here you'll find primarily gameplay & narrative stories - i dip my toes in absolutely everything else (portraits, cc, posing, etc) but i am primarily a legacy player!
═══ landing page. ═══
^ look here first if you're on desktop! includes overviews on my below 3 main legacies/saves as well as links, tags, and other items to explore.
═══ 🌿 decades: where olive trees grow ═══
a narrative decades legacy continuation centered around olivia, a struggling seamstress from brindleton who marries a union laborer and moves west to the mining town of copperdale.
start | most recent |
original legacy |
cast & characters | lookbooks | extra | au
Maggie: You know, I don’t get the feeling they’re… very much in love. D’you suppose it was an arrangement?
Nardo: Don’t ask me. He doesn’t tell me anything.
Alessandro: I’m thinking it must be part of his Big Plan for his life. Luca’s been on about that kind of thing ever since Leandro died. Maybe marriage was something on one of his lists to cross off.
Maggie: They both seem so private. Maybe even shy. I can’t get a read on them. Though I didn’t know Luca well before in New York, either.
Bernardo: Not someone you would have wanted to know. He was always in trouble.
Maggie: Really?
Alessandro: And she’s not even Catholic. Did he tell you?
Bernardo: Seriously? What is she then?
Maggie: Come, now. I think she seems nice. It’s hard to be out here even with friends, let alone not knowing anyone.
[Luca and Ollie catch them gossiping and wave with bewildered/annoyed expressions. The three wave back.]
A narrative, light legacy challenge for Simmers who prefer something to play through on shorter or screenshot-y lifespans. Twist Tie is built around weaving connections instead of rebellions between generations as well as unusual trait/career/aspiration mixes that flow naturally into the subsequent generations. If you’re looking for optimization and minmaxxing, I’m afraid you missed your exit.
It’s tough to persist through 10 generations of a challenge. Save files become buggy or the busyness of life ends a legacy prematurely - plus, 10 generation legacies are often chock full of tough requirements for each generation, which isn’t always everyone’s style and can lead to burnout quickly. Hopefully this short 5-gen legacy offers you the inspiration to take beautiful screenshots, build unique homes and lots, and give familial frameworks to rely on, all while being whimsical and achievable to finish!
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Notes:
Careers and aspirations are not required to be maximized but that would give you something to do and work toward if needed!
The DLC requirements are heavy on the newer packs (because who wants to play farmer, painter, or astronaut again).
Let in-game randomized Likes and Dislikes inform decorating styles, clothing, hobbies, and other details for each heir.
Play with genre and time periods you enjoy!
Mod to your heart’s content.
Excelsior!
Gen 1: Ethereal Eco-hero
(Requires: Island Living, Eco Lifestyle, Get Together / Recommended: Tiny Living, Outdoor Retreat)
You aren’t necessarily from where the people are - but you love them so! Upon reaching human society, you decide to do all you can to protect their world’s natural beauties and preserve it for plenty of generations to come. You sparkle in a crowd, and nobody can resist hearing your preservationist message when it's said with such cheerful charm.
Traits: Cheerful, Maker, Insider
Career: Conservationist
Aspiration: Master Maker
Play as an alien, mermaid, or give a human an angelic, aquatic, or fae-like appearance
Live in a micro home as a young adult, a tiny home as an adult, and a small house as an elder - even if you have children!
Start a club of like-minded people (Club requirement: must have “Green Fiend, Maker, Recycle Disciple, Loves Outdoors, or Child of the Ocean” Traits) to make up your primary friendships
If playing as an Occult, your heir should be or become Human to continue the good work of your family more deeply in human society
Optional:
As a parent, take your child/ren on a vacation to a beach, a forest, and a desert lot before they age up to Young Adult to teach them about the beauty of the natural world. Take pictures of the activities you do together in these locales so your heir can take those memories with them to college.
