Phoebe's World IV: Party Central
Previously: Phoebe turned the Paragons into the ultimate party club, complete with synchronized dance routines and all-night drinking sessions. Simultaneously, she somehow managed to succeed at school in the final days leading up to young adulthood. She also developed a sudden drunken infatuation with a bartender named Melinda, which forced her lifelong friend Aahana's true feelings about her into the open. Phoebe and Aahana went on their first official date (at a wedding hall, no less), where Phoebe leaned hard into their first kiss. Yeah, a lot's going on.
Ready for some young adult shenanigans? I can hardly contain my excitement. First, let me reintroduce the main players.
Phoebe Benali-Chen. The myth. The legend. Now with 100% more bang. You know her, you love her, but I've never fully laid out her personality, so here it is. She's an active goofball/dance machine, with the bonus traits of responsible (ha, yeah right!) and happy toddler (whatever that actually does). Her chosen career is in social media, and she's starting off as a clickbait writer due to her impressive performance in high school (I know, right, when did she have the time). Currently, her aspiration is Leader of the Pack, meaning she wants to have the best club in all of Simdom, but she's already almost achieved it with her flawless takeover of the Paragons. In other words, she's perfect.
Upon the occasion of her young adulthood, she's decided to move out of her mom's apartment, but she loves the city so much and clearly it's the best base for her party-centered activities, so she's staying in San Myshuno. Rather than rent an apartment, though, she wants to go all out and buy the only actual house available, The Old Salt House, and transform it into party central. She'll have to kick out its current elderly occupant and also recruit a few of her friends to help finance it, but who wants to live in a big old house like that all alone anyway? On that note, let's reacquaint ourselves with her soon-to-be roommates.
Aahana Srivastava. Childhood friend #1. Possible love interest #1. She's silently admired Phoebe for years and only recently acquired the confidence to voice her interest in turning their friendship into a romance out loud. Will her wish be granted? Only time will tell. Aahana is a loner who loves the outdoors. Perhaps unexpectedly, she's also a kleptomaniac and a "spice hound." Her fondness for nature has led her to pursue the gardening career, where she's starting off as a humble dirt-digger. In accordance with that, her current aspiration is Freelance Botanist.
Jane Keene. Childhood friend #2. Queen of sass and sarcasm. She's Phoebe's biggest partner in crime, though her bluntness sometimes borders on cruelty, and in her past life, she was almost certainly a glamorously languorous '60s housewife. Her traits are creative, materialistic, and bro, the latter of which I have to assume is a purely ironic send-up of performative masculinity. Her ultimate career goal is to be a revered food critic, but right now she's making do as a lowly paper deliverer, which of course is a closely-guarded secret. Her aspiration is Party Animal, naturally.
Melinda Feng. A bartender who Phoebe first met literal days ago. Possible love interest #2. They don't have the history Phoebe and Aahana share, but they do have a burning hot infatuation stoked largely over the course of one drunken night. Now Melinda has somehow agreed to move in with a bunch of girls she barely knows. She's a goofball, family-oriented (oh!), and evil (...oh). Turns out she was not officially employed in the culinary career track, but she now holds the lofty title of assistant dishwasher and will be branching off into mixology ASAP. Fittingly, her aspiration is Master Mixologist.
Whew! I know that's a lot to take in, so now that it's out of the way, let's take a moment to breathe with some interior design porn.
The very boho chic living room/library area.
A small office nook. (Don't worry, Jane and Phoebe also have computers of their own in their bedrooms for all of their critiquing and social media needs.)
Dining room, kitchen, and, most importantly of all, bar.
Melinda gets the downstairs bedroom.
Phoebe and Aahana will share one of the upstairs bedrooms, since apparently I'm already subconsciously all in on their relationship. All respect to Melinda, but you'll find out very soon that she never really stood a chance.
Jane gets the other upstairs bedroom. It was especially hard to get a proper wide shot of this room, but, trust me, it's not as bare as it looks.
Finally, their patio is fully decked-out to host some amazing party nights. I've actually changed the Paragons' "clubhouse," so to speak, from Bathe de Rill to the Old Salt House because, come on, it's so much more convenient and way better-suited to their updated activities: drinking, playing games, blowing bubbles, and dancing all night long.
Oh, and one other thing! Half of the backyard has been designated Aahana's garden. As you can see, she's already gotten a pretty good start on it.
