I'm not sure if I'll be able to work this up into a full story or not, but I'm having fun with it... enjoy it while it lasts...

There was an ominous rumbling sound in the night. The Curii stirred, then went back to sleep, too tired by their activities of the previous evening to investigate. Besides it was dark out, and the desert is cold at night, as they knew all too well from their many nights spent peering at the stars. It wasn't until the next morning that they realized something had changed during the night.

"Something has changed during the night," Vidcund said, his brow furrowed in puzzlement. "Something is... different."

He stepped to the telescope and peered through it at the heavens. "What could it be... alien activity? Climatic change? A zombie invasion!?"

"Uhh, Vidcund..." Pascal said, staring down the hill.

"Not now, can't you see I'm busy investigating! This is serious work here!" Vidcund exclaimed, continuing to peer intently (and dramatically) through the telescope.

"Yeah, sure, you're just hoping Gtsplnx or whatever his name is will pick you up again," Lazlo snorted. "It's daylight dude, they only do that at night."

"Anyway, he likes me more then you," Pascal muttered under his breath.

"What did you say!" Vidcund exclaimed, spinning away from the telescope.

"I said, look down the hill. I think I see what's different."

Vidcund stared blankly down at the town. "What? It's Strangetown. It's always been there."

Pascal and Lazlo rolled their eyes behind Vidcund's back. Lazlo shook his head and wandered off in search of some cold pizza.

"Vidcund," Pascal said patiently. "How many houses does Strangetown usually have?"

"Umm... I dunno, Let me count... there's the Grunt house, and the Singles house, and the Beakers, and, um... say, whose house is that!? And that! And that!?" Vidcund exclaimed, then whirled dramatically around. "Pascal, I've discovered what's changed during the night... Strangetown has grown!"

"No! You're kidding me!" Pascal exclaimed as he rolled his eyes a second time.

"To the batmobile...! Umm, I mean, why don't we take a walk and investigate?"

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So in a thread over in Sims2 Discussion I saw a link to a downloadable version of the three Maxis neighbourhoods smooshed into one - Pleasantview with Strangetown and Veronaville as attached Downtowns. Naturally I just couldn't resist downloading it and trying it out... I quickly decided I wasn't going to want to be switching back and forth between neighbourhoods while playing (been there, done that far too much in the J-R chunk of my Legacy story), so the answer was obvious... move everyone from Pleasantview to Strangetown, and get rid of everyone in Veronaville (since I have no interest in them at all).

Thankfully I have the "Objects Stay When Sims Move Out" bush from SimLogical, so I plonked that down and turned it on at all the Pleasantview homes, moved all the families out, moved all their houses to the bins, dropped the houses down in Strangetown in what seemed logical places to me, and moved everyone back in. Had fun repainting the yards with grass to make the Pleasantview houses be slightly more verdant then Strangetown lots. I also moved over some of the Pleasantview community lots and some of the more attractive or interesting looking empty homes from there to move some of the Family Bin people into.

The merged neighbourhood also comes with the Tricou family from Downtown resurrected, so I grabbed the House of Fallen Trees for them. Unfortunately the one from the Downtown attached to that merged set of 'hoods is unfurnished, I guess I'll have to add a new blank neighborhood set temporarily to that login so I can grab the fully furnished version from a fresh Downtown (after removing the graves first, of course), and drop it in for them.

So... big picture of the resulting Strangetown attached! Houses are labelled as to who lives where. The second "Goth" house way out on the edge of town is where Bella Goth is living (the set comes with her resurrected, apparently a necessity so her fixed memories stick - I moved her out of the Goth family as the first thing in the new location). It's that tiny shack of a house that you can find at the end of a street in Pleasantview - 10 Oak Road, if I remember correctly.

I've kept Ajay Loner and the Singles and Burbs, but deleted pretty much all the other "extras" from the Family bin. And next time I load I'll be popping into Veronaville and getting rid of all the families from there so they don't show up as walkbys or "friends from work" or anything annoying like that. Two 'hoods population is enough for me!

Now that looks like fun! I'll certainly be reading!!

Oh, this makes me all excited. I downloaded this from MATY a few months ago and have been playing it off and on (mostly off, unfortunately). It's so much fun. Dustin Broke and Ripp Grunt are best friends (and uni roommates), and my Nina Caliente and Ajay Loner have an adorable daughter.

I'm very eager to see the MsB take on it, and especially-- um-- curious to see what you do with the Curii.

You know, playing that conjoined hood has been on my "maybe one of these days" list for a while now. Alas, I don't think I'll find the time to ever do so (I barely have time to play my legacy family.) I'll just have to enjoy it vicariously through your eyes.

