Rolling The Dice

[Caspin]

Great news - you get a break from that overly colourful jumpsuit today!

A Shaky Start

With Peggy now living in the Valentine household, things became a little ..... messy. It is fortunate that Vanessa had already killed super-tidy Styles, or he may have had to kill himself. A quick glance at Peggy's traits, now that she is under my control, reveals the problem.




Yup, I've managed to pick up a kleptomaniac slob. Yay!

Vanessa found that there was a particular problem with plates. Peggy enjoyed leaving plates lying around all over the house - on tables, counters, the floor - wherever she found a plate-sized space, Peggy would deposit a plate there. Preferably a dirty plate. When they ran out of clean plates, little miss klepto would steal some more from the diner. When these were also dirty, she would lick plates clean. It was surprisingly disgusting behaviour from such an otherwise neat young sim.




In an attempt to distract her from theft and mess-making, Vanessa volunteered to teach Peggy to drive. Styles had left Vicky his car and, since Peggy apparently loved vehicles, this seemed the perfect way to keep her occupied in a plate-free environment. Don't they both look cheery?




Unfortunately, teenage angst and extreme mood swings did not mix well with driving lessons. After a few hours both driver and student were stressed out and arguing over every detail. They got out of the car to cool off.




Vanessa wondered whether she had made a terrible mistake in asking Peggy to move in. But no - she made Vicky so happy and surely things would settle down after these initial hiccups. They were all still getting used to being under the same roof.

Vicky, unlike her mother, was in heaven. She was doing well at school, she had Peggy living at her house and she was making great advances with her art. Veronica would sometimes phone from Art School in France to tell her about the latest techniques, which Vicky tried to emulate.

She certainly made great strides in painting every day objects, including windows.




Although Peggy had a lot of survival skills from her years of living rough, she maintained a determination to go to university and for this she knew she would need formal qualifications and skills. She and Vicky spent a lot of time on the sofa, reading skill books and finding recipes on the cookery channel. They were becoming quite good at baking and talked of opening a cafe with an attached gallery to display Vicky's pictures.




Vanessa saw how happy they were and tried hard not to fight with Peggy. She bought many boxes of extra plates and ran the dishwasher more frequently. But she could never quite keep up. One night she found Peggy sneaking back into the house after she had been out after curfew, drunk and with bizarre face-paint from the autumn festival, the pockets of her coat stuffed with cups and saucers from the bistro.

Vanessa: Peggy, what are you doing? Do you want to be arrested?!
Peggy: No..... I just thought we needed some new saucers.
Vanessa: We can buy some!
Peggy: I keep forgetting that we have money....
Vanessa: What happened to your face?
Peggy: I stole some nectar and drank it with the face-painting guy in the park. After that the face-painting didn't work out too well. This is meant to be a clown face and there's a load of kids gone home crying because they asked to look like tigers but just got painted green.




Vanessa sighed. She grounded Peggy, hoping that keeping her indoors for a few days might help her calm down.

Peggy fumed and sulked. She tried to get a grip on her temper and emotions.




I just need some air! She marched outside and walked round the house. If I don't leave the garden, then I'm complying with my grounding, she thought, stomping back and forth.

Peggy: Wait, what are those lights? Arrgggh!




Hours later, Peggy was deposited on the road outside her house, dusty and shocked after being probed by creepy elderly aliens in jodhpurs [sorry, I don't know where this game is going at the moment but everything is really weird!].




She ran back into the house, repentant and fearful. It was dangerous out there and she had to make an effort to fit in or risk being kicked back out onto the streets.

Peggy: I'm sorry, Vanessa! I'll get a grip on my hormones! I won't stay out after curfew and I'll pay attention to my driving lessons.
Vanessa: OK. What about the plates?
Peggy: I will try not to steal plates.

Vanessa was satisfied. The rest of the mess, she could deal with. She hired herself an attractive maid. It was a little disturbing to see him out in the garden, raking leaves as Styles had done, but at least all of Peggy's untidiness was now taken care of.




Doing What She Does Best

With the ambrosia leaving her system, Vanessa became more and more like her old self. She had fun at work and enjoyed singing with her band. She put on a little weight and started to feel the cold again as autumn set in. With only one more lifetime left to live, she pondered on how to spend the time.

She did, of course, still have a thing for uniforms. That was not caused by ambrosia. She continued to see Police Chief Hank, meeting in the hay for a roll.




Before too long, the inevitable occurred. This is it! Vanessa was overjoyed - I've popped out dozens of babies, this is what I do best! I will have one last child.




Vanessa: Vicky, you are going to have a little brother or sister! Do you remember where we packed up the teddy bears?
Vicky: How exciting! I hope that the baby will have more desirable traits than poor Veronica.




Peggy was incredibly thrilled. Her only useful trait was that she was family-oriented and she couldn't wait for the baby to be born so that she could help out.

Vanessa: Great! Instant baby-sitter.

Finally Peggy had something to focus on, a distraction from the urge to steal plates. Perhaps harmony would be achieved in this house at last.




Nine imaginary months later, baby William was born [I grew weary of V-names].

His traits are not great, but there's still time for him to get some better ones I hope!