All children should join the Scout after-school activity
You’ve grown up in a bright and hopeful environment that has nurtured your brilliance. Your parent was always tinkering with their fabricator in your childhood, and now you too dream of new ideas for new inventions and machines to improve the world. You have a DIY attitude and a mind for invention. You build a Servo in college and indulge in a Nectar-making side hobby that you share with the whole neighborhood. Your smiles and toasts are the loudest and brightest of anyone you know - as is the case with many people who have experienced a tragedy.
Traits: Genius, Foodie, Outgoing
Career: Engineer (Mechanical)
Aspiration: Expert Nectar Maker
Attend University, and elope with a classmate (young bookish love? Drunk at a party? You decide!). This spouse meets an untimely end before you both can graduate, which scars you for many years.
Throw Dinner Parties with at least 4 neighbors and/or coworkers invited
Build a Servo and upgrade it with the Party Machine module to take over the hosting of your weekly dinner parties so you can enjoy and mingle
Find love again and marry in the second half of Adulthood to an Adult or an Elder
Have only 1 child via IVF/surrogacy (Science Baby)
When you are an Elder, your Servo confesses it has fallen in love with someone that has attended at least three of your dinner parties and wants to ‘run away’ to be with them (give them your blessing of $10,000 to start a new life, or break it down and turn it into scrap out of fear of a greater Servo uprising)
Optional:
Witness your first spouse’s death
Get Gold on a Dinner Party
Live in Tartosa and grow your own fruit/vineyard on your land for your Nectar
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Gen 3: Charon’s Crystalline Commerce
(Requires Realm of Magic, Crystal Creations, Life and Death / Recommended: Get Famous, Get to Work, Cats & Dogs)
You were doted on as the only child of older, well-off parents, and while the value of hard work was instilled at an early age, so was a powerful streak of only-child syndrome. I mean… you had a robot butler. Who else had a robot butler? Your family’s loyal Servo was just as alive and real as anyone you knew - how could that have been anything other than magical? You discover and enter spellcaster society thanks to this faith, but because of your family’s influence, you’re a bit more technical than the other sorcerers and prefer tinkering alone with the magic hidden within gemstones.
Traits: Self-Absorbed OR Snob, Loner, Perfectionist OR Practice Makes Perfect
Career: Freelancer
Aspiration: Crystal Crafter
Become a Spellcaster via the Rite of Ascension, and have a romance or rivalry with the Sage that gifted you your magic.
Sell your jewelry to make a living! Travel with a sales table to maximize your customer base or own a retail shop. After every day of work interacting with customers, take a day of social isolation to recharge.
With your family’s Servo now long gone, your parent needs someone to care for them in their twilight years. Have your parent/s move in with you, either as a roommate or on the same lot in a ‘rental’/back house (roommate is recommended as For Rent + Retail businesses are bugged)
Only you would think you’re interesting, good-looking, or talented enough to bewitch Death. Summon the Grim Reaper with a Jet Ring you craft and charge, and make him fall in love with you.
Pick your most beautiful offspring with Grim to be your heir. There are no restrictions on marriages or other offspring, only that the heir must be Grimborn.
Optional:
Craft a piece of jewelry that honors your parent and wear it always
Have a Familiar - either purchased from Tome Shop in Caster's Alley, or by Binding a pet cat or dog
Never participate in a Spellcasting duel - you wouldn't debase yourself like that.
Mod recommendations:
https://mal22.itch.io/grimborn-trait-genetics-fix
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Gen 4: Reaper’s Risky Romances
(Requires Life and Death, Growing Together, High School Years)
Growing up as the illegitimate child of the Grim Reaper and a shut-in sorcerer made life dreary and lonely. Even at a young age, you knew what you wanted out of life - you wanted excitement, drama, to get out of that damn house, see the world, and meet people! You know better than anyone that life is short, and it can really suck - why not live in the moment? Wherever you roam reaping souls, you also throw yourself into the nearest pair of willing arms and leave behind an unfortunate legacy of broken hearts and broken homes.
