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Sprottenham's avatar
Sprottenham
Rising Hotshot
2 months ago

The People of Simbria: Sunset Valley

Well, hi there. This is a story (of sorts) that has been going on for a while, so it won't be starting with the first chapter, but it doesn't matter to much, because it didn't start with the beginning even when I first started sharing it on the old forum. 😛

'Original' thread is found here, but I wouldn't recommend checking it out, because it lost all the images in the forum transfer...

The Concept

In general, the story takes place in several towns spread across a country called "The United Kingdom of Simbria", and now that the concept is a little more clear than when I first started out on the old forum, I will not lump everything together in one thread, but instead create one thread per. town. So, this thread will focus on the inhabitants of Sunset Valley - the small town that everybody knows, and which in my world is located on the southwestern tip of this country.

Map of the kingdom, with Sunset Valleys location marked with yellow text on the southwestern corner.

Sunset Valley Theme (Youtube)

Prologue: The Original Families. Moving into town.

The story of Sunset Valley began in 1977 sim time, when a young couple, Asgeir and Lucie Karlsen moved into town. They had moved all the way south from their hometown of Pamtere far, far to the north, hoping to settle in the city of Wad Nahadau, b ut the housing market in the city had proved to be much to expensive for them....

Asgeir aspired to be a world famous painter and writer and Lucie wanted to reach the top of the medical career. Since they used almost all of their money buying their first home at Water Lily Road 58 and as Asgeir's career as a painter and writer was a long way from taking off, they both started a job at the bottom ranks of the medical career. Camera technology was still very expensive and unaccessible to the general public back then. Only licensed photographers and the wealthiest of families usually owned one. Everyone else would either have to rent or borrow a camera, or go to the photograper to have their picture taken. Hence to tell this story, actors with pretty much identical looks and personalities were hired to reenact them moving into town....

Reconstructed photos of Asgeir and Lucie entering their new home for the first time. This is only what it might have looked like.

Asgeir often woke up feeling grumpy and irritable in the mornings, but this worked well enough for a while, largely due to Lucies kind and friendly nature.

Another couple, Ingmar and Eirin Motorsen, had moved to town just a month after Asgeir and Lucie. Ingmar wanted to move to town as he had read about the chess triumphs of H.K.H. Høigaffel and had early on felt compelled to become a world famous chess player as well. Ingmar was quite the slouch, but they needed food on the table, so he got himself a job in the medical career. His wife Eirin was a lucky and charismatic person, but often found herself struggling with forgetfulness and sometimes lapsing into periods of insanity randomly running off talking to herself. In spite of this, she got a job in the police force, where she is to this day doing quite well as a forensics specialist.



A reconstruction of Eirin and Ingmar engaging in flirtatious conversation in front of their new home. It's not that it's a trailer... it's just very long and narrow. ;)

Not quite one month after the Motorsen couple had moved to town, the young couple Egil and Frida Kråkesen moved in right next door to the Karlsens. Egil, a highly ambitious individual, quickly got himself a job in the business career, whereas Frida got a job in the medical career. Houses were much cheaper out here, compared to the capital city of Wad Nahadau, even in the suburbs. And who knows, they might just like it enough to make it their permanent residence.


Reconstructed photo of Egil Kråkesen admiring his looks in his new home at Water Lily Road 72.


Reconstructed photo of Frida Kråkesen reading the local newspaper in her new home.

  • Now after that introduction I'll give you two choices that I think makes the most sense...

    You can start with the prologue (Chapter 0) that follows after the prologue explaining how I started this game/story...

    Chapter 0: What are memories but snapshots in time?


    ..where we follow Ranveig Motorsen where she has a dream about some strange person called Aaron* who, as it would seem, has invented some machine that for whatever reason forces her to look back at her own childhood...

    ..or you can skip everything in between then and now, and continue with the latest chapter posted.

    Chapter 18.1 - January 2024 - Family, lessons and a staircase

    In medias res has always been my favourite way of starting stories anyway.. don't worry, you'll probably learn what you need to know anyway.. 😉


    In this chapter we are at Ranveigs house - in the real sims world - where her oldest son Oliver Freddy along with his girlfriend Inge is going back for their 6th semester at university.

    Robert Bråge as a teenager is still undecided about his future. Does he want to go to university and study science like his brother, or does he want to live a more free lifestyle and become and author? And perhaps maybe he is ever so slightly jealous about his two year older girfriend Margrethe getting start taking drivers lessons soon this upcoming summer. ;)


    Inge makes sure to spend her last day in Sunset Valley for now wisely, hanging out in the park with her youngest sister and father. 