You may have noticed the bee box in the background of the last picture. It seemed like the perfect addition to the garden, and Aahana is already in love with her bees and eager to collect their first batch of honey.
Of course, they aren't always quite so friendly. Luckily, Aahana's got a high tolerance for stings, and as a nature lover, she knows that the sweet end result will be worth a few fleeting moments of discomfort.
As it's necessary for her to practice her cooking and drink-making for work anyway, it's a safe bet that Melinda is going to become the house's resident chef and bartender.
She gets easily distracted from her duties by the dartboard placed conveniently in her line of vision, though.
Aahana: Are you going to finish making breakfast or what? I'm starving!
I was a bit leery of Melinda's evil trait, but so far the only major effect I've seen is a random compulsion to cackle mischievously. Although here it does kind of look like she might be cackling because she put poison in her housemates' breakfast, which I really hope isn't the case.
Directly after breakfast seems like the perfect time to break in their brand new bar, doesn't it?
Melinda: Jesus, guys, one at a time! Unless you're going to start paying me for this, you'd better learn to hold your horses.
Apparently, daytime drinking makes Jane uncontrollably flirty.
Phoebe: Excuse me. What do you think you're doing making eyes at my girlfriend?
Jane: Hey, unless I missed the official announcement, she's not your girlfriend yet. I'm just having fun!
If that intensely resentful look on her face is anything to go by, I'd say that Phoebe's even more into Aahana than I thought. She's already gotten to that stage where she doesn't want to share her with anybody. Meanwhile, Aahana's chugging that glass of wine like a champion, probably because she's uber-uncomfortable with suddenly being the house's primary object of desire.
Or she was just gearing up to join in on the flirt-fest and remind Phoebe that she's totally only got eyes for one girl.
And that girl may actually be her wine glass because I think Miss Aahana has discovered the immense pleasure of a good vintage and now her life is forever changed.
Jane: Here's to our totally kick-ass new pad and all of the epic parties we're about to throw here!
Melinda: God, that scared the crap out of me! Where did you even get that thing?
The girls invite all of the other Paragons over for an all-night housewarming party. It looks like they're pretty big fans of the outdoor sound system, even if the neighbors might not much appreciate it. (Actually, their only direct neighbor is a karaoke bar, so I'm pretty sure they're good on that front.)
Melinda: Come on down, everybody! Drinks are officially served!
Jane's already double-fisting it like the hardcore alcoholic she's surely about to become.
Meanwhile, I'm beginning to sense a pattern in which alcohol turns Aahana into an unstoppable romance machine, and Phoebe is loving every second of it.
By the way, if you notice the little floating plus signs and light bulbs over everyone's heads in literally every other shot, it's because the lot trait is convivial, which means those things show up every time they socialize, and I'm too lazy to install a mod to remove them (even now, Sim years later, despite having the link bookmarked and everything.)
Some people sit at the bar to enjoy their drinks. Not Sofia. She heads straight for the tub, where she can really bask in the luxury of it all. (I don't know why I feel compelled to censor nonexistent nipples, but there it is.)
Phoebe: All right, guys, who's ready for round two?
Look at Phoebe glowing like a proud mother as Aahana and Melinda do the secret handshake she came up with so long ago. Siobhan could never! Phoebe is the best club leader to ever exist!
Melinda has abandoned her post, which means it's up to Jane to fill everyone's drink orders, and between her lack of mixology experience and the amount of drinks she's already pounded back herself, she doesn't look at all up to the job.
Meanwhile, Aahana discovers that the bubble machine is not for her. She'd much rather stick to her wine, thank you.
Luna: *slurs* Holy shit, guys, I am so fucked up, but I love you all so much!
The ultimate party conundrum: keep waiting in line for your next drink or make a beeline for the toilet before you burst?
Phoebe: Come on, Jane, you fucking lightweight! It's barely 3:00 am. The party's just getting started!
Somehow, despite drinking and dancing to an ungodly hour and going into work the next morning hungover on minimal sleep, Phoebe manages a promotion and a pretty impressive one at that. What did I tell you? The girl's got a mythical level of stamina.
Also, the party raked in enough club points to boost Phoebe over the top in terms of completing her aspiration. All hail the ultimate club leader! This is actually the first aspiration I've had a Sim complete because most of the time I tend to forget they're a thing. Next, Phoebe's going for the Party Animal achievement alongside Jane, for obvious reasons.
