[ Sims 2 Stories ] [ Strangetown Bulletin 4 ]
The neighbourhood network soon sent the message: Newcomers.
They had a tiny, oddly diamond-shaped house, and seemed to spend most of their time cooking and throwing away meals they didn't like.
"I am Polly, and this is one of my podmates - er - you would say brother - number Nine."
Most of the time they behaved like normal folks, reported Alan Rossi, the neighbour charged with making the first official visit to "welcome them to the neighbourhood."
STRANGETOWN NEWS
CITY SAVED FROM SKY PERIL!The general, yes, our own General Buzz Grunt, hero of many missions, is far too modest to tell, but our sources reveal that last Thursday at work, he received a call from the President herself, who told him that there was credible evidence that a satellite was breaking orbit irregularly, putting it at risk of crashing on, and most likely destroying, Strangetown. THREAT OF TOTAL DESTRUCTION!The President was asking for General Buzz's advice! How could we avert this catastrophe? Strangetown was not new to disaster, but this would have set us back to the Stone Age! GOOD ADVICE FOLLOWED BY SMART ACTIONHe advised the president, sources say, that it would be safer, and, more importantly, cheaper, to neutralise the satellite. (As regular readers will know, Strangetown's finances have been greatly stretched by the recent construction of various civic buildings for, among others, the Parks Department as well as by the declaration of war. ) UNERRING PRECISIONWell, our unsung hero personally took charge of the missiles and fired with unerring precision, straight at it: hitting it squarely on and disintegrating it into many many tiny pieces that were diverted, by the impact trajectory he had brilliantly calculated, to land in the sea. Warnings went out to the fishing fleet, and all damage to civilian targets was prevented, with only minor damage to a naval vessel reported, and no casualties! The General was told he would receive a commendation and a monetary reward. (Our sources also report that by the time the reward reached him, the taxman had taken a large chunk of it. The originally offered §55,000 became §15,000. In these straitened times, that was still a considerable boost to his savings, recently rather drained by the expenses of his two older sons at University. |
Buck greeted his dad on his return from that rather long duty with a request for a kitten. There weren't any kittens in the pound, so they adopted a full-grown cat. A bratty cat.
Which Buck then, pre-teen as he was, proceeded to totally ignore.
When Buck aged up, he was for some reason amazed to still have hands. Hated the sandals though.
The General decided to strike while the iron was hot, or while the Simoleans were in the bank, and paid full price for a blind date. And who should turn up but his new neighbour Polly Green, who somehow appeared to fall from the sky, though she actually fell from his astronomy tower where she had been covertly inspecting the city defences. She landed surprisingly well, with only a slight wobble, and stayed, once introduced, to spend some time with General Buzz.
"Yes, she would like to breed. No, she was not prejudiced at all about skin colour. No, her brother would not mind at all; in fact their males were basically drones and did what they were told by the more dominant females."
Buzz, of course, was totally smitten.
"Can you see your planet up there?"
"It is far too far away... but you can just make out our sun, if you squint a little and look to the right of what you call the Pole Star."
Never a man to waste time, he proposed right away.
Buck was in turn delighted. He liked female company, and to be seen by his friends in the company of a pretty, alien stepmother-to-be, pleased him a lot. So when the General went to work, she and Buck went shopping!
They bought clothes for both and some computer games for Buck. Then it was makeover time.
Her stylist, Alvin, was brilliant. He guaranteed she would be delighted with his new, Painless Instant Transplant Hair Technology (PITHT™). And she was.
Buck wasn't too happy, although Alvin said he had "brought out his inner beauty!"
Buck washed it all off when they got home, and then cut off all his hair with the general's razor. "YES!"
A few days later, guests beginning to assemble for the wedding - this is what I have come to call the "Strangetown waddle."
"Time to get married."
"Just get on with it already, Dad, we wanna PARTAY!"
Nobody really took much notice of the couple and their vows. Which was probably just as well.
But Army folks sure know how to party.
And a good time was had by all.
A wee bit too much of a good time forsome.
After the wedding, the General took them all off on a not-honeymoon holiday to Takemizu. Polly was terribly travel-sick, surprisingly - she hated air travel and swore never to do THAT again. Tank was able to join them as his class load was light this term.
By the time they arrived, on a very hot night, it was very early morning before they had unpacked and settled into their hotel.
No-one could sleep so they set off for Takemizu Hot Springs, and look who was in the hot spring! Heidi, the violinist the General had met downtown. They made sure to exchange telephone numbers.
On vacation, they did a lot of the usual tourist things; tours, exploring, sampling local foods.
Swimming.
Sleeping.
Polly got to know the boys very well. They did all catch a form of pneumonia, which left The General with a really nasty cough for weeks afterwards. Polly wondered whether there might have been some bacteria in the hot spring water.
Not too long after their return, little Pickles was born. Green, like her mother, and beautiful!
After which, a sleep-deprived General Buzz was sometimes to be found stargazing in the altogether.
"Dad! Either I had too much bubble or..."
"Too much bubble, son. Go to bed."
I'm not sure what is happening here.
Polly and her brother are from one of TSR's Challenge households.