like a jealous girlfriend? That was the worst narrative choice ever for everyone.

Joyce should take a second job as a private detective. She's REALLY good at it. Of course, she's also a total Mama Bear. And the first one who sees that there's something going on with Will more than what everyone is telling her, because of course. How long before everyone calls her crazy? 10 minutes? (I have to say, Winnona Ryder? KILLS the role). Oh, wow, i was right. It took us 10 minutes to see someone rolling her eyes at her. At least it was not one of the main characters.

Oh, that line of Mike saying "That's like saying if someone is from the Death Star they're not necessarily evil" hits really funny since... in OUR timeline, in 2015, two years before? We got Finn. And a bunch of other non-evil Storm troopers in the comics. And well, by THEIR timeline, they ALREADY had Return of the Jedi, where we see that Darth Vader was, in fact, not evil. So yeah, Mike... You don't get to say that someone is evil just because they were born in a very ugly dimension. And while Dart might be dangerous, Mike's reaction to it is not a good one. Especially when the show shows us that yes, Dart DOES trust Dustin, as he's the one kid that it doesn't hiss at.

I also finally realized WHY it bugs me so much that Stranger Things is Stephen King's lite. It FEELS like a Stephen King story, it moves like an Stephen King story, the characters CAN be paralleled to a lot of Stephen King's characters (Jim Hooper is Alan Pangborn without the knowledge of magic tricks to ease kids into talking with him, Dustin is right out of the Richie Tozier school of kids who don't know when to shut up for their own sake. Hell, I can play "scenes that come right out of a King book" and write a ten pages or so post with season one alone), but it has NO credit or acknowledge to King from the creators at all. On the other hand, two years later we got a series that was supposedly based on King's works and... felt nothing like a King story. So part of my anger is that Stranger Things is what Castle Rock should've been.

I need to work on that because well, not fair to the series. Even if they did took a TON of "inspiration" from King.

[sublimecatgalaxy]

Tumblr has been eating messages and requests lately so the lovely @ateliefloresdaprimavera sent in a request to my inbox and I figured I'd still put it in a request form so they can get the notification when it comes out!

The request is for an OC!Henderson!Reader (only OC because making the character a biologically sibling of a character implies assigned race/ethnicity and Dustin is white) x Billy Hargrove. Kind of enemies to lovers where he starts off kind of skeptical of her but eventually comes around and they become like The Couple of the Hawkins group.

I pray this is good.

If you asked anyone in the group of misfits that I watch over, 'who's the leader', they wouldn't hesitate to say that it's Steve. Steve has been the staple babysitter for the longest time, taking care of my younger brother Dustin and his friends, for almost three years. He's a good role model, especially since he dropped his douchebag attitude and developed a personality.

I mean, I think that anyone would improve upon themselves and gain a few braincells back after dropping Carol and Tommy as friends, let's be honest.

He was just a solid dude with a good head on his shoulders and after all of the near death experiences and weird multi-dimensional demons we've fought, they couldn't have asked for a better role model.

Except for me.

Steve was deemed the team mom for the longest time and has even started to develop some maternal instincts; putting himself on the line for the safety of the kiddos, giving the unwarranted advice, not totally understanding the term TMI, and he's annoyed by them a perfect amount for him to be deemed 'mom'.

And yeah, he might be the mom of the group, but I'm the daddy.

Every single thing that mine and Dustin's dad missed out on, I was there for those kids. I was the dad who went and got the milk and actually came home. I was, for them, what I needed from such a young age and it's ended up mending that empty space in Dustin's heart that he's felt every day that he's grown up without a dad.

But every birthday, I was there, every school project and Hellfire campaign, I was prepared to help them get ready, every frustrated tear, every world ending catastrophe- all you could see was me. A second parent to all of them, an older sister- anything they needed, they could find in me.

But somewhere between the mind flayer and Vecna, I got a bit lost.

Maybe not lost but distracted to say the least.

I've always hated people who use a position of power to inflict pain upon other people. You see a lot these days in men, especially my age, getting ahead of themselves and becoming way too full of themselves. Science would tell you that they're just wired differently, that men have this ego thing and it typically relates back to being treated poorly by one of their parents.

It's ironic how the same types of abuse occurs in females, yet, most of the time, we're not raging psychopaths. Most of the time.

The first time I saw Billy Hargrove becoming a bit too snippy with Max, I watched and waited for something to happen- something big enough to give me a reason to intervene. It's not like I had been waiting to punch him across his silly, stupid, handsome face, or anything.

Except I totally had been waiting for that exact opportunity.

And boy, oh boy, did I get it.

