Hello everyone! Welcome yet again to the beginning of another challenge on my part. I have never attempted a Drifter challenge before, but once I found a comprehensive Rule Set, found here – I just had to give it a go!
Again, kudos to Simsie, who created the save file my challenge starts in (plus augmented by me) – save file found here.
To start – here is proof of my lot deletion/bulldozing and a sneak peak at our founder…
And here she is! My lovely founder for House 001, Gertrude Bell. I find her quite lovely and uniquely beautiful, I’m very proud of the genetics I crafted for her! And her cute style 😉
She is named for –
Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell, CBE (14 July 1868 – 12 July 1926) was an English writer, traveller, political officer, administrator, and archaeologist[2] who explored, mapped, and became highly influential to British imperial policy-making due to her knowledge and contacts, built up through extensive travels in Greater Syria, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and Arabia.[3] Along with T. E. Lawrence, Bell helped support the Hashemite dynasties in what is today Jordan as well as in Iraq.
She played a major role in establishing and helping administer the modern state of Iraq, using her unique perspective from her travels and relations with tribal leaders throughout the Middle East. During her lifetime she was highly esteemed and trusted by British officials and exerted an immense amount of power. She has been described as “one of the few representatives of His Majesty’s Government remembered by the Arabs with anything resembling affection”.[4] – via Wikipedia
If you haven’t picked up on it yet, all of our heirs will also be named for famous drifters/travelers/adventurers etc, as well as inheriting the Bell last name; only our heirs that is! Any other children born per generation will have random names and the last name of their other parent -> For adopted sims with unknown parents, they will bear a random last name as well. Only heir’s will continue the Bell name, this is just for extra weird little fun for me. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Now for the actual challenge! Gertrude “move’s in” to her new vacant lot in Oasis Springs, Agave Abode.
This lot may be small, but the neighborhood itself is quite cute actually.
With zero moolah to her name, Gertrude goes on her first collection round of many, mapping out where all plants/gems/digspots and fishing holes are, and get’s to work foraging.
Soon enough some sims from our non-empty towns start strolling by and Gertrude meets this man, Luke Slack. He is one of three brothers from a multi-generational family in another save game of mine. While she is attracted to him, he doesn’t have a job! That just doesn’t work for us. (ง ͠° ͟ل͜ ͡°)ง
After selling all the goods she found, Gertrude was able to afford a hot dog from the stand next door. She met this guy, whose name escapes me, but didn’t find him attractive at all so he is out of the running as well.
I was also able to purchase her a bed and a toilet, and Gertrude spent her first night lawn living, in typical legacy fashion.
After a couple more rounds of collecting, we are able to stack up some real simoleons for the first time – before we immediately spend it all on necessities.
Luke calls her constantly trying to invite her places, but we don’t have enough money for travel! 😦
So far, it appears he still doesn’t have any sort of story progression assigned job either.
Lawn living made extra shitty for Gertrude and the fact that the challenge started in the beginning of summer in Oasis Springs!
It has been a heatwave basically the whole time so far, and without a roof over your head there is really no relief!
I was however able to acquire her a cooler and shower, much needed so she can now eat and bathe.
Luke ends up back in the area again, and I decide to have them fish together and chat a little. He still doesn’t have a job though, which is frustrating because her spouse options have been VERY limited.
Everyone that comes by seems to be married (I considered a home wrecking route with Mortimer Goth here because of his good job, but they didn’t get along too great) OR they are women, like LOADS of women stroll by, I would say probably 80%. Gertrude just doesn’t happen to be attracted to women, so this does nothing for me!
After many more rounds of surveying the neighborhood for goodies, I was finally able to put some sort of roof over Gertrude’s head! It’s not much, but 1000 x better than being out in the sun literally all hours of the day. We also have some real appliances now!
I almost forgot about Luke at this point, and look at this! He asks to come over…AND he has a story progression job now! Looks like level 2 of the military branch, at this point I would take ANY job!
I wasted no time here and went right through the stages until move in! Per challenge, he leaves his brothers all household funds and brings 0$ with him into the challenge where he will never be actually played.
At this point I got Gertrude a job, in the Astronaut career! As it just seemed fitting for her, and the pay should rack up nicely I would think.
