Wednesday, October 3, 2012

1.16 - A Second Chance

Isabel's excited to show her work to her Dad. The next day, he comes outside to look at her amazing dinosaur reconstruction. He's really impressed, and asks Isabel if she wants to start doing some work at his lab with him.

You can imagine how happy that makes Isabel!

A future budding Paleontologist?

Appaloosa Plains once housed a large number of scientists for the dig site of ancient fossilized remains.
But now most of the remains had been removed to museums. Isabel had managed to revive a little of that excitement. Her impressive talent earned her a place among the prestigious geek ranks at Dad's Lab.


"Your daughter has a very rare talent and we'd love to offer her a full scholarship when she graduates."
 (That's Simon's boss Kenji)

Isabel loved going to work with Dad. Her teachers even let her out early every day so she could spend part of her day studying at the science center. Her grades and performance were perfect and she had been on the honor roll three straight semesters running.

It was here, spending hours digging through the old science archives, that Isabel began to formulate her future.


"William Bedlington, first Archaeology Specialist for Morcucorp Acquisitions Dept."

And when her Dad began to spend a LOT of time talking to that woman and visiting her, Isabel used the lab computers to learn some other tricks too. Isabel overheard Simon inviting Sarah over to spend an evening at the lab with them.


"Of course you can come hang out with us here, we'd love your company, darling!"

Isabel has other ideas.


<insert evil laughter here>

She dabbles a bit with the chemistry table.

This is probably something Simon should be giving somewhat more supervision on, but he's typically lax as ever with Isabel, and busy messing with fish in the aquarium.


"Despite their name, not all catfish have prominent barbels ... OWW! Ok, this one does!"

And the perfect potion has been mixed ...

"Liquid Horror"


<insert more evil laughter here>

Isabel's not really evil, she's just too damn smart for her own good. She figures she can scare Dad's girlfriend away one way or another.

But the unintended victim of her computer prank ended up being Dad when he tried to check his bank balance.


"Aaaaagh! ... Isabel!!!"

And lamo-girlfriend never even showed up, complaining of a "headache" ... so Isabel decided to save the potion for later use.

But try as she might, nothing she did could convince Dad away from his new girlfriend. In fact, just when Simon was about to reassure Isabel that he was only dating Sarah casually, things took a turn for the worse in Isabel's opinion.


Simon yelling: "Sarah, lets go, we're going to be late for our dinner reservation!"

Yeah, things were about to get complicated.


"Simon, I know this is crazy, but ... I'm pregnant."

Simon was just getting used to the idea of being in love again after such a terrible heartbreak with his ex-wife. He considered himself years away from re-marriage, let alone having another child.


A rather awkward moment.

But to his credit, Simon has learned a tough lesson from his failed first marriage. He's not going to let this woman down, and he's going to do the right thing. He just needs some time to think and figure this out.

Like his daughter, Simon thinks best when surrounded by his work down in the underground lab.

He faces his fears.


"Simon you old fool, you're about to hit your middle years. Time to get your life in order."

And he realizes he's ready to stop being so paranoid about money all the time. His position was moving towards senior scientist and he had a good retirement fund.


"I'm not going to worry about the simoleons anymore!"

He was ready to embrace the hand he was being dealt and be a family man. He had fallen in love with Sarah, of this he was sure. And more importantly, she needed him. She was carrying his child and as much as he loved Isabel, he knew he would love another little one too.

And so it was easy the next day to head out to the Equestrian Center where Sarah worked as a stable hand to let her know his decision.


Being a dignified professional horsewoman is impossible when you waddle.

Sarah was frightened when Simon showed up. She thought she would end up dumped and a single Mom like her sister Stacy had just went through - a complete embarrassment to her prestigious family.


"Sarah, don't turn away. I'm not going to hurt you like your family has done ..."

Simon lets Sarah know he very much wants to have a child with her.


"Another little Twist Genius in the making!"

