#ignore the npc pose i wasn't thinking

[dailykugisaki]

Day 251 | id in alt

Oopsie. Well it's off the technical college grounds so.....

[abbysimsfun]

Sims In Bloom: Generation 2 Pt. 70 (The Youngest Nesbitt Gets Married!)

It was a sunny, if chilly, autumn day in Henford-on-Bagley when Heather's youngest sister, Hazel, married Nicola Moody-McMillan, her high school sweetheart.

Incidentially, they married on Prank Day, which meant plenty of off-vibe mischief all afternoon.

Nicola's parents, Eddie and Kim, hosted the wedding at their home in the Bramblewood - a simple ceremony under a woodsy wedding arch placed beneath a tall oak in their backyard. Not far away laid the graves of Nicola's grandfathers, Ian and Derek, who had died a few years earlier in a riverboat cruise disaster.

It was a beautiful ceremony, but a cloud of dust kicked up as soon as the guests started blowing bubbles to celebrate the newlyweds! Nicola's mother, Kim, had taken the spirit of Prank Day to heart and started fights with multiple guests! "Mom!" Nicola cried. "This is a wedding, not a bar fight!" She was so embarrassed.

But her mother could not be controlled! (I was actually controlling her - it's OG Kim Goldbloom - but ignoring her to focus on the brides, and she picked three fights before I smartened up!) She started a few scuffles with unsuspecting guests, laughing uncontrollably each time she successfully executed her "pranks."

But the worst was when she jumped Hazel's dad, Neal. The successful civic designer and eco-innovator was having none of Kim's pranks, even if she was hosting their daughters' special day. He slapped her right back and man, these vibes are not it!

"Kim, my love, have some water." Finally, Eddie convinced his wife to cool off, and the guests changed into warmer attire before moving on to the food. Toddler cousins Ash and Michael, River and Cassandra's son, babbled away with each other in the backyard.

"So girls, will you both be starting work soon or enjoying married life for a while?" asked Daisy as she reached for a plate.

"We're going to enjoy being newlyweds for a few weeks, but Nicola will be a teacher's assistant at Henford Elementary when school starts up, and my internship with Mayor Varner starts soon."

"Are you going to be the mayor of Henford someday?" Uncle Karl considered the idea with pride on his face, but Hazel shook her head.

"My political goals are a bit more international," she admitted. "But for now I'm happy to stay home in Henford to get more experience."

"And they need teachers everywhere!" said Nicola with a loving smile to her new wife.

The brides saved money by asking Heather to take their wedding photos. She wasn't particularly good at photography and didn't even enjoy it, but Heather would do anything for her siblings - especially Hazel. She'd never say no to her 'friendship bracelet bestie,' and she snapped a beautiful portrait of the girls before sunset. They posed under a tree in the rock garden Hazel's mother, Daisy, had helped Nicola's grandfathers design years earlier.

"Did you want to switch sides?" asked Nicola, noting the burns on Hazel's right arm. She'd had them ever since she'd survived the Nesbitts' freak toilet fire as a child, but they'd never made confident Hazel self-conscious.

"They don't define me. If I wanted to hide them I'd have worn a long-sleeved dress."

When Heather and Conrad returned to Brindleton at the end of the night, he pulled her in for a kiss as they were enthusiastically greeted by Mayor Whiskers and Queen Cupcake. "Do you ever think about marriage?" he asked.

"I don't know. I know I love you and I'm committed to you. What difference does a piece of paper make?"

Conrad kissed her cheek. "I love you, too. I don't need a piece of paper to tell me we're a team."

They were happy. To Heather and Conrad, that's all that really mattered. ->

<- Previous Chapter | Gen 2 Start | Gen 1 Summary | Gen 1 Start

NOTE: I made all the Henford NPCs playable as soon as the game started, then made their replacements playable if and when there was story for it (like Heather's friend Dylan, who was the replacement NPC grocer until I aged her up to YA and she married Gavin Richards). Kim became the adopted daughter of Ian and Derek. Nicola and her brother both ended up looking a lot like their townie dad and not much like Kim at all, though. Ah well!