Traits: Gloomy OR Hot-Headed, Noncommittal, Romantic OR Self-assured
Career: Reaper
Aspiration: Live Fast (teen) + Serial Romantic (change to Soulmate, Super Parent, or Successful Lineage if a Self-Discovery moment switches the Noncommittal trait to Loyal or adds Family-Oriented to your Sim’s traits)
Have a minimum of 5 children with 5 separate lovers. Each must be conceived in and live in a different world (one in Willow Creek, one in San Sequoia, etc).
Science Babies, CAS settings, or mods to make impossible conceptions possible are OK and encouraged.
Recommended to turn off Neighborhood Stories’ Move In/Move Out to keep track of who’s from where!
The heir should be either 1) the child of whichever Sim causes the Noncommittal -> Loyal Self-Discovery moment, or 2) the child that adds Family-Oriented to your traits through a Self-Discovery moment. Basically: whichever child changes you should become the family you dedicate yourself to!
If no Self-Discovery moment is ever triggered, choose an heir with the Good, Generous, or Loyal trait that will surely better the lives of others in a way you didn’t.
Live alone in Glimmerbrook, Forgotten Hollow, or Ravenwood until you select your heir - then move to whichever world the heir and their parent is from.
Optional:
Accept all invitations to go out to party at Nightclubs, and Talk Up the friend who invited you to others in the club
Do not purposefully meet any of your offspring - out of sight, out of mind
Find true, everlasting love with a Sim that has the Cheerful trait
(Requires City Living, For Rent, Businesses and Hobbies)
Your parent was not role model material. Before they decided to become active in your life, only sadness was spread in their wake to the lives they touched. Your other single parent struggled to raise you alone without them, but help from friends and neighbors pulled your family through. Your life’s purpose is to multiply those kindnesses and pay them forward. Community and togetherness are the answers to life’s loneliness and give hope for the future!
Traits: No restrictions/variable
Career: Politician (Charity Organizer - Speak for the Trees)
Aspiration: Master Mentor
Be a landlord of a 4-unit property. Live in one of the units. In the other 3 units, accept or create tenants who could really use a good affordable rental in a nice area - for example, broke college kids, a widowed Elder with pets, and/or an expecting young couple saving for their first house.
Volunteer weekly on one of your days off
Pick a hobby according to your traits and pursue that skill as part of your Aspiration
Stay involved in your tenant’s lives! Become Good Friends with all of them and celebrate their milestones.
Maggie: Top of the morning to you, Alessandro Faraci. You were supposed to be here an hour ago.
Alessandro: Ooh! Full name. Am I in trouble?
Maggie: You are trouble.
Alessandro: Is that any way to speak to your new supervisor?
Maggie: Not on Saturdays, you're not. Shoo, or you'll be even more late.
Alessandro: And miss stopping and getting scolded by you? Perish the thought.
Alessandro: Ah, Bernardino bambino, you've always got a look on your face like the world is falling apart.
Bernardo: You're late.
Alessandro: So I've been told. What is it? Where's Luca's wife?
Bernardo: Grocery shopping for Maggie. Can you please look at this and tell me if it means what I think it means?
Alessandro: Mm… looks like some kind of -- referral bonus program? You get a kickback from the first six months of a referral's dues.
Alessandro: Looks real to me. It's probably for bolstering membership, but I've never seen anything like it. They passed this out at the mine this week?
Bernardo: Yes. Thank God. I need the money. The truck payments are killing me, the house needs a washroom, and Maggie keeps asking about starting a family.
Bernardo: This is a real opportunity. This could get me out of this-- fucking hole I keep getting myself in.
Bernardo: Any chance you'd be my first signer?
Alessandro: Nah, I can't. Armstrong just gave me a raise, and I actually like the mill.
Bernardo: Damn. What about Luca? Maybe I could ask him.
Alessandro: Uhh… I wouldn't. You haven't seen that bull look in his eye? He's got some big picture he's focusing on. He's not going to want to hear about this.
Bernardo: Yeah, yeah. Luca's always got his shit together. I get it. Are you sure you won't sign, Ale? Please?
