The Bradford Legacy: The War Year Part 4 - Dotty's Story

[silverbellelj]

Seeing as how today is the 69th anniversary of the D-Day invasion, I hurried up and finished filming this so I could get it out.  Click on the picture to read the latest installment of the War Years Saga.  This time, you get to hear Dotty's story.  I hope you enjoy.  Comments can be left here or on Boolprop.

Comments

[leilia.livejournal.com]

I'm not really at a place where I can leave a coherent comment, but I liked this chapter. It was good and I was nice to see Dotty's story although I hope she can find peace after the war.

Also very appropriate posting day.

[silverbelle1220.livejournal.com]

No worries. I'm glad you liked the chapter. I have a plan for Dotty, and I think she'll end up being a happy lady once I carry it out.

It was an appropriate day. When I realized the date, I hustled to finish up the last few photos I needed so I could get it out today.

Thanks for commenting.

[lauriempress.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my face is still wet. But it was still an excellent chapter. *hug*

[silverbelle1220.livejournal.com]

It was a sad story, but I'm glad you liked it.

Thanks for commenting.

[tatdatcm.livejournal.com]

Excellent chapter. You told Dotty's story beautifully. I felt so bad for her. I hope she finds happiness eventually.

(I thought that was a Geebiv! :) *waves at Carmine*)

[silverbelle1220.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Dotty had a rough go of it, for sure, but I have a plan to make sure she ends up happy in the end.

Yup, it's a Geebiv! Carmine was quite enthusiastic about his role.

Thanks for commenting.

[katee412.livejournal.com]

Poor Dotty, I agree with Nick, we really did see her grow in a woman. I hope the future holds happiness for her!

[silverbelle1220.livejournal.com]

Poor Dotty indeed. Since you already knew what was going to happen in her story, I did want this to be more about how she grew up than "this was my war," so to speak. I have some plans for Dotty, which I'll go into more detail about once we get past the War Saga arc.

Thanks for commenting.

[katmiesterk8.livejournal.com]

This was superb. I really felt bad for Dotty; I hope she finds her happiness eventually.

My dad's parents met during WW2--Nanna was a nurse and Pop was one of the men who trained other soldiers to shoot, so I guess good things DO sometimes come out of horrible things like war.

[silverbelle1220.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Dotty certainly had a rough go of it. I have an idea for her, and I hope it leads to her eventually happiness.

That's a really neat story, and I like hearing about some of the good things that did end up happening because of the war.

Thanks for commenting.

[joandsarah.livejournal.com]

Poor Dotty, I feel bad for her. Glad to see you have some other plan for her.

[silverbelle1220.livejournal.com]

Poor Dotty indeed. It was a rough time for her. Yup, there in a plan that I'll get to once I get through the rest of the war stuff.

Thanks for commenting.

[ms-norrington.livejournal.com]

hey hun, it's far too late for me to leave a coherent comment but I just wanted to say that this was a great chapter from Dotty's point of view. I really felt for her loss. Awesome work as always :)

[silverbelle1220.livejournal.com]

Aw, thanks for commenting anyway. I'm glad you liked the chapter. I really have enjoyed telling the story from different character's points of view. She did suffer a pretty substantial loss, but don't worry in that I have a plan to make sure she ends up happy.

Thanks for commenting. :)

[peasant007.livejournal.com]

I've been very bad about not commenting and for that I apologize. I just wanted to say that I've been really loving your chapters. I am in envy of your CC (or maybe I'm envious of the Sims themselves and their cool clothes because they style of the 40's & 50's have always been my favorite).

Every one of these war chapters have been beautiful and very unique. I love how the stories were all so different even though it was covering the same thing. I have been moved to tears so many times and that totally NOT just the pregnancy hormones talking!