Not playing the houses in any particular order, just at random, and seeing what happens. Here's some more from the first day of play. Naturally there's a ton of welcome wagon stuff to happen at first, since all the Pleasantview families have just moved into their old homes... and since people visiting back and forth makes sense at this point, I'll play all the Pleasantview houses first, probably.

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Meanwhile, the new inhabitants of Strangetown had also realized that something very strange had happened to them...

"Father, where have the rolling green hills gone? The trees? The cool breeze off the ocean?" Cassandra asked, standing on the porch and staring around at the parched landscape.

"I don't know," Mortimer said slowly, looking at the sun-burnt sand dunes rolling off into the distance around their house. "But I mean to find out! I'm afraid that in the meantime we'd best call off your wedding though, my dear."

"Oh, father!" Cassandra exclaimed, bursting into tears. She knew Mortimer disapproved of her darling Don Lothario... he'd been seizing on any excuse he could to prevent the wedding ever since Don had first proposed. Her mother's disappearance had delayed it for an entire three months! And now this... he'd probably use this as an excuse to delay the wedding for days, perhaps even weeks longer!

"Stop your snivelling, girl," Mortimer said sharply. "And go keep your brother amused while I try and find out where we are."

"Yes, father," she sniffed, and hurried back into the house.

Mortimer stared around, then noticed movement at the house across the street. An elderly dark-skinned woman had come out on the porch, and was staring across the street at him, one hand raised to shade her eyes. Dropping her hand, she walked gracefully down the stairs and crossed the street, and stood at the fence, looking thoughtfully at him.

"You're new here," she said, and looked over the house intently, then sniffed. "At least you don't look like hoodlums or trailer park trash. Name's Olive Spectre."

"Pleased to meet you, madam," Mortimer nodded, looking her over. Elderly, but certainly still a fine figure of a woman! "I'm Mortimer Goth, late of Pleasantview. Could you tell me the name of this, ahh... location." he said, quickly deciding that "burg", "village", and "dilapadated cluster of hovels" might offend.

"You're in Strangetown, Mr Goth," she said, looking him over approvingly in turn. Elderly, but well turned out... that suit was certainly hand-tailored, and she recognized his aftershave as an expensive brand favoured by one of her many affluent gentleman callers over the years. Yes, he'd do nicely.

"Please, call me Mortimer," he said. "Could I interest you in a glass of lemonade? Or perhaps something a little stronger?"

Olive smiled. "Lemonade would do nicely, thank you," she nodded. "Though a modicum of gin in it wouldn't offend the palate. And you can call me Olive."

Mortimer offered her his arm, and the two went indoors.

Vidcund, meanwhile, had come trudging up the hill, and stopped when he spotted a pretty young woman in jeans and a pink camisole standing at the turnaround at the end of the street, staring off into the hills.

"Hello," he said.

She spun around, and smiled a dazzling smile at him. "Hi! Say, what is this place? It's sure not Pleasantview!"

"No, this is Strangetown," he told her. "And you are?"

"Brandi Broke," she smiled. "I live in that pink house down there at the foot of the hill... except that's not where it's supposed to be."

Vidcund nodded. "I'm Vidcund Curious," he told her, and paused expectantly, feeling only mildly deflated when she didn't react to the name. Perhaps his fame hadn't spread to whatever backwards location this 'Pleasantview' had been...

Brandi suddenly swayed and almost fainted. Vidcund watched her curiously. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"I feel rather light headed," she admitted, "And nauseous."

"Sun-stoke," Vidcund diagnosed, nodding. "We'd better get you indoors, and find you something cool to drink."

He took her by the arm and turned around, and looked thoughtfully at the two houses behind him, The Spectre household, and one of the new ones... might as well kill two birds with one stone. He marched over toward the new house.

"Oh, no!" Brandi exclaimed. "I couldn't bother them! That's the Goths!"

Ah, apparently a family of some importance then. Even better.

Ignoring her feeble protests, her drew her to the house and knocked on the door. A woman with her hair pulled back in two severe ponytails answered the door. "Yes?" she said.

"Excuse me, miss, but this young woman is suffering from sun stroke. Do you mind if we come indoors for a few minutes?"

"Why, it's Brandi! Of course, please, do come in. I haven't seen you in years, Brandi - not since we were in school together! I was so sorry to hear about your husband... please, do come in..."