Alessandro: … No. Sorry, friend. It has nothing to do with me, either.
As June rolled onward and the first week of landing in Copperdale came to a close, Olivia found herself alone again in the tiny house owned by the Rossinis, smoothing down the wrinkles of a dress she hadn't had the opportunity yet to wear. Her heels carefully, thoughtfully turning on the hardwood floor was the only sound in the house - midmorning on a Wednesday meant that Luca had left before dawn to continue progress on their home, and their hosts had both left for work hours ago as well.
One of the first things Luca had insisted to her when they arrived was that she didn’t need to do anything. He knew how to build things, he’d worked in construction before - he didn’t want her anywhere near a job site, even their own, in case she got hurt. He would handle it - all of it. That meant, of course, that he wouldn’t be around much. It was part of the deal.
And yet, it was an aspect of 'the deal' that Olivia found herself... troubled by.
Olivia knew deep down that she had always relied too much on others. Her father had treated her like an angel, like a rare rose bush to be left completely undisturbed, untrimmed, and unfettered. And without Laurie's influence, Olivia was sure she’d still be in Brindleton under her papa's watchful gaze, looking after her siblings, perhaps marrying some local clerk or shopman so that she’d never be too far, doing small alterations on church clothes for the Brindletons, and spending entire afternoons staring at the sea, thinking no thoughts at all.
Laurie'd had the will and the determination to leave, to try, and to grow into the world. Olivia stared at herself in the mirror looking for a hint of her cousin’s same eye shape in hers, an angle of the chin that would make her feel closer to that quiet courage. She inhaled quietly, and exhaled deeply.
She could hear Madame Argent’s voice in her head like a clinging phantom as she prepared to venture out into Copperdale alone for the first time. ‘That color is so gaudy, Olivia. Whose attention are you looking for? And your hair, mon dieu. Limp and dirty. There is a scuff on the heel of your left shoe. Careless. What impression are you expecting to make like this?’
She reacted the same way she always tried to when Madame Argent would start her morning tirades - she smiled patiently into the mirror and held it, breathing through her nose, and admired the picture of grace and cheer she made. How could anyone find fault with this now?
Bernardo usually took his own truck to work in the mornings, picking up various neighbors along the route to work and dropping Maggie off at the textile mill, so Olivia set out into the freshness of mid-morning on the long walk to Copperdale alone.
Sitting in the house for another day looking for clothes to mend or re-reading the same books was not an appealing prospect, and Olivia had noticed that they were running low on salt, darning needles, and that nobody had had the opportunity to bring home a newspaper for the last few days. Today was as fine a day as any to do whatever small part she could to contribute - Maggie had been an eternally patient and friendly hostess, despite how certain Olivia was that they were an imposition.
Her shoes - scuffed as they were on the left heel - were her oldest and most comfortable pair, and coupled with the symphony of mountain sparrows the anxiety of her morning ruminations lifted itself off of her heart the longer she walked. It was greener than she anticipated in Colorado, though rockier and drier than New England, and arriving to lakeside Copperdale after passing the state’s eastern plains in the train had been a beautiful surprise.
In less than an hour Olivia arrived to town, and took her time to observe the surprising amount of bold colors and signage pointing people to laundries, groceries, employment offices, and cigar shops. A smattering of people were out this morning, but the smokestacks of the railyard just outside of town and wailing of children inside the buildings told her that most everyone was still tending to their own morning tasks.
Copperdale's bustle was quieter and more austere than the constant streams of strangers in New York, but somehow different in quality to the small town charm of her hometown of Brindleton Bay. In Brindleton, life had been slower. The sea air, the floral scent of the dogwoods, and the distant resonance of early dawn foghorns felt protective and meditative. Copperdale smelled a little like coal, red mineral earth, and the sweet-sticky tar of crushed spruce needles.
She inhaled. Exhaled. Newspaper, salt, needles. Newspaper, salt, needles.
