Year 1 - Autumn - Mondegreen (Lord of the Manor)
Next up are the Mondegreens, the neighbourhood’s gentry family. Things at the manor are a little quiet since Lady Jessica passed on. Primrose is busy at her spinning wheel, filled with nervous energy over her upcoming nuptials.
When I loaded the lot the Rudhalls were visiting. Then at some point Primrose and Michel snuck off together! I hadn’t realised this, but at some point the two of them became best friends, and Primrose is highly attracted to him. Something about these red-haired peasants, I guess…
While the family’s new maid, Hilda, prepares breakfast, Primrose enjoys a morning drink.
Honestly, Primrose seems desperately bored and unhappy to me. She’s a highly outgoing popularity sim, but mostly just stays stuck in the manor with only her servant for company.
While there’s plenty of toil involved, Hilda actually seems to be enjoying her job as as a maid/cook/general servant. She likes cooking, and since there’s not that many people living in the manor its easy enough to sneak away and goof off every once in a while. When I sent her to make the beds upstairs she walked up the stiars with such a cheerful, perky gait to her step, it was cute!
She’s taken on the job since her older sister Bryanna began working as a midwife. Since she’s commited several assaults this season, she’s got a hefty fine to pay or she might face jail time 😬 Luckily she doesn’t seem too concerned.
I was using the ChristianLov all-in-one NPC controller originally, but it was giving me problems where sims would make too much food and then refuse to clean dirty dishes. The manor was filthy! So here’s how I’m playing servants now: I teleport them over using the Simlogical meeting controller, which is nice and convenient and also makes them controllable in one click. Then, to avoid too much micromanagement, I am using MATY macrotastics to direct Hilda to clean or garden. I was controlling her manually at first, but it was feeling like a bit of a chore and breaking my immersion a bit - I want to focus on my gentry family! There’s still a bit of micro-management when it comes to serving meals and making sure she eats in the kitchen rather than with the rest of the family, but nothing too bad.
The only issue I’ve had with this is that sims will age while they are selectable - I changed my aging mod to have sims age up at midnight rather than 6PM to mitigate this since Hilda will always have gone home by then. I also have to pay her manually, but I don’t mind that! She’s also employed in the cookery career as a scullery maid, so can earn more money when I play her house :)
Primrose has her latest peasant bestie Nigel over, for some drinking and gossiping. In a moment of drunken madness, she suggests the two of them run away together.
Nigel turns her down, though, and confesses to her that he’s in love with Finley Dowrick. Primrose is delighted to be privy to this information! She’s not the only one engaging in salacious, forbidden relationships!
Lord Lionel is doing well at work, but his old age is starting to catch up with him. Maybe it’s time to think about retirement?
He suffers from a heart attack, but luckily Primrose has actually read a few medical books and recognises the signs. She’s able to give some basic first aid and prevent him going into cardiac arrest.
Lionel’s focus on his daughter’s education has paid off well. It’s useful for a man his age to have a daughter who is normally home, and has studied almost every life skill!
The next day it’s time to invite the men-at-arms over and make a final decision about Primrose’s marriage, but the Lord falls ill again! Primrose is able to save him once more, but it’s definitely time for Lionel to retire.
There were a few factors that went into deciding on Primrose’s future husband, but the outcome was so obvious that I feel silly I even bothered making such a convoluted system, lol. But here it is:
- Father’s Favourite - this was weighted highly, as the desicion is ultimately Lord Lionel’s. However, the Lord barely interracted with any of the soilders (even though I regularly directed them to talk with him!) and didn’t have any strong opinons on them, although he appreciated Nicolas Parry’s interest in fine music.
- Primrose’s Preference - Lord Lionel cares deeply about his daughter, and would take her marriage preferences into account. While this one was weighted lower, Primrose had a very strong preference for Elliot Moore, reaching best friend status with him. He’s also the only one of the men she has any attraction to.
- Roberte’s Reccomended - Sir Roberte is Lionel’s borther and close confident, and as the commander of the army knows his men best. His judgement would be taken into account, too. Roberte is close friends with Reginald Moore and thinks he shows great promise.
- Career Clout - this was also weighted more highly, as actual experience in the battlefield shows who is the most worthy of a title! Elliot was far ahead of the other two, having already reached level 5 (engineer). He’s anticipated to become a commanding officer, soon.
While Elliot did not win every category, he was the highest in his career and Primrose’s preference for his was so strong that he jumped into the top spot easily!
Primrose wanted to take her betrothed for a test spin, but Lady Jessica was aghast at her daughters impropriety and put a stop to the matter at once. They’ll have to wait until after the wedding!
The two of them were quickly married under the hacked wedding arch. For all Primrose’s cries for help, she doesn’t seem to upset about it. She actually likes Elliot!
I wasn’t sure what to do about this last name, at first. Normally I’ve been going with the woman taking the man’s last name, but Primrose is the one with the fancy gentry family line. So I ended up going with a portmanteau name, which doesn’t feel very historical but idk, new last names have to be derived from somewhere, right? So Elliot Moore & Primrose Mondegreen are now the Morgreens.
Back at home, Primrose and Elliot talk things over. They might not be in love, but there’s a decent friendship between them and they’re both hopeful it will evolve over time.
The round ends, and Lord Lionel forks out $100 for the church so Lady Jessica can be properly put to rest. He’s not happy about the burial fee, and ends up getting into a fight with Clarissa about the grand statue he wants to honour his late wife.
