Wednesday, May 31, 2023

Chapter 5.1 - January 2022 - Agathi and Baturney Flansbarne

Last year (in sim time..), I followed the Chitrakaar-Bråheim family around (Leya, Gaute, Bodil, Orinder), but to keep things interesting (or confusing....), I want to switch to another household this year, atleast for a while, and then see how it goes... Hmm, lets see.. eenie meenie minie moe.. I think I will start with someone I have already mentioned once before, Baturney and Agathi Flansbarne.

This is their humble home at Mitchell 6.

When Agathi Jiggens moved to Sprottenham almost 9 years ago now, she was a single, young aspiring crime novel writer. At about the same time, another young man moved to Sprottenham, after having to take the heavy decision to give up on his family business, The Flansbarne Circus. The travelling circus business had seen a decline in recent years with new and more modern forms of entertainment taking over and it had become harder and harder to make it stay afloat. A certain pandemic that happened around that time was the final nail in the coffin....

Baturney had to face the heavy decision of declaring the circus that his great grandfather, Blatzloy Flansbarne, had devoted his lifetime to build up bankrupt...
It was a rainy and sad day for the former circus director Flansbarne when he first set foot in Sprottenham.. but the sun eventually shined on him, after he got a new job at the town hall and found love with his new sweetheart Agathi some years later...

Baturney and Agathi have two children together. Ruben Jiggens (3 years, 4 months) and Iselin Flansbarne (6 months).

Baturney has always been a very popular and charismatic man, almost effortlessly making friends everywhere he goes. That's probably why his phone seems to almost constantly be ringing...

After Baturney had gone off to work, Agathi sat down to start on her new project, a horror crime novel she decided to call "The Zombie Kitchen", inspired by this dream she had a few months ago. The idea had been stuck in her head for quite some time, continuously growing larger in scope, until she just had to start writing on it. She named the main characters Natalie and Ingun, and she gave all the characters in the story wings, as if they were angels. She was hoping to strike gold with this one, and finally get to write her first best seller.

Its not that easy being a writer, though, when you have two young ones at home that constantly need your care and attention...

Like the characters in most of her stories and novels, Agathi has the evil personality trait, but unlike them, she is not a bad mother...

Agathi isn't only a writer, she also works in the music career, which means that she is a colleague of both Leya and Solvej.

When Baturney gets home from work, he decides to throw a party. His lifetime wish is to be super popular, which he has already achieved, but popularity must be maintained!

Solvej Rasmussen wasn't invited to his party, but decided to show up anyway.
Solvej is an entertainer by nature, and immediately goes into one of the unused bedrooms to play guitar...

It turns into a mini jam session when Christoffer Vaddelmyr brings out his bass to join her.

Solvej gives flowers to Baturney, but he rejects. "Thanks, but.. no thanks. I am happily married to Agathi" he says. Solvej is disheartened, but takes it in stride. The colours in the bathroom is Agathis choice. She has a strong affinity towards black and red. "The red reminds me of blood splatter, and the black represents the darkness of my soul.." she tells me. Ummm... right.. yeah, uhhh.. that's... that's cool.... I guess....

Gaute is at the party too. Since he is a party animal, of course, that should be expected. Gaute loves the outdoors and talks about the park. Baturney doesn't share that interest though.

Gunn-Rita Bergersen wants to hold hands with Baturney, but again he rejects. He is a very popular man that has to constantly remind the women, young and old, that he is happily married...

Baturney then goes to bed, because he wants to be well rested before going to work tomorrow. And blocks the bed for this couple, Ramger and Gabriela Vanderfjert.. not sure what plans they had in here....

Agathi is home from work with her laptop already in hand. Then Christoffer Vaddelmyr walks over to give her flowers...

"No no no" she says "I can't accept those! I am faithful to my man, Baturney!" That's very good of her. She has the "attractive company" moodlet, so there is someone in the room she finds attractive. Of course, I don't know who it is, as there are several people in the room.

Christoffer doesn't give up though, and runs pick up lines on her. Agathi is disgusted with his behaviour.

Agathi complains to him about her job. She is not really a musician at heart. She only has the job to sustain herself while waiting to make enough money from her books. Being an aspiring author is hard work..

 Gabriela and Gaute notices that Christoffer is flirting with Agathi, and thinks he is a fool for doing so. They know that he is married to Jorunn..

Gaute, what the...? Where did you get that megaphone? Why are you so angry all of a sudden?

Gaute: We need to stand up and stand together in the fight against mean people! There are way to many mean people in this world!

Is there now?

Gaute: Mean and grumpy people! They are a dark stain on our society! We must stand united! Together we can stop this!

 Hmm, its not only Baturney that is attractive. Agathi is also popular it seems. "Your darkness is so hot, it turns me on" Ramger tells her.

Agathi does not appreciate all the people trying to flirt with her, though. It looks like she has found her man and wants to stick with him.

Agathi isn't only interested in the darker things and writing crime and horror novels. She is also a very intelligent person with strong interests in science, so she runs and inkblot test on Ramger. Maybe she can uncover why people think its ok to flirt with others when they are already married.. Learning to understand people is always good if you want inspiration for creating characters to use in a novel at a later time...

 Agathi tucks in Ruben. She does not need to see her children suffer. Writing novels and stories is her outlet for the evil and darkness within, and helps her to be a more loving and caring person to the people around her.

