The following story came to be in the "Post The Last Screenshot You Took in The Sims 4" thread by @catloverplayer. For those who are interested, this is how it all began:
My sim got his girlfriend pregnant. It was an accident, because usually I don't really deal with babies in my game. I posted a screenshot of the babe.
I took this on as a personal challenge: The 1 baby challenge. Very challenging for me indeed.
I decided to raise the kid and not change to another household (extremely challenging indeed) until she, the baby, was to be a young adult.
My seasons are set to 14 Sim days each which means the kid's birthday is every spring. Challenge or Torture? Who knows?
I play this game very slowly...because...life and such. Once again, very, very challenging, because the kid doesn't grow up as fast as I want her to.
To keep this challenge interesting for myself I built a story around my family of 3, which soon turned into some sort of haunted house mystery. In any case, my sims should have it worse than me doing this challenge.
Because the story was part of The Last Screenshot thread, which - as the name suggests - is a thread for last screenshots, not complete stories, folks encouraged me to keep it all indexed and together in one thread. Much easier to read a book when the pages aren't all scattered around the house. Yes I agree. So that's what I did and so here we are!
Fun fact: The country mansion that you will get to know as "The Hall" does in fact exist. I built it from reference, both exterior and interior. It is also haunted, or so they say...
I will post a "prologue" of sorts, just to introduce you to the posts that started this entire challenge/haunted story ordeal.
I also want to thank everyone who has been following this still ongoing story in the other thread for the last couple of months and those who were always very kind to comment. <3
I will try and post updates as often as I can.
Last but certainly not least, a Special Acknowledgement goes to the wonderful @Ellupelluellu who located every single reference post to the story and provided me with links so that I was able to collect and post them here. Sometimes I'm a very busy and above all, extremely slow guy and this was a Team Effort I hugely appreciate! As we say here in "The Land of Saints and Drunks-" *pardon me* "-Scholars":
Eabha Goth & Dave O'Shea. Both are writers. Eabha does it as a hobby. Dave does it for the money.
2. Baby Challenge. Surprise: Dave & Eabha made a baby. This is it. This is the moment I have not been waiting for. It was an “accident”, but I will rise to the challenge. What challenge?
The 1 baby challenge. And it’s been tough already. This is not the way I usually play the game, but obviously the game wants to play games with me. So be it.
This is the look she gave me right after she was born. Look at that smug little face.
https://i.ibb.co/rM26sHW/Willow-is-smug.jpg
Sure look at it!
https://i.ibb.co/jTCGZrJ/Smug-Willow.jpg
She knows. She knows this is not easy for me and she will make this journey as difficult for me as she possibly can. Thank you Willow. ❤️ I’m sure we’re going to be wonderful friends. And don’t you dare go all cute on me.
I've made the tough decision that I will raise Willow from babe to young adult and not run off to another save (like I always do). Rotational play has ceased to exist until Willow is old enough to have her own babies. Whenever that happens I won't be around.
I'm going stick with this one family for 4 Sim years. One Willow life stage per year. In my game 1 year is 28 days and I just want you to know that I'm saying all this with burning tears in my eyes.
Anyway, to start off I kitted out a little room for her. I mean we don't have much but at least we've got the attic.
https://i.ibb.co/PhzQtWY/Willows-Room.jpg
Continued:
3. That Lad
I'm just not sure if I want to keep this thing in Willow's room:
These two are hilarious. They've been new parents for less than 7 days and they're absolutely wrecked.
Dad's been wearing slippers everywhere, Mom started smoking and both are afflicted by the infamous Sweater Curse. I can't allow them to be romantic with each other at this time because if there's one thing I'm unable to handle is for them to break up and end up with a single parent. I promised I would stick with the babe.
So Mom, stop knitting sweaters for dad. I need both of you. Dad, wear some shoes dude. You're not helping. :D
Mom & Dad have about 4 long days of "Sweater Curse" left and dealing with a new born nappy pooper doesn't help. They decided to call a friend to take care of their sweet little monkey and hit the town for a busking session together to rekindle their...whatever it is they're not having at the moment. Just stay in tune Lovebirds, otherwise we're going to have an even bigger problem.