Oh. I owe Lark five bucks :P

As a side note I have to say that you have a real knack for pegging the personalities of the imported Sims. Mary was so spot on. The Zane/Quinn thing was so eerily similar to how Quinn's death went down in my legacy it was just...well, awesome :) Oh...and I totally didn't even recognize Erin until the credits of that chapter and that was only because I noticed the "eaux" letters out of the corner of my eye >.<

I'm so sorry I'm not being more specific but I've felt bad for not saying anything :(

I'm looking forward to Danny's story and seeing more of the Bradfords!

[silverbelle1220.livejournal.com]

*waves* You have a VERY good excuse for not commenting, and I understand. I’m glad to know that you have been reading and enjoying the chapters, and I know you’ll comment when you can. If you need me to point you to CC, just ask, as I think your RR turn is taking some inspiration from the same era. I confess that I’m really loving the clothing of this era too, as it has a certain elegance about it that is lacking nowadays.

I’m glad you’ve enjoyed the war chapters. I tried to make them unique, even if they are all covering the same stuff as you said. I thought the different perspectives would help make the story a little more well-rounded. Aw, I don’t mean to make you cry when you’re already hormonal. Though I’ll admit the author in me is thrilled to get such a reaction.

Yup. You owe Lark five bucks. I’d say I’m sorry about that, but I’m not. I wants MOAR BABIES from Nick & Alice.

Coming from someone who does a great job with imports, you complement is huge to me. I’m glad you felt that I did Mary, Zane and Quinn justice. I realized that Quinn’s “death” in my story and Zane’s role in it had a lot of parallels with your legacy, and that’s the main reason I chose them for those parts. That, and I was watching a lot of M*A*S*H when I wrote it, and I kept seeing parallels between Father Mulcahy and Zane. I don’t think many people recognized Erin at first, because she was so dirty! Still, I somehow got that she would totally be into playing with power tools and similar things rather than any other war jobs.

You’ve got plenty of specifics, so don’t feel bad. I’ve actually been wondering what your reactions would be to losing the bet and how I handled your characters, so I’m thrilled.

Danny’s chapter should be out soonish, and then I can do my rebuild and move the legacy forward. :D

Thanks for commenting!

[rosefyre.livejournal.com]

I noticed pretty quickly when reading this chapter that you used letters less for Dotty, at least early on, than you did in the others. I guess that's because Edward didn't go to war immediately (unlike Gilbert or Walter or Nick), and a lot of Dotty's other stuff was covered in Nick and Alice's chapter, so there wasn't really a reason to write letters early on. Also, you had to show her and Edward's relationship growing, which happened in person, not in letters.

You know, he may be tall, well-built, and imposing, but that uniform is pretty close to his skin tone and hair color. That's probably how Dotty managed to miss him. :P

I guess that's true, you have had a few Bradfords who want to wander - your founder, for one, who came to the US in the first place, Alex, who moved to the southwest, and even Phily to some degree, though she took her world tour and then returned home.

So Edith got married, but decided to stay in school anyway?

It's sad to read all this, knowing Edward won't be coming home. :(

Did Dotty and Edward try for baby before you sent him off to war? Or did you not want her to get pregnant, as that might echo Alice too much?

Ah, Edward. Still a bit traditional, isn't he? Not all women wanted to quit and return to being full time wives once the war ended, even if most of them actually did so. It's also interesting how his last letter is more about settling down than about Dotty coming overseas to join him after the war is over - I suppose he'd like to go home, one day, now that war has affected him.

*shakes head* Oh, Liam. At least Dotty managed to talk yell some sense into him? And it seems to have helped her too, at least in the long run.

Can't wait to see Danny's story! It'll be interesting, that's for sure.

I do hope Dotty gets the chance to travel in the future - she deserves some happiness after all she went through.

[silverbelle1220.livejournal.com]

Letters didn’t work at first, and somehow at all really for this chapter. It was because, as you said, they weren’t separated at first, and then since everyone knew that Edward was going to die it somehow made more sense to me to just stay in Dotty’s head and focus on how she was seeing and coping with things. Unlike the other war chapters so far, this one wasn’t so much about the war itself but rather the effects the war and on an individual.

