Heheh it’s because it’s a Black Widow challenge and her name is Margerita hurhurhur
Boolprop’s doing a thing again, the medal looks so good, and only yesterday did I learn how bad I am at reading rules. I think the best way to be a black widow is to be employed and delay suspicion, but no, the widow cannot have a job after all.
Shame, I got pretty far in the Painter career and felt good about myself.
I wasn’t actually going to blog about my first attempt because it got ethically sticky, at least for me personally. As I put it in my head: the choices were “heterosexual widow” or “widow with some same-sex marriages that end in tragedy, the tradeoff being promoting bad fucking tropes for the sake of me not getting bored and detached.” I may have had a thinkpiece called “Killing Ulrike Faust” rattling around in my head because that one hurt (she was my widow’s second spouse though I got up to five!) but maybe there’s still some worth to it.
But I broke an important rule, and instead of waiting for the kindness of Boolprop that I definitely would not give if the roles were reversed (what can I say, I am not nice) And what motivates me more than the serotonin from gay weddings is needing to finish this by the end of the month and also not feel icky. For once!
Well, at least for now. Husbands-only, affairs…pending.
We made Margarita Casillas, Childish/Hot-Headed/Athletic (randomized!) and tentatively given the Party Animal aspiration which got juggled around a few times. You will see those pajammies a lot…
She boarded in a Strangerville trailer home for a whole day while I went with my winning formula of set no expectations.
George Cahill: modest net worth, unemployed, elder, and ripe for one of several easy deaths and also a few promotion bonuses due to the ease of moving through the first few steps of a career. Actually pretty OK genes because he is the one spouse who having two kids with is part of the plan.
Also I really like his crashed airplane + bunker house.
We even invited some potential future spouses to the ceremony, though I have been holding off non-club romancing (another more on that later item) until after the current spouse is gone. Between that and Marg being a pretty friendly sim (her hot-headedness is, as usual, canceled out by nice emotions), her reputation skyrocketed.
Cannot say the same for George.
I could have killed George quickly but he actually completed a little bit of his Public Enemy aspiration + three criminal promotions instead.
Also getting all but the “50 romantic gestures” part of the Soulmate aspiration done.
And Bodybuilder! Yes, the challenge doesn’t have any hard rules on age extension (or did I miss those too?), but besides the power of TS4 pregnancy (I usually loathe the pregnancy age-freeze but not today) I am staying away from it. I have this all timed out and Margarita will 100% be done with this before the extended elder lifespan kicks in for her. She’s maybe halfway through YA and already disposed of her fourth husband. Please be kind!
Actually I’ve never even touched the aspiration thanks to the life extension part generally not meshing with challenge rules.
They also made very different impressions on J Huntington III, which definitely locked in that otherwise “meh, whoever’s around” second spouse option. Also Joaquin Le Chien and his roommate Sergio didn’t make either of themselves visible. We would have other routes to Windenburg’s island I suppose.
While it was annoying to ignore the Strangerville mystery (Ted Roswell was doing his infected strut by the house almost daily), I was feeling a little emotional about leaving George and the bunker behind. Mostly just because I have spent a lot of time there.
But I started to agree with Marg: too much time.
“Be quiet! That damned Roswell guy is outside our door again.”
Yup, homebirth it is!
Meet Lucia.
During one of Margarita’s gym sessions, they got a new hot tub there for sore joints and that thing Marg and George wanted to do. The pilot’s helmet is part of his default swimwear and he has the most perfect wardrobe for a sim. I’m not touching it.
“She grabs me like a bear trap every time, but now I feel cut into.”
Meanwhile, Marg needed a brisk shower in order to move forward with Bodybuilder.
“Oh stop the ruckus, you all have jobs just like I do.”
“The name’s Barry, you’ll be seeing a lotta me.”
“Oh shush, my next husband is going to be so much younger and so much more handsome…I am hoping that good looks save me anyways.”
“Is it J? He’s been doomed since his frat days…”
She probably scoffed at the thought. Not only his death, but J having sins to atone for? Why, he was so nice after all.
Plus she had made in-roads with Anaya Jang, only looking over her shoulder a little at Anaya’s older husband.
“See? What happened to me will happen to you! I never thought I’d have to be so careful but now I have Barry watching over me and my abstinence-only sex-ed class was right! Sex kills! But only if you’re old like George or Baako.”
“Honey, he’s right there. I’m not gonna to kill him, at least not until Billie’s off to college.”
“But what if I do?”
Anaya remained very reassuring, but reluctant to kiss her. Maybe due to the husband and all (challenge stuff aside, the Jangs seem like a nice lil family) I’m sure the invitation to Partihaus or a hired maid will save you soon.
“Mr. Huntington the Third, I don’t feel so good.”
“I dunno, get a pregnancy test on our way to the bar.”
Damn that guy was smart!
(I had never seen the pregnancy test get delayed results but it kicked in once she sat at the bar and ordered a drink heLLO)
But if J suggested it, he was probably knowledgeable about the tragedy that his bestest friend/maybe a crush had. No one was pretending it was his kid, and he had a lot of spare rooms in the house as long as the roommates were kicked to the curb as soon as possible.
Sometime in the middle of all this, Lucia grew up into…a ginger! I can explain why (George’s hair color isn’t available for young ones) but I also can choose not to. After five consecutive boys in my previous attempt, I went overboard with the pink and cute braids.
The Partihaus invite/begging Jade pretty pretty please it’s the best club (IMO it is) came through and Marg left Lucia at daycare a lot. Leader of the Pack became her new aspiration, as the easiest one that isn’t Mansion Baron or Soulmate. It also let her be romantic with literally anyone on the lot with zero consequences.
No joke. Her reputation stayed pure (well it’s a progressive climb to the top but it didn’t go down), she had no issue with married sims (FOR LATER), and it seems to be the best way to unlock the “make out in closet” interaction. The Sims equivalent of saving yourself for marriage through the blowjob/anal loophole. It boosts the romantic relationship meter like crazy so that’s the root on my obsession.
And I think it did help the proposal to J happen quickly. Due to his non-committal trait, I needed some help.
And so it’s the story of how Partihaus, the Jangs, and a very uncomfy Lucia got invited to the beautiful desert wedding of J Huntington III and Margarita Cahill. Formerly Casillas, now Margarita Huntington…III.
(My two most superficial yet kinda important wishes for the franchise are chooseable pronouns based on interchangeable parts of notification strings and whatnot, and a suffix field to avoid that nonsense. Shoutout to French tourists in TS3 with “the XVI” as their surname as the peak of this)