Sims 3: Zodiac Challenge - Chapter 4, The Rabbit

Bunny's childhood is so miserable - hiding from a murderous mother, everyone dying, not being able to ride horses which is the only thing she wants to do - that I aged her up a week early, and then added a week to the teenage life span in options.  I think of it as her having a growth spurt and lying about her age so she can enter horse competitions.

When I say "everyone dying", Piper has also passed away.  Her ghost sometimes appears, mostly to take naps on Bunny's old bed.  She might as well, no one else is using it.  Bunny is now sleeping in the guest room exclusively, with the door locked, sometimes watched over by ghosts.

This is Scarlett "Bunny" Ursine, and her horse, Spring, majestically riding along a cliffside to work out their feelings of grief, while Bunny realises that her lifetime's ambition is to be a Jockey.  That involves earning $40,000 simoleons through horses, and reaching rider level 10.

Shortly after this, prom happened and we got burgled.  Luckily, we have an alarm set up.  Bunny didn't have a date for prom - she was busy learning to ride and training Spring to jump - so she went alone.  Either aliens invaded or the punch was spiked - both are plausible.

Bunny missed the entire next day of school trying to befriend a wild horse, which tanked her grade.  She followed that up with a few days of hard work and an opportunity to catch a fish to raise her grade, which got her up to an A.  Now she's there, she'll stay there, as long as she doesn't miss another day, even if she has to do her homework at school.  She's not allowed to go on field trips - or rather, she's not asking her mother to sign the permission slips - so that's not going to mess it up either.

Bunny and Spring have been winning competitions.  So many that Bunny has been able to afford a second horse (she was going for less than $500 simoleons because she's untrained and ornery), a barn expansion to keep the second horse in, and a secret bunker, since the horse-riding competition rabbithole was right across town, and it was wearing them both out, competing on a school night, especially when they had to ride there and back.

Jenna's been ignoring Bunny because she heard through the grapevine that Robin Banks - the "party dancer" that Libby woohooed with at Haven's bachelorette party - is getting pretty old and single.  I'm hoping if she marries him and he dies of natural causes, that will get her lifetime wish to tick off.  If not, I can also go back to the save right before it happens and pop a ghost potion on him, see if that works.  Bunny still has two from Great Uncle Jasper.

It amused me that Libby called right after Robin Banks married her niece-in-law.  I also noticed that both Libby and Jenna are at the top of the journalist career right now - they're both Star News Anchors.  I like to think they're at rival stations.

They had a secret marriage in the hallway, but I've decided that they got married on one of Jenna's "adults only" vacations that the game keeps offering to get Bunny to throw a teen party.  She spends the time horse-riding and not worrying about being murdered in her bed.

This is Bunny's new horse, Autumn.  I got her because she's pretty.  And cheap, as mentioned above.  Bunny's now mastered riding, and Autumn got her first two riding points just getting home.  I've got Spring specialising in riding while Autumn specialises in jumping, though I'm hoping she'll eventually master both.  Spring has 3 more days before he becomes an elder, so I don't think I'll get every achievement for the riding skill with him - there's not enough time to win 15 advanced or international competitions.

I feel like it's when she's riding down these long hard roads or through the town that Bunny starts to dream of moving out into the countryside.  She's about 15-16 at the moment, so she still has a while to go before she can realise that dream.  It was also around this time that I used a mod to stop the police coming after her everytime she was riding home after 11pm.  Both of her paternal grandparents were in the police force - her grandfather Silas was the chief of police - and her father's cousin, Skye, is still a member.  I like to think they know her and trust her, and don't like her mother, so they won't be carting Bunny back to Jenna any time soon.

The ghosts are still around - here is Haven's, gazing across at the barn, while Spring practices racing by himself.  I cut down the tree between the lots - by going into the landscape editor on the world map - because it was massive and annoying me.

