Mod The Sims - View Single Post - Evergreen - Formerly boring name, exciting place

Our last check in with Stoffe ended with Vanessa asking for a divorce, and Stoffe wandering off in his underwear, his stubborn side provoked. He's been blamed by his wife and the insurance company for the fact that their house burned down, told by Lena that his worldview is lacking nuance, and finally rejected by Vanessa when he tried to repair things after everything that happened. And his mood was not improved when, after storming away from Rakel's house, he discovered that none of the landlords in Evergreen would rent to him. They'd all heard how his lack of care with the mansion's garden resulted in the entire house burning down, and putting the mansions nearby at risk as well. Who wants that kind of risky tenant in their precious property? None of them, that's who. So Stoffe finds himself in quite a tough spot, he's lost all of his money and he knows that he will be owing Vanessa a hefty alimony, and he has nowhere to live. Does he sell his car business so he can buy a house of his own to live in? Could he find someone wanting to sell their house to him if he did? How would he make money to pay the alimony and child support, without the business? Not to mention that he worked hard to establish himself in the car world, laying the foundations by running the city branch of the Sernman group, and eventually starting up his own business in Bluewater. With his marriage ended, and the mansion gone, the business is all he has left in terms of acclaim and accomplishment. No, Stoffe would not give up the one thing he has left, his means of rebuilding his fortune. If keeping the business means he's homeless, then so be it.

Lena would have let Stoffe stay at the orphanage, there were two spare bedrooms after the Eklund sisters went off to university, but Stoffe is too proud to ask. Crawl back there to once again let the state fund his survival, after he's a grown man with two university degrees? A business man, live in an orphanage at his age? Absolutely not, that takes a degree of humility that Stoffe does not have in this moment. So with no options remaining, he did what he could. He went scouting through the forests to find somewhere he could hide out from society while he slept, somewhere he could use as his base of operations as he works to rebuild his life.

And he did indeed find a location, a clearing on the north eastern side of town. Fun fact it is located a little to the north and west in the same forest that Siri's cottage is hidden in. Here he is arriving, checking out the trees that are now his shelter.

He doesn't have long to look around, because he has to head off to work. Thankfully his regular job is not in Evergreen. He works for Bridgepoint Solutions Corporation, which is located in a town a distance away. The news of the fire have not heard made it past local news, so they are unaware of the downfall of his private life. With everything that has happened Stoffe feels he needs all the influence and high-placed friends he can get, and business is where he feels most at home so he's grateful to have a job he can go to for 8 hours a day.

And what do you know, he soon got himself promoted to vice president of the company

That is quite exciting! His private life might be falling apart, but his corporate one is booming.

Back in his clearing he sets up a tent to sleep in. It's really quite beautiful in the forest, flowers and greenery all around.

It might not be a toilet, but bushes work in a pinch.

With his salary from today he is able to go and buy himself some clothes, he'll need warmer things if he's going to be living outdoors for the foreseeable future.

It's a good thing he does still have the car businesses, he can go there and use the employee break rooms to make himself food. Here he is at the city center branch of the Sernman group car stores. Those of you with a long memory might recognize it, that break room is where Stoffe first started flirting with Vanessa when she worked for him at the business

He splurged on a tiny tv to mount on the wall, so he can watch some tv and relax, there aren't many sources of fun in his clearing in the woods.

But you have to sleep sometime and you aren't really allowed to sleep on commercial properties, so back to the clearing he heads to go get some sleep in his tent.

The next day he decides to visit the luxury gym north of the river. It's run by Rakel, Vanessa's friend (you may recognize it, that is where Billy Bob once hooked up with Rakel, before Sally Mae moved with him to the trailers), so it's a bit awkward for Stoffe but it's where all the high rollers go to work out, and it has better facilities than other gyms with a buffet, and a comprehensive changing room where Stoffe can have a hot shower and do his beard trimming and other grooming to hide the fact that he's living in the woods.

