Galleries and GooFurther adventures with the spawn of Bindi

Hatfield, as narrated by Miri Hatfield.

I’ll have to start off with the move. Things were getting

awfully cozy back at the old gallery; Mom didn’t really want

to give up her studio to give Wes his own bedroom, and we

had a new sibling on the way.

This kind of starts the “Dark Ages”. Not many pictures

made it through, and very little of interest actually

happened.

Excuse me, two of my brothers and two of my birthdays is

hardly “nothing”. Lexi warned me about you.

Nothing. Happened. At all. Those boys are worthless,

and your birthdays weren’t on film.

My mother delivered twin boys; Toby and Christopher.

I like them, even if Phancy-pants Phantom doesn’t.

Meanwhile, Dena and Wes and I hit the town.

The boys are named after Christopher Robin of

Winnie-the-Pooh and Toby, the baby in Jim

Henson’s Labyrinth. I’ll ignore that, Miri.

Not going to smite me?

I never smited anyone in my life. Well—no one

important. I like your family too much to watch

them suffer.

Gee, thanks.Dena^ Miri^

Dating started. Wes was a bit too involved in helping Mom to

go get a girlfriend, but Dena and I both jumped right in.

I pride myself on having perfect genetic matches for both of

you in stock without a custom insert.

But…my husband and I are made for each other!

Keep thinking that. Do continue.

Okaay. . Dena (top) hooked up with a local orphaned boy who had done surprisingly well with himself, and owned the

local clothing joint. I (bottom) fell in love with the son of a

local shopkeeper, who had a bit of a habit of checking me out

every time I came in.

Touch of backstory on Miri’s young man; Terry

Martigan lived with his parents over Mad Martigan’s

Mayhem Toy Store. His dog, a birthday gift, is the

founding father of the fluffy-white-shop-dog bloodline.

That sounds so unromantic. He’s a ginger prince

from humble origins come to sweep me off my feet

and make beautiful children.

I’ll take it. However, you are to be saying that,

not me.

I don’t care. You’re just jealous because I have

beautiful children.

My older siblings Wesley and Dena were some

of the first to attend Phantasma University. I

sort of tagged along occasionally on the

weekends, playing Wes’s guitar and showing

off.

His girlfriend liked you well enough, at least.

Hardly matters; they never got married.

Not to each other, no. Stop complaining.

Dena got on quite well with her little orphaned

businessman, and they quickly got engaged.

Technically, he’s not really an orphan. I just deleted his

creation parent to see how a teen would manage alone.

It sort of sounds a little nicer to think he’s a tragic,

romantically orphan and not a science experiment.

Every last being in your world is no more than a science

experiment. Get used to it.

Even my family?

Especially your family.

Wes was managing well enough with his girlfriend

Emma, but couldn’t quite bring himself to commit

to proposing. There was never any kind of nasty

break-up; they just sort of drifted apart.

The irony here will become very apparent in a number of

slides. Let’s just say that poor Emma couldn’t escape

the house of Phantasma so easily; not genetically

matched to marry a Hatfield as she is.

Poor dear. I might have left and found someone

else.

You realize leaving generally leads to inactivity and

eventually deletion, right?

Wes spends more time with his music that his

girlfriend, really. Music and art; he graduated with

an art degree.

I love Wes. Really do. He doesn’t get nearly enough

face time for me liking him so much.

Maybe you could give him some more; enough to

write a chapter and hire HIM. Bothersome

brothers and irritating co-narrators deserve each

other.

Maybe I will. Right after I finish tormenting you and

your descendants.

Back at home, Toby and Christopher were growing up well,

doing the things that boys do. Art lessons, horseplay, and video

games, outside of school.

Can you even tell them apart? Besides the outfits, I mean; I’ve lost

track of those.

Sure…Toby’s the one…nope. Does it actually matter?

Nope. Both Family, both married blondes, both have several small

children nowadays. No idea which is which, nor do I care.

Sometimes I feel sorry for them. They were born as part of the

Mystery Cheesecake Plague, and kind of wound up being the

same person.

Mother, being the intelligent and loving woman

that she is, decided to spawn again. Meet Anna,

the sixth of the Hatfield children.

I don’t know what I thought I was doing. I just knew

that the boys were stagnant and needed a push, as it

were. The whole family might have died out and gone

into retirement but for Anna.

Except for the popular lines. Like me! My direct

bloodline is the one that goes the absolute furthest.

Pure fluke, Miri. Absolutely everyone but you in that

line is an oldest child.

There was another minor move. No need to have that

gigantic gallery rattling about with only three children, two of

which really register as one. So, one child and a baby. Anna

was treated like an absolute little princess; Mother had missed

having girls in the house.

The boys disappeared soon after. They hit teen years, and

were nearly instantly deported to college. I had no use for

them, and wanted them out to play with my new pet baby.

Another child, one of six, with brown eyes and brown hair,

but precious just the same.

It’s interesting how all the girls look like that except…

Give it one more slide. Maybe two.

I wanted to try a final time. I really wanted just one child with

naturally black hair (and was willing to play by the old-

fashioned method of no-save-and-leave).

Anna grew up well enough. Father was quite happy to

keep treating her like a princess, although Mother was

rather fond of the unborn little one. This one, she swore,

would be the last.

