Sunshower Sims

Hey, hi, how's it going?

My name is Madeleine. I am a long time simmer and have always toyed with the idea of sharing my sim stories with the world. I'm hoping to make that little dream a reality.

Because my writing style tends to err on the longer side, I plan to use this this page to post short updates and announcements, with full story chapters appearing on my website (link in description). But please feel free to engage with me on here as well!

I am so excited to start this journey and become a part of this community that I've admired for so long.

CW: Brief mention of pregnancy termination

Carter: How’re you feeling?

Casandra: Lighter, mostly. Now where were you?

Carter: The aliens. They came for me. I got to visit their ship. We communicated. Cas, it was amazing!

Casandra: That’s… a lot to process.

Carter: There’s more. I’m… I’m worried you’ll be mad at me. They offered me an opportunity… to be part of an experiment.

Casandra: An experiment?

Carter: They asked if I wanted to gestate and raise one of their young.

Casandra: Excuse me?

Carter: It’s harmless! Probably. I wanted to ask you first but this kind of visitation is difficult for them. It was a once in a lifetime chance. I couldn’t turn it down.

Casandra: I think I need to not be having this conversation right now.

Carter: Cas? Wait!

Carter: Cas, honey, stop. I don’t want this to come between us. Say the word and I’ll figure something out. My co-workers at the lab, we can find a way to reverse it. Honey, I promise I would have asked you if I could. Say the word and I’ll–

Casandra: No, no. Don’t do that, silly. We’ll figure it out.

Carter: Promise?

Casandra: Promise.

Carter: Thank you. I love you.

Carter: Another baby on the way already. And this time you don’t have to be the one carrying it.

Casandra: Yeah, that part I’m happy about for sure. Two times was enough for me.

Carter: Is it really that bad?

Casandra: All I’ll say is good luck.

Thanks for reading and remember to take care of yourselves!

Casandra: It’s just not like him to disappear like this.

Belle: He’s his own person. We gotta give it a few more hours before we start assuming something bad happened.

Casandra: I don’t know if I have a few more hours.

Carter: I… they… wow… I can’t believe that just happened to me.

Hey, man, your wife is in labor.

Carter: WHAT?

Carter: Cas, honey, are you okay?

Casandra: Where the hell have you been?!

Carter: Long story. I’m so sorry I worried you. I’ll tell you everything but for now let’s get you through this.

With Carter’s support, Casandra brings their healthy baby boy into the world. 

Meet Dimitri Tau! Dimitri rolled the Cautious trait.

Carter’s run-in the burglar fills him with newfound confidence and he gets to work on the breakthrough he had.

Carter: I’m done constructing something for someone else’s adventure. I’m going to make my own adventure!

A bit anticlimactic, honestly, but I guess this thing will let us talk to aliens?

Carter sets it up and then promptly runs back to the computer to start communications. The response is cryptic at best, but it confirms that his message was received.

Carter: And we got a response! I don’t know how long it will take to interpret, but just think! I could meet a real live alien!

Casandra: I’m happy for you, honey.

Carter: I just hope I have enough time.

Turns out time isn’t something Carter needs to worry about. The aliens show up on his back doorstep that same night.

Carter: It’s happening! It’s really happening!

Casandra: Oh! It’s happening! Carter?! Where is Carter?

Belle: You okay, honey?

Casandra: I’m in labor. Have you seen Carter?

Belle: Hmmm, I don’t know where he went, no.

Casandra: He can’t miss this!

Belle: Hey, hey, it’s going to be okay. Carter wouldn’t miss this for the world. I’m sure he’ll turn up soon. Are you hungry?

Casandra: Actually, yeah, I’m starving.

CW: Language

Carter: Time for your bedtime story! This one is about a people who live far far away from us. In the stars!

For Delphine, it’s a bedtime story. For Carter, it’s a Tuesday afternoon.

Carter: All this work so someone else gets to meet them. It hardly seems fair. I should just take the rocket and go explore myself.

Casandra: Go ahead and tell your grammies, Del! Are you gonna have a little sister or a little brother?

Delphine: Bwother!

Belle: Oh! That’s so exciting!

Norah: Congrats, you two!

Burglar: Score! A legacy house!

Carter is alerted to the sound of the burglar and decides now is as good a time as any to conduct human trials on his SimRay.

Carter: Um… M? Where’d he go?

Beats me.

Carter: That was supposed to freeze him, not despawn him!

I think you killed him.

Carter: GAH! There he is. I need to go write down these results immediately.

Which, of course, means he just left his pregnant wife in the room with a frozen burglar.

Casandra: What the hell??!

Casandra *off screen*: Carter! Come deal with this situation this instant! I am not going back in that room until that thing is gone!

Carter: He seems undamaged for the most part. Although the eye movement suggests he’s retained consciousness the whole time.

Yikes.

Gee, you think?

Burglar: What the fuck is going on here? You all are fucked up! I’m outta here.

