#ruben blake

[esotheria-sims]

Wanna see something cool?

The tower lights up!

~Historical accuracy~ be damned, I'm not sacrificing that cool beacon-in-the-night look for anything.

Also, here's the secret behind the winding stairs. Like I said, I added a set of modular stairs underneath (& then made them invisible), to get the illusion that sims are actually using the fancy stairs.

I say 'illusion' because... the two sets of stairs don't exactly align, so sims will gradually sink into them & disappear out of view at the base. It really only looks good when they've reached the top of the staircase, which I guess is still better than nothing.

Not sure what I mean? Allow me to illustrate with the help of the lovely Alison Eves.

After pleading her case with the queen, Alison Eves leaves the throne room. She exits the royal premises and begins descending the grand marble stairs...

Lol.

[esotheria-sims]

Business powered on as usual, with Tom and Roland making some serious sales every day. No, really - the dough was so good that even Rufus got a memory about it! 😆💰

The royal family of course approved of Tom's venture, and made sure to let him know. Successful businesses equal a strong economy!

[esotheria-sims]

Tom's Smithy is only some 10 stars away from reaching Level 9, and the pressure was on as Tom and Roland scrambled to keep the flood of customers happy and shopping.

The queue at the cash register was practically out the door, but Tom managed to check everyone out relatively quickly thanks to his awesome Business Experience™.

This sort of hard work deserves a reward! Congrats to The Smithy for reaching Level 9! 🥳

[esotheria-sims]

A couple days later, Tom heard the news from Phillip: Annika was back home!

Thankfully she was unharmed, but Gabriel hadn’t been so lucky. According to Phillip, his wounds were pretty severe; but he had no details beyond that and Tom didn't want to press. He was relieved for Annika but concerned for Gabriel, vowing to visit him soon.

When that might be, though, he couldn't tell - business thundered on with no end in sight. Tom and Roland were really feeling the pressure, working themselves ragged to satisfy every order.

Perhaps it was time to bring another pair of hands aboard...

[esotheria-sims]

Both Adam and Winona rolled wants about throwing a party, and with little else to do...

The invitation had been open to anyone who knew the Tanners. In the absence of close friends and family, it had been neighbors and acquaintances who answered the call. Turns out, that's what doomed the evening from the start.

Strangers were milling about their livingroom, trying to make small talk that fizzled out before it even began. No one seemed to know what to do, or why they were even there in the first place. Adam's 'party tricks' did little to alleviate the awkwardness (if anything, they only made things worse).

The food was the rare highlight of the evening: Adam's new salmon canapés were a hit with the guests! It was only thanks to the catering (and the generous amounts of booze) that the party wasn't deemed a complete flop.

Whatever. Adam decided he'd still count it as a success!

[esotheria-sims]

I'm leaving Annika to take her waterfall shower in peace to focus my attention on the other Hot Springs visitors. That's right, Neighbour Watch is back! 👀 The lot has spawned a surprisingly large number of sims; here's what everyone is up to:

Neva and Charity are in the hot springs, with the latter telling the former that ruby-red looks stunning on her and that she'd look even more stunning with a set of real rubies that Charity just so happened to have on sale, 25% off just because it's her!

Ruben is trying to convince Tom to adapt a sunnier outlook on life and take it easy every once in a while; but Tom finds it hard to take anything 'easy' when a certain raven-haired maiden is parading around in the nude just behind him!

The elusive sir Harald Talbot made an appearance! He was only in passing and didn't stick around, though.

Even Queen Aruena was there, but she didn't seem interested in either the springs or the chatter, contenting herself with just…kinda standing there.

Annika, who'd moved into one of the hot springs in the meantime, was soon joined by a bubbly younger girl who introduced herself as Beatrice Tanner.

It would seem Ruben had finally convinced Tom to let his hair down; but rather than hair, it appears they'd dropped their breeches instead, since both were butt-nekkid and waiting their turn to soak in the hot springs. Opinions on the guys' (lack of) swimming attire were divided: Neva thought their display was boorish and unnecessary; Charity thought Neva should get over herself and get out of the hot springs if 'hot and steamy' wasn't her speed.

The two nakey men hadn't escaped the notice of the girls in the spring from across, either.

Annika: *blushing and staring right ahead* "Oh my Watcher! Don't look, but there's two dudes flashing their family jewels at nine o'clock!" *thinking* "Is that Tom??"

Beatrice: *unfazed in lesbian, just trying to have a good time* "Pfffft, ewww! Lol."

[esotheria-sims]

And then evil Grand Warlock André Gilly showed up to rain on everyone's parade - proverbially and literally.

Annika was ready to fight him for killing the vibe, but quickly changed her mind once she witnessed his dark powers. Having been raised in a family of good witches, evil magic didn't particularly agree with her.

It seemed the other visitors shared her sentiment, because everyone scurried off before André could cycle through his full repertoire.

[esotheria-sims]

And while Adam is embarrassing himself by performing freestyle for tips and Winona is pestering the sales boys, let’s take a look around the market for another edition of Neighbor Watch! 👀

Ruben came walking by and noticed Ginevra and Folke standing by the liquor stand. He swooned at the former and cheerily greeted the latter, and while I can't really remember if the two guys have ever interacted while all townies were living together on the test lot, somehow I'm unsurprised that they seem to be buddies. My liberal interpretation of their friendship? They're probably at the tavern every other night getting absolutely smashed together.

Back to our playables, and we see Adam gulping down a meat pie (which he probably didn't pay for) and Winona aiming her best fake smile at him in an attempt to get him to get a move on already. I could practically hear her whining "Daddy, are we leaving yeeet?" through my screen. 😂