Oooh, backstory!
For my Erwin I decided to make him childhood BFFs with my hero sim, the snarky journalist Artemis “Artie” Westvale. She left town due to a number of reasons (dreams too big for a small town, needing better resources for transition surgery and HRT, wanting to break free of small town opinions, etc), but Erwin stayed and continued to cobble a life together.
I had it that his parents died when he was 17, shortly after his bff left, and although the town pitched in to help him out here and there (Meredith being the chief Town Mom who would check in on him) he mostly cobbled a life together on his own. Before Artie moved back into town he had been making friends with Jess and Alice, becoming close to the two of them. He is also the ‘leader’ of the Conspiracy Theorists in town and the central hub for the conspiracy info.
Currently in the ‘story’ I have him similar to how he was in the preview trailer (different haircut and upgraded skin overlay and freckles), but we are at a spot where Jess still hasn’t gone full infection mode yet in front of him and Alice. I’m gonna have that be the main reason why Artie decides to cave in her journalistic integrity and use the bugs. (Basically her, Alice and Erwin will get in a huge fight because Artie is trying to do this ‘right’ for a story which she won’t get arrested for and be able to use the info, whereas Alice and Erwin are like THIS TOWN IS IN DANGER THIS ISNT ABOUT YOUR STORY.)
By the end of the story I plan Erwin to still run the curio shop and be the leader of the Conspiracy club, but also he becomes a contact for the Sims-in-Black in part because of Alice. (He is not entirely happy with that, but ah well.)