She's been sitting in that chair since dawn. Waiting for them. Waiting for that “lovely” little family of 3. She’s not looking forward to their arrival...but she is the housekeeper and she made a promise. Not to the landlord. The landlord is long dead. Not to the soon-to-arrive family either; She feels uneasy around babies, the father is a nuisance and the mother is a few too many feathers short of a brainless duck.
No. She made a promise to the house. And she will do everything in her power to please it...
Our little family of 3 has made the brave decision to spend Winterfest at “The Hall”. The Hall goes by many names, but let’s not get into that for now. The Hall is a country mansion a couple of centuries old, built on the site of the original Redrock Castle (better known as Redrum Tower for no specific reason...).
What you should know is that The Hall is officially owned by the 6th Marquess of Glimmering Winderbrook - Leland Mortimus Cornelius Goth. What you also should know is that he’s a great uncle of Éabha - English pronounciation “Ay-va”- Goth, aka “Mom”. Does that make her a Lady? I do not know. However, what you also should know is that Leland Mortimus Cornelius Goth is very much dead. One final thing I need you to understand about this situation is that Éabha and her family are unaware of Leland’s ...dead-ness. As far as they're concerned uncle Leland is still very much alive and well.
Right now there's one thing this lovely family is absolutely certain of which is the invitation they got from Great Uncle Leland in late November to spend Winterfest at The Hall. In fact, It’s an annual tradition to spend Winterfest at The Hall with the entire Goth family...that is...with the members who are still alive and those rather grey & dusty ones who’ve been lucky enough to take residence in one of the many urns placed on one of the twenty something fireplaces in this house. Those urns always look cosy by the Winter Fest fire.
Thing is...this year something feels a little “off”. Firstly...it’s early afternoon and none of the other family members seem to have arrived at the house yet. Odd, because they’re usually here at this time. Secondly...it’s like no one in the house is expecting anyone at all...the place feels rather snowy and desolate.
In the last screenshot below we can see Dave O’Shea aka “Dad” peep through one of the windows of The Hall (window peeping is not vanilla it comes with “The Mod”). Dave’s friends call Dave “Dayvo”. Ay-va & Day-vo. Anyway, to us Dave’s just Dave. Or Dad. Mom Éabha & baby Willow are offscreen waiting in one of those beautiful drivable cars that we got in the Sims 4.
So what happened prior to this meeting? Well... Apparently Tippi Daniels, the house keeper, is the only one looking after The Hall right now. She invites Mom, Dad & baby Willow into the house and informs the little family that Great Uncle Leland and the rest of the clan left a day ago to celebrate Winterfest at the Hunter's Lodge up north instead.
Why, didn't you get his message?
Ehrr...No.
The house keeper explains that signal reception is pretty bad out here in the country side; the message must have bounced.
https://i.ibb.co/bdnV4sJ/Welcome.jpg
Tippi tells Dave & Eabha that there's absolutely no reason to worry and that they can stay here at The Hall for as long as they wish. Since she's the housekeeper she will make their visit as pleasant and as comfortable as possible. Plus the weather forecast looks bleak: Blizzards are not the type of weather you'd want to travel in, especially with a little babe.
So that's settled then. Staying at The Hall is not a choice. It's a necessity...
That's right. I kid you not. This is The Hall at night half-way through spring. It's a happy coincidence because I needed a reason for my little family to stay in the house for a while longer. Well...imagine that! It's simply too snowy to travel. :D Winterfest was quiet but nice. Tippi the Housekeeper is lovely...
Also, as a writer, Dave happens to be quite fascinated by the history of The Hall. What better reason to stay longer? He can write about it while living there. At least for a while. Mom doesn't mind. She enjoys the garden and the grandeur of the mansion. Although she's been acting rather unusual lately...
Can't be hard to recognize the same smug little face. Trouble she is. Although not really. I gave her the Angelic trait simply because I can't deal with tantrums. :D
Also...
She aged up with a peculiar mark on the right side of her face. I swear I didn't put it there, but I decided to leave it. It makes for an interesting character.
Now that Willow is a little bit older her story can finally begin...