Which is how Vidcund ended up spending the morning getting to know the Goths and Brandi Broke. They lunched together, Mortimer explaining to the gathered people about how this unexpected occurrence had forced him to delay his daughter's wedding. Vidcund noticed the way the two elderly people were eyeing each other, and thought of saying something... but no, it was none of his business. The Goths would surely learn of Olive's somewhat unsavoury reputation soon enough.

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Originally Posted by MsBarrows

"Yeah, sure, you're just hoping Gtsplnx or whatever his name is will pick you up again," Lazlo snorted. "It's daylight dude, they only do that at night."

"Anyway, he likes me more then you," Pascal muttered under his breath.

---------------------------------------------------

"To the batmobile...! Umm, I mean, why don't we take a walk and investigate?"

The Curii never fail to amuse me.

Mortimer, however, does not. He's a jerk and I hate him.

MsB, this is so cute!

Great idea, great story!!

I'm enjoying it a lot

Eeep!
*Is extremely excited*

Olive, mortimer goth is not the person to continue having children to the grim reaper with.
this sounds really good MsBarrows!

Bella frowned unhappily around her tiny shack. She definitely needed to find a better place to live... but this was the one place she'd been sure Mortimer wouldn't think of looking for her. She didn't, however, like living in such squalid surroundings, remote from town and with all the perils attendant on solitary living. Maybe she should leave Pleasantview entirely, start a new life in a new location...

It wasn't until she went out to fetch the morning paper that she discovered life had anticipated her. Gone was the heavy green forest that had surrounded the desolate shack she'd made her home since fleeing the Goth Mansion late one night months ago. In it's place... parched desert dotted with the occasional cactus, stretching off to the far horizon, where steep red hills and cliffs rose sharply up to an endless sky.

"Well!" she exclaimed, and picked up the paper. Not the Pleasantview Times, she saw, but instead, the Strangetown Chronicle. She grinned and hurried into the house to read it.

The headlines soon had her swearing darkly. She wasn't in Pleasantview any more, true - but neither were any of the other residents of Pleasantview, it seemed. The headlines screamed about the weird appearance throughout Strangetown of numerous houses... occupied houses. And she recognized all of the ones there were pictures of, including the Goth manor, perched high on a hill by a castle-like home.

"Damnation," she snarled, and started to crumple the paper, then stopped and smoothed it out, peering intently at the pictures again. Yes! There, a picture of a home she recognized as belonging to those money-grubbing Caliente sisters... and in the background, next door to it, the house of that crude gigolo Don Lothario that her daughter Cassandra was engaged to. She smiled unpleasantly. He'd help her... he didn't have any choice not to, not with the things she knew about his checkered past.

"Hello? Anyone there?" a voice called from outside. Bella peered out the window. Three men. Ah, things were definitely looking up... she went outside to introduce herself. She was startled to see that one of the men - he introduced himself as Pascal Curious - was heavily pregnant. And another wasn't a man at all, but a teenager still. Good looking, in a "far too young" way, but maybe worth looking up once he'd matured a little... and he was certainly giving her the eye. A fellow traveller in romance, unless she missed her guess. Definitely worth looking up once he was past "jail bait" status, then...

The third man with them had a distracted, nervous air, and it was all she could do not to laugh out loud when he introduced himself as "Nervous Subject"... the name certainly was apt! He was an adult, but for all the attention he was paying her, he might as well have been a teenager still. He was sticking very close to Pascal, too. She wondered absently for a moment if they were together... but no, Nervous struck her more as the terrified virgin type. Probably more of a brotherly relationship between those two, she decided, which was confirmed by the way the two of them were sniggering together about how much someone named Lazlo would probably like meeting her. She filed the name away mentally. She'd have to find out who that was... and if he might be of any use to her.

The three left after a while, and Bella returned indoors hurriedly. Tanning was bad for the skin... she was old enough as it was, without courting wrinkles. No, she'd need to go shopping soon - assuming this place had anywhere decent to shop! - and get herself some sun cream. And some clothing better suited to the desert. Maybe a makeover, to make it less likely that her husband would recognize her. Not that she planned to go anywhere near him or her family again, not now that she'd finally broken free of them, but... best to be prepared for all contingencies.

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oooh sounds like fun

but..I feel really stupid. When I first saw the title I thought it said "conjoined heads" *hits head*

but this is really good so far ^^ I like it

I could see Bella with Ripp... definitely.

Great story, I downloaded the hood from MATY, which lets you add Strangetown or Veronaville as a Nightlife downtown hood. I found that I used it with the base game starter without NL and it put Strangetown and Veronaville sims into the pleasantview bin.