I watch from the steps of the arcade as Billy storms around the other side of the car to glare down at Max, a menacing smile on his lips as he mutters quiet words to her. The red head looks tense, her eyes looking anywhere but his as he quietly chastises her, his fists clenching at his sides and she goes to finally open her mouth in words of rebuttal.

I know how this goes, the anger and the frustration, he was bound to snap sooner or later with Max being out and about so much with me and the others. I could only imagine the back talk that he was getting from his dad every time that Max was out a little too late and, though Max didn't see it, I saw that every time she slipped up, Billy was the one getting punished for it.

But somewhere between Billy cornering her against the car and practically spitting in her face, Max finally has enough and steps away from Billy, pushing him a bit with her shoulder. I can tell by the look in his eyes that it would not fly well and he almost immediately reaches forwards with unrelenting speed, wrapping his fingers tightly around her wrist and he tugs her back towards him.

I'm on my feet in a moments notice, marching over towards them as Max catches me out of the corner of her eyes, urging me not to get involved but there isn't a care in the world. He would not get away with being so cruel to her and he wouldn't dare lay a finger on me.

My hands push him roughly away from Max, his eyes slitting and his lips part to argue but he doesn't get a second to speak before my hand is slapping him across his face. He groans loudly at the sting, immediately reaching up to coddle his sore cheek as I tug Max into my side.

"Who the fuck do you think you are?" He spits, the red mark on his cheek only making me grin as I rub up and down Max's trembling back.

"Not your bitch and neither is she."

All it took was for his fingers to wrap around the pale girls wrist, tugging her towards him to spit some awful words in his face and I was pushing him away from her, slapping a hand right across his face. He was stunned for a few moments, gawking at me with wide eyes, a smirk too, before muttering out a 'who's this?' to Max moments later.

I explained that I had recently taken her under my wing and that obviously no one was looking out for her or her safety. He was almost annoyed at first, eyes looking me up and down, almost trying to figure me out as if I had an ulterior motive.

But he learned eventually that there were no ulterior motives, I slapped him because he was being a dick and I hung out with Max because she needed someone to look out for her and care for her.

Which, apparently, I would end up doing for both of them months down the line.

Billy and I, at first, were in no means friends. We weren't amicable, we didn't like each other or have any common ground other than the fact that we knew the same people. And I had met him in his life guard days, where he was the most self deluded version of himself. Maybe it was the mind flayer but maybe it wasn't, maybe the supernatural aspect just brought out the even more accurate, terrifying version of himself.

It scared Max but it scared me just as much. We knew he was dangerous, that he was capable of a lot of things, but we never realized just how much of an asset he would become when the evil side of Hawkins took over.

"Billy, this isn't you, stop." Max mutters behind me as I hold my hand up to the glass, looking through the sauna window at Billy but he doesn't look like him. His eyes are more sunken in, hopeless and completely at the will of something else, something distant and far away from me and from the rest of us. He's normally got a look of anger behind his eyes but he looks nothing but calm.

The calm always comes before the storm right?

He just looks at me, ignoring the bickering behind me, tracing his gaze over the grooves and dips of my face, as if he's trying to place me in his memories- like the mind flayer is sifting through Billy's memories to find where I fit in his life.

He pauses, a small smile stretching across his lips in subtle familiarity and it makes me flush, nervous that the mind flayer would say something, that he would speak horrible things about me from deep within Billy's subconscious. But he doesn't, his lips part as if he's going to say something but he doesn't, he just looks from me to Max who stands beside me, her eyes staring into his lifeless ones.

"Why is he acting like he doesn't know you?" Lucas asks behind us and my chin cranes to look back at him, sighing with a heavy heart. I know exactly why he looks like he doens't know me and there's one other person in this room who knows it even better. My eyes turn to Will next who already has a knowing, terrified look on his face.

"It's like when I was possessed by the mind flayer, I didn't even know who Bob was o-or Hopper." Will explains, a look of realization passing through everyone's expression at the memory of Will being completely and utterly gone.

Just like Billy is right now.

When he survived the mind flayer, no one really knew what to do with him.

Here he was, retired bad guy who had his body used by an inter-dimensional freak who needed him to carry out his bidding. He was trapped in his own body for the longest time as is, following exactly in his fathers footsteps- racist, dark, demanding, dominant, judgmental- as to not upset him, to make his dad feel a sliver of pride.

Daddy issues, am I right?

When he came out of the mind flayer, he was hospitalized for the huge gash on his abdomen, Max and I stood at the end of the bed and just game planned for hours on how to deal with him; we had no clue if he would remember anything that happened or if he would be different like Will.