Stoffe always tries to keep in shape, he finds people respect you more if you do, and it's a great way to work out some of his frustrations with all the things that have happened to him recently. He also discovered that it's a lot easier to sleep in a tent on the ground if you are exhausted from working your muscles at the gym.

Though this gym is perhaps not ideal for actually coming to peace with his situation, because the view is sure to constantly remind him of how far he has fallen. It looks out over the rich side of town, in the distance he can see Rakel's mansion where Vanessa still resides, and to the right of it out of view from us is where Stoffe's and Vanessa's mansion used to be before it burned down.

All in all, it is not great for Stoffe's general mood, but as mentioned the facilities are excellent which makes it worth it. It's also the closest to his clearing, the other gyms are all on the other side of the river. Once he finishes his workout he heads upstairs to get a shower and make himself presentable.

Nobody would ever think he's homeless, in this dashing suit and his hair and beard on point.

With his housing and general needs more or less figured out, it's time to get to work on rebuilding his fortune. And that means sell cars, sell a lot of cars! He heads over to his dealership over in Bluewater Village, it has more cars on sale than the Sernman one. Once there, he gets right to it. He spots one of the hoods business reviewers, and he makes sure to make a good impression and give her everything she needs. A good review would really help him out right now.

Another advantage to his own dealership, the break room for employees is better stashed and more spacious than the small one over in Evergreen. He sneaks away to make himself a quick grilled cheese sandwich for dinner.

And then it's right back to car sales. I love this picture of him, it really captures that cheesy quality that one tends to associate with car salesmen. The excessive excitement, the overselling of the cars fabulousness, the charm dialed up to max. I don't think his customer looks all that convinced by the smiles and the finger pointing. Who need a lambo? Silly useless car

But he does manage to make some sales that day, making a start on rebuilding.

He definitely needs it, because after checking his email he found the decision by the court regarding the alimony he owes Vanessa. Because the fire was deemed to be his fault and the couple lost all their possessions due to it, the court has ruled that he owes Vanessa a full restoration of what she lost. His alimony is set to a whopping 700,000 simoleons, enough for Vanessa to purchase a new mansion, replace all her lost art, fine clothing and jewelry. And then there's the future child support on top.After the business closed for the night, we find him thinking angrily about his ex wife. I'd be pretty angry too, in his shoes.

He is living in the woods, and the court mandates him to send almost all his money to Vanessa until she has a mansion again! Infuriating! The court do let him keep enough for himself to live, but no landlord will accept him as a tenant and what he can keep is not enough to buy a place, so it looks like Stoffe is going to be living in the woods for a while to come unless he drops the act and admits to someone he needs help. Which he's unwilling to do at the moment. He's Stoffe for crying out loud! He made a fortune before he even turned 30 years old. He can solve his problems by himself, he doesn't need help from anyone.

I can't help but wonder what on earth the limousine driver must think, I imagine they see a lot of weird things but picking up the vice president of a corporation in the middle of nowhere by the side of the woods must be high on the list of oddities. But drivers know not to question, who are they to comment on the goings on of the tops of the business?

Back home from work, Stoffe is still fuming about the court's decision. Initially he was mostly sad about the divorce, now he's moved on to pure anger. He changed his last name back to Andersson, partly because Vanessa wanted him too, but also out of that same stubborn streak where he now wants to prove he doesn't need her name to get back to where he was.

But at his core, Stoffe is a gentle man, he's not really prone to anger. So while he's fuming, he can't keep it up for long. Sooner or later, his playful side comes back out. He's always been a little childish, no matter how old he gets or how fancy he likes to make himself out to be, there's still the little boy inside him, and there is one upside of being in the woods. There is nobody there to see you and think less of you because you are splashing in puddles as a grown man in a suit.

Though, rain storms aren't good weather to be outdoors in. Lightning in Evergreen is ferocious, as Stoffe experienced with his garden to his great regret. I felt quite bad for him when the lightning ignited one of the trees right by his tent. I mean jesus, let the man have his tent in peace! It's all he has, chill out nature gods!

Thankfully the rain put out this blaze before it got out of hand, but Stoffe realized he should probably take cover for now. He gets inside his tent, and I must say the view from inside is thoroughly depressing.

