Wrapped: The Wonder Kingdom

I used to write a cute little story called The Wonder Kingdom. It was another Pruett spin-off that continued the story of Devan–a generation 8 cousin–and Leliana–a wonder child from a friend’s story–Holmes. As a story that was almost 100% game driven, it was fun and easy going, and there was almost no point to it except to see how the two kids were getting along together as young adults in a new chapter of their lives. The open-ended nature of the story made it very easy to step away from it when I wanted to start new stories and dedicate more time to Discovering Juliana. When I complete a story, it makes me want to complete another. While I can see the finish line in my other two stories, I’m not quite there yet. In the spirit of completion, I remembered The Wonder Kingdom! The story doesn’t really have an end, so I won’t call this a finale, but I do want to bring a little bit of closure to that story. I love this family and continued to play this save long after the last chapter was posted, and I had about nine more chapters ready to write. But, several years have gone by, and I have so many new readers who have no clue what this story is about. And, honestly, I haven’t been inspired to write the remaining chapters. So, instead, I will share a few pictures for the five of you who remember this story 😀 and tell you what’s transpired since the last chapter.

Background:

If you aren’t familiar with the story and haven’t closed this tab yet, thanks for sticking with me! Here is some information to catch you up.

Long ago, me and a friend did a collaboration between the Pruett legacy and his wonder child challenge. Devan Holmes was an outspoken computer geek, and Leliana, née Frenlore, was constantly hacking into the government’s systems to figure out what they wanted with her. It only made sense that we made them meet online via the pen pal system.

Leliana’s father called her “wonder princess” when she was a child. In the innocence of youth, she pretended to rule over a kingdom–her dollhouse–that she named “The Wonder Kingdom.” This imaginative world took on new meaning as she grew. It became less of a game she played with her father and more of a coping mechanism as she discovered more of the government’s evil plans for her. Some people thought she was insane because she appeared to believe she was a real princess (now queen) of a real kingdom. But, The Wonder Kingdom was the only positive way she could deal with the negative things happening in her world. She had to study things like rocket science as a teenager, and it was far more pleasant to think of herself as needing to learn all the skills in order to be the smartest person to rule a kingdom rather than thinking about becoming a weapon of mass destruction.

Devan and Leliana met during that curious time of teenage life when they ask every adult they know about woohoo, and they developed feelings for each other. Leliana discovered the government’s end game and needed to escape, so she programmed the wormhole generator to take her to Devan. He had just read her final email when she showed up at his doorstep. After catching up with her, he asked his parents if she could stay with them until she got on her feet. (I don’t think she ever intended to get on her feet, he he he.) She lived at the Holmes house, and they began to date. But, Leliana became paranoid and felt the government was looking for her and planned to take her back to complete their plans. This paranoia got really serious and she planned to run away. Devan, of course, wouldn’t let her go and came up with another plan. They got married, went on their honeymoon, and never came back. Just in case the government came looking for them, they didn’t want his family to know anything to keep them safe.

The Wonder Kingdom picks up after the honeymoon with the new Holmes couple settling into their new home. Leliana wanted to start a family right away, but Devan was reluctant. He quickly learned Leliana gets what Leliana wants and gave in after a few days. They had a daughter named Aria and another daughter named Sophia immediately after. Devan works in the tech guru career. Leliana is a stay-at-home mother, but she wanted to do something else with her time and decided to start a business. The Holmeses are both creative Sims, and Leliana thought it would be a great idea to profit from their creativity. So, she began construction on an art gallery for her paintings and his photography.

Continued:

Leliana thought it was cute how Aria bosses her best friend Silas around. She definitely has what it takes to be the next queen of The Wonder Kingdom.

After working very hard, Devan and Leliana finally completed the art gallery and furnished it with all their work! While waiting for the grand opening day, life continued as normal with family dinners, spending time with friends, and doing the usual parenting things.

Finally, the grand opening! Leliana did most of the hard work, and Devan was very proud of his wife’s accomplishments.

So many people came, and of course our little sales lady worked the crowd. They made a lot of money that night.

In the weeks leading up to our final event, Aria had been pestering her parents about having an early birthday. For those who recall the beginning of this story, you may remember how much she loves the monkey bars. She completed the rambunctious scamp aspiration within one week! I don’t remember what she moved onto next, but she completed a second aspiration and felt she deserved to be a teenager. Her parents agreed she could have an early birthday if she completed her current aspiration, and she did!

Potential Plans:

I always said this story was 99% game-driven because it was done mostly based on whims, but there were two tiny pieces of plot I wanted to do. I wanted them to open an art gallery, so I waited for Leliana to get that “start a new career” whim to come up to get started on that piece. The other one was more to tie the name of the story into the plot. Because I’m not going to do that, I’ll explain right now. I named the story The Wonder Kingdom because Leliana’s life essentially is the kingdom from her childhood. We’re all basically rulers in our own kingdoms, right? She still refers to herself as the “Wonder Queen of the Wonder Kingdom,” and one day I wanted Devan to ask her about it. He knew she went through a lot and had a traumatic past, but he doesn’t bring it up because he wanted her to remain at peace. But after hearing about this Wonder Kingdom so much, he kind of gets tired of it and would accidentally say something flippant that would offend her. She would explain the part about the game she and her father played and how she coped as a teenager. Then she would explain, now that she’s an adult, The Wonder Kingdom is all she has left from her old life. It’s the only way she can think back on her childhood in a positive way. And, in a way, it’s all she’s ever known. Devan would feel like crap, of course, and apologize and tell her he’s honored to be part of her kingdom or something mushy like that. Ugh! LOL

They would probably try for a baby again because Devan would eventually want a son to get more testosterone in the house. I had a bigger house all set up for them to move into and everything! Anyway, that’s pretty much it! That’s all my plans. I consider this story wrapped now. To those who used to enjoy this story, thank you for the support! I’m sorry I dropped the ball on you. To everyone else, thanks for letting me have a few minutes of your time lol. If you are curious about this story, you may find out more about it here. There are links to my friend’s story and Devan’s part of the legacy on this page.