* Not-so Master Thief

I absolutely love the picture above - this game is in turn frustrating and delightful. You've probably already guessed from the red hair, that it's Claire Ursine from Sunset Valley - though she's almost unrecognisable from the person she was when I (and everyone else) first loaded this neighbourhood.... but I'm getting a bit ahead of myself... back to the beginning for Claire then...

You may remember from Saucy Sunset Valley, that Jamie found Claire in the garden, in the middle of the night in her swimsuit. She'd lost the plot having recently discovered she was pregnant by her ex-lover - Jared Frio... bit of a May to December relationship, that one - and I've no clue how they would ever have gotten past their first fight long enough to have woohooed and *tried for baby*...

... anyhoo, when playing Jamie Jolina, I got bored whilst she was sleeping... really bored (have you ever watched a sim sleep? You have? Dull. Ain't it), so I went next door and made Claire Ursine *Active* using Twallans MC mod and was just in time to see Claire leave the hospital with her new baby girl, Beth. I lucked in with that one, coz I got to name the baby (though I think I have Twallans SP set to allow me to do that... I have a vague memory of the Keatons having a baby boy and I got the chance to name him... Buster, of course).

After Claire went home by taxi, in the wee hours of the morning - I gave her a very slight makeover... just her hair and clothes (completely forgot those ominous eyebrows!!!!!). Then she phoned Jared Frio and invited him over, to tell him he had a daughter.

I don't really know what I was expecting to happen - I made Jared the active sim so that I could get him to pick up his baby girl and take some *doting dad* shots, but the game blocked me from doing that - he was in Claire's house, so interaction with the baby wasn't gonna happen - though I'm fairly sure that visiting sims can interact autonomously with babies - I dunno, though.

I got bored with Claire and it was nearly time for Jamie to wake up, so I left... the next time I saw Claire, Jamie had gone to the park for a bbq - and a slimmer Claire just happened to walk by. Took me a moment to recognise her - it was the eyebrows that give it away. She'd obviously discovered the Gym, all on her lonesome.

After chopping and changing my sims, every night when Jamie Jolina went to bed - I was starting to lose track of who was doing what, so I decided to adopt KarinL's approach to SV and visit with each sim (that I want to play - I don't like 'em all) for one week - so on Saturday night, at the end of my first week in SV - I left Jamie and moved over to Claire for a more permanent visit.

I have a huge soft spot for Claire Ursine - for whatever reason, EA decided to make her butt ugly and disfunctional on so many levels. And yet (once you fix her eyebrows) there's a genuine softness about her. I get the feeling that (in the world of sims) she's incredibly lonely, and that her little girl is going to make all the difference to her.

I don't know if she'll ever find a partner. I have the lifetime set to EPIC, so there's plenty of time to do the rounds of the other sims, and come back to Claire and see if she's met anyone interesting - I have SP set to allow romance and going steady, but not marriage or divorce.

Claire is always spinning a wish to learn the gardening skill, and this incarnation of Claire, lives in a house that was lived in by a previous Claire (from another SV (mine), about two years ago)... the other Claire had built up considerable gardening skills and not a few plants in her back yard - and although my Claire (as she is now) really does like to garden, after harvesting all of the other Claire's fruit and veg - I got rid of all but two plants... gardening is too time consuming for just one sim, and I'm not sure I want to reintroduce a mod that I had, that made it easier.

Shame really, she did rather enjoy it.

Though I have my game set to EPIC, I have a baby's lifespan set to only 3 days. Baby's bore me. Real ones and pixelated ones. When I decided to visit with Claire, Beth was already toddler and Claire seemed inclined to take her everywhere with her...

... well, not quite everywhere. Claire's current occupation is Getaway Driver, for a bunch of local criminals. I debated whether or not to go the *perfect mum* route, with Claire - but that would have been dull, and I'm always, always dull when it comes to playing this game - so I thought perhaps *doting mum with klepto tendencies* would be more fun.

Claire certainly thought so too... but I was forgetting one little thing...

... in all the times that I have played Claire (and it's been a few).... she's been an absolutely abysmal thief.

Every single time she goes to work - she gets arrested.

Every. Single. Time.