The storm raged on, Stoffe slept and by the small hours of the morning he crawled out to head to the gym before work. The nature gods were in no mood to chill because it almost seemed as if lightning was just waiting for him to show himself. As soon as he got outside, it struck!

I don't know if I've ever felt so sorry for a sim, as I did for Stoffe in that moment. What does the RNG gods have against this poor guy? He has lost his home, he has lost his wife, he's had the courts hand him a harsh ruling, he's homeless. And they decide to get him hit by lightning too, leading to this moment of him wetting himself half burned to a crisp in the middle of the woods at about 4am in the morning.

So what do you do, if you are Stoffe? You are in the middle of the woods, you do not have running water to get cleaned up. The clearing has a pond, but unfortunately Stoffe can't swim in it. He normally uses the luxury gym to take care of his showering and grooming needs, but that gym is run by Rakel. Is he really going to show up there at 4am in this state and risk anyone seeing him? After all lots of high rollers wake up stupidly early to exercise before work, can he really sneak upstairs without being spotted? I don't think so, and nor did Stoffe. He could go to Bluewater to his business there, but that's a long trip to be making in your underwear stinking of pee. In the end, he chose to head for the city central car business, because it's closer than Bluewater, and the business is closed so nobody should be there. It's in the center of Evergreen, but while it's more densely populated, the buildings also mean alleys you can hide in. He thinks he can make it there without getting spotted.

And make it there he did, but that is where his luck ran out. For some reason, Daniel too was awake in the wee hours of the morning, and doing an inspection round of all his businesses. As Stoffe arrives in his underwear, he finds Daniel standing by the door of the business. It really looks to me like Stoffe is saying "Aw man..." and throwing up his hand in despair, cursing his bad luck this day.

As you may remember, Daniel is the actual owner of this store, it's part of his car dealership group that has locations all over Evergreen. It used to be run by Daniel's son Joel, but Joel wanted out to have more time for his family, and Daniel let Stoffe take over after he got to know Stoffe when Stoffe worked at his newspaper as a teenager. Stoffe runs the store, but Daniel owns it, it's under his branding, and he is none too pleased to find the person he entrusted the store to showing up in this state.
"What the hell is wrong with you man, you look like you've been hit by lightning!"

To add insult to injury. while Daniel was working in newspaper when he and Stoffe met, he left the newspaper business to his daughter Elna a while ago, and has since focused his attentions on law. Not long ago, he got promoted to The Law in Evergreen. He oversees and is aware of all legal cases in town, even if they aren't directly in his courtroom. Which is how Daniel became one of the few people that is privvy to every detail about Stoffe's divorce, the house fire and the alimony ruling.

Daniel is usually a very kind, empathetic and understanding man. He's the type of guy to give an orphan wanting to prove himself a chance to freelance for the newspaper, even taking him on as a franchise representative in his college years. But in recent times Daniel has developed a bit of a blind spot, that unfortunately for Stoffe happens to be about in laws and divorce. Daniel's sudden career change from journalism to the field of law happened due to the very messy divorce of his daughter Moa.

Daniel's former son in law managed to dupe the whole family with a fake prenuptial agreement, taking a fortune off Moa in alimony (who had to borrow money from Daniel and her mother Maja to pay it) after she demanded a divorce due to his general shitty behavior, doing things like faking birth control to knock her up against her will. Moa is a very talented artist who worked hard to build up what she has in life, bringing far more to the union than her now ex husband Matte. That is why she sought to protect her assets with a prenuptial agreement, but unfortunately she let Matte handle it, and he made sure it wouldn't actually stand legally.

Daniel cares a lot about justice and what's right, and the fact that his daughter's ex husband was able to fool her, and fool Daniel himself, turned this otherwise kind man to a raging ball of fury. He vowed to ensure that no woman in Evergreen ever has to through anything remotely similar again. He changed careers, and started lobbying for new legislation to close loopholes and improve the legal protection for innocent parties in divorce. As The Law, he has successfully overhauled the system completely, which is in part why Stoffe found himself facing such a tough legal ruling.