    The relationship between Oliver Freddy and Inge is as strong as ever, and Inge definately has their future mapped out... Maybe their relationship is going a little bit to strong for Ranveig still, but she has no choice but to settle with it...

    ..and then the kids are off again to start another semester of long hours of studying, partying and silliness..

    ------

    * The character known as Aaron was at first invented solely to have a reason to look back into the past as another foundation for the story, and to bridge the gap between the original sims moving into town and the more present day sims... but then again, maybe Aaron got his own story of sorts somewhere... if you can find it... 😉.. but before you try to find it, a word of caution. That story is of a sometimes darker nature than this one, hence it is also more hidden away and won't be mentioned much here from this point onwards... (it's also not at all up to date, but I am slowly working on it.... and maybe one day I will finish it...)

  • Back at university again

     Here is the next chapter, where Oliver Freddy and Inge return to university for their 6th semester.. I considered making a new thread for this one, since they are now travellling to a new town which has its own story as well. However after giving it some thought I chose not to because after all this is a continuation of the Sunset Valley story and for this branch we will be following a couple of sims who has their origin in Sunset Valley. Well, that and I don't want to clutter up the forum with to many of my threads. ;)

    Chapter 6.1 - January 2024 - The nerd, the loser and thank you for the fish...

    This link will take you to a new blog for the university town, which I have called Lake Onebega (see map in first post). The town has its own backstory which has been revealed in previous posts - it is basically a town and an area that once used to belong to the indigenous population of the Simbrian nation, inspired by the story of the Sámi people - the indigineous population of northern Scandinavia and northwestern Russia. The name 'Lake Onebega' is derived from Lake Onega in Russia where the Sámi culture is said to have originated.

    Quick Summary:

    Inge just barely gets time to set foot on the lot of their dorm before she receives a message from Jefferey Dean about missing a party invitation..

    The other students occupying their dorm arrive, and Oliver Freddy quickly walks over to Liz Tarry to have some friendly chat before asking her for a sample of her DNA.. he's going to need it to maybe, hopefully, one day figure out if its possible to create human/plant hybrids.. a pretty insane idea don't you think? :P

    Liz is hesitant of his question at first, but once he has taken the sample she is happy that her DNA is now in his hands.. perhaps a little to happy...

    Oliver Freddy continues the science-ing to make his first successful clone of a living thing, Ansgar the Anchovy. Even though the clone looks like a goldfish at first, it will probably find its anchovy form a little later..

    Inge then spends her time playing games at the Student Union, before getting another party invitation from Jefferey Dean. It's of course a swimsuit party in the middle of winter, because, well, why not.... Inge is excited about the invitation, but in spite of a couple of the guests even removing their swimsuits, Inge is left with the feeling that the party never really takes off and she starts to question if she's just not enjoying it like she used to because she's 'getting old' (even though she's only 21...).

    PS: Somebody dies in this chapter, but it's not a very prominent character, and in some way a version of this character may just exist for all eternity anyway.. :P

    ----

    Note: To keep things in chronological order the updates while they are are at university will alternate between covering what happens in Sunset Valley and what happens at university.

  • New chapter Chapter 18.2 - January 2024: part II – The graveyard, mystical stones and voices of the past (and present). posted. This chapter overlaps in time with Chapter 6.1 - January 2024 - The nerd, the loser and thank you for the fish... (Lake Onebega/University) and continues off right after Oliver Freddy and Inge left for university.

    Quick Summary:

    As usual Ranveig stands outside for a while to wait as she watches them drive off into the distance...

    The next thing on her mind is to catch a death fish, so she heads up to the grave yard, because she has heard rumours that they may be swimming around in the pond there..

    Her brother Knut is also seen visiting the grave yard with his sons Anton and Bjørn-Yngve. Knut is as expected pretty terrified of the grave yard.. there are voices... but his sons are not. Anton points his father to a strange rock that has created a crater in a corner of the graveyard and wants to take it home, but his father is reluctant..


    Bjørn-Yngve meets a new teenager that has just moved into town, Sonja Bjørnøy. Sonja begins to flirt with him, and he eventually catches on to it, but at the end of the night as far as I can tell they both end up rejecting each other.

     

    Robert goes to the bookstore to buy the last of the books in logic and goes to the park to read it. When it starts raining he heads inside to the library and continues reading alongside another teenager (and Oliver Freddys cousin) Kleopatra Motorsen-Karlsen, as well as local police man Ethan Bunch.

