#like i really don’t think armand was having any fun in their marriage either!!

[intercruralwiththevampire]

oohhhh my god my brain is WHIRRING still thinkin about that tweet with ‘armand suggested something colourful!’ and louis wanting to live in his black grey mourning and armand rolling with it to be Careful with louis to Protect him to Oh sO cRuELly lock him in a pRiSoN oF eMpAtHy wow sOrRy for CaRiNg louis god!! (etc) and then how much that would SUCK for armand to get it thrown back at him as ‘You’re so boooring!!’ like.

arrow through the heart man. i was doing it for you! everything i ever do must be reactive depending on YOU… and your Moods™️ and your Whims lest i piss u off just the wrong way and u decide to UNforgive me and leave me forever and- that beige pillow is the padding i have felt the need to put around the walls of your room hullo!?

and then you finally start to choose colour again, you finally start to heal and i see the bright spark of that old louis.. passionate and alluring and everything i fell in love with….. and then? after 70 years of diligently trying to coddle and nurse you back to that louis? so i could finally be with that louis again, and for eternity?

the first thing you do is leave me for your ex.

armand you are.. you are Schrödinger. and louis is the cat. for as long as you are there to check; he may as well have eaten the poison.

[glowyjellyfish]

I started writing down an updated collection of thoughts and plans about my Megakingdom project, but they got very rambly and so I am beginning anew.

And no, I have not forgotten about Grimwood Abbey, but for my undiagnosed but likely adhd brain I gotta follow the fixations where they lead. It’s actually quite helpful to have several different Medieval Sims 2 concepts I want to play with while working on the excruciatingly long CC Sorting portion of the project, because I can bounce around from one to the other to find fresh things to think about without abandoning the CC project. I got through all the Teen and Child clothing, and everything in Buy Mode! I am halfway through Walls in Build Mode! I have some broken things to identify, some Star Factory stuff to check on updating (accidentally overwrote my fresh install of all those with some older duplicates and could not actually undo, Mia culpa), and a bunch of empty folders to check and remove. Then comes the real sorting. And a backup.

But today I am here to talk about the Megakingdom. I have realized I can’t just play it as a straight MCC, because I already have a king. And yet the Warwickshire rules are wayyyy too complicated for somebody who has yet to complete an MCC. So I am going to play mostly MCC, with a few Warwickshire rules incorporated early, using the advancements to replace unthematic community lots and make sure the community gets well-rounded. I’ll also be using the social advancement rules to earn sims the right to fill in a few empty class spots (for example, Pleasantview currently has no Gentry). I will probably start using some of the Warwickshire title guidelines once each subhood has a reasonable amount of sims in each class and sims start purchasing titles outside the basic ones. And I am thinking I might roll a THS for babies born in-game, but avoid randomized health hits and pregnancy health concerns until I get used to the system and/or those babies grow into adults.

The big difference I am planning from both rule systems is… frankly, I want to use the colleges and the college sims. The college sims are going to be a flexible marriage pool, but also, three is too many for just a couple of social classes to attend, and it really bugs me that college sims get more lifespan than non-college sims. So each college is open to a different selection of social classes. Academie Le Tour is the upper class university, and only royalty, nobility, and heir/firstborn gentry may attend. La Fiesta Tech is for non-heir gentry and merchants, and Sim State University is the trade school for yeomen and peasants who are sponsored by a noble. I’m not sure yet about the other two colleges, but SSU will for sure have a strong tuition fee, which peasants may request from a noble in exchange for becoming their serf. There will absolutely be many sims who still cannot afford to attend, and for those I’ll get some YA mods, but this plan will ease me into that play method AND will prep up some serfs for the megahood.

(I… will have to reread up on the lower classes and determine exactly how and who I want to set up as serfs, if I feel I need to start with any. For some reasons, I am constantly assuming that the lowest classes in these challenges do not automatically equal serfs and I might also just be wrong on that, and if I am I’ll figure it out.)

