Chapter 43: Strange Things

Paprika banishes the spirits at Rita Burr-Simovitch's house, and then is attacked. Apparently those were Rita's friends?

Beaten up by an old woman.

Paprika gets her revenge by taking food from Rita's fridge.

Rita attacks her husband the second Paprika is out the door.

Some pretty things in the family graveyard.

Paprika tries to catch one for the terrarium collection (the Archers have a green version of this insect), but she isn't as skilled as Jazz, and they slip through her fingers.

Zoya's ghost materializes and looks Paprika over, then vanishes without a word.

Arthur and Sifton drive up and walk around a bit. Embarrassed at the chance of being caught out here in the middle of the night, Paprika hides in the bushes. She can't quite make out what Arthur is saying to Sifton.

Some chess until morning. Catching spirits requires outsmarting them, and it's all kind of like chess, so this is practice... according to all the websites, anyway.

Another job from the cousins.

"I just got a new job," adult Kory says. "I feel like the world holds so much for me including awesome new clothes." Adult Kory's new outfit is sure to impress the other scientists.

And then another! Rickie summons Martin's services, but not for herself. It's for her difficult teen son.

Rickie sits down to work on a report (hush hush PI stuff), while Martin tries to deal with this space-obsessed teen. Can geeky be stylish...? The answer is obviously to dress the kid like Han Solo.

Melody's best artistic work is done naked.

The family graveyard again. It's natural that vampires would be out at night. Maybe natural that Yuri visits his son's grave once in a while. Maybe even natural that vampires choose to hang out in graveyards?

But it's not natural for Yuri to be hitting on poor Kacey.

"Omg... stop being a creep.. omg."

Paprika scowls. "Hey... this is my family's property. You're technically trespassing."

"You can't own nature," Kacey replies.

Paprika returns home after work one night to find her own home is haunted.

"I saw a ghost," Halen announces.

"Stay away from parents or you're banished!"

"You can't treat me that way! I'm your cousin!"

Paprika doesn't know what Halen is doing here, and she's too inexperienced to convince an insane ghost to move on, so they just discuss hauntings for a while.

"I was called to the school to investigate paranormal 

activity the other day, but it was just a kid in a bed sheet."

Melody's nephew Ken schmoozes with the saloon mixologist enough to get The Westfield Band another gig. Melody calls everybody together and they all respond positively - they're on their way! But a half hour later, there's no sign of Nigel, and the band must continue without him.

Turns out Nigel somehow died in transit. Poor guy.

Paprika's chess skills have grown legendary around town, so she's paid to tutor Grant. Not the most fun job in the world. Pic also featuring Julian criticizing Drumheller's wifebeater.

Paprika gives us a psychic demonstration.

"We're being watched right now, guys. Observed."

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Etc.: The Nigel incident really happened. I was shocked that the game allowed me to complete the gig with only three members. Melody, Pavel and Josephine were hanging out tuning up their instruments, and then suddenly I got the notification of Nigel's death via old age, and they started rocking out as if the entire band was there. Since, I guess, it was.

Also the opportunity really did involve Ken schmoozing with the mixologist, lol! Nice to have family looking out for you.

Chronologically, the gig happened after the tutoring picture. But notice that Drumheller aged up, while his twin sister Josephine turned up a mysterious several days younger. She was, in fact, younger than when I had last randomly checked her age. I then fixed her age so she matches Drumheller, since I'm mean like that. I also had to fix Melody's age at one point.

Tattoos can be blamed for Melody, but not Josephine. I really think that the stylist effs up ages in my game. I'm noticing more and more discrepancies. Pavel is older than Arthur. Melody's oldest sister isn't old enough to have mothered her two adult sons. Lori's twin sister Marlene is still alive. The list of weird goes on.

If it doesn't clear up after this generation, though, I'll start looking for other causes.

My boyfriend has suggested that some of the sims may have eaten ambrosia at the Bistro or something. I guess that could have happened to everyone but Melody? I don't know.