    Ranveig has to leave for the night without getting the death fish she wanted, but she did catch a frog and a kissing gouramis whom she put in a fish bowl and named Mari-Ann just because she thought it was cute to cute to be used as bait. :P

    Robert gets his sleep interrupted by a phone call from Kristina Reppe (Inges sister) asking him to go to the school ball with him, which is inappropriate since both of them are already in a relationship, so of course he turns her down...

    ---

    This new girl Sonja Bjørnøy that showed up is a story progression generated sim, and if the situation between her and Bjørn-Yngve develops into a more serious relationship I will give her the same treatment I ended up giving to Oliver Freddys girlfriend Inge (who appeared first in just the same way as a teenager) and her family - that is to give her a non-default face according to how I see her as, and potentially some different outfits. I hope she shows up again and isn't just a one off character, but that's still out in the open. She may just as well never be seen again...

    Next update I'm going to switch household as one of Ranveigs relatives will celebrate his birthday and age up.

  •  Yup, just posted the lastet chapter about Mortens birthday party. Here's his family tree to explain the family relations.

    Now, on this one, just like on the last one, I have included a 'non-family' relation, since also Lise Veronicas girlfriend Kristina is on ther, as well as the familys kitten Pelsdott. If there's anything I want you to be left with after this post, it's all summarized in this image - this little family and the relations between them, so far. ;)

    Link to chapter:

    Chapter 18.3 - January 2024: part III - Thomas' birthday

    Quick summary:

    The birthday kid is the first one to wake up, to wander across the hallway to what is soon going to be his bedroom to play with his sisters old toys - that will soon also be his of course. :P

    While Monica and Lise Veronica is at school, his father wants to take him to the park, but ends up neglecting him in favour of reading a book and being hit on by the towns elderly female population - here exemplified by Iliana Langerak doing her best to be cute and charming.

    Lise Veronica had an excursion with her class to her moms workplace, the science centre. Excursions are cool, but she wasn't to happy about going there for a couple of reasons, one of them being that it is her moms workplace, and the other being that they keep animals for testing and research.. those poor animals...

    Then it's time for the main event, and an assortment of family members are invited over to cheer for the boy, eat cake, play video games and do other random things...

    ..such as doing homework, playing video games, being sore losers, giving out inaproppriate flirtatious remarks, borrowing the shower without asking and engaging in pillow fights..

    A typical Sims 3 birthday party I guess. :P

  • Yeah, so through a random search (I forgot what I searched for, but it was probably something like "sims" + "family tree") I found this site: "The Sims Tree" which is a new site to create family trees for "The Sims" families, working not to differently from the old Plum Tree App, and if you had your family trees at The Plum Tree app and made sure to download them before they closed down, transferring them to this new site is pretty easy. I just did it with the Motorsen family tree, as seen here:

    Of course, this one is currently a little outdated as the kids have now become teenagers and the toddlers (as far as I can remember) have become kids, but I'll work on updating it.. and uploading the remaining family trees too.. bit by bit..

    The point of showing the above family now is also to show the link between Thomas' family and Oliver Freddys family.. err, which is essentially the same family... and to sort of tie the Sunset Valley and Lake Onebega/University Life stories together..

    And now, for the latest update on the university sims life..

    Chapter 6.2 - Februar 2024 - Just get married already... / Such a good, good boy...

    Quick Summary:

    It continues in the same vein as the last one, with Oliver Freddy being more focused
    on his studies and scientific research, and Inge wanting to gain more popularity by throwing and attending parties...

    ..but the story does take a somewhat unexpected twist when Oliver Freddy gets a phone call from Inges mom, Iselin. She has packed her bags and his now headed north to Lake Onebega and tells him she will be there in just a few hours.. and with that, she has a question for him...

    ..about something she wants to see happen as soon as possible, preferrably this summer. She is pretty certain this is what her daughter wants, and for whatever reason, she wants it too... Oliver Freddy is slightly more hesitant, but he still agrees to meet up with her at the Grotto a little later..

    While Inge rushes home to arrange her party, he heads over there to meet up with Iselin in secret where she continues to insist they get married this summer, before she begins to act a little.. strange.. if not downright lewd and should I say pretty disgusting.. this makes Oliver Freddy uncomfortable enough to leave a little earlier than necessary for his lecture...