Some story plans and concepts:

Faith and Herbert Goodie are going to be church sims, with the Newsons moving in as a collection of orphans being raised by the church. Coral Oldie, meanwhile, is going to be a midwife (probably not the only one, but I haven’t identified anyone else for the role yet); I have set the Oldies as Merchant class, and so I might have Herb run a small business that complements her midwifery, perhaps selling herbs they grow or something.

I’m trying to figure out what’s to be done with Jessica Peterson; without the game lore she’s just an obvious peasant, but with it she’s divorced from Armand DeBateau, a duke, and therefore must be at least Gentry. I feel like the thematic way to handle this would be having her join the church or become an outcast, but I haven’t decided yet. By a similar token, I really want to keep Alexandra Teatherton nee O’Mackey’s “left family to become a pirate” story, but then I’d have to set up pirates and junk. Otherwise, she’s in the same position as Jessica.

Cassandra Goth is betrothed to King Malcolm Landgraab IV. I think that Don Lothario, a yeoman at best, has been trying to seduce her and making all kinds of promises in his efforts to bed her, but he never intended to actually try to marry her and is shocked at how seriously she took all his talk of running away together. That is way too permanent for Don Lothario, he just wanted to WooHoo her.

I did this same basic setup for a Steampunk Strangetown I played a while back, but I think the quickest and most interesting way to set up a kingdom in Strangetown is a. Olive Specter is the ruler, b. Ophelia has been raised as her heir, but c. Nervous is the true heir, kept secret because of his parentage but Olive plans to officially recognize him before she dies, and d. Loki learned the secret a while back and has been holding Nervous hostage in an attempt to either marry Nervous to Loki’s sister Erin or otherwise gain power. So that’s essentially what is happening here, Olive is the Duchess, Nervous is her heir, Loki is a mere Gentry trying some ruthless means of acquiring power and advancing his family’s status. Erin is a viable match for Nervous, but in my experience they usually don’t like one another; I think generally speaking I’m not going to force sims with X attraction to marry just because they’re a good match. Maybe for story purposes or if the pickings are too slim, but not in round one.

Oh, and I have designated a few ladies to be Duchesses of their subhoods, and a Gentry lady heiress here and there, but for the most part I will be sticking to full classic primogeniture. This is mainly for setup; I just picked the best/most interesting choices to rule each subhood. I.E., I’m not gonna make the Roths be the Ducal family of Riverblossom Hills when the Goths are right there ruling over Pleasantview, that is dumb, and Catherine Viejo makes a very interesting setup. Is Betty Goldstein her secret lover and/or lady in waiting? Is Andrew Martin her secret lover and/or gardener/serving man/serf? ...so Cleo Shikibu, heiress to the Duchy of Riverblossom Hills, and Florence Delarosa, Lady of Bluewater Village, will both have to find second sons or college sims to marry in order to preserve their respective inheritances (meaning, basically, they can marry Kent Capp or a college boy, because maxis families are really light on siblings generally). Olive Specter is technically another example, but since she has a male heir in Nervous, Ophelia is not being treated as an heiress and will just get married off wherever. (...not to Johnny, unfortunately for them. Johnny is a merchant. And thanks to Johnny’s heritage, it will be Difficult to cheat discretely. Sounds like Fun!) But I will be avoiding situations like this in the future, and will only allow heiresses if there is no possible male heir, and even then her duty is to marry a hapless guy and produce a male heir as soon as she can to preserve her family line.

I’m also pretty excited about my spreadsheet for the Megakingdom, making pages for simple round info, a full resident census, individual families and family trees, records of deceased sims and events, the neighborhood and treasury, maybe one day including full economic notes on sensible pricing for SMSF goods. And charts on viable marriage prospects for each class, which I am pretty proud of. They’re sorted by rank, red means not allowed, bright green is preferred, and light green is allowed. Generally speaking, sims get bright green within the same age group and light green outside it, making it easy to prioritize same age marriages over, say, adult-teen marriages or teen-child betrothals. Both of those are allowed but not preferred. And these charts will change as sims age, and sims will be removed when they get married and added when new sims are born or rolled.

I am very excited. The spreadsheets also give me something I can work on during down time at work!