Aahana achieves the quieter success of her first batch of honey. It's not great quality yet but all in due time.
She's also become the house's go-to mechanical whiz because someone's got to be there to fix the robot vacuum when it's on the fritz. Actually, they sold this thing, like, a day later because it never cleaned up anything and broke twice. Good riddance!
The chemistry between Phoebe and Melinda hasn't totally cooled, but their autonomous flirtations are much more infrequent. They only sought each other out romantically once or twice, while Phoebe and Aahana had their eyes and hands glued to one another every other chance they could get. I think I might've been trying too hard to create a windswept romance (aka Zora and Miko 2.0) when Phoebe's real soulmate might have been quietly hanging out in the background all along.
Anyway, you'll never guess who called Phoebe up for dinner at Chez Llama (fingers crossed it doesn't lead to food poisoning)...
Phoebe: So what's with this sudden invitation to dinner, huh? You here to grovel now that you're starting to miss your friends and that illustrious modeling career hasn't quite panned out?
Siobhan: Listen, I deserve that. I know I was a jerk, but I've been thinking really hard on all of this and I swear I'm a changed woman now.
Phoebe: Ugh, here comes Siobhan with another one of her bullshit fake-nice speeches!
Siobhan: No, I promise that's not me anymore at all! Just give me a chance to prove it, please.
Phoebe: Okay, but you'd better not fuck this up because you only get one second chance.
Siobhan: I won't! I've changed so much you won't even recognize me!
Phoebe: Did you just... literally change? Where did that dress even come from?
Siobhan: A girl should always be prepared to make her big entrance. As if I was going to walk in here in any old outfit.
Maybe she really is different now, but some things always stay the same.
Phoebe: Listen, if I let you back in, you have to promise to follow some ground rules. The first one is to never turn into a megalomaniac uber-bitch again. Actually, that's the only rule: just don't start power-tripping and, for the love of God, no more cappuccinos ever!
Siobhan: Believe me, I've been on a coffee detox for months now and I'm never going back to the stuff. It really did something weird to my head. But now I feel totally clear, and I'm 100% down for doing things your way. I just really want to hang out with you guys again!
Phoebe: All right, I guess you can come back. After all, our whole thing now is about having fun, no strings attached, and it wouldn't be very cool of me to keep holding this grudge.
Siobhan: Thank you, thank you, thank you! I promise you won't regret it!
Ready for some young adult shenanigans? I can hardly contain my excitement. First, let me reintroduce the main players.
Phoebe Benali-Chen. The myth. The legend. Now with 100% more bang. You know her, you love her, but I've never fully laid out her personality, so here it is. She's an active goofball/dance machine, with the bonus traits of responsible (ha, yeah right!) and happy toddler (whatever that actually does). Her chosen career is in social media, and she's starting off as a clickbait writer due to her impressive performance in high school (I know, right, when did she have the time). Currently, her aspiration is Leader of the Pack, meaning she wants to have the best club in all of Simdom, but she's already almost achieved it with her flawless takeover of the Paragons. In other words, she's perfect.
Upon the occasion of her young adulthood, she's decided to move out of her mom's apartment, but she loves the city so much and clearly it's the best base for her party-centered activities, so she's staying in San Myshuno. Rather than rent an apartment, though, she wants to go all out and buy the only actual house available, The Old Salt House, and transform it into party central. She'll have to kick out its current elderly occupant and also recruit a few of her friends to help finance it, but who wants to live in a big old house like that all alone anyway? On that note, let's reacquaint ourselves with her soon-to-be roommates.
Aahana Srivastava. Childhood friend #1. Possible love interest #1. She's silently admired Phoebe for years and only recently acquired the confidence to voice her interest in turning their friendship into a romance out loud. Will her wish be granted? Only time will tell. Aahana is a loner who loves the outdoors. Perhaps unexpectedly, she's also a kleptomaniac and a "spice hound." Her fondness for nature has led her to pursue the gardening career, where she's starting off as a humble dirt-digger. In accordance with that, her current aspiration is Freelance Botanist.