    Inges party doesn't turn into the bonfire party she wanted, because 'the snow is to deep' Which I think is absolute nonsense... I'm from Scandinavia, since when was snow to deep to light a bonfire!? Never! ..but what should I expect, playing a game from a company whose home base is in California... ;) Yeah, I was actually expecting her to be able to light a bonfire, so I'm a little disappointed.. :P

    Well, anyway.. what I wanted to say is.. in spite of this, Inges party is still enjoyable, though pretty calm, as she gets to hang out with her now old friend Samantha to talk and reminisce for a while, until Samantha to turns on her heel and acts a little strange and abruptly leaves to prioritize her studies as she says...

    ...but Inge thinks she knows why, as she is well aware of Samanthas sometimes dual nature, one that isn't met with the same level of understanding by everyone in town...

  •  Next update posted about the Motorsen-Notesen family in Sunset Valley. It's a long chapter so I split it into two parts.

    Chapter 18.4 - February 2024 - Snakes in the schoolyard
    Chapter 18.4 - February 2024 - Snakes in the schoolyard (continued...)

    The first part links to the second part at the end, so there's no real need to use the second link, but it's there anyway.

     Quick 'summary':

     This morning Lise Veronica learns that if she's gonna keep pets in the house, she will also be held fully responsible for anything the pets do... Mother is still the boss of the household. ;)

    Lise Veronica wants to make better friends with Margrethe - a teenager who is two years older than her - so she invites her to hang out at the arcade, but is stood up because she had more inportant things to do... however, there is a better alternative anyway, to hang out with her girlfriend Kristina.


    Ivar wants to make better friends with his neighbour and his wifes sister-in-law Sofie, and though they do make friends he also finds himself in a slightly awkward situation with her in her daughters bedroom.. of course... now that just made it sound potentially worse than it really was, nothing special happened, but still a little inappropriate...

    Monica wants to do science even in her spare time, and discovers the sleeping elixir. Monica is Oliver Freddys aunt and is a great source of inspiration for him to also do science (she is the reason he went to university).

    Then its leisure time in the park for everybody except Ivar, because he's at work. Monica took Thomas there because she wanted to play games with him.

    ..and Thomas is still to young to be home alone, so he has no choice but to tag along. ;)

    Lise Veronica brought Kristina there because she wanted to go looking for something.. .. but seeing her mom there, they went roller skating instead, because what she wants to go looking for is somethng she doesn't want her mom to figure out... because if she brought that home, then she fears that her mom would probably say no....

  • Spring is just arriving for the students at university, which probably means that it may just be time for a little romance.. maybe... but first.. the link to the chapter..

    Chapter 6.3 – March 2024 - You're weird... and you smell bad... and that's why I love you...

    Well, like I said, spring is here.. but first it comes with a quick snow and ice melt, which results in an eerie fog.. and after a while it also comes with a full moon, which may just also have various effects on the population...


    Of course after a while as the sun rose in the sky the fog lifted and this dreary morning turned into a fine spring day, perfect to do a little art work outside..

     

    Then while Inge runs towards her lecture, I notice another known figure running a little bit behind her and to the right... this is her father, Jarle. Last month her mom paid a visit without notifying her, but atleast calling her boyfriend.. and now her father shows up completely unannounced to apparently stalk her from a distance... right.. well, Inges family was always a little weird...

    Well, anyway, the day continues with the usual going to lectures and Oliver Freddy doing science and the full moon arriving, which always makes Oliver Freddy feel quite anxious.. there seems to be a thing in his family about having some issues with anything that's in, or comes from space one way or another, and this includes the moon...

    Inge then gets a party invitation from Jefferey Dean, finally a bonfire party, and spends the evening talking to him.. under the watchful, and perhaps envious, gaze of someone that does not look very appreciative of this...

    By the time she finally goes home its gotten really late, and she gets surprised by Oliver Freddy sitting up waiting for her, instead of having gone to bed.. she starts to feel a little guilty then, from coming home late and all smelly from all the test tubes thrown into the fire and begins to excuse herself because she expects Oliver Freddy to be a little upset, but as it turns out... it all has a rather different effect on him.... ;)

    Good night. ;)

  • Sprottenham's avatar
    Sprottenham
    Rising Hotshot

    New Sunset Valley update:

    Chapter 18.5 - March 2024 -  Plants, pranks, a "party" and prom ("The floor is yours...")

    Quick chapter summary:


    Lise Veronica wakes up with some mood swings this morning, and decides to make several traps around the house to get back at her parents for opinions they might not even hold...

    ..but she also wants to remain on their good side, to make it a little easier for herself when or if they should discover the secrets she keeps in her room...

