the children of henry VIII are moving to the forefront of the game. the ones that are still alive, that is. for the most part, they are teenagers -- other than the fully-adult mary, who is wed to portrait painter hans holbein.
as previously noted, mary queen of scots' father, james V, died in a tragic playing-with-scissors accident that we had hardly even noticed until his urn was sitting on the bedroom floor.
marie de guise had some mental problems...
and then she, too, played fatally with scissors. you'd think mary, now an orphan, would have been a little more disconsolate. but no, he came running in to show the grim reaper his report card, completely forgoing the opportunity to plead for his mother's life.
mary was then a bachelor teen with a lot of free time on his hands.
elizabeth and mary are still hot and heavy. mary has a tendency, as well, to make time with elizabeth's half sisters, whenever they are in sight. elizabeth hasn't seen any of this happening yet, but i imagine it's coming. 
speaking of elizabeth's half-sisters, maxine, the eldest of the three, came home from school one day with a "friend" -- ralph enriquez.
ralph enriquez? we said. he's one of the pre-made sims that comes with the game, apparently. but it was obvious that he and maxine really liked each other, and so did the rest of the household -- including henry, who was there visiting his redheaded daughters.
not only is something brewing with maxine and ralph, but the twins, peak frean and mushy pea, seem to be splitting a suitor between them: his name is amar. there is also a spare suitor by the name of jihoon le tourneau but he only comes around every so often.
we like this rather exotic twist that these girls have taken in their courting. this ralph enriquez -- he showed up for a date with maxine in a STRETCH HUMMER. maybe he is one of those prince jeffrey of brunei types. after all, maxine, peak frean and mushy pea are not yet princesses. bessie, their mom, is just a commoner.
the king's numerous teen daughters continue to sway in their affections for these foreign boys -- who, because they "come with the game", i am not sure can grow up into adults, so it may not be worth my time to pursue serious relationships with them. who the hell, then, is going to marry all these girls? i have to get out a history book and make some more guys.
bessie -- mother of maxine and the twins -- was having some emotional problems. she knew that history mandated that she give henry a SON -- and even within the "destiny" of the game, bessie was dying to have another baby. and yet, at the same time, she FEARED it. this put her in an awful position, as you see.
bessie was getting close to her "birthday" -- the day when she age transitions into an old person -- and she had been hoping to become impregnated by the king again, but i found that it was not an option -- literally-- when they were in bed together.
however, bessie was too smart and together to go the joan lunden route. she was not going to hire any surrogates or take any funky sims fertility drugs. one day, outside by the mailbox, bessie met a mysterious and benevolent social worker.
i gathered from their conversation that the social worker knew a recent widower with a tiny infant, and he really, really needed someone to care for the baby. so a call was made to the adoption agency and things were finalized very fast. the baby came at the same time as the mail did that day. her name is francoise. she's in no way related to the king, so we may find her useful for clive of cleves, one of these days, if he makes it... although he might not make it. the princes in my world seem to have as much trouble as the princes in henry's real world did.
henry is getting older too and can't have too many more babies, i guess... once he's finished with katherine howard, he has no one left but katherine parr -- who, again, in that eerie sims-imitating-life fashion, is a very kind, nursemaid sort of woman. after all, she has been living with and taking care of bessie's daughters for as long as they have been around. katherine's relationships, particularly with bessie and the king's twins, are free-will, proactive, and have continued as the twins have grown up.
we're starting to give some serious thought to what will happen upon henry's death. it's nowhere near (not that we know of) but since the game lacks options like "rule" and "come to power" and "abscond with the crown", we don't know how we will actually KNOW who has taken over the role of monarch. we have to set some rules up. although we haven't been all that great at following the original rules we set for this version of the game; however, it's still fun (and you don't break a sweat playing it.)
Posted by amber at August 05, 2005 12:59 PM