We imagined that if he did remember everything, he would hate himself, beat himself up just like Will did and need hours and hours of supervision and help. But Max explained that he wouldn't take it, he would never take help or comfort especially when he felt like he didn't deserve it.

But when he finally woke up after days, he was terrified. He didn't trust that we were there, that what he was experiencing was real or not. He kept looking through Max and I, not focusing on us long enough to even recognize who we were for a few days. It took weeks of therapy and patience for him to actually start to open up to us about how it was like.

He described that the mind flayer would show him images, dream-like pictures, of the people around him and he never knew whether it was real or not and it led to him not knowing what actually happened over the course that he was 'taken over'.

My eyes widen at the sight of Billy's gaze locked on me, a slight familiar look behind his tired, red eyes. He has dark circles around his hues, his hair matted against his forehead from sweat. I just hand him a glass of water which he takes almost immediately, lip quivering as he takes a sip. Billy's eyes are the definition of sunken in as he looks around the room, jaw gritting at the sight of Max sleeping beside his bed, tears strained on her pale cheeks. He almost looks sad that she's sad, biting at his lip that's already cracked and broken. He looks to me next, his lips parting as the realization crumbles down onto him that he's finally back in his own body, safe and sound.

"How many people did I hurt?" He asks, voice gravely and hoarse as his lips tug down into a frustrated frown. My heart aches at the sight of him showing a sliver of vulnerability, a side to him that not a lot of people have actually had the pleasure to see. Knowing this is hard on him, I take a breath, realizing that the last thing he needs is to be reminded of the horrific pain that we all went through. He doesn't need anymore demons. I know that he's probably beating himself up as it is at the thought of being completely out of control, watching himself hurting everyone else around him without the ability to stop.

So, to take the tension off, my mind does the only thing that I can think of doing.

Cracking a joke.

"Because of the mind flayer or in general?" I tease quietly, having some apprehension, not wanting to make him upset. But moments later, I watch his face relax a bit at the non-judgmental tone in my voice. A small, tired smile spreads across his lips, his shoulders drooping a bit back into the bed at the playful edge that's cut through the tension in the room.

"You're still being an asshole to me, sweetheart? Really?"

After that, he didn't talk about it unless it was absolutely necessary.

Still to this day it's like pulling teeth.

But the only silver-lining with the town going to shit, with Billy getting scarily wounded, was that it was the final straw that sent his dad over the edge. When Billy was released from the hospital, we all found out that his dad had left in the time that we were there, waiting for him to come back to his normal self and to finally be released. Max's mom had been at the hospital with us, staying overnight for days on end while his dad was at home packing his shit and taking all of the money from their joint bank account.

He ran away with his tail between his legs, leaving his son, wife and step daughter to fend for themselves.

I was the one who actually ended up finding the trailer opening at the park, Max's eyes dulling a bit at the glum vibe that was given off by the small community but at least Eddie lived across the street. That would mean that Lucas would be over there along with the rest of the gang.

Speaking of Lucas, Max and I both held it over Billy's head that he was an asshole to Lucas the most and that the boy deserved more than an apology from the recovering man. Billy was hesitant at first, not understanding the need to apologize or maybe he just didn't want to admit that he was a terrible person.

He claimed it was ingrained in his mind from a young age and, maybe he's right, but that was no longer a sound excuse for him to use with me around. He eventually apologized to the boy and the rest of the friend group, including Steve, even though he was embarrassed and felt utterly stupid.

Max and I even believed his apology was sincere.

But the true reason why he hated me so much at first was because I could pick him apart. He hated me at first because I was not afraid to call him out on his bullshit whether it was regarding Max or school, or even his racist comments towards Lucas; I would be there to chew his ass off and make him walk off like a kicked puppy.

But eventually, that anger and annoyance shifted to familiar care and even admiration through all that we had been through and everything that Hawkin's put him through. Eventually it would come out that his mother left at a young age, Max would realize why he was so bitter about her mom, realizing he just didn't trust or like woman that much. He was always afraid of making new friendships and relationships out of fear that he would become too much like his father and that they would run for the hills as quickly as they came.

It was weird to see him softening, to see him apologizing and making right with the people around him, not because we told him to, but because he wanted to be done with it and put it behind him. It was weird when the both of us realized that we were actually becoming friends and it was even more shocking when we realized there was more than friendship between the two of us.

But no matter how strong our personalities were, there was no ignoring our feelings when Max was constantly pointing them out.

"You guys are terrible liars." Max suddenly speaks up from the backseat after minutes of silence, taking Billy and I off guard as we look to each other before stopping at a red light, turning in our spots to look back at the red head.

