Strangetown - Intro

[simhealing]

 
Strangetown
Population: 10 Families
Career Focus: Military, Science
Seasons: Autumn, Summer, Autumn, Summer
 

"Strangetown is located in [REDACTED], has a population of [REDACTED], serves as hometown to [REDACTED] and Project [REDACTED] and has been the site of several [ENTIRE PARAGRAPH REDACTED]. It is highly secretive."

 

Strangetown did not begin as a conscious attempt to found a new town. It began as a small city of tents surrounding some peculiar rock formations along the Road To Nowhere (A highway which led to La Fiesta Tech and nothing else. Understandably, the university has tried to have this name changed.). A group of La Fiesta Tech seniors had moved out to study the rocks as part of their final project. La Fiesta Tech’s history is not something for us to delve into here, but the university had developed a reputation for the more ‘out there’ sciences. This reputation had attracted several sims seeking to push the boundaries of science. Not in a ‘can we invent new technology to better simkind’ way, in a ‘how sick would it be if I made a robot with chainsaws for hands, legs, and ears’ way. Conspiracy theorists claim these ‘mad scientists’ unleashed something, discovered something, or caught something’s eye. What we do know for certain is that sometime in the mid 50s, during the study of the rock formation, three scientists went missing and when found three days later claimed to have been abducted by aliens.
 

 

 

There were more mysteries in the desert than the rock formations and the ‘abductions’. Instruments registered phantom, impossible earthquakes. Bones of animals not native to SimNation were dug up (Including, bizarrely, a polar bear.) and more than one scientist claimed to see unexplained lights in the sky that so fascinated them they wandered off into the desert. It became clear this research project would take more than a month long expedition. So the now graduates of La Fiesta Tech hired some builders and moved into Research Post S, affiliated with scientific research of La Fiesta Tech.

 

 

The research post had barely finished construction when the military moved in right next door along Road To Nowhere and set up a new base to carry out their own investigation into the desert and the strange lights in the sky. Primarily R&D focused the base would eventually come to be the heart of SimNation’s space program. An adjacent airfield was set up, officially it was to allow faster connection to this vital base, unofficially it was hoped that having regular air traffic would increase the chance of observing a plane’s ‘disappearance’ or ‘abduction’. As military personnel and scientists moved out into the middle of nowhere on a long-term basis, they wanted to bring their families with them. An alliance between Research Post S and ‘Sierra Base’ was established, mostly because the scientists wanted more reliable clean water and their own homes. Sierra Base officially took over as the ‘parent’ of Research Post S from La Fiesta Tech. For a while, the families at Sierra Base considered their community as a part of La Fiesta Tech's campus, however it soon outgrew this. It was not quite nothing, not quite a town. Eventually, the common description of a "Strange kind of town" mutated into Strangetown. Even the Military Base changed it's name to The Strangetown Military Base.

 

However, Strangetown had barely been christened when it began to fade. The strange occurrences in Strangetown declined as the population grew that may be true. It was as if the more people came looking for its secrets the harder the desert held on to them. People moved on to more successful sites of interest, abandoning dig sites as they left them. Only the most reclusive and single-minded scientists remained. At the same time funding to SimNation’s space program was cut dramatically, and so the personnel at the military base were reduced by a great number. Strangetown lived for one moment in glory and then became something of a ghost town in the SimNation desert.

 

When you leave the most secretive and reclusive people behind in a ghost town with a military base that has to be tight-lipped around outsiders because of its secret research, you create an extremely insular society. Fashion and architecture in Strangetown has remained mostly unchanged for over two generations now, mostly thanks to a lack of construction or outside contact. A blend of mid-century modern in the houses that were built by (and are still supplied with amenities by) the military base, and retro-futurism (futurism at the time) in the old scientists’ houses. Some believe this oddity is a symptom of the supernatural influence over the town, and that the residents are trapped in some sort of time loop. This is, of course, absolute nonsense… PT-9 only made his house look Like That because he actually believes sims all have houses like that. Earth tv broadcasts reach Sixam with a delay of years.

Since the larger community left, Strangetown has returned to its former status as a goldmine of paranormal research. Alien sightings are common, Bella Goth sightings even more so, and all sorts of strange happenings across the desert have returned. (Crashing space ships, abductions, returning to the same landmark no matter what direction you walk/drive in). Unfortunately, with its previous history of providing no answers these ‘new findings’ by the Curious brothers, the Beakers, and others have been met with ridicule and eye-rolls. (Though proof of aliens is now undeniable and accepted.)

 

Today, Strangetown attracts the occasional odd citizen who just can’t fit in anywhere else (Olive Specter, who moved here in her youth, and the Beakers about 15 years ago for example.) It is caught in a struggle between the alien and scientific communities and the military base that wants to suppress knowledge and keep it for itself. Every day General Buzz moves closer to convincing someone to take his little ‘containment project’ seriously, while the Curious-Smith families come ever closer to understanding Sixam. 

 

But what neither side knows is that a far more important and deadly conflict is going on behind the doors of the Beaker and Specter houses...