Ratoation 1.8 Fall, Ashbury

 Applewhite Court. The home of Lord and Lady Ashbury, the Count and Countess of Applewhite. 

Lord and Lady Ashbury live with two cats, Dionysus and Pompeia, and they all seem to be getting along despite the relative lack of chemistry.

Cat shows and cat breeding only started to take off during the Victorian era, so I wanted to play with that a bit. That's why cats don't differ from each other as much as dog breeds do, and most distinctive cat strains like Sphinx, Munchkin and Scottish Fold have only emerged recently. The Victorian Siamese also looked far less distinctive than they do today

Lord Dana Ashbury, the Count of Applewhite, is a fortune/knowledge sim. he's a 7-7-8-0-3 Scorpio (very active and serious) and his LTW is to earn 100k, which is one of the few so far that's doable. 

His traits are frugal, grumpy, no sense of humour, workaholic, and snob. 

For now he has a job in the business career. As landed gentry he spends his days meeting with advisors and investors, as well as visiting the various farms and families that still live and work on what little land they haven't sold off. Ideally a man of his stature would lead a life of leisure, but times are hard. He'll spend more time at home working on the typewriter as soon as his son can take over his duties. 

Lady Antigone Ashbury, The Countess of Applewhite, is a 6-5-6-4-4 Scorpio and a pleasure/family sim. In typical pleasure sim fashion she enjoys long bubble-baths in her jewelry. 

While born into the upper class, she comes from a nouveau riche family and feels she has a lot to compensate for to live up to her title.

Her traits are disciplined, cat person, mooch, proper, and snob.

Antigone isn't about to manage the house on her own so they hire a live-in maid to take care of things alongside a butler and a gardener. 

Hope Hayward is the mother of Joy and Increase. She's a popularity/knowledge sim and her traits are loner, neat, nurturing, good, and neurotic. 

I'm thinking about upping the number of live-in servants to two or three for nobility, but either way we'll have to wait until some of the kids in the neighbourhood are old enough.

Antigone's first attempt to make friends is with Mrs Diana Wormwell. They come from similar  backgrounds so the shift in station makes things awkward. Antigone inquires about Diana's husband and father who work in law, but Diana is a tough nut to crack. A party would probably loosen her up more. In fact I'd love to throw parties, but I have no idea how I'm supposed to do that when everyone is constantly pregnant. 

Since the butler isn't very reliable when it comes to meals, Hope mainly works as the chef for now. And when the babies arrive she'll probably spend most of her time in the nursery. With so much work to go around and only one servant to so it, i don't quite know what role she fills. 

Another reason that cooking is so essential is because the noble families won't eat leftovers. They keep some in the larder for the servants, but otherwise they'll get fresh dishes every meal.

Hope also does the shopping, and she runs into Increase who's making a menace of himself stomping flowers. He hasn't quite settled into his life at the Meadwosweet farm away from his family, and it's been hard to keep his mood up. 

Dana brings Eric Wormwell home from work with him, and the two of them get along much better than their wives did. Eric is a social climber in need of friends, and Dana needs someone to play laceball with. 

Meanwhile Antigone has taken up painting in the conservatory. Thanks to her pregnancy she doesn't have much time for it, but hopefully she'll be able to contribute to the household funds too. At the moment money is the biggest concern for the family. With such a massive house the bills are staggering. 

Late in the evening a few days before winter, Lady Alexandra is born. Yet another girl in this female-heavy wave of babies. 

Lady Ashbury invites Diana over again, and the situation seems to have thawed a little more than last time. Just a little. Antigone might wish she could pick her own friends, but it's her duty to entertain the other ladies of the town and make friends to help her husband.

Her husband, meanwhile, seems to have taken an odd interest in Ethel Coldwater, a married woman from the lowest working class in town. What could he possibly hope to achieve with courting her attention? Even if she is rather pretty and he's always had a liking for redheads...

But we'll have to see what kind of trouble he gets into next round. For now it's the end of fall and they pay Hope §500 into her account.