So I probably won't unlock the connection to Downtown SimCity for Pinnacle Peaks anywhere in the near future. But I've already built the Monorail Station for when it does. It even has a little café! And way too many of those 4t2 eco living benches that I spam all over my BACC community lots! 😂
Fergus: "You see the two stars that are shining the brightest? Those are the ones I named your siblings after: Pollux and Castor."
Astra loved watching the night sky together with her dad. As she was looking up she wondered where in this big universe she came from. But to her disappointment, not even her dad, who usually knew the answer to everything, could tell her that.
As Astra was getting ready for bed that night a thought occured to her. If nobody could tell her where she came from, she'd simply have to find out for herself. Excited by the imagination of herself exploring outer space and finding the other half of her family she jumped down from her bed.
"It's time for bed", her dad who had come into her room to say goodnight reminded her.
"I know, I know..." She quickly put on her pajamas and slipped under the blanket. As she was drifting away into a deep slumber she softly mumbled "I'm gonna find them, dad. I know I will..."
With construction of Pinnacle Peaks Elementary School still underway, Carter had to be inventive when compiling a curriculum for his students.
Some days they were accompanying Bree Newton on her trips to the mountain lake and the woods around it. Other days they were playing chess in his office at home. But most of the days he took the children to his bookstore/library. Astra, who had learnt how to read and write in the span of mere days, often left earlier while the Carter twins were still finishing up their reading or writing asignments.
Over at the Watts' home Astra was bombarding Una with questions about aerodynamics - something she read about in one of her dad's books - over breakfast.
Just as Una was getting up to put away the leftover toaster pastries, Fergus felt the same sensation as when Astra was born spreading through his body.
Astra was very disappointed that Dr. Lewis and Una wouldn't let her watch the birth and had instead sent her over to mayor Finley's house. She was still a little grumpy when she returned home that evening, but all of it was soon forgotten when her father introduced her to her new siblings.
Unlike their older sister, Polluxia and Castor would not be able to hide their alien parentage. Their skin had the same color as the sky on a summer's day and their eyes were solid black.
The SCIA chopper had dropped Melina Zola off at her new home (at least for the time being), where she found a welcoming party already waiting for her.
"My wife -I mean, the mayor - was unfortunately not able to come and greet you personally. She's busy overseeing the construction of the school building. But she sends her warmest welcome!"
Freddy had been tasked by Finley to greet the scientist, who immediately began talking about how excited she was to be able to visit this biodiverse part of SimNation.
She was particularly interested in one member of the welcoming party, however.
"I was of course briefed that your kind were living here, but still... Remarkable.. Are those leaves growing directly out of your skin?"
Cedrus didn't like the way she was looking at him as if he was an exhibit in one of those simlish buildings that they called "museum". But he didn't want to make her feel unwelcome so he shook her hand and faked a smile.
Summer in Pinnacle Peaks was filled with love, secrets, big construction projects and the arrival of many nooboos!
Summer started with an important trip to SimCity for Finley, where she was to vote on a bill about wildlife preservation. The other congress members were very impressed with her input and she could procure further funds for the developement of Pinnacle Peaks.
To celebrate the good news, Finley had a small get-together at her house with old friends as well as new aquaintances. The newest of her aquaintances was Frederick Russo, whom she had met wandering around the mountain lake late at night. She didn't yet know that Freddy was not an aspiring cook looking to open his own restaurant in Pinnacle Peaks like he claimed, but a SCIA Agent that happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time and was really, really bad at coming up with cover stories.
After getting over the initial shock of being pregnant (as a male, from aliens), Fergus actually began to be excited about growing a little being.
It was not long before little Astra Watts was born. Even though there was no question about her being half-alien, she looked remarkably..normal?!
But Astra Watts was not the first baby born in Pinnacle Peaks this summer. In fact she wasn’t even the second, because one house down Flora Carter had given birth to twins: Poppy and Ash Carter.
And before summer ended, three became four with little Rosalind Newton.
With so many little ones Kiki was faced with a sudden increase in the demand of baby clothes as well as her goofy looking Kiki's Kuddly Teddy Bears.
Quinn and Caleb had decided that they would use the remaining warm days of summer to finally get married in their own backyard.
And the next baby of Pinnacle Peaks was soon on its way.
Summer also saw the realization of the next two big projects for the community: The construction of a wastewater treatment plant as well as that of a small police station.
