#ts4 lore

Bella Goth is basically the mascot of the Sims franchise at this point, so I felt like I had to do her justice, both through makeover and lore (so here goes nothing):

Her parents are still Simis and Jocasta Bachelor (both of whom are deceased) she has an older brother, Michael, who lives out of town in Oasis Springs.

My head-canon is that she grew up in Evergreen Harbor where she went to elementary school before going to an “elevated” scholarship program in a inner-city high school in San Myshuno, she would have had to have gotten a boyfriend around this time also because of her comment in the San Myshuno Reviews, and I cannot justify her getting one later:

| I once dated a guy living in one of the Culpepper apartments, and let's just say he wasn't the only rat I encountered there. - BellanotBella (on Culpepper Apartments) (sims.fandom.com) -> I’m thinking of giving her a previous relationship with Raj Rasoya, since he is the only sim I see having lived in Culpepper Apartments when she went to HS, it would also make sense that they would have been classmates I think

I think it makes the most sense if Bella and Mortimer met during Uni, where she would have been studying L&L (or law) to become a lawyer, maybe during her first year (bachelor) she would meet the heir to a rich and historic dynasty in Mortimer, who would have had to be studying for a PhD in biology (I’m making him be in the undertaker/mortician career, I feel it fits him nicely 🙂‍↕️) -> I’m thinking Bella is at the end of her 30s in current day, and Mortimer in his late 40s? If Cassie is 17, then she had her at 22 (maybe a bit young but…)

Maybe they would both be in the secret society that’s on campus and they would get to know each other that way 🤔

I feel like she would have stumbled over something she wasn’t supposed to know and “vanish” for a few months, she comes back but doesn’t remember anything

She later marries Mortimer and have a daughter, Cassandra, then a son, Alexander,

I think it makes sense that they move in with Gunther and Cornelia in the Goth Ancestral Home

I think they die around the time Alexander ages up to a child? So newly dead? I have also added Hecuba and Manelaus into the Current Goth family as elder cats (feel like that makes sense?)

She is currently working as a Lead Litigator for Bagley & Buckley LLP

I have also made her get the Proper trait because she has quite high seriousness in previous games and I wanted to incorporate that somehow and felt like it fit the best?

I also think she would run some type of club for “high society women” or something in the Willow Creek area? No idea what would be in it, she doesn’t strike me as a tea woman..

Think that’s all I have so far…

Pictured below: Elena and Stefano Vatore with their twin children Caleb and Lilith in the 1920s.

Here we see what is both the oldest known photograph of the Vatore family and the last photo of all four members alive and well. Stefano and Elena Vatore were Italian immigrants who moved to America in the 1880s to get a fresh start in life. They were both from wealthy Italian families and quickly made a name for themselves in Willow Creek. In the 1890s they welcomes a set of twins: Caleb and Lilith. By the point in time this photograph was taken, Elena was slowly dying of an unknown illness (assumed to be tuberculosis). This is the only known photograph of her. Despite her sickness, she appears poised and composed, surrounded by her family. Caleb and Lilith are around the age of twenty-seven here.

Pictured below: The family in the early 1930s, sometime after Elena’s passing.

After Elena Vatore's death, the family withdrew from society for many years. From this photograph it’s evident that even with their reclusiveness they managed to keep up with modern trends of fashion and home decor. Here is where the story starts to take a strange turn. This photo was taken roughly a decade after the previous one, and you can see how Stefano has aged over the years. Caleb and Lilith would have approaching forty years of age, yet they look as youthful as ever, albeit strangely pale. The twins were not seen in society very often in this period, and only ever at night. Their only appearances were at events held at their family home.

Pictured below: The Vatores at a train station in the 1940s.

In the early 40s, the twins began appearing in public again. They should have been starting to show signs of age, yet they still appeared as they did in the 20s. Caleb Vatore, at the supposed age of 53, chose to enlist in the war at this time. There is no public information of his service other than the fact that he was indeed in the army. Lilith Vatore began to entertain suitors, all men much younger (though it never appeared that way to outsiders) than her. None of these relationships ended in marriage.

Pictured below: The Vatores in the 1950s.

By this point, people were beyond suspicious of the twins’ youthful appearance. Their former classmates were all aging, yet the 60-something twins still looked half their age. This is the last known photograph of the Vatore family.

Pictured below: The “Mezzasalma” twins in 1967.

A Windenburg newspaper printed this photo of Lily and Carlo Mezzasalma, residents of a nearby neighborhood. You’ll notice a striking resemblance between these twins and Caleb and Lilith Vatore, who disappeared immediately after the death of their father in 1959. Not much is known about the two beyond their names and the fact that they lived in Windenburg for a time. Funnily enough, the surname Mezzasalma means “half-cadaver.”

Pictured below: The siblings behind the band “█████” in the 1970s.

