aw shoot here we go again

[uberhood]

This ain't your grandma's uberhood.

...because it's the third time I've tried to tell this story and i don't want to get overwhelmed again.

I'm playing a Sims 2 megahood, mostly focusing on an edited Strangetown, but with most of the Maxis premades, and a few added quirks.

Read the whole story from the beginning here.

More about the uberhood, and my goals for the story, under the cut.

HOODS

Here are the neighbourhoods I'm currently playing in the uberhood:

@chrisnewbie 's Strangeytown as the base hood, and the one that definitely gets played in full rotation.

Pleasantview (for Lilith and Dustin)

Veronaville (for Miranda/Hermia/Puck)

Desiderata Valley (for John Mole and Natasha Una)

@penig's Widespot (for the drama + Sky Weiss).

@jawusa's Aileen Landing (which I've never actually played before!)

@oceansmotion 's Natosi (for the spooky ghost town vibes)

@hoodbuildinggroup's Sedona, for the vibes

hoodbuildinggroup's Shady Shores, because I love those toddlers and I want them to grow up well

Maxis stealth hoods for the Ottomi, Newsons, Gavigans, etc.

As a downtown, I've added @aondaneedles 's Copperhead City.

For our universities, we've got penig's Land Grant University, Maxis' La Fiesta Tech, and aonda's Cactus Canyon University.

For our vacation destinations, we've got topp's Felicity Island, jawusa's Moonbase Apollo, and Maxis' Three Lakes.

I'm not adding Belladonna Cove, because I'm not a masochist. I'm not adding Riverblossom Hills, because most of it bores me. (I might change my mind about this and add Jules O'Mackey and the Roths...) I'd love to add Douglasville and Arkhelios, because they fit the vibes, but neither of them seems to have a subhood version :(

STORY

I want to at least start the story low-stakes and work up to the harder, more emotionally hefty stuff. Part of the reason I've been struggling so hard with the Uberhood is that writing... like... the Grunts... is a challenge.

This is why the first couple chapters center mostly around lone weirdoes who don't have any ties to a grander story. I want to introduce some metaplot eventually, but I want to do it slowly.

CREDITS

The way I tell this story is heavily influenced by @simhealing's Uberhood, and I probably borrowed a bunch of headcanons from her without realizing. If you like what I'm doing here, go check her out.

Most of the CC I use is from @withlovefromsimtown , @whattheskell/@ts2repositoryproject , @platinumaspiration and/or @lordcrumps. I'm WCIF friendly, but if you see something and you don't know what it is, the odds are that it's from one of those four creators.

Thanks for reading! Have fun!

[uberhood]

Knowing what she knows now, Penny ... tries to do the responsible thing, and tell Valentine Hart she can't go out for drinks with half the town this time....

[uberhood]

Penny pops!

....and immediately passes out from exhaustion, managing to avoid the pavement and local feral cat.

That takes talent.

[uberhood]

Skye helps Woody with his homework and tries to show interest in his new posters.

Woody does not want Skye to be interested in his posters.

Woody would rather tongue-kiss the Reaper than talk about his new posters with his dad.

[uberhood]

Being an prangent is suffering.

[uberhood]

Penny's hypnotic pants might give her the edge at hypnotizing people, but they can't help her against the crowd in the Vaporwave Poker Room.

[uberhood]

Penny takes the bus out to Strangetown to play the penny slots, hustle some pool...

...And lighten a few wallets.

[uberhood]

Penny got herself in an assload of debt before the round even started. And with Skye on her case about it, she knows she's got to stop running. She's got to pay off her debts...

One Simoleon at a time.

[uberhood]

Meet Woody Weiss.

Woody is ravaged by hormones and a fear that he's not ever going to be compatible with anybody.

Woody's going through it right now. For one thing, he feels overlooked-- Skye spends so much time running around after Penny (trying to convince Penny to bother with college, trying to convince Penny to stop getting herself into trouble, trying to bail Penny out when Homer picks her up after picking someone's pocket) that he has very little time for Woody. For another thing, Woody feels like all Skye's expectations are falling onto him-- he has to be the overachiever, get into college, have a family, and Do Things Right. (in actuality Skye just wants him to have a good life, and in TS2 you need a college degree to be an artist. but details.)

Woody's also having The World's Most Awkward, Awful Teenage Bi Awakening right now. Mostly, he's discovering that he likes hot people in various states of undress and furriness. And that most people are hot. And that the Teen-Age Werewolf Alien movies he's been a fan of his whole life have an interesting internet fandom. And that he'd like to live out some of that interesting stuff for himself.

Right now, he's mostly occupied with trying to convince his new internet friend not to move to Strangetown (if you have to move to the middle of nowhere, why not Widespot???) , drawing hot people in various states of undress and furriness, and trying desperately to make Skye proud.

[uberhood]

"Skye came to Widespot for the good viewing conditions. Something viewed him back. Twice. He's gotten used to it."

Skye's a pure Knowledge sim, without any caveats or complications. He loves to learn. He loves to ask questions. He taught his kids to ask questions. And now he's regretting it.

See, Skye's having to lay down the law. Penny's questioning his authority, about how she lives her life. But Penny is, most likely, going to have to live in Widespot for the rest of her life. He's scared she won't act like it.