Anyone that knows Stoffe could tell you he's nothing like Matte, but unfortunately there are a number of similarities to their stories. Vanessa got pregnant against her wishes, without malice like in Matte's case, but nevertheless their marriage featured an unwanted pregnancy. Stoffe is seemingly to blame for her losing all her money. One of the reasons Moa divorced Matte was his general sloppy nature and lack of care for their home, which once again, Stoffe to the outside world seems to have a similar disregard considering he let the garden get out of control. They even share the same haircolor!

Normally Daniel would have asked what was going on, would have given Stoffe a chance to explain himself. But in that moment seeing Stoffe looking such a hot mess, all Daniel could see was Matte and his stupid grin. Stoffe was giving the same irresponsible scoundrel vibe, and Daniel wasn't having any of it. How dare Stoffe put the business reputation at risk by showing up in this state! Daniel trusted him, believed in him, and this is how Stoffe repays him? Unacceptable! Surely there are no circumstances that would justify this behavior, that could excuse showing up looking like you rolled in ashes. Why wouldn't Stoffe get cleaned up at home before coming here?

If Stoffe was more mature, he might have realized that this was an opportunity for him to come clean, to ask for help. Daniel is known to be kind, he's shown it many times. If Stoffe explains he's homeless and that's why he arrives in this state he could definitely have gotten through to him no matter how upset Daniel might be. Daniel is The Law, he has the power to force a landlord to grant Stoffe housing, given that it's a court decision that limits Stoffe to renting in the first place.

But that would require Stoffe to actually let someone in, to let them see how bad things have gotten, to explain that he couldn't get cleaned up at home because he does not HAVE a home. And Stoffe can't bring himself to do that. He still believes that how people see you is the only thing that matters. Daniel is a really influential person, he's just the type of person whose admiration Stoffe craves. So instead of telling the truth, he bites down and holds it all inside. Puffing up his cheeks in indignation at the insult of being yelled at, for something that once again was outside of Stoffe's control. Not only is he blamed for a freak accident fire, now he's being yelled at for having the misfortune of getting hit by lightning. Grrr!

Stoffe keeps quiet and accepts the tirade, furious internally but seeing no other option but to swallow it all. After Daniel has had his say, they agree to meet later in the day to discuss this incident. Daniel departs for his home, and Stoffe climbs up to the break room in the attic.

I'm sure you've realized that a lot of what happens in the stories are designed that way by me, after all houses can't actually burn down in Sims, but in this case it was entirely the games decision to get Stoffe struck by lightning, and have Daniel standing by the business when he arrived. I am continually amazed by how the game seems to read my mind, and play into the stories I am creating, giving me new twists that I would not have come up with by myself. This game is truly magical!

While Stoffe does want to shower immediately, he's ravenously hungry and needs to get something in him before he has energy to get clean. He stares down his chop, while waiting for it to cook, urging it to hurry up!

This one time I can understand his lack of table manners, gobbling down his plate of pork chops.

Then it's time to get all that soot off him, and get his hair back to normal. A good shower, a comb and some hair gel can work wonders.

Once he's back to his normal self, Stoffe returns to his clearing in the woods to await the limousine for a day at work in his corporate job. That afternoon after returning to Evergreen, he heads to a local coffee shop, where he had agreed with Daniel they would meet up after work to discuss the incident that morning.

Stoffe is a little early, so he orders himself a cup of espresso and sits down to drink and chat. Alex does not seem to be a fan of what Stoffe is saying, which might have something to do with the fact that Alex is Daniel's half-brother.

Alex is not the only person present that makes Stoffe nervous. He suggested the coffee shop because it's neutral ground and he thought they could talk in relative anonymity there. But luck is still not on his side, because someone from his corporate world is also present at the coffee shop that evening. Do you remember Andreas Nilsson, from chapter 9? He's a business tycoon that invited Stoffe home from work when he first started in the corporate world, giving him advice on Vanessa's pregnancy situation as Andreas has personal experience of a difficult pregnancy through his long time girlfriend Isabelle and their son Tore.