Jane Keene. Childhood friend #2. Queen of sass and sarcasm. She's Phoebe's biggest partner in crime, though her bluntness sometimes borders on cruelty, and in her past life, she was almost certainly a glamorously languorous '60s housewife. Her traits are creative, materialistic, and bro, the latter of which I have to assume is a purely ironic send-up of performative masculinity. Her ultimate career goal is to be a revered food critic, but right now she's making do as a lowly paper deliverer, which of course is a closely-guarded secret. Her aspiration is Party Animal, naturally.
Melinda Feng. A bartender who Phoebe first met literal days ago. Possible love interest #2. They don't have the history Phoebe and Aahana share, but they do have a burning hot infatuation stoked largely over the course of one drunken night. Now Melinda has somehow agreed to move in with a bunch of girls she barely knows. She's a goofball, family-oriented (oh!), and evil (...oh). Turns out she was not officially employed in the culinary career track, but she now holds the lofty title of assistant dishwasher and will be branching off into mixology ASAP. Fittingly, her aspiration is Master Mixologist.
Whew! I know that's a lot to take in, so now that it's out of the way, let's take a moment to breathe with some interior design porn.
The very boho chic living room/library area.
A small office nook. (Don't worry, Jane and Phoebe also have computers of their own in their bedrooms for all of their critiquing and social media needs.)
Dining room, kitchen, and, most importantly of all, bar.
Melinda gets the downstairs bedroom.
Phoebe and Aahana will share one of the upstairs bedrooms, since apparently I'm already subconsciously all in on their relationship. All respect to Melinda, but you'll find out very soon that she never really stood a chance.
Jane gets the other upstairs bedroom. It was especially hard to get a proper wide shot of this room, but, trust me, it's not as bare as it looks.
Finally, their patio is fully decked-out to host some amazing party nights. I've actually changed the Paragons' "clubhouse," so to speak, from Bathe de Rill to the Old Salt House because, come on, it's so much more convenient and way better-suited to their updated activities: drinking, playing games, blowing bubbles, and dancing all night long.
Oh, and one other thing! Half of the backyard has been designated Aahana's garden. As you can see, she's already gotten a pretty good start on it.
You may have noticed the bee box in the background of the last picture. It seemed like the perfect addition to the garden, and Aahana is already in love with her bees and eager to collect their first batch of honey.
Of course, they aren't always quite so friendly. Luckily, Aahana's got a high tolerance for stings, and as a nature lover, she knows that the sweet end result will be worth a few fleeting moments of discomfort.
As it's necessary for her to practice her cooking and drink-making for work anyway, it's a safe bet that Melinda is going to become the house's resident chef and bartender.
She gets easily distracted from her duties by the dartboard placed conveniently in her line of vision, though.
Aahana: Are you going to finish making breakfast or what? I'm starving!
I was a bit leery of Melinda's evil trait, but so far the only major effect I've seen is a random compulsion to cackle mischievously. Although here it does kind of look like she might be cackling because she put poison in her housemates' breakfast, which I really hope isn't the case.
Directly after breakfast seems like the perfect time to break in their brand new bar, doesn't it?
Melinda: Jesus, guys, one at a time! Unless you're going to start paying me for this, you'd better learn to hold your horses.
Apparently, daytime drinking makes Jane uncontrollably flirty.
Phoebe: Excuse me. What do you think you're doing making eyes at my girlfriend?
Jane: Hey, unless I missed the official announcement, she's not your girlfriend yet. I'm just having fun!
If that intensely resentful look on her face is anything to go by, I'd say that Phoebe's even more into Aahana than I thought. She's already gotten to that stage where she doesn't want to share her with anybody. Meanwhile, Aahana's chugging that glass of wine like a champion, probably because she's uber-uncomfortable with suddenly being the house's primary object of desire.
Or she was just gearing up to join in on the flirt-fest and remind Phoebe that she's totally only got eyes for one girl.
And that girl may actually be her wine glass because I think Miss Aahana has discovered the immense pleasure of a good vintage and now her life is forever changed.
Jane: Here's to our totally kick-ass new pad and all of the epic parties we're about to throw here!
Melinda: God, that scared the crap out of me! Where did you even get that thing?
The girls invite all of the other Paragons over for an all-night housewarming party. It looks like they're pretty big fans of the outdoor sound system, even if the neighbors might not much appreciate it. (Actually, their only direct neighbor is a karaoke bar, so I'm pretty sure they're good on that front.)
Melinda: Come on down, everybody! Drinks are officially served!
Jane's already double-fisting it like the hardcore alcoholic she's surely about to become.