NOTE 2: Is Hazel wearing the same wedding dress as Holly in a slightly different poorly-rendering shade of white? Yes and I noticed it when writing this post. 🙃

NOTE 3: I'm not going for torture with the 'we don't need a piece of paper' thing, but the Gen 2 rules say Heather isn't supposed to get married! I already broke the rule that Gen 2 was supposed to hate the idea of relationships and only ever fail at them in addition to never marrying, but I don't know if I should go all in on breaking every rule. I'm hoping with their soulmate status it won't lead to anyone up and marrying someone else if I rotate for a day or two.

[tallbluelady]

What drew me to ship Urianger with Rowan? The short answer: Shadowbringers.

The long answer after the break.

The first time I played XIV it was explicitly as a break from WoW. I was bashing my head against the Mage Tower and was like "Yannow, what? Break time. Let's try out this free trial and enjoy that for a bit."

I think the game was in Stormblood at the time? (I remember TP being a thing then being surprised that it was gone when I decided for a longer play through during Shadowbringers.) But at any rate, I was really just visiting. The free trial was to 35 and I ended up shelling out to get ARR and playing basically until the Scions moved to Revenant's Toll. After all that, I was refreshed and ready to go back to WoW for the grinding and impersonal storytelling.

Urianger had left an impression on me as the guy who speaks in Shakespeare. "Oh he's my favorite," I said, thinking of him as a character akin to like, Khadgar or Tyrande. Neither of these characters really inspired romantic feelings for me, and WoW never treats your character as anything past a "Champion". No one really has a personal relationship with the Champion past "Thank the Light you're here, Champion!". While XIV has plenty of NPC ships, I don't think I've seen any OCxNPC ships in the WoW fandom (tbf I didn't get as deep in WoW fandom as I've gotten here).

Suffice to say, the idea of a WoL ship was not on my mind as I played through Post-ARR into Heavensward. I remember seeing Aymeric and being "Oh that is a beautiful man" and calling that good. Then in 3.4, the man asks you to dinner. I'm in danger! THEN LITERALLY THE DUNGEON RIGHT AFTER DINNER THIS GUY SHOWS UP IN A VEIL AND I AM LITERALLY THIS MEME:

Then my dumbass figures out that that GNC ass is Urianger and I'm like:

The fight with the Warriors of Darkness is amazing, sensational, mind blowing. Not only does Urianger speak in Shakespeare, he's also hot!

I still do not have a single inkling to ship him with Rowan (who is still not Rowan yet).

I play through Stormblood, and the story is still pretty much better than 90% of WoW. The gameplay is GREATLY improved, and I'm enjoying myself. We're a little light on our archaic elf, but hey, I actually enjoy playing Bard now.

I admit to being surprised that Urianger is being Called by the mysterious migraine inducing voice. At that point in the story, I remember forming a much tighter bond with Krile at that point. But as I was ignorant of what the hell was actually happening (I think I was referring to G'raha as Zodiark for a while), I kinda just shrugged it off. We go from a stalemate with Garlemald to a completely different world and it's what ever. I have no expectations and didn't bother to watch the trailers when I loaded into the game.

Then this happens.

Brain chemistry changes again. I'm aghast. I didn't realize I liked men with beards in dresses this much. He's a good uncle/father figure to Minfilia. He's very serious about his mission, but incredibly silly as well. And he also speaks in Shakespeare.

Then this fucker kneels down in front of the WoL asking for forgiveness. Kneels. And then also offers to go off with you to go kill Emet-Selch at the bottom of the ocean when he can't even swim. Like, ser. What? How am I supposed to react to that? You literally had a romance novel grovel point.

So after basking in the glow of Shadowbringers MSQ, I realize I have to do something. I go through the Urianger tag on Ao3 to try and find something to read. I do enjoy the various ships on there, but I realize that there wasn't really a slow-burn ship. So like most things, I figure that's something I just gotta do myself and start to outline and rename my WoL and etc.

Then I find out about CMTools (the posing tool before Anamnesis) and the rest is history.

Another random WoLQotD/OC question

I thought I'd ask this while I worked on my other questions. :)

If you're a WoL x NPC shipper, what drew you to that ship and why? What makes that ship the pinnacle for you and your oc? Is it that you love the canon character you write them with, you find their dynamic interesting or something in between?

If you're not a WoL x NPC shipper, but you have a ship with another person, how did that come about? What makes that ship fulfilling for you? Has the ship impacted your relationship with that other person? Feel free to gush, I wanna hear it!

Oh, and pictures are a must (if you have them).