Good old Gerd starts bringing in some cash, as well as stolen items from work almost every day! I knew that klepto trait would be handy for extra monies.
House update! Leaves them with a lovely $48 afterwards but very worth it.
Time for some marriage me-thinks! Luke gladly accepts the proposal, as he seems very head over heels for Gertrude, which is very cute. He is constantly trying to interact with her.
Post immediate elope and we are trying for our heir for House 002!
We have success! Should be interesting trying to keep Gertrude alive through all of this, but I suppose that is one of the many reasons they call this a challenge.
Also I apparently decided her favorite color is green, which you will see ends up being a recurring house theme through-out re-dos.
Pregnancy leisure time means working on all side hustles!
Due to Gertrude’s apparent wonderful reputation, she is constantly getting job offers. These two were literally one after another!! I decided to accept all job offers just because why not – and you get rewards and possibly cash for accepting a new position.
For now, Gertrude ends up in the culinary career at level 5!
Family funds are finally starting to look up around here!
Of course it wouldn’t be a sims challenge without the occasional oven fire! Thank goodness for the fire department that showed up as the fire put itself out…? ¬_¬
House re-do and stats! It’s actually pretty cute so far, not sure my end game here yet though.
I forgot about the lot traits! I chose geothermal, study spot and sunny aspect. So far the house is worth $8,172.
This pregnancy has been anything but easy for poor Gertrude. Here she is shown peeing her pants in the street out front. ಠ_ಠ
So this was just in time! Welcome our heiress for generation 2, Sojourner Bell. She is named for –
Sojourner Truth (/soʊˈdʒɜːrnər truːθ/; born Isabella “Belle” Baumfree; c. 1797 – November 26, 1883) was an American abolitionist and women’s rights activist. Truth was born into slavery in Swartekill, New York, but escaped with her infant daughter to freedom in 1826. After going to court to recover her son in 1828, she became the first black woman to win such a case against a white man.
She gave herself the name Sojourner Truth in 1843 after she became convinced that God had called her to leave the city and go into the countryside “testifying the hope that was in her”.[1] Her best-known speech was delivered extemporaneously, in 1851, at the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio. The speech became widely known during the Civil War by the title “Ain’t I a Woman?“, a variation of the original speech re-written by someone else using a stereotypical Southern dialect, whereas Sojourner Truth was from New York and grew up speaking Dutch as her first language. During the Civil War, Truth helped recruit black troops for the Union Army; after the war, she tried unsuccessfully to secure land grants from the federal government for formerly enslaved people (summarised as the promise of “forty acres and a mule“).
In 2014, Truth was included in Smithsonian magazine’s list of the “100 Most Significant Americans of All Time”.[2] A memorial bust of Truth was unveiled in 2009 in Emancipation Hall in the U.S. Capitol Visitor’s Center. She is the first African American to have a statue in the Capitol building.[3]
Basically an awesome badass. (▀̿Ĺ̯▀̿ ̿)
Ahhhh yes, selling our few collectibles in order to afford the bills.
And because Sims 4 babies are boring, here is our little heiress! She is absolutely adorable and so far I think she looks a lot like her mother. She random rolled the charmer trait. (◕‿◕✿)
Gertrude got more job offers and ended up back in the Astronaut career, but much further ahead! I’m going to stick with this one for now, she seriously get offers constantly, is that a weird bug?? ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Luke is a pretty good autonomous father. He interacts with Sojourner all the time and changes diapers and whatnot, so overall he is actually pretty useful to have around.
Since the family finally had some funds stacked up, I decide to send Gertrude to Sylvan Glade, because I had honestly never sent a sim there.
Turned out to be a pretty big waste of time honesty! It was pretty though. ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ
Like I said, Gertrude is really raking in some cash now which is awesome!
And it appears that little Sojourner was already able to max one skill all on her own, with others closely following!
I wanted to see how much I could influence Luke into a promotion, and Gertrude needs athletic skill so I bought them the basketball hoop so she can challenge him to games, as well as a treadmill inside.
I also then decided to change Gertrude’s LTW To Renaissance sim, simply because I just wanted to. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
And we will leave you here, with an ever-graceful Gertrude trying to run on the new treadmill.
Thank you for reading everyone!
-sybellebarnham-
Sybelle Barnham Sims 
Leave a comment