He doesn't know how he feels about his rediscovered responsibilities. He loves Penny unconditionally, of course. He's her dad. And every time he opens his mouth to tell her that she's screwing her life up, he feels like one of the people who drove him off to live in the woods in the first place.

For that matter, Skye doesn't know how he feels about his alien-finding quest. Since he got abducted (and came back with Penny) he's been on a mission. He's heard aliens mention 'the player' a couple times and he thinks this might be the answer to the question people keep throwing at him- "if there's no Watcher, then where do buildings come from?" But he's not finding aliens with the wisdom he seeks- he's finding aliens who want to party or pollinate.

One of these days, he's going to find a set of aliens who just wants to talk.

Skye's a bit of a Takemizuboo, in the "I LOVE GOOD CRAFTSMANSHIP" way. He's not really into anime or manga, but he will wax lyrical about hot springs and wabi-sabi and elderly craftsmen til the cows come home. He's disciplined, frugal, and generally believes in living as simply as one can. The solar panels on the roof were his idea. He's considering taking up gardening in his old age, and is an avid meditator.

[uberhood]

Meet Penny Weiss.

"Penny figures she must be here for a reason. Probably anthropological. So she strives to know as much as possible about her neighbors, so she'll have something useful to report."

Oh dear, Penny. Penny, Penny, Penny. I feel bad for what this save did to her; normally, she's something near sane. But not this time. In this save, Penny's Knowledge/Popularity sim to her core, in the worst way possible.

Penny's… a mess, really. She tries not to be, but she's a mess, she's been a mess since she was a kid, and she'll continue to be a mess until she actually faces consequences for her actions. And she knows she's never, ever going to-- after all, her alien relatives are going to come take her away any day now, right? It doesn't matter what she does, because she won't be there to face the music.

Penny wants to go into showbiz. She sure has the personality for it-- BIG mood swings, BIG changes in personal aesthetic (right now she's a psychadelic sci-fi neohippie, tomorrow she might be a goth or a punk or a tool), BIG indiscretions and acts of rebellion, BIG mistakes. She's had exactly one movie role- playing a waitress in an Auda Sharif gig a couple years ago, after his career jumped the shark- but hasn't been able to parlay that into being a Movie Star. Still, she remains ever-hopeful that she'll get her big break before her folks bring her home.

Penny's also an incorrigable gossip, INCREDIBLY friendly without sharing much about herself, and pleasant to be around until she ropes you into something crazy. She's nice. She can be kind, even. But she's impulsive, thoughtless, and tends to make... mistakes.

Exhibit A:

[uberhood]

Meet the Weisses.

Skye Weiss came to Widespot, with his trust fund, to watch the stars. They watched back. Now the trust fund is gone, Penny's grown, Woody's growing, the highway's come through bringing new people with it - what's a hermit to do?

[uberhood]

Welcome to Widespot.

To most people, it's a wide spot in the road, a place to pass through or at most pull over and take a nap when travelling from Here to There. To those who live there, though, it's the whole world.

Widespot makes Strangetown look like the big city.

Strangetown has tourist traps, the military base, the science lab, a shopping district; Widespot has... a small mom n' pop shop and a swimming hole. But don't be fooled. Behind the incredibly quaint exterior, there's a lot going on here.

Rivalries! Drama! Lovechildren! Local politics!

All this, and more, awaits you in Widespot.

[uberhood]

// So here comes the part where things got a little off the rails.

When I'm playing an uberhood, normally, I like to play every family in a subhood in a round before jumping to the next one. However, we had a bout of Circumstances.

See, my partner... my partner is a lovely person with many good qualities, but they tragically get The Jibblies from uncanny valley Sims faces. They don't like no Ottomasses... no Mawreen... and no Widespot.

Soooooo, when they went on vacation a month back, I decided to take advantage of my partner being gone to play through a good chunk of my Widespot round. That way they wouldn't have to hear me scream about sims that give them The Jibblies, and I could just play Widespot and nothing but Widespot to my heart's content.

This means that you're going to get the Weisses and the Beeches, then a hard pivot back to the Grunts (who I played at the last minute while my partner was gone because I knew the Grunts always give me a hard time emotionally and I didn't want them to have to see me triggered for a week), and then more of your regularly scheduled Strangetown.

ANYWAY, that was a very long winded way of saying, GET READY FOR SOME SPOOTS.

[uberhood]

And this is where we leave the Hoggs-- surrounded by the fruits of Momma's labours, but with an uncertain future ahead.

It's time for an Interlude. Or perhaps, several, depending on how you want to look at it...

[uberhood]

"Boys, gossipping about Jimmy "The Neck" is a good way to get your kneecaps busted."

"...Yes, Momma."

[uberhood]

I think this might be the one time that talking about politics has saved a friendship.

Dusty isn't too big of a fan of the military. Or the science base. Or aliens. Or rules, or authority, or any "civilizing" force that ain't his momma.

Junior, like most folks who aren't from Strangetown, is both fascinated and horrified by the local politics. Less the aliens-- everyone in Widespot is used to the Weisses by now-- and more the Byzantine amount of backstabbing that even Dusty is aware of.

It gets the conversation off Hat Dormie right quick.