It really is rotten luck for Stoffe that Andreas is there. His company Zenith Strategies is a big client of Bridgepoint Solutions, they handle all the marketing and sales for Zenith Strategies, who manage several major teams and sports arenas in the region. The fact that Stoffe gets on well with Andreas was part of what got him promoted to vice president for Bridgepoint Solutions. The very last thing Stoffe needs is for Andreas to hear about the incident from that morning, it's bad enough he'll lose that business without his corporate job being in jeopardy too!

He silently prays to the gods of nature that Daniel has not told his brother about the situation, or that if he has, that Alex will keep his thoughts or questions to himself as long as Andreas is within hearing shot. Thankfully for Stoffe, Andreas seems quite absorbed in browsing a magazine he's debating buying.

At this point it's too late to change the plans, so Stoffe has no other choice but to pray that his bad luck has run its course as he nervously waits for Daniel to show up for their meeting. Daniel shows up right on time, and Stoffe goes outside to greet him, hoping to keep out of earshot from Andreas in case Daniel decides to get straight to the point.

But Daniel has calmed down, at least he's not yelling anymore. Stoffe suggests they take seats at the back of the coffee shop, up on the dais where they'd have a tiny bit more privacy. The rest of the patrons all favor the sofas at the front, which should be enough distance away that they can't hear if their voices are kept low. But the longer they talk the more likely it is that something gets overheard, so Stoffe gets straight to it. It is not worth the risk of Andreas overhearing details just for the sake of possibly keeping the business, so he informs Daniel that he will relinquish the contract and hand the business back to the direct control of the Sernman Group.

Odds are Daniel would have demanded that outcome anyway, and even if Andreas had not been present, Stoffe could not have explained the circumstances behind the disastrous state he was in that morning. He would need to tell Daniel that he was unable to find anyone willing to house in, and that he had come to the store to get cleaned up because he is homeless and has nowhere else to go. Everything considered, Stofe would rather fold and try to protect his corporate reputation. He can at least try to salvage something from this disaster of a day.

He's not happy about it any of it though, even if he knows it was the only choice the could make. Daniel is tactful and affects not to notice his obvious reluctance and irritation.

Instead Daniel shows some of the kindness he's usually known for, accepting Stoffe's offer without further comment about the incident. He even provides him with an explanation he can give should anyone ask why he's no longer in charge of the business. It turns out that Joel has been wanting to get involved again as his wife is about to give birth to their third child, and him and Emma could use the extra income again. Daniel is quite excited about the upcoming birth of his 5th grandchild.

Daniel definitely intended to be kind, but I don't think Stoffe appreciated it. Daniel's talk of upcoming birth just ends up reminding him of the fact that he too is about to have a child and is just as desperate for income, what with child support soon due on top of the hefty alimony. Not to mention it's tough for Stoffe to hear about happy families, given that he never had one as a child, and his adult family just fell apart right as they were about to have a child.

But at least Stoffe was successful in handling the situation quickly, without Andreas being any the wiser to the details of Stoffes current private life strife. Considering the events of the day, that has to be considered a massive win. But he's not about to tempt fate and prolong this meeting, so once the details are settled he quickly excused himself and left the coffee shop. He ended up going to the luxury gym, this time choosing to have a swim in the pool to cool off his hot and angry thoughts.

After his cooling swim he made use of the change rooms, to change out of his suit to something warmer. It's the tail end of summer, and being outdoors in a tent all night is already starting to get cold, so he wants to be in something more warm than a business suit. Dressed for the night he wanders back to his clearing, to go to sleep in his tent. Praying to himself and the great nature gods that things take a turn for the better soon, because he's not sure how much bad luck he can handle.

And that is where I will end this episode. All in all, it's been a very tough summer for Stoffe. His whole world has been turned upside-down, and things keep happening that are outside of his control, but end up getting him in trouble anyway. Sometimes life seems that way, determined to keep piling on. But in my experience, things turn around for the better, one day.

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