And right there on the spot he proposes to Sarah. They'd only been together a short time, and Sarah can't believe it, but she's so relieved and so happy!


"Oh Simon! Thank you for making me the happiest woman on the Sim Planet!"

Other parties, however, are not quite as thrilled with the news.


"Getting married... having a BABY?! Dad are you trying to ruin my entire life!?"


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Read HERE  for Ch. 1.17 - "Growing Pains"






13 comments:

  1. Poor Isabel. Everything is moving so quickly and it doesn't look like she was even able to get a chance to really get to know Sarah. Alas, sometimes life doesn't always work as easily was we think it should.

    I imagine this might just be another push in Isabel's direction for archaeology. Now, instead of working at the revived dig sites in Appaloosa Plains, she'll be heading to work abroad to get away from her dad's new life.

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    1. Yes, its looking more like Isabel will want to escape to grander adventures out in the world. She was already quite adventurous - and being braver than most kids, I don't think she'll have too many negative issues from this in her future ... well... hopefully! =P

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  2. *Sigh* Oh Isbael... someone is going to be the only one in daddy's eye for long!

    I love all the drama you have in your story, and you're only in generation one! It's well balanced with your humour and its just really refreshing. Can't wait for more!

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    1. Oh I appreciate the compliments CeCe! I've been working on the 'drama' bits and getting a little more comfortable with it. I have a lot of great examples from you all! Generation 2, with Isabel's career/family roll will certainly be different!

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  3. The Bedlingtons and MorcuCorp... two names I recognize.

    *ominous music plays*

    I love the science lab you made for them. =)

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    1. Thanks - I had so much fun creating the lab. It's actually a public basement under the medical / science facility... the one that has a courtyard in the middle from AP Pets expansion. It's only one big room but I stuffed it with lots of cool CC decor I had and wanted to use.

      Yep, Morcucorp had a big hand in relic trafficking as we know from Al Simhara. I doubt Isabel's going to be able to avoid them in the line of work she's intending to go into. =)

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  4. Uh oh--it's hard to share someone when you're so used to having them all to yourselves! Now she has Sarah AND a new baby to share her Dad's time with.

    I loved your Science lab too! I loved Isabel's expressions as she was making the potion and setting a booby trap! :D

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    1. Thanks! I actually wasn't planning to have Simon meet someone new until Isabel was a teenager (she's only 2 days away anyways), but the scene at the diner with Sarah and her Mother wrote itself into the story. That was completely unscripted also - I got so lucky to catch it because Cupid really was out hunting for more collectibles (which is what I have him do when Simon is at work and Isabel is in school). He passed by the diner and I saw this batty old woman waving her cane and poor Sarah cowering... it was sooo perfect! I quickly had Simon leave work early (which he got upset about haha) so he could get over there and participate in it. I had been eyeing Sarah and her twin sister Stacy as possible matches for Simon since both are equestrians, but Stacy got knocked up by one of the Riffins and Sarah had just broken up with someone, I can't remember who (dating), so I figured I better hurry up and get him together with her before there weren't any more eligible bachelorettes left in town (esp with guys like Benjamin Schmidt, Kanoa Parrott and Booker Singleton all whoring around town so much haha).

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  5. Hmmm...maybe the frugals will need to resort to bribery?

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    1. Yes, I suspect they're going to do a little 'buttering up' to get Isabel to accept the new living arrangement soon. I'm working on their combined household now. As cute as Simon's house is, its way too tiny for a family of 4 and a dog, so their moving into the little house with Sarah and I'm adding a second story onto it. =)

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  6. Wow! Another child coming already! But if Simon's happy, I'm happy. I hope it works out with Isabel!

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  7. I hope Isabel can come to terms with Simon getting married and having new sibling around! Her character develop,ment has been really wonderful. I totally relate to her.

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  8. Woo! That was fast. Hopefully Isabel can learn to accept the new family structure without too much resentment.

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