Carter: Wait, if I could just ask you some questions!

Oh hey, I guess it’s Donna’s birthday, too! If I’d know, I would’ve let her share the cake.

Donna: Young adulthood, here I come! Now I can finally get away from Gracie and her weird husband.

Priscilla (Piper’s daughter) also aged up recently. She looks a lot like her dad.

Carter: You good to bring Delphine down after dinner?

Casandra: Yep, she should be wrapping her nap up soon. The cake turned out lovely.

Carter: My mom knows her way around a baking pan, that’s for sure.

Ye-Jun: I must admit, the rosemary doesn’t make this dish seem nearly as stuffy as I thought it would.

Norah: Careful, honey, that almost sounded like a compliment.

While Belle and Norah largely avoided getting to know Cyrus’s older husband, Belle did make it a point to chat up Gracie’s husband, Clayton.

Clayton: That’s the thing about finances, it doesn’t matter how much money you have. Everyone is thinking about money. Work in finance and the world is your client!

Donna: Aaaand that’s my queue to be literally anywhere else.

It’s time for the main event! The family gathers to celebrate Delphine’s entrance into toddlerhood.

She’s cute! Delphine rolls the Clingy trait.

It’s birthdays all around this winterfest! Ibrahim showed up as a child and then transmogrified into a teen while I wasn’t looking.

It’s getting late, but Delphine has time to open her present before she needs to go to bed. Can’t remember what she got, but it’s clear she’s happy with it!

Apparently, Cyrus’s husband, Francis, is quite a bit older than him. He just aged up into an elder.

Ye-Jun: Interesting. I would definitely do a tarragon as opposed to rosemary. I just feel like rosemary is so two decades ago, you know?

Norah: And if you ever host Winterfest you can season the Turkey however you please.

Ye-Jun: Oh, I’d love to host someday, but the crowds are already hard enough for Cecil here. Imagine us packed into our apartment like sardines!

Norah: Then you’d best let the chef run her own kitchen, lovey.

Ah, yes, the annual “please get inside before someone dies” tradition. Semiha, at least, is pregnant so she’s unkillable.

Everyone gathers round to enjoy opening presents together.

I just took this picture because I really enjoy Semiha planting one on Callum in the background. They seem really happy together.

Ye-Jun continues to be unashamed and starts trying to help in the kitchen. Norah is gracious but also isn’t having any of it.

Belle visits the Tau family cemetery to drop off Bonnie and Danielle’s graves. This Bonehilda happens to be the man that Carter tested his tainted food serum on. Guess it had some additional side effects?

Belle pays her respects to Molly’s resting place while she was there. Also, pretty sure haunting another person’s urn has to be a ghost faux pax.

Callum is having another baby with their wife, Semiha!

News of a new grandbaby on the way doesn’t do much to cheer Belle up. She’s taking Bonnie’s death particularly hard.

Casandra: Callum’s baby is going to have a twin cousin!

Yay! Another baby!

Carter is excited for the new addition as well.

Carter: Maybe this means we can finally get our new house built.

Casandra: You think? I would’ve popped a second baby out even sooner if I thought it’d make M get on that.

Rude.

Casandra: Watcher, what is that smell?

Belle: Pancakes, dearie… are you feeling alright?

Carter: Cas is pregnant, mama.

Norah: Another grandchild, how wonderful! It’s a Winterfest miracle.

Yup, it’s winterfest! And Delphine’s birthday!

Belle goes all out on the pile of presents in preparation for the family gathering.

CW: Discussion of grief/death

Bonnie was right. It doesn’t take long before it’s time for her to join Danielle in the beyond. Belle offers for the girls to move in, but they would rather stay at home.

Bonnie’s death reignites some romance between Belle and Norah. Belle runs right over and gives Norah a big kiss after she gets the news.

Casandra seems a little extra affectionate as well. The whole household is feeling the loss.

Belle won’t entertain the topic, but Norah knows her own time is limited. She takes the moment to dote on her grandchild.

Gracie may not have been into Carter’s suggestion, but it looks like she took his words about living life to the fullest to heart. She marries this guy, Clayton, shortly after her parents both pass away.

Carter: I think I’ve got something, Cam!

Cameron: What is it?

Carter: Look, if I build a satellite this way, I can send a signal all the way to where we’ve theorized they’ve set up camp.

Cameron: That’s assuming they have the gear to read these frequencies.

Carter: So?! It’s a breakthrough and you know it!

Cameron: I don’t know, man. I still think our efforts are better spent prepping the rocket. Let actual astronauts do the “first contact” stuff. That’s their job. This is ours.

So Cameron did what he was told, but the schematics for the satellite kept swirling around in his mind.

CW: Discussion of grief/death

Carter: She really is perfect, isn’t she?

Casandra: You doing okay?

Carter: Everyone talking about death is making me feel a little weird. I don’t want to miss out on watching this little one grow up.