Originally Posted by MsBarrows

The third man with them had a distracted, nervous air, and it was all she could do not to laugh out loud when he introduced himself as "Nervous Subject"... the name certainly was apt! He was an adult, but for all the attention he was paying her, he might as well have been a teenager still. He was sticking very close to Pascal, too. She wondered absently for a moment if they were together... but no, Nervous struck her more as the terrified virgin type. Probably more of a brotherly relationship between those two, she decided, which was confirmed by the way the two of them were sniggering together about how much someone named Lazlo would probably like meeting her. She filed the name away mentally. She'd have to find out who that was... and if he might be of any use to her.

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This part made me sporfle.

This is so cool!!

Is that the Bella that comes with the Goths on the hood??
I d/l the it too, but didn't actually check around. I thought it was great to try running a legacy so I 'only' placed bin-sims on lots (with phones) and played.
Bella comes on the Welcome Wagon .... OMG!!
Looking close she's so different than the one I'm use to see around Strangetown

Great idea for a story. I am still umming and ahing over whether to download the neighbourhood myself. I am unsure from the instructions whether it will work alongside other custom neighbourhoods or whether it will only work on its own. The creator says to remove the whole neighbourhood folder but I have four other custom hoods in it that I want to keep. I know you can do a separate login but my game takes so long to load I would rather be able to have them all there at once and move back and forth between them without having to reload it.

It works fine with custom hoods + Riverblossom.

This is neat.

Playing a joined 'hood has been on my to-do list for quite awhile. Unfortunately, both my job and real life have drastically cut into my simming time. Until then, I'll just peer in every now and again to see what happens in your 'hood.

Originally Posted by *Louisa*

Great idea for a story. I am still umming and ahing over whether to download the neighbourhood myself. I am unsure from the instructions whether it will work alongside other custom neighbourhoods or whether it will only work on its own...

The d/l is a Pleasantview with subhoods (N001 folder), so it replaces only that hood and not any others

I didn't even think about Riverblossom Hills. I will see about getting this combined hood. Though I suspect I will do what MsBarrows has done and move all the sims into one neighbourhood rather than using the various downtowns - the loading time is sooooo long.

I have never brought back Bella so it will be odd to see her again so long after last playing the Sims 1.

Thanks for the info everyone.

conjoined heads...
this is good...

Since quite a few people on this thread have downloaded the neighbourhood I was wondering if someone can perhaps help me out please. I have been trying to download it for nearly three hours and it keeps stopping after about 1MB is done (which takes ages itself as it is soooo sloooow) and saying there are no mirrors available. I have no idea whether this is a problem at my end or the other end but it is driving me up the wall. Did anyone else have this problem and if so how do I fix it? Please can you PM me if you can help - I don't want to hijack the thread.

Originally Posted by *Louisa*

Since quite a few people on this thread have downloaded the neighbourhood I was wondering if someone can perhaps help me out please. I have been trying to download it for nearly three hours and it keeps stopping after about 1MB is done (which takes ages itself as it is soooo sloooow) and saying there are no mirrors available. I have no idea whether this is a problem at my end or the other end but it is driving me up the wall. Did anyone else have this problem and if so how do I fix it? Please can you PM me if you can help - I don't want to hijack the thread.

It's a problem at the other end. Try downloading it in off-peak hours - the servers hosting the file only have limited connection slots and bandwidth available, and if your connection is running too slowly, you can end up getting dropped from the download queue and then be unable to reconnect as someone else has already taken the spot you had. Or look into getting a downloading tool that is able to continue downloads from where they left off, rather then having to start from scratch again each time. Some browsers have that capability built right into them these days (Firefox, for example) while older ones require an add-on for it.

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Brandi was tired when she got home from her brief exploration of the neighbourhood.

"Thanks for looking after Beau, Dustin," she told her oldest son. "Listen, I'm too tired to make lunch - order something in while I look after Beau for a while, okay?"

"Sure Mom," Dustin said, and headed over to the phone. He wondered if there was a Pizza Place branch here... they were supposed to be everywhere... and always the same phone number, too, convenient given that the only phone book in the house was for a town they were no longer in!

Brandi took Beau to the potty and bathed him, then sat on the floor with him, trying to teach him to talk.

"Pizza's here!" Dustin called out, as he came back in from outside, a pizza carton in hand. Brandi looked up and smiled.

"Oh, good, they have Pizza Place here too?" she said, rising to her feet.

"Yup!" Dustin grinned. "Mmmm... tastes just like it did back home, too," he said.

They were still munching on pizza when the doorbell rang. "I'll get it," Dustin said, and putting down his half-eaten slice, went outside. He came indoors a few minutes later, followed by three people. "It's the Welcome Wagon, mom," he said, before picking up his slice.