"Where on earth did that come from?" I ask, deadpanning a smile with a tired look. I know that she knows. She sort of, kind of, walked in on Billy and I moments before we left for the arcade, my mind still replaying the moment that just happened not even twenty minutes ago. I was wondering when she was going to bring it up but I didn't think it would be today let alone right now.

Max just smiles with a shit eating grin and points between Billy and I.

"You two, you're just terrible liars. You act like no one sees it but we all do." She says simply, almost as if she's proud for figuring it out, but I continue to protest and feign ignorance, my brows furrowing, gaze turning to Billy. He just shakes his head with wide eyes, before turning his attention back to the road.

"What do you mean?" Billy asks, looking at the girl through the rearview mirror as I watch him, his fingers tightening around the wheel in anticipation as Max laughs behind us.

"I mean, how you guys are fucking each other and giving each other heart eyes. You think we don't see it but we do- I see it-"

"Max-"

"No, Billy- look," she pauses, sitting up to look at him from between the seats," you've been through shit in the last few months. If you found comfort in Y/n, I get it- so did I. But be fucking honest about it and show her off cuz she deserves to be shown off."

As thrilled and supportive as Max was, Dustin was not as thrilled to find out that Billy and I were together.

Maybe it was because I'm his older sister who really never entertained any sort of relationships with people. I was always there, always responsible for him and the rest of the group, especially after everything that happened with Will. No one would've understood the huge secret that Hawkins was hiding and it's not like I could exactly hide that from someone when dating them. So I just waited and hoped that someone would get involved in the mess and become a potential suitor.

But it just never happened.

Eddie wasn't my type and I don't think I was his, Steve and I were like platonic parents of the kiddos, and everyone else was taken or thinking of someone else. It was just complicated, so I stuck to my role as the older sister and focused on protecting the people who I love.

Dustin also has been more protective over me than anyone else in my life so it wasn't exactly easy to date with him breathing down the back of my neck. Any new friend or crush that I would have, he'd ask an impossible amount of questions and pry into any sort of business that I have. I couldn't keep anything from him so it's not like it was easy when I actually had to come clean to him and tell him that Billy and I were pursuing each other on the down low.

Dustin just didn't understand and that in itself, to me, was understandable. He didn't see all the behind the scenes stuff, only hearing about how Billy had become nicer to Max and I, and how he stopped terrorizing Lucas and owned up to his toxic, oppressive behavior. Dustin really didn't believe it and, to be honest, he had no reason to believe it.

But, days after telling him, Dustin told the rest of the group and eventually they all rounded up and sat us down, forcing us to explain 'what happened' and why all of a sudden we were closer than before.

"This is a joke, right?" Steve asks with a frown, pointing between Billy and I who sit awkwardly on the couch in Eddie's trailer. I send him a quick glance, asking him quietly to take this one. I was in charge of telling Dustin and explaining how we fell for each other to Max but he was in charge of explaining it to everyone else.

The group looks at us, confused and full of questions, all of them silently begging us to explain how this relationship came about.

"Not a joke, Harrington." Billy sighs, looking down at his lap before reaching over to take my hand in his. A few gasps sound out from around the room, my eyes rolling as my head flops back to rest against the couch. "Not that it's any of your goddamn business but, yeah, we're together." He says with a forced smile, looking around the room with a 'well?' expression, begging anyone else to just say something.

"I'm just confused as to when this happened?" Robin scoffs, reaching up to rub her hands down her face before looking to me, wondering why I never opened up to her about my feelings for Billy but there's some truth behind the fact that he snuck up on me in a way.

"Me too honestly." Dustin chuckles and my jaw drops, feeling utterly betrayed because I thought I was passed explaining this to him. "I'm confused as to when it happened. Was it after the mind flayer but before Vecna or sometime other than that?" His question makes my head spin, especially because Billy and I never actually talked about when our feelings developed for one another.

One day, they where just there.

"The confusion thickens." Eddie chuckles, clapping his hands, taking the attention off of Billy and I as the group looks to him. "Let's leave the lovebirds alone and maybe talk about something a little more fascinating because I'm sure we all can assume that this 'relationship' definitely started with them hate fucki-"

"Ew Eddie- gross."

Maybe it was the effort that Billy was putting into changing himself and being less like his dad, maybe it was his sudden kindness towards Max and her mom, though he still held some sort of annoyance towards both of them; something pushed me towards him and I couldn't explain it.

Maybe it was trauma.