 This is Bunny's secret bunker.  It's on a teeny-tiny 10x10 lot right outside one of the massive mansions on the hill.  I like to think that one of their ancestors build it, decades ago, and they sold it to Bunny for $200 (the price of the land) because the world is peaceful and safe now.  She's fitted it out with her horse-earnings.  I gave myself a bit of leeway there, because they are very rich, and I don't think Jenna's very good at maths, or very interested in budgeting.  Bunny went to pick up the earnings from the properties they own in town and spent the money without it ever going through the family bank account.  I got the bunker so she can head straight there after school, have a nap and a snack - as can one of the horses, because there's a feeding trough thing above this - and they can be properly refreshed when they go to the horse competitions.  It's worked well, I feel like we're winning more.  One night, I even had time to enter two competitions in a row.  Spring has also more than paid for his keep by being put out to stud twice.

 Robin Banks isn't a bad stepfather, for the few days or weeks that we've got him.  He taught Bunny how to drive.  She prefers to ride her horses, but she does have her grandfather's police car, just in case she's trapped without a horse.

Oh, in another news, Jenna's given up on her plan to annoy Tracy by seducing Wyatt when she learned that Tracy had left her husband for Bruce, another one of Avery's sons.  That's him, on the left of the picture above.  I actually took the picture to show that Avery now has a grandson!  His name is Dedrick.  I am unsure why.

Sims 3: Zodiac Challenge - Chapter 4, The Rabbit

I'm now done with my entire undergraduate degree!  I'm actually doing an MSci, so I have a project year, but I could theoretically choose to just take the bachelors and leave now.  Either way, my last exam was yesterday!  I'm feeling very odd today - what on earth will I do with myself?

When we last left my legacy challenge, Jenna had just murdered her husband, Avery, and got a wish to see her daughter's ghost when Bunny called her out on it.  At the funeral, Jenna's behaviour isn't any better.  She tells Bunny to stay quiet, or she'll be joining Avery in the graveyard.

In response to waking up to the sound of her father's dying screams, and also due to her mother's threats, Bunny has developed a bit of a phobia of sleeping in her own bed.  One night she spends in the hayloft, above the barn.

Another night she spends with her great-aunt Libby, the last of Jacob and Serena's children to still be alive.  Bunny's sleeping in her grandmother's childhood bedroom, which is quite sweet.

Since I now have four urns on the property, the house is overrun with ghosts.  Avery's ghost rose, but, annoyingly, the game doesn't consider Jenna's wish to see the ghost of her rich spouse fulfilled because it considers him her fiance.

The game also considers Avery to have died of starvation, hence why he has a skinny pink ghost that keeps trying to cook.  

Jenna had some complicated feelings about seeing Avery's ghost.  He is the love of her life, the man she's been obsessed with since her teenage years.  She wanted him to see the best of her, in a way that no one ever has, and it was him recognising the evil inside her that broke her.  He seems to have forgiven her.

Also, I like that Haven made Avery's pancakes for him when he got distracted by his dog.  Once a mom, always a mom.

Bunny gets to hang out with her great-uncle Jasper again, who was the relative she was closest to, after her father.  I like to think this is when she got the key to Jasper's room.  It's now locked to anyone except Bunny, which Jenna won't have noticed because she never goes in there anyway.

Bunny also gets to meet her great-grandparents, Serena and Jake.  They like each other.

Serena even watches over Bunny while she sleeps in Jasper's old bed.

Seeing Avery's ghost has re-awoken Jenna's hatred of Avery's first wife, Tracy.  Tracy - accurately - accused Jenna of being evil before Tracy and Avery divorced, and it was those words that Avery quoted back at her right before she killed him.  Tracy's words lead Avery to see the darkness inside Jenna, and prevented their happiness, as far as Jenna is concerned.  She's out for revenge.  To that end, she seduces Tracy and Avery's son, Wyatt.  For my own sake, I thinking he's about 18-19 in sim terms.