The three introduced themselves - Jill Smith, John Burb, and Nervous Subject.

"My wife and I just moved to Pleasantview a couple days ago," John said, looking a little lost. "And now we're here... it's really confused our little girl. She's just hoping some of the friends she'd started to make in school are here too."

"I'm sure she'll find plenty of friends here," Jill smiled. While she was reassuring John, Brandi and Nervous ended up talking for a while. He seemed nice enough, though his name certainly fit him, Brandi found herself thinking. She'd never seen anyone as jumpy as he clearly was. He noticed the pizza after a while, and went and grabbed a slice, inhaling it hungrily. Brandi shook her head and went in search of the other two.

She found them out in the back yard, looking out across the desert. "It is beautiful here," John was saying. "I suppose... but I liked Pleasantview!"

"How are you finding it here so far, Brandi?" Jill asked.

Brandi laughed uncertainly. "Different! I went out this morning, took a walk up the hill. It is beautiful here. I don't know... maybe I'll like it here. Maybe things will work out better for me then they did back in Pleasantview," she said, frowning as she remembered her life there.

Jill looked at her curiously. "Tell me if I'm being too nosey... but... is there a Mr Broke?"

"There was," Brandi admitted, then gestured toward the nearby ladderless pool. "My husband Skip died shortly before Beau - that's the toddler - was born. Accidental drowning."

"Oh, no!" Jill exclaimed. "That must have been so hard on you!" she exclaimed.

"It's been difficult since he died," Brandi admitted, looking away, not able to meet her eyes. "I had to quit my job to look after the kids. And there wasn't much money left in savings, no insurance... it's been hard, making ends meet," she said softly.

Jill impulsively hugged her. "Things will be better here - you'll see!" she exclaimed, then smiled. "We have an awful lot of eligible young bachelors, you know," she smiled. "Maybe, if thats what you want, you can get remarried."

"I'd like that," Brandi smiled. She liked Jill, she decided. Maybe the two of them would be friends.

They went back indoors, where they discovered that Dustin and Nervous were not hitting it off well at all. Dustin looked furious!

"Oh dear," Jill sighed. "I think we'd better leave. Nervous... Nervous! Come with me."

"Sorry," she muttered in apology to Brandi as they left. "He's a little difficult sometimes."

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Brandi was exhausted after the three left. "Dustin, can you look after your brother again... I need to go lie down," she said.

"Sure Mom," Dustin replied, and picked up Beau. "Come on, pipsqueak, let's go read you a book."

Brandi smiled as she watched Dustin carry Beau off into his own bedroom. He was so good with the boy. And so helpful to her! She headed off to take a long nap.

Dustin spent the next hour or two reading to and playing with beau, until his brother was tired enough to be put down for a nap, after which he went to his room and played video games for a while.

Brandi woke in late afternoon feeling a lot better. The nausea that had been plaguing her all day had finally gone. It wasn't until she was in the bathroom, washing her hands, and glanced at her reflection in the mirror over the sink that she realized what had been causing her malaise. Her startled shriek brought Dustin running.

"Mom! What's wrong!" he cried, then skidded to a stop in the doorway from his room, staring at her thickened waist in disbelief. "You're pregnant!"

Brandi burst into tears. Just when she'd been thinking that Beau was almost old enough for her to start thinking of going back to work... another baby to deal with! It was too much!

Dustin awkwardly hugged his mother. "Don't cry, Mom," he said. "It's all right... we'll manage."

After she finally calmed down, he told her to go play with Beau for a while. "I'll make supper, you just take it easy, okay?" he said anxiously.

"Okay," she agreed, and blew her nose, then hugged him. "Oh Dustin... I don't know what I'd do without you! Thank you."

He smiled and went off to make them some macaroni and cheese for dinner.

He frowned as he stirred the pot full of noodles and cheese sauce. Gods, another kid on the way. He wondered who the father was. Mom had had so many boyfriends lately... any of them could be it. And few of them would be at all likely to be pleased to hear about their impending fatherhood - or to want to acknowledge the child in any way.

No, it would be up to him to look after Mom and the new baby. He was the man of the house now. Maybe one of these days he'd even be a real breadwinner... though Mom would hit the roof if she ever figured out where the odds and ends of money he sometimes brought home came from. Certainly not from the odds jobs he claimed was the source...

It was a quiet supper, both of them lost in thought. Afterwards, Dustin went to bed early, while Brandi stayed up, looking after Beau, unable to sleep anyway, not with an uncertain future looming ahead of her.

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