    Especially her mom she thinks is an important person to please, so she hands her the unknown seed she found in the park as a gift since she knows how interested she is in plants and gardening. Monica as well went to the grocery store to buy some pear tree seeds to pant alongside this unknown seed because she wants to grow a perfect pear tree.

    Ivar again took his son Thomas over to their neighbours house so that he could hang out with his cousins. This is Thomas listening to some gossip from his cousin Kleopatra who is barely an acquaintance due to their age difference, but now since he aged up to a child he gets the opportunity to get to know her better.

    Lise Veronica goes to hang out at the local rebel hangout, The Blitzkrieg House, with her older teenage friend Margrethe, who finally wants to hang out with her.. Margrethe is being flirted with by Morten (in the blue t-shirt), but doesn't take him to seriously as he is the youngest of the teenagers. In the background is Mortens parents, Jonathan and Kathrine. Morten was probably just following his parents example, which is not necessarily a bad thing.. except that Margrethe is also taken, as she is in a relationship with Ranveigs son, Robert Bråge.

    Something inappropriate happened between Ivar and Sofie again, which I didn't catch because I can't be everywhere at all times. I don't know who is to blame, but I'm assuming the same thing happened as it did last time, that Sofie began to flirt with Ivar, though Ivar got the blame for being an inappropriate guest. The picture shows Thomas in a pillow fight with his cousin Walter.


    Ivar gets an invitation to a party by his colleague at the theatre, Hans Ivar Nylenna, but it is mostly ruined by Margrethes father, Fredrik 'The Prison Warden', as he belittles Hans Ivars intelligence...

    Monica then gets an invitation over to her sister-in-law Helenes house, so when Lise Veronica returns back home to prepare her outfit for the upcoming prom, she has to the house all to herself (minus all the pets, but they're not gonna say anything...), so she takes the opportunity to lay out a few more traps...

  • New Lake Onebega (University Life) chapter.. and a theme song..

    Unfortunately since I can't share youtube videos directly, on this forum, you'll have to use this link instead to listen to the song:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXoaVul6wzI



     Yeah, so I have just made this theme song for the town (using Suno AI). This song does not relate much to students and their stories, not at all actually, but its more about the sometimes dark and dramatic history of this town by the lake.. from way before there was even a university there...
        There is a deep divide that has plagued this town since the first human set foot there, and then another one emerged a little later when the town was again (re)discovered in the 16th century.. and thus began the darkest chapter in this towns history..
        The university wasn't founded until the mid 19th century and is relatively young in comparison.. and the students are even younger...

    Anyway, onto the chapter link..

     Chapter 6.4 – April 2024 – The Art of Unnecessary Drama

    And a summary:

    It started off peacefully with Oliver Freddy getting up before sunrise to tend to his plants now that spring was here fully. It looked like it could be a nice day, with sun shining and birds chirping, but.. that was wrong, because it quickly started raining.. don't think this town has seen such a rainy spring since.. well, atleast since before Oliver Freddy and Inge came into town. ;)

    So it turned out to be a good day for spending time indoors.. Oliver Freddy had gone to the grocery store though to buy a few more seeds to plant, but alas it turned out that some of them required a skill level he didn't yet posess.. so he went to the library to read up a little more on gardening..

    Inge wanted to continue her painting of the parking lot, but as it was raining.. painting outside didn't seem like a good option, so her time was better spent finishing a few more chapters on her drama/romance novel..

    A little later Inge got a party invitation from Samantha.. she was told she was hosting another pool party.. and to put on her swim wear and meet her at the Grotto.. why hold a pool party at the Grotto? How strange..

    Oliver Freddy received a phone call from his aunt Monica, being curious about how his studies went and if he had made any progress on his research on plants... either way, he was pretty much guaranteed a job at the Landgraab Research Facility after his graduation.. Monica would make sure of that. 

    At the bowling alley Samantha was busy playing a game of bowling that she just had to win, yet she wasn't playing against anyone...but it appeared to be a game of deadly importance...

    Inge became a little concerned for Samantha, when she later turned to Inge and changed into her swim wear.. She was acting a little bit out of the ordinary, why insist on throwing a pool party at the bowling alley and not at their dorm? Well, she eventually got the explanation... Samantha had been in a pretty bad fight with her dorm mate Hannah Germanotta, who was usually pretty unbearable to share the same roof with, but this time she had said the most horrible thing that had left Samantha feeling really bad...

    Inge didn't want to see her friend like this, so she offered a couple of possible solutions, but it would require a discussion with the university administration and most likely also a discussion with Oliver Freddy.

    ..would he be willing to part ways with his garden outside their dorm, now that it was just about to turn into something?