Fleming Actually Looked Surprised. "What Do You Mean, You're Starting Over?"

Fleming actually looked surprised.  "What do you mean, you're starting over?"

Malcolm leaned forward, grinning.  "I'm starting the family legacy over,” he said,  “with no more stupid marriage rules and no more involvement with you or your firm.  I think my great-grandfather would be proud of me.  I'm following in his footsteps."

"I see.  And how will you pay for this fresh start?  All your money is in the family account, which means it will all belong to the firm once you 'start over'.  What will you live on, and where will you live?"

"I'll have plenty of money to invest in a new house," Malcolm said smugly.  "Remember?  The Gazette had to pay me for that story."

"But that money is in your bank account, Mr. Landgraab, which means it will be taken with the rest of the money in that account when my firm takes possession."

Malcolm laughed.  "Nope.  I had my lawyer," he gestured to Lily, who smirked, "open a new bank account for me and the Gazette money went in there.  Your firm only handles the original Landgraab account, not this one, so this money will still be mine.”

Fleming folded his hands on the desk, his face unreadable.  “It appears that you’ve thought this through, Mr. Landgraab.”

Malcolm nodded and stood up.  “I’ll leave Ms. Gate here to work out the details with you,” he said.  “I’ll make sure to inform the employees at the businesses about the changes, and I’ll be out of the mansion by the end of the season.” 

“Good luck, Mr. Landgraab,” Fleming said, his face once more unreadable.  “I hope you know what you’re doing.”

“Even if I don’t, I at least know that what I’m heading toward is better than what I’m leaving behind.”  Malcolm smiled to himself and walked out of the office.

He could forgive her.  He could put the past behind him for the sake of the child.  They could be friends.  For a moment, Malcolm teetered on the edge of the decision. If she was sincere, then maybe...

“You need me?” he repeated.

She nodded, a hand on her belly again.  “We both do,” she said.  “We can’t stay with my uncle for much longer. There’s no room.  And I don’t have much money or a job...We’re going to need someone like you to take care of both of us.”

I’ve added a few more posts to the queue to continue Malcolm’s story. I have more pictures waiting to be queued up, but the story isn’t cooperating at the moment. I think there will at least be posts this coming week.  I’ll keep poking at the story to get it in line and will hopefully have more eventually. 

One more reblog.  I’m going to close the poll tonight, so if you want to help me out, do it today!  Thanks again to everyone who already answered. I will share the results after closing the poll.  

Hey, everyone!  I need a bit of help!  I’m working on the official start of Round 3, but I’m not sure where to take the story after a certain point.  That’s where you come in.  I’ve created a really short poll about who you wanted Malcolm to end up with in the Bachelor Challenge (if it had been real).   You can also tell me why you wanted him to end up with that sim, and there’s one extra bonus question on there as well. 

Please go HERE to participate in the poll.  It really will help! 

Thanks!

I’m not the best set builder, but I’m pretty happy with the one I created tonight. Shooting the beginning of the Landgraab Round 3 is going to be the hardest part of the whole round, but I think the story will be worth the work.  Tomorrow I’m going to try to get a whole bunch of sims to behave in this set...

I’ll let you know how it goes...

Surprise!  I don’t know if you saw the twist coming or not, but I had a lot of fun creating Malcolm’s Bachelor challenge and then pulling the rug out from under everything at the last minute.  For the record, I think he would have chosen Charlotte.  She was only about 5 points ahead of Penny in relationship points and they really seemed to have a connection.  But, of course, it was all a pitch cooked up by Cynthia and Sylvia Marie, so none of it actually happened.  

Look below the cut for more about how I played the bachelor challenge.  There aren’t any extra pictures, but I got a little wordy (to no one’s surprise).  If you don’t feel like reading, I won’t be hurt.  Round 3 will start soon and I will see you there!

I played the entirety of the Bachelor challenge in a copy of Bluewater, now officially called Bluewater Extras.  (I’m not sure if I’ll need it for any future staging purposes, but it’ll be nice to have it around.)  

I tried to just let everything go naturally and keep the sims on free will, but when I had to start having Malcolm queue up flirts with each girl and he kept wandering off, I turned off everyone’s free will.  I also made use of teleportation so that it didn’t take forever for sims to climb up and down the stairs in that giant house, and I actually locked a bunch of the rooms there so the sims wouldn’t wander everywhere.  I wish now that I hadn’t put in so many chess tables because that and the hot tubs were all they wanted to use...

I’d never played a bachelor challenge before.  It was surprisingly quick to play (once I turned off free will).  I wanted to add a lot more drama and make it more like a TV show (like I did at the beginning of the challenge) but it just didn’t work...I did try with Cynthia’s little bits with each of the eliminated girls, but I never got the spirit of those first few posts back. 

I hope you still enjoyed the whole romp.  My favorite part was the ending, but that was mostly because I knew the twist from the start and was wickedly delighted by it.  What was your favorite part?