Meanwhile, I'm beginning to sense a pattern in which alcohol turns Aahana into an unstoppable romance machine, and Phoebe is loving every second of it.
By the way, if you notice the little floating plus signs and light bulbs over everyone's heads in literally every other shot, it's because the lot trait is convivial, which means those things show up every time they socialize, and I'm too lazy to install a mod to remove them (even now, Sim years later, despite having the link bookmarked and everything.)
Some people sit at the bar to enjoy their drinks. Not Sofia. She heads straight for the tub, where she can really bask in the luxury of it all. (I don't know why I feel compelled to censor nonexistent nipples, but there it is.)
Phoebe: All right, guys, who's ready for round two?
Look at Phoebe glowing like a proud mother as Aahana and Melinda do the secret handshake she came up with so long ago. Siobhan could never! Phoebe is the best club leader to ever exist!
Melinda has abandoned her post, which means it's up to Jane to fill everyone's drink orders, and between her lack of mixology experience and the amount of drinks she's already pounded back herself, she doesn't look at all up to the job.
Meanwhile, Aahana discovers that the bubble machine is not for her. She'd much rather stick to her wine, thank you.
Luna: *slurs* Holy shit, guys, I am so fucked up, but I love you all so much!
The ultimate party conundrum: keep waiting in line for your next drink or make a beeline for the toilet before you burst?
Phoebe: Come on, Jane, you fucking lightweight! It's barely 3:00 am. The party's just getting started!
Somehow, despite drinking and dancing to an ungodly hour and going into work the next morning hungover on minimal sleep, Phoebe manages a promotion and a pretty impressive one at that. What did I tell you? The girl's got a mythical level of stamina.
Also, the party raked in enough club points to boost Phoebe over the top in terms of completing her aspiration. All hail the ultimate club leader! This is actually the first aspiration I've had a Sim complete because most of the time I tend to forget they're a thing. Next, Phoebe's going for the Party Animal achievement alongside Jane, for obvious reasons.
Aahana achieves the quieter success of her first batch of honey. It's not great quality yet but all in due time.
She's also become the house's go-to mechanical whiz because someone's got to be there to fix the robot vacuum when it's on the fritz. Actually, they sold this thing, like, a day later because it never cleaned up anything and broke twice. Good riddance!
The chemistry between Phoebe and Melinda hasn't totally cooled, but their autonomous flirtations are much more infrequent. They only sought each other out romantically once or twice, while Phoebe and Aahana had their eyes and hands glued to one another every other chance they could get. I think I might've been trying too hard to create a windswept romance (aka Zora and Miko 2.0) when Phoebe's real soulmate might have been quietly hanging out in the background all along.
Anyway, you'll never guess who called Phoebe up for dinner at Chez Llama (fingers crossed it doesn't lead to food poisoning)...
Phoebe: So what's with this sudden invitation to dinner, huh? You here to grovel now that you're starting to miss your friends and that illustrious modeling career hasn't quite panned out?
Siobhan: Listen, I deserve that. I know I was a jerk, but I've been thinking really hard on all of this and I swear I'm a changed woman now.
Phoebe: Ugh, here comes Siobhan with another one of her bullshit fake-nice speeches!
Siobhan: No, I promise that's not me anymore at all! Just give me a chance to prove it, please.
Phoebe: Okay, but you'd better not fuck this up because you only get one second chance.
Siobhan: I won't! I've changed so much you won't even recognize me!
Phoebe: Did you just... literally change? Where did that dress even come from?
Siobhan: A girl should always be prepared to make her big entrance. As if I was going to walk in here in any old outfit.
Maybe she really is different now, but some things always stay the same.
Phoebe: Listen, if I let you back in, you have to promise to follow some ground rules. The first one is to never turn into a megalomaniac uber-bitch again. Actually, that's the only rule: just don't start power-tripping and, for the love of God, no more cappuccinos ever!
Siobhan: Believe me, I've been on a coffee detox for months now and I'm never going back to the stuff. It really did something weird to my head. But now I feel totally clear, and I'm 100% down for doing things your way. I just really want to hang out with you guys again!
Phoebe: All right, I guess you can come back. After all, our whole thing now is about having fun, no strings attached, and it wouldn't be very cool of me to keep holding this grudge.
Siobhan: Thank you, thank you, thank you! I promise you won't regret it!