Meet the Creek Family - A Pack Legacy Challenge

Meet the Creek Family

The Creek Family consist of dad Charles, mom Candice and their children Willow, Sandy and Neo.



Charles Creek is your typical, slightly embarrassing dad. He's a glutton, so clumsy that he should be kept away from anything that needs repairing and the kind of person who loves to tell dad jokes and then laughs long and hard because he thinks they're funnier than they actually are. He can cheer even is wife to death on occasion, loves the color blue, comedy and wants to get along with everyone, especially his neighbors.



Candice cannot really explain why she fell so hard for someone like Charles, but perhaps it's because his bad jokes and love of all things humor keep her grounded as she strives to reach the top of her career in business? When it comes to house hold work they share it. Charles is a freelance programmer and so he is at home during the days with toddler Noa. But the kitchen Candice won't let him near for anything more complex than a snack. Not so much because he doesn't want to do it, but as Candice puts it, someone who would eat anything can't be trusted with cooking.



Willow is in many ways her mother's daughter. Strong willed, stubborn and with a mind of her own she has already decided that eating animals is wrong (to her mother's annoyance as it means having to cook separate food for her daughter or making all the family eat vegetarian food). Willow loves the colors purple and green, playing with her sister and exploring nature around her.



Sandy is in many ways her sister's opposite. She too is strong willed, but prefer movement or anything technical over studies, jeans over skirts and warm weather most of all. She hates the cold, longs for warm weather and loves the colors brown and yellow. She, like her father, prefers the technical side of life. Give her a computer game over a book any time of the day.



Finally there is little toddler Noa. A surprise for both mum and dad as he's much younger than his sisters. He loves everything that has to do with foxes and the color red, and to play with mum or dad.



The family has just moved to Willow Creek, something that Charles Creek can't stop joking about. Willow especially is getting tired of the jokes already before they've arrived. But she likes the new house, a typical shotgun style house in Foundry Cove. Sandy loves that their new house is yellow, Willow loves that there are so many beautiful big trees around.
"Can we have a garden, mum?"
"Eventually, but perhaps we should settle in first?" Candice answers.

Fact is, this move has cost them nearly everything they have and after dinner that night they have only 9 simoleons on their bank account. But it can't be helped. Willow Creek has better schools for their children, a neighborhood safe for their children to explore, less crimes and to be honest, their family could no longer fit in their old apartment. Even here, the girls has to share a room, but at least it's a decent size room.

Still, the kitchen is dark and dated, the walls are bare and windows left open as they can't afford curtains. For Candice, always such a perfectionist, it's difficult to feel at home at this place. But she keeps telling herself that when they work up enough money, she'll be able to transform this place.



At least the girls seem happy playing outside after dinner. And Noa falls asleep safe and sound in his new big-boy bedroom that night. The first night of his life to sleep alone.




The next day they get their first visitor. Some strange woman who claims she's a royal envoy, sent by some "royal" family named Darong that Candice never heard of. Charles takes an immediate interest in her inviting her into the house, while Candice is more hesitant.



Once inside she shares a tall tale about some long lost royal family named Darong, Charles loves every moment of the story, thinking this is the most elaborate marketing scheme he's ever seen.



Candice, on the other hand is worried. "What's to say she's not just some con artist? Here to scope out the house?"
"Well if she is she now knows we have nothing to steal," Charles laughs. "Oh come on, that was objectively funny!" he protests when Candice doesn't laugh.
Candice find herself chuckling, not at his joke, but at him. "It's a good thing you're cute," she says with a small smile.

The next morning, it's business as usual. The girls fight over the bathroom they share, toss breakfast down and hurry off running to the bus.
"You'd think two hours was enough," Candice says, but for some reason those two are always running late no matter what you do."




She leaves an hour later, and then Charles is alone with Neo. He starts by giving him a bath, which is one of Neo's favourite activities. He waits with showring himself until after, as he knows he'll get soaked anyway.




The two then head off to the local museum, one of the places mentioned by the envoy. Charles is not sure why he goes, but he supposes it's not a bad thing to have checked out the museum and Neo likes running around. Charles dabbles with some painting, and laughs long and hard at his own effort.
"It's not a master piece, but at least I gave it a go," he chuckles, before picking Neo up and heading over to their true destination - the library.





Willow Creek archives is much nicer than the museum in Charles' mind. But then he's always liked books, and computers. Here he finds both, which is good because he needs to get some work done. In the children's section he finds a safe place for Neo, and with the computer right outside the door he can keep an eye on his son and work at the same time.

Neo likes the toys here, they're not the same as home. And they have pretty pictures on them, and if you try you can make a tower.



With Neo being entertained, Charles can finally get some work done. He emails a client, and work on some encryption keys. He also gets a chance to get to know one of the residents of Willow Creek, some guy named Bob Pancake. Charles has almost as much fun with that last name as his own, and to his surprise, Bob seems to think he's funny too.



But as he sits and works, an email pop up. It's the envoy again. How did she get his email address? But then again, it's his name @simmail.sim - so perhaps it wasn't a stretch. Some kind of promotional mass email most likely.
Nevertheless, he reads it, finding in it a job offer. Hack a website for some information, find a key hidden in the library and receive §2 000. Even he thinks it looks shady, but then he thinks about the §9 they currently have... maybe it's worth it?
He emails an old co-worker who still works at a major tech-firm and has access to all sorts of databases, legally and not, asking him to check it out. What does he think about this envoy character - just some hoax or something more sinister, or possibly real?
After sending the text he takes a break to look up the Darang family in the library text books, and would you believe it, they did exist. Rivals to some Goth family that was prominent in town some generations ago. There is a legend about a treasure hidden and buried, apparently worth a lot. A key slips from the book as he looks further. It looks old, and matches a drawing in the book. He slips it into his pocket to hold onto for later.



As much as he wants to, Charles can't stay longer at the library. Neo needs a nap, the girls are coming home, and so he heads for home without finishing the work tasks for the day. How will he ever make money like this?

He finds Willow outside, like always, and usher her inside to start her homework while he puts Neo down for his nap. Then he goes back out to the kitchen where Sandy has joined her sister. She struggles more, and homework takes longer and more often than not she has excuses not to do them. She needs water, she needs the bathroom, she is sort of done... Charles tries to be as patient as he can as he helps both girls finish.

When Candice gets home, Willow is just about done with her homework, and Sandy is at least nearing the end of hers, finishing it right before dinner. Charles was going to bring up the potential job, but Candice is annoyed already, having had a really stressfull day at work.
"Someone put jello all over my stapler," she says, and Charles has to fight not to start laughing. He knows his wife enough to know those kind of childish pranks are not her cup of tea. It is his. "I nearly ruined my clothes, and I had to go get a new one, and then I had to spend the next hour cleaning the desk drawer it was in, and throw away all the papers it had ruined. Nothing important, but still!"

Charles deem it best not to share the news right now. She's annoyed enough that she doesn't even notice his funny, but ugly painting that now sits in their hallway. Charles has yet to decide what to do with it. As the family goes to bed, he's still thinking. Maybe tomorrow will give him new insights.