Eventually, Billy would slowly acclimate to the group and helping out in the more supernatural aspects of the town, hating the rural space more than he did before. He felt unsafe and unsteady now knowing what was actually out there, hiding under the surface of our homes.

But now he had something that he never had before. He had people, an actual family and friends. He was done being the new king of Hawkins, he was done with the fighting and the bullying. He was trying his best to settle into being an actual human, with actual goals and relationships with people around him.

People like me.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o- Taglist: @bubblebuttwade @rafelover2405 @leslienjazzy @sorceresss @grxnde-dwt @alex–awesome–22 @bunnietoof @niyamar1e @serialghost @plantlungs @geniusohn @akaliltimmytim @lilaalouuxx @xshariex @elliotsbeigeguitar @elle4404 @lelieja @srhxpci @joselyn001 @taysirene @spinkspanther @thedivineuphoria @peter-maximoffs @tsukishimawhore @poohkie90 @szlaco @distantsighs @nstyles4299 @wolflover384 @givemefoodandlovesstuff @vane2828 @yeswhatever33 @amirrahfranson @vvaalleennttiinna @f-mu @yaspillz @jeyramarie @skylievin@abbybarnes17 @jointherebellion215 @visiondaddy @steezysimfinds @its-ya-gay-boi-luigi

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[fellowstrangetownappreciator]

Making Your Sims' Education Experience Suck: College Gameplay Rules

I love universities in TS2. I think they're a very swift compact experience that can really shape the way you play your Sims. (expanded Wants & Fears panel rules!)

Buuut...

I developed a bit of a problem. You see, my perfectionist side was not about to let any Sim graduate with anything but flying colors and no one got even close to being expelled. It was just: Move to a dorm, skill like there was no tomorrow, be gay do crime assignments, enter the secret society, accidentally develop a crush on the evil cow mascot, graduate, rinse and repeat. Everytime it went about the same.

Not anymore! My two braincells got together and with a massive amount of inspiration from Pleasant Sims and her gameplay rules, conceived a rule-set to put an end to that!

I'm not capable of an original thought.

So without further ado, this is how college goes for my Sims:

Skilling

Only allowed when the Sim either rolls a want to do it or to use a skill-building item, alternatively to perform a skill-building activity.

When on Academic Probation or in the very last semester, I do a method I scientifically call "poking with a stick". I basically strategically lay out high-end skill-building objects around the dorm and I hope they get the memo and go use them autonomously. And if the household doesn't have the funds to do that? Well, then we're out of luck.

(Congrats on that Academic Probation, though!)

Academic work has the same rules as skilling, therefore Sims can only do it autonomously or after they roll a corresponding wish. There is one work-around I do, though.

Once per a semester, an academically destitute Sim can call up a teacher if they roll a social want. An hour or so on the phone with the teacher does wonders.

Relationships

If a teen couple has a bolt or less, they're considered broken up and no effort from my side will be done to rekindle the relationship in college, though it can always happen autonomously or through wants.

If it's not the current generation's "resurrection teen" who has a way to catch wind of the secret society somehow, I have to resist the temptation to have everyone drop what they were doing and run to befriend every secret society member that comes their way.

In every wave of Sims in college, I tend to have at least one who has a want to resurrect a loved one and who purposefully searches for a Resurrect-O-Nomitron. That's the aforementioned "resurrection teen".

If two playables make enemies or they already were enemies before they came to uni and they disrupt the "peace" in the dorm, I wait if they both roll the want to join a Greek House. If they do, I pretend they got a special assignment to start one, and they're starting their own together the next school year.

It suffices to say, quiet evenings in this household were... interesting.

A Greek House of two. And the two... hate each other’s guts. Will they manage to push through and cooperate, so that the House reaches the highest level and they both graduate?

Money

I usually use Monique’s Hacked Computer to start bank accounts for individual students where they deposit most of their grants. The rest of their grants goes to paying bills. But! If a Sim has a want to buy something and it is a reasonable want (no, you’re in college, you won’t get a sauna, Dustin!), I’ll buy it for the household from their grant. After they graduate, they can keep the item in their inventories.

After they graduate, I split the remaining household funds among Sims evenly. Sims who get expelled only take the minimum the game decides appropriate, nothing less, nothing more. That can be a win if the household struggles and splitting evenly the Sim would’ve gotten way less but it can also be an additional penalty.

And that’s about all! I usually try to let my Sims decide everything they can, their major, their focus on study, their relationships, and these rules were made to reflect that but whether I succeeded, who knows? Anyway, since I lost my hood and had to start all over again, I’ll soon put them to the test again! Meanwhile I’ll be sure to prepare a post about how it went the last time.