Agathi discusses her book ideas with Baturney. The woman still there playing computer games is Frigg Ås. The Ås family is the richest family in Sprottenham.

Agathi is a little concerned about money and wants to know when Baturney will get his next promotion.


And finally the last two party guests, Frigg and Ramger, also decide to leave the party at 3:30 in the night.. and I think that ends it for january. ;)

Other news around town:

Maiken Strøm has moved in with Glenn Hoddelås (Bodils father).

 

Maiken and Glenns home at Mitchell 3.

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Tuesday, May 30, 2023

Chapter 4.2 - December 2021 part II: First Christmas in the new home..

 

Song: White Pearl, Black Oceans - Sonata Arctica (Piano cover).

I always have to do this whenever the month of december goes by.. to have them celebrate christmas.. Not for religios reasons, but it's tradition. It's how it always has been, so it wouldn't be right if I just skipped this part... so bear with me... :P Same procedure as every year, James...

Leya is very excited about her new baby, even though he is crying and smelly because he needs his diaper changed. Don't worry, Leya is a good mother and quickly sees to Orinders needs. She is not at all like a certain winged creature whose name does not belong in this story line...or does it?

And like magic it starts to snow just in time..

Hmm, snow is making it inside Solvej's greenhouse.. ok, let's just overlook that part.. Now it's already to late, but I think she's going to have to fix it up come next summer...

 

Gaute and Leya had put up a christmas tree and some decorations for the upcoming christmas party.
 

The town was also getting ready.

Harbor Square Café.

Cliffon Park.

Festival Park.

(Of course, this would have looked much better with some actual people there... but I guess everyone is busy with their last minute preparations!)

The trampoline could be used also in winter time.

Leya had a brilliant idea, she wanted to buy a buffet table for the upcoming christmas party.


Bodil is happy to see the christmas decorations... then she goes to do homework.. on christmas eve. Wow, school is really hard on the kids!

Gaute: Uh huh, uh huh? Look at this, Leya, look at this! Uh huh?

Leya: Gaute, seriously.. I'm on the phone!

Leya started a snow man, but didn't finish it. She also wants to order pizza.. but I'm not going to grant that wish. I understand she wants christmas eve to be special, but a buffet table and pizza I think is a little overkill...

Two hours before the guests shall arrive. Looks like the family has been good this year, because Magic Santa just came by and dropped off a pile of gifts! ;)

Christmas party guests are arriving! Patrik, Solvej and Rune. You can say what you want about Patrik, but atleast he and Solvej were kind enough to offer Leya and Bodil a roof over their heads after she split with Glenn. And eventually accepting Gaute into their household as well. So I think it's only natural they got invited.

Rune just finished Leyas job.

Rune also built and igloo, Bodil and Patrik goes for the seesaw.

Rune compliments Leya for their new home.

Then the gift giving party is about that start. Solvej walks in through the backdoor.

Everyone take your seats!

Of course they have to sit down in two different groups... Solvej, Leya and Rune in one group and Patrik, Bodil and Gaute in the other.

Rune really likes their new house.

And of course, that is really the topic of conversation for this christmas party! :)

Patrik opens his gift. I put a crib in the back there so that little Orinder wouldn't have to spend his first christmas all alone, but that plan failed somehow.. all of a sudden they went for gift opening, and I didn't want to interrupt that..

Gift summary:

Rune: Two bicycles.

Leya: A Sonaflux guitar.

Patrik: A white box...

Solvej: A Sonaflux guitar

Gaute: A pink flamingo..

Gaute was not happy about his gift...

Bodil: A snowbear

 After they are done with the gift giving, I send Leya up to pick up poor Orinder. No one should be alone on christmas eve, even if they have no understanding (yet) of what it is.

Gaute and Bodil goes to eat from the buffet table.

Patrik went for the trampoline.

Now that King Winter has launched his attack on her greenhouse Solvej has to get her green stuff fix from watching the gardening channel...

Rune is checking one of the beds upstairs for monsters. Shame Bodil didn't think about asking you to sleep over, maybe another time!

Then Patrik thinks the party is over and heads home already, but he says it was a good party.

Hmm, maybe little Orinder shouldn't have been brought downstairs. He starts to cry immediately, and then Solvej also thinks the party is over as well...:P


And when both of his parents have left, Rune also leaves. „I got to follow mommy!“ he says.

Bodil collects the plates to do the dishes... If they are done in time, there will be one less thing for the adults to argue about.... to prevent them from breaking up...

Gaute picks up Orinder to play with his young little man. Gaute is the perfect father and step-dad...

Bodil is tired after a long day and goes to bed without asking anyone for a bedtime story.

Gaute also went to bed, so yep, the party is definately over now. Baturney Flansbarne called Leya to wish her a merry Christmas.

And now it's time to put Orinder in the crib upstairs and call it a night for you as well, Leya. All in all, the christmas party was a success because everyones verdict was that it was a superb party, even if the buffet table was largely unused..

Alright, nighty night then. See you again next year...

Map of the town:

 What I didn't realize until after I had made this map was that I had put south up, and north down... Sprottenham is an east coast town...

With so much to keep track of, even the Narrator can get confused sometimes....

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Chapter 12.7: December 2023 – part II: Christmas Spirits../Naughty Christmas...

It would appear that everyones (almost) dream of a white christmas would get fulfilled this year, as in the days leading up to Christmas it...