Lucia and Cameron Altamura appeared (and later disappeared) out of thin air in the music scene in San Myshuno in the early 70s. The band they formed was a moderate local success. A set of pale twins with an Italian surname appearing and vanishing mysteriously sounds familiar by now, doesn’t it?

Lost image: The “Altamura” twins in 1986.

After the band broke up in 1981, the twins moved on to new creative endeavors. Lucia made a name for herself in the modern art scene, while Cameron published a few successful poetry books.

Lost image: Caleb and Lilith Vatore in 2017.

As we all know, vampires made their existence known to the public in 2004. The Vatore siblings were once again found in the small vampire neighborhood of Forgotten Hollow, living a perfectly ordinary immortal life.

Morning in Evergrove hums with its own kind of rhythm. The kind that knows how to take its time.

The light spilled slow across Clara Striken’s garden, touching the edge of the chicken coop and gliding along the curve of her milk pail. The cow, ever gentle, leaned into her touch like they’d been having the same conversation for years.

“You and me, love,” Clara murmured. “We keep the time moving.”

Behind her, the leaves rustled, autumn’s whisper finding its place in the quiet.

Eli was still asleep upstairs. His rest had been shallow again; his dreams too full of something he couldn’t name. She’d heard him pacing just before dawn, the creak of the stairs betraying his wandering thoughts. By the time she poured his tea, he’d finally given in to sleep on the pull-out bed that still smelled faintly of cedar and ink.

The knock came midmorning. Clara brushed her hands clean, leaving faint traces of flour on her white coat, and opened the door to find the Swift-Davenport family waiting on her porch, a small parade of warmth and curiosity.

Eveline stood at the front, holding a dish of fruit cobbler. Sebastian trailed behind her, gaze shifting between the horizon and Clara like he was trying to remember a dream.

“Dr. Striken,” Eveline greeted, her voice uncertain but kind. “I hope we’re not intruding.”

Clara smiled, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “You’re always welcome here.”

They gathered in the sitting room, sunlight catching on Eveline’s earrings and flickering against the lace curtains. Eli slept soundly upstairs, unaware of the ripple this morning would set in motion. The women spoke first; gentle things, half-questions folded into pleasantries. Eveline tilted her head, studying Clara with quiet wonder.

“Are we something special?” she asked softly, as if the words had escaped her without permission.

Clara’s eyes lingered on her, giving the kind of look that saw both past and present layered atop one another.

“You could say that,” she replied at last.

She excused herself to the kitchen before Eveline could ask further what she meant, setting out sugar and cocoa and the familiar comfort of motion. Baking grounded her; it gave her hands something to do while her mind tried not to slip backward. Through the hum of conversation in the other room, she caught pieces of a low chuckle from Marisol, Everette’s baritone warmth, and the flutter of something unsaid between Sebastian and Eveline.

And then, quiet footsteps.

Sebastian lingered in the doorway, shoulders tense, like he’d been standing there a while. Clara didn’t look up from her mixing bowl when she spoke.

“You love them, don’t you.”

It wasn’t an accusation. It was knowing the kind of truth that lives behind the ribs.

Sebastian hesitated. He looked away, guilt and devotion caught in his throat. “Of course I do.”

The way he said it told her everything. The weight, the promise, the ache of it.

She set the spoon down and looked at him then. Really looked.

“Then love them well,” she said. “While there’s still time.”

His brows knitted together as he looked at her. “Still time for what?”

But she didn’t answer. She only smiled the way people do when the answer isn’t meant to be spoken aloud.

When the Swift-Davenport family finally left that evening, the light had gone soft and violet.

Eli woke not long after. Rumpled, blinking, and with the imprint of sleep still visible on his cheek. He found Clara at the dining table with a plate of cooling sugar cookies and a look that carried the weight of a thousand thoughts.

“They remember you,” he said, reading the silence between them.

Clara shook her head faintly. “Not yet. But they will. In time.”

Eli smiled, half tender, half sad. “You sound like you’ve said that before.”

“Maybe I have.”

They sat together in that quiet for a long time, talking about everything but what they really wanted to say.

She wanted to reach across the table and touch his hand. He wanted to tell her that she made the air feel different. That every second near her felt like the kind of eternity he’d only read about in old books.

But neither of them moved.

Clara rose first, her voice soft as the candles flickered low.

“Goodnight, Eli.”

He stood halfway from his chair in a moment’s hesitation, a heartbeat caught between confession and restraint... but when she turned away, the moment broke. He watched her go, her silhouette framed by the lamplight, shoulders heavy but sure.

When she disappeared into the hallway, Eli lingered, then reached for the book she’d left on the end table. Histories of the Forgotten and the Undying.

He read until the words blurred together, until his thoughts sounded like hers.

“What happens,” he whispered to the empty room, “when Time falls in love with Memory?”

The wind outside the farmhouse answered with a sigh, carrying the faint smell of sugar and night.