1-4 // Dating: A Guide by Skylar McKinnon

With a baby now draining their already dwindling bank account, Masaru put his foot down and set out to get some darn tips once and for all. The problem, he figured, is that nobody was hearing him when he played. He'd simply have to find new, creative ways to attract a crowd to him.

And so began Masaru Fujioka's quest for tips.

Idea #1: Protest
Protests generally attract crowds, because sims like to complain about things. Complaining is, in fact, one of their greatest skills. But there were no protests actually going on at the time, so Masaru improvised and called for one about some random subject he didn't actually care about.

What'd the Loch Ness Monster ever do to you? D:
Regardless, apparently Nessie is incredibly unpopular with the population of Hidden Springs. Masaru's protest did, in fact draw a crowd.

Unfortunately for Masaru, they got too passionate about their hatred for poor Nessie to notice when he slipped away to start playing guitar. The protest didn't break up until morning, when the police came by to put an end to it.

Hey look, it's the same officer as last time! Unfortunately she was too busy rounding up the rowdy protesters and rescuing this poor, unknown sim from beneath the concrete to notice Masaru again. Oh well.

So protesting was a bust. What else tends to bring a crowd?

Idea #2: SimFest
SimFests existed for talented performers to, well, perform in front of a crowd. Alright, maybe Masaru wasn't invited onstage to perform, but he could still show up and play, right?

Unfortunately, not many people actually showed up to this particular SimFest. In fact, only the performers and Masaru did.
The magician, who's name I don't actually remember, thought it was pretty darn rude for Masaru to be crashing the SimFest with his guitar and called him onstage to be the assistant.

The magician proceeds to humiliate him in front of the entire crowd of three.

Masaru wasn't impressed.

That evening, he went back to his usual spot in the town square to play to himself and drown his sorrows after yet another unsuccessful day. He figured it'd be just another night with no audience to be seen.
He was wrong. Guillermo Shanks, on an evening walk, heard Masaru play and stopped by to listen for a while.

He didn't stay long, however, and didn't tip a single Simoleon. Perhaps he wants us to go broke as revenge for what Ciera did to him. Or maybe he just think Masaru sucks at guitar. Who knows.

Skylar didn't have work the next day, so he went out with a friend.

Most people wouldn't want to go see their boss on their day off, but Ella Carlisle is not only his boss, but also a close friend. They met up to go sing some karaoke, because that's basically the only thing to do in this town.

I really like this screenshot. It's cute.

Astrid Pertridge... approves? Maybe?
Afterwards, the two went out for lunch. Skylar paid - and apparently, neither he nor Ella get an employee discount. Wow, thanks.

After lunch, Skylar wanted to go sit down and read a book about yetis, thinking that the outing was over. It was not.

Apparently, Ella (understandably, to be honest) thought this was a date and gave Skylar a bouquet of flowers. How sweet.
The game apparently agreed with Ella and proceeded to designate their outing as a date. Skylar, who cared about Ella but wasn't especially interested, thought it'd probably be rude to tell her to screw off now and proceeded to have the most awkward date of his life.

Behind them, another couple discussed marriage.

Skylar has never been on a date. He likes to go hang out with friends, but he's never been much for romance. So coming up with things to talk about was a lil' awkward. What did couples even talk about?

"Soooo...... quill pens, am I right?"
Ella didn't have anything to say about quill pens, so he resorted to his favorite ice-breaking tactic.

Dating, everyone.

He got a call for an opportunity to make and deliver some food. From Ella Carlisle. Who was standing right in front of him. Telepathically calling his phone, or something.

Dating, everyone.

Ella looks on fondly as Skylar changes into his outerwear - for some reason - and makes funny faces.
She sure knows how to pick her men.

They had fun, though, despite how painfully awkward the entire encounter was.
They went back to the karaoke bar to get their pictures taken.

Masaru was there too, testing out Idea #3: Hotspots.

He was still rather unsuccessful. Astrid Pertridge is stingy with her money.
I'm beginning to think Astrid is going to be a recurring character in this legacy, you know. She keeps showing up wherever my sims are.

After getting his picture taken, Skylar was very tired, so he went home. Ella followed and stood outside staring at the back wall like a creep.

She did eventually invite herself inside, though.

Viola: "This place is a dump, we can't have guests over like this!"
Ella: "This place is a dump, I can't stay here!"
In fact, Ella was so disgusted by their dump of a cabin that simply running out of the door was not good enough. The only way to save herself from this wreck was to to go back in time to the start of the date. The method for this is top secret, but it involves the time portal in the back of their kitchen cabinet and crashing the game.
Everything went pretty much the same, except now with her knowledge of how much of an awful wreck Skylar's home was, she opted to stay back at the karaoke bar after having her picture taken. After all, there was this really great guitarist there who was short on tips!

She gave Masaru a lot of tips. Both he and I are eternally grateful.

Ciera, who had spent 90% of the past several days ignoring her baby and leaving her in the care of Viola and Masaru, had her own plans for Masaru's tip money. Maisie's birthday was coming up.

Happy Birthday, lil' tyke.

She can't simply age up in Ciera's arms. Nah, let's just leave her on the floor.
Despite how few options there were in the toddler wardrobes, Maisie still managed to pick the worst outfit she possibly could. Masaru, seeing the fashion disaster his not-quite-niece had grown into (which I did not get a screenshot of), rushed into the other room to get her some better clothes. That somehow fit her.

That's better.

(As a note, I also kinda went on a custom content spree because heck. I spent a lot of time browsing modthesims on my phone and found quite a few cute hairstyles and outfits and ended up downloading them. I don't have much for toddlers (I believe both the hair and the outfit Maisie is wearing here are EA) but you can see where I'm trying out some CC eyes. I'm not entirely sure what I think of them yet.
And while I'm making notes on the game I should also note that like... halfway through Maisie's baby stage I went and extended the lifespans and season lengths a bit. Maybe that's cheating since the legacy's technically already started, but I remembered that every time I've had a child or teen during winter they ended up only going to school like once before aging up because of all of the snow days, and the seasons were extended so I didn't have a holiday every week. That was too many days off work.)
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Misc. Screenshots