Bunny knows her mother is making out with someone in the living room, but ignores it.  Jenna slept with her boss at Avery's funeral, after all.  Bunny's pretty used to ignoring her partners.  She doesn't even realise it's her half-brother, Wyatt - she's too focused on getting upstairs and locking herself inside Jasper's room.  Jenna doesn't actually intend to kill Bunny - though, to be fair, it's not like she intended to kill Avery - but Bunny doesn't know that.  If Jenna had a plan, it would be to kill Bunny when she's 21 (in sims terms, first day of young adulthood), because that's when, I imagine, Bunny comes into her inheritance.  Avery never expected to die young so his will would have left all of his money and property to Bunny, not Jenna.  That's not a problem while Bunny's a child, but it will be one when she hits adulthood.

Jenna writes an article on the whole situation, anonymously, for her paper.  She's now at level 9 in the journalism career.  I'm aiming for her to get to level 10, either in lieu of seeing her rich dead spouse, or alongside it, if she can find another one to marry.  Haven does not approve, but I've decided that Jenna can't see ghosts, except on special occasions.

 Jenna also goes out to steal some candy from Tracy's second child, just to add further insult to injury.

Sims 3: Zodiac Challenge - Chapter 4, The Rabbit

Having been successful in creating an Imaginary Friend potion, Jasper makes up with Wiggles and ask him to test it.  Wiggles agrees, and is delighted with his transformation.  He quickly moves out to make his own way in the world while Jasper makes another.

Meanwhile, Bunny asks her father if she can have a horse.  Remember, she has the equestrian trait!  He agrees, as long as she gets an A in school.

Jasper somehow hangs on for another three sim days before dying.  Avery and Jenna have slightly different reactions.  Avery is particularly unimpressed when Jenna decides to flirt with the Grim Reaper.

Jasper dies on the same day that Bunny finally gets her A and her horse.  

Perhaps caring for the horse - his name is Spring - will help her work through her grief about her Great Uncle Jasper's death.

Unbeknownst to her family, Jenna has been trying to seduce her boss.

Every time she's close to moving up at work, she invites him over and flirts with him until he gives her a raise and a promotion.  Avery doesn't know about this, but he does know that she's constantly insulting him and arguing with him.  After spending an entire evening rowing - while Bunny sleeps upstairs - finally, Avery tells her that Tracy was right all along, and Jenna is evil and he should never have married her.

She doesn't like that.

Jenna's been considering how to get rid of Avery for a while, since their marriages are the reason her boss cites for not giving in to her attempts at seduction.  In the end though, it's a crime of passion.

Hearing her father scream, Bunny runs downstairs.  Her mother's had time to conceal the knife and begun sobbing.  While Jenna is genuinely heartbroken - she did love Avery - she also has the fiendish delight and adrenaline rush moodlets, so she's having a pretty good time.  Bunny argues with her mother - she knows Jenna killed Avery.  Jenna immediately pops a wish to see Bunny's ghost, and, honestly, I did not know the game could do that.  I am genuinely shocked.

Jenna then makes fun of Bunny.  I assume she is mocking Bunny for being so silly as to think she saw her mother murder her father.  Obviously that didn't happen.

My interpretation of Bunny's expression and thought bubble are as follows; "this bitch is going to murder me in my sleep".

With that in mind, Bunny doesn't go back to her own room - which is overly pink and fluffy, as designed by her mother.  She sleeps in her father's old sleeping bag, in the attic, with a picture of her dad with her aunt Ashlee and her great uncle's ashes.

Oh, also, at some point, Jenna got abducted by aliens.  She doesn't remember what happened, but presumably Avery's alien friend was involved.  

Sims 3: Zodiac Challenge - Chapter 4, The Rabbit

We left the Ursine (formerly Masemame) family at Haven's funeral.  As the wake carried on into the evening, an unexpected guest turned up.

Serena, Jasper and Haven's mother, and Avery's grandmother.  She has returned from beyond the veil to attend her second daughter's funeral.