Needles and salt were easy enough to find at a little general store called Eubank's Grocery, and a barefoot boy was perched outside what looked like a restaurant selling newspapers a stone's throw from the lakeside.
To the local women chatting at their usual spot, however, Olivia was... well. Not from around here.
Her hands and nails were as smooth as a picture in a catalogue, her sleeveless embroidered dress looked more like an evening gown, and the lustre of her ring flashed as she spoke to the newspaper seller.
"Hello, there," began the black-haired woman as her friend appraised her, "My, my. I don't think I've ever seen a girl who looks like you around here. I'm Ellen. This is Myrna."
“Oh-- hello. How do you do? I'm Olivia Rh– Calabria.”
“'Calabria'? Hm! What does your husband do, Mrs. Calabria?”
“He– works for the railroad. Or he will,” she amended proudly, though she felt unsure of why they were asking her about Luca's work and not her own, “Once he’s finished building our house.”
Myrna’s eyebrows shot up, but she didn’t seem impressed, somehow. Not as much as Olivia privately thought she ought to be.
“Building you a house. How lucky you are. Took us two years to leave the mill village. We shared the house with another family, and a latrine with the whole neighborhood.”
Olivia blinked, unsure of how to proceed. Her neck prickled. “... Oh.” she said lamely, “I see. Then yes. I am lucky.”
“Must be quite a fellow, letting you spend his hard-earned money on clothes like that in a town like this, all while building the roof that’s going to go over your head himself.”
Her mind went blank. She looked down at the dress she had already stared at and memorized in the mirror just a couple of hours ago, for lack of anything better to do. "Oh, no, this dress was a gift from my mother, for my birthd--”
“Oh, from her mother. There’s money for things like that in her family.”
Something about the insistence of the teasing sprung a little metal trap in Olivia's chest, one that hardly ever made a sound but leapt to life now. “I have my own money," she began, distantly surprised by the coldness of her own tone - a voice she had only ever heard come out of her mother in rare moments when someone sneered at the state of their home, "I studied dressmaking under a French designer in New York.”
Ignoring the scoffs she got in reply, she finished, “... a-and it’s what I do for work. It’s a service I see you really should be interested in.”
Ellen laughed, but a dark, vulnerable expression flickered over Myrna's face. Her hand alighted softly on her son's mess of wild blonde curls, and he gazed up at to mother with shy puzzlement. Olivia's ears burned immediately. He wasn't wearing shoes.
“We already know how to sew, thank you," Myrna snapped as she ushered her son to begin walking away. "To make every single piece last as long as possible. You’ll understand when the babies start coming along. There won’t be a dime left for a new yellow dress from France then, Mrs. Calabria.”
When was the last time he was truly happy?
In truth, the answer was confusing.
Could it really have been the ten seconds five years ago he had spent - on this bed that wasn't his, in a house that he didn't live in, kissing a boy that would probably never kiss him again, just because aforementioned boy needed to know what he tasted like?
Was that even happiness?
Was happiness the moment somewhere between seconds three and four when his brain started back up and Valerian realized how deeply he wanted to kiss this boy back?
Or was it the space between seconds seven and eight when he desperately hoped that there was a chance when he finished counting, the boy who was kissing him wouldn't want to pull away either.
Watcher he was pathetic.
Time's up.
Val: [ OUT OF BREATH ] Ten.
Chad: Fuck. I'm sorry I just -
Val: I won't tell anyone I swear.
Chad: I- I should go.
Val: This is your house.
Chad: Right, yeah. … You should go.
Val: Right - uh cool. Thank you?
Chad: Same, yeah.
That was the first time Val ever really saw him. - All of him.
And it felt like I had just spent the last ten seconds staring straight into the sun.
sigh. this is the last ill say of this without tagging it properly. the boyfriend was married with a baby and never disclosed that fact. enzo had a science baby with a friend bc he wanted to be a dad. his own dad (gen 1) dies on the day the baby is born. and just when i thought he'd find true love with julia wright:
