A Ghost of a Chance – Looking Back

Looking back, I had no idea that I was going to fall for this story so hard. I planned to have about 36 chapters. And that included James eating the ambrosia … around chapter 30. Admittedly the chapters were really just rough ideas: “At Last the Fish” or “Life After Death.” So there wasn’t any plot involved, it was going to be pretty game driven.

That changed pretty fast. And by the time Julia was in high school I had to separate my challenge save from my screenshotting save. I was worried that if I “wasted” time getting shots of Julia in school or other places where she wasn’t every really going to be in game, I wouldn’t be able to finish reviving the ghost in her lifetime. And I really really want to do that.

Since I started on May 3rd, I have written 34,556 words in this story and by my figuring, I’m almost a fourth done. I’ve taken 2,695 pictures. Then again I’ve not used most of them. By now you may know my policy is never take one picture when ten will do.

One last thing before we get to the pictures. Up till now, despite James’s death, this story has tread pretty lightly into the darker areas of the human psyche. This will change. There will be some uncomfortable situations coming up as we go forward. I shall always treat my characters with compassion no matter their flaws, but I’m going to hit some pretty tough topics. Despite most of what I write here on this blog, life isn’t always a bed of roses and this story reflects that. If there are particular topics you can’t handle, PM me and I’ll make sure you get warned if those events occur so you can choose to skip over or stop reading.

Now onto the pictures!

James!

I have finally downloaded a “no puddles” mod for James. But he spent a LOT of time moping up after himself. Also, Julia’s collection of bugs is pretty impressive, eh?

Always mopping.

When he’s not mopping, James spends most of his time in the basement. Drawing pictures.

Once, James had to babysit Julia while Hank and Sofia were at work. Not that he could do much when she woke up. But luckily it wasn’t for long.

James’s sub-basement. In the screenshot game – the area around James’s room is used for other “darkness” scenes.

Jame’s bedroom. I used the stuff from his original bedroom and then oversized it – to give a kind of ghostly feel. Normally I only turn on the light over his drawing table so the rest of the room is in shadow.

The bed is for when I forget to turn off his needs. (Which is sadly often).

Bloopers and amusing events

I lost a point here. Since technically the stairs and the living room are in the same room. That means Hank has cost me points

Here too – Sofia made it all the way downstairs before I realized she was up and about. (That’s baby Max btw – in the save, Julia never moved out of her parent’s house)

I was still using one save back when the Grim appeared. I went to find Tad and found him reading a book in the Master bedroom!

And Grim was getting chewed out by Sofia – I’m guessing for breaking the sink? Oh Sofia? Yeah – in game she has the Evil trait. But I don’t write her that way.

I have since learned how to disable cc content from townies. This is actually a Pigglewiggle cousin – Our gen 10 final heir – Guppy.

Sofia ALWAYS goes to mourn James.

And full disclosure. She autonomously divorced Hank. (I told you she was evil). I was thinking for a while that it might make it into the story, but in the end, I decided that it wasn’t needed.

I must say it was a mess between them for a while.

In the game, this is how Julia met the Grim. At a picnic – I didn’t have to stalk old people. She played hookey from school one day, and there he was.

And then there was the day MCC changed a setting to be default that shouldn’t have been and we were alerted to and shown all the townie deaths that happened around the house all at once.

And yes, if Julia hadn’t met grim already she would have today.

Five deaths at once! Needless to say MCC fixed that error.

Sims 3 Bloopers

I make my toddlers in Sims 3 and I spend my time carefully making the toddler in question based of the child version of the sim. And then randomly assign a caretaker to them since they can’t live alone. Then I build the room that matches James’s room at that time. So far my shoots have never gone smoothly.

Getting the shots of baby Julia took a while since I wasn’t sure if I wanted an indoor picture or and outdoor one – and it was the middle of winter. Mr. Caretaker spent the entire time making snowmen.

I catered to Julia’s every whim. Mr. Caretaker was lucky I gave him a sleeping bag.

Max’s caretaker had a worse time. Since I only needed one night’s worth of shots (as it wasn’t snowing) – I didn’t give him a bed.

Which lead to an unfortunate consequence as that night was a full moon.

Max seemed unconcerned by his caretaker’s transformation.

Julia and Bre’s Date Night

Since I separated the saves, sometimes I grab shots from the challenge save hoping to use them in the story.  Sadly their first date never made it in.

Julia’s YA Birthday was a Hat-stravaganza

That’s Marq in the white hat!

And Ben wore the blue hat.

Marq is a Faust if you were wondering about his lineage. His mother is Ulrick.

Bre wore a cowboy hat – and I don’t actually know the other guy’s name. A friend I assume from high school.

Trips to Granite Falls

Julia has been to Granite fall for the “first time” in three different saves and then a second time when she was pregnant with Max to up her gardening skills.

This was the first Hermit she met.

Then she met and older man hermit.

And finally, the screenshot-save hermit. I’m glad cuz, I liked her the best.

I couldn’t help but take this picture. Ben is such a cutie! Can you tell that his last name is Pancakes?

Julia is not allowed to touch the kitchen in this save. So Bre had to do all the work when they went on their Granite Falls honeymoon.

I just adore this animation. And yes, Julia is pregnant with Max here.

❤

Max: Becuase he’s Cute

Max was born at the hospital. Usually all my “important” sims are born at the hospital so I can get their birth certificate.

I took these just in case I wanted to include them in the story. But I ended up not using them.

And by the way, in the challenge save, Bre IS the other parent. No need for surrogate fathers in sims anymore.

The Max you see in yesterday’s screenshots IS the real Max. I redownloaded the entire house to add him into the screenshot save. By then, with all the moves, a lot of relationships were already lost so it was a good time to fix them all. There was no Max born in the other save. There can be only one.

Julia Spam

Julia popped from her cradle dressed almost exactly as I played here. I changed her hair since it was James’s hair but otherwise she was pretty untouched. Oh – and this was the moment I knew she was gay. I also didn’t want to deal with ghost-human romances.

Molly may be the prettiest sim I have ever had. Shame she doesn’t get a bigger role in the story (yet?).

James was Alive

I played James and his family for several days before starting the game. I forget how cute he is.

James and his daddy, Arthur.

James and his mommy, Kerri

Since I knew what was going to happen to James, I wanted to make sure his early life was full of love and that he kept close to his parents all the time.

James is the second sim I have purposely killed. I wasn’t even sure kids could be killed in Sims 4.

In case you were wondering, the overall’s James is always wear were green.

He maxed out the creative aspiration while I played him. It only seemed right to let him achieve something before I ghosted him.

I did get Kerri pregnant again before I moved them out of the house. That way I know they had other kids and weren’t left alone after I took away James. (I have not played them since so I know if it was a brother or sister)

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Stay tuned! I’ve got the next five or so chapters planned, but not yet written. Hopefully, it won’t take too long to find time to write them. I hope you enjoyed this week of Ghostly fun! Oh! If you’re curious I do keep and up-to-date-ish tree on the PlumTreeApp of my entire Pigglewiggle Empire. James can be found in the upper right corner in generation 3. Hank’s family starts at generation 9, bottom left.

Click to see the full Pigglewiggle Tree