[ongoingaccident-deleted]

I’ve been tagged for the OC interview by both the fantastic @hircines-meatloaf and the wonderful @wind-guide-us (much thanks to you both, this was fun!!!) and I have finally finally finally gotten around to actually doing it! Under the cut as always!

1. What’s your name?

Zanthe! And only Zanthe.

2. Do you know why you are named that?

No clue! I think ma said something about a warrior, but I’m not much of one, and she’s been gone for a while, so it’s a little late to ask her.

3. Are you single or taken?

Single... but not available.

4. Have any abilities or powers?

Not really. I’m good at hiding, I guess!

5. Stop being a Mary Sue.

...Stop being a what?

6. What’s your eye color?

Red, in traditional Dunmer fashion.

7. How about your hair color?

As it currently is or as it would be without dye? Red and light brown, respectively.

8. Have any family members?

Not anymore! Or, well, none left that I know of.

9. Oh? How about any pets?

...I don’t think Armand would trust me with one if I did, to be honest.

10. That’s cool, I guess. Now tell me something you don’t like.

Hmm... I guess I don’t like it when I burn my dinner. That’s always kind of a bummer.

11. Do you have any activities/hobbies that you like to do?

I take things! I also like talking to people and making friends!

12. Have you hurt anyone in any way before?

I’ve hit a few people with my slingshot for sure, but nothing too serious. I avoid violence when I can.

13. Ever… killed anyone before?

By the Three, I wouldn’t ever! Well, maybe if they were trying to kill me, but not on purpose.

14. What kind of animal are you?

A Fox!

15. Name your worst habits?

Armand says I’m too trusting, but I don’t think that’s one. I pull on my hair when I’m bored and sometimes I chew my nails even when I know I shouldn’t. Oh, and I guess I take things sometimes!

16. Do you look up to anyone at all?

The boss, of course! Even if I’ve never met him. And Armand!

17. Are you gay, straight or bisexual?

I like a lot of people!

18. Do you go to school?

Nope! Never had the time or money, but I learned other things instead, like how to be very quiet and how to take things other people weren’t watching!

19. Ever want to marry and have any kids one day?

Uhhhhhh... I really don’t think Armand would let me have a kid. Besides, there’s too many other fun things to do! And I don’t think I’m really the marriage type.

20. Do you have any fangirls/fanboys?

Any what?

21. What are you most afraid of?

Failing my guild and making Armand regret the time he’s put into mentoring me. Oh, and messing up when I dye my hair and ending up with orange hair or something.

22. What do you usually wear?

Whatever I can scrounge up, but I prefer my leathers when they’re in a wearable condition. Which is... less often than I’d like.

23. What one food tempts you?

Sujamma!

24. Am I annoying you?

Why would you be?

25. Well, it’s still not over!

Okay!

26. What class are you (low/middle/high)?

I am, as Methredhel put it, “poor as dirt”. But high in happiness!

27. How many friends do you have?

A lot! Everyone in the guild has always been real nice to me, and so have the other people that live in the Waterfront. Even one or two of the guards... I have friends all over!

28. What are your thoughts on pie?

I love pie! Are you making some?

29. Favourite drink?

Sujamma!

30. What’s your favourite place?

Sitting on top of the north guard tower, but Captain Lex always scolds me when he finds me there. He’s real nice about it, though, so I don’t mind getting caught!

31. Are you interested in anyone?

I can’t tell you! Armand would be very upset if he found out.

32. That was a stupid question…

I agree!

33. Would you rather swim in the lake or the ocean?

In Lake Rumare! It’s not so bad if you know how to avoid the slaughterfish. I’ve never really swam in the ocean, though, so I guess I’d have to try it before I make serious judgements...

34. What’s your type?

I can’t tell you that either, it would give me away!

35. Any fetishes?

Any... what???

36. Camping indoors or outdoors?

...Does it even still count as camping if it’s indoors?

-

I really have to say thanks again for tagging me in this, I don’t write in first person very often and definitely not with this much emotion, so this was great practice! :) if you are at all interested in doing this, please consider yourself tagged!!!