I swore. I love Bindi and all, but I went through so much elixir

on her it’s not even funny. The boys have abnormally large age

gaps on both sides of them; I thought Bindi would be getting an

early retirement with her useless sons.

Well, everyone loves Anna. No matter how crazy she

ended up.

Please note, ladies and gentlemen, to your left…my

first decent toddler portrait. Anna actually has blue

eyes. I thought the heap had brown…turns out that

only Dena, Miri, and one of the twins do.

Either way, the family decided to move into the

old gallery with the last two girls. They could

share the old bedroom, and Mother could keep

her business running out of the front room.

The move was just in time for…drumroll,

please…baby Elizabeth to be born. New favorite,

everybody! I finally got my black-haired Mini-

Bindi.

The gallery roared back into success (it had

been slacking off a bit) and Anna grew into

a beautiful child. Not as beautiful as…

—Miri! Spoilers! We’re running a Where-

are-they-now at the end. You’re third. Until

then, there are only your sisters.

Fine. Suffice it to say that Anna was only

pretty compared to your average Sim child.

Wait until you see Elizabeth. She’s gorgeous.

Elizabeth was the most darling child I’d ever seen;

right up in there with the ones I knew as my “top

three”; Miri’s daughter, and two of Lexi’s

(remember Lexi?) younger siblings.

Can you even really see her face?

I finally worked out doing portraits. Give it a

minute.

Bearded fellow in black in the back of the bottom

picture is Wesley, all grown up. Just FYI. Handsome

enough, but kind of has a Benjamin Long Nose.

She is very good-looking.

This is almost exactly what Bindi looked like at the same

age, except Bindi has brown eyes. This bloodline of look-

alikes continues to the present day, so far with a theme of

almost no change besides a new eye color every generation.

One more and you’ll be out. What happens then?

Homemade custom eyes. Maxis-style in gold and

black and violet.

Creepy. Customary hug picture, everyone!

Elizabeth spent a happy early childhood with her mother, father, and closest sister, learning to paint

and giving hugs.

She’s a little ditzy even then, but it could be worse.

What do you mean by ditzy?

Irresponsible, forgetful, and otherwise not a great parent or caregiver.

Installed Bon

Voyage. Family

Photo Spam from

the Far East!

Anna’s birthday came up soon after the

return home from vacation.

I fear I shall have to stop you on the main

storyline after the birthday, Miri. Plot devices

being what they are, we wouldn’t want to confuse

these good people when I’m just getting them

interested.

Then run the current update?

Sure thing. Leave out the super-extraneous

stuff—just the kids, not how old they are.

Maybe just a few teenage years, then. Until Elizabeth’s

birthday, and stop right before it.

All right. Anna decided, on the eve of Night Life, to

become the neighborhood’s first Pleasure Sim. She

was also the first teenager to get her own car.

Spiffy, yes? I wish there was a VW Beetle for this game.

No, I will not download one. I wish it came with one.

Whatever. Custom content would just screw with us

even more than you already have. Go torment

someone else’s grandchildren for a change.

Anna took mostly to clubbing. Then she found a

boyfriend, and started clubbing with him. Check out

that super-modern club in the top picture.

I love how they think fifties is state-of-the-art. Real-life

modern is old-fashioned, old-fashioned is standard, and

fifties is modern. Funny stuff.

Your time-scale is messed up. Seriously messed up.

You live across the street from your own great-

granddaughter, who is the same age as you. My time-scale

is fine.

Last main plot slide! Elizabeth’s

birthday.

Little beauty looks just like her mother did at

that age. Right down to the outfit.

Has anyone else matched an outfit?

Teen years, I think some of Generation Four

and Five had similar outfits, if nothing else.

No, not really.

So…where did

they all wind up?

Elizabeth, to you lot, is no more

than a teen. Her story comes

later, but is written and decided.

Anna went to college with her

beau (both of them grew their

hair out a bit). She’s now

raising twins…hubby wanted

one, I got two by mistake.

They may also get a chapter.

Both boy twins

married blondes.

One has two sets

of twins

The other has

one little boy.

I married my ginger

prince, and we have

four children. We

definitely get our

own chapter very

soon, so don’t worry

your pretty little

head over the kids.

Dena married her orphaned entrepreneur. They have three

kids together, and Dena has a spare that’s another story

entirely. The oldest twins (top right) I am quite certain

are out to get me. That could be a plot twist at some

point. Also, check out the kid bottom right…does he look

like David Tennant to anyone else? (He was named

David at random, and is growing up into a rather creepy

coincidence).

Wesley married a CAS brunette; they

have three kids so far. He and the

twin with one child are the two of the

seven I’m not officially finished

breeding. They will be getting a

chapter at some point when I get

romantic matches bred for the spawn

and have a reason to play them—as

much as I love Wes, he’s a bit boring.

…Bindi and Zane, our beloved second-

generation couple, are now officially retired

from the plot base. They still turn up pretty

regularly, being immortal, but there’s not much

left to do at home besides run a level 10 gallery

and play with the dog, and I refuse to breed

them again.

Join the Phantasmas again…soon…in Miri’s

official chapter. Her “ginger prince” will be

narrating, provided I can catch him. Happy

Simming!