Jasper was standing outside.  He burst into tears and wept on his mother's shoulder.

"Hush, my child, my only son..."

Still, Jasper wept in his mother's arms.  As a commitment-phobic loner, he had never married.  He spent most of his life living with his twin, Rosemary, and her wife, Lindsay.  Neither Jasper nor Rosemary had children, but their younger sisters, also twins, Liberty and Haven, had.  Liberty had two girls and Haven had three boys.  Jasper had loved them all, from afar.  He had hated Haven, as a teenager, for asking his girlfriend to break up with him, a girlfriend who is now long-forgotten.  He never told Haven he forgave her.  Not when she gave him his beloved nephew, Avery.  Not at their mother's funeral or their father's.  Not at the funeral of his own twin, their elder sister.  They had lived together, with Avery, for only one day, and now he had outlived another sister, and yet this was worse, because she was younger, not older.  There had always been the possibility that he would outlive Rosemary, but to outlive Haven and Liberty was perverse.  And now he wept in his dead mother's arms and knew that something was deeply wrong with the world.

Serena warned him that their family would soon face a great evil.  She didn't know what it was or when it could come, but she warned her son "you must protect our inheritance" before fading away.

The next night, Jasper was visited by another spirit.  The ghost of his father, Jake, the genius who had built a business empire from nothing, who had cared for all his children from babyhood, who had been a successful author, who had dragged himself out of a shack in the woods and into the heart of the city, a man whose funeral Jasper had attended in Avery's childhood.

He wept again.  His father held him.

"A great change is coming," Jacob said.   "The child must have a guardian."

Jasper knew he was living on borrowed time.  He had outlived two sisters.  Surely it could not be long now.

"Father....I - I'm not long for this world.  I must join you soon."

Jacob looked into his eyes and took his hands.  "The child must have a guardian."

Jasper wracked his brains.  He knew that Bunny had 11 older brothers and sisters.  Jasper himself wouldn't be able to keep her safe throughout her life, but perhaps one of them would be suitable?

A day of research did not give him a great deal of hope.  Many of Bunny's older siblings were evil, or hydrophobic, or had some other flaw.  The best, Bruce, was friendly, good, technophobic, and lucky, but he was already grown, and had his own life.  Would he forsake all that for the sake of a younger half sister?  Would he stay with her throughout her life?  Jasper thought not.

On the third night - which was Christmas, incidentally - Jasper was visited by the third spirit, his sister, Haven, Bunny's grandmother.

"Part of me," she told him.  "Give her a part of me."

When Jasper came to the house, he had two imaginary friend dolls in his inventory.  One, Wiggles, was his own.  Jasper and Wiggles had fallen out long ago.   Jasper apologised, and spent a day appearing as if he were talking to himself, but then they had another row, and Jasper sent him back to doll form.  The other, Buddy, was, I think Haven's.  I'm not sure how Jasper got it.  I know I was bored of imaginary friends at that point, after Rosemary's obsession with hers, so perhaps I gave it to Rosemary and Jasper when they moved out, to keep it away from Haven so she'd make real friends.  Initially, I put both Wiggles and Buddy in the family room downstairs, but Wiggles kept moving to follow Jasper and Buddy looked lonely, so I gave Buddy to Bunny.  I didn't think the imaginary friend would work for the wrong sim, but I got the same message from the game about Bunny becoming close to the toy as I normally would, so maybe it will.

Seeing his grand-niece's obsession with the toy, and knowing that his own time is limited, Jasper knows what he needs to do, to send a part of her family with her and keep her safe. He doesn't yet know why she might be in danger or where she might go, but he knows what he needs to do.  Jasper is a trained scientist.  He reached the top of the profession before retiring.  He has the skills he needs to do this - to make a potion which will turn her imaginary friend real, and give Bunny a real guardian, for the rest of her life.  Neither he nor I know if he has enough time.  His life bar is right at the end.  We're up against the RNG now.