Everything appeared to be going well for the small settlement and its mayor. Until one Monday morning, where both Frederick's and Jasper's well kept secrets came to light.
Finley needed a few days to process the fact that instead of being a gifted cook, her new friend had been working for Agent Silva all along! But when the three of them met to discuss future procedures in cases of contact with non-simlish species, her anger had already faded and made space for a very different feeling.
After their first kiss together, Finley and Frederick’s relationship progressed quickly. Finley knew that she was getting older and felt like she had no time to loose and Frederick had never been a sim to approach things with caution.
Before summer ended Freddy had already moved in. What he didn’t tell Finley was that while the SCIA said they would consider building an office in Pinnacle Peaks in the future, his request for working remotely had been denied.
Babies grew into toddlers...
And even more nooboos were on the way again - terrestrial and extraterrestrial alike!
In spring four very green and leafy visitors appeared in Pinaccle Peaks... But that's not all that spring had in store for the residents of this secret scientific community!
(Part 1 of the long overdue year 2 summary of my BACC below the cut)
In spring a very green and leafy visitor appeared at the farm. The plantsim named Cedrus had been observing the new inhabitants of the valley for quite some time and decided that Rae was the best sim to talk to. The farm quickly became a safe place where Cedrus and his brothers and sisters spent a lot of their time.
And just like the many flowers, trees and crops that Rae planted blossomed, romance began to blossom between herself and the handsome plantsim too.
Ultimately Rae and Cedrus decided that it was time for the mayor to oficially meet the plantsims and they were introduced to the rest of the community.
Finley decided they would wait to inform the SCIA of their newly discovered neighbours, mainly because Cedrus was worried about previous incidents of plantsim experiments in simhistory.
But the arrival of the plantsims did not escape the prying eyes of the SCIA....
In the meantime, Fergus had developed the first AI robot in simhistory: Servo 1.0, or "Una" as Quinn liked to call her. The SCIA was of course very intrigued by this and tried to convince Fergus to sell them the plans, but to no avail.
Fergus was an idealist and wanted to make sure that his inventions were only ever used for good. But he also began to realize that for his inventions to serve the community he had to take a chance and sell some of them to other people or organizations.
His SentryBots for example were already helping Detective Harper in her quest to keep the neighborhood safe and catch the burglar that was still on the loose. But servos were still off limits: “I already sell my other bots, just not the servos.”, he explained to Finley.
All this made Fergus think and he decided it was time to use his skills to make more positive impacts on the community and he finally accepted a paid position as a researcher for the further developement of Pinnacle Peaks' infrastructure.
Pinnacle Peaks also welcomed a new resident: Kiki Fahy, a fashion graduate, specialising in sustainable clothing made out of recycled plastic!
But Kiki's tailor shop, "Pins and Needles", was not the first shop to open this spring: A few weeks prior, Jasper Price, had come into a fortune after an interesting find in the farm's backyard.
A generous finder's fee and the offer of a loan from Bree made the construction of Pinaccle Peaks’ first (not home owned) business possbible and the opening of "Jasper's General Store" was a success!
A third business licence had to be approved by mayor Finley this spring: Carter Ibbs had published his first book and with its revenue he decided to open up a bookstore which doubles as a small library for the community.
His fiancée, the local archaeologist and historian, Flora Carter, was as busy as ever! In addition to spending almost every waking hour at the excavation site, she also had to plan a wedding!
Her head was buzzing with research notes, wedding dress colors and flower arrangements. It was no surprise that she didn't notice much of anything that was going on around her this spring...
But the darkhaired stranger in the leather jacket was not the only thing that went largely unnoticed by the residents this spring...
After Quinn and Caleb's engagement last winter, Caleb had started drawing the plans for a house for the two of them. The construction finished sooner than expected and the two quickly moved into their forever home, leaving both Finley and Fergus feeling a little lonely without their former roommates around.
While it wasn't unusual for Fergus Watts to disappear into his lab for days at a time, Quinn got worried when she didn't hear from her friend for almost a week. Just when she called and Una picked up, their phonecall was interrupted by a strange signal and not much later Fergus himself turned up at her doorstep with an unbelievable story to tell.
Fergus had returned from his interstellar adventures just in time for Flora & Carter's wedding. (Fun fact: Since they decided to take Flora's last name, Carter is now named Carter Carter 😂)
The wedding was soon followed by more happy news.
But as it would turn out, they weren't the only ones receiving such news. (Bree/Fergus)