Casandra finds Donna avoiding the family gathering for the most part.

Casandra: I won’t do the stupid thing and ask how you’re doing.

Donna: Thanks.

Casandra: You know, I lost my mom when I was pretty young.

Donna: Really? Does it… will it get any easier?

Casandra: Easier? No. But your world will get bigger. And you’ll get stronger. And then missing her won’t feel as scary or all-consuming. The only reason death is scary is because we think we can’t hold all the hurt of missing someone. But you can.

Donna: Wow, that actually makes me feel better.

Casandra: I know we’re not exactly close on the family tree, but if you ever need to talk, let me know.

Belle: You’d better not go anywhere any time soon.

Norah: Not planning on it, dear.

CW: Discussion of grief/death

Hey, hi, how’s it going? Welcome back to the Tau Alphabet Legacy!

Both the new parents are absolutely smitten with their daughter.

Although Casandra is a little more comfortable than Carter at pushing Delphine towards her milestones.

Casandra: You’re okay, honey, just lift!

Delphine: Don’t wanna!

Belle: You and Casandra seem to be acclimating to parenthood well! It’s great to see the legacy continuing.

Carter: We’re lucky to have such a sweetheart for a kiddo. It’s hard to believe I used to be that small.

Belle: You’ll be rocking a grandbaby to sleep before you no it.

Carter: Yeah… I hope so.

When he isn’t raising a newborn, Carter makes time for his other love- the stars.

Carter: I’m gonna meet who’s out there. Just you wait.

In sadder news, Bonnie calls Belle to let her know that her wife, Danielle passed away. The family gather in Henford to support Bonnie and her girls.

Belle: Oh, Bon, I’m so sorry.

Bonnie: I miss her. But it was her time. I’m guessing it’ll be mine here soon.

Belle: Don’t say that. I’m sure you have plenty of time left.

Carter consoles his cousin, Gracie, in the best way he knows how. Trying to set her up with one of his friends.

Carter: Life is short. You gotta make the most of the time you have, and I just know you and Myla would hit it off.

Gracie wasn’t really into it, shockingly.

With the house and the garden to herself, Janie reconnects with her inner child and processes some of her grief.

Wow, I’m so glad I made the effort to assign everyone a bed and playtest to make sure you dorks could access them.

Janie tries to call the family to a meal, but all four of the kids are asleep right now, so it’s just here. She spends a lot of time alone right now for being in a small house with four teens.

Iris made sure to emerge and enjoy her mom’s cooking just as Janie finished up. Classic.

Another lonely day for Janie is interrupted by a sudden knock on the door.

Apparently Janie made quite the impression on Rahul- he just needed to wait for his older wife to die of old age so everything is above board.

Which is all Janie needed to hear.

Good for you, Janie. Good for you. Way to grab what was supposed to be a gameplay focused save by the horns and get your needs met.

With both Rishaan and Pepper gone, we’re down to 34 building squares, so it makes more sense to do a full revamp.

I learned two squares pull a lot of weight. I’m really proud of the little L-shaped half-bath.

Janie’s floor in particular was hard to do anything fun with.

But the kids get a computer, so that’s a development!

Rowan, honey, please don’t harvest those! It means I have to go into your inventory and that feels a little like cheating. I did it anyway. I want that pineapple money!

Welp, Pepper officially dropped a grade. Just in time to never go to school again. At least that means she won’t have to deal with her fear of failure for more than a few hours. Wish my fear of failure had just despawned at graduation.

Janie offers her daughter some words of comfort.

I managed to get their relationship back up to “good friends” before Pepper ages up and leaves us forever.

Awwww, Rishaan shows up autonomously for his daughters’ birthdays. He was a shitty husband, but I forget he actually tries in the parent department.

Pepper rolls the ___ trait and decides her lifelong dream is to be the Life of the Party (max DJ, Charisma, and Mixologist skills). Even though she and her mother have reconciled, she is not much interested in her family’s chosen way of life. So it’s off to Windenburg with her!

She’s sad to leave us, though. And I’m sad to see her go!

Next up we have Iris- I still randomize the heirs’ traits so there are stakes here.

Honestly, the most frustrating part of Rishaan moving out is that we lose a building square, so now the house just has this funky cut out in it.

Janie has bigger problems than her house losing a little corner. She receives news the next morning that her best friend Shauna suddenly passed away. Absolutely brutal. This save is truly demanding story at this point.

Aw, Janie. Everyone grieves differently. And also, absolutely not.

Janie changes gears and throws herself into celebrating some of many children she already has. It’s Pepper and Iris’s birthday!

But first she has to wait for her kids to come home from school.

Divorced, grieving, and alone, Janie notices that little nagging thought coming back.

Meet the nagging thought himself, Rahul!

Rahul’s a little confused as to why he’s here with no grocery delivery in tow, but he enjoys Janie’s company.

He even helps her repair the stove. Guy comes over and helps with handiwork…? Where could this be going…?