Yeah, he does kind of blend into the uniform. Of course, Dotty can (or could I should say at this point) be very wrapped up in her own world at times.

I don’t get too many wanders, but they do happen. Oddly, excepting John, they’ve both been Pop sims. I wonder what that says about how I view Pop sims. :P Phily…I don’t know so much that she was wandering as it was that she was looking for any way possible to escape getting married to a man.

Yeah, Edith got married but stayed in school. She’d been with her intended since teens, and I figured that character!Edith would go to college because she’d always wanted to, and since her husband was gone, she had to do something to fill her days. Game!Edith didn’t get married, because, you know, YAs can’t without hacks, because EAxis is dumb.

It was sad to write too, knowing what was coming.

They did not try for baby, because they were still YAs when the married in-game (hacked wedding arch, FTW!). And honestly? Her having a baby with him, as much as I would have loved to see how their genetics played out, was not part of the plot, and a baby would have really complicated things for me.

Edward is very traditional. Sadly, it was still the expectation that women were wives and mothers first and anything else came separate. And you saw how Dotty reacted to that. I think the last letter was a lot about trying to reassure Dotty (and himself!) that they had that in their futures, even if it wasn’t to be. :(

Liam did quite well in his role as belligerent patient. :D She did manage to knock some sense into him yes, and he did help her, though Dotty would never admit that.

Working on Danny’s chapter now, and hope to have it out soonish. If how much trouble it’s giving me is any indication, it should be very interesting.

Well, part of my plan for Dotty is to collect all the in-game vacation momentoes with her, as I’ve never done that before. That’s phase 1. Phase 2 of Make Dotty Happy…well you’ll just have to wait for that.

Thanks for commenting!

[penguingirl03.livejournal.com]

Heartbreaking and beautifully written!
Oh Dotty. This was hard to read knowing what was coming. She and Edward seemed to be made perfectly for each other and she would have loved seeing the world with him. His last letter home made me tear up. It definitely read like he knew what was coming. At least she has the letters to hold on to.

I certainly hope she finds some peace during her travels (and maybe a new guy) because she deserves to be happy. Nursing certainly seems to suit her.

Loved the sneak peak we got of Danny chapter too! Yay for more of the next generation!

Also, I wanted to agree with Ang's comment above. I LOVE the clothing from this era and how you have made your game reflect all the time periods you have gone through.

Edited to add that I totally knew that was Scott hanging out in the hospital ward. I love playing spot the sims in other people's chapters. :)

Looking forward to Danny's chapter and then to seeing what happens next!

[silverbelle1220.livejournal.com]

Thank you.


This chapter was a bit of an anomaly, as you did kind of know what was going to happen, though as you said that didn’t make it any easier. She and Edward did have quite a bit in common, and I think they would have had a great life together. That last letter…I remember my grandfather telling my father that right before D Day (even though he wasn’t part of the invading forces – he was a corpsman attached to a medical unit) that the soldiers were told something to the effect of “if you have something to say to someone at home, now’s the time to say it.” I took that here as Edward realizing that it could be the last letter he ever wrote to his wife, so it needed to mean something. And yeah, I may write an outtake of Dotty rereading his letters, because it is something she does, though not as frequently as she did at first.

I have plans for Dotty to make sure she ends up happy in the long run. She will do some traveling, and she’ll keep up with her nursing because it does suit her. There are other plans too, but they shall be revealed in time.

:D Yup, Danny comes home with a Simpanese war bride. I can’t wait to tell that part of the story.

The clothing from this era is so lovely. It’s so elegant, and just so pretty. While hunting down CC for each era has sometimes been a bit of a pain, it’s nice to see time move forward too.

Heh, I think everyone is enjoying playing spot their Sim. It was a good idea for extras, considering I was going to need them anyway.

Looking forward to getting Danny’s chapter out so I can start playing again.

Thanks for commenting.